FAQ for EPSC2020

Page menu:
How will EPSC2020 work?
Why will EPSC2020 be held as a virtual meeting?
Why not postpone or cancel the meeting?
What will be the same and what will be different about EPSC 2020, compared to past EPSC meetings?
Why is there an abstract processing fee and a participation fee?
What will be the format for scientific contributions and how should I submit them?
How will scientific contributions be viewed?
How will discussions on scientific contributions work?
Will my scientific contribution be public?
How can my contribution be highlighted so that it does not get ignored?
I have never recorded a video presentation before – help!
What about the meeting in Granada?
Why has the abstract submission changed from uploading a PDF to the new html submission tool?

How will EPSC2020 work?

The Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2020 has adopted a virtual conferencing model that is a hybrid of:

• Live "real-time" events in short (2-hour maximum) time-blocks optimised for attendees in multiple time-zones.
• Asynchronous opportunities for participants to access and discuss science contributions (pre-recorded videos and virtual posters) at times convenient for them.

The live events will highlight the scientific programme coordinated by the SOC, and include keynote and prize lectures, session showcases, daily briefings, short courses, early career events, splinter meetings, agency discussions and the Europlanet General Assembly. Live events will be focused during the week of 28 September – 2 October, though may also extend into the week of 21 September in case of high demand.

The oral programmes will comprise pre-recorded 10-minute video presentations by authors (i.e., slides with audio-visual narration), which can be browsed as thumbnails in session playlists. Poster sessions will comprise presentations in a format optimised for on-screen viewing (e.g., four-slide PDF files) and with options for interactive links and content. Participants will be able to browse and discuss these via text threads/forums over a three-week period from 21 September – 9 October, where the authors will be encouraged to respond to Q&A from viewers/readers.

“Public” and “Private” options will enable authors to opt for whether their presentations are available only to registered participants or a wider audience. Discussion via threads/forums will be limited to registered participants, and some 'real-time' events will also be limited to participants.

Why will EPSC2020 be held as a virtual meeting?

Scientific conferences are changing in the 21st century, with growing concerns about environmental sustainability, the climate crisis and enabling access to global participants and underserved communities. Furthermore, the travel restrictions and social distancing practices introduced to control the Covid-19 pandemic make it impossible to hold EPSC2020 as a physical meeting in Granada, Spain, this autumn. The Europlanet Society remains committed to supporting an annual opportunity for the planetary community in Europe to get together and share ideas. The EPSC Executive Committee has therefore decided to hold EPSC2020 as a virtual meeting, supporting our community during these challenging times, and establishing best practises for the future of scientific conferencing.

Why not postpone or cancel the meeting?

Restrictions over travel and uncertainty are likely to be a part of our lives for some time to come. The human and economic costs resulting from the pandemic may require us to re-evaluate many aspects of how our community functions.

While we hope that we can resume physical meetings in due course, the Europlanet Society believes that virtual meetings are likely to play an increasingly important role in supporting our community, widening participation from under-represented groups and tackling the global challenge of climate change. EPSC2020 is an opportunity for us to be creative in developing innovative and supplementary ways for our community to interact.

What will be the same and what will be different about EPSC2020, compared to past EPSC meetings?

As with all EPSC meetings, EPSC2020 will cover the entire scope of planetary sciences and have a distinctively interactive style, with an extensive mix of talks, workshops and posters, intended to provide a stimulating environment for the community to network and to share the latest research and ideas. However, online interactions are very different from face-to-face experiences, and watching lengthy live-streams can be draining and inconvenient, particularly when participants span multiple time zones.

To try to make EPSC2020 an enjoyable and productive discussion forum, we have restructured the programme to suit a virtual format, following best practice in virtual meetings established by other scientific communities. Live 'real-time' sessions will be limited to short time blocks (2-hours maximum) per morning or afternoon. These real-time sessions will be focused during the week of 28 September – 2 October, though may also extend into the week of 21 September in case of high demand, to lessen the intensity of the meeting and enable participation from those with other responsibilities (e.g., carers, teachers, etc.).

Presentations will be available to participants for three weeks (from 21 September – 9 October). This 'asynchronous' format removes time constraints from oral sessions. This means that all accepted contributions can be allocated as an oral or poster according to the requests of the authors during abstract submission.

Requests for splinter meetings (public or invitation only) will be reviewed by the Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC). Successful requests will be incorporated into the programme and links to live-streams of the splinter meetings made accessible to the relevant EPSC2020 participants.

Why is there an abstract processing fee and a participation fee?

Although EPSC2020 will not involve many of the costs of physical meetings (e.g. catering and venue hire), the virtual meeting will still incur costs related to administration, technical support, license fees and development costs for some of the online tools.

EPSC has decided to introduce an abstract processing fee (APF) of €50, which will cover the handling of abstracts submitted to the meeting and the upload of related presentation materials, whether or not the submitter attends the meeting. APFs are not refundable in case of an abstract withdrawal, rejection, or double submission. This is a flat fee for all abstracts with no discounts available.

