Hi again, I know this thread is nearing its end (and the end of some people's patience, no doubt), but I wanted to address Ruth's excellent question to me about the impression that I was suggesting only completed papers (with data/findings) should be submitted/accepted (which was not the case but I can see why my note gave that impression). I think we should work to raise the perceived and actual quality of the conference, I think AOIR should work to be inclusive, and I think there should be formats that support work in progress, discussion-oriented, and "feedback wanted' submissions. I think these are all related. I think Sarah made an excellent point when she wrote: "We're an interdisciplinary organization, and if we want to have an interdiscipinary conference we need to try and find a way to accommodate the disciplinary needs of members. That way people can "fit" AoIR into what they need to be doing for tenure, promotion, travel funds, etc." This is why, for instance, ICWSM (which I am co-chairing this year) offered a "social science track" where people could withhold their papers from the printed proceedings (which don't often "count" for tenure decisions) in order to publish them in journals. We tried to recognize that different fields have different criteria, and to allow social science researchers a way to participate that wouldn't cost them a publication. I believe raising the perceived quality of the conference, making quality more uniform among the presented papers, and offering the ability to submit full, finished papers will increase the inclusivity of the conference, because more people will be able to participate. In my case, for example, as a pre-tenure prof in an R1 institution, AOIR papers did not "count" and thus it was not feasible for me to attend the conference regularly. Too much out-of-pocket money, time away from other projects and my young children, opportunity costs I didn't feel I could afford. I'm sorry if all this talk about counting and tenure decisions is distasteful, and I'm sure this isn't the case for everyone, but I honestly didn't feel like attending was in my best interests given my career goals -- and that's pretty sad, because this conference is far more up my alley in terms of interests and people I adore (like Terri) than others I did attend. I imagine there are others in the same boat, and that these are people whose presence would enrich the conference. My sense is that longer submissions and papers about research that has already been conducted offer are a far better signal about quality than abstracts about studies that haven't been conducted yet. So if we believe that better assessment techniques will lead to better papers being accepted will lead to higher regard in multiple disciplines, having a format for this type of work seems like a good strategy. Regarding work in progress or late-breaking ideas or work that will be completed between submission & conference (which I do think should be part of the conference), there are other conferences we could look for for ideas: - CHI has a work in progress track: http://chi2013.acm.org/authors/call-for-participation/works-in-progress/ - ICA has workshops, where smaller groups get together to discuss ideas around a common topic of interest, and panels, where shorter abstracts are submitted (which are often work that isn't quite ready to write up at that moment) - CSCW allows variable paper lengths, with the idea that the contribution should match the length - ICWSM and CHI offer shorter paper options, such as notes or posters, as well as workshops and tutorials Hope this clears things up a bit. I am also, like others, happy to do more for the organization now that I'm no longer pre-tenure and my kids are a little older. I'm hoping to come to Denver, which I know will be great. I know first-hand how much work and emotional investment go into the paper reviewing and selection process, so I also want to publicly acknowledge the hard work of the organizers. Thanks, guys! Thanks, Nicole -- Nicole B. Ellison Associate Professor School of Information University of Michigan