Submissions that are incomplete or received after the deadline will not be considered.

If you are a federal scientist affected by the government shutdown, you may contact us to request a deadline extension.

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 don’t complete your submission in time. The form automatically closes at 5:00 PM Eastern / 2:00 PM Pacific whether you have completed your submission or not.

ESA meetings, open to ESA members and those interested in ecology, are among the most respected meetings of ecologist in the science community. ESA is committed to providing a safe, productive and welcoming environment for all meeting participants and ESA staff. 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 Scientific Integrity and Professional Ethics Policy.

Before You Begin

Please read and follow the abstract guidelines carefully. They are provided here as a guide to help you plan in advance. You can start your submission, save your progress, and then return to complete it at any time before the deadline has passed. A login and password will be automatically emailed to you when you begin an abstract submission. You may log in to view your abstract at any time by logging in here.

If this is your first time submitting an abstract for an ESA meeting, we suggest reading some contributed abstracts from a previous meeting. Abstracts from recent meetings are available online (2018, 2017, 2016). If you are a student, we strongly encourage you to work closely with your faculty adviser as you develop your abstract. If you encounter problems during abstract submission, email Jennifer Riem and include the abstract ID number.

Submission Forms

About Contributed Oral Abstracts

We invite submission of abstracts for contributed oral presentations for the 2019 ESA & USSEE Joint Meeting. Abstracts are encouraged to address the meeting theme “Bridging communities and ecosystems: Inclusion as an ecological imperative” if appropriate, but doing so is not necessary. We welcome submissions that report interdisciplinary work, address communication with broad audiences, or explore ways of teaching ecology at any level. Contributed oral presentations are scheduled for 20 minute timeslots. 15 minutes are allowed for each presentation plus 5 minutes for questions. Individually submitted contributed abstracts will be grouped together to create sessions organized around a common theme. Abstract authors will rank their preferred session themes as part of the abstract submission process. Each contributed talk may be scheduled Monday afternoon through Friday morning. By submitting an abstract, the presenting author is indicating that they will be available during any of the possible time slots.

Abstract Submission Guidelines

Format guidelines (all submissions)

• The body of the abstract is up to 400 words, split between the two sections (up to 200 words each): Background/Question/Methods, in which the objective of the study is clearly identified and the methods are described; and Results/Conclusions, in which specific results of the study are explicitly reported and their implications for ecology are briefly discussed.
• For every author listed, their name, institution, and email are required information.
• Missing coauthors are a very common issue. Be sure to check to make sure everyone has been included. This is under Step 2, People, in the left hand menu.
• Any author can be designated as the presenting author. The presenting author’s name will appear in bold text. The presenting author is the corresponding author who will receive all communications, including acceptance and scheduling notifications, from ESA. In order 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.

Content guidelines (ESA submissions)

• The abstract must primarily report on new work within the field of ecology.
• Reviews of previous work are not permissible for contributed presentations.
• The abstract must report specific results. The results may be preliminary but they may not be vague. Abstracts without explicitly stated results will be rejected.
• It is understandable that abstracts describing non-traditional work may lack quantitative data; however, it is still expected that the abstract will address some question and have a “take-home message” describing specific findings.
• 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.

Content guidelines (USSEE submissions)

• The abstract must primarily report on new work within the field of ecology or ecological economics.
• Reviews of previous work are not permissible for contributed presentations.
• The abstract must report specific results. The results may be preliminary but they may not be vague. Abstracts without explicitly stated results will be rejected.
• It is understandable that abstracts describing non-traditional, conceptual, or policy work may lack quantitative or qualitative data; however, it is still expected that the abstract will address some question and have a “take-home message” describing specific findings.
• 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.

Session assignment

During abstract submission, you will be asked to rank 3 themes to guide the grouping of your presentation into a session with similar presentations. Consider the themes carefully.

Each contributed talk may be scheduled Monday afternoon through Friday morning. By submitting an abstract, you are indicating you will be available during any of the possible time slots.

One presentation rule

Each person is allowed to submit only one abstract where they are listed as presenting author. This rule is enforced in order to encourage broad participation. You may present a poster or a talk, not both. 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.

After Submission

Editing abstracts

Abstract editing will be available for a short window (2-3 weeks) in April and early May. All presenting authors will receive instructions and a specific deadline by email. Edits are not possible outside the May editing window.

Meeting registration

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 will open in April.

