Submission Options

Over the past years, we have gladly seen the MCLS grow, and, with this, we have also received a growing number of conference submissions. We will do our best to accommodate as many contributions as possible. However, to allow as many people as possible to contribute, we have decided to limit the submissions to one presentation per person. That is, each conference attendee is allowed to be presenting author on only one submission. Note: Being discussant in a symposium is not considered being a presenting author role; there is no limit on submissions as co-author.

Submission portal opens: Monday, 20 November 2023

Submission portal closes: Friday, 9 February 2024 (NOTE: DEADLINE EXTENDED!)

Notification of acceptance: No later than Friday, 1 March 2024

A symposium consists of either four presentations or three presentations and one discussant. The duration of a symposium is 75 minutes.

Due to the increasing number of symposium submissions over the past years, we may not be able to accommodate all submissions. The diversity of included speakers (in terms of, e.g., gender, geography, career stage) as well as coherence of contributions should be considered carefully when developing a symposium proposal. All proposed presentations should plan to have data collected and present some form of qualitative and/or quantitative results at the conference (we love theoretical discussions and plans for research design, data collection, and analyses, but please submit them as pre-registration posters and in-person discussions!).

We appreciate that some funding bodies require a conference contribution to allow conference expenses to be covered. In case a symposium proposal is rejected, individual presenters will be offered the opportunity to present their work as a poster or lightning talk instead.

Symposium submissions require:

• Name(s), affiliation(s), & career stage of chairperson(s) and presenters
• Title of the symposium (max. 150 characters)
• Introduction to the topic & objectives of the symposium (max. 250 words)
• Abstracts for each individual presentation (max. 250 words, incl. references)
• Figures or images cannot be included

Please also note that all presenters will be required to provide the slides of presentations or a digital version of a poster on the dedicated MCLS website at least 48 hours before the presentation. These do not need to be final copies but should be close to the final draft of these materials. This is to ensure materials will be accessible to all attendees and ensure sign language interpreters have the necessary time to familiarize themselves with the content of the presentation. 

There will be four 60 minute poster sessions spread across the conference days. 

Posters should be A0 formatted (vertical orientation: 33.11 in. wide x 46.81 in tall or 841 mm wide x 1189 mm tall).

Poster/preregistration poster submissions require:

• Names and affiliations of all authors
• Poster title (max. 150 characters)
• Poster abstract (max. 250 words, including references)
• Figures or images cannot be included

Poster abstracts include introduction, methods, results, and conclusions.

Preregistration posters give the opportunity to submit plans for studies yet to be undertaken, rather than work that has already been completed. Preregistration posters would normally aim at getting feedback on the design of studies to be undertaken or on analysis plans for projects in progress.

Preregistration posters must include introduction (rationale for carrying out the study and hypotheses), methods (how the hypotheses will be tested), and approach for statistical analysis (how the data will be analyzed and what the predicted outcomes are). Preregistration posters usually have little/no data (apart from any preliminary work that helped to generate the research question).

Submitting authors have the option to indicate that they would like their poster to be considered as a lightning talk. Lightning Talk sessions last 75 minutes and consist of several 5-7 minute presentation. Should submitting authors be interested in sharing their work in the form of a presentation (instead of a poster/preregistration poster), they have the option to check a box submitting a poster/preregistration poster abstract.