Call for Latebreaking and Project Proposed Posters

How to Submit

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You must submit your abstract using the online submission form. Abstracts sent by email will not be considered. Abstracts that are incomplete will not be considered.

All ESA Annual Meeting proposal and abstract deadlines are 5:00 PM Eastern so that technical support and ESA staff assistance will be immediately available when submitters need it. If you begin your submission very close to the deadline, you are choosing to take a risk, and we will not make an exception if you are unable to complete your submission in time. The form automatically closes at 5:00 Eastern Time (2:00 Pacific Time) whether you have completed your submission or not.

You will receive an automatic email when you complete your submission. You will be able to return to the abstract to edit it until the submission deadline has passed.

To submit an abstract, you will need to log in using an ESA member account. If you have not been an ESA member or registered for an ESA meeting in recent years, you will need to create an ESA member account before you can submit. You do not need to pay membership dues to create an ESA member account or submit for the meeting.

Important Note

ESA meetings, open to ESA members and those interested in ecology, are among the most respected meetings of ecologists in the science community. ESA is committed to providing a safe, productive and welcoming environment. All participants including, but not limited to, attendees, speakers, volunteers, exhibitors, ESA staff, service providers and others are expected to abide by the ESA Meetings Code of Conduct. This Code of Conduct applies to all ESA meeting-related events including those sponsored by organizations other than ESA but held in conjunction with ESA events, in public or private facilities. In addition, ESA members and authors of ESA publications must adhere to the ESA Code of Ethics and the ESA Diversity Statement.

About This Call For Abstracts

We invite submission of abstracts for latebreaking and project proposed posters for the 2025 ESA Annual Meeting. Abstracts are encouraged to address the meeting focus, “Ecology is Everywhere”, if appropriate. However, we welcome submissions from any topic in ecology, including submissions that report interdisciplinary work, address communication with broad audiences, or explore ways of teaching ecology at any level.

All posters accepted from this call will be scheduled for 5:00-6:30 PM (90 minutes) on Thursday, August 14th.

About Latebreaking Poster Presentations

Abstracts for latebreaking posters must follow the same guidelines as contributed abstracts, which include reporting specific new knowledge (quantitative, qualitative, or conceptual). Preliminary results are appropriate for this poster type. Presenters who do not have even preliminary results ready to share at the time of abstract submission should submit a project proposed abstract (see below).

About Project Proposed Poster Presentations

New this year, project proposed posters are an opportunity for attendees who are in the early stages of a project to present and receive constructive feedback from attendees at a formative stage of project development. These posters will be appropriate for presenters who do not have results ready to share at the time of abstract submission, including presenters who have not collected any data yet or are in the early stages of collecting data.

We welcome submissions from all career stages; however, we hope that this will be a particularly helpful presentation format for students and early career ecologists seeking to improve proposed or in-progress work.

Presenters with results to report at the time of abstract submission, even if preliminary or incomplete, should submit a standard late breaking poster abstract (see above).

Sorting abstracts into sessions

Abstract submitters will rank 3 preferred session themes as part of the abstract submission process.  Individually submitted latebreaking poster abstracts will be grouped together to create sessions with a common theme. Individually submitted project proposed posters will be grouped together by theme if there is a sufficient number to do so. If not, they may be grouped together as one Projects Proposed session.

These sessions will all be scheduled for 5:00-6:30 PM (90 minutes) on Thursday, August 14th. By submitting an abstract, you are indicating that the presenting author will be available during this time slot. Poster sessions are the last scientific session each day to give presenters an opportunity for extended discussion and networking. There are no other scientific sessions that are scheduled concurrently with latebreaking posters.

Submission Guidelines – Latebreaking Posters

We welcome submissions on a wide variety of ecological topics, including but not limited to research-focused studies, topics related to education or human dimensions of ecology, applied ecological works, conceptual or theoretical contributions, and valuable resources to support ecological research.

