Abstract submission

All abstracts of papers and posters to be presented at the 52nd PLM must be submitted using our online submission system (see below). They must comply with the present guidelines.

Proposals of papers are invited for general oral and poster sessions, thematic sessions, and an additional poster session for PhD candidates. Presentations related to the leitmotif as well as to other topics within modern linguistics are welcome. Each paper in the oral sessions will be assigned a time slot of 30 minutes, including 10 minutes for discussion. Both poster sessions will form an integral part of the conference programme.

The special PhD poster session will be geared towards younger researchers wishing to present their PhD projects to a larger scientific community and, thus, to receive valuable feedback on their work at an early stage. PhD candidates should submit their abstracts via the online submission system following the same criteria as for regular oral and poster presentations, selecting “PhD poster session” where appropriate. To add value to this experience, we would like to encourage PhD candidates to provide the names of three experts (together with their affiliations) who might potentially make a significant contribution to their PhD projects.

IMPORTANT: Papers submitted to the thematic sessions may use their individual descriptions and guidelines, including deadlines different from the general session deadline, but they still have to be submitted through the online system. 

The general instructions are as follows.

  1. Identification: The abstract must remain fully anonymous. You will submit your contact data on the online submission page but these will be invisible to the reviewers. Please make sure that your PDF file does not include your name in the metadata (document properties).
  2. Number of submissions: You can submit one single-authored paper and one co-authored paper, or two co-authored ones. PhD candidates can additionally present their PhD projects in the form of a poster. 
  3. Length: Between 300 and 500 words (excluding the title, keywords, linguistic examples, and references, if any). Please state the word count of your abstract at the end. If your abstract does not comply with this requirement, you will be requested to modify it. If you require extra space for e.g. figures or syntactic trees, limit those to one extra page. Otherwise, try to keep your abstract within one page. Technically, the "Abstract" field size limit in the online submission system is set to 4000 characters, which is about 500 words. Please include up to five keywords to help streamline the reviewing effort.
  4. Formatting: Please limit the formatting to an absolute minimum. If absolutely necessary, use the Doulos SIL font (not SIL Doulos!) for IPA characters and any other special characters. The font can be downloaded free of charge from here. On modern systems, most IPA characters can be produced using Times New Roman and/or other standard fonts.
  5. Abstract templates: We recommend using our downloadable templates:
    – MS Word  [download]
    – LibreOffice [download]
    The templates take care of all the basic layout requirements. Download the template of your choice, enter your text, and save to your hard disk.
  6. Layout: If you prefer not to use the templates above, set the page size to A4, with 2cm margins on all sides, and use Times New Roman 14 pts bold for the title and 12 pts regular for the abstract body.
  7. Accepted file formats: To make the abstracts maximally accessible to our reviewers, please generate a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. If your word-editing software cannot save to PDF, then a free, open-source PDF generator is available from here. Make sure your details are not included in the metadata. However, please also enter the plain text of the abstract in the "Abstract" field of the submission form for quick reference.
  8. If your abstract is accepted, you will be asked to supply an editable file (e.g. plain text, MS Word or LibreOffice) for us to be able to include it in the Book of Abstracts. Thus, you should keep your original file as specified above.
  9. Assessment: Abstracts will be assessed on the following criteria: Is the content original and new? Does the paper build on new data? Are critical concepts and theoretical background described adequately? Is the bibliography relevant and up-to-date? Is the structure and language of presentation appropriate? These will be reflected in an overall score, and the reviewers will be asked to provide a verbal descriptive review.
  10. Submitting: Please submit your abstract through our online system (Microsoft CMT). You will be asked to create an account first if you do not already have one. Before submitting a paper for the individual thematic sessions, consult their descriptions. If you prefer to submit to the general sessions, select one of the topics provided. In addition to the PDF file, please also enter/paste the abstract in the "Abstract" field. Please remember to include up to five keywords in the abstract.