Scientific Program: Papers and Posters

Submission Guidelines for Papers and Posters

The 2019 submission window will be open May 1-31, 2019.

To review submission guidelines for the 3rd World Congress of Optometry, see guidelines below then review the guidelines for preparing scientific paper presentations and poster presentations.

To review guidelines for the American Academy of Optometry, please click here.

The submission window for papers and posters for the Scientific Program is now open through May 31 at 4 PM CST and can be accessed through the American Academy of Optometry website. Click here and go to “submit now” to access the submission portal.

The 3^rd World Congress of Optometry’s Scientific Program offers scientists, educators, and clinicians the opportunity to exchange the latest information in optometry and vision science in two formats, research paper presentations and scientific posters. The Scientific Program is open to everyone and it is not required that you be an Academy member. When submitting you will choose which format you prefer.

Submission Guidelines

If cutting and pasting from a word editing program or website, please first paste the text in Notepad or a similar program. This step will remove any HTML tags prior to pasting in this text editor. When reporting standard deviations a space is required between the “+” symbol and the numeral (Example: 2.1 + 0.05).

3^rd World Congress abstract submissions will only be accepted through the American Academy of Optometry’s (AAO) website from May 1 through May 31, 2019, 4:00 PM CST.
Abstracts can be submitted under the following three categories:

– Scientific Program Research Abstracts – Original scientific research. (See Sample Scientific Abstract)

– Scientific Program Case Report Abstracts – Case report or case series. (See Sample Case Report Abstract)

– Information Abstracts – General information about educational, accreditation and public health service programs (Example: Academy Section/SIG and Diplomate programs, residency programs, graduate degree programs, medical mission and other public health service programs. (See Sample Academy Information Abstract)
Abstracts can consist of text and images. Image sizes must be restricted to 1 MB and images can be uploaded in GIF, PNG, TIFF, TIF, JPG, or JPEG formats.
Abstract character count limit including title is 3,000 (includes spaces, but not author names and affiliations).
Authors are permitted a maximum of two first-author presentations within the scientific paper/poster program. Any combination of paper or poster presentations are permitted, however, no more than two first-author submissions will be accepted. There is no limit to the number of co-authored submissions, e.g. authors may be listed as second, third or other position on any number of submissions.
The primary author’s CV is required to be uploaded at the time of abstract submission.
Authors presenting their work at the 3rd World Congress of Optometry MUST be registered for the meeting.
The first author is solely responsible for presentation of accepted abstracts at the date and time assigned by the Scientific Program Committee. Co-authors, substitutes, or multiple presenters are not permitted.
First authors may be scheduled to present a paper or poster presentation any time during the afternoon of Saturday, October 26^th or any time throughout the day on Sunday, October 27^th. Authors should not submit to the scientific program unless they can commit to be present when assigned.
Substitute presenter approval requests will only be considered in cases of illness, family emergency, change of employment, or inability to obtain a visa. The request must be submitted to christinav@aaoptom.org by the First Author by 2 pm the day before the scheduled presentation. The substitute presenter must be one of the co-authors and registered for the annual meeting.
If you are from the United States, please review the Ethical and Regulatory Requirements for Research and Case Reports:
- Research involving human subjects must have been conducted in accordance with the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki and with adherence to any applicable national and local human subjects research requirements. Consistent with the National Institutes of Health guidelines, if the number of human subjects in the study exceeds three, Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval must be obtained. The authors cannot automatically assume that certain studies are exempt from IRB review. Only an IRB can determine if a specific study fulfills the exempt status.
- Research involving the use of animals must be conducted in accordance with international standards for animal treatment and care (e.g. the Society of Neurosciences and ARVO statements on the use of animals in research) as well as any applicable regulatory requirements. If the work submitted involves the use of animals, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval must have been obtained.
- Failure to confirm to the above ethical standards may result in loss of privileges for all listed authors to submit abstracts or proposals to subsequent AAO annual meeting programs.

If you are submitting from outside the United States, please select your country of residence or country in which you conducted your research project.

Indicate the ethical/regulating body you used for human and/or animal subjects. Research involving the use of animals must be conducted in accordance with international standards for animal treatment and care.
- Failure to confirm the above ethical standards may result in a loss of privileges for all listed authors to submit abstracts or proposals to subsequent WCO Congresses and/or meetings.
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: the first author is responsible for disclosing any conflict of interest on behalf of all listed authors as defined in the Scientific Program Committee’s Statement on Conflicts of Interest. Any conflict of interest must also be disclosed at the time of presentation; this applies to both scientific paper and poster presentations.

Major Abstract Evaluation Criteria

Research Abstracts

The level of scientific or clinical novelty
Sound methodology
Quantitative description of the results
Statistical analysis for significance of results
Conclusions supported by results
Adherence to submission instructions and ethical standards
Language and grammar
WCO Scientific Program Research Abstracts: Only original scientific research should be submitted in this category.
Scientific Program submissions through this WCO link will be considered for presentation Saturday afternoon or Sunday.
Scientific Program submissions through this AAO link will be considered for presentation Wednesday to Saturday at noon.
Duplicate submissions of the same abstract to both the WCO and AAO portions of the meeting is prohibited.

Case Reports

The level of clinical novelty
Completeness of case work-up to support the proposed diagnosis
Sufficient author involvement in the examination, diagnosis and/or management of the case
Adherence to submission instructions and ethical standards
Language and grammar
WCO Scientific Program Case Report Abstracts: Only a single case report or a case series with no more than 3 cases should be submitted in this category. A case series of more than 3 cases will be considered as a systematic study and will require IRB approval if submitting from the US. If you are submitting from outside the US, please indicate which country you are from and/or the country in which you conducted your research project and indicate which ethical/regulating body for human and or animal subjects you followed.
Case report submissions through this WCO link will be considered for presentation Saturday afternoon or Sunday.
Case report submissions through this AAO link will be considered for presentation Wednesday to Saturday at noon.
Use the AAO Scientific Program Case Report Abstracts category to submit case report abstracts to the AAO portion of the meeting.
Duplicate submissions of the same abstract to both the AAO and WCO portions of the meeting is prohibited.

Note

Submissions of previously published copyrighted material (e.g. ARVO abstracts or journal articles) will not be accepted.
Submissions may be rejected if the author(s) have failed to make scheduled presentations at previous meetings.

World Optometry Foundation (WOF) Student Travel Fellowships

Accepting Applications from March 15 – July 31, 2019.

The WOF is pleased to announce the first WOF Student Travel Fellowships for optometry students from outside North America to attend the 3rd World Congress of Optometry. The WOF Student Travel Fellowship Program was created to encourage students to further educate themselves about optometry around the world.

Preference will be given to students who have a poster or paper accepted for the Congress although it is not mandatory. These six $1,250 awards are available to registered undergraduate, postgraduate student studying at optometry school or a graduate studying for professional qualifying examinations at an institution outside North America. The country where institute of education is located or the institute itself must be a member of WCO.

Applications for the WOF Student Travel Fellowship Program opens March 15, 2019 and closes July 31, 2019. Successful applicants will be notified by August 31, 2019. Click here to learn more and complete an application for a WOF Student Travel Fellowship.

Please email garryn.marlen@worldoptometry.org for any questions concerning the WOF Student Travel Fellowships.

Questions?

If you have questions about the submission process or experience technical difficulties, please contact Christina Velasquez at ChristinaV@aaoptom.org.