Annual Meeting 2023 - Cambridge, UK: Registration and Abstract Submission

Registration

Registration, abstract submission, booking and payment (by credit card) are now open and are available online via the green button below.

The deadline for early-bird registration and abstract submission is Friday 9th June at 23:59 BST.

It will not be possible to submit an abstract after that date. Registration after 9th June will incur additional charges, and registration will close on 22nd August. Registration and bookings for specific meeting events (ECR event, workshops, collections tours, Annual Dinner and field-trip) will be taken on a strictly first-come, first‑served basis. Please note that there is a maximum limit on the number of delegates the Annual Meeting can accommodate, and therefore registration will be closed when this limit is reached.

Register here

International delegates

For international delegates who require visas to enter the UK, there is an option at registration to tick a box that will guarantee a decision on your abstract and a formal letter of invitation (if required to apply for your visa) from the conference organisers in a timely manner. Such delegates are requested to submit their abstracts no later than Monday 15th May to have their abstracts considered for this service. We cannot guarantee that a formal letter of invitation will arrive in time for you to successfully apply for your visa if you do not submit your abstract by that date.

Delegates from the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland do not need a visa. Nationals of certain other ‘non-visa’ countries such as the USA, Australia and Brazil can request a visa on arrival in the U.K. All other nationalities must apply before travelling: you can check whether you will require a visa on the UK Government website.

A Virtual Attendance option is available on the registration form only for delegates from low- and lower-middle income countries (LMIC, as defined by the World Bank). This Virtual Attendance option provides such delegates with a means to register for the Annual Meeting for free, so that they may then submit an abstract for consideration as an oral or poster presentation. This Virtual Attendance option is not open to delegates who simply want to watch talks, but who cannot attend the meeting. There will be no live streaming of regular sessions. Delegates from LMIC whose abstracts are accepted for poster presentations will have the option to post their posters to the meeting organisers, who will ensure that they are displayed at the Annual Meeting. The number of slots available for such poster presentations in absentia is limited to 10. 

Abstract Submission

Abstracts can be submitted for either Regular or Symposium talks, and posters. Abstracts are limited to 200 words in length. You will need to register before submitting your abstract, as the registration confirmation e-mail will contain your personal link enabling you to submit your abstract(s). Association members should ensure that they have renewed their membership for 2023 before registering. Delegates may submit up to three abstracts for which they are the first (presenting) author. If submitting one abstract, delegates must choose to deliver a Regular talk, Symposium talk, or poster. If submitting two or three abstracts, at least one must be for a poster presentation. Delegates submitting two abstracts should therefore choose to present either two posters, or one poster and one talk (which can be a Regular or Symposium talk). Delegates submitting three abstracts should choose to present either three posters, or two posters and one talk (which can be a Regular or Symposium talk).

Delegates will be notified in early July, via e-mail, regarding acceptance of their abstracts. The decision of the organisers is final.

General Guidance

Deadline for abstract submission: 23:59 BST Friday 09th June (i.e. before 10th June). After this date abstracts will not be considered.
Abstracts are limited to 200 words in length. Please follow the abstract style guidelines below when preparing your abstract. Abstracts that are not formatted correctly will not be considered. The guidelines are as follows:

•    Abstract Title should be entered in sentence case NOT title case.
•    The first and last names of EVERY author must be spelled in full; only giving an initial for the first name is insufficient.
•    Middle names of authors should be given as initials ONLY in the First Name(s) field. e.g. "Edward D. Cope" will have "Edward D." entered in the First Name(s) field and "Cope" in the Last Name field.
•    All names should be entered in sentence case ONLY; using all capitalised lettering is not acceptable.
•    Use the full name for institutions. e.g. write out "NHM, UK" in full as "Natural History Museum, UK".
•    DO NOT provide full postal address for author institutions: give institution name and country ONLY.
•    Abstract Text must be entered as you wish it to appear and should be formatted in standard sentence case. DO NOT enter text that is only capitalised.

Delegates who would like their talk to be considered for a slot within the symposium (on the topic of “Ecosystem engineering through deep time”) should choose the option to submit a Symposium talk. The abstracts review panel at the University of Cambridge will make a decision on whether to accept your presentation for the symposium based on the abstract and how developed the research is. We will also consider career stage in allocating Symposium talks. If an abstract for a Symposium talk is unsuccessful, it will be automatically considered for a Regular talk slot instead, as described below.  

For delegates submitting an abstract for consideration as a Regular talk, the abstracts review panel at the University of Cambridge will make a decision on the nature of your presentation based on the abstract and how developed the research is. We will also consider career stage in allocating talks. If Regular talk presentations are oversubscribed, we may offer you the option to present a poster instead. 

For delegates submitting an abstract for consideration as a poster presentation, the abstracts review panel at the University of Cambridge will make a decision on the nature of your presentation based on the abstract and how developed the research is. If posters presentations are oversubscribed, in cases where the quality of abstracts is equal, preference will be given to authors who have not already been awarded talk or poster presentations.

Eligibility of presenters for President's and Council Prizes: The President's and Council Prizes are awarded for the best talk and poster, respectively, at the Annual Meeting. All student members of the Palaeontological Association, and all members of the Association who are early career stage researchers, i.e. those within one calendar year of the award of a higher degree (PhD or MSc) are eligible for consideration for these awards.
If you do not wish for content from your poster or talk (or specific slides therein) to be shared electronically or on social media, please use the PalAss social media symbols in your presentation.

Regular talks and Symposium talks

Please prepare your presentation in Windows PowerPoint, PDF format, or export your document into one of these formats and ensure that all files and slides are still compatible. If you are using a Mac please check your presentation on a Windows PC prior to the meeting, as this is the system we will be projecting from.

Regular and Symposium talks are each allocated a 15 minute slot, comprising 12 minutes for the talk and 3 minutes for questions and switching between speakers. There will be no lightning talks at the 2023 Annual Meeting. 

Speakers are kindly asked to stick to time to allow for interaction with the audience. Please prepare your talk to allow for questions using the above timings

Posters

Posters should be prepared in A0 portrait format. Landscape format and larger formats will not be accepted. Delegates can watch the YouTube videos prepared for the 2021 meeting to learn more about poster preparation and judging (see the Association's YouTube channel).