---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Program Chair <program@ictd2012.org> Date: Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 02:27 Subject: SPECIAL CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IN ICTD2012 PRE-SUBMISSION PEER MENTORSHIP PROGRAM To: program@ictd2010.org Fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD2012) SPECIAL CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IN ICTD2012 PRE-SUBMISSION PEER MENTORSHIP PROGRAM Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA USA Peer review mentor program submission deadline: May 1, 2011 Mentor program website: http://www.ictd2012.org/mentorship As the ICTD community has grown, it has become widely recognized that our members bring to the conference a diverse array of skills and experience – whether as students, researchers, practitioners, or otherwise – in many different disciplines. In an effort to encourage broader representation in the conference program, we invite anyone who is interested, especially junior researchers and pre-doctoral students from around the world, to participate in a peer mentorship program and help each other refine submission drafts leading up to the conference submission deadline in June. Researchers should submit drafts of conference submissions to mentorship@ictd2012.org by May 1, 2011. A committee of PhD students from the host institution will match applicants with at least one peer having similar interests and a complementary skill-set, as well as previous experience with the ICTD paper submission and review process. Pairings will be announced within a week after the May 1 deadline. Peer mentors will review each other’s papers according to a detailed and thorough rubric, highlighting strengths and suggesting areas that could be improved prior to formal submission to the conference. Reviews will be complete by May 31 at the latest, although we will encourage mentors to begin a dialog with their partners as soon as they can. Unlike the typical model of conference review, in which reviews are made available only on a certain date, we intend this process to be more dialogical and encourage communications and revisions traveling back and forth between partners throughout the review period and thereafter. Note that this process is totally separate from the official paper review process, for which the deadline is July 22, 2011. This program is designed as a complement to that process, offering researchers less experienced with the ICTD process a chance to improve their submissions in time for the main deadline. While participation may be likely to improve a paper's scores in the formal review process, this is of course not guaranteed. The mentorship process is not anonymous. All submissions should bear the names and affiliations of the authors, and all mentors will be fully identified to their partners. This process is intended to be a very social one, through which new collaborations and friendships will be forged. Participants may also have the opportunity to join in a special workshop that will occur during the conference itself, as well as access to conference scholarships for travel, registration, and lodging. These supplementary programs are still under development and more information will follow in the months to come. We very much hope that you will see fit to join us in this program. We expect great benefit to all involved! Peer Mentorship Host Committee, Deana Brown Deji Fajebe Sunil Garg Thomas Smyth