Cancellations

The presenting author should notify ESA as soon as possible if a presentation needs to be cancelled. The deadline for cancellation without risk of penalty is May 1.

When submitting an abstract, presenters should be reasonably confident that they will attend the meeting and give the presentation as scheduled. Presenters in uncertain funding situations should cancel by May 1. Cancellations after May 1 (late cancellations) and failures to give scheduled presentations without any notice (no shows) are disruptive and leave gaps in the program that are a source of frustration for attendees.

The late cancellation fee is $50 USD. The no show penalty is a one year presentation ban, regardless of presentation type. Any abstract with the penalized author listed as the presenting author will not be accepted for the following year’s conference. These penalties apply only to the presenting author, not to any coauthors, and for all presentation types (invited and contributed, posters and talks).

The late cancellation and no show penalties will not be applied to presenters with unavoidable reasons for not attending the conference. For example, medical issues, family emergencies, unforeseen travel problems, difficulty acquiring a visa for travel to the US, and similar unforeseen situations outside of a presenter’s control.

Late cancellations due to a presenter’s inability to secure funding to attend, starting a new job, or other scheduling conflicts are considered avoidable and the penalties will apply.

Student Presentation Award

Murray F. Buell Award for Excellence in Ecology

Murray F. Buell had a long and distinguished record of service and accomplishment in the Ecological Society of America. Among other things, he ascribed great importance to the participation of students in meetings and to excellence in the presentation of papers. To honor his selfless dedication to the younger generation of ecologists, the Murray F. Buell Award is given to a student for the outstanding oral paper presented at the ESA Annual Meeting. If you are a student (undergraduate or graduate) who is the presenting author of a presentation, you are eligible to be considered. Talks will be judged on significance of ideas, creativity, quality of methodology, validity of conclusions drawn from results, and clarity of presentation. The students selected for these awards will be announced in the ESA Bulletin after the Annual Meeting. A certificate and a check for $500 will be presented to the recipient at the following ESA Annual Meeting. While all students are encouraged to apply, winning papers and posters typically describe fully completed projects.

How to apply

This year’s submission deadline is Thursday, April 18 at 5:00pm ET (2:00pm PT).

Learn more and apply >>

Presentation Guidelines

Contributed oral presentations are scheduled for 20 minute timeslots. 15 minutes are allotted for each presentation plus 5 minutes for questions. Time limits will be strictly enforced by the session presider, who will warn each speaker when they are approaching their time limit.

You may end before 15 minutes to allow more discussion but you should not run over this time. The 5 minute period between talks belongs to the audience, not to the speaker. This period allows for questions, discussion, and a smooth transition to the next speaker. Q&A will be managed by the session presider.

Plan to arrive at your session room 20 minutes in advance of your session. This time is for checking in with the session presider and transferring your presentation to the laptop in the room. A student A/V volunteer will be available to assist you.

Technical information

We realize that losing speaking time due to technical glitches or other problems is a frustrating and stressful experience. This information is provided to presenters in advance in order to help minimize problems on the day of the presentation.

• Microsoft PowerPoint is the recommended format.
• You should bring a copy of your presentation on a USB flash drive.
• Each meeting room will be equipped with a dedicated LCD projector and PC laptop. The laptop will be running Windows 7 with MS Office 2010 Suite.
• Standard (4:3) aspect ratio works best for our screens.
• There will be audio capability in each room for presentations with sound.
• The convention center will have wireless internet this year, but we do not advise you to rely on it for any critical components of your presentation. It is best to bring everything you need on the flash drive. If your presentation will feature internet content, be sure to have backup versions ready (screenshots, for example).
• All speakers are welcome to test their slides in advance in a speaker ready room. You may sign up for a time to test your presentation at the Info Desk. We especially recommend testing your slides if you are using a format other than PowerPoint.
• You may use your own laptop for your presentation if necessary, however, you will be responsible for bringing any adapter needed for HDMI connectivity. We ask that you be considerate of the presenter following you and make sure your technical setup does not take away from any of their presentation time.
• Please make sure that you and/or the A/V volunteer can disconnect and reconnect the dedicated laptop quickly and properly. Any cables or peripherals (flash drives, slide advancers, etc.,) need to be correctly engaged and disengaged, otherwise it can cause A/V system failure.
• Laser pointers will be provided for each session.
• Remote slide advancers (clickers) will be available in each room this year.

Important Dates

Questions?