How To Submit

You must submit your proposal using the online submission form. Proposals sent by email will not be considered. Proposals 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. Every speaker listed in the proposal will receive a similar email. You will be able to return to the proposal to edit it until the submission deadline has passed.

To submit a proposal, 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.

About Inspire Sessions

Inspire sessions are Ignite-style sessions intended to stimulate the exchange of new and exciting ideas in a short time period. Each session should be organized around a general topic that is related to the advancement of ecology. Inspire sessions are intended to complement the traditional scientific program. These sessions will provide an opportunity for ecologists to share information with their colleagues that would not fit into the usual session types. The concise speaking slot and rapid slide transitions lend themselves to a more conversational and storytelling presentation style.

Proposals are encouraged to address the meeting theme, “Ecology is Everywhere,” if appropriate, but doing so is not necessary. Any timely and coherent subject of broad ecological interest will be considered. We also welcome proposals that explore interdisciplinary connections with areas of social and natural science outside of ecology or that relate to ecological education at any level.

Inspire sessions will be scheduled for 90 minutes and consist of between six and ten 5-minute talks organized to address a common theme. Each Inspire talk will feature 20 slides that advance automatically every 15 seconds. There is no Q&A time between speakers. Instead, the time remaining at the end of the 90 minute session will be used for general discussion (usually at least 30 minutes).

We will not offer any hybrid or virtual sessions this year. All speakers for accepted invited paper sessions should plan to present in person in Baltimore. We are unable to accommodate remote presentations.

All paper sessions will have a student volunteer who will help each presenter load their slides and introduce them. We ask that each session organizer manage the discussion period at the end of the session.

What is Inspire?

The links in this section are highly recommended reading and viewing for anyone considering submitting an Inspire session, as well as any speakers they invite to participate. Inspire talks will require different preparation than typical ESA presentations. Some differences to keep in mind:

• A presenter will only have time to make 1 or 2 main points that are explained or supported by the slides. It may be best to show one data slide and use the remaining slides to briefly introduce the idea and explain the rationale and consequences of the main point.
• The slides are not visible long enough to be a major focus of the presentation. The slides should support what you’re saying, not say what you’re supporting.
• Slides should focus more on quick, powerful visual impressions than on details. If you’re including complex figures or more than a couple of simple bullet points then you’re saying too much on the slides.
• Data intensive slides are very likely to give a speaker significant trouble pacing their slides.
• The slides will advance every 15 seconds whether the speaker has said everything they meant to say on the current slide or not. Practicing the timing is critical in order to avoid chasing the slides.
• Assume your first and last slides (and therefore, 15 seconds) are mostly for introducing your topic and wrapping it up, respectively.
• You can repeat a slide for more than one 15 second interval if you wish.

Don’t let these differences intimidate you! Just be sure to prepare for them.

Some helpful videos about Ignite-style talks

• How and why to give an Ignite-style talk
• How to give a successful Ignite-style talk
• How to give a great Ignite-style talk

Some example of effective talks on various subjects

• On being a refugee
• Cup Noodle: Innovation, inspiration and manga
• Fighting dirty in Scrabble
• Why is math cool?
• The 22-minute meeting
• How to buy a new car
• Social hacking with spatial data

Proposal Format

• Submitter agreements. The submitter must agree to abide by the Code of Conduct for ESA Events, the ESA Code of Ethics, and the ESA Diversity Statement.
• Session title (up to 50 words). A short and descriptive title works best.
• Organizer (Name, institution, email, country). This person is the point of contact for the session and responsible for communicating with speakers.
• Co-organizers (Name, institution, email, country for each). There can be any number of co-organizers, including zero.
• 6-10 Confirmed speakers (Name, institution, email, country, and tentative talk title for each). Only speakers who have been contacted and have committed to the session should be listed. The talk title can be updated later during abstract submission, but please avoid vague placeholder titles (note the review criteria).
• Session description (up to 200 words): Describe the theme and purpose of this session. The session description should avoid overly specialized language. Any ecologist attending the meeting should be able to understand it. It may include background information, goals, objectives, importance, and interest to the membership of ESA. This description will appear in the online program and be read by attendees deciding whether or not to attend the session. Please do not duplicate information that appears elsewhere here (session title, organizer name, speakers names, speaker topics, etc.)
• Session justification (up to 200 words): The justification should focus on how the review criteria are met by the proposal. It should not simply repeat the session description. The session justification will only be seen by peer reviewers and the committee. It will not appear in the meeting program.
• Diversity and inclusion: ESA is committed to promoting diversity in all areas of activity, including the Annual Meeting. In keeping with this policy, organizers of invited sessions are expected to affirmatively promote ESA’s Diversity Statement by including representation from diverse voices and demographics, especially Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, LGBTQ2S people, people with disabilities, or others who have been and are currently marginalized. While not every session must include every aspect of human diversity, we ask you to please confirm that you have taken efforts to ensure a diverse and inclusive session: (Yes/No)
• Topical track (select up to 2, optional): Would you like this session to be considered for inclusion in any of the following tracks? Please only select a track if you think it’s a good fit for this proposal.
  • Career Exploration
  • Education
  • Justice, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI)
  • Data Skills Training
  • Traditional Ecological Knowledge
  • Communication and Engagement
• Scheduling conflicts (up to 200 words, optional): Is the session intended to be linked to another session or social event? Are there any other sessions proposed for the meeting you are aware of that should not be scheduled at the same time as this one? Are there any other considerations we should know about when scheduling this session? Please note we cannot honor requests to schedule for a specific date or time. These sessions may be scheduled Monday through Thursday. We will do our best to avoid known scheduling conflicts. This will only be seen by peer reviewers and the committee. It will not appear in the meeting program.

