Instructions for Open Panel

Organizers
4S 2021 – Toronto, Canada

February 2021
Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Assistance Hours 5

Deadlines and Other Important Dates 6

Logging into All Academic 8

General Guidelines 9

Selecting Papers 10

Creating Sessions 14

Guide for Reviewing Papers 20

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Introduction
Thank you for organizing an Open Panel for 4S 2021! Your work in creating and organizing these
panels is crucial to creating a successful conference, and we are very excited to work with you over
these next few months.

In this document, you will find step by step instructions for viewing and selecting papers submitted
to your panel. This process will be done on an online system called All Academic (AA), which
provides the 'backend' software to conduct submissions, reviews, and scheduling for the
conference. The system can be a little tricky, so it is important to read these instructions carefully
before you get started. Please pay special attention to the deadlines, which are included in the
relevant sections, and listed in the Deadlines and Other Important Dates section.

We will also be holding two 'assistance hours' sessions online. You will receive an invitation via
email. This is the best and easiest way to ask questions—technical and otherwise—about this
process.

You should also, of course, feel free to email your questions to the conference organizers at
[email protected].

Your role as an Open Panel organizer at this stage comprises reviewing papers that have been
submitted to your panel, selecting which to include, transferring out papers you do not choose to
include, and assembling your papers into “sessions” of typically four or five papers each.

Before we get into the technical details, however, we wanted to provide you with some context for
your work going forward. Open panels represent the vast majority of 4S sessions. Therefore, you
have a very important role to play in reviewing and selecting papers. The program committee,
however, reserves the right of final review on open panel papers. In reviewing papers we ask that
you attend to the question of 'fit' for your panel, and diligently screen for papers that have serious
quality issues or seem to be submitted in bad faith. This means that you are tasked with not only
determining whether the papers 'fit' within your panel, but also to flag papers that you believe may
not be right for this conference.

AA will allow you to transfer papers out of your panel and into one of two different 'units' within
the system that correspond to two types of 'rejection.' The first, Single Paper Submissions, will be
forwarded to other panel organizers to review for inclusion in their panels. The second, Needs
Further Review, will prompt an additional review by the conference organizers to determine
whether the paper should be rejected from the conference.

When you are finished with this step, you should retain a number of papers that can be grouped
into sessions of four or five papers each. Sessions of three papers are also acceptable if there is also
a discussant. Please, bear in mind that three are two steps to this process: First, review, accept or
reject, the papers that have been submitted to your panel by March 24th. At the end of this step, all

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papers in your panel should be assigned to a session, roles assigned (such as discussant), and any
remaining papers should have been transferred out. Your session must also have at least one Chair.
In the second step, you review, and accept papers from the broader pool of single submitted papers
and papers that have been transferred out of other panels. The deadline for completing this second
step, and thus having your session(s) fully organized is March 31th.

Thus, if your open panel received relatively few submissions, there may still be a way to fill your
panel. You will have a chance to add single paper submissions and papers that other open panel
organizers felt did not fit well in their panels. We will provide instructions for adding these papers.

In the second, and final, stage in this process within AA will be creating 90 minute 'sessions' of
four-five papers for your panel. If your panel received a large number of submissions, you may
create up to four 'sessions' for your panel. If you feel that four or more sessions for your panel are
feasible, please contact the conference organizers. We will have to assess whether it will conflict
with scheduling limitations and general programming needs, and can change the settings in AA to
allow an additional session to be created. Sessions will be scheduled into the conference by the
program committee at a later step.

It is very important that you assign the proper roles at AA to each participant in your panel. To
make sure that everyone has a chance to participate, there are limitations as to how many roles an
individual can take on. If these roles are entered incorrectly, it will cause problems determining
whether these guidelines are being followed, as well as inaccuracies in the conference program.

