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Abstract Guidelines
As part of our commitment to the developmental nature of the PGNR conference, we provide guidelines to help newer researchers develop skills important to submitting and presenting at a conference. The following maps out what we expect to see in a conference abstract. It is important to ensure that you follow this approach so that the panel of reviewers are clear as to the nature of your work and the aims of your proposed presentation.
As a peer reviewed conference, the quality of submissions is an essential selection criteria. Strong abstracts likely to be accepted generally demonstrate some or all of the following elements: clarity of aims or focus, engagement with relevant literature, clear connection to the broad conference topic and the higher education setting in general, sufficient detail to enable reviewers to get a sense of what will be presented and why. For 2010, brief feedback (including reviewers’ comments and scores) will be provided on each submission, explaining why a submission was accepted or rejected, any suggestions for enhancing the work when it is presented or, in a small number of cases, asking for amendments and resubmission to ensure clarity/quality of the abstract. Abstracts are published in the conference programme, and you will have the option to submit a written paper for publication on the SRHE Conference Website should you wish to.
Each abstract (400 words max) should contain the following as appropriate to your work:
- Title of presentation (brief but indicative of contents).
- Purpose of presentation: Clearly state what your specific presentation will seek to do before setting out the relevant debates and information on your research.
- Clear statement on the nature of the research being presented (e.g. conceptual work, literature review discussion, reflexive analysis, empirical research) and the stage you will have been reached by the time of presentation (e.g. literature review completed, developing methodology, initial pilot study, developing theoretical framework for testing, ongoing research, reporting on completed research).
- Methodology, approach and sample.
- Key argument, findings, implications and/or conclusions to be presented.
- Short list of references (it is important to locate your presentation in relation to the research literature and to refer to this in your abstract)
- Please note above guidelines on submission of symposia.
Tips for Abstract Presentation:
- Write in a clear, concise and accessible way, keeping focused on what’s going to happen in this specific presentation rather than your work in general. ‘Get to the point’ quickly in the opening section, making it clear what you are going to present and why. Reviewers and delegates only have 400 words to get familiar with your work and your aims in this presentation, so spending a long time at the beginning mapping out the background to your general theoretical framework, or providing a long piece on the wider literature may not be as useful as clearly stating what your presentation will seek to do and then going on to set out some of the relevant debates and information on your research in relation to that.
- Try to avoid jargon, synonyms that are not explained, overly dense language or a focus on very specific terms or concepts that may not be familiar to a wider audience without explanation. The PGNR audience, just like the ARC, attracts a wide range of people researching HE from many different perspectives and generally few will be researching the exact same topic as you.
- Make good use of a small number of headings to structure your submission, such as those highlighted in italics in the list above.
- Ensure that you cover all of the areas required in an abstract that are relevant to your submission, perhaps noting where some are not applicable just to help the reviewer understand what your research is and is not (e.g. if you work is primarily conceptual at this stage, that’s fine, just make it clear that is the case and, thus, information on aspects such as methodology or sample are not relevant).
- Make reference to at least 3-4 key pieces of literature related to your field of research/enquiry. References are included in the word count, so a good balance is needed between using citations and not using up your word count.
- Make good use of the word count – if you are well below or well above the 400 word abstract, then you are probably not making effective use of the space. If you submit a last minute, short, rushed piece, it is unlikely to do you justice.
- Don’t forget that your abstract is not only submitted for reviewers to judge your submission, but will appear in the list of abstracts from which delegates will decide whether or not to attend your presentation. To help ensure you are attracting your target audience, make sure that your abstract is of a good quality and clearly states what you want to do and why. Similarly, give some thought to your title – try to express the core issue of your presentation to catch delegates’ eye, and you might also like to tie it into the conference theme.
- Ask a friend, colleague or supervisor to read and comment on your abstract to help you refine your ideas and clarify anything that might not be clear to a wider audience.
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Professor Gráinne Conole
Professor of Learning Innovation University of Leicester
Trajectories of learning: navigating the future of learning with new technologies
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Dr Paul Ashwin
Senior Lecturer ,Centre for the Study of Education and Training, Lancaster University
Conceptualising and researching the new communities, spaces, places and futures of contemporary higher education
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