DEADLINE DEC 1, 5PM

What is the Undergraduate Poster Session?
•    The Undergraduate Poster session provides a professional development opportunity for undergraduates whose research projects might not be appropriate for the regular content-area sessions (standard criteria).  Specifically, research accepted for the Undergraduate Poster session might have substantive limitations, such as insignificant results or limited presentation of the existing literature.  

•    The deadline for undergraduate poster sessions proposals is December 1 at 5 PM, EST. Be sure to complete your poster with enough time so that your faculty advisor can review it before the December 1 deadline.

•    Research projects accepted to the Undergraduate Poster Session will be grouped together in the same poster session with approximately 50-80 other undergraduate posters. Be prepared to be available to present at any of the possible poster times on Friday or Saturday of the meeting. 

Undergraduate Student EPA membership (Associate Members) and Submitting Your Proposal
1)    Both student and faculty sponsor must be current members of EPA (i.e., expiration date of 5/31/2024). Undergraduate students join EPA at the Associates level. 

2)    Joining EPA: http://www.easternpsychological.org/
•    If you are already an Associate member who needs to pay dues, login at the top right of the menu, and then click on 'Renew Your Membership'.   
•    If you are joining EPA as an Associate for the first time, click on 'Join EPA'.  

•    For anyone planning to submit a proposal, it is advisable not to wait until the last possible moment to join/renew your membership as payments may take up to 48 hours to process. 

Am I eligible to submit for the Undergraduate Poster Session?
•    Any undergraduate who conducts a research project with a faculty advisor is eligible to submit for the Undergraduate poster session. Both the undergraduate student and the advisor must be current members of EPA (see above for more information).  

•    The undergraduate must be the first author of the poster. The faculty member who advised the research project must sponsor the submission, as well as be an author on the poster.  

•    EPA Fellows may sponsor undergraduate posters, but the poster submission must follow all of the guidelines for an Undergraduate Poster (i.e. submissions need to include a short and long abstract, etc.).

Should I submit to the Undergraduate Poster Session or to a relevant content Poster Session? 
•    If your research project meets the standard criteria, you should submit to content-area sessions. If your poster is not accepted to the content Poster session, it will automatically be reviewed as an Undergraduate Poster. Do NOT submit your poster to both a content-session and the Undergraduate Poster session.

•    If you choose to submit to the regular content-area session rather than the Undergraduate Poster session, follow the directions for the standard criteria link (https://www.easternpsychological.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=3508) rather than reading further.

How do I submit my proposal to the Undergraduate Poster Session?
Pay attention to all of the details below.  IF YOU FAIL TO FOLLOW ALL INSTRUCTIONS, YOUR SUBMISSION CAN BE REJECTED WITHOUT REVIEW.
Please contact Dr. Paige Fisher (Seton Hall University) (paige.fisher@shu.edu) if you have questions.
1)    ***Access the Undergraduate Submission Portal once you are logged in to EPA under your Associate Membership. Click on 'Associate Proposals'. The submission deadline for Undergraduate Research Posters is December 1, 2023, 5pm, EASTERN STANDARD TIME.***

•    You may upload your submission or cut and paste text into the boxes. Please do not include graphs or tables- the system can only accommodate text-based content.

•    You are required to submit a short 75 word abstract and long 500-1000 word abstract using text boxes on the EPA submission site. See below “What are the criteria for an Undergraduate Poster Submission” for explanations and instructions for what to include in the short and long abstracts. FOLLOW THESE WORD LIMITS.

•    When indicating the “Content Field” for your submission, choose Undergraduate Research for the 1st field, and whatever content area you think is most applicable for the 2nd field. Please do not make up a category as that may delay the review process. 

•    Be sure to provide your faculty research sponsor’s name and email in the appropriate sections.

•    Once you submit your poster, the document is final.  Please proofread your submission carefully before submitting.  Make sure you have included all of your co-authors, including your faculty advisor. Double-check the spelling of your co-authors’ names. Proofread a second time.

