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Technical Support:
If you experience difficulty with the abstract submission process, contact technical support at the below email and phone numbers:

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Tel : (217) 398-1792


Poster Presentation Guidelines
Character Limit
Required Affirmations
Title
Categories
Keywords
Authors
Text
Tables
Images
Student Travel Grants
Financial Disclosures and Required Attestations
Review Your Work
Abstracts Dealing with Microbiological Sensitive Issues
Abstract Review and Disposition


Poster Presentation Guidelines

All posters are to be sized to fit a space 42 inches wide by 40 inches tall. Posters will be available for view for the full period of the meeting. Detailed instructions will be included in the acceptance notification.

 

Oral Presentation Guidelines
Freeman Audio Visual presentation computers will be Dell Latitude Laptop Computers with a Standard VGA Video resolution of 1024 x 768. (Blue 15 Pin Connector) will be used in the session rooms.  All laptops will play standard CD/DVDs. Please make sure all burned CD/DVD have closed sessions and are playable in all Players.

 

Anyone wishing to use their personal own computer (MAC/PC) must provide their own Video Dongles to convert to the standard VGA 15 pin connector provided in the room.

 

When preparing your PowerPoint Presentation, make sure you copy all supporting media files to the same folder as your presentation. 

 

The Speaker Ready Room will be available during registration hours in the Essex Room, on the Harborside Ballroom Level.


Character Limit
Authors, affiliations, abstract title, abstract text, tables and graphics are included in the 1900 character limit. Spaces are not included and are not counted. Submitted abstracts which include a 1900 character count or less, in addition to completion of all the below submission steps will be peer reviewed.

Important:
In order to complete the submission process enter information in each of the below submission steps during the abstract submission process, then Click the “Continue” button in order to complete the abstract submission process.

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Required Affirmations
In order to proceed with abstract submission, please indicate your agreement with the following statements:

  • This abstract is based on results that have not, nor will have been published in any journal, books and/or Websites prior to February 21, 2010, or presented at any public scientific conference prior to Febuary 21, 2010.
  • All authors are aware that their names appear on this abstract.
  • I understand that if this abstract is accepted, ASM will hold the Copyright.
  • I understand that if this abstract is withdrawn after Friday, January 8, 2010, a penalty may be incurred prohibiting the presenting author from presenting papers at ASM-sponsored meetings for a period of three years.
  • I understand that the presenting author must complete a Financial Disclosure statement and presentation Attestation form as part of this submission.

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Title
The abstract title will be included in the 1900 character limit---spaces are not counted. Please use a short and concise title that indicates the content. Capitalize the first letter of each word except prepositions, articles and species names. Italicize scientific names of organisms highlighting the scientific name by selecting the italics button. If using Netscape, include HTML coding. (example: Staphylococcus aureus results in “Staphylococcus aureus”). Trade names are not permitted in abstract titles. During the abstract submission process, click the “Continue” button in order to complete this step.


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Categories
Please select from the below list, the appropriate category to which your abstract will be submitted for review. Abstract reviewers may swap your abstract to a more appropriate category for review. During the abstract submission process, click the “Continue” button in order to complete this step.

A.
Viral Agents
B.
Bacterial Agents
C.
Fungal Agents
D.
Diagnostics
E.
Environmental Detection
F.
Informatics and Genomics
G.
Therapeutics
H.
Vaccines
I.
Immune Responses
J.
Decontamination, Biosafety, and Containment
K.
Other and Information Only


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Keywords
Keywords should be independent of each other and should be able to stand alone in the index. Words should be lowercase, except for genus names and proper nouns. For Greek characters, please spell out names. Italicize scientific names of organisms by using HTML coding. (example: staphylococcus aureus results in “Staphylococcus aureus”). During the abstract submission process, click the “Continue” button in order to complete this step.


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Authors
Authors, affiliations, abstract title, abstract text, tables and graphics are included in the 1900 character limit. Spaces are not included and are not counted. Click “Add a Group” or “Add an Author” for each co-author or group. Institutions should be entered for each author. If you wish to add multiple institutions for an author, click the "ADD INSTITUTION" link below the respective author's name. Please refer to the abbreviations list for proper abbreviations of institutions. Each institution and author will be referenced with superscript numbers and include the institution’s, city, two-letter state abbreviation and country (DO NOT enter department, division, zip code, etc.).

Click the “Continue” button.

The presenting author’s name is displayed in bold in the author block. Please review the spelling of each author's name and affiliation. You are welcome to make edits as appropriate and add co-authors. During the abstract submission process, click the “Continue” button in order to complete this step.


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Text
"Your abstract may have up to 1900 characters, which include title, authors, affiliations, abstract text, tables and graphics. Spaces are not counted. Do NOT include abstract title, authors or keywords in abstract text. Abstract text may be submitted using either of the following methods: File upload, copy/paste or direct entry keystrokes. ASM strongly recommends file upload as this submission method allows transfer of special formatting from your word processing file directly into the abstract submission site. ASM also recommends that, prior to upload, you format the abstract into four (4) sections and bold each section as follows: “Background”, “Methods”, “Results”, and “Conclusions.”

Click the “Continue” button" in order to complete this step.


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Tables
Tables count toward 250 characters within the 1900 character count limit. Tables may be included in the uploaded abstract text or added to the abstract text subsequently using the “Create a Table” option during the abstract submission process. During the abstract submission process, click the “Continue” button in order to complete this step.


