Refractive Subspecialty Day E-poster: Submission Instructions

The Academy accepts e-poster submissions for the Refractive Subspecialty Day program.

Submit an Abstract

The abstract submission deadline is June 6 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. Notifications will go out the week of July 10.

General Information

Submission

Complete all three required sections of the abstract submitter. Failure to complete the required fields will result in an incomplete abstract. Incomplete abstracts cannot be reviewed.

Completed submissions will be anonymously graded by the Refractive Surgery Subspecialty Day Planning Group. Name(s) of author(s) and statements of affiliation are not allowed in the title or abstract text.

Prepare the abstract components in advance. Submissions are assessed for presentation and the quality of the abstract. Review the Frequently Asked Questions and Submission Policies for more information.

The online application will not work well with Firefox, Safari or older versions of Internet Explorer. For the best results, use the most recent version of Chrome. You can download Chrome for free.

Timing Out: The submission system saves the abstract when the author selects “Continue” at the end of each page. The system will time out after 20 minutes and will not save ANY of the text entered unless the save feature is activated. To keep edits, save frequently and click back to the section you are working on using the navigation on the left.

Once the submission is complete, a PDF is generated. Download and save this document for your records. Re-save if changes are made.

Keeping a record and backup of the submission is advised. Abstracts can be accessed and edited until the deadline, there is no "final submit" button. When making updates, be sure that the submission is not made incomplete, or it cannot be passed through for review. 

Abstract Types

E-poster: The Refractive Surgery Subspecialty Day planning group chooses submissions to be presented as e-posters on the basis of originality, clinical relevance and comprehensiveness.

All abstracts are reviewed as possible e-poster presentations with the Refractive Surgery Subspecialty Day planning group making the final decision.

Submission

There is no SUBMIT BOTTON. Abstracts that are COMPLETE by the deadline will be forwarded for review. Authors can return to abstracts as often as needed to edit before the deadline but should be sure the status is COMPLETE when closing out for the final time.

Title

The title of an abstract may not exceed 120 characters.

Do not bold, underline or italicize the title. Use title case when entering your abstract (both upper and lowercase letters as appropriate). No special formatting is needed.

Is the title descriptive of the abstract? Does the title avoid gratuitous statements and irrelevant information? Name(s) of author(s) and statements of affiliation are not allowed in the title or the abstract. Abstract review is anonymous.

Subject Classification

TBA

Overview

Abstract Body

The title should NOT be added to the abstract body text field; it is redundant and will use up valuable space. The following headings with formatting are required for paper/poster submissions and are pre-populated in the online application:

Purpose:    Methods:    Results:    Conclusion:

The final abstract body should appear as one full paragraph with NO hard returns after each section.

Case reports are accepted for review. If the abstract reports on a single case study or is a video abstract, these headings are not required.

When you write your abstract, ask yourself: is the abstract specific as possible? The following are frequently forgotten: sample size, study duration and follow-up, and descriptions of the novel and non-standard techniques used. Abstracts with statements such as "will be done," "will be studied," "will be underway," "will be analyzed," will not be selected. Abstracts cannot be appended past the June deadline.

The character count for the abstract body is 1000 characters. This is approximately 250 words. The built-in character counting feature will indicate when the abstract is too long, and the submission cannot be completed.

The online submitter application will automatically recognize and count hidden formatting embedded within the abstract. Text that is copy/pasted into the abstract body field often has this issue. To avoid exceeding the character limits, paste only simple text. Use the formatting features above the text box to add symbols and formatting. Remember to save often – click continue at the bottom of the page. Once saved, you can use the left navigation to select the Overview page and continue to edit. NOTE: Authors frequently lose work when typing/editing directly into the Abstract Text box and forgetting to save; the page will time out after 20 minutes. 

Reminders

• Was this abstract proofread? Concise and clear abstracts are graded well. Misspellings and typographical errors reflect badly on the research.
• When using abbreviations within the abstract text, first include the complete term followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis. Example: Vitreous Loss (VL).

Study Design

A list of study designs is provided. Read through the descriptions and select the one your research follows. If you used a design not on the list, enter it in the space provided. Note: Animal studies tend to be rejected.

Précis

E-poster submissions require a précis (460 characters) as part of the application. The précis is a concise summary of the abstract and should not duplicate the conclusion. This text will not be published and is for the use of the selection committee.

Background Statement

E-poster submissions require a background statement (250 characters) as part of the application. This is an opportunity to relay additional information to the planning group and should not be an exact duplication of the abstract text. The background statement is a succinct statement explaining the background of why this study was undertaken or reported. This text will not be published and is for the use of the planning group.

Authors

Presenter/ Co-author(s)

Each author is limited to two paper/poster submissions as Presenting Author, and inclusion on up to four total abstracts per meeting. The author listed first is considered by the Academy to be the Presenter.

• Changes to author lists will not be allowed after the submission if the change would result in the limits being exceeded.
• The Academy reserves the right to disqualify submissions that exceed these limits.
• If a presenter change is requested, financial disclosures for the proposed presenter will be evaluated by the Refractive Surgery Subspecialty Day Planning Group before the change is approved. Presentation limits apply to the new presenter.

Submitting authors are required to provide contact information for all co-authors. Use the lookup feature in the online application to add authors by their user/member accounts. If an author cannot be found in the Academy database, provide their full, professional name, as well as an accurate and unique email address. The Academy will contact the author using the email address provided and request that the author create an Academy user account. Please note that an author’s name can only be listed as a co-author if the author has an Academy user account.

Other Information

Submitters should be prepared to enter the following information into the application:

• Do any of the authors have relevant financial interest? (YES/NO)
• Is the Presenting Author industry employed? (YES/NO)
• Is the research approved by an IRB or equivalent body? (YES/NO/NO, NOT REQUIRED)
• I verify that the abstract follows submission policy regarding copyright as described in the submission guidelines. (YES/NO)
• I understand that submission of an abstract is an agreement to present as If my abstract is accepted as a poster, I will submit an electronic poster by the upload deadline.

Copyright Policy

The Journal of Refractive Surgery, the official journal of the International Society of Refractive Surgery, has a copyright agreement that gives the Journal of Refractive Surgery the first right of refusal on accepted e-posters at Refractive Surgery Subspecialty Day. Authors submitting to the Academy for review are required to read and follow the policy regarding copyright; failure to do so may jeopardize their chances for presentation. The most important question authors should ask of their submission is: Can I give the Journal of Refractive Surgery the first right of refusal for this material?

The Academy holds copyright on all scientific material presented at its Refractive Surgery Subspecialty Day meeting until and unless such material is found unsuitable for publication in the Journal of Refractive Surgery. Should an author wish to publish his or her material elsewhere, it may not be submitted for consideration until the Journal of Refractive Surgery has released the presenter from any copyright obligations.