Call for Proposals

HFES 52nd Annual Meeting
September 22-26, 2008
New York Marriott Marquis Times Square
New York, New York USA

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting is the primary gathering of researchers and practitioners in the field of human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) and related areas. The 52nd Annual Meeting will be a special celebration of our historical foundations and views of the future of our profession. As such, we encourage creative proposals for program materials of all kinds. The meeting will take place at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square in downtown Manhattan.

New and alternative formats for presenting HF/E efforts are strongly encouraged. Participants are invited to submit proposals including case studies, debates, demonstrations, competitive product designs, new methodologies, on-site experiments, and posters involving both fixed and dynamic information presentation. The Technical Program Committee encourages participants to suggest new ideas in advance, so that we can be as adaptive and flexible as possible in responding to creative proposals.

HFES particularly welcomes submissions from professionals in related fields. View the descriptions of HFES Technical Groups to determine if there is a match between your work and the interest areas of HF/E researchers and practitioners.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS AND HFES POLICIES

The following HFES policies apply to all submissions for the 52nd Annual Meeting:

• All proposals must conform to the requirements in this Call for Proposals. Please read it carefully prior to submitting your work, as requirements have changed since the 2007 meeting.
• All proposals must be submitted via the online system no later than midnight Pacific time on Monday, January 28, 2008.
• All proposals must describe completed work (except Student Forum submissions; see below).
• Papers that have been published previously or presented at another professional meeting may not be submitted.
• Authors, program chairs, and reviewers are encouraged to refer to the HFES Code of Ethics throughout the submission and review process.
• If your institution requires approval of your work, this must be completed BEFORE you submit a proposal to HFES.
• Submission of your proposal is your representation to HFES that all coauthors have given their consent to submit and, if accepted, publish the paper in the annual meeting proceedings.
• If a proposal is accepted, at least one of the authors must attend the meeting and present the work. All meeting attendees, including presenters, are required to pay the registration fee.
• You must choose one HFES Technical Group to which to submit your proposal, or you may choose General Sessions (see below). Submitting the same proposal to more than one TG will result in immediate rejection.
• The number of sessions and distribution of sessions among Technical Groups are fully determined by the number of submissions. Since 2004, acceptance rates have averaged 60-70% across Technical Groups for both poster and oral presentation formats. Thus, your proposal should be submitted to the Technical Group most appropriate to review it, and in the format best suited for a quality presentation. Please note that your proposal may be transferred to a different Technical Group for review if it is determined that your proposal better fits that group's area of interest.

NEW FOR 2008

First, in response to feedback from past presenters, the Technical Program Committee has implemented a change in the proposal submission process. Rather than focus on word counts, as in past years, the TPC is seeking five-page proposals, which must be formatted in the same two-column layout that is used for papers published in the proceedings. This aids both proposers and reviewers: Proposers no longer have to write two distinct types of documents, and reviewers can be more confident that the proposal is an appropriate summary of what will appear in the proceedings.

There is an absolute five-page limit; proposals that exceed five pages will not be considered. Depending on the number of tables and figures you include in your proposal, as well as the size of type used for the paper, generally between 2500 and 4000 words will fit in five correctly formatted pages. Detailed layout instructions and an easy-to-use layout template are included for each presentation type.

Second, eligibility requirements for the HFES Alphonse Chapanis Best Student Paper Award have changed. See the next section.

INFORMATION FOR STUDENT SUBMITTERS

Student Forum Sessions

HFES encourages proposals geared toward students. The Student Forum was created to encourage student development and support in a more effective environment. Past sessions include presentations on skills for transitioning from school to work or to an HF/E career from another field, employment trends in the HF/E field, and improving interviewing and résumé-writing techniques. When submitting your proposal, select "Student Forum" in the Technical Area pulldown menu (see Online Submission and Review).

Proposals of student work for a "Student Work Only" lecture session are also welcome. Submission of completed work is desirable; however, work in progress will also be accepted. The format of the session will be such that feedback on work in progress can be freely given. There will be at least one student reviewer for each submission. Students may select the option "Student Work" (vs. "Nonstudent Work") during online submission, and this information is taken into considering by the program chairs and reviewers.

When submitting your proposal, first select a Presentation Type (e.g., lecture, discussion panel), select the Technical Area that best represents your topic (e.g., Computer Systems), and then indicate if the proposal is research oriented, practice oriented, or theoretically oriented. Finally, select "Student Work." In the Technical Area pulldown menu, select "Student Forum."

