How are papers selected.

Papers are selected for the various seminars as follows:

Joint residential seminar with Inquire Europe

In odd-numbered years, INQUIRE hosts the seminar at a hotel in the UK; in even-numbered years, Inquire Europe hosts it at a hotel on the continent.

The hosts select one or more topics agreable to both organisations. Their Programme Committee, assisted by their Academic Co-ordinator, then selects the speakers, with or without a Call for Papers, according to the topic. Presentations from practitioners as well as academic are welcome, as long as they are not commercial.

Business School Seminars

These are hosted in rotation by one of our INQUIRE Business School Partners. The school will nominate a faculty member as organiser. In consultation with our Academic Co-ordinator and other members of our Programme Committee, the organiser selects the papers, about half from work done by his or her own faculty, and the remainder from other workers in related fields, or current visitors from other schools. The organiser will typically send out a Call for papers internally as well as to other INQUIRE Business School Partners.

Practitioner Seminars

The INQUIRE Programme Committee selects one or more topics, and one of its members (the Practitioner Lead) will then issue a Call for Papers in the first instance to INQUIRE members, then to Inquire Europe and potentially other sister organisations. The Practitioner Lead will then select the papers in consultation with his colleagues on the Programme Committee.

How to make a submission

Instructions on how to make a submission will be included in each call for papers, but if in doubt, or you wish to submit a paper independently of a call for future consideration, or if you have a query about submitting, please send it to:

for Practitioner Seminar papers:

  • Garrett Quigley
  • Director

for all other papers:

  • Peter Pope
  • Academic Coordinator

Selection Policy

To avoid conflicts of interest and similar issues, Council has adopted the following principles to govern selection of papers for presentation at INQUIRE seminars.

Impartiality and Confidentiality

In their various roles, selectors and council members shall at all times act impartially, striving for what is best for our sponsorship community as a whole and with no regard to the particular interests of themselves or their own firms. They shall keep confidential all INQUIRE council matters, including unpublished programmes and council papers, and not divulge or discuss them with other members of their own firms until such time as they are generally released.

Theme of seminars

In selecting the papers for a seminar, the first step for the selectors is to choose one or more themes of current interest to INQUIRE’s current membership, that is those involved with investment management, whether as managers themselves, as asset owners and their advisers, or as suppliers of services to the foregoing.

At practitioner and business school seminars, it may be difficult to achieve consistent themes, but selectors should do their best, even if it has to be after the papers have been chosen, as this will make it easier for firms to decide who to send to a given seminar.

Criteria for selection of papers and their presenters

To be selected, any paper must satisfy the prize criteria and be believed by the selector to be a potential candidate for a prize, whether or not prizes are in fact to be awarded at that seminar, except that the requirement

  • for a written paper of publishable quality may be relaxed for
    • (a) well-known speakers, givers of key-note addresses, teach-ins etc
    • (b) practitioners (especially at practitioner seminars)
  • innovation and contribution to the discipline may be relaxed where of educational or contextual value

The selectors must pay particular attention to the quality of presentation criterion, and to this end shall

  • have regard to the presenting ability (in the English language) of the proposed speaker
  • ensure that the speaker is the author of the work or, in the case of co-authors, one who has been actively involved in its creation
  • permit a single additional co-author to share in the presentation of a given paper when they believe it will improve the communication of the subject matter, but only when this is the case and when no extra costs are thereby incurred by INQUIRE
  • provide a suitable discussant where they believe this will be beneficial

Sponsored Research

There is no obligation to include a paper resulting from sponsored research if it is inferior to others available, but other things being equal sponsored research should be preferred over non-sponsored, and an effort should be made to include good quality sponsored papers soon after they become available.

Cost

In choosing papers, selectors will have regard to any cost likely to be incurred such as travelling expenses and honoraria, and the total of such costs must come within the budget as from time to time stipulated by the Treasurer, who in the case of doubt must be consulted beforehand.

Commercial papers

No material shall be presented by practitioners or academics of a commercial nature or with overt commercial intent, other than to show the quality of the producer of the research. Where a firm or individual has breached this rule in the past, the presumption must be that they will do so again.

Fairness and equal access

In constructing the programme for any given seminar, where a number of individuals or institutions, academic or practitioner, are active in that field and may regard each other as rivals, the selectors shall have no obligation to provide equal access to that seminar, but other criteria being equal shall strive to be even-handed over a number of seminars.

Selectors shall have no regard to:

  • the size of the submitter's institution
  • whether it is academic or commercial
  • its importance in the market place
  • the importance or seniority of the submitter

Pressure and the Right to Present

Selectors are grateful to academics, sponsors and others who bring worthwhile papers to their attention, but will resist pressure, and be entitled to reject papers however good, from those who apply excessive pressure. No one has a right, or a better right than others, to present, except that papers submitted by sponsors do have some priority at Practitioners Seminars.

Short notice

Where a presenter pulls out at short notice, it is recognised that the selectors may have to use lower criteria in finding a substitute.

The Role of Council

Once a given programme is drawn up, the selectors will circulate a copy to Council as a matter of courtesy, but Council will not have any right to question the programme so long as it is in accordance with this policy.

Council will review this policy once a year, and may amend the policy as it sees fit, as long as the amended policy is consistent with the objects of INQUIRE. If between annual reviews a council member feels that the programme for a particular seminar raises questions about the wisdom of current policy, he may call for a special review, but such review shall not affect or delay the selection made for the seminar in question.

If at any time a council member believes that despite applying this policy any selectors are not doing a good job, they should bring the matter to the attention of the Chairman who will review the complaint and, if necessary, call a council meeting to discuss the matter, but except in a real emergency this will not be so as to affect or delay the selection made for a given seminar.