To stay up to date with announcements about PSA26, the dedicated webpage for PSA26 will include all the latest information, deadline dates and related links.
PSA Members will also receive regular updates in our e-newsletter, and information will be shared and circulated publicly via our PSA groups, networks and social media.
Registration
Registration for PSA26 will take place online via our conference platform, Ex Ordo. To register, you will need to sign-in to the Ex Ordo platform and create an account or use your existing Ex Ordo credentials. This is a very straight-forward process and means that you can access information, see your booking info and track your account details and view the conference programme.
PSA26 is a ticketed event with a range of registration options that are designed to reflect the different needs and budgets of our different delegate communities. Registration pricing and options for PSA26 can be found here.
The ticket price includes a non-refundable admin fee of £10 which covers the financial transaction that the PSA is charged by our credit card provider for each ticket.
We encourage all delegates to register as early as possible, and to register before the booking deadline of 2 February 2026. This means that delegates can take advantage of ‘early bird’ rates, and we can ensure that delegates are registering for the correct ticket. The PSA team will get in touch if there is any discrepancy about ticket types, for instance if you have selected a PSA member rate and are not a member. Conference fees cost less during the early bird booking period: when the deadline passes, standard conference fees will apply. The final registration deadline is 12 March 2026. We cannot guarantee conference places after the booking deadline and would encourage you not to consider turning up on the day.
Your registration fee includes attendance to the conference with full access to all keynote presentations, receptions, roundtables, workshops and exhibitors. It usually includes a breakfast with pastries, tea and coffee refreshments at breaks during the day and drinks/light snacks at receptions. Delegates are usually required to source their own lunch and evening meals, unless a special lunchtime event is taking place. Delegates will be provided with a badge and lanyard and full access to the programme and conference app.
Absolutely! The PSA Annual Conference is open to all. Many of the attendees do present papers, but approx. 25% of delegates attend to hear about ongoing research and engage with the speakers and exhibitors. It’s also useful to come along and see what the PSA annual conference is like if you are considering presenting a paper in the future.
You don’t have to be a PSA member to take part in the conference, but PSA members do benefit from significantly discounted conference tickets, especially early bird member rates. You may find that you pay the same amount of money for a non-member ticket as you would do for a year’s membership and a conference ticket – and you will also have twelve months’ worth of membership benefits. We will check and verify membership status for those purchasing discounted member rate tickets, and if you have chosen a member ticket type but are not a member you will be asked to either pay the difference or become a member.
Delegates need to arrange their own accommodation. Potential accommodation options can be found here; these will range from high quality student accommodation to various hotel and B&B options close to the conference venue. Oxford is a popular location, so we advise arranging your accommodation as early as possible to get the best deals.
If you need to cancel your conference ticket the conference fee is fully or partially refundable at different percentages over a different duration of time. Each fee includes a £10 admin charge that is not refundable. Also note that we will not be able to process any refunds on or after 17 March 2026. The cancellation terms are included in the PSA26 T&Cs.
Funding and Support
In addition to early bird, concessions, and member discounts we often try to make available relevant support for those identified as most in need of this. We review this each year and will share this information, along with how to apply for any support with the registration fees and information, which can be found here.
We usually offer discounted rates for students, early career researchers, retired and unwaged delegates. Full details of all discounts can be found on the PSA26 Registration page here.
If you are presenting a paper, or participating in a roundtable discussion, we can provide a letter of acknowledgement stating the agreed time, place and date of your participation which you may use to support your visa application.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Anyone attending PSA26 should be aware that since 5 March 2025 (and earlier for some countries) all non-UK passport holders will be required to complete an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) if they intend to travel to the UK from abroad. Make sure you apply for an ETA in plenty of time. Use the official UK government website https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-an-electronic-travel-authorisation-eta. Apply online or by downloading an app. The current charge is £16. Make sure you use the official website to avoid extra charges. In addition to the ETA you may need a visa. Check for details at https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.
Paper Proposals
Proposals for 15 to 20-minute papers are invited during the open call for papers, which runs from July – 17 October 2025. You need to submit your paper proposal using the dedicated conference platform, Ex Ordo. To submit your paper, you will need to create an account and sign in to Ex Ordo. This is very simple and there are clear guidelines in the platform. Once you have an account you will be able to log in and keep track of your conference related activity.
Yes, you can submit multiple paper proposals, for different topics, but we’d suggest a maximum of three. However, you can’t submit the same paper proposal to more than one topic.
There is a 300-word limit for paper proposals. We encourage all proposals to have a clear and concise title and abstract. Please keep references short and concise and use standard formation for titles - e.g.: capitalisation where required.
Yes, if you submit more than one paper proposal for different topics, and your proposals are accepted by different groups for different panels/roundtables, then you can present papers in more than one panel/roundtable. However, we try to encourage as broad a participation as possible from a range of different delegates.
For PSA26 we have introduced a new 'reserve list' process, which replaces previous 'late paper calls'. The reserve list is a repository of high quality papers that were proposed but not selected for panels first time round. The list will remain open and accessible to panel convenors up until 20 February 2026 should they need to replace or replenish their panels in the wake of paper withdrawls. Authors of papers on the reserve list may be notified up until the 20 February by panel convenors, but if your paper is on the reserve list and you've not received notification to participate in the conference by then please assume that your paper has not been selected.
Once the call for papers deadline has passed, we will not accept late paper proposals. We encourage everyone to submit proposals within the open call period between July and October 2025.
Panel & Programme Queries
You should have find out in November 2025 if your paper was accepted and which panel you will be presenting on. You can find the current version of the programme here.
