ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
Abstract submission will open January 9, 2024.
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION AT-A-GLANCE
1) Abstract submission opened January 9, 2024.
2) You must login to the conference system via the SMM website. Click HERE to get started.
3) To begin a new abstract, choose “Abstract Submission” on the home page.
4) To view abstracts that are in progress or already submitted, choose the abstract from your list on your home page.
5) To ensure that your data are entered correctly, please follow all directions carefully.
6) Allow at least one hour for abstract submission and proceed through the system, carefully completing each section.
7) After submitting your abstract, a receipt of your submission will be emailed to you within 24 hours.
8) The abstract submission deadline is March 13, 2024 at 12 PM (noon), Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) (GMT+8).
9) Acceptance emails for new submissions will be sent in May 2024.
10) Authors will receive an email with their assigned date and time for presenting after confirming their participation. To confirm and hold your space, authors are required to complete registration by the early bird registration deadline of July 17, 2022 at 12pm (noon), Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) (GMT+8).
11) All accepted abstracts will be available on the SMM2024 Conference Program approximately two weeks prior to the meeting.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE
The abstract submission deadline is March 13, 2024 at 12 PM (noon), Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) (GMT +8).
Registration is NOT required at the time of submission; however, if your abstract is accepted for presentation in any format, you must register and pay by the early bird deadline of 12 PM Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) on July 17, 2024 in order for your time slot to be confirmed.
ABSTRACT LIMIT
A person can submit ONE abstract and be the “Primary Presenter” ONLY ONCE for any presentation (i.e. oral, speed talk, poster or video) regardless of position on author line.
There is NO limit on how many abstracts a co-author can be listed on.
TITLE
The title character limit is 255. Please use Title Case with no unnecessary capitalization and no full stop (period) at the end to enter your title. DO NOT USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS for your Abstract Title. Abstracts that do not conform will not be accepted.
ABSTRACT BODY
The word limit for abstracts is 300 words. This abstract word limit does not include the abstract title, author names or affiliations.
You may italicize text, make your text bold, add super and subscripts and special characters by selecting the smart formatting tool at the top of the abstract entry text box.
PRESENTATION FORMATS
Oral presentations are each allotted 12 minutes: 9 minutes for your presentation, 2 minutes for questions and 1 minute for transition.
Posters are an extended abstract with easily readable text and graphics. Posters typically include a title, authors, background, methods, 1-3 results, conclusions and acknowledgements.
A speed talk is a four-minute presentation during which you may present key-ideas, results and their meaning/implication. As a guide, three slides should be sufficient to allow you to get your point across.
A video presentation is of the same length as a speed-talk (four minutes), but created using various media such as high-resolution video, animation and narration. Authors of video presentations should use these various media in a creative manner to clearly express the purpose of the study, results and their implication and to be understood not only by scientific peers but also by a wider audience.
CONFERENCE THEMES
You will need to identify a theme for the abstract submission. Each theme is accompanied by a brief description to help you decide which is most relevant for your submission. There are six major themes to choose from:
This theme is specific to research pertaining to the study of the form, function and structure of marine mammals and their specific structural features. This includes aspects of the outward appearance (shape, structure, color, pattern) and their function within individuals, populations or within the environment. Technological advances and bioacoustics within this theme also welcomed.
Theme including the study of marine mammal behavior, usually with a focus on behavior under natural conditions or as an evolutionarily adaptive trait or in the context of anthropogenic changes.
Conservation of marine mammals is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth’s biodiversity with the aim of protecting marine mammal species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. Conservation research is tied closely to ecology in researching the dispersal, migration, demographics, effective population size and minimum population viability of rare or endangered species.
This theme is a broad topic of research pertaining to the study of conceptual, constructive, empirical, experimental, or theoretical work in all areas of marine mammal ecology incorporating behavior, physiology, genetics, and evolution of animals to study the interactions between populations of animals and their environments.
This theme is based on the study of cells – their physiological or biochemical properties, their structure, and interactions with their environment both on a microscopic and molecular level. Areas of study can include marine mammal health, impacts of toxicants and contaminants, and genetics-based studies.
This theme is a broad topic of research pertaining to the study of life-supporting properties, functions and processes of marine mammals or their specific organs or mechanisms. The discipline covers key homeostatic processes of animals exposed to specialized environments as well as unique adaptations.
Social science is the process of describing, explaining and predicting human behavior and institutional structures in interaction with their environments. This theme is not a singular discipline but rather a collection of associated disciplines including anthropology, economics, history, management, political science, psychology and sociology.
SUBMITTING YOUR ABSTRACT
If you have not completed all required sections you will not be able to submit the abstract. In the case of missing or incomplete sections, you will be prompted to enter the missing information. When all required information is entered, select the “SUBMIT ABSTRACT” button. Receipt of your submission will be acknowledged via email within 24 hours. You may login at any time prior to the deadline to update your submission.
