As a recognized 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, APPAM is permitted to engage in limited lobbying and cannot make lobbying one of its central missions. However, APPAM is an affiliated member of the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), which represents the views of the social science research community to the federal government to encourage public support for research. 

At the time APPAM was founded in the late 1970s, the plan was for the organization to be predominately an institutional membership association. APPAM would bring together the resources of public policy schools and policy research organizations to support a new conference and a new journal (JPAM). These activities were seen as important professional opportunities for an emerging field of policy and management research. At that time, institutional membership offered a way for the fledgling association to raise the financial resources necessary to launch. Within a few years, the growing body of individual members asked for and achieved a voice in APPAM’s governance, gaining the right to directly elect the Policy Council. Today APPAM continues to attract new institutional members who appreciate the conferences and the journal, lending their support to both. 

APPAM’s dues are dictated by a member's salary. In an effort to be sensitive to those members new to the public policy community, APPAM created three tiers of dues, all dependent on a member’s salary.

A person can remain a student member for 5 years. They must be enrolled at an accredited university in a program of public policy or public affairs to be a student member. A student membership is only $40 annually and includes a subscription to JPAM, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 

All APPAM individual members are eligible to vote in the Council election. Since 2004, the election is held online for one month beginning in the middle of November.

Among the three members selected by the general membership, one will be a self-identified practitioner and the other two slots filled by academic members. (In 2013, the membership voted to reduce the size of the Policy Council from 40 to 29 members by 2017.)

Furthermore, members of the Council often serve on the Fall Conference Program Committee. This means that APPAM members have significant representation on the Council, and the Council itself is involved in APPAM’s most important activities. For these reasons, participation in the Council election is a substantive opportunity for members to determine what the Association does.

All APPAM individual members are eligible to vote in the Council election. Since 2004, the election is held online for one month beginning in the middle of November.

Among the three members selected by the general membership, one will be a self-identified practitioner and the other two slots filled by academic members. (In 2013, the membership voted to reduce the size of the Policy Council from 40 to 29 members by 2017.)

Furthermore, members of the Council often serve on the Fall Conference Program Committee. This means that APPAM members have significant representation on the Council, and the Council itself is involved in APPAM’s most important activities. For these reasons, participation in the Council election is a substantive opportunity for members to determine what the Association does.

The Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM) is produced 4 times a year. It is available in print and online. Every member of APPAM receives issues of JPAM 4 times a year.

JPAM is produced through an editorial office by an editor and their team. The editors serve five year terms and apply through a proposal process for the position. The editors are chosen by APPAM’s Policy Council. Maureen Pirog, the current editor of JPAM, will maintain her editorship through June of 2014. 

JPAM is produced through an editorial office by an editor and their team. The editors serve five year terms and apply through a proposal process for the position. The editors are chosen by APPAM’s Policy Council. Maureen Pirog, the current editor of JPAM, will maintain her editorship through June of 2014. 

JPAM is produced through an editorial office by an editor and their team. The editors serve five year terms and apply through a proposal process for the position. The editors are chosen by APPAM’s Policy Council. Erdal Tekin is the current Editor of JPAM

In 1985, APPAM created the Committee of Institutional Representatives and asked each member institution to appoint a representative to the committee. To date, the chairs of the Institutional Representatives have been the following:

Anita Summers, University of Pennsylvania (1985-1989)
Irwin Feller, Penn State University (1989-1991)
Charles Metcalf, Mathematica Policy Research (1991-1993)
Glen Hahn Cope, University of Illinois-Springfield (1993-1995)
Jack Krauskopf, New School (1995-1996)
Mark Kamlet, Carnegie Mellon University (1997-1999)
Susan Schwab, University of Maryland-College Park (1999-2001)
Eugenia Toma, University of Kentucky (2001-2003)
Michael Luger, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (2003-2005)
Michael O’Hare, University of California-Berkeley (2005-2007)
Sandra Archibald, Univeristy of Washington (2007-2009)
Carolyn Heinrich, University of Wisconsin (2009-2011)
Joseph Cordes, George Washington University (2011-2013)
Michael Shires, Pepperdine University (2013 - 2015)
Juliet Musso, University of Southern California (2015 - 2017)
Patty Troppe, Westat (2017 - 2019)

Note: Affiliations listed were at time of service as chair.

