Call for Abstracts
2017 International Meeting for Autism Research
The IMFAR Scientific Program Committee invites proposals for Panels, Posters, Oral Presentations, and Technology Demonstrations at the International Meeting for Autism Research to be held in San Francisco, California on May 10-13, 2017
All abstracts are submitted online. Abstracts may be submitted as (a) part of a Panel, (b) an oral presentation, (c) a poster, or (d) a Technology Demonstration.
Abstract Information:
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Notes for 2017
- New this year more dedicated poster time and just slightly fewer concurrent sessions so registrants can see more and miss less.
- As last year, no distinction will be made between Scientific and Educational Panels, since in the past most panels of both types included new research findings. Panels may still serve a primarily educational purpose (e.g., coordinated teaching on a topic of interest to IMFAR members), but should also include presentation of empirical data.
- Panels that include early career investigators as speakers will be favorably viewed by the Program Committee. Submitters can indicate early stage investigator level. (defined as faculty within 10 years of terminal degree or advanced postdoctoral fellow or equivalent).
- Abstracts submitted as part of a panel submission will automatically be considered as an individual submission (oral or poster) if the panel is not accepted, unless the submitter indicates otherwise. Do not submit material more than once (e.g., as part of a panel and as an individual Oral or Poster submission).
- Submitters will self-select individual (non-Panel) presentation format from among three options: 1) Oral Presentation, 2) Poster, or 3) Either Oral or Poster format. The Program Committee will select the most thematically related and highest rated abstracts to be included in Oral Sessions. If the submitter selects Oral Presentation only, and the Program Committee does not select the abstract for an Oral Presentation, the abstract will be withdrawn from consideration. Please indicate Either Oral or Poster format if there is no objection to the poster format as a default.
- There will not be a Late Breaking Abstract submission for this meeting.
- The length of the Panel sessions will be 1.5 hours instead of 2 hours.
- The abstract submission fee ($50) will be collected during the submission process. The abstract fee is non-refundable. For Oral or Poster submissions, the fee is waived if any author is a current INSAR member at the time of submission. For Panel submissions, the fee is waived if the Panel Chair is a current INSAR member at the time of submission.
- As last year poster presentations will be scheduled during lunch sessions and early evening sessions with food for purchase nearby. Presenters are expected to stand at their poster during most of the poster session.
- The Opening Reception will be held on Wednesday evening again this year.
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Embargo
Information submitted to IMFAR as an abstract for oral or poster presentation is embargoed for the purpose of press releases until after the presentation. The Program Committee will select a small group of abstracts for inclusion in a press book and INSAR will arrange for information release and press conferences during the meeting. Press policies may be viewed on the INSAR website.
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Content and Conflicts
The research presented at the meeting must be substantively identical to that described in the abstract. Sufficient data for favorable review is necessary at the time of submission. Addition of data collected subsequent to submission is allowed and encouraged.
Authors are required to declare all conflicts of interest. The deadline for completion of conflicts of interest (COI) in the online system is November 3 2016, 11:59 pm PT. Any abstracts with incomplete COI will be withdrawn from consideration for presentation. Authors of submitted abstracts are also expected to make disclosures at the beginning of their presentations or on their posters.
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Types of Submissions
Panel Submissions. The aim of panels is to present lectures around a common scientific theme of high relevance to autism research. Submissions should consist of 4 linked presentations submitted as a group by a Panel Chair. A Discussant can be included, but is optional. The role of the discussant will be to provide a discussion integrating concepts raised in the presentations rather than to serve as a 5th presentation.
The Panel Chair should submit a paragraph describing the general theme of the session and the cutting edge science that will be discussed. It is understood that all named speakers will have committed in advance to participate in the panel if selected.
Priority will be given to panel submissions that include a presentation from an early career investigator(faculty within 10 years of terminal degree or advanced postdoctoral fellow or equivalent). Priority will also be given to panels that provide a collaboration of views across research programs rather than from a single institution.