HFES Alphonse Chapanis Best Student Paper Award

This award provides a certificate and $1000 cash gift to the student or students who conduct outstanding human factors research that is accepted for the annual meeting, presented before the Chapanis Award Committee, and judged to be the best student paper presented at the meeting.

HFES recently revised the eligibility requirements for the Chapanis Award, as follows:

Eligibility for the Alphonse Chapanis Best Student Paper Award is contingent on the first author being a student, and the work presented must be primarily that of the first-author student. Coauthors may include faculty or other collaborators, as long as the work being submitted and presented is primarily that of the first-author student. The paper must be the result of work accomplished by the student(s) while enrolled in an appropriate academic curriculum. The student (or, in the case of multiple authors, at least one of the students) must make the oral presentation at the annual meeting, and must file a form with the HFES Central office by the designated deadline for submitting applications for the award. The submission needs to include a letter from the adviser or project leader that documents the role of the student(s) with respect to independent contribution, innovation, and magnitude of effort.

If your student proposal is accepted, you may apply for the Chapanis Award when you submit your final proceedings paper. Details will be provided in the Author's Kit.

Technical Group Student Paper Awards

Some HFES Technical Groups also offer best annual meeting paper awards. If you are interested in having your accepted paper considered for one of these awards, be sure to select "Student Work" in the online submission system when uploading your proposal.

ELEMENTS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING PROPOSAL

This section describes the basic elements of the proposal. HFES invites submissions that address research, practice, and/or theory that advance the human factors/ergonomics field.

Contents of Abstracts and Summaries

HFES Annual Meeting proposals consist of three elements: the proposers' contact information, an abstract, and a summary.

Abstract. Address all the important points succinctly in about 150 words. If your proposal is accepted, the abstract will be available for viewing in the online preliminary program. In addition, Technical Group newsletter editors and others use these abstracts in their publications and on their Web sites.

Summary. The summary is the key item that reviewers use in their evaluations. It must include sufficient detail about the work to permit a meaningful review. In the summary, clearly indicate (a) the purpose of your work or proposal, (b) what you did (experiment) or are proposing to do, and (c) results from your work. Failure to provide an adequate summary could lead to rejection of your proposal.

Tables and figures. You may submit tables, illustrations, and/or figures if they substantially clarify the method or results. Combined, your proposal title, abstract, summary, tables, and figures must not exceed five pages when formatted according to the requirements specified for your preferred presentation type.

Research Papers

Summaries of research papers should contain the following, as appropriate:

• Introduction: General statement to orient the reader to the specific problem, research strategy, and relevant literature.
• Method: How the study was conducted, including participants, apparatus, and procedure. State exactly what independent and dependent variables are included in your research.
• Results: Summarize the data collected and the statistical treatments and effects.
• Discussion: Describe your inferences from the results and their implications.
• References, tables, figures: Provide full references for all citations used in this proposal. References should be styled according to the latest edition of the American Psychological Association Publication Manual (5th ed.).

Practice-Oriented Papers

Although many papers accepted for the Annual Meeting describe results of empirical research, papers that focus on the practice of human factors in education, industry, government, and other environments are encouraged. Examples might include

• Critical analyses of problem or technology-application areas
• Summaries of advances in human factors processes, procedures, and tools and methods of using them
• Field studies
• Critiques of existing research
• "Lessons learned" discussions of human factors successes or failures

Practice-oriented papers should emphasize information that could be used readily by practitioners (e.g., new approaches, methods, strategies, or techniques), not merely report on a project one has completed. The practice-oriented paper requirements are slightly different from those for research proposals:

• Introduction: General statement to orient the reader to the area of your study.
• Practice innovation: Exactly what your paper will demonstrate or explain. Sources of information: How and where you have gathered relevant information, or a detailed description of your idea, product, system, or concept.
• Findings: A summary of the information you have gathered.
• Discussion: Practical applications and implications drawn from the findings.
• References, tables, figures: Provide full references for all citations used in this proposal. References should be styled according to the American Psychological Association Publication Manual (5th ed.).

Theoretical Papers

The Technical Program Committee encourages submissions that make important theoretical contributions to the areas of human factors/ergonomics. We encourage both papers that advance a particular theoretical perspective and those that report on systematic evaluations of alternative theories in a given domain. Simple literature reviews and surveys that do not make additional theoretical contributions are not considered appropriate for submissions to the Annual Meeting. (Note: adapted from APA guidelines for Psychological Review)

Format theoretical papers according to the following sections/headings:

• Introduction/thesis: Introduce topic area, background information, and goal of paper. Describe theoretical proposition(s) and/or
  argument(s) of the paper.
• Review: Sources of information: Describe literature and other resources used to support thesis.
• New contribution: A summary of the theoretical contribution made by your thesis.
• Discussion: Conclusions and practical applications of theoretical contribution to the field of human factors/ergonomics.
• References, tables, figures: Provide full references for all citations used in this proposal. References should be styled according to the American Psychological Association Publication Manual (5th ed.).

