~ 2nd International Young Scientists' Global Change Conference ~ 7-8 November 2006 ~ Beijing, China ~


Information for Papers

**Please note that ALL participants are expected to have a poster for display at the YSC and the ESSP OSC. See the info for poster page for guidelines.

Guidelines for Presentations of Papers (PDF)

1. The time for the presentation to the plenary session will be 15 minutes. The Chair will not allow you to continue any longer than the allotted time and you will be given a warning 5 minutes before the end.  Should you wish to have discussion of your paper, this will have to be accommodated within your presentation period.  No additional time will be available for discussion.

2. Presentations may be made using Powerpoint only. Presentations must be submitted at time of Registration on either CD (preferred) or memory disk. Media must be clearly labelled with a) Family and First name of the participant and b) name of session of which the paper is a part.  It is highly recommended that you send your presentation to the conference organizers by email by Friday, October 27th.  It is highly recommended that you bring multiple copies of your presentation.

3. The first slide/overhead must contain the title of the poster, the authors and their affiliations. Allow no more than 5-10 seconds for the presentation of the title slide/ overhead and do not speak to it in any detail, instead assume the audience can read what they see. 

4. The second slide/overhead should give the aim of the paper (e.g., ‘The aim of the paper is to ……’. Alternatively, you might say ‘The aims of the papers are: (i) to do X, (ii) to examine Y, etc’). Do not present an outline of your paper that includes details of all the sections to be covered (this is a common waste of time).
5. Spend minimum time discussing data and methodology. Instead, get to the scientific findings as soon as possible. If you need to consider data and methodology, do so by allowing your audience to read what you set out on one or two slides/overheads. Never read aloud what your audience can read for themselves and realise that people read very quickly (much more quickly than you can read aloud!). Remember that the most common fault in presenting papers is to spend too much time on the introduction, data and methodology. Ideally in a 15-minute presentation, no more than 1-2 minutes should be devoted to this sort of background material.

6. Always present your material at the highest scientific level possible, i.e., expert-to-expert; never over-elaborate for those who may not be in your specific field.

7. Conclude the presentation with your most important scientific finding(s).

8. If you wish to end the presentation with acknowledgements of the help you have received simply show a slide/overhead and let the audience read this (allow no more than 2 seconds for this as the final flavour of the talk must be scientific and nothing else).

9. Many people find it difficult to talk to a paper. If you are such a person, then read your paper. This is perfectly acceptable; many would say that this is the best way of presenting papers. It is certainly the best way of guaranteeing that you say exactly what you want to in the clearest, most precise way possible.

10. NB. It is essential to practise your presentation in private with a stopwatch in order to be sure you can complete your presentation in the prescribed time or less should you wish to include discussion time.