PRINCE SULTAN UNIVERSITY
PSU POLICY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Funding for Scientific Conferences Participation Policy

Policy Code: RS0004
Policy Name: Funding for Scientific Conferences Participation Policy
Handler: The Research and Initiatives Center
Date Created: 15 August 2020
Date of Current Review: 15 August 2020
Approved by: University Council
Date of Approval:

Overview

Prince Sultan University faculty members may be getting funded for participating in scientific conferences in accordance with the following regulation.

Purpose

This policy provides guidelines for funding the attending scientific conferences by faculty members.

Policy

PROCESS

The conference attendance request must be processed by the CRC committee of the respective college. The CRC is the only committee responsible for the evaluation of the conference attendance requests. The conference attendance requests should be process in less than 10 working days to avoid delays to proceed with VISA requests and other travel arrangements. The roles of faculty member, CRD and RIC is presented in the RIC Website
http://ric.psu.edu.sa/apply-for-a-conference.php

QUALITY ASSESSMENT:

  1. The conference quality must be verified and approved by the CRC.
  2. The quality assessment process will be as follows:
    First, the conference rank should be checked using any of these two conference ranking websites.
    3. http://portal.core.edu.au/conf-ranks/
    http://www.conferenceranks.com/
  • The highest rank of the conference will be considered.
  • If the conference is ranked in any of these two websites (rank A, B), it is considered of eligible for full funding ( Category A (see below in categories)).
  • If not, or if it belongs to any other discipline not covered by these two ranking websites, the relevance and the credibility of the conferences is evaluated by the CRC using the following evaluation grid
Acceptance Ratio 1: more or equal than 60% 2: less than 60% and larger or equal to 50% 3: less than 50% and larger or equal to 40% 4: less than 40% and larger or equal to 25% 5: less than 25%
Number of Editions 1: First edition 2: [2,3] Editions 3: [4,5] Editions 4: [6,7] Editions 5: More than 8 editions
Quality of the Reviews of Full Papers 1: The quality of the conference review is poor (short and non-significant) 2: The quality of the conference review is of average quality. 3: The quality of the conference review is sufficient (at least two reviews are needed) 4: The quality of the conference review is good 5: The quality of the conference review is excellent (detailed and informative)
Quality of the paper 1: The paper is of a low quality (accepted but has flaws based on the reviews) 2: The paper is of a average quality 3: The paper quality is acceptable 4: The paper is of a good quality 5: The paper is of a excellent quality
Reputation of the Program/General Chairs 1: NOT REPUTED 2: 3: 4: 5: HIGHLY REPUTED
Publisher/Organizers of the Conference 1: NOT REPUTED 5: HIGHLY REPUTED

The total number of points is 30. The conference categories are defined as in the following Table.

Category A >=80% 24 points
Category B <80% and >=70% 21-23 points
Category C <70% and >=50% 20-15 points
Category D <50% 15 points and below

CONFERENCE CATEGORIES

  • Category A: Full funding (air tickets + accommodation + registration fees)
  • Category B: air tickets and registration fees
  • Category C: air tickets or registration fees
  • Category D: No Funding
  • Local Conferences: A faculty member may participate in refereed scientific conferences inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia upon the recommendation of the department chair and college research committee and the approval of the College Dean without receiving monetary funding. The faculty member, may, however, request funding in case he/she has not received funding for other conferences, or if the conference is of high quality

ACCOMODATION and TRAVEL ALLOWANCE

500 SAR per day for the exact number of conference days plus one day before and one day after , as applied in the University policies. Example: if the conference
  • spans over 3 days, the total accommodation granted is 2500 SAR.
  • For the keynote speaker, the university provides at most air tickets (if partially sponsored by the organizer) and a maximum travel allowance of 500 SAR. For keynote speakers, the organizer has to provide at least the accommodation for the PSU faculty.

POSTERS, DEMOS, WORKSHOPS, ABSTRACT

  • Posters/Demos/Workshops for scientific categories (not applied to humanities and social sciences) papers are also supported but at most with Category B. Exception of full sponsorship for posters and demos can be made for top quality conference (ranked as A class).
  • Abstract proposals are supported only for humanities, social sciences, and DES deanship faculty members.

ADDITIONAL CRITERIA:

  • the conference must be within the research interest of the faculty, and the conference theme does not contradict with the social and Islamic values of the Kingdom.

    • INDEXING:

  • It is highly recommended that conferences are indexed in Scopus to help improving the ranking of the University. This is not a mandatory requirement, but highly recommended.

    • PLAGIRISM CHECK:

  • It is important to guarantee the authenticity and originality of every paper published by PSU, in particular in terms of plagiarism. The plagiarism level of every conference paper must be evaluated by the author and has to submit a plagiarism report. Any plagiarism level above 30% is considered very high and the paper cannot be considered for sponsorship by Prince Sultan University. As such, the CRC and College Dean need to check the plagiarism level of every paper accepted in a conference not to exceed 25% for self-similarity (reusing own text) and 15% of plagiarism (using other researchers ‘text). In any case, every text reused from other papers should be clearly quoted and referenced in the paper to its original owner. The authors should submit a plagiarism clearance to show that their research paper satisfies the requirement. Small sentences up to 10 word can be removed from the plagiarism check.

    • ATTENDANCE:

  • The PSU faculty author is given one day before and one day after the conference as a maximum, in addition to the conference days, for travel and attendance. It is imperative that the PSU faculty author coordinates with the concerned department chair to find an arrangement for his classes to be covered before he leaves, and name the faculty who will replace him during his absence.
    - Every faculty has the right to attend one conference and one invited speech (if fully supported by the organizer) per semester, according to University rules

    • INIVITED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS RULES

    • If a faculty is invited for a talk in a conference, then s/he is granted the right to participate if (1) the full fees are sponsored by the inviting organizers, not by PSU, (2) the conference is within the research interest of the faculty, (3) the conference theme does not contradict with the social and Islamic values of the Kingdom. The invited PSU faculty author is given one day before and one day after the conference, in addition to the conference days, for the travel and attendance.
    • If the invited talk is partially sponsored by PSU and partially by organizers, the CRC decides based on the quality of the conference on the level of support to be provided to the invited faculty. In general, the faculty should be encouraged to participate if (1) the conference is within the research interest of the faculty, (2) the conference theme does not contradict with the social and Islamic values of the Kingdom.
    • If the invited talk is fully sponsored by PSU, then it must go through the same process as accepted papers mentioned above.