CFP: PSA2020/2021: The 27th Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association

Submission is open for PSA2020. Information about Symposium Proposals, Individual Contributed Paper submissions, and Posters can be found below, or at https://psa2020.philsci.org/78-submissions/77-calls-for-submissions.

PSA2020: Call for Symposium Proposals

Submission is now open for symposia to be presented at the PSA2020 meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 19-22, 2020. The deadline for submitting symposium proposals is 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time on January 10, 2020. 

A call for contributed papers and a call for posters for the poster forum will be issued separately. The call for session chairs will be sent out in late summer 2020. The conference will begin at 8:30 am on November 19 and last through 3:00 pm on November 22. The PSA will once again be offering travel grants for early career scholars, onsite childcare services, and dependent care subsidies of up to $200.

A symposium should involve several presenters, typically 4-5, organized around a topic of interest in philosophy of science (broadly construed). The PSA2020 program committee is committed to assembling a program with high-quality symposia on a variety of topics and diverse presenters that reflects the full range of current work in the philosophy of science. Symposia that make connections with current science, such as by including working scientists, or that make other connections outside philosophy, such as with history, sociology, or public policy, are warmly invited. We will not be considering 'Author Meets Critics' sessions, but topical sessions that build upon recently published books are welcome. 

At the time of submission, proposers may choose to have their proposals considered for the Women's Caucus Prize Symposium; for more information please go to https://womenscaucus.philsci.org/prizes. 

Members of the PSA2020 Program Committee are listed here: https://psa2020.philsci.org/en/73-program-committees.

Proposals must include sufficient supporting material to enable the program committee to evaluate the quality and interest of the symposium. Proposals for symposia should be in pdf format and include:

1. The title of the proposed symposium

2. A short descriptive summary of the proposal (100-200 words)

3. A description of the topic and a justification of its current importance to the discipline (up to 1000 words)

4. A list of participants with institutional affiliations and e-mail addresses, including any non-presenting co-authors

5. Titles and abstracts of all papers (up to 500 words for each title and abstract)

6. Either an abbreviated curriculum vitae or short biographical description for each participant, including any non-presenting co-authors (up to 1 page for each participant)

See the meeting website (https://psa2020.philsci.org) for more information and to submit a symposium proposal after submissions open on October 10. The site also has a discussion page, which can be used to help organize and find participants for symposium proposals. To post on the discussion page or submit a proposal, you will need to first create an account. (Click on "Create Account" on the top menu.) To submit a symposium proposal, click on "Submissions" once you log into your account. The full symposium should be submitted under "Symposium." In addition, each presenting author of a symposium paper and each symposium commentator will need to create their own account and submit their own abstract under "Symposium Paper Abstracts." Commentators should enter "Commentary" or the equivalent as a title, and "Commentary" or the equivalent in the abstract field if there is not an abstract for the commentary. All authors (whether a presenting author or not) are asked either to create an account or to log into their account (if one is created for them by a co-author) to answer optional demographic questions.

The deadline for submitting symposium proposals is 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time on January 10, 2020. Symposium organizers will be informed of the program committee's decision prior to the deadline for submitting contributed papers (March 6, 2020). Please see important information below on the PSA policy regarding multiple submissions.

After the conference, symposium presenters may submit their papers for review for publication in a supplementary issue of Philosophy of Science. The submission deadline for symposium papers will be announced at a later date. Papers will be evaluated for publication individually. Authors are encouraged to post their symposium papers as PSA2020 Conference Papers at http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/ (a publicly accessible digital archive) prior to the meeting. Authors who subsequently submit their paper for review for publication are also encouraged to post those papers at http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/, whether or not they are accepted for publication. 

Please note that in accordance with current PSA policy:

1. No previously published paper may be submitted for presentation at the PSA meeting.

2. Any individual can be a presenting author in only one symposium proposal. Commentators are considered to be presenting authors. Multiple symposium proposals that include the same person as a presenting author will not be reviewed. 

3. No one is permitted to present more than once at each PSA meeting. Thus, if a symposium proposal in which you are a presenting author is accepted, you cannot submit a contributed paper for which you are the presenting author. Commentators that are part of symposia are considered to be presenting authors. A scholar may appear as co-author on more than one paper or symposium talk but may present at PSA2020 only once. This policy does not apply to the poster forum; a presenting author on a contributed paper or symposium paper may also present a poster in the poster forum.

4. If an accepted symposium subsequently loses participants, maintaining acceptance will be contingent on the symposium organizer developing satisfactory alternatives to maintain the quality and coherence of the session.

All questions about submissions should be directed to the Chair of the PSA2020 Program Committee, Angela Potochnik, at [email protected].

PSA2020: Call for Papers

Submission is now open for papers to be presented at the PSA2020 meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 19-22, 2020. The deadline for submitting a paper is 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time on March 6, 2020. 

A call for symposia and a call for posters for the poster forum will be issued separately. Symposium organizers will be informed of the program committee's decision prior to the deadline for submitting contributed papers. The call for session chairs will be sent out in late summer 2020. The conference will begin at 8:30 am on November 19 and last through 3:00 pm on November 22. The PSA will once again be offering travel grants for early career scholars, onsite childcare services, and dependent care subsidies of up to $200.

Contributed papers may be on any topic in philosophy of science. The PSA2020 Program Committee is committed to assembling a program with high-quality papers on a variety of topics and diverse presenters that reflects the full range of current work in the philosophy of science. 

