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Programme committee guidelines

Structure of the programme committee

The EGU2017 Programme Committee (PC) consists of the following:

  • EGU PC chair;
  • PC executives: EGU PC chair, EGU President, EGU Vice-President, EGU Treasurer, EGU Executive Secretary, Chair EGU Outreach Committee, Copernicus;
  • Programme group chairs;
  • PC officers for media and communications and outreach to early career scientists.

Each programme group (PG) includes the following:

  • PG chair;
  • PG scientific officers;
  • PG conveners, authors, participants.

The PG scientific officers and the PG chair for each PG are responsible for organizing the programme for their PG.

From skeleton programme to session programme

The EGU General Assembly session programme consists of multiple topical programme groups and their respective sessions. Abstract submission and session organization are based on this session programme. The generation of this session programme is split into four steps (please check the deadlines & milestones):

  • Call for skeleton programme: the PG chairs, together with their respective PG scientific officers, are asked to implement sessions in their respective PG. These can be sessions that are re-used or modified from former conferences, new sessions, or draft sessions (e.g. title only) to be commented on by the public in the next step.
  • Public call for session proposals: the public is invited to suggest new sessions or modify skeleton programme sessions (title, conveners, etc.).
  • Session programme finalization: the PG chairs and their scientific officers are asked to complete their session programme by modifying skeleton sessions, including public suggestions (if applicable), or adding more new sessions.
  • Co-organization between PGs: co-organization between PGs means that there are large areas of overlapping interest between two or more PGs. Please have a look into the provisional programmes of PGs with a possible overlap. If you find a session with a topic very similar to the topic of one of your sessions, please think about merging them into one co-organized session. Co-organization can be done during the call for skeleton and session programme finalization steps, using the "Implementation of Cooperation" tool. This tool guarantees that all PG chairs and their scientific officers have the chance to react to proposals, even if such a suggestion arrives after the finalization of the session programme.
  • Endorsement of sessions by colleague organizations: the EGU encourages session endorsement by other colleague organizations as a means of strengthening ties and encouraging collaboration. Endorsement is expected to be reciprocal, involving endorsement of sessions at meetings of both partners. Session endorsement is intended for colleague scientific organizations and does not imply funding. An endorsing organization should furthermore not influence the work of the conveners or the content of the session. PG chairs decide on the endorsement of a session within their respective programme group, and suggestions for endorsement should therefore be directed to the corresponding PG chair.

Call for skeleton programme

The call for skeleton programme tool is available via the Copernicus Office dashboard for PC members called "PC Overview", and the corresponding links will be provided by email. You can then fill out your skeleton programme with three different options:

  • re-using (and modifying) sessions from the former conference;
  • defining new sessions;
  • defining sub-programme groups.

In addition, a section headlined session similarity lists sessions with a potential overlap in topics. Keywords were assigned to sessions from the former conference. In addition, PC members are asked to assign such keywords also to newly included skeleton sessions. If a significant number of keywords is similar for two or more sessions, these sessions are listed as potential similarities with the option to contact the involved parties to agree on a merger.

Re-use of previous session(s) or sub-programme groups: select which entries (title, conveners, and session details) should be included in the new programme. Please ensure that all conveners have been contacted, and that they are aware they have been put down as conveners. All entries can be modified later. Re-used sessions are then marked as already selected and cannot be selected again, to avoid double usage.

New sessions: enter a title (mandatory), conveners, and session details. Although the latter two are not obligatory, they are recommended. The conveners will be entered by first name, last name, and email and searched for in the Copernicus Office user database to connect them with an appropriate user ID (invisible to you). The same applies for the modification of re-used sessions. Session numbers can be entered but are not mandatory at this early stage.

Convener recommendations: we strongly encourage you to consider gender diversity (i.e. is there at least one female convener?), diversity in countries/institutes, and the inclusion of early career scientists as conveners. A minimum of three conveners is generally desirable.

Cooperation between PGs: if two or more PGs have significant and active interest in the topics of a session, these PGs should co-organize this session. You initiate co-organization through a proposal, which will be accepted or rejected by the other PG. In the case of acceptance, this session can now be organized by all cooperation partners with regard to the programme tools (see below), but the leading PG will take primary responsibility for room bookings and the time of the session. In terms of abstract statistics, this session stays connected to your programme group. Furthermore, all co-organized sessions are also advertised in a list of so-called interdivision sessions.

