Call for Mentors

Would you like to be an ASSETS 2012 Mentor? Are you looking for an ASSETS 2012 Mentor?

Volunteering to be an ASSETS Mentor

We are looking for experienced authors to help us with mentoring individuals new to the ASSETS conference. If you have published in ASSETS or similar venues, we encourage you to volunteer to be a mentor. If you are interested, please email the Mentor Chair (mc-assets12@acm.org) with your name, affiliation, and up to 4 keywords that represent your research areas by March 6th, 2012.

Mentoring Requests

Help with submissions by seasoned researchers is available through the ASSETS Mentoring Program. You may receive advice on your submission in any of the submission categories provided by ASSETS. Being mentored does not guarantee that your submission will be accepted by ASSETS. However, most individuals who have used the mentoring service at ASSETS or at the CHI conference where it began have reported positive experiences and an improved understanding of what is required by reviewers in general.

If you think you would benefit from mentoring either because you are new to presenting your research, new to the type of category you are interested in submitting to or simply find that preparing English language papers foreign to your paper writing experience, please consider applying for mentoring help by emailing the Mentor Chair (mc-assets12@acm.org) a 1-page extended abstract of your paper. The deadline for mentoring requests is March 2th, 2012. A mentor will be assigned to you shortly. You will then need to send your submission to the mentor assigned to you and work with this person through, for example, email or voice-over-IP.

Important Dates

Deadline to request a Mentor: March 2th, 2012
Deadline to volunteer as a Mentor: March 6th, 2012

Communication Suggestion

Once mentor and mentee have been put in touch, they are of course free in choosing whichever communication method they prefer. One very nice possibility (that really works, at no cost!) is the following:

1. Both download the Skype application from http://www.skype.com and create an account, and the mentee additionally registers at http://docs.google.com,
2. the mentee sends the submission by email to the mentor to give her/him a chance to read it in advance,
3. they set up an appointment for a Skype call by email,
4. the mentee uploads the text to docs.google.com and sends a file-sharing link to the mentor,
5. at the scheduled time, they establish a Skype connection to each other and both open the shared file in a web browser.

That way they can talk about the submission and simultaneously edit it, instantly seeing what the counterpart does - only meeting face-to-face is probably better!

Mentoring Extent

Mentoring typically covers the process of composing the contribution, comprising at least two communication sessions: one at the beginning and one right before submission. Should the contribution be accepted, mentees are encouraged to contact "their" mentor again and seek advice on interpreting the reviewers' comments, in order to produce an even better camera-ready version.