Guidelines

By submitting your abstract, you are agreeing to abide by the SVP Annual Meeting Code of Conduct as outlined here. In particular, your submission must be fully consistent with SVP policy that the research specimens referred to in your presentation are deposited in an appropriate, publicly accessible, repository and that other relevant data (e.g., those derived from tracksites, geochemical analyses, etc.) are destined to be made available in full at the time of publication. Specimens currently available for sale on the commercial market must not be mentioned in abstracts, nor can specimens in the collections of private individuals. All work reported must have been conducted within the legal and ethical frameworks of the country in which it was carried out.

By submitting your abstract, you are agreeing to prepare a presentation for the SVP Annual Meeting. If you are unable to attend, you are also confirming that you have arranged for an alternate presenter to give your presentation in your absence.

By submitting your abstract, you are also agreeing to abide by the SVP Copyright Permissions Policy as outlined here.

Abstract Content

Abstracts should clearly state the goal of the study and include relevant information on specimens or taxa examined, methods, results or findings, and the significance of the results.

• A maximum of 510 characters is permitted for the abstract title.
• A maximum of 2500 characters is permitted for the abstract body.
• A maximum of 170 characters is permitted for acknowledgment of funding sources (please only list funding body and grant numbers, not ‘Thanks to’ or similar).
• Blank spaces between words will count as characters.

Do not include citations, references, figures, captions, footnotes, or ad hominem statements.

Use of trade names necessary to accurately identify products, materials, or equipment is permitted only in abstracts for the Preparation & Scientific Methods and Collections & Curation sessions within Paleontological Practices. Trade names shall not be used for the purpose of advertising products or services.

Abstracts failing to follow these guidelines will be removed from consideration for the Annual Meeting.

Submission Instructions

• You do not have to complete the submission in one session. You may log back into the site using your user ID and password to complete or modify your submission at any time before the deadline.
• The abstract submission platform works best with the following browsers:
  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Safari

You may still be able to access the system using other modern browsers, but full compatibility is best supported with the browsers listed above.

• Abstract details are completed on the first page, and Co-Authors are added on the second page after clicking the “Submit Abstract” button.
• The individual who is designated as the “Primary Presenter” must be listed as the first author in the author order. The “Primary Presenter” designation and the author order may be changed prior to the submission deadline. Submitters are responsible for ensuring that the author order and Presenter designations comply with these requirements before submitting their abstract.
• All abstracts are limited to a maximum of TEN (10) authors. To add a co-author, begin typing that person's last name, first name in the search box in the Add/Edit Authors section of the submission form. If their name comes up, click on the "Add Co-Author" button to add that person. If the author is not found, click on the button labeled "I have looked for my Author and they do not exist" and complete the required fields to create a profile for your co-author(s) and add them to your abstract.
• We welcome individuals to submit a first-author abstract in EACH of the Regular/Symposium Session and the Paleontological Practices Session (which include Preparation & Scientific Methods, Education & Outreach, Paleontological Management, Collections & Curation, and Ethics in Paleontology sessions), but only ONE of these can be a talk presentation (or both can be poster presentations). Please note that, outside of this exception, more than one first-authored contribution to the meeting is not permitted.

SESSION
Select one of the sessions listed below:

• Regular
• Paleontological Practices - Preparation & Scientific Methods
• Paleontological Practices - Education & Outreach
• Paleontological Practices - Paleontological Management
• Paleontological Practices - Collections & Curation
• Paleontological Practices - Ethics in Paleontology
• Symposium - Conveners welcome submissions to the 2026 Symposia:
  • Signal, Noise, and Eco-Evolutionary Opportunity: Intraspecific Variation in the Vertebrate Record
  • Local and Global Drivers of Late Quaternary Extinctions
  • Long Continental Records of Vertebrate Faunal Change
  • Major Advances in Late Paleozoic and Early Mesozoic Tetrapod Paleontology: In Memory of Hans-Dieter Sues
• Colbert Prize (poster)
• Romer Prize (talk)

Select Talk or Poster for your Preferred Presentation Type. All 2026 abstracts will be presented in-person at the SVP 2026 Annual Meeting scheduled to be held November 11-14, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

Please note that the Preferred Presentation Type that you select (Talk or Poster) is not guaranteed; you may be switched from a talk to a poster or vice-versa depending on programming needs. Abstract decision and subsequent scheduling notifications will specify your confirmed presentation type as determined by the Program Committee. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

Any abstract not selected for the Romer Prize session or the Colbert Prize session will be moved to Regular submission status and considered alongside all other abstracts submitted. Colbert Prize submitters must have been students within the past year. Following assessment by the Colbert Prize Panel, Colbert Prize finalists will be notified by the Program Committee when abstract programming notifications are sent to all authors.