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Images
Images count toward 250 characters within the 1900 character count limit. Images may be added to abstract text subsequently using the “Add an Image” option during the abstract submission process. During the abstract submission process, click the “Continue” button in order to complete this step.


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Student Travel Grants
There are a limited number of Student Travel Grants available to support student attendance at the meeting. Criteria for eligibility and selection may be seen in the linked PDF. Students wishing to be considered for a grant must be the presenting author of the poster. NOTE: All submitting authors must complete this step regardless of whether or not they wish to be considered for a grant. During the abstract submission process, click the “Continue” button in order to complete this step.

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Financial Disclosures and Required Attestations

After completion of the review/acceptance process, the Program Committee will determine which presentations will be given in one of the six oral presentation sessions. All other accepted abstracts will be presented in a poster format. Authors may designate their desired method of presentation (no preference, slide presentation, or poster presentation) which the committee will take into account. The oral sessions are designated as qualifying for Continuing Education credit. Therefore, the Presenting Author of each submitted abstract must complete a Financial Disclosure statement (found in the Author step) as well as acknowledging in advance that he/she, if selected for an oral presentation, will adhere to the presentation guidelines outlined in the attestation step. During the abstract submission process, click the “Continue” button in order to complete this step.

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Review Your Work

It is very important that you click the “Review My Work” link in order to proof accuracy of all elements of the submitted abstract including spelling and figures. Ensure that the character count is within the 1900 character limit and that all submitted tables and graphics are completely submitted and appear in the abstract text to guarantee that the abstract submission process is complete. Click the “Continue” button in order to complete the abstract submission process.

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Abstracts Dealing with Microbiological Sensitive Issues
"The Council Policy Committee of the American Society for Microbiology affirms the long-standing position of the Society that microbiologists will work for the proper and beneficent application of science and will call to the attention of the public or the appropriate authorities misuses of microbiology or of information derived from microbiology. ASM members are obligated to discourage any use of microbiology contrary to the welfare of humankind, including the use of microbes as biological weapons. Bioterrorism violates the fundamental principles expressed in the Code of Ethics of the Society and is abhorrent to the ASM and its members."

As described in the Council Policy Committee resolution the ASM recognizes that there are valid concerns regarding the presentation of scientific information that could be put to inappropriate use. Members of the ASM Meetings Board will evaluate the rare abstract that might raise such issues during the review process. In order that the Meetings Board, in its administration of all ASM meetings, is in compliance with the policy statement, the following procedures have been implemented:

Abstract Review Procedures
1. Abstract reviewers for each of ASM's meetings or conferences will alert the Chair of the Program Committee for that meeting if, in their judgement, the abstract under review describes misuses of microbiology or of information derived from microbiology.
2. If in the view of the Chair in consultation with the Chair of the Meetings Board, the abstract is believed to contain sensitive material, the Chair of the Program Committee will contact the submitting author(s) for clarification. The Chair of the Program Committee and the Chair of the Meetings Board together may render a decision or, at their discretion, consult the entire Meetings Board to determine whether to resume the review process or to decline the abstract and return it to the author.
Poster Review Procedure
1. If a sensitive abstract is accepted following discussion with the author(s), the abstract will be flagged for review of the presentation during the meeting. The author may additionally be requested to submit a copy of a poster presentation a week prior to the meeting for review by the Committee Chair.
2. The abstract submission does not provide a full description of information presented at the meeting. For this reason, poster sessions will be monitored on an ongoing basis as part of the responsibility of Program Committee members. If a presentation is found to contain sensitive information, the presenter will be notified immediately by the Chair of the Committee, and after the meeting, a written communication restating the policy violation is sent to the presenter.


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Abstract Review and Disposition
All abstracts submitted to the ASM Biodefense and Emerging Disease Research Meeting for consideration will be reviewed by at least one member of the Program Committee. The Committee will determine if the abstract merits inclusion in the program and, if accepted, will schedule the abstract in the appropriate session for the meeting. An abstract may be rejected for one or more of the following reasons. All decisions relating to acceptance or rejection are final.

The Biodefense Program Committee would like all posters presented at the ASM Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting be of the highest possible quality. Therefore, the reviewers will carefully consider each abstract with regard to scientific quality, completeness, and clarity. Possible reasons for rejecting an abstract include:
  1. No Background or Hypothesis – The abstract does not clearly indicate the reason for conducting the research or the question being tested by the experiments performed.
  2. Inadequate Experimental Methods – The investigators failed to describe procedures used or neglected to include important or essential controls.
  3. Insufficient Data Presented – The investigators failed to show the outcome(s) of their research. Insufficient data are presented to support the authors’ conclusion(s).
  4. No Summary Form of Essential Results – The investigators failed to concisely summarize the result(s) of their research.
  5. No Conclusion – The investigators failed to describe the conclusions of their research with regard to the hypothesis being tested.
  6. Duplicate Abstract – The abstract contents substantively overlap with contents of another submitted abstract by the same author or co-author. Reviewers may elect to accept a single abstract and suggest that the authors consolidate their material.
  7. Not appropriate for the Biodefense Meeting– The content of the abstract is not relevant to the defined goals of the Biodefense Meeting
  8. Promotional in Nature – The abstract was written to promote a specific product or procedure on behalf of a specific company or organization.
  9. Poorly Written – Improper use of the English language renders the abstract incomprehensible.
  10. Duplicate Presenting Author – An author can be the presenting author on only one abstract.

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