Fifty States, Fifty Systems: State Policy Variations and Impacts
November 5 – 7 | Marriott Copley Place | Boston, MA
The US federalist system of government assigns substantial authority to states to create and implement policies. At this time, as the federal government’s role is shrinking, the role of state policy is even more important. Ideally, states make laws based on the unique needs and conditions of their state; however, throughout history and continuing today, state policies vary considerably in their reach and generosity, and not always in ways consistent with the economic, environmental, or social needs of states, but rather in the ideology of state leaders. Measuring state-level variation and its impact on well-being is more important now than ever, and policy scholars bear responsibility for it.
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What is a Late-Breaking Roundtable?
A timely policy-related research topic that has arisen since submissions closed. Roundtables do not include papers, but rather feature speakers who will discuss a topic from varying perspectives and draw the audience into a discussion. 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 #2025APPAM:
- The Future of LGBTQ + Data Collection: Current Threats, Privacy Safeguards, and Long-term Strategy
- The One Big Beautiful Bill and Higher Education
- State Responses to H.R. 1 in SNAP and Medicaid: Early Insights from Washington State
- Data Sharing in A Changing Federal Landscape: Threats and Evolving Practices for Ethical Administrative Data Use
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.
Why are Late-Breaking Roundtables important?
We’ve had Late-Breaking Roundtables for the last two years, but they take on a new importance this year. There is a critical need for this kind of topical session at the Fall Conference to allow the research community to discuss and debate what’s happening in Washington (and at the state and local level), exchange information to further policy research, and collaborate on the next steps to move forward.
New for 2026! APPAM’s AI Peer Learning Lab
APPAM’s AI Peer Learning Lab features interactive, peer-to-peer tutorials where attendees share practical ways they are using AI in their work. Rather than traditional expert-led workshops, these informal sessions focus on community knowledge-sharing, real-world examples, and hands-on learning. Facilitators will demonstrate AI tools, workflows, use cases, and lessons learned from their own professional experience, giving participants practical ideas they can adapt to their own work.
Application Deadline: Tuesday, September 13
Facilitators are expected to:
- have intermediate experience using AI in their work, but the goal is to share practical knowledge and lessons learned with peers.
- Lead one interactive tutorial of up to 20 minutes in the APPAM Exhibit Hall.
- Share practical AI tools, workflows, or use cases drawn from their own work.
- Focus on real-world applications rather than technical expertise or theory.
- Encourage discussion and peer learning.
- Create a one-page resource document summarizing their tutorial, which will be shared through the online conference program and with the broader APPAM community (by Tuesday, October 20).
Reserve Gathering Space
Reserve a Meeting Space or Interview Room
APPAM is pleased to offer complimentary private meeting and interview space to our Institutional Members this November! A room may be reserved in one-hour increments throughout Thursday, November 5 – Saturday, November 7, between 8 AM and 4 PM Eastern. Once you reserve the space, you have access to the room for the entire day of your reservation.
Conference rooms will be set up as boardrooms and will have access to the standard conference Wi-Fi. Room sets may not be altered, and no additional AV may be added due to frequent room turnover. At the end of each day’s reservation times, the room will be refreshed for use by the next organization. All participants, both hiring representatives and job seekers, must be registered conference participants.
Please note that this opportunity is exclusively for current APPAM institutional members. If your membership has expired, you must renew to participate. The current member list can be found here.
Space will be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis until all rooms are filled or until Monday, October 26, whichever comes first.
To submit a meeting space or affiliation reception request, please log into All Academic via the links above & select “Submit a Proposal” to find the appropriate request form.
Host an Affiliate Reception
APPAM Institutional Members are welcome to host an Affiliate Reception on Thursday, November 5, or Friday, November 6. APPAM will assign meeting space based on expected attendance and order of request. The meeting space is complimentary, but institutions will arrange room setup, catering, and AV orders directly with the hotel once space has been assigned by APPAM. The hotel will bill institutions directly.
Please note that this opportunity is exclusively for current APPAM institutional members. If your membership has expired, you must renew to participate. The current member list can be found here.
Reservations for Affiliate Receptions must be completed no later than Tuesday, October 1, by 11:59 PM US Pacific Time.
To submit a meeting space or affiliation reception request, please log into All Academic via the links above & select “Submit a Proposal” to find the appropriate request form.
All Academic Abstract Management System
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 ensure that everyone involved 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 whether 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] 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 for 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.
Questions & Answers
Questions about the conference should continue to be directed to [email protected].
Conference submitters & presenters (presenting authors, co-authors, panel chairs)
The submitter can submit the panel including the 3-4 papers on behalf of all the presenting authors and the chair and discussant(s). Or the presenting authors can submit their papers on their own and provide the submitter with the submission ID and the and the original submitter email associated with the listing.
