This page is intended for those who wish to submit a proposal for LACUS 2010. The Conference is curently OPEN to new submissions.

An adequate abstract is not simply the introduction to a paper, but contains at minimum the following:

• A clear statement of the problem or questions addressed;
• A clear statement of the main point(s) or argument(s);
• Clear indication of relevance to related work, accomplished in part by citations identifying previous literature (listed in full as references at the end of the abstract). In addition,
• If the paper reports a study using statistical methods of analysis, the study design will be clearly outlined and the results stated, identifying the statistical approaches used. (If the study is still in progress, this should be clearly stated.)
• If the paper is a work of any other kind, illustrative examples will be provided and explained.

The abstract should avoid jargon and polemic.

LENGTH LIMITS MUST BE ADHERED TO. Abstracts must fit within the allotted space (see the abstract form). This includes any figures, tables, references, and so on. Do not include a note that a figure or table is “available upon request” or one saying that “some references are omitted to save space”.

PROPER DOCUMENTTATION IS REQUIRED. All in-text citations should have a reference listed at the end, and all references should correspond to an in-text citation.

FOLLOW CHICAGO STYLE. Use capitalization, italicization, punctuation, and so on in accordance with Chicago Manual of Style (R) format. Refer to the Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide at

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html.

SUBMIT THE ABSTRACT IN DOC OR RTF FORMAT ONLY. You may submit (upload) the abstract form in MS Word *.doc (not *.docx) or general *.rtf format only. The abstract form is provided for download in both these common formats.

To submit your abstract, first, get the abstract proposal template in MS Word *.doc or general *.rtf format. The version in MS Word *.doc format is available here:

http://englvm00.utad.utoledo.edu/lacusconf/_AbstractForm.doc.

If your word processor cannot handle Word format documents, try the rich text format (*.rtf) version, available here:

http://englvm00.utad.utoledo.edu/lacusconf/_AbstractForm.rtf.

The following instructions are long, because they contain much more detail than most users will need. Please read them anyway.

Then, once you have entered the abstract into the template, go to

http://englvm00.utad.utoledo.edu/openconf/openconf.php.

[The submission form was updated after it reverted to an earlier saved version, possibly because of an automatic restoration of server files. It has been repaired and should be working again as of Jan. 8, 2010. If you have already successfully submitted a proposal, no action is necessary.]

It is suggested that you right-click this link and select “open link/target in new tab/window” so that you can still read the following instructions! (Alternatively, you may simply want to print out on paper the page you are now reading, so that you can refer to it when you are submitting your abstract.)

When you click on the above link, you will see a page containing the following:

Click on “Submit a paper”. A form will load on a new page; it is titled “Abstract Submission“. You may not fill out the form at one time and upload your abstract at another; you must fill out the form and upload the paper in the same session. However, you may later return and re-upload your abstract at a later time if you find errors in the text of your abstract that you want to correct before it is reviewed.

In the field “Paper Title”, please provide a descriptive title. Capitalize main words, but not articles, prepositions, and so on. Do not use all caps.

Check “Yes” under “Student Paper” if the paper is eligible for the pre-doctoral prize, that is, if you are currently a student at the time the abstract is being submitted, and if you are the sole author or all your co-authors are also students at the time the abstract is submitted.

Fill in the “First/Given Name” and “Last/Family Name” fields, with normal capitalization. Do not use all caps for either name (i.e., type “Smith”, not “SMITH”).

For your organization, please simply identify the name of the university, company, or institution where you work — just the institution, please. Please do not give your affilliation as “Department of X in the Faculty of Y, ABC Institute of the University of Z” — it won’t fit in the program. If an unaffiliated scholar, simply leave this field blank.

Enter your country of residence.

When entering your e-mail, please give it in the ordinary way, i.e., “Mary.Smith@PodunckUniversity.edu”, not “Mary Sm i th AT P o du n ck Univ ers ity DOT edu” or some other form of “secret code” intended to protect your e-mail address from phishers. The conference organizers need to be able to use the e-mail addresses generated in the abstract submission database without retyping them by hand!

Enter the above information for up to five co-authors, using the fields provided. Leave these fields blank if you are the sole author. If there are more than five authors in all, enter the same information for the 6th, 7th, etc. authors as clearly as possible in the “Additional Authors” box.

Under “Contact Author“, use the pull-down to identify which of the listed authors is the one the conference organizers should contact about the status of the abstract, scheduling, and other matters. You must provide either a second e-mail or a telephone number. If providing a telephone number, please provide all necessary details (including country and city/area codes) if you are outside Canada or the USA. (If in Canada or the USA, only the local number and area code are needed.)

Under “Type of Session“, please indicate whether you are submitting a proposal for a paper for which you are requesting a 30-minute time slot, a proposal for a paper for which you are requesting a 20-minute time slot, a proposal for a panel discussion, or a proposal for a hands-on workshop. The difference between a panel and a workshop is not in the number of presenters (though a workshop might have only one), but in the manner of presentation: a workshop should be just that, with the members of the audience as active participants, while they will be primarily listeners during a panel discussion — until the scheduled Q&A period(s).

Under “Content Keywords“, please provide at least a few key words / phrases, separated by semicolons (;) which help identify the focus / topic of your paper, e.g., phonetics, syntax, historical linguistcis, relational network grammar, hard-science linguistics, Russian, non-segmental phonology, lexicon, sociolinguistics, language learning, etc. Reference to conference sub-themes is recommended when possible.

Under “Special Needs“, if you need handicap access for your presentation, for example, let us know as early as possible. Please note that you will need to indicate any special needs for housing separately.

Under “Upload Abstract“, click on the Browse button, then find your abstract on your computer, selecting it for upload (in *.doc or *.rtf format only).

Under “Password“, type in and then re-type a password (make one up). The password will allow you to get back in to edit your abstract or to make other changes to your proposal submission. Write down the password!

You may make multiple submissions. Each submission will be assigned a unique ID. You do not need to provide a different password for each separate submission. Write down your proposal ID number with the password (see below)!

Under “Comments to Chair“, please indicate any special AV needs and any special scheduling restrictions. At present, we expect all presentation rooms to have overhead projection, a computer with PowerPoint, and an LCD projector. The local host will make the best efforts possible to accommodate other reasonable AV requests. If you can present only on certain days or cannot, for health reasons, present early in the morning, for example, let us know as early as possible.

Also under “Comments to Chair“, please indicate the year in which you received your Ph.D. if it is within the past 5 years. This information is requested to determine your eligibility for the Presidents Postdoctoral Prize. If you do not indicate this at the time you submit your paper, we may not be able to schedule you so that you can be considered for the Postdoctoral Prize.

Please check over the form carefully before clicking on the Submit Abstract button.

After you submit the form, the system will confirm what it has received. This will include a paper ID and the password you entered. Please write down the paper ID and password. You may doubly confirm a successful upload of your abstract and data simply by returning to the page at

http://englvm00.utad.utoledo.edu/openconf/openconf.php

and logging in, using your paper ID and password.

The LACUS 2010 Abstract Submission Deadline is January 31, 2010.