FAQ
Here some questions and answers are collected to help you navigate through the conference practicalities, calls and other fields. If you still do not find the information you need, please, get in touch at contact@budapest.degrowth.org.
Q I do not know how to confirm my participation. If I follow the link you’ve sent I find no possibility to confirm my participation.
A Just by clicking on the link you automatically confirm your participation. There are no further steps for you to do at this moment. You are not supposed to receive any further messages once you’ve clicked the link. If this causes discomfort to you, please, feel welcome to drop us a message and check if it worked. The instructions on how to pay the registration fee will follow after all the participants have confirmed their participation (around 20 April 2016); you will receive the instructions on the email address with which you have registered to the conference platform.
Q I want to confirm my intention to complete the registration process for participation at the Degrowth conference. However, I have not received any confirmation of my registration after following the link in this email, so I’m not sure if the confirmation succeeded.
A Please see the answer to the question above.
Q I followed the link you’ve sent to confirm my intention to participate in the conference. However, I am not sure it worked. The following message was displayed: “Your confirmation key is not valid. Please check your event status in the call for papers interface.” What should I do?
A It seems that there is a glitch on the platform, which causes this notification to appear although your confirmation was successfully registered. It happened with several people; we’ve tried to eliminate the problem, but so was we were not successful. However, registration normally worked fine in spite of the message. If this causes discomfort to you, please, feel welcome to drop us a message and check with us if it worked.
Q To which account should I transfer my registration fees?
A The instructions on how to pay the registration fee will follow after all the participants have confirmed their participation (around 20 April 2016); you will receive the instructions on the email address with which you have registered to the conference platform.
Q Do contributors of the sessions have to pay the registration fee?
A All the participants of the session must make the payment.
Q Who are ‘keynote speakers’ and ‘panelists’?
A The terms ‘keynote speaker’ and ‘panelist’ refer to the directly invited people who will do keynote speeches and take part in the panel debates of the conference. They don’t have to pay registration fee. If you are unsure whether any of your contributors is a keynote or a panellist, get in touch with the organisers.
Q Where do we register for the conference before paying?
A When you submitted the session, you registered through the conference platform. Hence the submitter of the session is already registered in the platform and this means he/she is also registered for the participation. Contributors’ accounts are also already made because the submitters have registered their names and emails. However, those accounts are not active yet and will be activated a few days upon the payment of the registration fee. They will be notified by email to log-in and participate further in the conference creation.
Q How many people can I register for one session?
A It is at the moment possible to register maximum 4 people per session. If after the review and selection of individual papers there is sufficient open place, we will inform you that you can register additional people. But for now it’s only 4 people per session.
Q Can I pay the registration fee for myself and co-presenters in a single payment?
A The registration fee is to be paid separately for each person who will take part in your session.
Q Does the registration fee cover the accommodation costs?
A The accommodation is not included in the registration fee and you have to cover it by yourself. Soon the information about accommodation will be available on the webpage, but meanwhile just for your orientation, on average, you can count on about 30 – 50 EUR / person / night, if you wish to stay in a hotel and some 15-20 EUR if you share a flat. Hostels and camping will be even cheaper.
Q I am wondering why I cannot see any of the comments from the reviewers? Are these meant to be hidden? Perhaps this is an error in functionality?
A Comments and marks from the reviewers are not public and are not available to the submitter. The reviewers were instructed to provide comments for the organizing team to qualify their quantitative marking (e.g. if there are any special issues with the proposal). As degrowth research community is very small we wanted to keep this review process anonymous (blind). In the future, conference organizers may choose to make the process fully open, but that we can expect that to run into its own difficulties (who decides in the end whether a submission is to be included or not). Whilst receiving reviewers comments could indeed help some submitters to better hone their work in the future, there have also been submitters who wanted to argue with the overall review process, reviewers’ assessments etc. which makes the organizing of the conference extremely laborious. As the organizing team we have surveyed all reviews, and have had to choose a batch of ‘lowest quantitative mark and accompanying justifying qualification’ submissions to turn down in order to keep the conference of the convivial size. These were nonetheless good papers, and had we not had size limitations most (though not all) of them would have been acceptable. It is one instantiation of a series of conferences.
