CE courses offer a structured approach for gaining an understanding of a developing or established field. Because these are courses—and not other forms of Scientific Sessions—they are intended to present techniques, ideas, and concepts that are more established than those suitable for other sessions.
To create an influential course for attendees, presenters in a CE course can expect to be on an accelerated timeline regarding presentation preparation and coordination with others in the course. In addition to preparation through the last half of 2025, presenters must submit their final presentations by January 9, 2026.
A member of the CE Committee is selected as the liaison for each course. The course liaison is the immediate link between the course Chairs and SOT. While the course Chair organizes/finalizes instructors and the course content, the review and revision of the course materials are a coordinated activity shared by the course Chair and the liaison. The liaison assists in the communication between SOT and the Chair to ensure logistical support for the course before and during the presentation at the Annual Meeting. Course Chairs and CE course liaisons work closely to present the best course possible at the Annual Meeting and to provide course materials to participants before the course.
Detailed instructions, timelines, and more information on finalizing CE courses will be added to this page as they become available. Contact Shannon Frohm with any questions.
This planning calendar provides an overview of the important milestones in terms of the course development process. Course Chairs and speakers can expect ample contact and assistance from the SOT CE Committee and staff to help guide the development of courses.
Course Chairs arrange a conference call with speakers and the course liaison to discuss goals for the course, timeline of development, and individual presentations, as well as to begin developing an outline of the course and associated presentations.
Course speakers and Chairs attend optional webinars with tips and guidance about preparing for CE courses and can ask questions about the CE course development and preparation process.
October 10: A first draft/complete outline of speaker presentations are due to the course Chairs, liaison, and SOT staff.
A second conference call occurs between the course Chairs, speakers, and liaison to review the first draft of the presentation slides to ensure that course goals are met, all content is covered, timing is accurate, and there is minimal overlap.
All SOT member speakers should make appropriate arrangements for their travel, including meeting registration, hotel, and flights. Nonmember speakers will receive information to assist in making their travel arrangements. Course Chairs and speakers can plan to attend an optional orientation for CE courses at 4:30 pm on Saturday, March 21, 2026, in San Diego.
Speakers should be developing their presentations to a near-final format.
All speakers should work toward completing their logistical arrangements for the meeting, including registration, housing, and stipend allocation.
December 12: A second draft of speaker presentations is due to the course Chairs, liaison, and SOT staff.
December 12: Speakers and Chairs should complete their SOT CE Course Speaker Headshot & Biographical Submission.
December 19: Course Chairs may arrange for a final call to go over proposed edits with course presenters as needed.
January 9: Final copies of presentations are due to the course Chairs, liaison, and SOT staff.
January 16: Speakers and Chairs should complete and return their stipend form and complete their SOT CE Course Speaker Copyright, Licensing, and Ethics Submission online.
All course Chairs and speakers receive a proof of their course material for review to ensure quality of presentation.
Course material is distributed via email to course registrants in advance of the meeting’s start.
March 21: CE course Chairs, speakers, and Committee members attend an optional tech demonstration and orientation, ask questions, and meet with other course speakers.
March 22: CE courses are presented during the 2026 SOT Annual Meeting in San Diego, California.
The CE speaker slides are used to create the electronic course books that all attendees receive. As a result, when creating your presentation slides, the following style guidelines MUST be followed:
For your benefit, SOT has created a PowerPoint Template of Required Slides for use by CE presenters, which is already in widescreen format. When using this template, each new slide added will be in a predetermined format/style that maximizes readability and usefulness during CE presentations and matches the recommendations listed on this web page.
This slide should include Presentation Title, Speaker Name, Speaker Affiliation, Speaker Address, Phone, and Email.
This should be the second slide after the Title Slide.
This slide should come before any of the scientific content portions of the presentation.
This slide should contain the key “take-home” messages from your portion of the course.
The list of references should be the last slide of your presentation or you may provide the list to Shannon Frohm as a Word document.
Please refer to Toxicological Sciences for the preferred style of citation and referencing of materials.
It is highly encouraged that the following course structure be used. While there is some flexibility for speaker times, begin, end, and break times are NOT flexible. For a detailed listing of possible presentation timing scenarios for your course, please consult the Standard Course Timing PDF.
