2025

Regular Abstract Submission Guidelines & Policies

Policies

  • The first author must be a current 2025 VSS member in good standing.
  • All first (presenting) authors must register for the meeting.
  • Substitutions for talks are not allowed.
  • Substitutions for posters require pre-approval by the VSS Program Committee and will be handled on a case-by-case basis. If an author substitution is approved, the first author must still pay the registration fee.
  • Only abstracts presented at the meeting will be published in the Journal of Vision.
  • Each member may submit only one first-authored abstract to the meeting.
  • Each member may present only once at the meeting, unless part of a symposium.
  • All abstracts are submitted through your MyVSS Account.
  • Abstracts must be work that has not been accepted for publication or published at the time of submission.
  • Submitters must note any scheduling constraints under “special requests”.  Due to the complex constraints and time required, special requests received after abstract notices may not be accommodated.

For questions about Abstract Submission Policies, please Contact Us.

Abstract Format

Regular abstracts are limited to 300 words. This does not include title, authors, and affiliations. Additional space is provided for funding acknowledgments and for declaration of commercial interests and conflicts.

Your abstract should consist of an introduction, methods and results sections, and a conclusion. It is not required that the sections be explicitly labeled as such. Abstracts must contain sufficiently detailed descriptions of methods and results. Do not submit an abstract of work that:

  • you are planning to do
  • without sufficient results to reach a clear conclusion
  • has been accepted or published elsewhere at the time of submission

Please complete your submission carefully. All abstracts must be in final form. Abstracts are not proofread or corrected in any way prior to publication. Typos and other errors cannot be corrected after the deadline. You may edit your abstract as much as you like until the submission deadline.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

It is the responsibility of the First, Corresponding, or Presenting Author to list on the abstract any relevant commercial relationships or other conflicts of interest.

For each abstract and presentation, the First/Corresponding Author must also disclose the name of the organization with which a commercial relationship exists for the First Author and each Co-author.

Each Platform Presenter is to orally state and display on a slide at the beginning of the presentation all relevant commercial relationships or other conflicts of interest, as well as the name of the organization(s) with which a commercial relationship(s) exists for the First Author and each Co-author.

At a poster presentation, the presenter must display the relevant commercial relationships or other conflicts of interest, as well as the name of the organization(s) with which a commercial relationship(s) exists for the First Author and each Co-author.

Conformity with this Policy is a requirement.

Abstract Review Process

The Abstract Review Committee evaluates all submitted abstracts in a double-blinded review process. Abstracts submitted for talk sessions are assessed by 2 reviewers; all other abstracts are assessed by 1 reviewer unless they have applied for a travel grant, in which case, 2 reviewers will be assigned. Reviewers are chosen whose area of expertise matches the topic of your abstract.

Abstract Scientific Rating

Abstracts submitted for talk sessions and/or travel grants are evaluated using a five-point scale. Blind ratings from all reviewers are aggregated, and reviewers have the option to recommend rejection of an abstract.

Abstracts submitted for poster sessions are reviewed by a single reviewer, who either approves the abstract for presentation or makes a recommendation to reject the abstract.

Abstract scientific ratings are completed prior to the VSS Board Meeting in late January, during which the abstracts are scheduled into talk and poster sessions.

Rejection Criteria

Criteria for the rejection of abstracts are: insufficient results to reach a clear conclusion, significant flaws or absence of methods, incomprehensibility, repetition of well-known literature, a complete lack of novelty, or describing work that has been accepted for publication or published elsewhere at the time of submission.

Abstracts that are recommended for rejection by at least one reviewer will be evaluated by the Board of Directors and will only be rejected if a two-thirds majority of directors at the board meeting vote for rejection.

Scheduling of Abstracts into Sessions for the Meeting

The VSS Board of Directors meets in January to schedule presentations for the upcoming VSS conference. Abstracts are divided up into thematically organized sessions that include talks or posters, taking into account presentation preferences listed by authors during abstract submission (see below for definitions).

Because there are usually more requests for talks than slots available, a given abstract’s scientific ratings (assigned by its “blind” reviewers) will primarily determine assignment to a talk session. Additionally, the Board will make adjustments to ensure that the talks in a single session fit well together, are gender-balanced, and to prevent a session from being dominated by a single laboratory.