Members of the PSA2020 Program Committee are listed here: https://psa2020.philsci.org/en/73-program-committees.

The maximum manuscript length is 5,000 words, including abstract, footnotes, and references. If the manuscript includes tables or figures, an appropriate number of words should be subtracted from the limit. Submissions must include a 100-word abstract and a word count. Format and citation style should match those of Philosophy of Science (see https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/phos/instruct for details). Submissions should be prepared for anonymous review, with no information identifying the author in the body of the paper or abstract. (See https://journal.philsci.org/submissions for instructions on how to prepare your paper for anonymous review.) Reviewing will be "triple-masked," with neither reviewers nor the program chair having access to the author's identity during the review process.

See the meeting website (https://psa2020.philsci.org) for more information and to submit a paper after submissions open on October 10. To submit a paper, you will need to first create an account. (Click on "Create Account" on the top menu.) Then log into your account and click on "Submissions". For co-authored papers, the presenting author should provide the abstract and upload the paper; non-presenting co-authors are asked either to create an account or to log into their account (if one is created for them by a co-author) to answer optional demographic questions.

 Some papers will be accepted for both presentation at the PSA2020 biennial meeting and publication in a supplementary issue of Philosophy of Science; other papers will be accepted for presentation only. All authors are encouraged to post their papers as PSA2020 Conference Papers at http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/ (a publicly accessible digital archive) prior to the meeting. Authors of accepted papers are expected to present abbreviated versions of their papers at the conference; the paper presentation should take no more than twenty minutes.

The Program Committee expects to announce its decision on papers accepted for presentation by the end of May 2020 and on papers accepted for publication in Philosophy of Science in mid-June. Final versions of all papers accepted for publication must be resubmitted by January 8, 2021; submission instructions will be provided closer to that date.

Please note that in accordance with current PSA policy:

1. Papers submitted to PSA2020 may not be published, accepted for publication, or under review at the time of submission, and they may not be submitted elsewhere for publication while they are under consideration for publication in the PSA2020 supplementary issue of Philosophy of Science.

2. At most one contributed paper on which you are the presenting author can be submitted.

3. No one is permitted to present more than once at each PSA meeting. Thus, if a symposium proposal in which you are a presenting author is accepted, you cannot submit a contributed paper for which you are the presenting author. Commentators that are part of symposia are considered to be presenting authors. A scholar may appear as co-author on more than one paper or symposium talk but may present at PSA2020 only once. This policy does not apply to the poster forum; a presenting author on a contributed paper or symposium paper may also present a poster in the poster forum.

To maintain anonymity in the review process, questions about specific submissions should be sent to [email protected], as this address will be monitored by someone not involved in the review process. General questions about contributed papers should be directed to the Chair of the PSA2020 Program Committee, Angela Potochnik, at [email protected].

PSA2020: Call for Posters

Submissions are open for posters to be presented at the PSA2020 meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 19-22, 2020. The deadline for full consideration of poster abstracts is 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time June 15, 2020.

The poster committee expects to announce its decisions on abstract proposals by July 30, 2020. The conference will begin at 8:30 am on November 19 and last through 3:00 pm on November 22. The poster forum will be on the evening of November 20. All accepted posters are required to have a poster presenter attending the conference on the evening of November 20 to present their poster during the poster forum. The PSA will once again be offering travel grants for early career scholars, onsite childcare services, and dependent care subsidies of up to $200.

Please note that the PSA policy regarding multiple submissions to PSA2020 and presenting no more than once on the main program does not apply to poster abstracts. Main program participation and poster forum presentation are not mutually exclusive. A presenting author on a contributed paper or participating in a symposium may also submit one poster abstract on a substantially different topic. If the abstract is accepted, then the author may present (or co-present) the poster at PSA2020.

Poster abstracts may be on any research topic in the philosophy of science, the teaching of philosophy of science, science communication, and philosophy/science outreach. The PSA2020 poster committee will strive for quality, variety, innovation, and diversity in accepted abstracts, and we are especially interested in work (such as that related to teaching, outreach, and science communication) not typically represented on the main program. Members of the PSA2020 Poster Committee are listed on the meeting website here: https://psa2020.philsci.org/73-program-committees.

The maximum poster abstract length is 500 words, including any references. Submissions should be prepared for anonymous review, with no information identifying the author in the abstract. (See https://journal.philsci.org/submissions for instructions on how to prepare submissions for anonymous review.) Reviewing will be "triple-masked," with neither reviewers nor the poster committee chair having access to the author's identity during the review process.

See the meeting website (https://psa2020.philsci.org) for more information and to submit a poster after submissions have opened. To submit a poster, you will first need to create an account. (Click on "Create Account" on the top menu.) Then log into your account and click on "Submissions". For co-authored posters, the presenting author should provide the abstract; non-presenting co-authors are asked either to create an account or to log into their account (if one is created for them by a co-author) to answer optional demographic questions.

Instructions and advice for creating posters can be found here:https://psa2020.philsci.org/78-submissions/79-poster-forum-tips.

General questions about poster abstracts should be directed to the chair of the PSA2020 Poster Committee, Cailin O'Connor, [email protected]. To maintain anonymity in the review process, questions about specific submissions should be sent to [email protected], which will be monitored by someone not involved in the review process.