FAQ for EPSC2021

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How will EPSC2021 work?
Why will EPSC2021 be held as a virtual meeting?
Why not postpone or cancel the meeting?
What will be the same and what will be different about EPSC2021, 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 Helsinki?
Why has the abstract submission changed from uploading a PDF to the new html submission tool?

How will EPSC2021 work?

For the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2021 we have adopted an online meeting model that is a combination of:

A live programme scheduled over two ~2.5 hours long time-blocks per day, optimised for attendees across multiple time zones.
Asynchronous content in the form of pre-recorded video presentations and virtual posters for participants to view and discuss at any time.

The live events will highlight the scientific programme coordinated by the SOC, and include scientific discussion sessions with opportunities for Q&A between the authors and the audience, as well as keynote and prize lectures, daily briefings, short courses, early career events, splinter meetings, agency discussions and the Europlanet General Assembly. Live events will take place from Thursday 16 - Friday 24 September 2021.

Authors can present their work as a video presentation or a poster presentation. Video presentations should have a maximum length of ten minutes, and will be hosted on Vimeo and accessed via the EPSC2021 platform. Poster presentations should be in an optimised format for on-screen viewing (maximum six-slide pdf files) with options for interactive links and content. Participants will be able to access this content during two weeks from 13 to 24 September 2021. Participants and authors are encouraged to interact on the EPSC2021 Slack channels during that same time period.

"Private" and "Public" options will enable authors to opt for whether their presentations are available only to registered participants or a wider audience. Both live sessions and access to the Slack will be limited to registered participants.

Why will EPSC2021 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 organise EPSC2021 as a physical meeting in Helsinki, Finland. The Europlanet Society is committed to supporting an annual opportunity for the planetary community in Europe to meet and share their work and experiences. The EPSC Executive Committee has therefore decided to organise the EPSC2021 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?

Travel restrictions 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 the future, the Europlanet Society believes that virtual meetings and virtual access 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. EPSC2021 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 EPSC2021, compared to past EPSC meetings?

As with all EPSC meetings, EPSC2021 will cover the entire scope of planetary sciences and have a distinctively interactive style, with an extensive mix of talks, posters and workshops, intended to provide a stimulating environment for the community to network and to share their 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 EPSC2021 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 sessions are limited to around 2.5-hour time blocks twice a day. These live sessions are expected to take place during the period from Thursday 16 to Friday 24 September.

Presentations are available for participants to access from Monday, 13 to Friday, 24 September. The 'asynchronous' format addresses the problem of participants' time constraints and time zones. All accepted contributions can be presented either as an oral or as a poster according to the requests of the authors at the time of 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 EPSC2021 participants.

EPSC2021 will be organised in a similar way to EPSC2020, with the following changes:

The live programme will take place over seven days rather than ten, with the whole meeting (including the asynchronous discussions and splinter meetings) spanning two weeks rather than three weeks.
The live programme days will be split between a morning time block (09:30 to 12:15, Central Europe Time) and an afternoon time block (14:30-16:45). The live sections will thus end sooner compared to last year to match typical working hours across Europe.
The live scientific sessions will be longer (45 minutes) and will have more opportunities for interactivity and discussion.
The live scientific sessions will be run in parallel (up to two sessions per time slot).
There will be 10-15 minutes breaks between one session finishing and the next one starting, allowing for a more relaxed transition between sessions.
Several time slots will be allocated for social activities and community events.
Asynchronous discussions will take place on Slack, rather than on the website commenting platform.
The participation fees will have to be increased to cover the actual costs of organizing a virtual meeting. EPSC2020 ran at a deficit as the costs associated with the organisation of such a meeting were underestimated last year. Europlanet Society Members, students, doctoral candidates, retired/emeritus, outreach providers, educators and amateur members of the community will be eligible for a discounted rate. Early career professionals, students, outreach providers, educators, amateur astronomers and members of the community from under-represented countries may apply for bursaries to cover their participation and abstract processing fees.