The new chair is nominated by a three-person committee appointed by the outgoing chair from among the Institutional Representatives. The nominee is presented to the Institutional Representatives at their annual spring meeting, and, if approved, serves for two years as chair and as a member of the Executive Committee of the APPAM Policy Council. A person can serve multiple terms as chair.

In 1985, APPAM created the Committee of Institutional Representatives and asked each member institution to appoint a representative to the committee. To date, the chairs of the Institutional Representatives have been the following:

Anita Summers, University of Pennsylvania (1985-1989)
Irwin Feller, Penn State University (1989-1991)
Charles Metcalf, Mathematica Policy Research (1991-1993)
Glen Hahn Cope, University of Illinois-Springfield (1993-1995)
Jack Krauskopf, New School (1995-1996)
Mark Kamlet, Carnegie Mellon University (1997-1999)
Susan Schwab, University of Maryland-College Park (1999-2001)
Eugenia Toma, University of Kentucky (2001-2003)
Michael Luger, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (2003-2005)
Michael O’Hare, University of California-Berkeley (2005-2007)
Sandra Archibald, Univeristy of Washington (2007-2009)
Carolyn Heinrich, University of Wisconsin (2009-2011)
Joseph Cordes, George Washington University (2011-2013)
Michael Shires, Pepperdine University (2013 - 2015)
Juliet Musso, University of Southern California (2015 - 2017)
Patty Troppe, Westat (2017 - 2019)

Note: Affiliations listed were at time of service as chair.

The new chair is nominated by a three-person committee appointed by the outgoing chair from among the Institutional Representatives. The nominee is presented to the Institutional Representatives at their annual spring meeting, and, if approved, serves for two years as chair and as a member of the Executive Committee of the APPAM Policy Council. A person can serve multiple terms as chair.

The APPAM president-elect appoints the Program Committee each year. The 35 to 40 members of the committee are selected because of their expertise in the topic areas of the conference, and several people are often placed on the committee to review proposals in a large area like education or health. The APPAM president-elect often recruits many members of the Program Committee from among the APPAM Policy Council. This enhances the role of the Council in the management of APPAM’s most important annual event.

The APPAM president-elect appoints the Program Committee each year. The 35 to 40 members of the committee are selected because of their expertise in the topic areas of the conference, and several people are often placed on the committee to review proposals in a large area like education or health. The APPAM president-elect often recruits many members of the Program Committee from among the APPAM Policy Council. This enhances the role of the Council in the management of APPAM’s most important annual event.

We will accept panel, roundtable, paper, and poster proposals for the conference from February 3 - April 6, 2016.  You can go directly to the submission system by clicking here or visit the submission information page on the APPAM website for more information.

Proposals go through the following process:

Your proposal is assigned to a specific policy area, based on the primary category chosen during the submission process.

All the proposals will be supplied to the Fall Conference Program Committee for review. The committee members may recommend to the APPAM president-elect that your proposal be accepted, rejected, or modified. The president-elect makes the final decision on all proposals.

You will be notified by e-mail in mid-July about the status of your proposal for the conference. If accepted, the APPAM office will include your proposal in the preliminary and final conference programs, and send you information about your responsibilities as a conference participant.

Accept or reject notifications will be sent to all submitters in mid-July. 

The APPAM office works closely with the Program Committee to recruit chairs and discussants for panel sessions. You can volunteer to serve as chair or discussant for a particular session by emailing the APPAM office your name, affiliation, and information regarding your field of expertise.

You can also submit a caucus proposal to be included in the conference.  Caucuses are informal discussion-based sessions that begin with a moderator giving a brief introduction to a topic as well as some questions, theories, or related information to spur discussion.  Caucus proposal submission information will be available online in mid-Spring.

