Abstract Submission Tips
Many years ago, I had to submit an abstract for a conference. It was all last minute and I was woefully unprepared. I had the final text and knew that the submission deadline was Sunday at midnight. When my calendar cleared Friday afternoon, I began probing the conference submission portal. I realized that (a) I didn’t have all the information required to submit the abstract, (b) I needed to get in touch with all the authors to get that information, and (c) this was going to take a while. It was a stressful race to the finish however, I learned a lot that weekend. I know now that the process can take an hour, but only if one prepares well in advance. Here are a few tips from my experience that can make your submission a breeze:
Start preparing NOW. Most conferences have portals that are fully operational months in advance of the submission deadline. Visit the conference portal, create an account, start exploring the site, and create a spreadsheet.
Make note of every question and required fields. Screenshots are best. You don’t need a final abstract to navigate the submission pages, nor do you need all the information. Most conferences allow you to save partial work. If needed, take a guess to fill out the required fields. Take your draft submission as far as you can without confirming it’s final.
Pay attention to branching. Questions, fields, and dropdown lists are likely to vary depending on what you select. Typical examples are categories and subcategories, but there could be more. Explore every permutation and make note of what you see.
Get familiar with authors. You will need names, email addresses, titles, and affiliations. Understand how to add, edit, and move authors around. Order matters, big time. Get the required disclosures from your authors as early as you can. Make sure you know who will present and who will receive notifications from the conference organizers.
Enlist your team for help. Share your submission spreadsheet and ask the authors to help you fill it out. Ideally, you should have all the information ready days before the deadline. This way all you need at the end is the final abstract text.
Don’t wait until the deadline. If you have everything ready, submit it; you can make corrections up to the deadline itself.
Submitting an abstract doesn’t have to be hard. You’ve got this! Good luck! Let us know if you need help preparing your poster.
Fernando Venegas
Head of Operations & Quality, Acumen