Options for Presentation Preferences

  • Talk Preferred – Your abstract submission will first be considered for a talk presentation. If not accepted for a talk, your abstract will be considered for a poster presentation.
  • Poster Only – Your abstract submission will only be considered for a poster presentation.

Notices of Abstract Acceptance

After reviewing and scheduling of the abstracts, the authors will be informed of the outcome.

All correspondence, including notification of abstract acceptance and details for poster and talk presentations, will be sent to the “corresponding author” (submitting author) via email.

The corresponding author shall be responsible for informing all contributing authors of any related correspondence.

Presenter Requirements at the Meeting

Talk and poster presenters should plan to attend the meeting in person. There will be no virtual components to VSS 2025.

First authors must register for the meeting and present their poster or talk.

Presenter substitutions for posters require pre-approval by the VSS Program Committee and will be handled on a case-by-case basis. If an author substitution is approved, the first author must still pay the registration fee.

Substitutions for talks are not allowed. 

Each registered attendee may present only once at the meeting, unless they are part of a symposium.

Abstract Withdrawal

To withdraw an abstract prior to the meeting, the first author must send an email to .

Under exceptional, unavoidable circumstances, the VSS Board of Directors will consider a co-author replacement for a presentation. To request such a special substitution, a clear explanation must be given in writing in advance (send such requests to ).

Abstracts withdrawn or not presented at the meeting will not be published in the program or in the Journal of Vision.

Authors who fail to present their poster or give their talk without withdrawing their abstract may forfeit the right to present the following year.

Abstract Publication

Titles and authors of all accepted abstracts (talks and posters) are included in the VSS Program. Full abstract text is included in the Abstracts Book. All abstracts presented at the conference are published online in the Journal of Vision.

Submission Schedule

Submissions Open: October 22, 2024
Submissions Close: December 5, 2024 (midnight, last time zone on earth which is approximately 5am Dec 6, PST)
Notification of Accepted Abstracts: February 7, 2025

Submitting an Abstract

To submit an abstract, Log in to your MyVSS Account or Create a New MyVSS Account, pay for your 2025 membership, and then click the Submit an Abstract button.

For questions about Abstract Submissions, please Contact Us.

Symposium Submission Guidelines & Policies

Policies

  • The symposium organizer must be a current 2025 member in good standing.
  • Invited speakers must register for the meeting but need not be members.
  • No speaker or organizer can participate in more than one symposium.
  • Speaker substitutions are not allowed unless due to unforeseeable, valid reasons after submission.
  • Online presentations are not allowed.
  • If a symposium talk has more than one author, it must be presented by the first author.
  • Submitting a symposium proposal or speaking in a symposium does not prevent you from submitting an abstract for a talk or poster presentation at VSS.
  • Before submitting a proposal, organizers must ensure that all speakers are committed to participating in the symposium and registering for the meeting before submitting a proposal.

For questions about Symposium Submission Policies, please contact us at

Symposia are presented at the VSS 2025 Annual Meeting on the first day (Friday).

VSS 2025 will be a fully in-person meeting with no virtual components.

Four to six symposia will be scheduled, each in a 2-hour time slot.

Symposia can be organized along the lines of content or methodology, but in every case, talks within a symposium should focus on broader conceptual themes than a typical VSS presentation.

Proposals are evaluated by the VSS Board of Directors based on the following criteria:

  • Scientific merit
  • Theoretical and/or methodological innovation
  • Timeliness
  • Breadth and appeal to a substantial number of VSS attendees
  • Lack of overlap with the regular program and recent symposia
  • A slate of speakers that provides appropriately broad representation of the VSS membership’s national and international provenance and range of approaches.

Symposium Format

The recommended format is four to six talks, followed by a panel discussion that involves both the speakers and the audience. The allocation of time for talks and Q&A within the 2-hour session is flexible and can be determined at the organizers’ discretion. This may include Q&A after each individual talk, concentrating it at the end of the session through a panel discussion, or a combination of both approaches. Other formats will be considered, but proposals for other formats should include a clear rationale. Proposals from early career investigators are encouraged.

