The Call for Papers closed on April 4. Please contact us at papers@asha.org if you have any questions about the Call for Papers submission process.
Please thoroughly read the updated step-by-step guidelines and explanations below before you log in and begin the submission process.
We recommend that you draft, edit, and save your proposal in a Word/text document, and then copy and paste the text into the submission system to ensure accuracy in word count, spelling, and grammar.
Begin the submission process by signing in through the ASHA website with the email address and password you use for your www.asha.org account. The single sign-on process will pre-populate some of your contact information into your proposal, which you may edit as necessary. If you do not have an asha.org account, you may create one.
You will be asked to indicate whether the proposal you are entering into the system is a General Submission or an Invited Submission. Most proposals submitted to the Call for Papers should use the General Submission Form. The Invited Submission Form is only for presenters who have been formally invited to present by the Convention Program Committee. Do not select this option unless you have received special instructions from the committee.
As the person initiating and entering the proposal into the submission system, you are automatically assigned the role of submitter. As the submitter, you will need to answer questions on behalf of all of the authors/presenters on the proposal, such as any ADA needs or scheduling restrictions. Please make sure you've reviewed in advance the instructions and questions in these guidelines below so you can answer accurately on their behalf.
You will be required to answer these four questions about your role:
If you are only a submitter and not an author or presenter, you should answer no to all these questions.
Please use the search option first to locate authors in the ASHA system. When you select an author's record, their contact information should pre-populate the form. If you are unable to locate an author by searching, you may enter them into the system as a new author. (Note: To avoid duplicate records, please try searching for all variations of an author's name before adding them as a new author.)
It is very important that accurate contact information is provided for each author that includes the author's institution, mailing address, email address, phone number, and ASHA affiliation or student status, if applicable. Providing the correct email address is especially important so that authors do not miss any notifications or critical deadlines.
All authors must be assigned a role, which will be noted in the program:
Authors may only be listed as presenting authors on three proposals. If any author listed on the proposal is a presenter on more than three proposals, you will see an alert message with the author’s name. You will need to contact them to determine which three proposals they would like to present.
You will see all authors added to the proposal listed in a table at the top of the page. Use the edit button to change an existing author's role or contact information. The numbers next to each name indicate the author order. Use the arrows to change the author order, if needed. Then, confirm that the author order listing is correct to move on to the next step.
All authors are required to complete a disclosure form indicating any financial or nonfinancial relationship(s) related to the content of the proposed session. Please make sure that you have read and understood the Call for Papers Agreements and Disclosure Policy before beginning the submission process. (Read more about conflict-of-interest disclosures.)
When a proposal is submitted, each author listed will receive an email with a link to complete a corresponding disclosure form and to provide a biographical sketch. Authors may update their disclosures through the Author/Presenter Management Center at any time if a change occurs with their financial or non-financial relationships.
As the submitter, you must agree to inform all authors listed in the proposal that they are required to complete the form and submit a bio by Tuesday, April 23, 2024, 11:59 p.m., Pacific Time. You must also acknowledge that you understand that if ANY author does not complete their disclosure, THE ENTIRE PROPOSAL WILL BE ADMINISTRATIVELY WITHDRAWN. This is an important change to our policy, which previously stated that only the author would be removed.**
As the submitter, it is your responsibility to make all authors on the proposal aware of the Author/Presenter Management Center. If an author does not receive their disclosure email/link, they should log in to the Author/Presenter Management Center, where they may find and complete all forms. If you have questions, you may email papers@asha.org and reference the proposal number and the word "Disclosure" in the subject line.
The Convention Program Committee Topic Chairs review all proposals and consider all format requests. You may submit a proposal for the following session formats:
If you submit a proposal for an in-person poster presentation or an in-person technical session, you will be asked whether you will consider presenting a virtual-only poster or technical session if space is too limited.
*If accepted, technical session, technical demo, and poster presenters (both in-person and virtual-only) will be required to upload their presentation and audio recording to the virtual platform by October (exact date TBA). Failure to upload your presentation and audio recording by the deadline will result in the withdrawal of your session from the Convention program.
**If you opt for an in-person 1-hour oral seminar, you will be asked whether the slides and audio from your presentation may be broadcast to the virtual platform in real-time, if selected by the Convention Program Committee. These live feed sessions will be predetermined in advance and available to watch only during the scheduled in-person presentations; they will not be recorded or available on the virtual platform after the in-person presentation concludes.