Beginning in 1985, APPAM has held every conference in an odd-numbered year in Washington, DC. This pattern emerged because of the interest of practitioners in the Washington area (and especially federal government officials) in the research presented at the Fall Research Conference. The conferences held in Washington, DC in recent years have been strongly attended by non-academics. In 2003, APPAM surveyed several leadership groups and the individual membership regarding whether to continue the every-other-year pattern in Washington, DC, and found that all were in support of that arrangement.

The Fall Research Conference typically occurs over the first Thursday through Saturday of November each year, although occasionally the conference may occur in the last week of October or the second week of November to avoid conflict with Halloween in the United States. The following sample schedule indicates key dates in the annual cycle of the conference; note that these dates may be modified in any specific year.

Fall Research Conference: Example Schedule

The APPAM president-elect is the chairperson of the Program Committee and selects the theme for that year's Fall Research Conference. APPAM began the practice of selecting themes for the Fall Research Conference in 1994. The theme shapes several aspects of the conference, including the special symposia, outreach by APPAM to research on new topics, and the overall response to the Call for Proposals.

The APPAM president-elect appoints the Program Committee each year. The 50 members of the committee are selected because of their expertise in the topic areas of the conference, and two or three persons are often placed on the committee to review proposals in a larger topic area such as education policy or public management.

On average, 30% of the members on one year's committee will serve the next year. This overlap enhances the institutional memory and management experience of the proposal review process.

The APPAM president-elect often recruits many members of the Program Committee from among the APPAM Policy Council. This enhances the role of the Council in the management of APPAM's most important annual event. The Program Committee reviews all proposals submitted to the conference and makes recommendations to the president-elect regarding what to accept for sessions. Ultimately, the president-elect has final authority over the composition of each conference.

The APPAM president-elect appoints the Program Committee each year. The 50 members of the committee are selected because of their expertise in the topic areas of the conference, and two or three persons are often placed on the committee to review proposals in a larger topic area such as education policy or public management.

On average, 30% of the members on one year's committee will serve the next year. This overlap enhances the institutional memory and management experience of the proposal review process.

The APPAM president-elect often recruits many members of the Program Committee from among the APPAM Policy Council. This enhances the role of the Council in the management of APPAM's most important annual event. The Program Committee reviews all proposals submitted to the conference and makes recommendations to the president-elect regarding what to accept for sessions. Ultimately, the president-elect has final authority over the composition of each conference.

All Fall Research Conference proposals must be submitted online using an online system. Persons submitting individual papers may designate they will or will not accept a poster session if offered one. APPAM asks that all proposals provide abstracts and complete contact information for persons linked to the proposals. APPAM does not ask for completed papers at the time of submission nor expect that the papers be finished until about a month prior to the meetings.

Here are some tips for improving a proposal to increase the chances of getting accepted:

• Propose a complete panel rather than an individual paper. The program committee consists entirely of volunteers. By proposing a complete panel, you are simplifying their work considerably, especially if the proposal shines in terms of its overall quality and coherence. When you submit an individual paper proposal, you are speculating that there will be several other papers submitted on a similar topic, and that the program committee will have the opportunity to assemble an ad hoc panel.
• Propose a panel that builds on the conference theme. The program committee appreciates proposals that reflect the theme set by the APPAM president-elect. The theme is traditionally broad enough to encompass a wide variety of proposals, and usually about 25% of all submissions directly reflect the theme.
• Propose a panel that includes some senior researchers who are known to the field. Junior-level researchers may not be able to recruit these individuals to present papers but they may find it relatively easy to find senior people to serve as panel chairs and discussants.
• Propose a panel that is diverse along several dimensions including institutional affiliation, gender, race/ethnicity, and national emphasis. APPAM has a policy of not accepting panels for the research conference in which all of the paper presenters have the same institutional affiliation. Any such panel proposal will be revised before being accepted. APPAM also has made a conscious effort to encourage gender and racial/ethnic diversity in all areas of the conference, and that effort will intensify in future years.
• Show off your data. The APPAM conference is the place to bring new data to bear on crucial research questions. Papers and panels that demonstrate new data for the inspection of the APPAM community always are of great interest to the program committee.
• Co-author with seasoned APPAM participants. By attending the APPAM conferences, you will have the opportunity to network with some of the most influential researchers in public policy and management. Hopefully, that networking will translate into opportunities for collaboration on future research to be submitted to the conference.