AUTHORS
Once you submit your abstract, you will then be directed to add your Co-Authors. Each Co-Author will also receive a confirmation email with your contact information and their login information if they are not already in the conference system. All Co-Authors have Read only access, unless you assign a Co-Author to be a presenter. Presenters have Read/Write access.
There is NO limit on how many abstracts a co-author can be listed on.
REVIEW PROCESS
Each submitted abstract will be peer reviewed and scored by a minimum of two independent reviewers who have expertise in the specific subject area. The abstract review process will be conducted blind, i.e. all authors’ names will be removed before the abstract is reviewed.
Reviewers apply the following four criteria to evaluate abstract submissions:
- Originality (1 to 5)
Abstracts containing significant new findings or presenting new approaches will be given higher scores than those that describe updates, modifications to older findings, or routine applications of well-established research methods. - Quality (1 to 5)
Abstracts should demonstrate that robust and appropriate research methods were used, and include a scientifically robust study design. The outcome of the research should provide clear answers to the main research questions posed. The methods and results should be described in sufficient detail and the conclusions supported by the data. - Importance (1 to 5)
This criterion addresses the importance of the research in terms of advancing the field of marine mammal science, or the conservation and management of marine mammals. - Presentation (1 to 5)
Abstracts that are clearly written and concise will receive higher scores. This criterion addresses how well the specific research question(s) and objectives, methods used, primary results, etc are explained, rather than the quality of the study itself. A clearly written abstract follows a logical order (e.g. aims, methods, results, followed by a clear interpretation of the results and any conservation management implications).
After adjusting for differences in scoring among individual reviewers, abstracts will be ranked on the basis of their overall score, and available slots for presentations will be allocated according to merit using all submissions combined, taking into account presentation preferences.
ACCEPTANCE NOTIFICATIONS
Acceptance emails for abstracts will be sent on May 13, 2024. Authors will now have until May 29, 2024 at 12 PM (noon), Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) (GMT-4) to confirm their participation.
WITHDRAWAL
If you need to withdrawal your abstract for any reason, authors are responsible for notifying the Scientific Program Committee immediately at abstracts@marinemammalscience.org. Please include the title of the abstract along with your submission ID in your notification.
SPEAKER AND PRESENTATION PRIVACY POLICY
Conference abstracts which have been accepted for presentation may be made available online and also may be viewable to the public following the conference.
Images of conference posters images may be made available to conference participants online and may also be viewable to the public following the conference.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
If you have any technical difficulties submitting your abstract, please click on the red “Support” button on submission page (bottom right corner).
If you have general questions about the abstract submission process, please contact abstracts@marinemammalscience.org.
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
AT-A-GLANCE
1) Abstract submission opened January 9, 2024.
2) You must login to the conference system via the SMM website. Click HERE to get started.
3) To begin a new abstract, choose “Abstract Submission” on the home page.
4) To view abstracts that are in progress or already submitted, choose the abstract from your list on your home page.
5) To ensure that your data are entered correctly, please follow all directions carefully.
6) Allow at least one hour for abstract submission and proceed through the system, carefully completing each section.
7) After submitting your abstract, a receipt of your submission will be emailed to you within 24 hours.
8) The abstract submission deadline is March 13, 2024 at 12 PM (noon), Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) (GMT+8).
9) Acceptance emails for new submissions will be sent in May 2024.
10) Authors will receive an email with their assigned date and time for presenting after confirming their participation. To confirm and hold your space, authors are required to complete registration by the early bird registration deadline of July 17, 2022 at 12pm (noon), Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) (GMT+8).
11) All accepted abstracts will be available on the SMM2024 Conference Program approximately two weeks prior to the meeting.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE
The abstract submission deadline is March 13, 2024 at 12 PM (noon), Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) (GMT +8).
Registration is NOT required at the time of submission; however, if your abstract is accepted for presentation in any format, you must register and pay by the early bird deadline of 12 PM Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) on July 17, 2024 in order for your time slot to be confirmed.
ABSTRACT LIMIT
A person can submit ONE abstract and be the “Primary Presenter” ONLY ONCE for any presentation (i.e. oral, speed talk, poster or video) regardless of position on author line.
There is NO limit on how many abstracts a co-author can be listed on.
TITLE
The title character limit is 255. Please use Title Case with no unnecessary capitalization and no full stop (period) at the end to enter your title. DO NOT USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS for your Abstract Title. Abstracts that do not conform will not be accepted.
ABSTRACT BODY
The word limit for abstracts is 300 words. This abstract word limit does not include the abstract title, author names or affiliations.
You may italicize text, make your text bold, add super and subscripts and special characters by selecting the smart formatting tool at the top of the abstract entry text box.
PRESENTATION FORMATS
Oral presentations are each allotted 12 minutes: 9 minutes for your presentation, 2 minutes for questions and 1 minute for transition.
Posters are an extended abstract with easily readable text and graphics. Posters typically include a title, authors, background, methods, 1-3 results, conclusions and acknowledgements.
A speed talk is a four-minute presentation during which you may present key-ideas, results and their meaning/implication. As a guide, three slides should be sufficient to allow you to get your point across.