**Authors of 1-hour oral seminars also have the opportunity for their session to be considered for inclusion in the ASHA Learning Pass after the ASHA Convention. If your session is accepted for the ASHA Convention and then identified for inclusion in the Learning Pass, each author will be required to complete an additional agreement and your session will be recorded onsite. If any of the presenting authors decide they do not want their session included in the Learning Pass, they can opt not to fill out the agreement and the session will not be included. If all presenting authors complete the agreement, your live ASHA Convention presentation (audio and slides only) will be recorded on-site. Recorded sessions will become part of the Learning Pass and be eligible for continuing education credit for up to 5 years.
Read the Topic Area descriptions carefully. You will need to select the Topic Area that best corresponds to your proposal. Choice of the Topic Area determines which Topic Committee will review the proposal and influences the intended audience. The Convention Program Committee has the authority to recategorize a proposal during the review process if the committee believes it better corresponds to another topic.
If your proposal relates to more than one Topic Area, you may select an alternate topic. Topic Chairs may consider the alternate topic to determine if a proposal might fit better under the other topic or if it should be cross-listed in the program under both topics.
ASHA encourages submissions to any Topic Area by interprofessional teams where the non-CSD members will participate in the live presentation. This is part of ASHA’s Strategic Pathway initiative to promote interprofessional education and interprofessional collaborative practice.
We recommend that you draft, edit, and save your proposal in a Word/text document, and then copy and paste the text into the submission system to ensure accuracy in word count, spelling, and grammar.
ASHA adheres to the style guide of the American Psychological Association (APA) in using person-first or identity-first language. When there is a preference, ASHA honors that preference. Please adhere to this style guideline in your proposal title and content.
Enter the title of your proposal, not to exceed 15 words, using title case. Do not use all caps or unnecessary punctuation, such as quotation marks around the title or a period at the end.
Indicate whether the instructional level of your proposed presentation is introductory, intermediate, or advanced.
Introductory Level: Instruction at the Introductory Level is generally intended for professionals with novice experience in the content area. Material presented is based on fundamental principles or concepts that are well known and regularly applied. Often this level of training is intended to be a prerequisite to successive, more difficult topics offered at the Intermediate Level. At times, experienced professionals might be advised to take this training for review or in preparation for more advanced-level training. Introductory level can also be used to describe course content related to new or emerging areas of practice. Content at this level may be relevant to Assistants.
Intermediate Level: Instruction at the Intermediate Level assumes some familiarity with the basic literature as well as some experience in professional practice within the area covered and targets more experienced professionals. The pace of the training and difficulty of concepts presented require more advanced knowledge and skills than the Introductory Level. Examples used at this level are often based on recent research and case studies that are complex in nature.
Advanced Level: Instruction at the Advanced Level assumes the participant already has established experience, knowledge, and skill within the area covered. The focus of courses at this level is on comprehension of findings in the current literature, and the synthesis and application of information presented to advance current clinical and research practices. The pace and level of difficulty of material presented is commensurate with the needs of a professional with comprehensive knowledge, ability, and experience in the content area.
You must select either Professional Education or Research as your abstract type. The type of selected abstract determines the evaluation criteria for the proposal and by whom it is reviewed.
Professional Education proposals should present innovative approaches to service delivery, new and emerging clinical methodology or techniques, and/or programming or discussion and debate regarding professional issues related to a Topic Area. They may present data or provide new evidence relevant to topics/issues previously presented in textbooks, research literature, professional conferences, or other dissemination outlets. They are submitted for originality, relevant contemporary impact, or continued appeal to a significant number of attendees. The quantity of information presented is appropriate to the proposed length of the session.
Professional Education proposals are evaluated by the following criteria:
Research proposals should present new research findings or research in progress dealing with typical and/or atypical aspects of hearing, language, speech, or swallowing. Presentations should be based on original research and provide new data/information pertaining to either scientific bases of the discipline or clinical practice. Data/information regarding new interpretations of existing data may also be included in this category. The objective of a Research presentation is to share the process and products of inquiry.
Research proposals are evaluated using the following criteria:
You will be asked to enter three learning outcomes by selecting an action verb [PDF] from a drop-down menu that completes the outcome phrase, "Participants will be able to …" as a result of attending the session. Do not add ending punctuation/a period.