• November 3-5, 2016, Washington, DC
• November 2-4, 2017, Chicago, IL
• November 8-10, Washington, DC

The 2019 Fall Research Conference will be held November 7-9, 2019 in Denver, CO. There will also be governance meetings and a pre-conference workshop held on Wednesday, November 6.

The Preliminary Program for the 2019 conference can be found here.

We will have many opportunities for sponsorship, exhibiting, and advertising at the conference.  Complete details are available here.

APPAM will provide visa invitation letters upon request to authors accepted to present papers or to otherwise participate in sessions at the Fall Research Conference. Please note that all persons participating on the program are required to register for the conference. Other persons interested in attending the meetings must pay a non-refundable registration fee if they wish to request a visa letter. To request a visa invitation letter, please contact Meghan Grenda at mgrenda@appam.org 

The theme of the 2016 conference is The Role of Research in Making Government More Effective. This theme was selected by APPAM President-Elect Carolyn Heinrich.

The regular spring meeting of APPAM’s Committee of Institutional Representatives – the body that brings together leaders of the association’s institutional members – provides an opportunity to hold an annual conference on issues of interest to the institutions. The first such conference occurred in 1986 at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. Most of the conferences have focused on educational issues in the public policy and management field. In recent years, the Spring Conference has mostly been held over the course of one day in Washington, DC. 

The regular spring meeting of APPAM’s Committee of Institutional Representatives – the body that brings together leaders of the association’s institutional members – provides an opportunity to hold an annual conference on issues of interest to the institutions. The first such conference occurred in 1986 at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. Most of the conferences have focused on educational issues in the public policy and management field. In recent years, the Spring Conference has mostly been held over the course of one day in Washington, DC. 

We are soliciting abstracts for (1) individual papers to be integrated into panels, (2) panels made up of 3-4 papers, (3) roundtables, (4) super sessions and (5) posters.

Please note that the Program Committee reserves the right to alter, combine and even transform proposals as it builds sessions for the conference.

In order to submit you will need the names, email addresses and affiliations of all participants, including non-presenting authors. You will also be asked to submit the following:

1. Panel Title
2. Overall Panel Abstract (no more than 500 words)
3. Paper Titles (3-4)
4. Paper Abstracts (no more than 500 words each)
5. Presenting and Non-Presenting Author Contact Information
6. One chair and one or two discussants
7. One session organizer

A strong 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, crossing lines of gender, race, affiliation and research methods and perspective.

One of the most challenging aspects of putting together the fall conference is identifying knowledgeable attendees who are willing and able to serve as chairs and/or discussants. By requiring you to identify a chair and discussant at the time of submission you are assisting committee members and staff in creating complete and focused panels early on. When including a chair and discussant on your panel, make sure the people identified know you have listed them. We contact all listed chairs and discussants when we sent out acceptance notices and it is very difficult to explain to listed participants that they were listed as a chair or discussant by the submitter when they were unaware and are unwilling to participate. When selecting chairs and discussants, please make sure they know they will be required to pay a registration fee to participate in 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
• One organizer with contact information

All acceptance and rejection notices will be sent out in mid-July.

Sometimes, upon careful review, the Program Committee decides that a panel would be stronger if certain papers or participants were removed or replaced. This happens for reasons of diversity, to increase panel cohesiveness or to vary perspectives on a certain topic. When this happens they put together an altered panel using other papers available to them in order 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.

