Call for Papers
TPRC 2013

CALL FOR PAPERS: TPRC is an annual conference on communication, information and Internet policy that convenes international and interdisciplinary researchers and policymakers from academia, industry, government, and nonprofit organizations. Its purpose is to present original research relevant to policy making, share information about areas where research is needed, and engage in discussion on current policy issues. The conference program consists of presentations selected from submitted paper abstracts, student papers, and proposals for panels, tutorials, posters, and demonstrations.

TPRC is now soliciting abstracts of papers, proposals for panels, tutorials, posters, and demonstrations, and student papers for presentation at the 2013 conference, to be held September 27-29, 2013 at the George Mason University Law School, in Arlington, Virginia. These presentations should report current theoretical or empirical research relevant to communication and information policy.

TOPICS: Contributions may be from any disciplinary perspective - the sole criterion is research quality. Topic areas in previous conferences have included competition, antitrust, and other market issues; broadband deployment and adoption; spectrum and wireless application policy; media, old and new; intellectual property, technology, and Internet law; privacy, security, identity and trust; governance and institutions; innovation and entrepreneurship; and distributional outcomes and social goals.

DEADLINES: Submission opens on March 1, 2013 at http://www.tprc.org.
The deadlines are:
- March 31, 2013: Main conference abstracts, and proposals for panels, tutorials, posters, and demonstrations. Acceptances/rejections will be provided by May 31, 2013. Complete papers for accepted abstracts will be due to TPRC on August 15, 2013.
- April 30, 2013: Student papers. The student paper competition requires submission of completed papers rather than abstracts. Acceptances and rejections will be provided by June 30, 2013.

Details about submission requirements and review criteria can be found on these web pages:
- Conference Papers
- Panels and Tutorials
- Demonstrations
- Posters
- Student Paper Competition

Telecommunications Policy and Journal on Information Policy will invite papers for special issues from this year's conference.

FURTHER INFORMATION: Please address inquiries to info@tprc.org

CALL FOR CONFERENCE PAPERS: TPRC welcomes submissions of abstract of papers to be presented at the annual conference. Proposals should be submitted by March 31, 2013 at http://www.tprc.org. Acceptances and rejections will be provided by May 31, 2013.

TOPICS: Research topics of particular interest this year include, but are by no means limited to:
- Assessment of performance with respect to policy goals
- Communications services as enablers of community development
- Competition, antitrust and the role of regulation in the market
Critical analyses of the role of Internet and telecommunications technologies in society
- Defining and allocating scarce resources, including spectrum, rights of way, and domain names
- Intellectual property issues, including copyright, patent, trademark, and trade secret
- Market structure in the communications industry sector
- Network architecture, including reliability and security
- Ownership arrangements and financing
- Perspectives on the consumer and end-user experience
- Pricing issues
- Privacy and anonymity
- Specifications of performance metrics for policy goals

TPRC is interested in papers discussing communications policy in all countries and regions, including regional and international comparisons.

DEADLINES: Abstracts should be submitted by March 31, 2013. Acceptances and rejections will be provided by May 31, 2013. Complete papers for accepted abstracts will be due to TPRC on August 15, 2013.Papers not submitted in final form by the due date may be removed from the program.

FURTHER DETAILS: At least one author is expected to attend the conference to present an accepted submission. A person may present only one paper at the conference. If multiple papers are submitted by a single author, at most one of them will be accepted. If there are multiple papers with the same or overlapping co-authors, different authors will be required to present each accepted paper.

A paper that has been published, or accepted for publication in final form at the date of submission, in a peer-reviewed journal or conference proceeding, in a law review, or as a chapter in a published book will not be accepted for TPRC. Material that has been published or presented in other venues (e.g. dissertations, working papers, position papers, documents in repositories like SSRN, and non-reviewed conferences) is acceptable.

REVIEW CRITERIA: Papers for the main program are selected on the basis of submitted abstracts. The review process is single blind.

PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: The TPRC is a research conference that focuses on results and insight, not advocacy. Participants generally have substantial background knowledge about communications issues and come to the conference seeking new perspectives. To aid the Program Committee in selecting the most appropriate papers for presentation, abstracts should adhere to the following guidelines:
- Abstracts should be 400 to 600 words in length. Shorter abstracts are unlikely to provide sufficient detail to permit the Committee to evaluate adequately the proposed research. Material beyond the length limit will not be considered.
- The abstract should not contain a detailed literature review. The reviewers will likely be familiar with the topic of the paper and will require at most a short paragraph of background.
- The largest part of the abstract should describe the proposed research in as much detail as is necessary. This includes (a) a clear statement of the objective of the paper including, where appropriate, the insight developed or hypothesis being tested; (b) a description of the analytic method employed to develop the paper's results or test its hypotheses; (c) a description of the data assembled to support these insights or perform these tests; (d) a short explanation as to why the research is novel. While the proposed research need not involve empirical methods, the conference is seeking scholarship that significantly advances current research or research methods.
- If the paper is substantially complete, the abstract should summarize the results. Further, the author should state whether the paper has already been presented or published in an acceptable venue (e.g. dissertation, working paper, position paper, document in SSRN, or a non-reviewed conference), and, if so, provide details of when and where.
- If the author DOES NOT wish to have the proposal considered for presentation in the Poster session (see below), the abstract should make that clear.
- The abstract SHOULD NOT CONTAIN the author's biographical information.

POSTER SESSION: This year, TPRC will host a Poster session as part of the conference. Every abstract [AND STUDENT PAPER?] submitted will be considered simultaneously for presentation as a Poster. In addition, proposals may be submitted specifically for the Poster session. The same research topics and criteria for selection will apply to Posters and Papers. All proposals should be submitted by March 31, 2013 at http://www.tprc.org. Acceptances and rejections will be provided by May 31, 2013.