You can check if you have an APPAM MemberClicks profile here. You can also email APPAM directly.
The submitter can submit the panel including the 3-4 papers on behalf of all the presenting authors and the chair and discussant(s). Or the presenting authors can submit their papers on their own and provide the submitter with the submission ID and the and the original submitter email associated with the listing.
Note on the Original Submitter
If student Jane Smith has submitted a paper that her professor Lily Thomas will be presenting, she is the original submitter. You will need to enter the All Academic Code/Paper ID of the submission and Jane’s email to pull the paper into the panel. If David Thomas submitted a paper that he’ll be presenting, he is the original submitter. You will need to enter the All Academic Code/Paper ID of the submission and David’s email to pull the paper into the panel.
Note on the Submission Process
Conference submitters & presenters (presenting authors, co-authors, panel chairs, discussants, moderators, speakers, and session organizers) must have an APPAM MemberClicks profile before beginning their submission. Before you begin, please make sure that everyone on your submission has an APPAM MemberClicks account. You cannot add them to your paper or session if they don’t have one. You can also follow the steps outlined here.
If this is your first time going through the process, it may take some time, especially near the submission deadline. We recommend allowing at least 48 hours to collect all participant information and confirm that everyone is properly listed in the submission system.
You can also follow the steps outlined here.
Astrong panel contains three or four papers, a chair, and at least one, but no more than two, discussant(s). A panel with four papers is encouraged to have two discussants, but again, only one is required.
The panel abstract ties the papers together and clearly indicates how the panel relates to the conference theme and the selected policy area. Strong panels include a diverse range of participants, spanning gender, race, affiliation, research methods, and perspectives.
There should be no more than two people per affiliation per submission.
Sometimes, upon careful review, the Program Committee decides that a panel would be stronger if certain papers or participants were removed or replaced. This occurs for diversity, to increase panel cohesion, or to vary perspectives on a topic. When this happens, they assemble an alternative panel using available papers to create the strongest possible program for attendees. When altering a panel, program committee members may also change the panel title, replace the chair and/ or discussant(s), and reclassify the panel as belonging to a different policy area.
To simplify the submission process co-authors can only be added if your paper is accepted to the conference.
Roundtable submissions are discussion-based sessions that require the following:
- Roundtable Title
- Abstract of the Session (no more than 500 words)
- 2-4 Speakers with contact information
- One Moderator with contact information (who is not a speaker in the session)
- One organizer with contact information
You can also view the steps here.
You will be asked to select a primary policy area, based on the policy areas identified for the Fall Research Conference. You will have the opportunity to identify a second area where your submission may fit. Please note that your submission will only be reviewed and accepted under one policy area. However, conference attendees will be able to search for your session using both policy areas in the online program.
No, you do not. During the submission process, you can “suppress and continue” your submission until you get to the last page of the submission page, where you can select “Save and Finish Later”. Please note that if you do not follow these steps, your submission will not save, and you will have to restart the process.
You can check if you have an APPAM MemberClicks profile here. You can also email APPAM directly.
No, a paper can only be submitted once. All paper submissions are automatically considered for all submission types. Any duplicate submissions will be removed.
Who can make the change:
- Session Organizer
- Discussant
- Panel Chair
- Moderator
- Speaker
Session edits that can be made:
- Edit session title
- Edit session description
- Add/remove discussants, moderator, speaker and panel chair
- Edit panel paper title
- Edit panel paper abstract
- Designate new panel presenting author
- Add/ remove panel paper co-authors
- Add or remove keywords
Who can edit papers:
- Presenting Authors
- Co-authors
Available paper edits:
- Edit paper title
- Edit paper abstract
- Designate new panel presenting author
- Add/remove co-authors
- Add or remove keywords
- Upload your paper
Open the Call for Submissions page: APPAM Fall Research Conference 2026. Please login into All Academic using your APPAM MemberClicks login information. Once you log in, select “Submit or Edit a Proposal.”
Chairs introduce the session topic & speakers, outline the panel format, help keep speakers on schedule, and ensure there’s at least 20 minutes of audience Q&A at the end.
Discussants read the assigned panel papers and prepare thoughtful questions and feedback for their designated ~20-minute period. Discussants should encourage active audience participation and ensure there’s at least 20 minutes for Q&A at the end.
Look for more information on signing up in July.
APPAM will post a call for Late-Breaking Roundtables, timely policy-related research topics that have arisen since submissions closed in April, from late August through late September. Notices will be sent in mid-October.
Acceptances/rejections be sent out in July.