Q I would like to offer a paper on ‘Degrowth XXX’ for the conference. I am writing to ask if such a paper would fit into one of the sessions someone else is organizing or whether it should be submitted as an individual contribution.
A It would be better if the paper is submitted as an individual contribution. The individual papers, submitted during the call for individual papers (it will open on the 15th of January and close on 29th of February 2016), will be grouped together with similar papers.
Q I am looking to submit for the conference. I notice that a detailed description is asked for two times. This is a little confusing. Is it one detailed description (1700 characters) on the project we wish to present and then the list of those involved?
A The idea is that in the first space for abstract you provide abstract for the whole special session, whereas in the further spaces for abstracts you provide abstracts of the presentations that each of the presenters in the special session will make. So, for example, in the first space for abstract you will say ‘This special session is about presenting project X.’ In the next places you will say:
– person X ‘The presentation will be about activity 1 of project X.’
– person Y ‘The presentation will be about activity 2 and 3 of project X.’
– person Z ‘The presentation will be about activity 4 of project X.’
Q Financial incentives for paper reader from the developing countries. I request you to arrange to provide facilities to teachers, scholars and professors coming from the developing countries. Please have some travel subsidy and waive registration fees. Have some positive financial policy for encouragement.
A We are still working on the financial aspects of the conference. We will do our best to ensure that fees are adjusted to the abilities of the participants. We will announce the options for reduced fees and other possible support on the website, so, please, regularly check the website.
Q I would like to offer to be a keynote speaker at the conference.
A At the moment the slots for the keynote speakers are already divided, so we cannot invite you for that purpose. However, you are welcome to make a submission, either for a special session or for an individual paper (more information here).
Q Please put on the webpage registration fees and other essentials for the conference. This shall help us plan the visit!
A We are still working on the question of fees in order to ensure that fees are adjusted to the abilities of the participants. We will announce the fee options and other logistical aspects on the website in as soon as possible, so, please, regularly check the website.
Q What will be the languages in the conferences ?
A The language of the conference will be English, and we will try to limit translations.
Some events could be done in Hungarian as well.
Q We would like to submit a special session of more than 4 people. Is it possible to make a round table or a multi session?
A The size of special sessions were limited to let time and space for debate and discussion. However you can submit more special sessions, indicating that they are related. Reviewers will decide on the acceptability of each of them.
Q Is the 29th of February the deadline for abstracts or full papers?
A The deadline of the 29th of February is the one for abstract submission (1700 characers with spaces). Reviewing will be made on the basis of abstracts. If your paper is selected, you can present it during the conference in 15min (only length limit). There will be no deadline for the optional submission of full papers.
Q How to become a volunteer ?
A Send a mail to contact@budapest.degrowth.org to introduce you and to describe what you expect from being a volunteer with us. We will manage volunteering issues in the months to come and will invite you to contact us later.
Q I would like to know if you have a newsletter? If yes, I would like to register for it.
A There is no newsletter, but if you send us mail to contact@budapest.degrowth.org, we will add your address to our mailing list through which we inform about the conference. If you would like to register for newsletters giving informations about Degrowth in general, please consult these webpages: http://www.degrowth.de/en/newsletter/ and http://www.degrowth.org/newsletter
Q May I submit two individual papers?
A Due to size considerations and in order to have the most constructive
discussions, please submit only ONE individual proposition. Select the one
you are the most interested in presenting.
Q How do you handle the review, who judges about it?
A Individual presentation are reviewed:
– by two “peer submittors” who proposed an abstract in the same subcategory
as yours (50% weight)
– by an expert reviewer of our scientific team (50% weight)