Review Process

Most submissions to the HFES 52nd Annual Meeting will undergo double-blind review. In other words, the authors and reviewers are not known to one another, and only the program chair can view their identity. (In some cases, such as invited symposia, when the names and experiences of the participants are crucial to evaluating the submission, blind review of authors and participants is not feasible. Nevertheless, reviewers' identifies are not revealed to the authors.)

As stated in the instructions for certain types of presentation types, when formatting your proposal for uploading, remove all authors' names and affiliations. (The database captures this information for tracking purposes, but it should not appear in your submission.) HFES will screen all uploaded files before review begins and, if necessary, delete author/affiliation details.

Note that program chairs may choose to reveal the author's identity to the reviewers when this is judged to be an important consideration in the review process. In addition, a reviewer may choose to identify him/herself to the author in the reviewer comments.

ONLINE SUBMISSION AND REVIEW

Proposals must be submitted to the online system by 11:50 p.m. Pacific time on January 28. Don't wait until the last minute to submit. If you encounter problems, you may not have time to meet the deadline.

E-mail Communication Regarding Your Proposal

All communication with you about your proposal (e.g., confirmation of receipt, acceptance/rejection notices) will be sent by the online submission system via e-mail. The sender is "HFES2008@mirasmart.com." If you have spam-blocking software or other filters running, please adjust your settings to prevent interference with e-mail messages from HFES2008@mirasmart.com. In addition, if your e-mail address changes during the review period, be sure to log in and update it or notify HFES.

Whenever messages are sent to you from HFES2008@mirasmart.com, you will be directed to click a Web page link to view the detailed message text. This enables HFES to confirm that you received and read the message, and it creates a history of e-mail communication sent to you. When you log in, you will be able to view this history.

About Login IDs

If you submitted a proposal for the 2006 or 2007 meeting or served as a program chair or reviewer, your username, password, and e-mail address can still be found in the online submission system database. Log in as a returning user. If you no longer recall your former password, click "Forget your password?" and the information will be sent to you via e-mail. If you had multiple login IDs, these have been merged into a single ID. If you are no longer using the e-mail address from your old login ID, contact HFES - do not create a new username and password.

If you are creating a new login, please use only one e-mail address to identify yourself, no matter how many proposals you wish to upload or how many roles you will serve (author, reviewer, program chair). Choose a password and record it somewhere for future use. If you forget your password, you can request a reminder by clicking "Forget your password?" on the main log-in page. For example, do not create two separate login IDs from your home and business e-mail addresses.

If you have multiple proposals, you will be able to manage each submission separately. If you log out and reenter the site at a later time to submit additional proposals, DO NOT create a new login ID and password or enter the system using another e-mail address. Contact HFES if you have problems.

Requirements for Your Online Submission

Before logging in to the site,

1. read all the information in this Call for Proposals,
2. choose a presentation type,
3. choose a Technical Group (or General Sessions) to which to submit the proposal,
4. format your submission according to the guidelines,
5. have your formatted proposal ready on your desktop for uploading,
6. be ready to input the full names and affiliations of all your coauthors, and
7. if you are the organizer of an Invited Symposium session, for each individual presentation in the session, obtain the correctly formatted proposal and full contact information for all authors and coauthors.

Simple instructions for entering information and uploading your proposal appear on each screen as you step through the submission process. Depending on the presentation type, each submission takes 10 minutes or less.

NOTE: At the end of the submission process, you must click the "Submit for Review" button, which is available after you finish proofreading the file you uploaded. If you do not get to the page with the "Submit for Review" button, log back in with the same ID and password and complete the process. Contact HFES if you have questions or problems.

When your submission has been successfully uploaded, you will receive an automated e-mail confirming that you completed the process. If you do not get this confirmation message but think you completed the submission, first check your e-mail history on the My Submissions page, and then your spam folder. The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society is not responsible for incomplete submissions.

CHOOSING YOUR PRESENTATION TYPE

The submission process requires that you select a presentation type. Carefully review the short descriptions below and follow the links to the details you will need to prepare your proposal. Select the presentation type that best matches the nature of the material you are submitting as well as the objective(s) of your presentation. All annual meeting sessions are 90 minutes in duration except Workshops, which may be 3 or 6 hours.

