Ecological Society of America


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Call for Oral and Poster Abstracts for the 2004
ESA Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon,
August 1- 6, 2004.

Deadline for Abstracts for Oral and Poster Presentations:  March 1, 2004.

SUBMIT ABSTRACTS HERE

 
We invite abstract submissions for Contributed Oral and Poster presentations at ESA’s 89th Annual Meeting to be held August 1 to August 6, 2004 in Portland, Oregon at the Oregon Convention Center.

Abstracts that address the meeting theme are especially encouraged, but submissions may be from any area of ecology. We also welcome the report of projects that are interdisciplinary, that consider the need to communicate with broad audiences, or that explore ways of teaching ecology at any level.
 
One Paper as First Author Rules: To insure maximum participation, each person is allowed to be first author or presenter on only one research poster, paper, or symposium presentation. There is no limit on the number of presentations on which a person may be a co-author. Another exception allows a person to be a presenter or first author of a second presentation that has an educational or scientific outreach theme. Papers submitted in this category will be given stringent scrutiny to insure that the content is directly relevant to the teaching of ecology. Senior authors or presenters may also serve as session presiders or organizers or facilitators of Workshops or Discussions.
 
Posters offer an excellent opportunity for extended informal discussion and active participation by coauthors. Many experienced presenters prefer them, and we encourage you to give a poster serious consideration. An advantage of a poster is that is displayed for a full day; interested persons can view your work even when you are not in attendance. You are required to be present for a scheduled one and one half hour period in the afternoon following the Oral Session presentations. Depending on how much traffic your poster is receiving, you may either speak with interested persons individually or accumulate a small group and give an impromptu mini-presentation of your poster. Most will probably do both. An especially nice feature of posters is that your co-authors can (and should if possible) be present to assist you in dealing with individual inquiries and to add depth to discussions.
 
As a further inducement for participation, informal evening “poster pubs” will provide an opportunity for discussion in a relaxed setting at a time when a no-host bar is available. Posters must fit on one side of an approximately 2.4 m wide x 1.2 m tall (8 x 4 feet) poster board. Modern poster technology permits the printing of the poster as a single sheet. Persons who do this are advised to leave generous margins so that nothing will be lost if the actual dimensions of the posters are somewhat smaller than announced. Because poster boards are rented from local suppliers, at the time of writing it is impossible to guarantee precise dimensions. Pushpins, which ESA will supply, are the only method of attachment certain to work. Check the ESA web site for the latest information before preparing your poster. Because of space and equipment limitations, poster presenters may not use audio-visual equipment.
 
Contributed Oral papers: This year all talks will be scheduled for 15 minute periods, with 5 minutes between talks for questions and introduction of the next speaker.
 
Note that this is a significant change from past year’s scheduling of contributed oral papers, when 12 minutes were allowed for the talks, with 3 minutes for questions and introduction of the next speaker.
 
The intent of this change is to allow for more substantive communication in these sessions, both from the speaker to the audience, and via interactive questions and answers between the speaker and the audience. TIME LIMITS WILL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED BY SESSION PRESIDERS. It is essential that presenters practice their talks to insure that they will fit within the allotted time.
 
IMPORTANT INFORMATION CONCERNING ORAL PRESENTATIONS:
Those presenting Oral Paper talks, Organized Oral talks or Symposium talks are urged to use Power Point for their accompanying visual presentation. Each Oral Session meeting room will be equipped with a dedicated laptop that will be loaded with Windows2000 and MS Office 2000.

Please do NOT bring your own laptop for your presentation. Each presenter will be expected to be at their assigned session 20 minutes prior to the start of the session to pre-load their Power Point presentation on the dedicated laptop.

The dedicated laptops will be higher-end computers running at 1Ghz or better  with 256Mb ram. Each laptop can handle discs or zipped discs.  Each computer will have a 250Mb ZipDrive. In addition, all laptops will have multiple USB ports to accommodate any 'Flash or Thumb Drives'. We will NOT be able to accommodate Corel or Adobe presentations, embedded animation, or embedded graphics.

If you fail to follow these specifications, you may end up without any way of making your visual presentation.

This year, we will NOT provide slide projectors or overhead projectors in each meeting room used for Orals or Symposia. If you prefer to do a slide or overhead presentation, you must notify Assistant Program Chair Dave Grow in advance of your session to insure that the appropriate equipment is provided for your talk.

