6th Annual Neurodiversity at Work Research Conference

Our goal remains to build a community of people concerned with advancing research related to the preparation and employment of autistic individuals and convey these concerns to others in the community. The conference aims to

1. Provide a collaborative space for scholars to share their work and receive constructive feedback in order to advance neurodiversity employment research.
2. Further develop a research agenda to advance evidence-based practices to equitably include neurodivergent people in the workplace.

The Neurodiversity at Work Research Conference will be in person this year at the University of Maryland campus in College Park, MD, USA, on May 30 and 31, 2024. There will be no hybrid or remote option though we will provide recordings of the presentations through the conference website afterwards. 

This year’s Conference theme centers on “Demonstrating Transformational Impact: moving from practice-based evidence to evidence-based practice.” Our keynote speaker and various panels will advance the community's understanding of and inspire research efforts to demonstrate impact systematically and critically to ensure the representation and empowerment of all community members and balance ecosystem stakeholders' perspectives equitably. Conference activities will facilitate dialogue related to transformational impact relevant to the following priorities we identified in the 5th Annual Neurodiversity at Work Research Workshop in Seattle in 2023, namely:

1. Emphasizing representation
2. Exploring the impact of the intersectionality of identities
3. Translating insights into evidence-based practice

Sharing your research and the lessons you learned from conducting that research is critical to the evolution of this area of study and contributes to the overall well-being of our scholarly community.  We invite submissions of complete research, research-in-progress, and research ideas and proposals. We welcome innovative, inspiring research with the aim to have a clear impact on the preparation, recruitment, persistence, and/or advancement of neurodivergent people in the workplace. Submitted work may be conceptual, analytical, design-oriented, or empirical in nature. One goal of the workshop is to provide an opportunity to receive constructive feedback to advance and improve your work. We strongly encourage submissions relevant to the theme of the conference but continue to accept general papers relevant to the preparation, recruitment, persistence, and/or advancement of neurodivergent people in the workplace more broadly.

The primary criteria for acceptance of a submitted paper are the scientific quality of the paper and the potential contribution to neurodiversity employment research and practice. To this end, consider these three criteria:

• Relevance to the workshop: The extent to which a paper meets the workshop goals and may relate to the preparation, recruitment, persistence, and advancement of neurodivergent individuals in the workplace.
• Potential scholarly contribution: The scientific quality of the submission relative to the theoretical grounding and/or methodological clarity and empirical rigor as well as originality of the paper.
• Broader impact: The relevance of the work to neurodiversity employment practice and its potential for impact on society.
• Quality of presentation: The quality of the writing and organization of ideas and conclusions.

Each submission will be reviewed by at least two members of the program committee. Papers submitted to the Neurodiversity at Work Research Conference must not have been published elsewhere while under consideration for the Neurodiversity at Work Research Conference. Contravention of this concurrent submission policy will be deemed a serious breach of scientific ethics, and appropriate action will be taken in all such cases. 

We welcome contributions in the following forms:

• Complete research papers (7-10 pages): Completed research must describe empirical or conceptual work that is fully developed and ready to be communicated to the research community. Completed research papers may be theoretical/conceptual or empirical.
• Research-in-progress papers (2-5 pages): Research-in-progress papers describe empirical or conceptual work that is in the earlier stages of execution or completion. In empirical efforts, the work may contain pilot data or present a conceptual framework with hypotheses to be tested, and research design to execute. In conceptual work, the authors have early versions of their theory development to be shared. Authors may be looking for feedback related to theory or research design they wish to feedback on.
• Research ideas and proposals (1-2 pages): A research idea contains a problem statement and a set of research questions to be investigated.
• For all submission categories, references may extend as many pages beyond the page limit as you need.

All submissions must be written in English. They must include a title, a list of authors’ names, affiliations, and email addresses, and a 200-word abstract. Papers should be single-spaced, single-column, with a font size of 11-12 points in Times New Roman. Papers that do not follow these formatting guidelines will be desk-rejected.

Submissions for the Research Conference are DUE by 5 pm PDT, Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Papers should be submitted electronically to EasyChair. Submissions should be uploaded in PDF or Microsoft Word formats.

Questions regarding submissions should be directed to the Neurodiversity at Work Research Conference co-Chairs by email info@NDAtWorkResearch.Org.

Registration for the Neurodiversity at Work Research Conference will open in late February and become accessible through the Conference website.

Please feel free to distribute the invitations to others who are interested in research related to neurodiversity employment.

We hope that you will consider joining us for our 6^th Annual Neurodiversity at Work Research Conference. Find more information on the Conference, and please do not hesitate to contact us individually at ther emails below.