Information for delegates

Length of panels

Panels may run over one, two or three 90-minute panel sessions, each of which may hold up to four papers. The conference organisers will inform panel convenors how many sessions you have been allocated.

Timing of presentations

How time is allocated in panel sessions is largely up to the convenors, but the DSA norm is to allot each presenter a maximum of 20 minutes (15 mins for presentation and 5 mins for questions/discussion per speaker). The key is to respect the fact that many presenters have done a lot of work and effort to be able to contribute and clearly need time to set out their argument.

This said, the conference convenors are keen to involve the wider community of colleagues working in the realm of policy and practice, and so welcome sessions arranged in other formats that would generate exciting discussion and exchange of ideas. These other formats should be described in the long abstract of the panels.

Delegates reading the conference timetable will not see paper-specific timings, so must assume that papers will be evenly distributed through the panel. Clearly you may wish to amalgamate discussion time, but where possible please try to stick to this even distribution.

Communication between authors/convenors

While convenor/author email addresses are not shown on the panel pages for privacy reasons, there is an in-built secure messaging system to contact convenors/authors. If you cannot work that, please email us to obtain the relevant email addresses.

Convenor responsibilities

It is the convenors’ responsibility to ensure that all panel participants are well briefed and that the panel continues to meet DSA2025 requirements. To that end, convenors should not only communicate their decisions over proposals to paper proposers, but also later in the process, email the panelists to:

• inform them of the speaking order (albeit this is displayed on the public panel page)
• inform them as to how much time they have been allocated
• remind them to register (the registration status can be seen in the login environment)
• inform them of any late changes or additional chairs/discussants, and give any other information related to the panel.
• if panelists withdraw, convenors should mark these withdrawals in the login environment to inform the organisers.

Prior circulation of papers

DSA2025 does not require the prior circulation of papers. However, if you as an author wish to do this, conference system allows you to. Each author can upload a PDF of their paper (not of their abstract!) via the conference system and this is then available for download from your panel page on the site. This is currently set so they are only available to logged-in panellists, although convenors can opt to change this to make them public. Either way it is wise to head all such documents as ‘draft’ and ‘not to be cited without permission’.

Editing your paper

Paper authors can use the login link in the top right of the DSA website to edit their proposals.

Please be aware that a proposal is only needed if you want to be an official named speaker. Registered conference participants can attend any panel/ roundtable and participate in discussions and Q&A sessions.

Co-authors cannot be added/removed nor can papers be withdrawn by the proposers themselves – for that, please email conference(at)devstud.org.uk.

Convenors – duty of care

We ask all convenors to please ensure they have read the conference requirements for colleagues convening panels, etc.