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.

The Abstract Review Committee evaluates all submitted abstracts. Abstracts submitted for talk sessions and/or travel grants are assessed by two reviewers; all other abstracts are assessed by one reviewer. Reviewers are chosen whose area of expertise matches the topic of your abstract.

Abstract Rating

Abstracts submitted for talk sessions and/or travel grants are reviewed on a five-point scale. Each reviewer’s ratings get normalized before averaging them across reviewers. The 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 rating is 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, fatally flawed or no methods, incomprehensibility, or repetition of well-known literature. Abstracts that are recommended for rejection by at least one reviewer will be additionally evaluated by the Board of Directors. Abstracts will only be rejected if a two-thirds majority of directors at the board meeting vote for rejection.

Based on our experience, there are always some abstracts that fulfill these criteria, and these will indeed be rejected.

Scheduling Abstracts

The VSS Board of Directors meets at the end of January to schedule presentations for the meeting. Abstracts are divided up into thematically organized sessions, as well as presentation preference. (See Presentation Preference Definitions below).

Because there are usually more requests for talks than slots available, the reviewers’ ratings will primarily determine which abstracts will be assigned to the talk sessions. Under very rare circumstances will the Board make small adjustments to ensure that the talks in a single session fit well together or to prevent a session from being dominated by a single laboratory.

Presentation Preferences

• Talk Preferred – If you are not chosen to give a talk, you may be chosen to give a poster.
• Poster Preferred – You would be willing to give a talk if asked.
• Poster Only – You are not willing to give a talk.

Notices of Acceptance

After the reviewing process and after the abstracts are scheduled for the meeting, the authors will be informed about the outcome of the reviewing process. 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.

Abstracts are submitted through your MyVSS account. You must be a member to submit an abstract. Each member may submit one abstract as first author. The first author must be a current member in good standing (for 2024).

Accepted and presented abstracts are published in the meeting program and online in the Journal of Vision.

Abstract Format

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. It is, however, important that each abstract contains sufficiently detailed descriptions of the methods and the results. Please do not submit an abstract of work that you are planning to do or work without sufficient results to reach a clear conclusion. Such abstracts will not be accepted.

Per the VSS Disclosure of Conflict of Interest Policy, authors must reveal any commercial interests or other potential conflicts of interest that they have related to the work described. Any conflicts of interest must be declared on your poster or talk slides.

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.

Presenters

Talk and poster presenters should plan to attend the meeting in person. There will be no virtual components to VSS 2024.

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. Substitutions for talks are not allowed. If an author substitution is approved, the first author must still pay the registration fee. Each registered attendee may present only once at the meeting.

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 in the online Journal of Vision.

Submission Schedule

Submissions Open: October 12, 2023
Submissions Close: December 5, 2023
Notification of Accepted Abstracts: February 7, 2024

Submitting an Abstract

To submit an abstract, Log in to your MyVSS Account or Create a New MyVSS Account, pay for your 2024 membership, and then click the Submit an Abstract button.

For questions about Abstract Submissions, please contact us.

• The first author must be a current 2024 member in good standing.
• All first (presenting) authors must be registered for the meeting.
• Substitutions for talks are not allowed.
• Author 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.
• Abstracts must be work that has not been accepted or published at the time of submission.

For questions about Abstract Submission Policies, please contact us.