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Instructions for Participants on the Main Program

For information about sessions organized by APA Committees and sessions on the Group Program, please contact the session organizer.

Participants in Invited Sessions

The format of your session is determined by the member of the Program Committee who invited you to participate. Speakers should send copies of their papers to commentators or other session participants by the date stated by your session organizer, usually a six weeks before the meeting. Commentators and respondents are usually asked to send copies of their remarks to the speakers two weeks before the meeting. In Author-Meets-Critics Sessions, critics are normally expected to send their comments to the author six weeks before the meeting so that the author has time to formulate a full response.

The Program Committee encourages session chairs to play an active role enforcing time constraints, clarifying issues when necessary, and directing the discussion toward the most important questions. Speakers and commentators should therefore provide their session's chair with copies of their presentations. Chairs should check with session participants prior to the meeting to make sure all comments have been received. Chairs should end discussion five minutes before the hour.

Participants in Colloquia and Symposia

The Program Committee encourages session chairs to play an active role enforcing time constraints, clarifying issues when necessary, and directing the discussion toward the most important questions. Chairs should check with session participants prior to the meeting to make sure comments have been received.

Commentators should send their comments to speakers and the chair six weeks before the meeting.

Colloquium speakers may take no more than 20 minutes, and commentaries may be no more than ten minutes in length. The author is allowed a brief, five minute response. The best sessions are those in which there is ample time for discussion with the audience. Chairs should end discussion five minutes before the hour.

Symposium speakers are allotted 40 minutes, and each commentator is given no more than 20 minutes. The author is allowed a brief, ten minute response. The best sessions are those in which there is ample time for discussion with the audience. A total of one hour and 55 minutes has been scheduled for the paper, the comments, and discussion. Chairs should end discussion five minutes before the hour.

Professional Conduct

All authors of refereed papers must present their papers as they were refereed, without substantial revisions. All speakers, commentators, and critics in all sessions should ensure that their presentations are sent to other session participants well in advance of the meeting and are not changed substantially thereafter. Such practices as witholding prepared texts and changing papers to undermine commentators' objections are egregious breaches of norms of professional conduct.