SABER Midwest

Window for ALL Submissions: July 10 - September 15, 2025

SABER Abstract Submission Guidelines (Short Talks & Posters)

The Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) Midwest Regional Meeting Planning Committee invites you to submit abstracts for the SABER Midwest Regional Meeting. 

The Microsoft CMT service is used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service is provided for free by Microsoft and they bear all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.

It is the responsibility of the individual submitting an abstract to review the guidelines below.  

A. Presentation Formats   

Abstracts may be submitted for the presentation formats described below. The character limit for your abstract is determined by the presentation format you choose. If we are unable to accept your abstract as a short talk based on reviewer recommendations, it may be selected to be presented as a poster. 

1. Short Talks | Abstract word limit: 5,000 characters (including spaces)
   These are 20-minute presentations (15 minute talk + 5 min Q&A) intended to showcase results that are complete enough for publication. Emphasis is on communicating robust findings of a complete project (i.e., appropriate and thorough), tried and tested instruments and protocols, and other developed work. Abstracts submitted for short talks may be recommended for roundtables or poster presentations. 

2. Poster Presentation | Abstract word limit: 3000 characters (including spaces)
   Poster presentations are ideal for sharing a new or developing project or gaining specific advice on a particular set of data. Projects that are still early in development are encouraged, including studies with promising, yet minimal, outcomes data, or studies with inconclusive results. 

B. Instructions

When writing your abstract, please refer to the rubrics for evaluating submissions (available on SABER website).

1. When you are ready to submit your abstract online, carefully follow the instructions detailed on the submission site for uploading your abstract. 

2. After adding your abstract information, you will be taken to a screen with all of the abstract reviewers (titled “Edit Conflicts of Interest”). Please check off all individuals who would have a conflict of interest with your submission, including colleagues from your institution and collaborators on this or other projects.

3. If you would like an email confirmation of your submission after submitting your abstract, please click the “email” button at the top right corner of the submission system after submitting your abstract. 

C. Evaluation Criteria

All abstracts will be reviewed by multiple reviewers from the SABER community. These reviewers will recommend abstracts based on the abstract rubric established by the SABER Abstract Committee and final decisions will be made by the SABER Midwest Planning Committee.

Be sure to consult the correct rubric for the chosen presentation format. 

For short talks and posters, while different considerations will be applied to each presentation format, all formats will be evaluated in four areas; PLEASE NOTE:  Your abstract should include each of these headings followed by a colon so that reviewers can easily find them, e.g., “RESEARCH DESIGN:  For this project, we investigated…”: 

1. Study Context: Strong abstracts will clearly describe the study’s context and/or literature base, including a few key in-text citations in author, year format. Do not include a reference list. A sound rationale (e.g., gap in the literature) should be provided as well as an appropriate model, theoretical framework, or philosophy of the study. 

2. Study Design. Strong abstracts will provide a clear description of the question and/or education problem being addressed. The abstract should provide enough information to demonstrate that the study’s design and methods are appropriate and well-aligned with the research question or problem being investigated.
   

3. Analyses and Interpretations. Strong abstracts will clearly describe the analysis of the data, include a description of key results (e.g., numerical results and/or examples of qualitative data as appropriate to the study), and provide some interpretation of the findings. All claims made in the abstract should be clearly supported by evidence or reasoning and appropriate to the focus of the study and its methodology. Reviewers will also consider the appropriate level of completeness of the project based on the presentation format selected. While short talks are expected to have more thorough analyses (e.g., appropriate statistics, example quotes and codes, inclusion of diverse data streams, closer to publication), poster presentations may include more preliminary data analyses.
   

4. Contribution. Strong abstracts should add to, refine, or refute the literature base in biology education. The abstract should provide clear implications for teaching, learning, or research in biology. Reviewers will also consider whether the study is likely to be of general interest to SABER attendees.  

The CMT link will be posted on this website when abstract submission has opened. This will be a link to the CMT* site for our conference. You will need a CMT account (see top of call for instructions). Once you have a CMT account, you will be able to use the SABER Midwest 2025 CMT site for submission. 

You can find more information here as well: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/docs/help/author/author-submission-form.html