CRITICAL: Please be careful going through airport security. Recently the more powerful security detectors used at some airport have erased or corrupted information on discs and Flash or Thumb drives. Just as you would high speed camera film, take care to protect your Power Point presentations you carry with you.
 
Evaluation and acceptance. Accuracy and appearance of the abstract are the responsibility of the author(s). ABSTRACTS WILL BE RETURNED IF THEY DO NOT COMPLY PRECISELY WITH THE GUIDELINES, INCLUDING FORMAT.
Content will also be evaluated. Policies similar to those of ESA October 2002 journals with respect to originality and aptness will be followed. The presentations must be based on NEW, previously unpublished material. Reviews of past work are generally not permissible outside of symposia or other special sessions; in such cases, a new analysis or synthesis is expected. Although it is understood that many abstracts will be submitted before all analysis and conclusions are in their final form, it is not acceptable to submit an abstract if the authors have no substantive results in hand. The abstract must be clear that the authors will present substantial and SPECIFIC information. The major cause of rejection of abstracts is lack of evidence of quantitative or substantive results. Clarity of stated objectives and results of research and appropriateness of subject material are also considered.
 
Selection of a session. Those submitting abstracts will be asked to choose “Poster” or “Oral.” Make this selection carefully: once your abstract is committed to one category, it is difficult to move to the other. Do not submit to Symposia, Organized Oral, or Special Sessions. Abstracts for these sessions will be accepted beginning in mid-January from invited speakers only. You will also be asked to select a first, second, and third choice for sessions from a list available. These choices are important. In assembling papers to form approximately equal-sized sessions, your first choice will be given heavy weight. If it is necessary to move papers, second and third choices may also be considered. In a few cases, your paper may be moved to a new or different session. Assembling the program is one of the most difficult tasks, and moving papers once they have been assigned is often a problem because it may entail a cascade of moves. Thus, please be understanding if your first choice is not available.
 
Note: Due to the limited number of time slots available for Oral presentations, and the overwhelming number of submissions, you may be asked to by the Program Chair to give a Poster presentation instead of an Oral presentation.
 
Corrections and cancellations. Before submitting an abstract, authors should be confident that they will attend the meeting. If circumstances prevent attendance, the first option explored should be to find another person to make the presentation. If it is not possible to prepare the talk or poster, or no substitute presenter can be found, the author should notify the program chair as soon as this is known so that the program can be as accurate as possible. Barring unexpected software difficulties, the complete scientific program will be available on the ESA website by  May 1, 2004. Submitters should check their abstracts and note the session, time, and place of their presentation AS SOON AS IT APPEARS ON THE WEBSITE.  Revisions, corrections, or withdrawals should be emailed to the ESA Program Chair esa@ltrr.arizona.edu BEFORE 15 May 2004. Authors are asked not to request minor changes that do not substantially affect clarity or accuracy. Corrections cannot be made after the program goes to the printer. Persons who cancel a presentation after May 15, 2004, or who fail to appear to make a scheduled presentation without good reason will not be allowed to present at the next annual meeting.
 
 
Abstract Submission Fee.  A non-refundable abstract submission fee is now required at the time of submission of your abstract. At recent ESA meetings, the cancellation of papers and posters and author “No Shows” have become serious issues. It is inevitable, of course, that legitimate medical or family emergencies arise, and in such cases, cancellation is unavoidable. However, it appears that many persons are submitting an abstract to hold a place at the meeting, should they, in the end, decide to attend. In other cases, no doubt, the abstract is not submitted so casually, but the paper is withdrawn for less than compelling reasons, such as “too hectic a schedule.” Assembling the program often requires time-consuming effort to find the best place for a single paper. If such a paper is subsequently cancelled, not only is valuable time wasted, but also it may be impossible to go back and re-order the program to be more favorable to those who remain in it. Obviously the later in the process that a paper is cancelled, the greater the negative effect. Late cancellations pose additional difficulties for session presiders, for Buell-Braun judges, and, ultimately, for all attendees who wish to learn about research that was previously scheduled. In short, cancellation is bad.
 