Demographic Questions about the Session Organizer

The submission form asks a few questions about the session organizer 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 lead session organizer for this proposal.  All information will be shared only in the aggregate to help us assess the diversity of our submissions. Proposal reviewers and the committee will not see this information for individual proposals. 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

Advice To Help Your Submission Go Smoothly

• Read the proposal requirements and review criteria before you start developing your proposal. You may find the idea you have in mind is a better fit for one of the other session formats.
• Start recruiting speakers as soon as possible. This generally takes longer than most people think it will. You do need a complete list of confirmed speakers and tentative talk titles (not final, but specific) for each person.
• We recommend submitting from a computer. The submission form is not optimized for mobile devices.
• The submission form only accepts plain text. Your proposal should not include links, formatting (such as italics or bold). Unfortunately, we cannot support subscripts, superscripts, special characters, or Greek and mathematical symbols.
• You will be able to search our member database list to find people to enter for your session in different roles. You will need to enter everyone’s affiliations after you add them to the proposal. We advise you to make sure you have everyone’s affiliations as they would like it to appear in the meeting program.

Review Criteria

All proposals will be peer reviewed by reviewers selected by the Program Subcommittee. The Program Subcommittee may accept, decline, or offer an opportunity to present the proposed session in a more appropriate session type. Proposals will be assessed using the following criteria. The weight of particular criteria may vary depending on the nature of proposals.

Criteria for a strong Inspire session proposal

Relevance and impact

• features significant contributions to the field of ecology.
• presents innovative and original work.
• benefits broader society (for example through education, public policy, communication/public engagement, application to commercial technology, national security or international cooperation).
• The proposed session is a good fit for the Inspire session format: 5-minute talks, automatic slide advancement, engaged discussion to end the session.

Structure and organization

• forms a coherent whole through contributions from individual talks.
• offers a range of perspectives through the collection of speakers.
• avoids the appearance of biases toward their organizers’ own perspectives.

Speakers

• lists 6-10 confirmed speakers (speakers who have been contacted and have committed to the session).
• includes a specific title for every speaker’s talk.
• involves diverse perspectives and voices as elaborated in the ESA Diversity Statement, beyond or in addition to career stage and disciplinary diversity. 

Other details to consider

In the interest of broadening participation, an individual can be the lead organizer for only one invited paper session (symposium, organized oral session, Inspire session). If you are working with a group to submit related proposals as a series, each proposal should be led by a different person. There is no limit on how many proposals you can help organized as a co-organizer, only on taking the lead.

One presentation rule

The one presentation rule does not apply to participants speaking in Inspire sessions. Inspire presenters should commit to give only one Inspire presentation. They may present something else (a poster, or a different type of talk) as their second presentation.

If Your Proposal is Accepted

After acceptance decisions have been made and the scheduling for the meeting is underway, cancellations and schedule changes are very disruptive to meeting planning. It is therefore very important that session organizers obtain firm commitments from their invited speakers before submitting their proposal. If a proposal is accepted, the organizer will be required to submit an up-to-date version of the session details and confirmed speaker list within a few weeks of acceptance.

Communication with speakers

If a proposal is accepted as a session, it is very important that the organizer communicates with speakers starting with the acceptance of the session and continuing throughout all stages of program development. This includes communicating with speakers about session acceptance, abstract requirements and deadlines, session scheduling, and expectations for participation in the conference. Ongoing and clear communication is important to the success of a session.

Other helpful information

Here are a few details that all speakers should know up front. Miscommunication about them can disrupt session planning later in the process.

• Scheduling. We are unable to honor scheduling requests. When asking speakers to commit to the session, organizers should inform them that the session could be scheduled any day Monday through Thursday. We cannot schedule or move a session to accommodate the availability of speakers.

• Abstract Submission. Speakers who fail to submit an abstract on time will be removed from the session. It is the responsibility of the session organizer to make sure each speaker submits an abstract for their talk using the unique link that will be emailed to each speaker. It is important to make sure all speakers are aware of the abstract submission deadline early on.

• Abstract Fee. All speakers who submit an abstract for an accepted invited session will be asked to pay an abstract fee at the time of abstract submission. This fee is $35 for students and $60 for non-students and is non-refundable. Speakers are unable to pay this fee due to a lack of funding will be able to opt out during the payment step of abstract submission. The abstract fee covers technical costs associated with abstract submission.

• Meeting Registration. All session participants, including the organizer, any co-organizers, and all speakers, are required to register for the conference. Organizers are responsible for making this clear to their speakers early in the process.

Cancellations

For session organizers

Once a session has been accepted and listed online, cancellation imposes a serious burden. Do not submit a proposal if you are uncertain that you will be able to fulfill your obligation to organize and conduct the session. Once a session is accepted by the Program Chair, cancellation by the session organizers may preclude the organizers from being allowed to submit any proposals for sessions for the 2026 ESA Annual Meeting.

For presenters

When submitting an abstract, presenters should be reasonably confident that they will attend the meeting and give the presentation as scheduled.  We understand that planning ahead is particularly challenging this year, but the presenting author should notify ESA Meetings as soon as possible if a presentation needs to be cancelled.  Please cancel by May 1 if possible, to help us minimize gaps in the final meeting program as well as receive an abstract fee refund if you paid the fee.

Important Dates

November 14, 2024    Deadline to submit a session proposal.

January 16, 2025         Session acceptance notification.

Late February 2025     Abstract submission opens for invited speakers.

March 20, 2025           Deadline for speakers to submit abstracts.

May 1, 2025                Deadline for speakers to cancel presentations.

Questions?

Contact ESA’s Meetings Team at meetings@esa.org