A video presentation is of the same length as a speed-talk (four minutes), but created using various media such as high-resolution video, animation and narration. Authors of video presentations should use these various media in a creative manner to clearly express the purpose of the study, results and their implication and to be understood not only by scientific peers but also by a wider audience.
CONFERENCE THEMES
You will need to identify a theme for the abstract submission. Each theme is accompanied by a brief description to help you decide which is most relevant for your submission. There are six major themes to choose from:
This theme is specific to research pertaining to the study of the form, function and structure of marine mammals and their specific structural features. This includes aspects of the outward appearance (shape, structure, color, pattern) and their function within individuals, populations or within the environment. Technological advances and bioacoustics within this theme also welcomed.
Theme including the study of marine mammal behavior, usually with a focus on behavior under natural conditions or as an evolutionarily adaptive trait or in the context of anthropogenic changes.
Conservation of marine mammals is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth’s biodiversity with the aim of protecting marine mammal species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. Conservation research is tied closely to ecology in researching the dispersal, migration, demographics, effective population size and minimum population viability of rare or endangered species.
This theme is a broad topic of research pertaining to the study of conceptual, constructive, empirical, experimental, or theoretical work in all areas of marine mammal ecology incorporating behavior, physiology, genetics, and evolution of animals to study the interactions between populations of animals and their environments.
This theme is based on the study of cells – their physiological or biochemical properties, their structure, and interactions with their environment both on a microscopic and molecular level. Areas of study can include marine mammal health, impacts of toxicants and contaminants, and genetics-based studies.
This theme is a broad topic of research pertaining to the study of life-supporting properties, functions and processes of marine mammals or their specific organs or mechanisms. The discipline covers key homeostatic processes of animals exposed to specialized environments as well as unique adaptations.
Social science is the process of describing, explaining and predicting human behavior and institutional structures in interaction with their environments. This theme is not a singular discipline but rather a collection of associated disciplines including anthropology, economics, history, management, political science, psychology and sociology.
SUBMITTING YOUR ABSTRACT
If you have not completed all required sections you will not be able to submit the abstract. In the case of missing or incomplete sections, you will be prompted to enter the missing information. When all required information is entered, select the “SUBMIT ABSTRACT” button. Receipt of your submission will be acknowledged via email within 24 hours. You may login at any time prior to the deadline to update your submission.
AUTHORS
Once you submit your abstract, you will then be directed to add your Co-Authors. Each Co-Author will also receive a confirmation email with your contact information and their login information if they are not already in the conference system. All Co-Authors have Read only access, unless you assign a Co-Author to be a presenter. Presenters have Read/Write access.
There is NO limit on how many abstracts a co-author can be listed on.
REVIEW PROCESS
Each submitted abstract will be peer reviewed and scored by a minimum of two independent reviewers who have expertise in the specific subject area. The abstract review process will be conducted blind, i.e. all authors’ names will be removed before the abstract is reviewed.
Reviewers apply the following four criteria to evaluate abstract submissions:
- Originality (1 to 5)
Abstracts containing significant new findings or presenting new approaches will be given higher scores than those that describe updates, modifications to older findings, or routine applications of well-established research methods. - Quality (1 to 5)
Abstracts should demonstrate that robust and appropriate research methods were used, and include a scientifically robust study design. The outcome of the research should provide clear answers to the main research questions posed. The methods and results should be described in sufficient detail and the conclusions supported by the data. - Importance (1 to 5)
This criterion addresses the importance of the research in terms of advancing the field of marine mammal science, or the conservation and management of marine mammals. - Presentation (1 to 5)
Abstracts that are clearly written and concise will receive higher scores. This criterion addresses how well the specific research question(s) and objectives, methods used, primary results, etc are explained, rather than the quality of the study itself. A clearly written abstract follows a logical order (e.g. aims, methods, results, followed by a clear interpretation of the results and any conservation management implications).
After adjusting for differences in scoring among individual reviewers, abstracts will be ranked on the basis of their overall score, and available slots for presentations will be allocated according to merit using all submissions combined, taking into account presentation preferences.
ACCEPTANCE NOTIFICATIONS
Acceptance emails for abstracts will be sent on May 13, 2024. Authors will now have until May 29, 2024 at 12 PM (noon), Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) (GMT-4) to confirm their participation.
WITHDRAWAL
If you need to withdrawal your abstract for any reason, authors are responsible for notifying the Scientific Program Committee immediately at abstracts@marinemammalscience.org. Please include the title of the abstract along with your submission ID in your notification.
SPEAKER AND PRESENTATION PRIVACY POLICY
Conference abstracts which have been accepted for presentation may be made available online and also may be viewable to the public following the conference.
Images of conference posters images may be made available to conference participants online and may also be viewable to the public following the conference.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
If you have any technical difficulties submitting your abstract, please click on the red “Support” button on submission page (bottom right corner).
If you have general questions about the abstract submission process, please contact abstracts@marinemammalscience.org.