Submission Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in submitting a proposal to the 2025 OLPD Student Research Conference (SRC)! Please read the following information to assist you in submitting a proposal to the SRC.

Conference Theme

The OLPD Student Research Conference 2025 seeks to provide a transformative experience for OLPD graduate students. With the theme “Igniting the Future: Empowering the New Generation of Scholars and Researchers in Changing Times,” we emphasize the experiential journey of becoming a scholar. The conference creates a platform for students to practice presenting their research, engage with peers, and develop their professional identities in a supportive environment. Presenters are invited to share their work, whether previously submitted to other conferences or new research they are passionate about.

Submission Guidelines

The following procedures and guidelines are in place to help with your proposal submission. Please follow these processes to ensure a smooth submission and review process for you and the reviewers.

Proposal Due Date

Proposals must be submitted using the Google Form by Sunday, December 15th at 11:59 pm.  Submitters must be in an OLPD track, though co-presenters from departments outside OLPD are welcome.

Type of Research

The conference committee acknowledges that there are no hard boundaries between different types of research. However, the committee asks submitters to indicate which type of research best describes your contribution to the conference program (this helps the reviewers use the appropriate criteria when evaluating your proposal). If you are unsure of your type of research, you can reach out to submission chair Brittany Stahlman: (stah0122@umn.edu). 

  • Applied research: A report on a project or program intervention. This could include program evaluation, action research, or participatory research.
  • Conceptual/theoretical research: A discussion/critique of literature, a program, or an institution. This could be a literature review, using theoretical frameworks to evaluate a position, or hypothesizing directions for research.
  • Empirical research: an evidence-based qualitative, quantitative, and/or historical analysis. This could be the work you are doing on your dissertation, thesis, or other larger projects. Often, this includes data you have collected; however, we will also consider empirical research in pre-data collection phases.

Proposal Structure

All proposals must be between 500 and 750 words (excluding references) and include the following:

  • Summary of research
  • Connections to theme (how does this research connect to your journey of becoming a scholar?)
  • Contributions to OLPD and/or specific track
  • Address the following questions specific to the type of research:

a) Applied Research Proposals

  • What is the need or the problem that the program or intervention tries to address?
  • What would you have done differently, knowing what you know now about the project or program?
  • What was the impact of the project on the problem it targeted? How was the project’s impact assessed?

b) Conceptual/Theoretical Research Proposals

  • In reviewing literature or alternative perspectives, how does the contribution build on existing work?
  • What are the implications of the critique for future practice, policy, or theory?
  • How original is the contribution? What do we learn that we did not know, and why is it important?

c) Empirical Research Proposals

  • How does your strong theoretical framework(s) guide questions and research design?
  • How do the research methods and results support the conclusions drawn from the data?
  • How original is the contribution? What do we learn that we did not know, and why is it important?

Type of Presentations

Paper presentations – (20 minutes)

A paper presentation is a formal presentation in which student presenters will be grouped by the conference committee based on theme into sessions. Presenters will briefly discuss their research, followed by audience discussion. 

Poster presentations (15 minutes)

Posters combine a visual summary of the findings of a paper/study with the opportunity for individualized and informal discussion of the presenter’s work. Posters will be set up and viewable for conference attendees throughout the day and there will be at least one session for interaction between poster presenters and interested conference participants. During this session, poster presenters will be present to answer questions about their research. 

Review Criteria

All submissions will be reviewed blind by three OLPD graduate students. The proposals will be reviewed using the following criteria:

  1. Relevance: Relevance of the proposal topic to the fields in OLPD and conference theme
  2. Theory/Context: Strength of theoretical framework and/or contextualization
  3. Inquiry: Strength of critical analysis and/or research methods (including design, data collection, analysis, etc.)
  4. Preliminary/Anticipated Findings: Clarity and coherence in presenting of findings
  5. Contribution: Contribution to an OLPD field

Note: All proposals need to follow APA style (7th ed.).