In most cases the PSA Specialist Groups are responsible for composing and agreeing the panels, which make up a large part of the PSA conference programme. There are 50 PSA Specialist Groups that cover a huge range of different areas within Political Studies and International Relations. Convenors of these groups will review and select paper proposals to form panels (or roundtables). A conference Academic Programme Committee will also review and input on conference panels and the full programme. Panels are usually 90 minutes in length and formed of four 15 to 20-minute paper presentations, with Q&A. A minimum of four papers is required for a panel to be placed in the programme.
Minor changes to the title and abstract of your paper will be accepted up until a specified date (to be advised), after which no changes will be able to be made. Significant changes to the content and point of your paper would need to be discussed with your panel convenor and may not be accepted if the changes divert significantly from your original proposal. If you need to withdraw your paper, please inform the PSA team and your panel convenor as soon as possible as one paper withdrawal can put a whole panel in jeopardy.
If paper presenters and panel convenors have specific time or day requests, we will try our best to accommodate these. However, with over 700 papers to schedule into the programme we cannot always guarantee requests can be met. Please advise the PSA team as early as possible if you have specific date or time requirements so that we can factor these into the programme planning as much as possible.
Usually, the panel convenor will share details of who else is presenting in advance. The names of all paper presenters will be included in the final conference programme and on the conference App.
The programme is currently available (this programme isn't yet finalised). The final programme available publicly - ideally by February. Timings and dates are being shared with speakers and presenters beforehand, but we only publish one final programme once everything is confirmed.
PSA Annual International Conferences are primarily In-person events, so we expect all speakers to attend in person. Due to the scale of the conference, we cannot offer or guarantee virtual provision or presence. But we do our best to accommodate exceptions relating to accessibility barriers.
Presenting at PSA26
Paper presentations should be up to 15-minutes long. Depending on how many presentations are scheduled, you may be allowed more time. Audience Q&A will either be invited at the end of each presentation or at the end of all presentations, depending on how the panel convenor chooses to run Q&A (your panel convenor will let you know this before or on the day)
Most paper presentations include slides. You should have slides available to present on the day, ideally in a PowerPoint format, although PDF format is an option. If your presentation is not a PowerPoint file, we ask that you instead connect your laptop to the screen/projector and present directly from your device. Please ensure that you have your slides on a portable USB drive and on your laptop.
We anticipate most panel rooms will have laptop computers provided; however, we would still strongly encourage you to bring your own laptop. You should be able to insert a USB flash drives/memory stick containing your presentation into the laptops provided which will be connected to a projector or a screen to present from with audio if needed.
Some rooms may have microphones or other audio devices. If you require audio equipment for accessibility reasons, please get in touch.
There will be tech support available in each venue.
No, you will not need to full paper for the conference. The only thing we require is for you to present your work during your presentation. We do not publish paper abstracts in the programme, only titles of papers.
No, sessions will not be recorded or streamed. All sessions will be in-person only, with possible exceptions made for presenters with accessibility issues.
PSA26 is an in-person event and we encourage all presenters to attend in person. We don’t allow virtual presentations for most attendees as we don’t have the facilities to support a fully hybrid event. We only allow people to present virtually if there’s an accessibility concern which wouldn’t allow them to attend in-person (health risks, disabilities, etc.).
Attending the Conference
We will have our registration area at the Examination Schools. You must collect your badge before attending sessions and wear it throughout the event for security reasons.
We cannot guarantee dedicated space for storage, such as cloakrooms or luggage storage so we encourage you to leave this at your hotel/accommodation if you can. If you need to leave luggage with us, as a last resort this will be at your own risk. Alternatively, if you believe that you will need to store your luggage you Oxford has many alternative luggage storage options available.
There will be Wi-Fi available at the venues during the conference, and exact details will be shared directly with delegates before the event and when they register.
If you require accessibility support please let us know well in advance and we will do our best to accommodate your needs. Delegates are asked to provide accessibility requirements when they register. If you have not done this please get in touch.
Each year we do our best to offer quiet spaces for delegates however we cannot guarantee that we will be able to designated these for the event. But all the venues have green spaces and areas to sit down for which delegates will have access to.
We will do our best to provide a dedicated prayer room and breast-feeding room. More information will be shared closer to the event.
A welcome breakfast will be provided on the Morning of Monday 30 March, and tea and coffee refreshments will be provided at breaks during the day across all three days. Drinks and canapes will be provided at the Drinks Reception on Tuesday 31 March.
Lunch will be provided for PSA members attending the PSA AGM on Monday 30 March. This will be for PSA members only and members will be expected to attend the AGM.
Opt-in lunch will be available to all delegates on Tuesday 31 March. This is a pre-bookable lunch subsidised by the PSA. It will cost £10 and will comprise of a bagged sandwich lunch with bottle of water, crisps and bar/cake. Vegan and Vegetarian lunch options will be available. Delegates will be sent details to book for lunch ahead of the event.
Most delegates will need to source their own lunch on Monday 30 March and Wednesday 1 April. No evening meals are provided on any day.
The health and wellbeing of our delegates is a top priority. We are keeping an eye on news and official updates. So far, there are no recorded cases of meningitis in Oxfordshire. We recognise that any large gathering of people, such as an event of this scale, brings the usual risk of people being exposed to seasonal illnesses. If you are concerned or have an underlying health condition then please use your personal judgement in deciding to attend and wear a mask, or withdraw from participating if you are very concerned. Unfortunately we do not have the means or facilities to covert panels into hybrid or online'. We would also encourage you to be aware of the facts about Meningitis B and how it is transmitted and what symptons to look out for. Here is a useful guide. Meningitis B outbreak: what you need to know – UK Health Security Agency
Post-Conference
No, the only materials produced and made publicly available after the conference will be the final programme and the delegate guide.
Yes, we will contact all delegates and presenters with forms which allows them to acquire relevant certificates.
We will share a conference feedback survey after the conference to all delegates, so please wait until then.