LINGUIST List 4.337

Mon 03 May 1993

Disc: Restrictions on Abstract Submissions

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1. Alan Munn, Restrictions on abstract submissions
2. BU Conference on Language Development, reply to Munn's posting

Two recent conference announcements (NELS and BU Conference on
Language Acquisition) have limited abstract submissions two one per
author, *including joint authors*. This is a break with what seems to
be quite a tradition in the field, including the LSA Annual Meeting,
and previous meetings of NELS and the BU Conference, which allowed one
joint abstract in addition to one single paper.

I was wondering if the conference organisers would care to post brief
statements about why they chose to change their policy. Were the
policy changes discussed at the business meetings of the conferences?

I would also like other readers' reaction to the changes, and perhaps
start a discussion on the policy statements (if they're posted.)

Personally, I don't think the restriction is a good thing. It forces
us to choose between joint work and non-joint work in a rather
arbitrary way, even though the work itself might be in very different
areas. For example, if I write a paper with a student, then I can't
submit any of my own work to the conference as well, or if I
write an interdisciplinary paper out of my area, I can't submit
something *in* my area etc.

Comments?

Alan Munn

--
Alan Munn <amunngibbs.oit.unc.edu>
Dept. of Linguistics, CB# 3155 UNC Chapel Hill NC 27599

This is in reply to Alan Munn's May 1 posting to Linguist:

 > Two recent conference announcements (NELS and BU Conference on
 > Language Acquisition) have limited abstract submissions two one per
 > author, *including joint authors*. This is a break with what seems to
 > be quite a tradition in the field, including the LSA Annual Meeting,
 > and previous meetings of NELS and the BU Conference, which allowed one
 > joint abstract in addition to one single paper.
 >
 > I was wondering if the conference organisers would care to post brief
 > statements about why they chose to change their policy.

In the case of the Boston University Conference on Language Development,
this does not represent a permanent change in policy, but rather a
modification having to do with the special circumstances of the January
1994 conference. Our annual fall conferences have allowed 3 days with
3 parallel sessions throughout for presentations. Exceptionally in
January of 1994, because we will be meeting jointly with the LSA,
we will be limited to a day and a half with only 2 concurrent sessions.
It was because of this constraint that the Conference Committee decided,
after some discussion, to limit the number of submissions per author for
the upcoming conference.

 > I would also like other readers' reaction to the changes, and perhaps
 > start a discussion on the policy statements (if they're posted.)

While it is not now our intention to impose the same restriction when we
resume our annual fall conferences at Boston University (with our next
conference tentatively scheduled for November 4-6, 1994), we will follow
this discussion with interest.

 Carol Neidle, for the Conference Committee
 <carollouis-xiv.bu.edu>