Abstract guidelines

• The body of the abstract may be up to 400 words maximum.
• The abstract should not contain any headings.
• All abstracts are expected to report on work relevant to the field of ecology.
• All abstracts are expected to report on new contributions (i.e., contributions that have not been previously published). A project that reviews current understanding (e.g., published research), such as meta-analyses, are considered “new work” if that review has not been previously published.
• The abstract must report specific new knowledge (quantitative, qualitative, or conceptual). The results, outcomes, or knowledge may be preliminary, but they may not be vague. Abstracts without explicitly stated novel results, outcomes, or knowledge will be rejected.
• Abstracts must be clear. Poorly written abstracts will be rejected.
• Abstracts must be written in English and must follow standard grammar and punctuation rules. Abstracts that do not meet this guideline will be rejected.

The content of the abstract must

• Provide sufficient background information for the reader to understand the motivation for the work to be presented.
• Clearly articulate the goals and objectives of the work. Where appropriate, specific research questions and hypotheses should also be clearly articulated (e.g., research projects, meta-analyses, etc).
• Clearly articulate the approaches or methods employed to arrive at the results, outcomes, or conclusions produced by the study. For abstracts reporting on a research project, the specific methods used should be summarized; for more conceptual, theoretical, applied, or other projects, the general approach or framework must be summarized.
• Cleary summarize key outcomes or contributions from the work; these may be in the form of quantitative results (e.g., for research-focused studies) or qualitative outcomes or knowledge produced.
• Conclude with one or more ecologically relevant take-home messages.

Submission Guidelines – Project Proposed Posters

Abstract guidelines  

• The body of the abstract may be up to 400 words maximum.  
• The abstract should not contain any headings.  
• All abstracts are expected to report on work relevant to the field of ecology.  

• All abstracts are expected to report on projects in an early stage of development (i.e., in a planning or data collection stage too early to report preliminary results at the time of the abstract submission deadline).
• A project that reviews current understanding (e.g., published research), such as meta-analyses, is considered “new work” if that review has not been previously conducted. 
• The abstract should NOT report results. If you have even some preliminary results to report at the time of submission, please submit a Latebreaking Poster abstract.
• Abstracts must be clear. Poorly written abstracts will be rejected.  
• Abstracts must be written in English and must follow standard grammar and punctuation rules. Abstracts that do not meet this guideline will be rejected.  

The content of the abstract must

• Provide sufficient background information for the reader to understand the motivation for the work that is planned or in progress. 
• Clearly articulate the goals and objectives of the work. Where appropriate, specific research questions and hypotheses should also be clearly articulated (e.g., research projects, meta-analyses, etc). 
• Clearly articulate the approaches or methods (proposed or in progress) that will be employed to arrive at the results, outcomes, or conclusions produced by the study. For abstracts reporting on a research project, the specific methods used should be summarized; for more conceptual, theoretical, applied, or other projects, the general approach or framework must be summarized. 
• Clearly describe how you plan to evaluate the results; this may be in the form of analyzing quantitative results (e.g., for research-focused studies) or interpreting any qualitative outcomes or knowledge produced. 

• Discuss the expected implications of the work.  How will it advance ecological knowledge?
• You are welcome to indicate specific areas you wish to obtain feedback on from other attendees, such as your hypotheses/questions, experimental design, data collection methods, or planned data analysis. This is not required, but it is encouraged.

Other Important Information

Helpful information about abstract entry

• For every author listed, their name, institution, email, and country are required information.
• Missing coauthors are a very common issue. Be sure to check to make sure everyone has been included in the Authors step during submission.
• The presenting author is the corresponding author who will receive all communications, including acceptance and scheduling notifications, from ESA. To receive notifications from us on time, it is important to make sure the correct person is indicated and that their email is entered correctly.
• Any author can be designated as the presenting author. The submitter is designated by default, and this can be adjusted by editing the author list.

Demographic Questions about the Presenting Author

The submission form asks a few questions about the presenting author to help ESA improve our services and monitor our efforts towards diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. You will be asked to answer the following questions about the presenting author for this abstract.  All information will be shared only in the aggregate to help us assess the diversity of our submissions. Abstract reviewers and the committee will not see this information for individual abstracts. It is required that you answer each question, but you can select “Prefer not to answer”.

What best describes your race and/or ethnicity? You can select multiple answers.

