The Society of Toxicology (SOT) Annual Meeting is the premier toxicology meeting and an important venue for scientific exchange and professional networking. In light of recent events, particularly those resulting from the shutdown of the United States government, the deadline for abstract submission for the 2014 SOT Annual Meeting was extended until October 16, 2013. Although that deadline has now passed, we realize that there are still many uncertainties that may influence participation in the Annual Meeting, and we have been working to develop additional plans to accommodate our membership, to enable cross-sector participation in the Annual Meeting, and to make the 2014 meeting as successful as possible. These plans include:
- The abstract submission site is now closed and the Scientific Program Committee (SPC) has begun its important work of organizing scientific sessions from the submitted abstracts. However, the abstract submission site will reopen on December 2 with a final abstract submission deadline on January 6, 2014.
- All abstracts submitted for the January 6, 2014 deadline will be searchable by the Annual Meeting mobile app. We are making efforts to include the abstracts submitted for the January 6 deadline as an addendum in the final meeting printed program, but we do not yet know whether this will be feasible.
- There will be no “Late Breaking” Abstract session (typically scheduled for Thursday morning) at the 2014 Annual Meeting. Rather, regular scientific sessions will be scheduled beginning Monday morning and ending Thursday noon. All abstracts submitted for the January 6 deadline will be incorporated into the regular scientific program so as to be presented with relevant thematic content.
The changes made for the 2014 Annual Meeting program are unique to the current situation. We hope that these efforts will enable full participation from our broad membership and contribute to a successful scientific and professional experience for all attendees. We will provide additional details about other new features of the 2014 meeting (including electronic poster presentations) with future reminders of the modified abstract and meeting registration deadlines.
Sincerely,
Lois D. Lehman-McKeeman, PhD, ATS, SOT President, 2013–2014
Norbert E. Kaminski, PhD, SOT Vice President and
Scientific Program Committee Chairperson, 2013–2014
Peter L. Goering, PhD, ATS, SOT Vice President-elect and
Scientific Program Committee Co-Chairperson, 2013–2014