After you have created your sessions in AA, it will be up to you how to communicate with your
panelists to prepare for the conference, although you should wait until after participants are notified
about whether their submissions were accepted, which we anticipate will be on March 18th. You are
able to find the contact information for each panelist in AA, just click on the title of the relevant
paper. We suggest you at least send an introductory email, and, if you have a discussant, set a
deadline for each panelist to submit their work. It could also be helpful to invite your panelists for a
virtual gathering to identify some promising areas of conversation for the panel. You may also want
to remind your panelists that the early registration deadline is May 28th. We really encourage
participants to take advantage of the reduced registration fee as this will also allow them to work
with more certainty as we develop the final program.

We hope you find these instructions helpful! Thank you, again, for the time and effort you are
dedicating to make 4S 2021 successful.

Sincerely,
Michelle Murphy, Beth Coleman, Kim Tallbear, and Patrick Keilty, Conference Chairs

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Assistance Hours
1. February 22th, 2-3 PM EST
2. February 26th, 10-11 AM EST
3. March 12th, 10-11 AM EST
4. March 15th, 2-3 PM EST

Assistance hours will be conducted on Zoom, and can be joined by following these instructions
from either a computer or a telephone:

Topic: 4S 2021 Open Panel Organizer Assistance Hours

Join Zoom Meeting

https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/84642502683

Meeting ID: 846 4250 2683

Passcode: 432428

One tap mobile

+16473744685,,84642502683#,,,,*432428# Canada
+16475580588,,84642502683#,,,,*432428# Canada

Dial by your location

+1 647 374 4685 Canada
+1 647 558 0588 Canada
+1 778 907 2071 Canada
+1 438 809 7799 Canada
+1 587 328 1099 Canada
+1 613 209 3054 Canada

Find your local number:

https://utoronto.zoom.us/u/kbM74CKKV8

Join by SIP
[email protected]

Join by H.323
162.255.37.11 (US West)
162.255.36.11 (US East)
69.174.57.160 (Canada Toronto)
65.39.152.160 (Canada Vancouver)
Meeting ID: 846 4250 2683
Passcode: 432428

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Deadlines and Other Important Dates
February 22th
● Assistance hours - 2-3 PM EST

February 26th
● Assistance hours - 10-11 AM EST

March 8th
● Abstracts for papers, closed panels, making & doing, screenings due

March 12th
● Assistance hours - 10-11 AM EST

March 15th
● Assistance hours - 2-3 PM EST

March 24th
● Review all of the papers submitted to your panel and transfer those you do not want either
to a pool of single paper submissions (“does not fit”) or to the “needs further review” unit
● Begin reviewing the list of single paper submissions and transferred papers that you might
consider for your open panel; We will do this via a spreadsheet.

March 28th
● Recommended date for select single papers and transferred papers to your open panel. We
will do this by spreadsheet and via AA.

March 31th
● Open panel organizers must finish selecting papers as well as creating and organizing
sessions for their panel(s) in AA by this date

Mid April
● Revisit decision about hybrid versus virtual conference

April 19th
● Notification of acceptance of all abstracts

April 23rd
● Registration opens

May 28th
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 ● Early registration opens

June 16th
● Presenters must be registered for conference by this date to be included in the program

August 31srt
● The preliminary program is posted

September 25th
● The final program is posted on our official website

October 6th-9th
● 4S 2021 in Toronto

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Logging into All Academic
a. Go to this link

b. Log on using your 4S account

● You should use the same account you used to submit your open panel proposal.

