LASA PAPERS ACCEPTANCE PROCEDURE

1. All panel/individual proposals are received by LASA Secretariat by September 3, 2013.
2. The proposals are reviewed to ensure no critical information is missing. If the proposals do not have a track selected, they will be taken out of consideration
3. The proposals are grouped by track and sent to the Track Chairs for evaluation.
4. If the Track Chair/s does not think a proposal fits correctly into their track, the proposal will be sent to the Track Chair/s they believe has a better fit for evaluation.
5. Track Chairs evaluate the proposals based on the criteria below: (the maximum score for a panel or individual paper is 20 (four points per criteria)).
   1. Significance for the field.
   2. Clarity and precision of presentation of theme or argument.
   3. Conceptual and theoretical adequacy.
   4. Compliance with submission instructions.
   5. Appeal to scholars in related fields, and ability to attract an audience at the Congress.

   The following grades/scores are given per criteria (from 1 – 4):

   1. Unacceptable or unconvincing
   2. Average or acceptable with reservations
   3. Good
   4. Excellent
6. The Track Chairs group high scoring individual papers into panels based on common theme and assign a panel name.
7. The Track Chairs then send the classification of the panels by Track back to LASA Secretariat.
8. LASA Secretariat calculates the percentage of panel proposals by track compared to the total number of panels proposed for LASA2014. For example, if 50 panels were proposed for the AGR track, from a total of 1,000 panels proposed for LASA2014, the percent of AGR track panels is 5%.
9. LASA Secretariat calculates the total number of panels for LASA2014 based on meeting space and schedule. For this example, we will use a total of 600 panels for LASA2014.
10. LASA Secretariat calculates the number of panels per track which will be accepted based on the percent of proposals received by that track compared to the total and the space available. In our example, 5% of proposals were received in the AGR track compared to the total number of tracks sent to LASA2014; therefore, 5% of the total panel capacity for LASA2014 will be assigned to the AGR track. In this case (5%*600 = 30 panels, 30 panels will be accepted from the AGR track). The top 30 panels ranked will be accepted for the AGR track.
11. The same process is followed per each track until all the available space has been exhausted. In this example, it will be until all 600 panels are selected.
12. The sessions are reviewed and placed into the Program by the Program Chairs for LASA2014.
13. Notifications of acceptance/rejection of panels are sent by November 18th, 2013.
14. *Accepted participants will be required to pre-register for the Congress by March 24th, 2014. Participants who do not pre-register will be removed from the Program and will not be allowed to participate in LASA2014.
15. 1. *Decisions are final and cannot be appealed. Rejected participants are invited to apply next year to LASA2015.