Panel session length is 1.5 hours. Each talk can be 15 minutes long, with an additional 5 minutes for questions after each presentation, and 10 minutes allotted for the discussant. Alternatively, if the panel does not include a discussant, the Panel Chair would determine the best distribution of that time for either presentations or question and answers.
Papers submitted as part of a panel that is not accepted will automatically be considered as an individual submission. If the abstract is reviewed favorably and is determined to stand alone as an individual submission outside a panel, the Program Committee will select oral or poster format. Do not submit material more than once (e.g., as part of a panel and as an individual oral presentation). The submitter can indicate if they do not want the abstract considered for oral or poster presentation. If this option is selected, and the panel isn’t accepted, the abstract will be withdrawn from consideration.
In 2016, the rate of acceptance for Panels was 33%.
Oral Presentations should be data-driven, empirical reports of new findings that have not been previously published or presented elsewhere at the time of submission. Oral presentations will be 10 minutes long with 2 additional minutes for questions. Please avoid using the Oral Presentation format to review the literature or describe published techniques. The Program Committee will evaluate abstracts requested for oral presentations based on their new research content.
Abstracts that are accepted in this format will be grouped into Oral sessions according to common themes by the Program Committee. There are fewer slots for oral presentations than posters (in 2016, 86% of accepted individual submissions were presented as posters). If the submitter selects the "Oral Presentation only" format, and the Program Committee does not select the abstract for an Oral Presentation, the abstract will be withdrawn from consideration. Please indicate "Either Oral or Poster" format if there is no objection to the poster format as a default.
Poster Submissions should be data-driven, empirical reports of new findings that have not been previously published or presented elsewhere at the time of submission.
Poster presentations will be 1 hour and 40 minutes long.
Technology Poster / Demonstration Submissions should highlight an area of technology and its application to autism spectrum disorder. Preference will be given to those that include empirical data, represent a broad selection of the international community, and include an interactive demonstration of technology.
Steps and Instructions:
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Guidelines for Submission
- A myINSAR login is required to access the online submitter. INSAR members and recent IMFAR attendees already have a login, others can create one.
- For members of INSAR, there is no fee to submit abstracts. Non-Members will be charged a $50 processing fee during the submission process. Presenters whose abstracts are accepted for presentation must register and pay the registration fee for the conference by the early bird registration deadline.
- An individual may submit as the first author or presenter once for each submission type (oral, poster, panel).
- All submissions should provide "new" information. Oral and Poster submissions should not have been published or presented previously at the time of submission. Panels may include previously published information, but it is expected that they will also provide new, unpublished data as well.
- Abstracts must be submitted through the IMFAR online submitter by Thursday, October 20, 2016 at 11:59pm, Pacific Time.
- Funding sources (sponsors) must be identified, including commercial, public, or private foundation grants, and off-label use of drugs must be declared.
- Submission of an abstract for presentation at IMFAR is predicated on the following:
- Any work with human or animal subjects reported in the abstract complies with the guiding policies and principles for experimental procedures endorsed by the National Institutes of Health
- Each author has given consent to appear as an author. Each author will automatically receive notice of abstract submission, and will be able to view it at any time.
- Any real or perceived financial conflict of interest (COI), such as royalties, pharmaceutical relationships, case litigation, etc., of each investigator must be reported. Any potential for financial gain that may be derived from reported work may constitute a potential conflict of interest. The final step in the process will be the requirement for each author to log into the site and sign the personal COI statement. This must be done by November 3, 2016 at 11:59 pm Pacific Time. Failure to declare a real or perceived COI, or COI statements from any co-authors that are incomplete as of November 3rd, will result in withdrawal of the abstract from meeting presentation, and the Program and Abstract books as well as a prohibition in submitting an abstract to the IMFAR meeting for the following year. All COIs must be displayed in oral and poster presentations and they will be identified in the online program.