● You should now see the Unit Planer Menu on the main menu when logging in. If
you do not see the reviewer menu, please check into the possibility that you are not
logged into the same account used to submit the open panel proposal. It should look
like this:

When you click on Manage Submissions and Review, it should show all of the open panels that
you submitted. For example:

If you do not see the Unit Planner Menu or the panel information is inaccurate, please contact us at
[email protected]

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General Guidelines
● Participants designated as Organizers of your Open Panel will have the ability to organise
papers and sessions in AA. The best way to collaborate around accepting and organizing
submissions with your fellow organizers is to begin creating a session:

o After navigating to your open panel submissions, click Create Sessions

o Click Open Panels on the following page
o Title your session (you can always change it later), and click Accept and Continue
o Click View Accepted Papers. This will take you to a page that lists each submission,
including titles and abstracts
o You can then either save the page as a PDF or copy and paste it into another document,
and share it with your co-organizers. You can find screenshots of this process in the
Creating Sessions section of this document

● Please keep in mind that English may not be the author’s first language. If you believe an
abstract or panel description needs some editing for typos or clarity but should still be accepted,
please email: [email protected]

● In the past, most papers and panels have been accepted. This is by design—previous organizers
have wanted the conference to be as open as possible, and we want to do the same. We would
like to accept a broad range of work in terms of methodology, theoretical framework,
disciplines, topics, geographical origin, etc. However, we do want to make sure that only quality
papers submitted in good faith are accepted. Please keep this balance in mind when deciding
which papers to flag as needing additional review by the conference organizers.

● Please consider the diversity of your panel in terms of geography, race, gender, career stage, and
other categories you believe are important and relevant to your topic, and to STS more broadly.

● Do not use the 'back' button in your browser. All Academic will not let you navigate in this
way, and will create annoying pop-up warnings letting you know. Instead, use the menu options
under the 4S banner, or leave a trail of breadcrumbs by opening a new tab each time you
navigate to a new page.

● Changes you make in the system are not saved until you click on Accept and Continue or
similar buttons.

● Sessions must have a minimum of three presenters, and no more than six (or five, if there is a
discussant).

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Selecting Papers
Papers Submitted to your Panel

Your first task will be to review the papers submitted to your panel, select those that you would like
to keep, and move those that you do not want to their proper location. Bear in mind that each
session you create must have at least three papers and a discussant, but not more than six (or five, if
you will have a discussant). This means that you should accept no more than 24 papers (over 4
sessions), and no fewer than three. Please keep in mind that the more papers in a session
the less time each paper will have. As previously mentioned, you must review papers for quality
as well as fit for your panel. This must be completed no later than March 24th. Finally, because
the system was still being configured as this guide was being written, the screenshots provided may
not be identical to what you see on your screen.

1. Follow the instructions in the Logging into All Academic section of this document.
Continue to step two after clicking on the name of your panel.

2. You will now be able to see all of the papers that were submitted to your panel, except for
those that were rejected by the Program Committee. You can read the abstract for each
paper by clicking its title. You can also check to see if the Program Committee member that
reviewed papers for your panel left any comments by clicking on the popup review
summary button in the Action column.

3. If you would like to keep the paper for your panel, you do not have to take any action. The
author will be notified that their paper was accepted for your panel on April 19th. While we
encourage you to contact your panelists, please wait until after this date to get in
touch.

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 4. If, after reviewing a submission, you believe it either has serious quality issues or may be
submitted in bad faith, please click Transfer in the Action column. You will then be taken
to a page that allows you to select either Needs Further Review or Single Paper
Submission. Click on Needs Further Review.

You will then need to confirm your decision by clicking on Accept and Continue

While it is not required, you can send an email to [email protected] to inform the Conference
Organizers about your concerns.

5. If, on the other hand, you do not believe a paper is a good 'fit' for your panel, you should
move it to the Single Paper Submission pool so that it can be included in a more
appropriate panel or roundtable. You can do this by following the instruction in Step 4, but
by clicking on Single Paper Submission instead of Needs Further Review.

6. You will also have the opportunity to add papers that were submitted as single papers after
you have made decisions about the papers submitted to your panel. We will email you a link
to a Google Sheet with a list of available papers soon after March 17th, and instructions
about how to “claim” one or more for your panel. Conference Organizers will then have to
add these papers to your panel manually. We encourage you to take as many of these papers
as you can without compromising your vision for the panel or exceeding the limits on the
number of sessions (or papers per session).