Symposium Information

The symposium proposal is submitted using a multi-page form that includes information describing the symposium and the talks in the symposium. A symposium may have a maximum of three organizers. A minimum of four talks is required; up to six talks are allowed. Talks must be entered in the order they will be presented. It is best to collect information about the individual talks from their authors before you start the submission process.

As the symposium organizer, you must have prior approval from your talk presenters they consent to participate in this symposium (and no other symposium), and to register and attend VSS 2025 in person to present their talk. The organizer must also agree to the Symposium Policies and disclose any Conflicts of Interest.

Required symposium information:

  • Symposium title.
  • Brief description of the symposium (maximum 100 words). Appears on the symposium overview page.
  • Full description of the symposium (maximum 500 words). Appears on the symposium detail page.
  • Estimated attendance.
  • Name, affiliation, and contact information for the organizers (maximum 3 organizers).
  • Acknowledgements (optional).

Required information for each talk:

  • Talk title.
  • Talk abstract (maximum 250 words).
  • Author names and affiliations.
  • Email and country of citizenship of the talk presenter (first author).
  • The presenter must agree to an Ethics statement
  • The presenter must disclose any Conflicts of Interest.

Organizer and Speaker Requirements

The symposium organizers (maximum of three) must be current VSS members (for 2025), but invited speakers are not required to be VSS members. All speakers are required to register for the meeting. Submitting a symposium proposal or speaking in a symposium does not prevent organizers or speakers from submitting an abstract for a talk or poster presentation at VSS. An individual may participate as organizer or speaker in only one symposium. The symposium organizer(s) may be a speaker in the symposium.

Organizers must ensure that all speakers are committed to participating in the symposium before submitting a proposal, and organizers must also ensure that speakers have not agreed to participate in more than one symposium. If a symposium talk has more than one author, it must be presented by the first author. For each speaker, please provide up to three references to published articles relevant to the proposed talk.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

It is the responsibility of the symposium organizer to disclose any relevant commercial relationships or other conflicts of interest for all speakers and their co-authors in the submitted proposal. This information must include the name of any organization with which a commercial relationship exists for both the speaker and each co-author.

Each symposium speaker must verbally disclose all relevant commercial relationships or conflicts of interest at the beginning of their talk. This information should also be included on a slide during the presentation, outlining the names of the name of the organization(s) involved with any commercial relationship(s) for the speaker and each co-author.

Compliance with this policy is a requirement.

Symposium Review

Proposals for Symposia are evaluated by the VSS Board of Directors. In addition to considering the VSS 2025 focus outlined above, our criteria include scientific merit, timeliness, theoretical innovation and breadth, methodological innovation, lack of overlap with the regular program and recent symposia, and speaker composition.

Submission Schedule

Submissions Open: October 22, 2024
Submissions Close: November 15, 2024
Notification of Accepted Symposia: November 25, 2024

Submitting a Symposium

To submit a symposium, Log in to your MyVSS Account or Create a New MyVSS Account, pay for your 2025 membership, and then click the Submit a Symposium button.

For questions about Symposium Submissions, please contact us at

2025 Talk Sessions

2025 Talk Sessions

Friday, May 16

Time

Talk Room 1

Talk Room 2

3:30 pm

Eye Movements: Natural tasks, neural mechanisms

Perceptual Organization: Neural mechanisms, models

Saturday, May 17

Time

Talk Room 1

Talk Room 2

8:15 am

Attention: Neural, objects, models

3D Processing

10:45 am

Object Recognition: Categories and neural mechanisms

Temporal Processing

2:30 pm

Visual memory: General

Face and Body Perception: Facial expressions, social relationships

5:15 pm

Decision Making

Visual Search

Sunday, May 18

Time

Talk Room 1

Talk Room 2

8:15 am

Spatial Vision: Crowding and eccentricity, clinical, models

Development

10:45 am

Visual Memory: Neural mechanisms of working memory

Object Recognition: Models

2:30 pm

Perceptual Organization: Objects, events, ensembles

Binocular Vision

5:15 pm

Attention: Neural mechanisms

Color, Light and Materials: Cones to cognition

Monday, May 19

Time

Talk Room 1

Talk Room 2

8:15 am

Action

Theory: Artificial neural networks

10:45 am

Eye Movements: Gaze strategies

Multisensory Processing

Tuesday, May 20

Time

Talk Room 1

Talk Room 2

8:15 am

Spatial Vision: Neural mechanisms

Visual Memory: Imagery, memorability, long-term

10:45 am

Attention: Temporal, spatial

Scene Perception

2:45 pm

Plasticity and Learning

Motion: Models, Neural mechanisms

5:30 pm

Eye Movements: Perceptual advantages and disadvantages

Face and Body Perception: Development, clinical, individual differences, experience

Hotel FAQ

Does the TradeWinds require a deposit to book a reservation?
Yes, a one-night room and tax guarantee is required to secure your room.

