Call for Papers

The 2009 AP-LS Annual Conference will be held March 5 - 8th at the Crown Plaza Hotel Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas (www.crowneplaza.com/sariverwalk). Proposals for symposia, papers, and posters addressing topics in all areas of psychology and law are invited. International submissions are welcome, and papers authored or co-authored by students are also encouraged. We especially welcome proposals that are empirically based and those that involve new and emerging topics within psychology and law.

Proposals will be evaluated through a blind review process focused on the following three criteria: 1) the intellectual merit of the proposal, 2) the innovative nature of the proposal, and 3) the proposal's integration of multiple aspects of the field of psychology and law.

Paper proposals are appropriate for presentations that will focus on an individual research topic or piece of legal scholarship. After acceptance/rejection of proposals has been determined, the conference co-chairs will group paper presentations into sessions consisting of 3-5 presentations. (Each paper session at the conference will be allotted up to 60 minutes. The amount of time allowed for each individual presentation will be determined by the total number of presentations involved).

A symposium proposal is appropriate for a coordinated group of presentations that will focus on one topic. Symposia proposals must include a minimum of four presentations and a discussant. The discussant must be independent of the lab or research projects that are presented in the symposia. In addition, at least one of the papers in the symposia must be presented by a full member of APLS or other professional organization. Each participant and the topics to be discussed should be outlined in the proposal. The participation of each presenter should be secured before submitting the proposal. (Each symposium session at the conference will be allotted up to 80 minutes.)

Poster presentations will be made at one of two poster sessions held Friday and Saturday evenings. Presentations will be made in a written format on display boards (size TBA).

There will be a limit of TWO first-author presentation submissions (either individual papers or papers within a symposium) for each submitter. There is no limit on the number of poster submissions or appearances as a discussant or session chair.

Please be aware that we are continuing an ongoing effort to increase the rigor of the review process and the quality of the presentations at the conference. As a result, we are likely to accept fewer paper and symposium presentations and to accept more poster presentations. Please be sure to indicate during submission if you would like your paper or symposium papers to be considered for inclusion as posters if they are not accepted as proposed.

The deadline for submissions is 3:00PM EST on October 13th, 2008.

All proposals should be submitted electronically via the conference website created for APLS by All Academic (http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/apls/apls09/). The site is currently scheduled to become active for submissions on 08/15/08. Please check the 2009 APLS conference webpage (http://www.ap-ls.org/conferences/apls2009/index.html) for regular updates regarding the submission process. (If you are unable to submit via the website, please contact Jeffrey Neuschatz (neuschaj@uah.edu) to make alternative arrangements.)

Paper and poster proposals should consist of an abstract that is no longer than 100 words and a summary that is no longer than 1000 words. Symposium proposals should consist of a 100-word abstract and 1000-word summary for each paper, plus an additional 200-word abstract for the symposium. Empirical research submissions that do not include data are discouraged.

If you have any questions or comments regarding the call for papers, or about the conference, please feel free to contact one of the conference co-chairs:

Keith Cruise, PhD, MLS
Department of Psychology
Fordham University
Office phone: 718-817-3883
Email: cruise@fordham.edu

Jeffrey Neuschatz, PhD
Department of Psychology
University of Alabama in Huntsville
Office phone: 256-824-2321
Email: neuschaj@uah.edu

Gina Vincent, PhD
Center for Mental Health Services Research
Department of Psychiatry
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Office phone: 508-856-8727
Email: Gina.Vincent@umassmed.edu

Reviewers needed: Professional and student AP-LS members are needed to review proposal submissions. If you are interested, please contact Jeff Neuschatz (neuschaj@uah.edu).

Student Volunteers Needed: If you are interested in assisting with the conference, please contact Keith Cruise (cruise@fordham.edu). Conference registration will be waived for selected volunteers.