Special Note for Preparation & Scientific Methods Submitters:
This session welcomes abstracts that cover topics related to best practices in fossil preparation and scientific methods. Fossil preparation includes lab and field work, mechanical, chemical, and digital preparation, archival materials, collections storage, exhibition development, and professional development training for preparators and technicians. Scientific Methods includes data collection, emerging technologies, and new applications of existing equipment, among others but not the research that came from those methods; merely the methods themselves. Talks in this session address the physical care and long-term stewardship of vertebrate fossils and their scientific importance in paleontological research and cover associated data with special attention to the documentation of materials, methods, techniques, tools, health and safety considerations, as well as ethics.

Special Note for Education & Outreach Submitters:
The Education & Outreach Session (talk or poster) is an opportunity to highlight the development, application, and dissemination of effective tools for supporting education and outreach related to vertebrate paleontology. Abstracts should focus on developing scientific knowledge and/or awareness of vertebrate paleontology to a specific audience. These might include K-12 students, K-12 teachers, undergraduate students, informal science venue audiences, online audiences, and/or traditionally underrepresented groups in science. Evaluation is critical for developing and advancing education and outreach initiatives. Abstracts submitted to the Education & Outreach Session must include some measure of effectiveness. Relevant data might be collected using paper or digital feedback forms, interviews, focused observations, or other measurable indicators of success. Abstracts that simply describe education or outreach efforts without quantitatively or qualitatively evaluating their impacts will receive lower rankings during abstract review. To help push the boundaries of our community’s outreach and education, abstracts that describe how the effort is novel for the SVP community will receive higher rankings during abstract review. All abstracts accepted into this session are automatically included in the Excellence in Education & Outreach Award competition.

Special Note for Paleontological Management Submitters:
This session welcomes abstracts that cover a broad range of topics concerning paleontological management, including paleontological laws, regulations, and policies, preservation and protection of fossils and fossil sites, and paleontological research and mitigation permits, efforts, and techniques. Abstracts should focus on an effort to educate the paleontological community about the legal concerns, land management efforts and methods, and resources and processes to support researchers involving vertebrate paleontology. Abstracts should describe how the information provided is important, novel, or useful for the SVP community. When referring to any laws, regulations, or policies in abstracts, the authors are solely responsible for the accuracy of the information provided, not SVP.

Special Note for Collections & Curation Submitters:
This session welcomes presentations that deal with the long-term care of vertebrate paleontological specimens in a collections setting, not including those that relate directly to fossil preparation. Topics covered in this session include archival materials and best practices related to collections care, accessioning, digitization, object conservation, storage of physical objects, data/database management, collections management software, inventory, climate control, integrative pest management, archives preservation, collections policies/ethics, and any other topics related to collections care. These presentations may involve studies where data are collected and/or case studies of collections projects.

Special Note for Ethics in Paleontology Submitters:
Ethical concerns in paleontology have increasingly become issues for broad discussion, including formal publications. SVP now welcomes abstracts related to ethical issues, especially regarding vertebrate fossils. Abstracts should focus on educating the paleontological community on relevant topics, including but not limited to the collection, preservation, and study of fossils, research practices, and the workplace environment. They should describe how the information provided is novel and valuable to the SVP community. The SVP Ethics Committee will evaluate abstracts. Abstract submissions should not be confused with complaints to the SVP Ethics Committee and should not be used to target individuals or organizations, either directly or indirectly. The authors are solely responsible for the accuracy of the information provided, not SVP.

Abstract Categories

Each abstract will include a Taxon Category and a Taxon Subcategory, as well as a Time Category and Time Subcategory. These options are primarily for use in the scheduling of presentations, so please consider this while making your choices.

Following Submission of Your Abstract

• A confirmation will be sent upon successful submission of your abstract to the email address associated with your user profile. If you do not receive an email confirmation, please log back into the site to complete your submission or contact meetings@vertpaleo.org for assistance.
• You may also receive email notifications about submissions on which you are a co-author. Make sure you receive a confirmation for the correct abstract you have submitted to assure it has been completed in the online submission system.
• Please include your abstract submission ID number in all correspondence regarding your abstract.
• Notification of abstract programming will be sent to first authors (presenting authors) in August. Scheduling of presentations is set by the Program Committee Chairs and cannot be changed after notification of abstract acceptance.

If you have any questions, please contact meetings@vertpaleo.org.