Yes, you may submit a panel with four papers. In the past there was a strong preference for three paper panels, as attendees prefer them, however APPAM will not show preference to panels with three papers.  Submitters of panels with four papers must be particularly careful to provide a description that stresses the value of the four papers being presented as one panel and how having four papers over three is beneficial.

You will be asked to select a primary policy area, based on the 15 areas identified for the 2019 Fall Research Conference.  However, you will be asked during the submission process if you would like to identify a second area that your submission may fit into as well.  This seconday area is only used for review purposes and will not have any impact on how the work is presented at the confernece, should it be accepted.

The change to 14 policy areas is based on a decision by President-elect Jane Waldfogel. It is her hope that by broadening the policy areas somewhat, it will be clearer where researchers should submit their proposals, all while encouraging cross cutting sessions across the conference. APPAM seeks to find an ideal balance of policy areas that are easy for submitters to understand, and encompass all the areas of policy that our members have come to expect while promoting broader thinking across policy areas.

If you are experiencing technical difficulties, please contact appam@confex.com. If you have a question about the conference or specific submission criteria, please contact Tristanne Staudt at tstaudt@appam.org.

No. You can start your submission now and finish it at a later date. Upon beginning your submission, you will receive an email with an access link that is unique to your proposal. Keep this email and you will be able to use the information provided to login and complete your submission at a later time. Your submission must be completed by the submission deadline. If any part is incomplete after the deadline, your submission will be deleted and not considered for inclusion in the conference.

If you have scheduling limitations, please email them to Tristanne Staudt at tstaudt@appam.org. Do not include scheduling limitations in the description or abstract fields of the submission systems as they are unlikely to be seen and will not be honored. Please limit scheduling requests to reasons of great importance including religious observances, medical needs or international travel limitations. Scheduling over 300 sessions is very challenging and requires many sessions to be scheduled during non-preferred time slots, we are not able to accommodate scheduling requests due to family matters or work/class schedules.

Yes, you may submit as many proposals as you wish. However, you may only present one paper at the conference. If you submit more than one proposal, the others must be co-authored and a co-author must be willing and available to present the work at the conference if more than one of your proposals is accepted.

Yes, APPAM accepts single paper submissions. But did you know that fully formed panels have a much better chance of being accepted for inclusion in the Fall Research Conference? To help submitters create fully formed panels, APPAM has created the Single Paper Listing for Panel Creation resource. Single papers are listed with your submitter’s contact information. APPAM encourages submitters to reach out to each other to try to create a fully formed panel. If you find a paper you would like to add to a panel, contact the submitter and see if they are interested in being part of the panel. Alternately, if you submit a single paper, others might contact you to see if you are interested in joining a panel. The page is updated every Wednesday and we strongly encourage you to use this important resource.

You can find information on these, as well as all particpant, roles here.

You can email Tristanne Staudt, tstaudt@appam.org, directly with your question.

Fully submitted panel submissions have an average acceptance rate of 47% compared to 26% for single paper submissions.  Check out the Single Paper Listing to find other similar papers and re-submit your work as a panel. This listing includes the policy area, abstracts, and contact information for each single paper submitted for inclusion in the 2019 Fall Research Conference.  

The Single Paper Listing will be opened on February 13th, and will be updated every Wednesday through April 11th.  

We will begin accepting submissions in early February.  The deadline for all submissions will be April 11, 2018.

Over the past few years we've received a growing number of requests for internationally-focused sessions at the conference.  This year, we've adjusted the submissions process to include questions that will help identify not only internationally-focused submissions, but state/local submissions as well.

You'll still be asked to select a policy area from the current list of 15 represented at the conference, but on the Title Page step of submission, you will be asked to identify if your submission identifies as international or state/local.  These identifications will not only point attendees in the direction of these sessions, but it will help the Program Committee better review the submissions.

Great question!  Any super session submissions not accepted as that session type, will be considered for a smaller roundtable session during the conference.