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8:15 AM– 8:30 AM |
Welcoming Remarks and Introduction |
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8:30 AM– 10:00 AM |
Speaker Presentations |
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10:00 AM– 10:30 AM |
Mandatory Refreshment Break |
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10:30 AM– 12:00 Noon |
Speaker Presentations |
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1:15 PM– 1:30 PM |
Welcoming Remarks and Introduction |
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1:30 PM– 3:00 PM |
Speaker Presentations |
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3:00 PM– 3:30 PM |
Mandatory Refreshment Break |
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3:30 PM– 5:00 PM |
Speaker Presentations |
SOT requires that all presenters complete the SOT CE Course Speaker Biographical, Copyright, and Licensing Submission form. The form will be available starting in August 2025. If you use material that you did not create yourself and for which you do not hold the copyright or that has been previously published, you MUST obtain a copyright release from the copyright holder or owner of this material. Proper attribution for this material must be included in your presentation and the electronic course book. This is for your own legal protection as well as that of SOT and is taken very seriously. Any information included in your slides should be treated as a published work. Any data or image that you would not include in a published article without proper permissions should also not be included in your slides. Please use the Copyright Clearance Center website for more information about copyright.
Almost all online journal articles have an option for securing copyright permissions through an automated process. Select options for “get rights and content,” “copyright permissions,” etc. to begin the process. The exact wording depends on the publisher.
For assistance and guidance regarding obtaining copyright permissions or completing the SOT CE Course Speaker Biographical, Copyright, and Licensing Submission form, please contact Shannon Frohm.
SOT, as the publisher of the SOT Annual Meeting Continuing Education course books, is able to grant gratis permission for limited use of information from Toxicological Sciences, for which SOT holds the copyright. Toxicological Sciences is available electronically for free to all Full, Associate, and Emeritus SOT members. The slides and printed materials must include appropriate citation of Toxicological Sciences and must follow the guidelines and limits outlined below.
SOT has the copyright only to Toxicological Sciences; thus, this guidance is specific only to the use of materials from that journal. If it is imperative to use materials that also hold a copyright from other sources (e.g., journals, books), please communicate directly with the publisher of those materials and follow the appropriate citation guidelines.
Up to three figures (including tables) from a journal article BUT not more than five figures from journal issue/edition and not more than six figures from an annual journal volume.
Use of single text extracts of fewer than 400 words from a journal article BUT not more than a total of 800 words from a journal issue/edition.
In disseminating information, it is important that SOT protect the intellectual property rights of others and of SOT. SOT claims ownership for materials produced by SOT, so it is requested that contributors give permission for use of their work and acknowledge that the content of the contributed materials is copyright free or that the contributor has permission to use any materials that are under copyright.
Government agencies usually retain a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce work that is produced by employees, and they permit others to use and publish that work without further licensing or fees. By signing the License Release, you are certifying that SOT is free to use the material without infringing upon the rights of another entity.
Yes. Through the “License and Release for SOT Use of Materials” process, you are confirming that you are authorized by your employer to transfer licensing rights to these materials and that your employer has consented to all the terms and conditions of the agreement.
The form is used for any type of material that is provided to SOT. Please complete the sections that are pertinant to the material you are contributing. For example:
License Release grants permission from the “Author” (you) for SOT to license to reproduce, copy, electronically store, publish, and sell the materials as developed by the presenter. This licensing is independent of the copyright permission process. Copyright permission is necessary if the presenter used any material (e.g., images, information from other publications, or photographs) that is copyrighted by another author or institution. These may be items that you have previously published, depending upon your arrangements with that publisher, or material from other authors.
If any material in your presentation is taken directly from another source, you need permission of the author/publisher to use that material. However, if you take data from multiple sources and, for example, create a new table, that is your work and you would cite the source of the data but would “own” the new work. If an image you created was published and the publisher retained copyright, you could not use that image without a copyright release. However, you could use a similar image you created that had not been previously published.
Images, website screenshots, photographs, and text derived from internet sources may be copyrighted and cannot be used without permission and attribution. Some sites do have statements allowing free use, use for educational purposes, or other guidelines. It is important to track the source of material and the use statement on that site and proceed accordingly. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the assumption is that materials are copyrighted or were borrowed without attribution/permission. Some materials are in the public domain and may be used freely. For example, US law defines the interval for intellectual property rights on some materials, and once expired, those materials may be used freely.
SOT provides a stipend designed to help defray expenses incurred for the preparation of the CE courses. Individual reimbursement for copyright permission will not be provided.
Yes, we ask all presenters to confirm that they will not have any copyrighted information by checking the appropriate box in the online form.
If the photo is copyrighted, you’d follow the appropriate procedures to get permission for use, which may involve a fee. In regard to photos you own or someone else owns, before SOT use, you need to provide proof that the person gives permission for the use of their image; a photo release form is used for that. Approval must be received in writing from parents for anyone under age 18.
Yes! In completing the Copyright and License Release Form, you are granting SOT permission to use the content you have created in a non-exclusive manner, meaning SOT is able to sell access to the CE course and course book that you contributed to, but you are free to re-use the content you have created in other settings.