In addition to the APF, there will also be a participation fee of €30. This fee will enable participants to log in to the EPSC2020 website, have full access to presentations and view and participate in discussions. The participation fee will be waived for Europlanet Society Members and discounted for students, retirees, amateur astronomers and educators.

What will be the format for scientific contributions and how should I submit them?

For oral presentations, you should create a 10-minute video that shows you delivering your slides. Poster presentations should be saved as a PDF in a screen-optimised format. We encourage you to include links to increase interactivity.

We will provide tutorials on creating video presentations and virtual posters using a range of tools. Tutorials and recommended tools will be listed on the EPSC2020 website once abstract submission has closed.

You will need to upload your presentation files to the Copernicus Office database by 7 September 2020. This will allow time for us to configure the site and for conveners to check that presentations meet the required specifications. The same Copernicus account holder that submitted the abstract will need to upload the presentation. If you are the presenter but your co-author submitted the abstract, you will need to ask them to upload the file.

How will scientific contributions be viewed?

Video presentations will be embedded in the EPSC website next to your abstract and a link to the discussion forum for your contribution. Presentations will be streamed so that you do not have to download files. At the time of the relaunch of abstract submission, we are still investigating the best option for how files will be streamed. This could be via an EPSC-specific YouTube channel, or it could be hosted directly within the EPSC2020 website.

Poster presentations will be embedded or linked within the EPSC website next to your abstract and a link to the discussion forum for your contribution. You will not have to download files to view them.

We will confirm details of all display platforms after abstract submission has closed.

How will discussions on scientific contributions work?

The main forum for discussion of scientific contributions will be via the asynchronous comments platform, which will enable registered participants to contribute to thread-based comments, questions and feedback. This platform will be open for the duration of the meeting from 21 September – 9 October.

There will be additional opportunities for session Q&A in live-streamed Session Showcases during the 'real-time' elements of the EPSC2020 programme. These will be scheduled in morning and afternoon time-blocks focused during the week of 28 September – 2 October, though they may also extend into the week of 21 September in case of high demand.

Will my scientific contribution be public?

Only if you would like to share it with the wider community, which we encourage. Presentations submitted to the meeting and marked 'public' by the authors will be Open Access for everyone. However, authors can also select a 'private' option, whereby presentation materials are only accessible to registered participants. The discussion forum will only be accessible to registered participants that have paid the participation fee.

The use of video streaming and clear copyright notices, rather than traditional uploaded slides, will also limit any potential reuse of materials without the authors permission. All participants must agree to abide by the EPSC2020 Code of Conduct, which prohibits the sharing of information marked as 'private' by the author.

Nevertheless, authors should be aware of the virtual meeting presentation formats (video, or screen-optimised virtual poster) when submitting their abstracts, to decide what they feel comfortable in presenting in either the 'public' or 'private' context.

How can my contribution be highlighted so that it does not get ignored?

We will be encouraging session scientific conveners, as well as a group of social media and microblogging experts, to draw attention to as many of the EPSC contributions as possible. We will highlight contributions during the live 'real-time' elements of the meeting, including morning briefings, session showcases and keynote lectures, directing interested participants to the 'offline' content and asynchronous chat forums. All public contributions will be assigned a unique DOI, and be hosted online as part of the EPSC2020 records.

I have never recorded a video presentation before – help!

A wide range of options exist for recording yourself delivering slides, the most straightforward of which are the use of video-conferencing services with you as the sole participant. These allow you to share a deck of slides, whilst providing a webcam video of you as you deliver the content, saving the video as a sharable file. Instructions will be provided for multiple techniques, so that you can choose the method that best suits you. And unlike a live presentation, you have the chance for multiple "takes" before sending us your video!

What about the meeting in Granada?

An exciting programme of activities was planned by the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) for EPSC2020 in Granada. As we cannot hold the meeting there in September, we have postponed our booking with the Palacio de Congresos de Granada until 2022. We look forward to this opportunity to visit the beautiful and historic city of Granada and participate in the celebrations of planetary science organized by the LOC.

The 2022 DPS meeting in London, Ontario, Canada, will no longer be a joint DPS-EPSC meeting. We are looking into the possibility of converting the 2023 DPS meeting in San Antonio into a joint meeting with EPSC.

Why has the abstract submission changed from uploading a PDF to the new html submission tool?

There are a number of advantages for authors in using the new html submission tool introduced for EPSC2020:

• The text can be entered in a submission box and formatted directly.
• It is possible to use figures, tables, and equations.
• Special characters and symbols can be selected from a text editor (WYSIWYG).
• Accessibility of the abstracts is simplified and can be read by multiple devices (e.g. smart phones, tablets, etc.) without downloading a .pdf file of the abstract (the abstract can still be downloaded, though).
• Indexing of the full abstract is possible and it is not necessary for the author anymore to enter the additional text-only paragraph during the submission process.
• A similarity check (percentage of similarity can be defined by the organizers) can be applied to check on duplicates or similar abstracts submitted to more than one session.
• Greening aspect: uploading and downloading .pdf files requires more server capacity, and therefore has a higher CO₂ footprint than this HTML abstract submission.