About Latebreaking Poster Abstracts
We invite submission of abstracts for latebreaking poster presentations for the 2017 ESA Annual Meeting. Abstracts are encouraged to address the meeting theme “Linking Biodiversity, Material Cycling and Ecosystem Services in a Changing World” 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. Posters presentations are two hours long and give presenters an opportunity for extended discussion and networking. Individually submitted contributed abstracts will be grouped together to create poster sessions organized around a common theme. Abstract authors will rank their preferred session themes as part of the abstract submission process. Latebreaking poster sessions are 8:30-10:30 am on Friday, August 11. By submitting an abstract, a presenting author is indicating they will be available during this timeslot.
Abstract Guidelines
- The abstract must primarily report on new work within the field of ecology. Reviews of previous work are not permissible for contributed presentations.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 also the corresponding author. In order to receive notifications from us, it is important to make sure the correct person is indicated and that their email is entered correctly
If you are unsure if your presentation meets our guidelines, please ask us. We would rather talk to you about it in advance than send you a rejection notice in June.
Session assignment
- During abstract submission, you will rank 3 themes to guide the grouping of your presentation into a session with similar presentations.
- Consider the themes carefully. They have been updated for 2017.
- Latebreaking Poster sessions are Friday morning, 8:30-10:30 AM. By submitting an abstract, you are indicating you will be available during this timeslot.
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 not present a Latebreaking poster if you are already presenting elsewhere in the program. 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 Ignite presentation.
After Submission
Editing abstracts
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.
Meeting registration
The presenting author of every accepted abstract will also need to register and will be reminded to do so in meeting correspondence. All Latebreaking Poster speakers will be notified of their acceptance in advance of the Early Bird registration deadline.
Cancellations
Please note that the submission deadline for Latebreaking Posters falls after the May 1 cancellation deadline. Although you may still cancel an abstract submitted to this call, the $50 late cancellation penalty will apply after May 1. 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 as soon as possible if a presentation needs to be cancelled.
The fee for cancelling 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.
Important Dates
May 4, 2017
Abstract submission deadline.
June 1, 2017
Notification of acceptance
sent to presenting author.