Is the hotel deposit refundable if I have to cancel my room reservation?
Yes, your hotel deposit is fully refundable until 5 days prior to arrival.

Is there a resort fee at the TradeWinds?
The TradeWinds typically charges a $55 resort fee per night. This fee is included in the VSS negotiated room rate. To see what is included, see TradeWinds Resort Amenity Fee.

What if I find a better rate for the TradeWinds on a 3rd party site?
VSS has done its due diligence to negotiate the lowest possible group rate at the TradeWinds. If you find a lower price during them meeting dates, please contact VSS. Keep in mind, if you book a room through a wholesaler like hotels.com, the TradeWinds will NOT waive your resort fee.

What are the contractual obligations with the TradeWinds?
VSS is contractually bound to fill a certain number of guest rooms (this is called a room block) during the annual meeting. By guaranteeing these rooms, VSS receives complimentary meeting space and reduced food and beverage pricing. This ultimately helps keep registration rates down.

What happens if VSS does not meet the contractual obligations?
VSS is charged an attrition fee if we do not meet 85% of our room block and if unused rooms remain unsold prior to the meeting. Groups like ours often book 2-3 years in advance to secure enough hotel rooms for meeting attendees. Attrition fees are compensation to the hotel for the rooms that might have been sold had they not been held in our room block inventory. Attrition fees are a standard practice in the United States.

Call for Applications for Student-Postdoc Advisory Committee

The Vision Sciences Society (VSS) is seeking applications for two vacancies on its Student-Postdoctoral Advisory Committee (SPC). Members of the SPC are graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. The SPC works together and with the members of the VSS Board of Directors to enhance VSS’s responsiveness to the needs of our trainee members and early career researchers.

Service on the SPC is an excellent way to develop a track record of community service and professional skills such as team-building, networking, project design and management. 

VSS seeks applicants who are willing to represent young investigators at a variety of career stages, who study a variety of topics and who reside in different regions of the globe.  Graduate students, even early in careers, are especially encouraged to apply.

This year we are seeking one new postdoctoral representative and one graduate-student representative.

See https://www.visionsciences.org/spc/ for a list of current SPC members and more information.

Application Procedure

To apply, email the following materials to by March 3, 2025:

In a single PDF file, labeled YOURLASTNAME_SPC2025, include the following:

  1. Current CV, including current institutional affiliation and contact information
  2. Personal statement: max 1-page detailing reasons for wanting to serve on the SPC, prior experience, and aspects of your background relevant to this call for service
  3. List of previous VSS conferences attended
  4. Statement of intention to attend VSS 2025 and 2026 as a student/postdoc VSS member
  5. Names and contact information (including email) of two individuals willing to support the nomination

Those who applied for an SPC slot last year are encouraged to resubmit this year if they are still a student or postdoctoral VSS member.

Applications Accepted Starting: February 3, 2025
Applications Close: March 3, 2025
NEW SPC Representatives Announced: March 27, 2025

VSS Networking Committee

In January 2020, the Vision Sciences Society created a new committee committed to fostering improved networking for all members at VSS and in vision science. At the 2020 V-VSS meeting, the Committee co-organized a Town Hall to listen to the experiences of our community. The Networking Committee is currently exploring a number of initiatives, including:

  • Fostering more undergraduates to attend the VSS annual meeting and providing them with mentoring
  • Improving networking opportunities at VSS
  • Garnering funding to support future society initiatives
  • Formalizing processes for reporting any issues that might occur at the meeting, and making transparent existing VSS processes

Committee Members:
Anya Hurlbert (Chair)
Rich Krauzlis
Krystel Huxlin
(SPC rep)

Advisory Board

Michael Grubb (Visibility rep)
Amy Lindsey
Alejandro Lleras (SPARK rep)
Hongjing Lu
Liuba Papeo
Karen Schloss (FoVea rep)

Community Engagement Liaison:  Prof. Jennifer O’Brien, University of South Florida-St. Petersburg.