You can find the full guide here. There are additional guidelines to make note of, depending on if you are a presenter, chair, discussant, or poster presenter.

Presenters
Chairs
Discussants
Posters
 

If they are to provide useful insight to authors and serve as stimulants for audience follow-on, discussants must receive papers by October 8th. This the minimum acceptable time for participants to be able to read the session papers. Presenters will receive instructions on how to upload papers to the APPAM.org and are urged to do so by the deadline provided so discussants have enough time to read the papers and prepare comments before the conference.

Below is a guideline for a well- timed session; this sample session runs from 1:15 – 2:45 pm. For four paper sessions, each presenter would have 12 minutes instead of 15 minutes.

1:15 – 1:20: Chair introduces presenters and discussant(s), lays out the ground rules and goals for the session and establishes the timeline for the session.

1:20 – 1:35: First presenter presents their paper.

1:35 – 1:50: Second presenter presents their paper.

1:50 – 2:05: Third presenter presents their paper.

2:05 – 2:20: Discussant(s) presents their comments.

2:20 – 2:40: Audience discussion.

2:40 – 2:45: Chair brings the discussion to a close and thanks everyone for coming.

Presentations should last no longer than 15 minutes in panels with three presenters or 12 minutes if there are four presenters. The discussant should be granted roughly as much time as a presenter. Multiple discussants should divide this allotted time among themselves.

APPAM members like to talk and react. Members include many experts; session participants consistently praise APPAM conferences for the exceptional amount of professional interaction that occurs. Much of this interaction happens within or is stimulated by the session discussions. With this in mind, please allow a full 20 minutes for audience questions and commentary. This 20-minute period is separate from the time normally accorded to panelists responding to the discussant's comments.

Many people use PowerPoint to prepare and display presentations. APPAM will provide LCD projectors and screens in all meeting rooms for use during conference sessions. The Program Committee urges all conference participants to ensure that use of this technology does not interrupt or delay a session. With a strict 90 minutes for panel sessions, even a minor delay can greatly hamper the success of a panel.

Remember that there will be less than 15 minutes available for setting up computer equipment prior to the start of most sessions. All presenters on a session may wish to put their presentations on a single computer or flash drive to simplify matters during the panel.

Please note, APPAM does not provide laptops for the panels so if a presentation requires a computer, one of the presenters must bring one.  There will be wi-fi at the conference, but we encourage presenters to download any materials ahead of time to ensure quality playback.

Try to economize on the number of slides in a presentation. Slides should be readable from at least 30 feet (some of the presentation rooms are quite large, some are small), and should be displayed long enough for viewers actually to comprehend the message they are supposed to convey. A good rule of thumb is one substantive slide (a key exhibit, not an outline page) for every two minutes of presentation (or no more than 6 or 7 total slides per presentation). Create slides specifically for the APPAM audience.

Discussants are asked to make integrative comments rather than paper-by-paper critiques. In many cases, very specific or detailed critics can be shared with paper authors outside of the session. Your comments should be no more than 12 minutes – 15 minutes long.

Posters should be put up by 9:00am the day of your assigned session. Posters may be left up until 5:00 pm on Thursday, November 12. Posters may be left up until 3:00 pm on Friday, November 13 and Saturday, November 14. All posters left up after these times will be discarded.

All poster boards will be numbered, indicating assigned poster spaces for each session. You will receive your specific assignment location in October. Only put your poster up in your assigned space. A staff person will be on hand to help you find your space in the exhibit hall.

Your poster title will appear in the preliminary and final programs. The final program will indicate your location number. If your paper title has changed, you will have the opportunity to update the title through August 24.

Thumbtacks will be provided for putting up your poster. Please do not use tape, staples or any other type of adhesive to hang your poster.

Presenters are asked to be available at their posters during the entirety of their poster session to discuss their posters with interested viewers.

Yes. They should be 8 feet wide by four feet tall.You can review the full list of guidelines here.

Yes. They should be 8 feet wide by four feet tall.You can review the full list of guidelines.

