Conference abstracts#

Conferences we tend to go to (or might go to):#

Workflow#

Please coordinate with others about conference submission. First, make sure that you can actually go to the conference in question. As a general rule, students in the group can go to one conference per year to present on the group’s budget, so long as we have funding for that. But it’s best to confirm that before assuming it. Even if you have other funding to go to the conference, you want to make sure that the conference you have in mind is a good match to the work that you intend to present, so that it is a good use of your time. Also, it is best to consult with your co-authors about the readiness of the work for presentation at a conference. As a general rule, it is much better to miss a conference one year and present the following year, rather than submitting an abstract prematurely.

If you are writing an abstract, be sure to double-check the specific instructions for the conference. Conferences vary widely in terms of the number of words (sometimes characters) they allow in abstracts, and whether or not they allow display items. If they do allow display items, it is a good idea to include a diagram or figure.

Please make sure that you have a first draft for feedback by your co-authors at least 7 days before the conference submission deadline.

Content#

The abstract title should communicate the findings clearly. Science should only very rarely be written in the form of a mystery novel, and this is definitely not one of these cases.

It is important that the abstract provide enough information to conference participants about whether your presentation is worth a visit. In cases where results can be laid out clearly, do so within the first few sentences of the abstract. Generally, the first sentence should provide a funnel to draw potential interest, outlining what the general question or problem are that the work is tackling.