Board of Directors Nominations

Each year, nominations are solicited for two positions on the Vision Sciences Society Board of Directors.

Any regular VSS member in good standing may be nominated, with the exception of individuals now on the board, or who have served on the board within the last four years.

Nomination Procedure

Each nomination must be endorsed by 3 regular or postdoc VSS members. One person should email the nomination to Shauney Wilson with a cc: to the other two nominators. The other two nominators should indicate their endorsement by forwarding the nominating email to Shauney Wilson. Please include the candidate’s recent CV and a short paragraph describing the qualifications of the nominee, as well as an assurance that the nominee is willing to serve. With their consent, nominees may remain on the nominee list for three years.

Board Member Responsibilities

Terms last for 4-5 years. Typically, one of the two fourth-year members serves as President with the other as Vice President.  For this cohort, the Presidential term would be the 2029-2030 year for the 2030 conference. The President also serves a fifth year for continuity and so that the Board will always have 9 members.

Primary responsibilities for Board member include:

  • Serving on sub-committees that oversee various topics such as travel awards, satellite events, community outreach, workshops, graphic competitions, and awards 
  • Attending roughly bi-monthly Board meetings via Zoom
  • Preparing for and attending the in-person Board meeting in January where the program is formed for the May conference
  • Attending the VSS conference, including a subset of designated talk sessions and events associated with sub-committee membership
  • Dealing with special unexpected issues, such as the potential need to work with Meeting Perfect to find and vet alternative meeting sites.

Board members’ travel costs and accommodations for the January Board meeting, and accommodations and registration for the annual meeting are covered by VSS. Board members may not give talks at the meeting or participate in symposia during their service (although members of their lab may do so). In addition, Board members cannot submit nominations or letters of support for VSS Awards. 

Selection of the Slate of Candidates

The VSS bylaws provide for a Nominating Committee, composed of VSS members who are highly respected scientists chosen to represent the broad range of disciplines representative of VSS members (the VSS President chairs the Nominating Committee). The current members of the Nominating Committee are Krystel Huxlin (current VSS President), SP Arun, Roland Fleming, Mary Hayhoe and Ruth Rosenholtz. For each open Board position, the Nominating Committee selects from the nominees a slate of candidates who are highly respected scientists and who, when added to the Board of Directors, would result in broad representation of the disciplines representative of VSS members.

2026 Board of Directors

The names, term start and end dates and areas of expertise of the Board members are listed below. Board terms end immediately after the VSS meeting of the year listed.

Anya Hurlbert (2022-2026)
Color and Light, Object Recognition, Scene Perception

Krystel Huxlin (2023-2026)
Motion, Perceptual Learning, Plasticity, Psychophysics, Vision Loss, Visual Rehabilitation, Visual Restoration, Anatomy, Neurochemistry

Michael Landy (2023-2027)
3D Perception, Binocular Vision, Sensory Integration, Perception and Action, Texture and Spatial Vision, Material Perception, Psychophysics, Computational Models

Martin Rolfs (2024-2027)
Saccadic Eye Movements, Motion, Attention, Awareness, Eye-tracking

Richard Krauzlis (2024-2028)
Attention, Pursuit, Electrophysiology in Mice and Monkeys

Paola Binda (2025-2028 or 2029)
Eye Movements and Pupillometry, fMRI, Multisensory Processing, Visual Plasticity

MiYoung Kwon (2025-2028 or 2029)
Spatial Vision, Eye Movements, Binocular Vision, Clinical Vision, Psychophysics, fMRI, Computational Modeling

Chris Baker (2026-2029 or 2030)
High-level vision (objects, scenes, faces, bodies), learning, plasticity, neuroimaging

Julie Golomb (2026-2029 or 2030)
Attention, Perception, Working Memory, Object Recognition, Eye movements, Psychophysics, fMRI, EEG

2026 Schedule

Nominations Accepted: February 3, 2026
Nominations Close: March 2, 2026
Election Opens: April 1, 2026
Election Closes: April 24, 2026

Vision Sciences Society