About Latebreaking Poster Presentations

We invite submission of abstracts for latebreaking posters for the 2024 ESA Annual Meeting. Abstracts are encouraged to address the meeting focus, “Supporting Ecologists Throughout Their Careers”, 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. We note that abstracts for latebreaking posters must still present results and are not appropriate for planned studies or studies in progress where no results have yet been generated.

Two sessions to help you optimize your work! Visual Storytelling Using MS PowerPoint is May 14; Elevate Your Poster Presentation is May 21.

How to Submit

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 available as needed. If you begin your submission very close to the deadline, you are choosing to take a risk, and no exceptions will be made if you are unable to complete your submission in time. You will be able to return to the abstract to edit it until the submission deadline has passed, but not after.

We have a new submission system this year. Unlike previous years, you will not receive an automatic email when you start a new submission. You will receive an automatic email when you complete your submission. If you paid the abstract fee, you will receive two emails confirming payment, one from our submission system and one from our payment vendor. Please check your junk mail folder if you don’t see an email that you are expecting.

To submit an abstract, you will need to log in using an ESA member account. If you have been an ESA member or registered for an ESA meeting in recent years, you should already have an account. Your username and password to log in for the meeting are the same as for your ESA member account. Otherwise, you must create an ESA member account. 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.

Sorting abstracts into sessions

Abstract submitters will rank 3 preferred session themes as part of the abstract submission process.  Individually submitted abstracts will be grouped together to create sessions with a common theme. These sessions will all be scheduled for 5:00-6:30 PM (90 minutes) on Thursday, August 8th. By submitting an abstract, you are indicating that the presenting author will be available during this time slot. There are no other scientific sessions that are scheduled concurrently with latebreaking posters.

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.

Abstract Submission Guidelines

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.

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.

• Student (undergraduate or graduate, including PhD students)
• Early Career (1-8 years since final degree, including post docs)
• Mid-Career (within 25 years since final degree)
• Senior Professional (more than 25 years since final degree)
• 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 fee to submit a latebreaking poster 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 covers technical costs associated with abstract submission and review. The fee will be refunded in cases where an abstract is rejected or cancelled by the May 1 cancellation deadline.

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.

Required revisions

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.

Appealing rejections

In cases where an abstract is rejected, the submitter will have 2 weeks to formally appeal the rejection. Submitters will be able to log back into the same form where they submitted their original abstract to indicate they are appealing, add a note to make a case for the appeal, and submit a revised abstract. Revision in cases of rejection is not required, but it is highly encouraged to address committee comments. Submitters who appeal will be notified of a final decision within 2 weeks of the deadline to appeal.

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. Please cancel by May 1 if possible, to help us minimize gaps in the final meeting program. If you paid the abstract fee and cancel by May 1, you will receive a refund of the fee.

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. At this point the deadlines for registration grants and dependent care have passed, but there are other opportunities available through ESA’s sections and chapters that will be added to the website during April.

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

April 25, 2024                   Abstract submission deadline.

June 6, 2024                      Notification of acceptance sent to presenting author.