Note on Time Zones

When selecting the papers for your panel, bear in mind the time zones where the presenters are
located. It is important to anticipate this logistical question so we can have a smooth scheduling in
the future - in case the conference happens totally online. However, do not use time zones as a

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deciding factor for accepting or rejecting a paper. We strongly suggest considering time zones
only after you already have selected the papers that are a good fit for your panel.

Other Available papers

We will provide a google spreadsheet to Panel Organizers that will let you see all of the abstracts
that were either submitted as single papers or were not included in their first-choice open panel.

You can find the Google Drive folder here.

There will be a lot of submissions to choose from, so here are some tips for searching through
them efficiently:

· Press Ctrl+f (or Cmd+f on a Mac) to search for your open panel title. Because everyone
who submitted to an open panel was asked to specify two alternative open panels that they
are interested in (column I, although some listed them in column H as an “Other Category”
item), you can quickly identify these papers as worthy of consideration.

· Submitters also identified 'areas of STS scholarship' that best represented their work. If
you click the By STS Area tab on the bottom left, you will be able to see each of the paper
titles by the STS areas they have selected. If a paper looks interesting, you can search for it
using Ctrl+f (or Cmd+f on a Mac) in the Full Sheet tab to read the abstract.

· When in doubt, just search for keywords relevant to your panel topic using Ctrl+f (or
Cmd+f on a Mac).

When you are ready to 'claim' a paper, you can do so by filling in the fields in the blue section of the
Full Sheet tab. Make sure to include your full name and the exact name of your panel (it’s best to
copy and paste it into the cell). You should also indicate whether it is an open or closed panel.
There is a little down arrow in this field that will open a dropdown menu.

Conference organizers will have to transfer the papers you claimed into your panel manually, which
could take a few days. We will operate on a strict 'first come, first serve' system. We strongly
recommend that you make all of your claims at least three days before the deadline for forming
your sessions (March 28th). The final date for finishing organizing all dimensions of your open
panel session(s) is March 31rst.

Finally, we want to ask you to please try to fill all the slots in your session/panel. If you feel you
could add a session to your Open Panel, you can also do that. This approach will allow us to
organize the schedule with the least amount of overlap, and the available space in the most efficient
way. We appreciate your attention and patience with this part of the process.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you again for your work on 4S
2021!

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13
Creating Sessions
Your next task is to create 'sessions' for your panel. It is these 'sessions' that will appear in the
program, and be used to schedule the conference. Keep in mind that each session should have at
least three papers, but no more than six (or five if you have a discussant). It is helpful to have the
open panel information (title, abstract, names of discussants, etc.) available to copy and paste on
your computer before attempting to create sessions. Remember, your session won’t be saved unless
you click all the way through.

1. Follow the steps in the Logging into All Academic section of this document to navigate to
your panel.

2. Click on Create a Session in the Task Menu

3. You will land on a page that asks you to select the type of session you are creating, but there
is only one option: Open Panel. Click on this link.

4. Enter the title and abstract of your Open Panel. It should be identical to the title you
originally submitted.

a. If you are creating more than one session, use this naming convention: [Panel Title]
– [Roman no.].E.g., the second session I create for the following panel should be
“More PUS for STS: Acronyms as Boundary Objects – II.” Roman numerals should
be added to each session (including the first) unless you will only be creating one.

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5. Enter in the estimated attendance (e.g., if a member of your panel is very well-known,
selected a higher number), and any scheduling conflicts you are aware of in the fields
provided. We realize that your estimate is just a guess and that scheduling conflicts may
arise in the future. After you are done, click Accept and Continue.

6. You will then be taken to a page where you can add papers and designate discussants and
chairs.

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 7. First, add papers to the session. Click on View Accepted Papers (Step 1). You will be shown
a list that includes the titles, authors, abstracts, and keywords for each paper currently
available for your panel.

Click on the checkbox on the left for each paper you would like to include. When you are done,
click “add,” which is at the very bottom of your screen on the left.