All submissions must meet the requirements specified for each presentation type and be formatted according to the guidelines.

HFES Annual Meeting presentation types are as follows:

Lecture: Oral presentation of about 15 minutes with question-answer period following either each paper in the session or after the final paper. Five lecture papers are gathered in one session. Click here for detailed instructions about submitting a lecture proposal.

Discussion Panel: Brief statement (5-10 minutes) by each panelist followed by extended discussion involving the audience and panel members. Maximum of six panelists; minimum of 30 minutes discussion time. Click here for detailed instructions for submitting a discussion panel proposal.

Poster: Materials are displayed on a board for 90 minutes, viewable by meeting attendees; emphasis is on graphical display format and one-on-one interaction with audience. Click here for detailed instructions for submitting a poster proposal.

Invited Symposium: An organizer or chair decides on a theme and invites up to five presenters to give individual oral presentations (15 minutes). Concludes with question-answer segment and/or discussant presentation. NOTE: The organizer must submit all papers for the session. Click here for detailed instructions for submitting an invited symposium proposal.

Demonstration: Brief oral presentation (5 minutes) followed by a live demonstration of a tool or product. A session may include up to five demonstrations; audience members circulate throughout the room, and a demo presenter may repeat the presentation numerous times. No commercialism permitted. Click here for detailed instructions for submitting a demonstration proposal.

Workshop: Combination of educational lecture and active hands-on exercises involving workshop participants to promote skill-building of a tool, technique, or method. The primary emphasis of each workshop should be on specific, practical skills associated with the exercises. May be 3 or 6 hours; one or more presenters as needed to address audience needs. All workshops will take place on Monday, September 22, 2008. An honorarium is paid to the presenter(s). Click here for detailed instructions for submitting a workshop proposal.

Alternative Format: Creative and unique approaches to presenting information, such as group activities. For presentations that cannot be accommodated by the foregoing formats. Click here for detailed instructions for submitting an alternative format proposal.

CHOOSING THE APPROPRIATE TECHNICAL AREA

Under the auspices of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society are 23 Technical Groups (TGs) that are concerned with the human factors/ergonomics aspects of specific application areas. Descriptions of these groups may be found at the HFES Web site. When uploading your proposal, you will need to select one of these TGs, or General Sessions (see below) as your preferred Technical Area.

Submit your proposal to the TG deemed most appropriate for your proposed topic (see the Technical Group descriptions), OR to General Sessions if the proposal has clear applicability to multiple TGs or falls outside the existing TG structure. If you have questions about the suitability of your proposal for a technical group, contact the appropriate program chair.

Submitting the same proposal to more than one TG will result in immediate rejection of your proposal.

Technical Groups versus General Sessions

Proposals submitted to General Sessions should encompass broad areas of interest and integrate multiple perspectives. Past General Sessions topics have included HF/E problem solving, field studies, systems analysis, and other multidisciplinary topics.

New research areas emerge that do not currently fit within the traditional TG makeup find a home in General Sessions. For example, the Human Performance Modeling, Internet, and Health Care TGs began life with General Sessions papers in recent annual meetings.

Special interest groups within HFES (that is, groups with a topical area of interest that have not yet qualified as an HFES technical group) may wish to submit a session or group of sessions to General Sessions. These sessions should be identified as coming from an organized special interest group, and the name of the organizer of that group must be included in the submission. Such sessions will be accorded slots in the program under the same criteria as those applied to other General Sessions submissions.

To help you decide (a) whether to submit to a technical group or General Sessions and (b) the most appropriate presentation type for your submission, refer to the following charts.

PUBLICATION OF ACCEPTED WORK

If your proposal is accepted, you will receive an e-mail message instructing you how to submit your final paper for the annual meeting proceedings. HFES strongly encourages all accepted authors (except workshop presenters) to submit a proceedings paper. There is an absolute five-page limit for proceedings papers; the page limit is strictly enforced. Completed papers are due May 26, so, again, be sure to obtain employer approval promptly. HFES reserves the right to cancel publication if papers are received after May 26.

HFES requires that authors of proceedings papers transfer copyright to the Society, unless the senior author is a U.S. government employee. All coauthors' signatures must appear on the Copyright Transfer Form. A sample form may be viewed during the proposal submission process, but you need not sign and submit it when you upload your initial proposal.

If your employer uses an alternative copyright transfer form, you must submit it to HFES by the proposal due date of January 28. HFES will consider such forms insofar as they are compatible with the Society's terms and policies. Send alternative forms to Lois Smith at HFES, P.O. Box 1369, Santa Monica, CA 90406-1369 USA; fax 310/394-2410.