• Asian/Asian American
• Black/African American
• Native American / Alaskan Native
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander
• Middle Eastern or North African
• Hispanic/Latinx
• White
• Bi/Multiracial
• Other
• Prefer to self describe (free response option)
• Prefer not to answer

Where are you currently in your career? You can only select one.

• Undergraduate Student
• Graduate Student (includes PhD students)
• Post Doc
• Early Career (1-8 years since final degree, excluding post docs)
• Mid-Career (within 25 years since final degree)
• Senior Professional (more than 25 years since final degree)
• Retired
• Other (please describe)
• Prefer not to answer

What best describes your gender? You can only select one.

• Female
• Male
• Non-binary
• Prefer to self-describe (free response option)
• Prefer not to answer

One presentation rule

Each person is allowed to submit only one abstract where they are listed as presenting author. This rule is enforced to encourage broad participation. This rule does not apply to coauthors. An author may be the presenting author on two abstracts only if one of the abstracts primarily reports on ecology education/outreach or is for an Inspire presentation.

Abstract fee

There is a non-refundable fee to submit an abstract. This fee is $35 for students and $60 for non-students. If you are unable to pay this fee due to a lack of funding, you can opt out during the payment step of abstract submission. The abstract fee will not be refunded under any circumstances. The abstract fee covers technical costs associated with abstract submission and review.

Next Steps After Submission

Abstract review

Peer reviewers will rate abstracts using the abstract guidelines included in this call. The ratings and comments provided by peer reviewers will inform the acceptance decisions made by the Program Subcommittee. We will send an email to every submitter notifying them of the Program Subcommittee’s decision in June.

Abstract editing

Because the submission deadline is very close to our final preparations of the program, editing these abstracts is not possible after the submission deadline has passed. Proofread very carefully.

Required revisions

In cases where an abstract is required to be revised, the submitter will have 2 weeks to formally submit a revised abstract. Submitters will be able to log back into the same form where they submitted their original abstract to submit a revised abstract. Submitters who revise will be notified of a final decision within 2 weeks of the deadline to revise.

Appealing rejections

If a submitter believes their abstract was rejected in error, they will have 2 weeks to formally appeal the decision by submitting a statement for the Program Subcommittee to consider. Submitters who appeal a rejection will be notified of a final decision within 2 weeks.  

The appeal process is not an opportunity to revise an abstract that did not originally meet the review guidelines. The committee will not consider an appeal made on the basis of adding required information, including results, after the fact.  

Meeting registration and housing

The presenting author of every accepted abstract is required to register for the meeting and will be reminded to do so in meeting correspondence. Submitting an abstract does not register you for the meeting. Registration is a separate process that we anticipate will open in May.

The website to book a room in our hotel block will also open in May. We encourage attendees to book housing within our hotel block to support the long-term success of the meeting. The number of hotel rooms booked inside our housing block each year affects our ability to book future meeting cities, including the amount of convention center space we can book. By booking inside the block, you are helping us secure future meeting venues that our attendees are interested in and sufficient space within those venues for our sessions.

Cancellations

When submitting an abstract, presenters should be reasonably confident that they will attend the meeting and give the presentation as scheduled.  The presenting author should notify ESA Meetings as soon as possible if a presentation needs to be cancelled to help us minimize gaps in the final meeting program.

Funding to Support Meeting Attendance

ESA is happy to support access to the Annual Meeting by those who might not otherwise have funding to participate. There are multiple opportunities to apply for funding through ESA, which you can read about here.

ESA members, especially students, are encouraged to seek support through their sections and chapters. Student support may include need-based grants or awards based on scientific work. Students are especially encouraged to apply for funding through the Les Real and Jim Brown Student Travel Award, which is funded by donations and administered by the Student Section.

Students who are accepted as volunteers at the Annual Meeting will be able to have the base registration cost at the Early Bird rate reimbursed.

Elected leaders in ESA’s sections and chapters are eligible for dedicated funding.

Important Dates

May 15, 2025                   Abstract submission deadline.

June 12, 2025                   Notification of acceptance sent to presenting author.

Questions?

Meetings Team
Ecological Society of America
meetings@esa.org