The abstract review took place in Pensacola, Florida on June 24-27.

Participant selection for the abstract review committee takes place one year before the actual abstract review meeting. The participants are all part of the 2018 SETAC North America annual meeting planning committee. Those selected for the abstract review process represent the tripartite membership of SETAC—government, academia and the private sector. The abstract review committee members also represent a breadth of knowledge so that the end result is a balanced scientific program, not one that favors a certain discipline.

Abstract submission is open from mid-May to early June. Once abstract submission closes, the abstract review committee each receive a portion of the abstracts for an initial evaluation to make sure that the content of the abstract is reasonable for inclusion in the meeting (ie., the abstract is not selling a product, does not contain offensive language, etc.). Two subsequent reviews are completed by two separate committee members at the abstract review meeting. This means that once an abstract has been accepted to the meeting, three different people have read it and concur that it is suitable for the conference.

During the meeting in Pensacola, the abstract review committee works through the following steps to develop the scientific program for the meeting:

• Full read of abstracts submitted to each session.
• Consider session chair recommendations on which abstracts should be accepted for platform presentation vs. poster presentation.
• Adjust platform presenters to represent the tripartite membership of SETAC and, when possible, include at least one student presentation.
• Once steps 1-3 are completed, an additional reviewer goes through those same steps to catch any errors or make alternate recommendations.
• Consolidate sessions when possible, if there were less than 8 platform presentations submitted. If consolidation isn’t possible, then the whole session will only be accepted for poster presentation.
• 88 sessions remain after step 5. The committee then goes through the process of assigning each session to a day of the conference, a time slot, and a room at the event center.
• The abstract review committee conducts a final review of scientific program.
• Session chairs are notified of accepted abstracts and presentation type for each abstract.

The SETAC North America meeting will take place in Sacramento on November 4-8, 2018.

For additional information, contact Annie.Gibbs@noaa.gov
 

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