Keywords: The EGU provides its official list of keywords (download csv). You are asked to select keywords for your sessions. This selection can be adjusted in all subsequent session tools and is the basis for the above-mentioned session similarity check.

Ordering of sessions: all entries in your skeleton programme (i.e. your own and co-organized sessions) can be moved to any position in your programme, including the positioning into sub-programme groups.

Session programme finalization

After the open call for session proposals, PG chairs and their scientific officers are asked to finalize their session programme by using a tool similar to the call for skeleton programme (see above). In addition to the modification of skeleton sessions or implementation of new sessions, the suggested entries from the public can be used, if applicable. Please remember to assign keywords to all sessions and check the section session similarity to identify potential overlaps of topics with sessions from other PGs.

After the finalization of this tool, further changes can only be implemented by Copernicus Meetings.

Identification of PICO sessions

PICO sessions shall be identified in the session programme finalization tool. Choose your session to be turned into a PICO session, use the edit pen, and indicate the PICO character there. PICO sessions will be shown as PICO sessions in the abstract submission, and authors cannot select an oral/poster preference as they will receive a PICO presentation regardless.

Implementation of cooperation

Suggested cooperation between programme groups can be implemented during the call for skeleton programme or the session programme finalization. The implementation of cooperation tool will also allow the acceptance/rejection of late proposals.

PC support ranking

Finalize the SO tool support application assignment & rating if not finished by session conveners: after the conveners' deadline has expired, you will be asked to finalize this tool for your PG sessions that are still open (i.e. conveners did not finish). Then you will be asked to rank the rated support applications within the different support schemes. In addition to the conveners' comments, you can also add your own comment to a support application.

Support applications that did not receive a ranking by the respective programme group chair within the given period cannot be considered by the support selection committee.

PCI – abstract implementation & session tagging

Finalize SOI and SOII if not finished by session conveners: after the conveners' deadlines for abstract implementation (SOI) and session tagging (SOII) have expired, you will be asked to finalize the SOI and SOII tools for your PG sessions that are still open (i.e. conveners did not finish). Detailed instructions are provided within the PCI tool. Furthermore, you are asked to accept or reject late abstracts uploaded by the conveners after the regular deadline for receipt of abstracts has expired.

Author acceptance: as a part of PCI, authors will be informed about the acceptance of their contribution by a letter of acceptance.

Rejected abstracts: in the PCI tool, you will also be asked to review the abstracts rejected by a convener for possible acceptance in one of your sessions. Furthermore, you will be able to check those contributions in which an analysis found substantial similarities to other submissions. These potential double submissions should be withdrawn in order to avoid no-shows.

Session similarity: keywords from the EGU's list of keywords (download csv) were assigned to sessions during session programme finalization with possible adjustments made by the conveners during SOII. If a significant number of keywords is similar for two or more sessions, these sessions are listed as potential similarities in the section session similarity. You have the option to contact the involved PG chairs and conveners for clarifications and potential agreement to merge these sessions.

PCII – scheduling

Within the PCII tool, you are asked to schedule the sessions of your PG by assigning your allocated rooms and time blocks and determining the maximum number of oral units per session (1.5 hours = 6 units). Conveners in SOIII will use the PCII results to implement their selection of oral and/or poster presentations, the sequence of the presentations, and the lengths of different presentations. Regarding PICO sessions, spots and time blocks are allocated to the respective sessions and you are also asked to schedule these in PCII. Conveners will use the results to implement the sequence of the presentations and to identify the 10-minute-introduction in addition to the 2-minute-madness presentations. Please make sure that PICO sessions use the capacities of PICO spots as efficient as possible. If sessions are very small they should be merged with other sessions to form a larger PICO session, ideally with abstract numbers as multiples of 20.

PCIII – presentation selection

Finalize SOIII if not finished by session conveners: after the conveners' deadlines for oral or poster choice as well as PICO sequencing has expired, you will be asked to finalize the SOIII tool for your PG sessions that are still open. After all PGs have finally been scheduled, the authors will be informed about the details of their presentation by a letter of schedule.