Session Guidelines

Sessions are developed in collaboration between sessions chairs and the program committee, who are required to adhere to all SETAC policies, including the Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct as well as Participants Policy. This is inclusive of SETAC’s Open Science and Confidentiality Policy and, as such, unpublished material in a submitted abstract is confidential and shall not be used or otherwise disseminated until published, and then with appropriate attribution as well.

To learn more about the types of sessions supported at the SETAC North America annual meeting, please review the meeting format.

A minimum of one chair and a maximum of four chairs should accompany every session submission.

The scientific committee of the program committee reviews session proposals and will notify session chairs.

All tentatively accepted sessions are included in the call for abstracts though they are not guaranteed a session slot in the final program until final approval by the scientific subcommittee at the end of the abstract submission period, typically in June.

Once the scientific committee has accepted a session proposal, the responsibilities of the session chairs include:

• Solicit abstracts and specifically recruit for participation in the session.
• Review all submitted abstracts in the session.
• Provide recommendations to the scientific committee regarding the acceptance or rejection of each abstract and the best organization of the session in terms of flow of the presentations so they provide a well-rounded perspective on the topic.

Once the scientific committee has developed the program, the responsibilities of the session chairs include the following:

• Create an outline of an engaging session including discussion points for the live discussion
• Interact with presenters and make them feel welcome
• Chair the session and keep time

November– February

• Chairs submit session proposals.

March–April

• Chairs will be notified about tentative acceptance of their session proposal. Some chairs may be asked to work with others and will have the opportunity to resubmit proposal.

April

• Abstract submission opens.

April–June

• Chairs recruit designated abstracts
• Chairs start reviewing abstracts submitted to their session and providing recommendations to the scientific committee.

June

• General call for abstracts closes.
• Session chairs provide recommendations to the scientific committee.
• Session chairs plan discussion points if they are including a discussion at the end of their sessions.
• The scientific committee reviews the submitted abstracts and prepares the meeting program.

July

• SETAC sends the results of the abstract review to the presenters.
• SETAC sends the results of the abstract review to the session chairs.

August

• SETAC posts the program online.
• Late-breaking science abstract submission opens.
• For planned discussions, the chairs are encouraged to use discussion points to guide their conversation, they may display them on slides. They may choose to use the meeting slide template; however, it should only be used for this purpose and not to present personal research.
• Chairs can arrange with presenters to have them present poster highlights at a discussion slot. The chairs will have access to contact poster presenters in their sessions after the program is published. One of the chairs will need to compile 2–3 slides per poster into one power point presentation and upload it at the meeting so they can be accessed from the podium. The time slot could be referred to as poster highlights in the program if arranged in advance. It does not need to list the posters that will be highlighted. If a list of those is available well ahead of time, they might be listed in the print program or the online program. Regardless, the session will be linked in program to the poster session. Please keep us apprised of plans by emailing pittsburgh@setac.org

October

• SETAC sends upload link to presenters so they can upload their presentations (for online viewing).
• Late-breaking science abstract submission closes.

November

• Presenters prepare and submit presentations based on guidelines provided by SETAC.
• Session chairs carefully review abstracts to their sessions. If the session includes a discussions session, the chairs make sure they have prepared an outline for the discussion.

Session chairs are expected to interact with presenters in all associated session (talks, posters, and virtual only) in their sessions and make them feel welcome and included.

In-person Platform Session (Talks)

In person audience:

• One chair should be focused on the in-person audience
• The chair should display the pre-loaded Welcome slide a few minutes before start time.
• The chair should introduce the talks and keep time.
• For planned discussion time slots, the chairs are encouraged to use discussion points to guide their conversation, they may display them on slides. They may choose to use the meeting slide template; however, it should only be used for this purpose and not to present personal research.
• For planned poster highlights time slots, chairs are expected to have arranged those with poster presenters and to have compiled 2-3 slides per poster into one power point presentation that they would then access from the podium.
• The chair should handle questions from online audience while also making room for another chair to read questions from the virtual audience.

Online audience:

• One chair or volunteer should be focused on interacting with the online audience via the laptop on the chairs table.
• A join now link will appear near the session listing in the online platform 15 minutes before start time for online audience.
• Each session will have a technician from the meeting platform contractor to support the streamed zoom meeting.
• The online chair should identify themselves to the tech and be assigned online meeting co-host duties.
• The online chair is encouraged to type “Welcome: session title” in the chat.
• The online chair may communicate with the technician or specific participants via private chat.
• The hosts may turn off mic or video feeds, as needed, if a participant’s feed is disruptive.

Chairs are expected to enforce the SETAC Code of Conduct during both the in-person and online meeting.