Posters will be presented during the breaks on Friday and Saturday in the same space and at the same time as demonstrations.

In a typical poster session, participants display materials that show the highlights of their project. Printed poster boards or sheets of paper with a title, abstract, core results, graphs, charts, etc. that are attached in a meaningful sequence to a poster board are equally acceptable. A poster is intended to present research in a manner that the topic, dataset, and main results are immediately identifiable, and so as to ensure that the empirical questions and hypotheses guiding the work are noted.

CALL FOR PANELS AND TUTORIALS: TPRC welcomes submissions for panel sessions and tutorials. Proposals should be submitted by March 31, 2013 at http://www.tprc.org. Acceptances/rejections will be provided by May 31, 2013.

Panels should address issues of current interest to the TPRC community. Tutorials should address a specific topic of interest that is suitable to be presented in a lecture or demonstration for the edification of attendees.

Tutorials should be tailored to researchers in the field who are not experts in that particular area. Panels and tutorials are scheduled for 90 minutes. The submitter of a successful panel or tutorial submission will be responsible for organizing the presenters and their presentations.

FURTHER INFORMATION: If you have any questions concerning a panel or tutorial submission, please contact info@tprc.org

REVIEW CRITERIA FOR PANELS AND TUTORIALS: Panels and tutorials for the main program are selected on the basis of submitted proposals. To aid the Program Committee in selecting the most appropriate presentation, proposals should adhere to the following guidelines:
- Submissions for panels or tutorials should be approximately 500 words in length.
- Panel proposals should (a) outline the objective of the panel and topics to covered, (b) justify its relevance to the TPRC community, and (c) explain the proposed composition of the panel, including the perspectives and contributions that each panelist will bring to the topic.
- Tutorial proposals should (a) outline the objective of the tutorial, (b) justify its relevance to the TPRC community, and (c) briefly explain the topic and content to be covered.
- Submitters must identify all participants (e.g., moderator, panelists and presenter), provide biographical and contact information for each, briefly explain the content each will cover, and confirm that each is available to participate and present if the proposal is selected.
- Panels should be planned to last 90 minutes, of which at least 30 minutes should be set aside for questions from attendees.
- Panels are typically roundtable discussions, with a chair and three or four discussants.
- Tutorials should be planned to last 90 minutes, of which at least 30 minutes must be set aside for questions from attendees. Demonstrations and interactive presentations are encouraged if useful to explain the material.

CALL FOR DEMONSTRATIONS: TPRC welcomes proposals for demonstrations. Proposals should be submitted by March 31, 2013 at http://www.tprc.org. Acceptances/rejections will be provided by May 31, 2013.

Real-world experimentation and early prototyping are useful for researchers and regulators to learn about emerging technologies and tools. Demonstrations should stimulate insight and discussion among the attendees. These demos may be from any disciplinary perspective. Demonstrations from both academia and industry are most welcome.

Demonstrations will be shown during the breaks on Friday September 27 and Saturday September 28, 2013, in a common area adjoining the GMU Law School lobby.

A demonstration may show novel hardware or software systems, video footage, or physical artifacts. Research projects, commercial tools, or government initiatives all may be demonstrated. Engaging, interactive demos that demonstrate real world impact are encouraged.

Each demonstration will be provided with a six-foot table, sufficient electrical power for a small desktop PC, and access to the Internet via the GMU wireless network.

Demo proposals should focus on developments relevant to communication and information policy, including new technological advances infrastructure, novel applications of information technology, or analysis tools.

PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: Proposals must be submitted as a single PDF file of no more than 2,000 words and should include:
- Research framework, goals of the demo, and the basic idea that it supports
- A description of the system and the technology, including the equipment to be used for the demo
- An explanation of the features and scenarios that will be demonstrated
- The significance of the contribution to the TPRC audience
- Space needed
- Setup time required
- Additional facilities needed, if any, including power and Internet/wireless access
- A URL with any extra information, e.g. website or a short video, may be added if desired

At least one author of each accepted demo proposal is required to register and present their demo at the conference.

REVIEW CRITERIA: The evaluation criteria include:
- Extent and significance of the research contribution
- Relevance to TPRC
- Potential impact on the audience
- Quality of the proposed implementation

CALL FOR STUDENT PAPERS: TPRC presents three student papers as part of the conference program. Full papers should be submitted by April 30, 2013 at http://www.tprc.org. Acceptances/rejections will be provided by June 30, 2013.

STUDENT PAPER AWARD:
First Prize: $1,000
Second Prize: $500
Third Prize: $300

For information on conference scope and topics, please see the Call for Papers web page.

The competition is open to all persons who were graduate or law students during the 2011/2013 school year, regardless of their status at the time of the 2013 conference. Papers may be based on research undertaken for a Master's thesis, a Ph.D. dissertation, or other supervised analytical writing. Papers with multiple student authors all meeting these requirements are eligible.

A paper that has been published, or accepted for publication in final form at the date of submission, in a peer-reviewed journal or conference proceeding, in a law review, or as a chapter in a published book will not be accepted for TPRC. Material that has been published or presented in other venues (e.g. dissertations, working papers, position papers, documents in repositories like SSRN, and non-reviewed conferences) is acceptable.

PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: Full student papers, with an accompanying abstract, must be submitted by April 30, 2013 at http://www.tprc.org. (Unlike the regular call, for which only abstracts are required, the student competition requires full papers to be submitted.) A submission to the student paper competition must be endorsed by a faculty member at the student's institution, and an annotation to that effect with the faculty member's name must appear in the paper.

A paper may be submitted to the main conference or to the student paper competition, but not to both. In addition, every student paper submitted will also be considered for the Poster session (see above).

FURTHER INFORMATION: Please address inquiries to info@tprc.org