Publication of an accepted paper in the annual meeting proceedings does not necessarily preclude consideration of a fuller version of the same work for an HFES journal such as Human Factors. The proceedings paper must be suitably revised for journal publication (e.g., more detailed).

PROGRAM CHAIR INFORMATION

Do not send proposals directly to the Program Chairs listed below. All submissions must be uploaded to the HFES 2008 Submission site. If you are not sure which category fits the subject matter in your proposal, contact the program chair(s) in the categories that best represent your topic. If none is suitable, submit the proposal to General Sessions. (E-mail addresses shown below have been altered to prevent exposure to spam. Insert "@" in place of the word "at.")

Technical Program Committee
Cheryl A. Bolstad, Cochair
SA Technologies
410/838-3748
cheryl at satechnologies.com

Barrett S. Caldwell, Cochair
Purdue University
765/494-5412
bscaldwell at purdue.edu

General Sessions
Sheryl L. Chappell
SA Technologies
770/565-9859
sherry.chappell at satechnologies.com

Special Sessions
TBA

Student Forum
Woodrow Winchester III
Virginia Tech
336/334-7780
wwwinche at vt.edu

Sandra K. Garrett
Purdue University
864/656-3114
garretsk at purdue.edu

Workshops
Michelle L. Rogers
VA GAPS Center
513/861-3100 x5543
michelle.rogers at med.va.gov

2008 TECHNICAL GROUP PROGRAM CHAIRS

Aerospace Systems
Amy L. Alexander
Aptima, Inc.
781/496-2471
aalexander at aptima.com

Aging
Diana J. Schwerha
Ohio University
740/593-1577
schwerha at ohio.edu

Augmented Cognition
Denise M. Nicholson
University of Central Florida
407/882-1444
actg_hfes at ist.ucf.edu

Cognitive Engineering & Decision Making
Ann M. Bisantz
University at Buffalo, SUNY
716/645-2357 ext 2474
bisantz at eng.buffalo.edu

Communications
Aaron W. Bangor
AT&T Laboratories
512/372-5732
aaron_bangor at labs.att.com

Computer Systems
Joel S. Greenstein
Clemson University
864/656-5649
iejsg at clemson.edu

Education
Terence S. Andre
Consultant
719/487-1269
terence.andre at gmail.com

Environmental Design
Nancy J. Stone
Creighton University
402/280-2146
nstone at creighton.edu

Forensics Professional
Marc L. Resnick
Florida International University
305/348-3537
resnickm at fiu.edu

Health Care
Ayse P. Gurses
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
612/625-2302
gurse001 at umn.edu

Human Performance Modeling
Dario D. Salvucci
Drexel University
215/895-2674
salvucci at cs.drexel.edu

Individual Differences in Performance
James L. Szalma
University of Central Florida
407/823-0383
jszalma at mail.ucf.edu

Industrial Ergonomics
Kermit G. Davis
Low Back Biomechanics & Workplace Stress Lab
513/558-2809
kermit.davis at uc.edu

Internet
Marc L. Resnick
Florida International University
305/348-3537
resnickm at fiu.edu

Macroergonomics
Nancy L. J. Larson
3M Company
651/778-5293
nllarson2 at mmm.com

Perception & Performance
Janae N. Lockett-Reynolds
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
202/254-6611
janae.lockett-reynolds at dhs.gov

Product Design
Steven M. Belz
Eastman Kodak Company
585/588-8831
stevenbelz at gmail.com

Safety
William J. Vigilante
Robson Forensic, Inc.
580/813-6737 x249
wvigilante at robsonforensic.com

Surface Transportation
Miguel A. Perez
Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
540/231-1537
miperez at vtti.vt.edu

System Development
Dennis White
NAVSEA Dahlgren Division
540/653-2133
dennis.white3 at navy.mil

Test and Evaluation
Lawrence Hettinger
Northrop Grumman Information Technology
978/772-1017
lhettinger at yahoo.com

Training
Camilla C. Knott
Aptima, Inc.
937/306-7760
ccknott at aptima.com

Virtual Environments
Jason S. Augustyn
U.S. Army Natick Soldier RD&E Center
508/233-6324
jason.augustyn1 at us.army.mil

Technical Program Committee

Cochair
Cheryl A. Bolstad

Cochair
Barrett S. Caldwell

Workshops
Michelle L. Rogers

Special Sessions
TBA

Student Forum
Woodrow Winchester III
Sandra K. Garrett

General Sessions
Sheryl L. Chappell

Posters
Raegan M. Hoeft

Quality
Marc L. Resnick