All decisions regarding tentative acceptance are rendered in late June each year.
All sessions that are accepted initially are granted a tentative acceptance. Tentative acceptance allows session organizers to address any concerns brought to their attention by the Scientific Program Committee (SPC). These issues can include the number of presenters, diversity of presenters (affiliations or geography), etc. The SPC also reserves the right to accept a proposal contingent on the chair and co-chair altering the final presentation to the SPC’s preferred format, although the original proposal format suggestion by the proposer is given due consideration before this kind of change is requested.
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After a session has been granted tentative acceptance, the session chair should work with the co-chair and all presenters to finalize presentation titles and abstracts—a process known as the Invited Presenter Submission Phase, which occurs from mid-July to mid-August. Note: For all session types, each session chair must enter a complete, revised “overall abstract” that fully describes their presentation in detail and incorporates any suggestions from the Scientific Program Committee (SPC), as well as the individual abstracts for each presenter. For 80-minute sessions, individual abstracts for each presenter are necessary so the SPC can review any changes that were suggested for the presentations. However, for 80-minute sessions, only the overall abstracts will appear in the Annual Meeting publications and the mobile event app. Compete instructions will be sent to all session chairs for finalizing the sessions in July.
Sample Invited Presenter Abstract Submission Guide
Final acceptance is granted after a formal round of review of the final session description and individual abstracts by the Scientific Program Committee in September.
The Scientific Program Committee (SPC) spends many hours discussing and planning the layout of the Monday through Thursday scientific program. Several guidelines are considered during the scheduling:
The SPC considers all these factors and diligently reviews the proposals before finalizing the Scientific Session schedule in late September. When the schedule is released, it is considered final and will not be altered.
Why are two sessions endorsed by the same group occurring on the same day and time or why do some Symposium or Workshop Sessions occur at the same time as a Poster or Platform Session on a similar topic?
While the SPC makes every effort not to schedule two sessions endorsed by the same group at the same time, there are uncontrollable variables which can interfere with the ability to guarantee sessions on similar topics or endorsed by the same group are not programmed concurrently. These variables can include:
Why are there lunchtime sessions? (80-minute sessions: Roundtables, Informational, or Education-Career Development sessions).
The 165-minute Scientific Sessions (Symposium, Workshop, Platform, and Regional Interest) are held in the regular morning (9:30 am to 12:15 pm) and afternoon (2:00 pm to 4:45 pm) timeframes. This limits the time blocks for 80-minute sessions to lunchtime (12:30 pm to 1:50 pm) and sunset (5:00 pm to 6:20 pm). With the Annual Business Meeting, SOT/EUROTOX debate, and the beginning of many SOT component group receptions occurring or starting during the sunset time block, SPC typically prefers to program 80-minute sessions for the lunchtime block.
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