IIAR Technical Paper/Presentation Guidelines and Policy

Introduction

Thank you for offering to submit a technical paper for the IIAR Natural Refrigeration Conference & Expo.

For each year's conference, IIAR publishes the technical papers as a volume of proceedings, which is provided to each attendee at the conference site. Authors work with a team that includes the IIAR staff, peer reviewers, professional editors and layout specialists. An important element of your commitment to authoring a technical paper is providing your draft and graphics in forms and styles that require the least amount of modification in preparation for printing the proceedings. The IIAR contracts with a printing company so that those wishing to order printed and bound copies can do so for a fee.

It is also important that each author meet the deadlines for each draft. Your cooperation in meeting the draft deadlines and using these guidelines is crucial for your paper to appear in the conference proceedings.

Eligibility and Abstract Selection

All members of the public are eligible to submit technical paper proposals (“abstracts”) for consideration by the IIAR for presentation at the IIAR Annual Conference. 

The IIAR Conference Chair is responsible for forming a Technical Program Committee that will evaluate the merits of each abstract received. 

Once abstracts are selected for development as technical papers, the IIAR Technical Director will notify the author(s) to commence work on their papers and presentations

Copyright

The IIAR Author's Agreement Letter must be completed before your paper is permitted to appear in the proceedings. You will retain ownership of your paper.  However, IIAR will request an unrestricted license to print, sell and otherwise distribute copies of the final paper. The IIAR will retain the copyright of the final formatted version of your paper, which will appear in the proceedings. Reprinting of this formatted version for distribution will require permission from the IIAR, but you remain free to use copies of the final draft (i.e., publish it yourself in another form) as you wish. IIAR reserves the right to publish, print, sell and distribute versions of your final paper in other languages. Any materials that belong to another party, for example, figures taken from another source (such as a building code document), will require permission from the original copyright owner before those materials can be used in your paper. Please inform the IIAR staff as soon as possible if you plan to use any copyrighted material in your final paper. It will be necessary to remove material from papers if appropriate copyright permission is not received. 

Definitions and Terminology

Language used in IIAR Technical Papers shall conform to the definitions and terminology provided in the ANSI/IIAR-1 Standard “Definitions and Terminology Used in IIAR Standards”. 

Development process and Schedule

The first draft of all IIAR Technical Papers is due by the middle of August in the year before it is to be presented. Submitting drafts after the required deadlines, eliminates the opportunity to correct inaccurate data or for peer reviewers to reject the paper for cause.  If any technical paper is received past any of the published deadlines, the IIAR has the right to reject the paper.

The IIAR technical paper publishing schedule and process is as follows:

  1. IIAR Staff receives technical paper proposals from potential Authors (March-April)
  2. IIAR Conference Committee reviews, rates, and approves proposals (May-June)
  3. IIAR Staff informs Authors of approval (May-June)
  4. Authors provide abstract, summary of practical application, short bio(s), speaker photo(s) and signed author agreement(s) (July).
  5. Authors write and submit 1st drafts (both text and final graphics/tables) to IIAR Staff (No later than mid-August)
  6. IIAR Staff comments on scope and content of drafts (August-September)
  7. IIAR Peer Reviewers read and approve/approve conditionally/disapprove drafts (August-September )
  8. IIAR Staff compiles and sends all comments to Authors (September-October)
  9. Authors submit 2nd (or occasionally final) drafts to IIAR Staff (October-November)
  10. IIAR Technical Staff confirms that Peer Reviewer comments have been addressed (November)
  11. Steps 6, 7, and 8 may need to be repeated for some papers (November-December)
  12. IIAR contracts with Professional Editor, Layout, and Printing Specialists (mid November-December)
  13. Layout Specialist makes changes to unify papers visually within the Conference Proceedings (December-January)  
  14. Author approves final version of paper and delivers PowerPoint presentation to IIAR. Papers and presentations forwarded to translator (if applicable) (January)
  15. IIAR prepares copies of proceedings to be distributed at conference (February)

Commercialization – IMPORTANT!

The Natural Refrigeration Conference & Expo provides two outlets for commercial presentations: (1) the Exhibition Hall, and (2) Product/Service Showcases (Technomercials). The IIAR Board of Directors believes that the purpose of Technical Papers is to relate information of lasting value to the ammonia refrigeration industry and that commercially oriented presentations (i.e. sales pitches) are not appropriate for the conference proceedings. While papers providing a fair, unbiased assessment of the technical features and design basis of similar products (e.g. a technology survey) are encouraged, marketing and sales presentations are not welcome. Please refrain from directly mentioning your company name, your products by name, model numbers, etc. Attendees will know that products based on "new technology" presented by a manufacturer are available from that manufacturer.

Data and References

Data supporting the arguments made within IIAR Technical Papers must be provided within the paper (or by reference) such that a reader could reach the same conclusion as the author.  Those arguments that are not supported by data must be clearly identified as the Author’s opinion.

Sources referenced within the paper must be available to the public at a reasonable cost.

Research

Authors of Technical Papers must provide signed release forms from all stakeholders of research projects from which they have taken data or based their technical paper conclusions.  Research stakeholders include, but are not limited to:

  • Universities, colleges, corporations or other institutions that provided facilities for the research to be accomplished.
  • Copyright or patent holders of equipment or processes used in the research.
  • Sponsors and other financial supporters of the research.
  • Co-workers, patent holders or other individuals with claims to the findings of the research.

