Call for Papers

We cordially invite you to submit a paper or poster presentation abstract for the 86th Annual Meeting of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, held in Arcata, California October 3rd - 5th at Cal Poly Humboldt Campus.

Both virtual and in-person presentation options will be available. The APCG meeting is a friendly and supportive venue to share your research and we especially encourage graduate and undergraduate students to present.

Abstracts will be due by xxxx. You must register for the meeting before submitting an abstract. 

After you register you may return to the registration page to edit it.  You may also edit your abstract prior to the deadline.

Presentation types

• Paper sessions will meet in person and will also be streamed live on Zoom. We plan to incorporate a mix of in-person and virtual presentations in many sessions. Presentations will be 15 minutes long, including Q&A time. 

• Paper abstracts will be organized thematically into concurrent sessions on Friday, October 3rd and Saturday, October 4th.

• Poster sessions will be on October 4th. There will be both an in-person poster session and a virtual poster gallery. In-person poster presenters are welcome to also display their poster in the the virtual gallery. Digital posters can include a link to a 3-5 minute video abstract if desired. Interactive digital posters, such as StoryMaps, are also welcome.

• Special Sessions: Contact Conference Organizer Rosemary Sherriff (sherriff@humboldt.edu) if you would like to organize any kind of workshop or panel.

Anyone interested in the advancement of geography may submit an abstract to the APCG Annual Meeting. The APCG accepts all submitted abstracts and organized sessions for presentation.

If you have questions about formatting a paper, poster or organizing a session then you should probably consult with a faculty member or a colleague for advice or guidance.  In the absence of someone to help you with friendly advice, the APCG offers some tips and strategies below for would-be presenters - adapted from the AAG guidelines for submitting abstracts.

How do I submit an abstract? 

After registering for the Meeting using the AAG's registration tool, return to the APCG's registration page and click on the button (bottom of page) to submit an abstract, again using the AAG's abstract submission tool. 

After selecting the appropriate abstract type for your presentation follow the onscreen prompts and formatting guidelines (listed below). After all details have been entered select "Save and Finalize" to add your abstract to the abstract gallery. You will be able to edit your abstract until October 3, 2023.

APCG recommends submitting your abstract early to ensure you are placed in a session appropriate for your presentation topic.

For Paper Sessions

You may organize a session around the topic of your own presentation.  Please contact Rosemary Sherriff to request a special session at sherriff@humboldt.edu

You may contact other presenters listed in the abstract gallery, prior to the deadline to request inclusion in their session - but this is often a challenge for students wishing to compete in research competitions.

The APCG anticipates that most presenters will present live during their session, but online ZOOM based presentations may be included in a session.

Entirely online sessions may be organized as well, depending on demand.

How to Format Your Abstract Guidelines

• Each abstract is limited to 250 words.

• Abstracts must describe the presentation's purpose, methods, and conclusions.

• Do not use bulleted lists, underlining, boldface type, italics, subscripts, or superscripts.

• Do not include any codes for justification, hyphenation, line height, line centering, margins, spacing, fonts, page centering, page numbering, suppression, or tabs, in your abstract.

• Do not include your name, affiliation, phone number, or e-mail address in the body of the abstract.

Tips

• The APCG will not edit your abstract; you are responsible for any spelling, grammatical, and typographical errors.

• Compose your abstract in a word processing application, such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs that has built-in spelling and grammar tools.  Grammarly is a free tool that is useful for helping ensure you submit an error free abstract.

• Use the active voice for your abstract and presentation.

• Transmit your research results clearly and concisely, avoiding jargon.

• All abbreviations should be spelled out in the abstract text.

Selecting Keywords

• Keywords may be compound (such as "political geography").

• Keywords should generally be nouns instead of adjectives or adverbs.

• Keywords must be separated by commas.

If you have any questions about the submission process after reviewing the above information, please contact Rosemary Sherriff (sherriff@humboldt.edu)