•    First authors will be notified by email in December regarding the status of their proposals.
What are the criteria for an Undergraduate Poster Submission?
As many undergraduates have never submitted a poster for a professional conference, the information below provides comprehensive guidance regarding the components of a poster submission.  Please read the following carefully if you are unfamiliar with the expectations of a professional conference poster submission.
1)    Short Abstract: The short abstract is the only communication about your study that conference attendees will see. Therefore, you need to summarize all the major points of your study for conference attendees. The word limit is 75 words aside from the title and authors’ names.
•    Title – Develop a brief title so that attendees have a sense of your poster content.
•    Author Names (this should include your faculty advisor and any other individuals who made significant contributions to design, data collection and/or writing)
•    In one sentence, clearly state the purpose of your study.
•    Broadly connect your study to pre-existing literature
•    Briefly describe the method you used to obtain your data, such as number of participants/sample and procedure for empirical submissions, or how you obtained your evidence for a non-empirical submission) well enough for readers to understand the basic design of your study. 
•    Describe your central findings.  
•    If possible, conclude your abstract but providing the “so what” for your findings, identifying real-world applications, and/or future directions.
Here is an example of a short abstract:
Children who are interested in academic tasks may be more likely to engage in challenging activities and build foundational academic skills.  Sixty preschool children participated in academic assessments and behavioral observations, while their teachers completed questionnaires regarding their classroom functioning. Key findings suggest that children’s early interest predicts concurrent math skills, controlling for age, receptive vocabulary, and attention problems.  These findings highlight the importance of considering the role of interest in emergent academic development.
1)    Long Abstract:  The long abstract is the description of your research study for the Program Review committee to determine whether your submission will be accepted. In the long abstract, you are providing the rationale for why your project makes a scientific contribution and explaining to the reviewer how your study was conducted and what you found.  Your long abstract should be between 500-1000 words.

The Long Abstract should include the following sections: Introduction/Literature Review, Methods, Results and Discussion.  See below for instructions as to what should be included in each of these sections. The ordering of information within each section is flexible.

•    Introduction/Literature Review: Explain the current understanding of your research topic and how your study will push psychological science forward by enhancing knowledge of this area.
o    Provide an opening sentence to explain the importance of the study
o    Describe selected background literature that provides context for your research project. Broadly explain what is known and what is missing/lacking (limitations to prior studies) about your topic. For literature reviews and historical analyses, provide the historical and cultural context, and any theoretical frameworks.
o    Current Study: Provide a brief description of your study design and how it will “fill the gap” in the literature.  State your specific hypotheses (i.e., testable predictions). 

•    Methods: 
o    Describe your sample/participants (N, biological sex and/or gender, any other relevant demographic variables such as animal species, college-students, or children at a preschool, etc.). 
o    Materials, i.e., explain what you used to measure characteristics, behaviors, etc. and/or manipulate to create different conditions, or describe your source materials.
o    Procedure, i.e., the ordered steps that comprise the actual research project
o    For historical/literature review projects, describe the evidence considered in your analysis. For qualitative analyses, explain the method and theory you used to derive your conclusions. For projects involving secondary data analysis (i.e. data that you did not personally collect), note how and when the data were collected and by whom. For content and meta-analyses, describe the units of analysis (e.g., books, videos) and selection procedure. 

•    Results:   
o    Describe the types of statistical/qualitative procedures you used.
o    When appropriate, provide descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, frequencies, themes) for the primary study measures
o    Present the results of analyses for the stated hypotheses with relevant effect sizes and confidence intervals.
o    State whether the results are consistent/inconsistent with what your predictions.
o    For qualitative analyses, describe primary themes and other relevant outcomes.

•    Discussion: 
o    Briefly summarize the overall findings for your study
o    Explain possible reasons/alternate explanations for your findings.
o    Compare/contrast your findings to what has been found in the literature
o    Describe limitations to your study/possible directions for future research
o    Identify any conclusions or implications that can be drawn from your results.

For further guidance on creating a strong submission, see the Psi Chi article Writing Strong Conference Abstracts by Marianne Fallon and Bonnie A. Green.
 

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