Forging Collaborations for Transformative and
Resilient Policy Solutions
November 13 - 15, 2025 | Hyatt Regency | Grand Hyatt | Seattle, WA
Our 47th annual meeting, the 2025 APPAM Fall Research Conference, will be a multi-disciplinary research conference attracting the highest quality research on a wide variety of important current and emerging policy and management issues. The conference is comprised of special events, panels, cross-cutting and single track roundtables, workshops, and poster presentations and is designed to encourage substantive interaction among participants.
Back to the Main Conference Page
Important Dates to Remember
Submissions open |
February 12 |
Submissions close |
April 23 at 11:59 PM PT |
APPAM Communities submissions open |
May 1 |
Innovation Day applications close |
June 6 |
APPAM Communities submissions close |
June 26 |
Accept/Reject Notices & Online Program goes live |
July 23 |
Travel Grants submissions close |
July 31 |
| Late-Breaking Roundtables submissions open |
August 20 |
| Participation Confirmation Deadline |
September 9 |
| Late-Breaking Roundtables submissions close |
September 24 |
| Student Ambassador Applications Close |
September 30 |
| Late Breaking Roundtable Notifications Sent |
October 15 |
Late-Breaking Roundtables will open on August 20th and can be submitted via All Academic.
What is a Late-Breaking Roundtable?
A timely policy-related research topics that have arisen since submissions closed on April 23, 2025.
Roundtables do not include papers, but rather feature speakers who will discuss a topic from varying perspectives and draw the audience into a discussion on the topic. Late-Breaking Roundtable proposals should include up to four speakers plus a moderator. The moderator cannot be a speaker in the same session.
Examples of Late-Breaking Roundtables from #2024APPAM:
What isn't a Late-Breaking Roundtable?
Late-Breaking Roundtables are not a revision of a paper, panel, workshop, or roundtable submission that was rejected during the original submission period OR original research that is NOT topical or pressing in nature. Please note that only a limited number of Late-Breaking Roundtables will be accepted. Specific Submission Criteria will be listed in the All Academic portal.
Questions? Email us.
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APPAM Student Ambassadors are active student members that are highly knowledgeable about the association and willing to share their time at the Fall Research Conference. Student Ambassadors help make the event a positive and welcoming experience for attendees, especially first-time conference goers. This role includes serving as panel chairs, hosting Ignite Sessions, assisting conference attendees, and serving and supporting the conference where needed.
Apply to be a Student Ambassador now through September 30! Applicants will be notified in early October.
New this year, APPAM is using All Academic as our conference submission platform. All conference participants (presenting authors, co-authors, panel chairs, discussants, moderators, speakers and session organizers) will access the All Academic system using an APPAM MemberClicks login. Before you begin your submission, please make sure that everyone that is part of your submission has an APPAM MemberClicks account. You will not be able to add them to your paper or session if they don’t have an existing account. Memberclicks account information:
- Please check to see if you have a MemberClicks account here.
- You can request your username or reset your password if you do not remember them.
- Please check any emails that you have had professionally/academically in the past few years, as well as any personal emails.
- If you think you may have an account under an email address you no longer have access to, please contact [email protected] for to update your email/username. Please do not create a new/duplicate account. If you have never attended an APPAM event or do not have an APPAM profile, you can create one here.
- APPAM membership is optional and is not required to submit or attend the conference. If you wish to proceed as a complimentary non-member profile, please select “No, thank you” from the dropdown menu on the form.
- The APPAM MemberClicks form requires confidential personal information. Please do not create a profile on behalf of someone else.
- New MemberClicks accounts are synced with All Academic every hour. As such, we encourage submitters who create new accounts to do so well in advance of the submission deadline.
Submission Guides
Please use the submission guides and video tutorial below for information on submitting using the All Academic system:
How Does the Waitlist Work?
Acceptances for #2025APPAM go out on Wednesday, July 23rd. We are anticipating that we will have more drop outs than usual this year and in an effort to keep as many panels intact as possible, we are instituting a waitlist this year. This means that some people will receive a notice that their paper is waitlisted, instead of accepted or rejected.
What does waitlisted mean?
It means that should an accepted paper presenter drop out and a panel drop below three papers, we will pull from the list of waitlisted papers to ensure that a panel is complete. In a typical year, this happens in about 10% of sessions. Because of budget cuts, agency research embargoes, data restrictions, and other federal government changes that are impacting everyone in our field, we anticipate panels being affected by dropouts at a much higher rate.
A few things to keep in mind...
- If your paper is waitlisted, there will be instructions on next steps. We will ask that you wait to be placed on a panel. The latest you would be placed on a panel would be October 6th. If you cannot wait that long to know whether you are on a panel or not, we can remove you from the waitlist and offer you a poster or place on a Lightening Session (see below for more on Lightening Sessions) immediately.
- We are in unprecedented times and we ask that you bear with us as we try to grapple with keeping the program whole. No one wants to employ a waitlist but we also do not want scores of panels with one or two papers - that affects the quality and richness of the discussions that an APPAM conference has come to be known for.
- Do not feel slighted if your paper is waitlisted. As is always the case, we receive far more quality papers than we have room to accommodate.
- All presenters will be asked to confirm their participation by September 9th. We ask that you please adhere to this deadline. We will remove presenters we do not hear from in order to make room for waitlisted papers. It is perfectly fine to communicate with us and let us know you are unsure of your plans or cannot commit by the deadline. But if you just do not respond, we will assume you are no longer interested/able to present your research.
Here are a few helpful tips and resources for getting accepted to the conference:
- Submissions that demonstrate diversity in terms of organizational affiliations, professional roles, race/ethnicity, content, author/participant backgrounds and/or ideology & methodology - through questionnaire answers - will be prioritized in the review process.
- Individuals may only serve as a presenting author on two panels throughout the conference, though they may serve in other roles unlimited times.
- Individuals may not serve as a chair or discussant for a panel on which they are also presenting a paper.
- The final phase of the acceptance process will specifically entail vetting submissions for the aforementioned types of diversity and multidisciplinary perspectives
- Fully formed panels have a higher acceptance rate. Single paper listings will be listed and updated weekly starting in late February.
Features of an APPAM Conference Submission Abstract
- Short summary of your research paper that is between 100 and 500 words long
- Title of 15 words or less
- Make sure to highlight why your research is important. Keeping your abstract clear and concise will really help it stand out.
- If you are submitting a panel, make sure that there are no more than 2 people from the same institution.
The Contents of an Abstract
The abstract should be structured as follows:
- Introduction/Background: Give a quick overview of the topic and why it’s important
- Purpose/Research Question: What question are you trying to answer? /What problem are you trying to address?
- Methods: Explain how you did your research noting the data collection and analysis that was involved
- Results/Findings: Share your results, even if they were unexpected. If you only have preliminary results you can share that as well.
- Conclusion/Implications: Explain the importance and potential impact of the findings or the next steps if your findings were unexpected.
Roundtable Submissions Review Criteria
All roundtable submissions will be scored on a scale of 1 to 10, with one being unacceptable and ten being outstanding based on the following criteria:
- Overall quality
- Diversity of speakers and perspectives
- Potential for attendee engagement and excitement
- Clarity of the “issue statement”
- Policy relevance of the issue addressed
Questions?
Questions about the conference should continue to be directed to [email protected].