In order to address this serious issue, ESA’s Governing Board has adopted a policy applicable to ALL abstract submissions for the 2004 Meeting in Portland. The following rules will apply:

  1.  Abstract Fees:
     - For Oral Presentations: $40 U.S.
     - For Poster Presentations: $25 U.S.
  2. The fee will be due at the time your abstract for a Symposium, Organized
    Oral, Special Session, Contributed Oral session, or Poster Session is
    submitted. This fee is applicable to all ESA members, and all non-members
    submitting abstracts – NO EXCEPTIONS.
     
  3. Your abstract will NOT be accepted by the Program Chair without
    concurrent submission of the fee to ESA. Instructions on how to submit the fees will be given on the submission web site.
  4. If you cancel your presentation on or prior to Wednesday, April 30, 2004, your Abstract Submission fee WILL be refunded. If you cancel your symposium,  oral, or poster presentation after this date, your Abstract Submission Fee will NOT be refunded. Because of the tight schedule for the assembly of the program, this deadline will be strictly enforced. In addition, if you cancel your Annual Meeting registration at any time after May 1, 2004, no matter what other credits or refunds are due to you, your abstract submission fee will not be refunded.
     
    Note that a talk or poster need not be cancelled if you have someone else present it on your behalf, and this is the preferred solution in most cases. Because of the “one paper rule,” the person presenting for you should not be someone presenting or first author on another talk or poster. In difficult situations, however, exceptions can be granted. Contact the Program

Instructions for preparing an Abstract
 
Abstracts for contributed poster and oral sessions must be received no later than March 1, 2004, and must be submitted electronically over the Internet using the application form on the ESA web site. Persons who have no possibility of gaining access to the internet should contact the Program Chair by e-mail or by post at the address given below for instructions on how to proceed. ESA reserves the right to charge a fee for special services. The text of the abstract (excluding authors, institutions, and title) is limited to 2000 characters (approximately 250 words). Abstracts should include a statement of objectives, brief description of methods used, concise presentation of quantitative results, and a summary of conclusions or inferences drawn. Vague statements to the effect that “results will be discussed” or “data will be presented” may result in abstract rejection. A lack of specifics may be cause for rejection. Submit the abstract to the ESA web site on the electronic form provided. Follow the instructions on the web site, but expect to provide at least this much information, and in this format:

  1. Author to contact (typically the senior author, but not necessarily)
  2. Institution
  3. Complete mailing address (street address, city, state, country, zip code)
  4. Phone number
  5. E-mail address (IMPORTANT NOTE: if this is not correct, you will receive no information about acceptance!)
  6. Person presenting the paper
  7. Preference for oral or poster presentation
  8. Affiliation with Society: are you a member of ESA?
  9. First-, second-, and third-choice session preference (see ESA web site for topic codes, pull-down menu on ESA abstract submission form).

The Abstract must use the following format:

  1. CAPITALIZE names of all authors. For the FIRST author, list the last name first, then first initial, then middle initial. DO NOT TYPE OUT GIVEN NAMES; USE INITIALS ONLY. For any other authors, type first initial, second initial, last name.
  2. Place an ASTERISK by the last name of the PRESENTER of the paper.
  3. Name of authors’ institutions (NOT department affiliation or street address). When two or more authors have different addresses, place a superscript number after each author’s name and a corresponding superscript before each author’s address. If all authors are from the same institution, no numbering is needed.
  4. Title of the presentation.
  5. DO NOT INDENT any part of the abstract itself.

Symbols and special fonts. These are given as a pull-down menu of codes on the ESA abstract submission form on the ESA web site http://www.esa.org/portland/ and follow links) and are generally HTML codes.
 
Notification of receipt. You will be notified of receipt electronically using the RETURN e-mail address, which you will be asked to supply on the electronic fee submission form. Please take care to insure that this address is correct. If it is not, you will not receive notice.
 
Notification of Acceptance. You will be notified by e-mail by April 15, 2004, if your abstract has been accepted for presentation.

SUBMIT ABSTRACTS HERE

 
Contact information for Oral and Poster Abstracts:

ESA Program Chair
Dr. Thomas W. Swetnam
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research
The University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
(520) 621-2112
Fax: (520) 621-8229
E-mail: esa@ltrr.arizona.edu
ESA website for submissions: follow links from: http://www.esa.org/portland/

ESA Assistant Program Chair
Dr. David E. Grow
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research
The University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
(520) 621-7911
Fax: (520) 621-8229
E-mail: dgrow@u.arizona.edu


89th Annual Meeting

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