The mission of the conference is to support and inspire PhD students of FEM CZU Prague PhD study programmes in their professional work. The aim of the conference is to enable PhD students from all years of the studies to present the results of their work, to convey quality feedback for their work and strengthen professional cooperation between research teams.
Conference language
The official languages of the conference are Czech and English. Articles may be written in Czech or English. Electronic documents for presentations (e.g. PowerPoint presentations) must be prepared in English. It is possible to present in Czech or English.
Organization of the conference
Participation in the conference is mandatory for all FEM PhD students taking part in regular and combined studies. Participation means at least either the presentation of an award-winning work at the plenary session of the conference, or sending of an article to a parallel session of the conference. In this case, each student should be denoted as the first author of the article at least of one article. If the article is selected for presentation at a parallel session of the conference, the first author of the article will ensure its presentation.
An absence can only be excused for serious reasons (e.g. illness, study abroad, etc.). For this reason, PhD students cannot be used for administration of PhD exam dates on the date and time of the conference. The general conference programme includes a plenary meeting and meetings of the specialized sections. An unjustifiable or unexcused absence from the conference can affect the payment of scholarships to PhD students, or may be subject to entry into the UIS for the needs of annual attestations.
The PhD student apologizes for no participation on the conference by a letter addressed to the Department for Science and Research no later than January 11, 2022. The letter must include the approval of the supervisor and department head.
Plenary session
The plenary session is organized as a presentation of works that have been awarded the Dean’s Prize for the best publications of FEM PhD students for 2021. The aim is to provide the academic community of the faculty with the best publications created in 2021 by FEM PhD students, or those who contributed significantly to their creation. Another goal is to motivate and inspire other FEM PhD students to similarly create high-quality publications. The contest is organized by the Instructions of the Dean of FEM CZU Prague No. 3/2015 „ Rules for Awarding the Dean’s Award for the Best Publications of FEM PhD students “.
Each awarded work will be presented by its author (author group) at the plenary meeting (15 minute presentation + 5 minute discussion).
Parallel sessions
The aim of the parallel sessions is to provide FEM PhD students with a platform for peer evaluation of works prepared for publication, or to discuss the design of newly established research. Parallel sessions are structured according to the branches of the PhD studies. The review process and the quality of the articles and their presentations are supervised by the session chairs approved by the Chairmen of PhD boards of the respective PhD study programmes.
Authors will send their articles to the review proceedings of the conference through the editorial manager after registration. The editorial manager in which registration is done, and in which review proceedings take place, will be launched on 8 November 2021.
Based on the intent of the authors, the following types of the articles may be sent to the review process of the parallel sessions of the conference:
- “scientific article” – primarily recommended if the author (author group) completed part of the research and wants to the have the prepared article evaluated before it is sent for review proceedings of a high-quality scientific journal;
- “review study” – primarily recommended if new research is established. In addition to a critical evaluation of the current state in the given area based on quality and current literary sources, the article should include identification of the research opportunities and a research proposal. This form is primarily (though not exclusively) suitable for the PhD. students in the first year of their studies.
Articles which have already been published or accepted for publication at another conference, or in a journal cannot be sent to the review proceedings of the conference. Originality will be checked by session chairs and reviewers in collaboration with the FEM R&D Department. Although standard publications are not prepared from the conference, such conduct will be classified as a violation of publishing ethics.
The session chair will decide on the inclusion of an article in review proceedings. Within the review process, each article will be evaluated by two reviewers: one PhD. student who has already published an article in a high-quality scientific journal or at a high-quality scientific conference (i.e. has already created a type J or D output according to the Methodology for Evaluating the Results of Research Organizations, as amended) and one academic FEM employee. Instructions for reviewers and the review form are available on the editorial manager of the conference. For preparing a review, every reviewer will be entitled to a fee of 500 CZK paid in the form of special scholarship (students) or DPP (employees, with an increase for levies).
Based on the opinions of the reviewers and own assessment of the article, the session chair will decide on the inclusion of a contribution in the conference programme, and possibly on the proposal to award the author (authors - PhD students) of the article via a special scholarship.
The session chair will also be entitled to not include in the review proceedings obviously carelessly-prepared or unfinished articles, or articles that violate publishing ethics. This will affect the payment of the PhD scholarship to the authors of such articles in future months. The session chair may also propose a financial penalty via payments through PhD scholarships to the authors of the article based on the results of the review process.
Each article included in the conference programme will be discussed as follows:
- Presentation of the article by the author (up to 10 minutes);
- Summary of evaluations of reviewers by the session chair, or asking of selected questions from the evaluations;
- Answering of questions by the author + discussion within the session.
The assessments of reviewers will be available to the authors sufficiently in advance before the date of the conference. The articles of authors will not be corrected according to the comments of reviewers within the conference. Any conference proceedings will not be issued so as not to complicate the possibilities for authors to publish their articles in scientific journals.
Awarding and penalties
- Presentation of contribution awarded the FEM Dean’s Award – according to the relevant Rules
- Awarding of contribution in parallel sessions of the conference upon the proposal of the session chairs - single extraordinary scholarship in the amount of 2 000 CZK/article
- Unjustifiable or unexcused absence at the conference – decrease of scholarship by 2 000 CZK for 3 months (regular students students), record in the UIS system for the needs of PhD student attestations
- Penalty imposed upon the proposal of the guarantor of a specialized section - decrease of scholarship by 2 000 CZK for 3 months (regular students), record in the UIS system for the needs of PhD student attestations