- The text of abstract submissions must:
- Be 500 words or less
- Include the following sub-headings: Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusion, with enough information to allow the reviewer to assess the value of each of these categories.
- Not include the authors' names and affiliations.
- Graphics (tables/figures) are optional and will not be published in the online Abstract Book. They do not count toward the 500 word limit. A maximum of two graphics are allowed (2 tables, 2 figures, or one of each), incorporated into a single file. Upload the graphics file using one of the following file formats: .jpg .gif .png
- Panels require a Panel Chair who is responsible for the content within the panel. The Panel Chair can also serve as a speaker within the panel.
- Individual authors will be sent an email with a link to their specific abstract. It is up to the Panel Chair to decide whether he/she would like to submit all papers or ask each author to submit his/her own paper for the panel.
- The submitter of each abstract can indicate if they do not want their specific abstract considered for oral or poster presentation in the case of the panel not being accepted.
- A discussant can be included, at the discretion of the Panel Chair. The discussant should be identified at the time the panel is submitted; no abstract is needed for the discussant. The role of the discussant is to provide a discussion integrating concepts raised in the presentations, rather than to serve as a 5th presentation.
- The text of Panel submissions must:
- Include a paragraph (200 words or less) describing the overall theme of the panel, followed by a 500-word or less abstract for each presentation within the panel.
- Include the following sub-headings in each abstract: Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusion, with enough information to allow the reviewer to assess the value of each of these categories.
- Not include the authors' names and affiliations
TO SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT FOR AN ORAL PRESENTATION OR POSTER:
TO SUBMIT A PANEL:
Enter both a summary of the overall panel theme, and an abstract for each proposed talk in the panel.
Panels will be evaluated as a whole. If any abstract within the panel is incomplete, the panel will be considered incomplete.
Note: ALL ABSTRACTS WILL BE PRINTED EXACTLY AS THEY ARE SUBMITTED. Therefore we recommend that you compose the text of the abstract in a separate document before beginning the online submission process. Check the spelling and grammar of the text before submitting it. The conference organizers will not edit any portion of abstracts (e.g., title, authors, affiliations, spelling errors).
As soon as you have submitted the title of your presentation you will automatically receive an email from (imfar@confex.com) that includes a password-protected hyperlink. If you must interrupt the submission process before finishing it, you can resume at any time by clicking on the hyperlink in that email.
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Review Process and Criteria for All Submissions
Panel, poster, tech demos and oral submissions will be reviewed for scientific merit by three independent reviewers. Reviewers are unaware of author identities. Submissions are rated on a 5-point scale using the following criteria:
- Importance of findings
- Clarity
- Methods
- Appropriateness of interpretations
- Relevance of topic to autism research and to IMFAR attendees
- For Panels only: inclusion of early career investigators and presentation of findings from multiple institutions
- Submissions that do not conform to instructions above will receive lower ratings. In particular,
- If the material is submitted more than once (e.g., same content in two different formats), this could result in the submission not being reviewed.
- If the abstract lacks sufficient data, for example, an oral presentation that lacks enough new findings to occupy the 10 minute talk. Avoid lengthy reviews of background literature and published methods.
- If reviewers raise significant ethical concerns
Scores are averaged across the three reviews. Cutoff scores for acceptance are determined each year in accordance with INSAR’s strategic initiative to promote and enhance the highest quality research, the number of submissions in a submission format, and the available space at the venue.
In 2016, 92% of submissions were accepted. Acceptance rates for the different submission formats were:
- Panels: 33%
- Individual submissions (oral or poster): 95%
- 86% accepted as posters
- 9% accepted as oral presentations
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Technical Support
For help in submitting an abstract online, email Tech Support.
Submission Categories:
Choose the category that is the best fit for your research. You will be given the opportunity submit a second category if your work spans two different categories.View, Resume, Edit or Withdraw an Existing Submission:
To view or edit an existing submission, please enter your id and password below.
Individual Abstract Submissions
Panel Submissions