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

Although EPSC2021 will not involve many of the costs of physical meetings (e.g. catering and venue hire), organising a virtual meeting incurs costs related to administration, technical support, software licensing fees and development for some of the online tools.

At EPSC2020, an abstract processing fee (APF) of €50 was introduced to cover the handling of abstracts submitted to the meeting and the upload of related presentation materials, and an APF will also be applied for EPSC2021. APFs are not refundable in case of an abstract’s withdrawal, rejection, or double submission, and are a flat fee for all abstracts with no discounts available.

In addition to the APF, there will also be a participation fee. Early-registration rates will be €100 for Europlanet Members (€75 discounted rate) and €175 for non-members (€125 discounted rate). The participation fees have been increased to cover the actual costs associated with the organisation of a virtual meeting, which were significantly underestimated last year for EPSC2020. Registered participants will be able to log onto the EPSC2021 website, have full access to presentations and participate in discussions. Discounted rates on participation fees are offered for students, doctoral candidates, retirees, amateur astronomers, outreach providers and educators. Early career professionals, students, outreach providers, educators, amateur astronomers and members of the community from under-represented countries may apply for bursaries to cover their participation and abstract processing fees.

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

For oral presentations, you should create a 10-minutes (maximum) video that shows you presenting your work with the help of slides or other visual aids. You should create your poster presentations in a screen-optimised (PDF) format. We encourage you to include links in poster presentations to increase interactivity.

Tutorials about how to create video presentations and virtual posters using a range of tools will be available on the EPSC2021 website after the abstract submission deadline.

You will need to upload your presentation files to the EPSC database by 2 September 2021. This will allow time to configure the website 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 files will be uploaded to Vimeo and embedded in the EPSC website next to your abstract.

Poster presentations will be embedded or linked within the EPSC website next to the abstract.

How will discussions on scientific contributions work?

The main forum for discussion of scientific contributions will be via the EPSC2021 Slack. Registered participants are invited to interact with the authors and other participants using this platform for the full duration of the meeting from 13–24 September 2021.

There will be additional opportunities for session Q&A during the real-time scientific discussion slots of the EPSC2021 programme. These will be scheduled during 2.5 hour long time blocks in the morning and afternoon during from Thursday, 16 – Friday, 24 September 2021.

Will my scientific contribution be public?

Your video or poster will be public only if you would like to share it with the wider community, which we encourage. Authors can opt to mark their video or poster presentations as 'public' or ‘private’. Public presentations are fully Open Access and can be viewed by anyone, whereas private presentations are only available to registered participants that have paid the participation fee. The Slack forum is only accessible to registered participants.

The use of video streaming and clear copyright notices can limit any potential reuse of the materials without the authors permission. All participants must agree to abide by the EPSC2021 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 when submitting their abstracts, to decide whether they feel comfortable in presenting their work publicly or privately.

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

Session conveners, as well as the social media and microblogging team, are encouraged 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, parallel scientific discussion sessions and keynote lectures, directing interested participants to the asynchronous content and discussions on Slack. All public contributions will be assigned a unique DOI, and be hosted online as part of the EPSC2021 records.

I have never recorded a video presentation before – help!

A wide range of options exist for recording yourself presenting your work. The most straightforward way is to use a video-conferencing service such as Zoom with you as the sole participant. You can record yourself using the (built-in or external) webcam and (internal or external) microphone while sharing your slides on screen, and save the video as an mp4 file. Instructions will be provided for multiple techniques, so that you can choose the method that suits you best. Unlike a live presentation, you have the chance for multiple ‘takes’ until you are happy with the result.

What about the meeting in Helsinki?

An exciting programme of activities was planned by the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) for EPSC2021 in Helsinki, Finland. As we cannot hold the meeting there in September, we have postponed our booking with Finlandia Hall until 2024. We look forward to this opportunity to visit the beautiful city of Helsinki and participate in the celebrations of planetary science organized by the LOC.

EPSC2022 will be held at the Palacio de Congresos de Granada, Spain. In 2023, EPSC will be held jointly with the DPS meeting in San Antonio, Texas, USA.

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

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

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.