Typically, presentation topics are related to a PhD student's doctoral dissertation research, but any research topic appropriate for COSIT may be presented, as long as the student is the primary author of the work.

The summary should follow the LNCS style, as for the main COSIT conference, including the author's name, institution and contact details (but an abstract is optional and should be no more than 100 words). Templates and guidelines are available from here: http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html.

We suggest the following approximate structure for your summary, averaging 200-300 words per section:

• Background
• Research Question
• Approach/Method
• Expected/Actual Outcomes
• Further work
  

Summaries should be prepared in PDF format, with a minimum margin size of 4cm (all round), and with no headers, footers or page numbers. Copyright-cleared or rights-free illustrations in colour or monochrome (ideally at least 300 dpi) are welcome, and should be inserted within the text where appropriate. Full bibliographic references should be given at the end for all in-text citations.

The biography should outline your academic background and research interests, and should indicate the current stage of your PhD. It should be in plain text format.

Your summary and biography should be emailed to cosit[at]ordnancesurvey.co.uk by 31st May 2009

Space permitting, all graduate students who meet the deadline, format, and topic requirements will be invited to participate and give a brief oral presentation of their work, with time for audience questions, at the Doctoral Colloquium on the final day of the COSIT'09 conference. If the number of submissions exceeds the time available, a rapid peer review process will be based on the usual criteria of originality, scientific importance and relevance to the COSIT themes.

Students who submit a summary will be notified of acceptance by late June 2009. If any revisions are required, the final version must be resubmitted by 31st July 2009. Accepted summaries and biographies will be distributed at the conference.

This year's event is being sponsored by Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, NordGISci, and GEOIDE. Some (limited) funding is being made available by the sponsors for students wishing to attend and present, but who are unable to access alternative funds. Please indicate in your submission email if you wish to apply for this funding.

All student presentations at this year's COSIT will also be considered for a prize, sponsored by the Cognitive Science Society (http://www.cognitivesciencesociety.org), for the best student paper/poster presenting interdisciplinary work in fields allied to cognitive science.

The COSIT'09 Doctoral Colloquium is being organized by Clare Davies of Ordnance Survey (GB). Should you have questions, please send an email to cosit[at]ordnancesurvey.co.uk