You will receive an email in the coming weeks with detailed instructions on making any necessary edits to the abstract and title of your submission as well as how to upload your paper.

All papers must be uploaded by October 8th to ensure the discussants have adequate time to review.

Registration for the Fall Research Conference opens July 15. In order to register, you must have an APPAM account. You can sign up as a member at the same time you register for the conference.

Registration for the conference is now open.  Click here for registration pricing information.

Click here to register now.

The 2019 Fall Research Conference will be held Thursday, November 7 through Saturday, November 9, in Denver, CO. Association governance meetings and a pre-conference workshop will occur on Wednesday, November 6. The conference will be held at the Sheraton Denver Downtown.  

The theme for this year's conference is Rising to the Challenge: Engaging Diverse Perspectives on the Issues and Evidence. The theme was selected by APPAM President-elect Maria Cancian.

As our 41st annual meeting, the APPAM 2019 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 current political context underscores the value of bringing together researchers and practitioners with a wide range of perspectives to engage the evidence and discuss how best to improve public policy.  We hope that the theme, Rising to the Challenge: Engaging Diverse Perspectives on the Issues and Evidence, will encourage a conference with conversations that reach across disciplinary, methodological and ideological divides. 

This conversation will take place across 300+ educational programs in a variety of formats, including panels, roundtables, poster presentations, super sessions and special events.  

There will be just over 300 sessions at the conference this year, plus a number of special events including policy area super sessions, receptions, lunches, and networking mixers.

The Program Committee is given a budget for policy area sessions that is based on the proportion of policy area submissions to the overall number of submissions received. The APPAM president-elect makes the final determination of how many sessions there will be in each area based on recommendations from the Program Committee. There are almost always constraints within the hotel or convention center for space and these constraints dictate the overall number of sessions that APPAM can accept. Quality of the sessions always is the first and foremost criterion. APPAM prefers that each area have a minimum number of sessions each year and that there be a large number of areas represented. Otherwise, the conference will not offer a worthwhile professional meeting to persons interested in those topics. APPAM prefers that any area with more sessions than there are unique time slots have sufficiently diverse panels to allow two be scheduled opposite each other at one time without diluting their audience. The Program Committee often seeks to combine similar panels into a single session given the time constraints and high demand for participation.

There will be 15 policy areas represented at the conference. You can find all the areas along with descriptions on the Policy Areas page of the website.

Online registration for the Fall Research Conference will open July 15, 2019.  Onsite registration is also available.

All registrations in advance must be completed at APPAM.org. Registrations can be made using Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express cards. Domestic checks can be mailed to the APPAM office at 1100 Vermont Ave NW, Suite #650, Washington, DC 20005. We cannot accept foreign money orders or bank transfers from individuals. Please note that during the registration process, you will be given the opportunity to print an invoice for your registration. You must send that invoice, along with your payment, to the APPAM office. 

Yes, all attendees must register for the Fall Research Conference, regardless of whether they are participating in sessions and events. Everyone presenting a paper or poster, taking part in a roundtable or acting as a chair or discussant must register and pay for the conference. APPAM requires everyone presenting papers on panels to register by September 27. APPAM reserves the right to remove/replace papers from the conference if panelists do not register by this date.

No. APPAM members are very active in our conference, with 75% of attendees fulfilling at least one role as a participant. As such, we do not offer participant discounts.

APPAM offers a 15% registration discount for all government employees. To take advantage of this rate, you must have a .gov email address. Contact Ryan Martz, rmartz@appam.org, for a special registration code and further information. 

APPAM will provide visa invitation letters upon request to authors accepted to present papers or to otherwise participate in sessions at the Fall Research Conference. Please note that all persons participating on the program are required to register for the conference before a visa invitation is given. Other persons interested in attending the meetings must pay a non-refundable registration fee if they wish to request a visa letter. To request a visa invitation letter, please contact Ryan Martz, rmartz@appam.org. 