Release forms shall specifically permit the author to use the data and results of the research.  The release shall also name the International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration as the sole publisher and owner of the Technical Presentation as published by the IIAR.

Format

Drafts are to be formatted per the specifications below:

  • Drafts will be developed in Microsoft Word format and must be submitted by e-mail to [email protected].
  • IIAR will prepare the paper in a common format for printing; therefore, it is important that you use the following format for the text and graphics in your drafts.
  • Use the following guidelines:
    • 8½ x 11 inch paper with a 1-inch (2.5 cm) margin on all sides.
    • Use a standard 12-point serif font (Times New Roman is preferred) with a minimum of elaborate formatting.
    • Text should be double-spaced, left justified.
    • Major section titles should appear in bold (16 point), and subsection titles in italics (14 point).
    • Leave two lines between paragraphs, and four lines between sections.
    • Do not indent or number paragraphs or section titles.
    • IIAR members from around the world will read your work, so you must use dual units, i.e., common English engineering units (inch-pound) and S.I. (common metric).
  • GRAPHICS
    • Send original photographs or high resolution scans (minimum 600 dpi) as individual .GIF, .TIF or .JPG files. For charts and graphs, original Excel files are preferred.
    • Provide a complete list of files with filenames, sent separately or at the end of the paper
    • Reference all graphic files within the text of the paper (where they belong) and highlight the reference. When the final layouts are arranged, it must be clear where graphics are to be inserted.
    • PowerPoint files and low resolution PDF files are unacceptable.
    • You may embed your graphics into the document text, but keep in mind this reduces the resolution of graphics. It is therefore necessary that each graphic be provided separately in a high resolution format so that the layout specialist can maintain print quality (see above). Use larger fonts (12 pt or greater) and avoid using color or very thin lines, which do not print clearly print in black and white.
    • Use a file name that indicates the author's last name and the graphic identity (e.g., Jackmann.Figure.01.tif).
    • For drawings, CAD or otherwise, print out each individual drawing on a separate page with the appropriate captions, figure numbers, titles, etc. for each graphic/table.  Alternatively, you may submit an AutoCad data file.

Review Process

IIAR Technical Papers are subject to a thorough peer-review process. At least three Peer Reviewers are selected to review the technical aspects of each paper. IIAR Staff ensures that the identities of the Peer Reviewers and Authors remain unknown to each other. Peer reviewers may approve the paper as-is, approve “with revisions or pending clarification” or reject the paper for cause, e.g., technical flaws, unsubstantiated claims, lack of data to support the premise of the paper. Peer Reviewer comments, along with general comments on technical content, graphics quality, format and layout issues, are forwarded to the Author. The Author will be asked to revise the draft paper to address all comments received. Draft papers are sometimes rejected by Peer Reviewers at this stage, if they are commercial in nature or lack technical merit.

Review comments. The objective of the peer review process is to assure the quality of each paper that IIAR publishes. Therefore, reviewer comments should not be taken personally. IIAR staff will provide authors all reviewer comments judged relevant to the technical content of the paper. Because of the anonymous nature of the peer-review process, some of the review comments may be less than complimentary. It is necessary that you address all reviewer comments in preparing your final draft.  It is not necessary to accept comments that are purely the opinion of the reviewer. You must, however, provide a coherent reason for rejecting any reviewer comments.

Once a final paper is submitted, IIAR Technical Staff and a Professional Editor will verify that all reviewer comments were addressed, edit the paper (for length, grammar, readability, etc.) and publish the conference proceedings.

Once the paper has passed the peer-review process and been published, calls for the paper to be removed from the eLibrary and annual meeting report will be disregarded.

Presentation

Stick to your subject. The IIAR Program Committee selects technical papers based on the material submitted in your proposal. If your final paper presentation departs drastically from the original abstract, it may not be accepted for the final technical program. Please contact IIAR Headquarters if you wish to make a major change in topic.

There will not be a limit on the number of slides you may use in to your presentation.  However, we recommend that you be concise and limit the amount of material so that it can be presented within the allotted time. Typically, IIAR receives papers from 12 to 30 pages in length, including graphics.  A total of 50 minutes is allotted for each technical paper, which includes 3 to 5 minutes for introductions and announcements plus 10 to 12 minutes for questions and answers at the end of the presentation. We anticipate that your presentation will inspire discussion.  

YOU MUST USE THE CURRENT CONFERENCE POWERPOINT SLIDE TEMPLATE FOR YOUR PRESENTATION. If this is not feasible, please contact IIAR as soon as possible to discuss alternative arrangements. You should notify IIAR staff as soon as possible about any other requests you may have for audio-visual equipment.

IIAR staff will review the draft for estimated time to present the slides and clarity of content. After comments are returned, you should immediately begin to practice the presentation. IIAR strongly recommends that you do some practice runs both in front of friendly critics and in front of a video recorder. The practice audience and a review of the recorded sessions should provide adequate preparation for your live presentation.

When giving your presentation, the moderator will help keep you on schedule by initiating a timer at the beginning of your talk. We suggest that you present the main points of your paper and refer the audience to the paper for additional detail. Make your presentation from notes rather than reading your presentation and be brief enough to be interesting but detailed enough to cover the subject. Some good guidelines for structuring your talk: give an overview (approximately 5 minutes), address the main points of the paper (approximately 25 minutes) and then summarize (approximately 5 minutes).

The use of any handouts other than your PowerPoint presentation must be approved prior to the conference.