Learning outcomes are an important part of the review process and are mandatory for all proposals. If the proposal is accepted for presentation, they are published in the program. Learning outcomes describe what participants will be able to do after attending the session and must be stated as observable behaviors.
For example, to enter the learning outcome, "Participants will be able to list three key issues related to hearing loss in infants," you would select "LIST" from the dropdown menu and then type "three key issues related to hearing loss in infants" in the field next to your selected keyword.
Learning outcomes that indicate that an attendee will learn, understand, or know something are not measurable and are not eligible for ASHA CEUs and thus, cannot be accepted for presentation at the ASHA Convention.
This brief summary of your proposal, in 120 words or fewer, will be published (if accepted) in the program. Session descriptions are not edited and are published as submitted, so make sure you proofread your work carefully.
Please provide an expanded description of your proposal, not to exceed 1,000 words, that will give Program Committee reviewers a clear picture of the content and goals of the presentation. Your abstract/summary should discuss the planned presentation, background information, greater detail about research methodology or practices, and additional resources and materials.
After you enter your abstract, you will be asked if your proposal focuses on ethics and ethical decision-making, supervision, or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Your response to this question will help attendees identify sessions that meet the requirements for the 2020 Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Certification Standards.
You will need to indicate whether the proposed session will focus on one specific approach, product, product line, tool, technique, service, or model without mention of or information about other similar approaches, products, services, techniques, tools, or models.
ASHA's Continuing Education Board (CEB) has established guidelines to provide attendees with more information about the precise content of sessions. Some attendees may prefer sessions that focus on a particular product, product line, tool, technique, service, and/or model, while others may prefer sessions that cover more than one approach. This information allows us to properly categorize sessions into a more robust taxonomy. The intent is by no means punitive, nor will a particular response preclude a session from being considered.
Example:
You and your fellow authors conducted a study using one instrument. You are presenting a session where you report on the results of the study but will talk about the instrument you used. Since you did not use other instruments, you will not mention other similar instruments. In this situation, you would answer "yes" to this question.
Though not required, you are encouraged to provide references (not to exceed 500 words) that the Program Committee may consider as part of the proposal review. References are not published in the program but can be shared with attendees as part of your required advanced handout.
You are encouraged to include for reviewers a time-ordered agenda in support of your request of desired session format. Agendas do not apply to poster presentations.
Example (for a 1-hour in-person session):
List some keywords related to your proposal that will help attendees locate your presentation (if accepted) when conducting searches in the Program Planner/mobile app. You must list at least one keyword.
You will need to answer a series of multiple-choice questions about your proposal.
Review and proofread all aspects of your proposal for accuracy, using the header tabs on the screen to navigate back to a previous step to make edits.
Your proposal is not submitted for review until you agree to the terms of the Author Agreement and select the "Submit My Proposal" button. You will receive a confirmation of submission via email, and each author listed on the proposal will receive an email message containing a link to the Author Agreement and a Disclosure Agreement form corresponding to the proposal. All authors must agree to the terms and complete the disclosure form by Tuesday, April 23, 2024.
You may go back and edit your proposal until April 4, 2024, 11:59 p.m. (Pacific Time). After the deadline, all submitters will have viewing (but not editorial) access to their proposals and email notifications though the Submission Site.
After you have officially submitted your proposal(s), please log back into the submission system and withdraw any remaining incomplete proposals.
After the submission deadline, the Call for Papers submission website allows you to view any proposals that you have submitted, as well as any email notifications that have been sent by the system.
If you are both a submitter and an author, you have access to the Author/Presenter Management Center, which will be your primary resource for information throughout the Call for Papers process. All authors will receive a personalized link for the Author/Presenter Management Center in the disclosure notification they receive after a proposal has been submitted. The Management Center site is where you will access your submitted proposals, important notifications and instructions, critical deadline information, agreements, and disclosure forms.
Although we send all notifications to authors via email, we have been experiencing ongoing challenges due to increased spam filtering, and many messages did not reach recipients. The online Author/Presenter Management Center is always accessible. Please bookmark the site and regularly check it to ensure you are completing all author tasks and responsibilities by the deadlines.
If you have any issues accessing the Author/Presenter Management Center, please contact us at papers@asha.org for help.