Identify the submission as one of the following:

• Early-Career Investigator Symposium
• Best Poster Competition

Early-Career Investigator Symposium

This symposium is an opportunity for early-career investigators (defined below) to submit an abstract for the competition. Clinical projects or research are welcome. Highest scored Early-Career Investigator submissions, i.e. the finalists, as determined by the abstract reviewers will be selected for presentation in a special symposium on Saturday, April 17, 2021, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM.

An Early-Career Investigator is defined as at the time of abstract submission a Candidate for the award must be no more than two years post-graduate or if post-graduate, must be in a medical physics residency program or a medical physics related postdoctoral fellowship.

• Select the submission type: Early-Career Investigator Symposium
• Select Submission Category
• Submit a Structured Abstract as described in the Instructions to Authors
• Submit a Supporting Document, which is MANDATORY, and must not exceed 2 pages in length

Only one first author submission from each Early-Career Investigator can be submitted for consideration for the Early-Career Investigator Symposium.

FINALISTS are identified on February 11; at which time the Finalists will be contacted with further instructions. Contact the Programs Manager at AAPM HQ with any questions regarding the Early-Career Investigator Symposium.

A panel of judges will score the oral presentations according to criteria that include scientific merit, originality, and organization/presentation of the material.

All abstracts submitted to the Early-Career Investigator Symposium that are NOT selected for the competition, will be considered for the Best Poster Competition.

Best Poster Competition

Abstracts may be submitted for a poster presentation. The emphasis of the work must be clinical to reflect the overall focus of the Spring Clinical Meeting. AAPM will conduct a Best Poster Competition! A panel of judges will score poster displays according to criteria that includes clinical relevance, originality, and organization/presentation of the material.

Presenting Authors in the Best Poster Competition will be required to upload a PDF file of their poster pre-meeting to allow the judges the appropriate time to review and select a Winner.

• Select the submission type: Best Poster Competition
• Select Submission Category
• Submit a Structured Abstract as described in the Instructions to Authors
• Submit a Supporting Document, which is MANDATORY, and must not exceed 2 pages in length

Enter the title of the abstract to be submitted.

• Use sentence case when entering title
• To enter superscript text put the following tags around the text to be superscripted: ^text
• To enter subscript text put the following tags around the text to be subscripted: _text

Select the Subject Category that best pertains to your abstract.

Select a primary category and subcategory that best describes your work. This taxonomy will help to assign the appropriate reviewers.

Select up to 3 keywords to describe your work.

On the Abstract Submission Status screen, you will be prompted to add any contributing author(s) to your submission.

To Add Author(s):

• Select the link to 'add an Author' and search for an individual's last name
• A list of potential authors will be generated if the 'last name' is in the system.
• Select the correct contributing author for the submission and indicate if 'presenting' or 'author'.
• Continue process until all contributing authors have been added.
• Each submission is allowed only ONE presenting author.
• Corresponding authors are NOT automatically added to the submission as a contributing author. If the corresponding author is a contributing author, you MUST add the individual at this point.

If a Contributing Author is NOT currently in the System:

• Once you have searched for the last name and it does not appear on the generated author list, please follow the automated system instructions to complete an online form to have the author automatically added to our AMS directory. After you have successfully submitted the form, click on the button titled "Click Here to Search Again!" and the author will appear in the generated list.
• By entering a unique email, each author will have access to the abstract submission content, but ONLY the corresponding author may edit the content.
• Use proper capitalization when entering a new author.
• Check your entry as you go as the system does not correct spelling or grammar.

Helpful Hints:

• Add your 'presenting author' first. You can later use the arrow buttons at left of names to change order, once all authors have been added.
• Finally, arrange the author names in the order they are to appear when published in the "Program Byline" and "Calendar of Events Byline." ANY AND ALL CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS MUST BE ADDED IN THIS SECTION OF THE PROCESS IN ORDER TO GENERATE THE CORRECT 'BYLINES'. (see Step 7)

Back on the Submission Status Page:

• The system will have generated a list of contributing authors added to your submission.
• If any contributing author's names are missing, go back and add the individuals.
• If the order of names is NOT correct, go back and use the arrow buttons to rearrange.
• The presenting author's name will be denoted with an asterisk.
• Any time you add/remove/reorder author names or reassign the presenting author, the system will change the content listed in Step 6 and 7 so it is IMPORTANT you review the content with each change made.

On the Abstract Submission Status screen, you will be prompted to view the 'Program Byline' (Authors/Institutions) generated by the system. It is IMPERATIVE that the Program Byline be VIEWED and EDITED as instructed.

• For a single author, the system will list author's name (first initial, last name), institution, city, and state.
• If multiple authors have been entered, the system will list ALL author names (first initials, last names) in the order of entry, followed by the first author's institution, city, and state, then the second author's institution, city, and state, etc.

