Submission Guidelines:

Abstract submission.

The abstract should be no longer than 300 words.

Poster submission.

The poster will be hosted online through the ASP website. By entering the competition, each applicant grants ASP the right to display the poster to its members and other participating applicants to the Virtual Poster Symposium for the duration of the year following the symposium (usually concluded by the Biennial Congress of the American Society for Photobiology in even numbered years). The poster should be in a format that is able to be resized for ease of reading and judging. Acceptable formats are .ppt, .pptx, .pdf, Applicants may be asked to convert their formats to a smaller compression size should the file sizes become too large.

Applicants are encouraged to be a specific as possible about their research, but are reminded that other students and researchers will be reading the information supplied, that may not have as strong as understanding of that research topic. Therefore the language of the poster should be aimed accordingly.

Students who may have copyright issues with their research should ensure they have the appropriate permission from their supervisor to be able to submit their poster. Applicants will be asked as a part of the terms and conditions of the symposium to acknowledge they have the copyright permissions to publish the poster online.

Applicants should carefully review the poster submission instructions which will be provided after a submitted abstract has been accepted.

Video submission

Applicants are asked to provide a video that complements their poster. Videos are optional, however a video will provide additional points to the final winners and therefore applicants are strongly encouraged to submit a video presentation.

Applicants are encouraged to NOT just simply read their poster, but instead, provide a video in which the topic of the poster is explained so that a member of the public can understand without requiring extensive technical knowledge. This video will be not be password protected, and will available to public access. The video should not exceed three minutes, and applicants are encouraged to use visual aids within the video to support their explanation, if necessary. Videos will be required to be hosted by a devoted video hosting website (eg., youtube, vimeo and tumblr) which will be linked to, by the ASP website. Applicants should carefully review the video submission instructions which will be provided after a submitted abstract has been accepted.

Virtual Poster Symposium Requirements

As a part of the Symposium, applicants are required to answer questions from judges and/or fellow applicants that can be posted to the page where their poster and video is hosted. During the specified Symposium dates, consisting of a preliminary round and final round of judging, the applicants should ensure that questions are answered within 48 hours so that judges can make appropriate decisions regarding final awards. Applicants who are selected for the final round will be required to answer any questions within 48 hours of the notification that they have been selected as a finalist. Unanswered questions will be taken into consideration when selecting finalists of the Virtual Poster Symposium.

Applicants are also expected to take part in the selection of the People’s Prize. Specifically each applicant is required to vote for the poster that they believe meets the People’s Prize criteria the best. The People’s prize cannot be received if another Poster prize has been awarded to that finalist.

Judging criteria

The Virtual Poster Symposium has two separate sections: the poster and the video presentation. Applicants should aim to provide technical work in their poster and general overviews in their videos. Both entries should aim to be standalone (one does not require to watch the video to understand the information provided in the poster and vice versa). The following criteria will be used by judges to select the best entries.

Posters

1. Poster is legible with appropriate resizing if necessary. The information in the poster should be self-contained and preferably should not require further reading of other material although references are expected of related work.
2. Students should aim to produce a poster that is scientifically and technically explained, but should attempt to provide explanations that a person not in the specific field should be able to understand. Therefore some definitions of key terms and processes should be included if necessary. Applicants are encouraged to include a “glossary box” if necessary.
3. The judges will be using the following criteria to select the finalists:
   1. Design
   2. Clarity
   3. Importance of research
   4. Quality of research
   5. Written and Visual communication of concepts and research

Videos

Applicants are required to deliver an optional video presentation explaining their research. However the applicants should adhere to the following criteria:

1. Videos should be no longer than three minutes.
2. It is not necessary for the presenter to be in the visual frame for the whole three minutes, but it preferable to view the presenter for at least a short period of the video.
3. Audio narration with diagrams or animations is allowed.
4. The video should be aimed to a non-technical audience.
5. Specific terms should be defined.
6. Creativity in the video is encouraged.


7. The following criteria will be used by the judges to select the finalists:
   1. Ability to explain their topic to a non-scientist or alternatively a scientist in an unrelated field.
   2. Adherence to the guidelines above.
   3. Entertainment factor (was it enjoyable to watch?).

People’s choice Award

The following criteria should be used in voting for the People’s choice:

Posters

1. Readability

2. Communication

3. Relevance

Videos

1. Communication of concepts

2. Entertainment factor (was it easy to watch?)

3. Understanding (did you understand what they said?).

Please note self-nomination will NOT be accepted for the People’s Prize.

The selection of the people’s choice award will be conducted using an online survey. Each applicant will be asked to answer a brief series of questions about their chosen people’s choice awardee. The questions to be answered will be provided closer to the time of the Symposium.

After the main award winners have been identified and removed from the Peoples Prize candidates, a winner will be identified by selected the candidate with the highest number of votes.

If there results in a tie between two or more candidates, the judges will be asked to provide the final judged scores of the candidates to provide an outcome.

Only one People’s prize will be awarded per Symposium offering.

Judging

The judging process will involve several judges in a preliminary round. Each judge will be assigned a number of posters and videos to view. The judges will mark each poster and video according to the criteria provided above. A sample of the forms’ the judges will use will be provided. Given that not all judges will be able to view all posters, a second round of judging will occur, by taking the three (subject to change depending on number of applicants to the symposium) highest scored posters and videos per judge to be collated into a final round.

Depending on the number of final round applicants, judges will be asked to either review and score all final round participants, or will be allocated a second round of posters and videos to review and score. The final results will be determined by the final round of judging.

Applicants who have been selected to be in the final round of judging will be notified and asked to answer any final questions of the judges within 48 hours of the notification of their finalist status.

Abstract Submission Form

Now open at http://photobiology.org/virtual2015/abstracts/index.php. Deadline: April 12