Thank you for agreeing to chair a session at the 16th International Detonation Symposium. Below you'll find some guidance regarding your responsibilities before, during, and after the 16th International Detonation Symposium.

Please plan to attend the complimentary Session Chair Breakfast on Monday, July 16, 2018 8:00 a.m. During the breakfast, Dr. Joel Carney and Dr. Chad Stoltz, co-chairs of the 16th IDS Organizing Committee, will discuss Session Chair responsibilities during and after the Symposium as described below, along with any updates. It's the perfect time to ask questions, as well. Please be sure to sign up to attend the breakfast when you register (select the "Session Chair" registration type).

Before the 16th IDS

• Presentations, Manuscripts, and releases for publication are due on or before July 2, 2018. Please contact the authors in your session at least once to ensure that they are working toward this deadline. A list of the authors and their contact information will be provided to you for this purpose.
• After the manuscript and release for each paper is received, the paper will be made available to you in the Review Module of the Author/Presenter Portal. A Reviewer account has been created for you; you will receive your login instructions by email prior to the 16th IDS. Please be sure to log in as soon as possible to become familiar with the site.
• Please start reviewing the papers assigned to you as soon as possible once they are available, and complete an initial review of each paper (if available) before the Symposium. Session chairs will be expected to ask questions of the authord during the question/answer period if none arise from the audience.

During the 16th IDS

• Be sure to pick up your Session Chair packet when you check-in at the 16th IDS Registration Desk. Please review the information in the packet prior to the Session Chair Breakfast.
• Attend the Session Chair Breakfast on Monday, July 16, 2018. More information is provided at the top of this page.

Note: The following responsibilities apply to Chairs of General and Concurrent Sessions. Poster Session Chairs are encouraged to attend the Poster Session if at all possible. Review of Manuscripts after the Symposium is the primary responsibility of Poster Session Chairs.

• Co-Chairs of General Sessions and Concurrent Sessions should decide prior to their session who will moderate the session and assist presenters, who will be the timekeeper, and who will ensure that audience questions and the name and contact information for the questioners are documented during the session.
• Arrange to meet with the authors in your session at least 20 minutes prior to your session.
• During your session, one Co-Chair will serve as the moderator and assist presenters as needed with Audio-Visual equipment. The other Co-Chair will serve as the timekeeper to ensure that presentations start and end on time. This chair will also ensure that all audience questions and the contact information for each questioner is documented during the session. A form will be provided in the Session Chair packet for this purpose. Accurate documentation of audience questions is one of the most important Session Chair responsibilities.
• Take the completed Question documentation form to the 16th IDS I.T. Office / Speaker Ready Room after your session so that the questions can be transcribed into electronic format. You may be contacted to review and clarify the technical content and/or the intent of the questions. Prior to leaving the IT Office / Speaker Ready Room, we recommend that you request a copy of the original form for your future reference in the event of questions.

After the 16th IDS

• Review the manuscripts from your session and prepare any feedback (changes, corrections) for the author.
• Transcribed and finalized audience questions for each oral presentation will be provided to the Chairs of General and Concurrent Sessions. Include these documented questions along with your revision requests via a Message to Author.
• Authors are expected to revise their manuscripts as well as prepare responses to the audience questions. The Q&A will be appended to the manuscript and the revised document will be returned to the Session Chair for additional review.
• Once the Session Chair has approved the final version of the manuscript it will be ready for publication in the 16th IDS Proceedings.
• More details about the Manuscript Review process are provided below.

The review of manuscripts will be faciitated via the Review module within the 16th IDS Author / Presenter Portal. Your Reviewer account login information will be emailed to you prior to the 16th IDS. At any time, you may request that this information be sent to you, as well. Simply email info@intdetsymp.org or call (410) 992-7300 X208 or X215.

For all session co-chairs (oral and poster sessions), peer review of the manuscripts assigned from your session will ensure the scientific quality of the 16th International Detonation Symposium.

We request that the manuscripts be thoroughly reviewed with attention to technical details, similarly to how you would review papers for high-quality peer-reviewed journals. We suggest that you consider the following questions as you review each paper. You are not required to comment on each point, but rather to consider the overall quality of the work.

• Are the conclusions new and significant?
• Are the conclusions justified by the results?
• Are the length and level of detail appropriate?
• Does the manuscript contain errors, unnecessary material, or insufficient material?
• Has relevant literature and previous work been cited?
• Are the structure and/or language of the paper in need of major improvement?
• Are the figures and tables and their captions clear and useful?

Within each review, you will be able to keep notes about any concerns with the manuscript that only you can see. This will allow you to refer to your notes when you're ready to provide feedback to the author.

Once you have completed the review of a manuscript, prepare a "Message to Author" and include your guidance to the author for revisions. Additionally, be sure to attach the document containing the documented/transcribed audience questions for that particular author/paper. Instruct the author to prepare and insert their response to each question in that document. The audience questions and author responses will become part of the published manuscript in the 16th IDS Proceedings.

When the author has completed their revisions and responses to the audience questions, they will log into their account in the Author / Presenter Portal and upload the revised manuscript and the documented Q&A in the "Upload Manuscript" task.

Review the revised manuscript and the author's responses to the audience questions to ensure that you are satisfied that your feedback has been adequately addressed. If you are not satisfied with the revisions, please contact the author to discuss. If you are unable to resolve the remaining issues with the author, please contact one of the co-chairs of the organizing committee for guidance and/or assistance.

In order to remain on schedule for publication of the 16th IDS Proceedings, please make a concerted effort to complete the final review and obtain final/ready for publication manuscripts from the authors in your session by the end of December 2018.