• Anytime you make changes to the Author List, the system will require that the Byline be reviewed again. The system will display the former Byline, before changes were made.
• If you want the system to regenerate the Byline with the new authors/changes, hit the RESET BUTTON and make appropriate edits as listed above.
• The RESET BUTTON will always clear and reset to the most current author information.
• The 'Program Byline' is EXACTLY what will be published in Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics with the Abstract:
  
  
  

The corresponding author must agree to and select the following "Verification of Contributing Authors" statement button in the submission process:

"By checking this box, I verify that each author to be listed on the submitted abstract has contributed to the content of the abstract and consented to the submission of the said abstract."

The corresponding author must agree to and select the following "Verification of Contributing Authors" statement button in the submission process:

"By checking this box I verify that each author listed on the abstract has agreed to participate in this educational activity. It is understood that each presentation will be constructively evaluated in areas of presentation quality, achievement of educational objectives, and utility/usefulness of content. The evaluation will be confidential and communicated only to the contributing authors upon request.

I further verify that any potential conflict of interest(s), as set forth in the preceding statement, has been listed in the abstract and will be disclosed during the presentation."

The corresponding author must agree to and select the following "Distribution of Abstract and Presented Materials Agreement" statement button in the submission process:

"By checking this box, I verify that I have obtained permission from each author listed on my abstract allowing me to distribute the abstract at the AAPM Virtual Spring Clinical Meeting, via the AAPM website, or via any other publication that may result from this meeting.

Under this constraint, I verify that all contributing authors will obtain or have obtained permission for the use of any copyrighted materials that may be presented at the AAPM Virtual Spring Clinical Meeting for educational purposes from the appropriate copyright owner(s) and publisher(s).

Non-copyrighted materials obtained from sources such as colleagues or the web will be attributed accurately. Where possible, prior permission for its use will be obtained."

Corresponding Author Contact Information is entered on this screen. If you are an AAPM member, first log into the AAPM website. The following required fields will automatically be completed for you. The following fields are required:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Phone
• E-mail
• Street Address
• City/State/Zip
• Country

All Contributing Authors may access an Abstract by using their personal Username and Password. BUT only the Corresponding Author has the ability to modify any of the Abstract information, including withdrawing the abstract or re-submitting a revised Supporting Document.

You will be given the opportunity to withdraw the submission at this point.

If you choose to do so, this record will be deleted from the system. You would need to return to your private Abstract Homepage in order to 'create a new submission.'

Review the Sample Abstract before preparing your submission.

The Abstract text MUST be structured as follows:

• • Purpose:
  • Methods:
  • Results:
  • Conclusion:

**Any abstract that does NOT conform with this structured format will be REJECTED.**

• Abstracts must not exceed 300 words.
• Enter Abstract text directly in the designated field on the website. If you Copy/Paste from word processing software, be sure to proofread integrity of the text. Symbols and equations are not supported.
• DO NOT include Title, Author names/institutions, graphs, figures, tables, images or multimedia elements. Titles and Author information is entered elsewhere in the system and will be merged with the abstract file later in the process.

• A Supporting Document is REQUIRED for Early-Career Investigator Symposium submissions and limited to 2 pages - using 11-point Arial Font and 1” margins. The Supporting Document should be limited to a few figures and/or equations with clear, self-explanatory captions. The Supporting Document should NOT be used for extensive text descriptions and should not repeat material contained in the abstract.
• A Supporting Document is REQUIRED for Best Poster Competition submissions and limited to 2 pages. Follow to the above instructions.
• Preferred format is illustrated in the Sample Supporting Document.
• The Supporting Document must be submitted as a PDF format file.
• The Supporting Document should include the title and should be limited to a few equations and/or a small number of figures or tables with self-explanatory captions. A small number of references may also be included.
• Do NOT list authors in the Supporting Document. In support of our blind review policy, there is to be no author information in the Supporting Document nor any information identifying the authors or affiliation.
• The Supporting Document must be uploaded to our server by clicking the "Upload Supporting Document" icon that will appear on your status page once you have provided all the required information.

Early-Career Investigator Symposium Submissions - Finalists will be required to submit a letter of eligibility from the presenting author's thesis advisor identifying the institution. Finalists will be contacted with further instructions at a later date. Contact the Programs Manager at AAPM HQ with questions regarding the Early-Career Investigator Symposium.

This shows the status of the documents.

• By looking at this, the author will be able to see the abstract text that has been added to the system and if the supporting document was received without any problem, there will be a link to the Adobe Acrobat PDF file that was created and ensure there were no errors introduced in conversion.

NOTE: If you have previously submitted text and would like to resubmit it for any reason, you may press the "Delete" button. This will 1) notify the system that the abstract text will be resubmitted and 2) all references to previously submitted text will be removed. After resetting, enter the new abstract text through the same web-based upload process.

You will only have the option to reset a submitted document if it has been received as noted above.

Please be completely sure that you wish to resubmit a document before following this procedure.