OceanObs’09

Plenary Paper and Talk: Author / Speaker Guide

Overview

OceanObs’09 Community White Papers (CWP) provided community input ahead of the meeting addressing specific areas of the ocean observing and information systems. The conference Plenary Papers will be the essential mechanism for merging this information into a broader community consensus, and to build a coherent vision. Results will be presented during the meeting as Plenary Talks and as Plenary Papers will form an essential part of the OceanObs’09 permanent record.

The goal of each Plenary Paper and Talk for Days 2-5 should be to lay out a high-level view of the opportunities and plans of the relevant contributing communities for the given topic – how all these efforts can best be brought together for the coming decade.

Day 1 (Session 1D) Plenary Talk authors should prepare a Plenary Paper, which should recognize the contributing observing and analysis efforts and describe the community that has been created over the past decade to reach the present level of accomplishment. Successes as well as outstanding challenges should be identified, as a primary objective of the conference is to identify needed future activities.

In summary, the intent is to have the plenary papers identify areas of consensus as well as need and thereby to present a vision for the coming decade that will provoke questions to be discussed during the meeting (and subsequently), highlighting data and product requirements as well as any needs for future community planning activities. It is anticipated that the Plenary Papers will become the building block for community plans for the ocean observing system for the coming decade.

Goals of the Plenary Papers and Talk

Identify consensus

  • draw on material presented in individual CWPs relevant to the subject of the Plenary Paper and merge the information into a coherent consensus
  • missing material required to support the conclusions and consensus can and should be added

Present a vision (Days 2-5)

  • for the coming decade, for the development of the observing system (observing networks, the development of information, and/or infrastructure)
  • inspired by the content of the Community White Papers, but properly a vision that you have built with your co-authors

Provoke questions

  • for the paper: identify where additional community action is needed
  • for the talk: pose questions for debate during the panel discussions and during the conference

Data and product requirements

  • Highlight issues related to data and products required over the next decade
  • Identify data sharing challenges and needs
  • Developing infrastructure

Outputs required

Invited Plenary Talk of 20 minutes, preferably by lead author: because of the structure and scope of the meeting: no parallel sessions, all talks being invited and given in Plenary Sessions, large blocks of time also set aside for panel discussions, roundtables, and poster sessions—the length of the talk is limited.

Plenary Paper of 7500-10000 words by lead and contributing authors: as the permanent record of the conference and a major contribution to its outcome.

Please include a short abstract or executive summary: this should identify your community plan or vision in a few key points, listing countries involved, and giving a rough estimate of new resources required to realize.

10 typeset pages max (20-25 printed pages, 7500-10000 words), 10 figures

Identifying co-authors

Plenary Papers will be put together by lead authors and a number of contributing authors, who the lead authors are free to solicit. The Organizing Committee and session chairs will assist in this process and will try to be of help throughout the preparation of the Plenary Paper.

An appropriate place to start in assembling co-authors is from the lead and contributing authors to the Community White Papers relevant to your topic. A mapping of Community White Paper inputs into the Plenary Talks is available by clicking the links in the web version of the conference agenda[1]. each Community White Paper author has been asked to identify the Plenary Talks (topics) in the conference agenda to which it makes a ‘core’ or ‘relevant’ contribution. However you are free to draw from all contributions to the conference. The organizers will assist in this step as best as possible. We also encourage you to ensure that young scientists and operators are involved, and make an effort to include representatives from countries not already involved in the conference, including developing countries where appropriate. This could include Japan, China, and India for example. The community contributing to your paper should represent those that will carry things forward in the coming decade.

Different communities are at different stages in plan development and so each Plenary Paper will reflect the status of its contributing community plans.

Guidelines for content

Ocean observations and their societal applications (including science applications) are the focus of OceanObs’09, and all authors are asked to retain this focus in developing their papers.

  • For the plenary talks in Session 1C Celebration of a decade of progress, these should look back at our achievements in a decade of growing observing networks, the data system, and the development of ocean-related information. They should summarize successes as well as lessons learned.
  • For the plenary talks in Session 1D Early Successes, these should summarize successes, lessons learned, identify the big remaining questions and challenges, and needed assets in the observing system that will allow progress.
  • For the plenary talks on Day 2, these should summarize scientific progress in the last decade; identify the big remaining research questions and challenges; and identify current and needed assets in the observing system that will allow progress, making reference to the Community White Papers on observing networks.
  • For the plenary talks on Day 3 on services, forecasts, and impacts/management these should provide particular examples of the benefits of ocean information, outlining the scientific and technological underpinnings of generating services for society and the progress in the last decade, and identifying the current and needed elements of an observing system in order to make progress. They should make reference the appropriate Community White Papers.
  • For the plenary talks on Day 4, these should take stock of the technology, information and infrastructure developments over the past decade, and present a vision for how they will support the coming decade development in the ocean observing system. They should make reference the appropriate Community White Papers.
  • For the plenary talks in Session 5A Delivering societal benefits, these should present a vision for how ocean information could be used in the coming decade for societal benefit, with reference to the supporting ocean observations and systems required.
  • For the plenary talks in Session 5B Towards an integrated observing system, these should present a forward-looking vision for the coming decade, laying out the path to a future integrated observing system and services. In some cases these will be repetitive of other Plenary talks, and may need to adapt following the debates of the conference itself. They should focus on the integrative aspects, including of the observing networks and systems, but also on the frameworks that will help advance this integration in the coming decade.

Given the broad scope of Plenary Paper, the length constraints will to focus on the few key points. If your communities have further detailed plans that cannot fit into this format, please make reference to other documents, including the Community White Papers, while touching on the highlights.

Timeline and Review Process

We will not ask for an abstract for plenary papers and the associated talks. However, lead authors should register themselves through the meeting web page.

Once received, your first draft Plenary Paper will also be made available for public comment via the web site. It will also be reviewed by the Program Committee of the conference. These comments will be available to the corresponding author, and a meeting draft of the Plenary Paper will be due 1 September 2009. The final draft for publication will be due after the meeting at the end of 2009.

1 July 2009First draft due

July 2009Comment period (open review on web and
from Program Committee)

1 September 2009Conference draft due, published on the web

21-25 September 2009Presentation in talk at conference.

30 November 2009Revised version submitted for review.

31 January 2010Final version due for publication.

OceanObs’09 Plenary Paper and Talk: Author and Speaker Guide (23 Jul 09)1

[1]