Participation in APPAM’s Fall Conference is dictated by adherence to the APPAM Code of Conduct. All attendees were given the opportunity to read the code and agree to abide by it as a condition for registration. The full code can be found here. 

The Code of Conduct Committee for 2019 is the APPAM Executive Director (Tara Sheehan, tsheehan@appam.org), President (Matt Stagner, mstagner@mathematica-mpr.com), President-Elect (Maria Cancian, mcancian@georgetown.edu) and a member selected by the Policy Council. That member is Lucie Schmidt (lschmidt@williams.edu). The committee is chaired by Maria Cancian. 

APPAM has engaged an external consultant for the purposes of collecting reports and advising the Code of Conduct Committee. The external consultant is Mary Davis and she can be reached by email, mdavis2856@comcast.net. Should a report need to submitted, please refer to the code for instructions on how to do that or reach out to anyone on the Code of Conduct Committee or Mary Davis.

• Thursday Welcome Breakfast – complimentary, but sold out
• Thursday Morning Coffee – 8:00 AM in the Exhibit Hall
• Thursday Opening Luncheon –  $38/ticket with limited tickets available onsite. Check preferred, credit card and cash accepted.
• Thursday Afternoon Refreshments – 3:00 PM in the exhibit hall (coffee only on Tower Terrace & Tower Majestic)
• Friday Membership & Awards Breakfast – complimentary, but sold out
• Friday Morning Coffee – 8:00 AM in the Exhibit Hall
• Friday Afternoon Refreshments – 2:45 PM in the exhibit hall (coffee only on Tower Terrace & Tower Majestic)
• Saturday Continental Breakfast – Light continental breakfast in the exhibit hall at 8 AM (mentioned below)
• Saturday Poster Luncheon – Complimentary, but ticket required. You can obtain a ticket by speaking with a poster presenter or an exhibitor during this event.
• Friday Afternoon Coffee – 2:45 PM in Plaza Building, Concourse Level; Tower Building, Terrace Level; Tower Building, Majestic Level

No, this is a complimentary service for institutional members. 

As many positions as you have to fill!

Interview spaces are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Interview space may be reserved in one-hour increments on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of the Fall Research Conference.  To reserve space, please complete this form and return it to Gabbie Sylvester, gsylvester@appam.org.  Each organization may reserve up to three interview spaces during the conference.

While you cannot post it as part of the Positions in Policy program, institutional members are always welcome to submit open positions to the APPAM job board hosted on our website.

To list any position on APPAM’s Job Listing page, you’ll need to include the position title, a brief description (100-word maximum), and a link to the position on your website.  All positions should be sent to Gabbie Sylvester at gsylvester@appam.org. 

Profiles and CVs for candidates participating in the Positions in Policy program will be available on an employer-only access website which will launch on August 12 and be updated weekly.

Positions can be posted at any time but conference interview space must be reserved by November 6^th, if still available.

All candidates that will listed on the employer-only access website will be registered participants of the 2019 APPAM Fall Research Conference who opt to participate in the program.  There will be job seekers of all levels, including students and professionals in all stages of their careers.

The employer-only access website will include the contact information for each candidate.  Participating organizations will contact candidates directly to begin the interview process.

No, as long as you are registered for the APPAM 2019 Fall Research Conference you are welcome to participate.

Yes, you must be registered for the conference to participate in this program.

No, there is no additional cost to participate.

Within one week of registering for the conference, APPAM staff will reach out to collect your CV/resume and have you complete a brief questionnaire about your experience and position preferences.

No, we encourage professionals at all levels to participate!

The list of positions being interviewed for as part of the Positions in Policy program is available on our Job Listings page.  Any position noted with an asterisk will be hold interviews at the Fall Research Conference.

Yes, to participate you must be registered for the Fall Research Conference by September 30, 2019.  

Your contact information, CV/resume, and responses to our Job Seeker Questionnaire will be provided to the hiring organizations.  They will reach out directly to coordinate their interview process.