8. You should now see all of the papers you selected, and have the option of changing the
order that they appear (click on Up or Down). If you change your mind about one of the
papers, you also have the option of removing it (along with discussants or chairs) under the
Action column.

9. Finally, you can add non-presenters (discussants, chairs, or session organizers) by searching
for their name using the fields for “Step 2.” You will be provided a list that draws both
from the 4S membership lists, and the list of those who have submitted to the conference.
You can select their role under the “Action” tab.

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a. If they are participating in some other way in the conference, you should be able to
see that in the “Role Participant Counts” column. Keep in mind the participation
guidelines, which limit each individual to one ‘Presenter Role’ and two additional
‘Non-Presenter Roles’ in the conference. You should reach out to participants if
their involvement in the panel would cause them to exceed these limitations.

b. If you find multiple accounts for an individual, you should select the one that is
already tied to other conference roles. If none are, you may want to contact the
participant to see which account would be most appropriate.

c. If you find no entries for a potential participant, make sure that you entered their
name correctly, and have accounted for potential variations (e.g., a “Jim” may be
listed as “James”). If you know that they are 4S members or have submitted to the
conference, you should contact them to ensure you are entering their name as it
exists in the system. If none of the above strategieswork, you can use the “Add
Unlisted Participant” link, which will take you to a form you can use to add them to
the system. It is important to exhaust other options first, however, since duplicate accounts used
for the conference will create confusion and errors in the program.

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 10. After you are done, you will be taken back to the main session population page. Double
check to make sure the roles are correctly assigned, and the papers are in the correct order.
When finished, click Accept and Continue.

11. You will then be taken to a page where you can review all of the information for the
session, and that will provide links for you to edit various aspects of the session.

Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Accept and Continue

12. You can edit your sessions by logging into your open panel and clicking on the Sessions tab.

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13. You are done! Thank you for taking part in our conference!

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Guide for Reviewing Papers
As the majority of papers are presented in Open Panels, Open Panel Organizers play an important
role in reviewing papers.

a) We ask that Open Panel Organizers review papers along the following three broad
categories of merit:

1. Does it connect to the theme of the open panel. Will it contribute to good discussions
about the panel theme?

2. Is it relevant to STS? This question is largely one of merit as outlined below.

Does it represent emerging work or an emergent question in STS?

Does it have the potential to provoke important discussions about the state or
history of STS?

Could it help STS researchers and educators reflect on methodologies, research

ethics, or pedagogies?

Does it address pressing contemporary issues from an STS perspective?

Does it help to bring important questions, critiques, or ideas from other academic
fields, social movements, or institutional settings into STS (or vice versa)?

3. Is the abstract assembled adequately in terms of academic quality. Please see b) and c)
below.

b) If you see any abstracts or panel proposals that appear strange or suspicious please bring this to
our attention, following the instructions above. In the past, abstracts have been submitted that have
not been in good faith so please be wary of this as you review. Here are a few things you might
want to look for:

· Who are the panel organizers/authors? Is it unlikely that they would be submitting this
panel or paper in good faith?

· Is the panel/paper needlessly provocative or controversial?

· Does the writing used in the panel description/abstract demonstrate an understanding

and familiarity with the theories, methodologies, etc. that it references? Are terms used
properly?

c) 4S is an international conference. Therefore, please keep in mind that English may not be the
author’s or panel organizer’s first language. If you believe an abstract or panel description needs

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some editing for typos or clarity but should still be accepted, please contact us at
[email protected].

d) If you want to reject a paper from your panel it will go into one of two categories: It will be
transferred back to the general paper pool for other open panels to consider. Or it will be flagged
for the conference organizers as a possible rejection based on quality issues.

e) In the past, most papers and panels have been accepted. This is by design— previous organizers
have wanted the conference to be as open as possible, and we want to do the same. 4S tends to
accept over 90% of submissions and most people can be counted on to do a fabulous job.

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