Internet World Congress '98 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This Page contains answers to commonly asked questions regarding Congress presentations, instructions for submission, etc. Please send your queries to inabis98@mcmaster.ca or use the form below. If you use the form, please include your email address and click on the "SEND" bottom to submit your questions Enter your email here: Click to send your question.

QUESTIONS

• Who owns the copyright on the abstract and presentation?
• Is a presentation at INABIS '98 a publication or a presentation at a meeting?
• Can the same material be submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed journal?
• How does one cite the abstract or presentation at INABIS '98?
• Is there a limit to the number of authors on a poster?
• Can more than one poster be submitted from the same lab or researcher?
• What if I make a mistake when I submit the poster?
• Can I submit graphics with my poster? What about animated gifs?
• How should my poster be organized? Should I follow the guidelines for scientific presentations or papers?

ANSWERS

Who owns the copyright on the abstract and presentation?
Authors retain the Copyright on abstract and presentation, and no one is permitted to copy or download this material without the authors permission.

To read more about copyright, see "10 Big Myths about copyright explained" by Brad Templeton at http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.html and follow links therefrom.
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Is a presentation at INABIS '98 a publication or a presentation at a meeting?
A Virtual Meeting such as ours is a relatively new endeavour, so the precise answer (if there ever will be "the" answer) is not available. The following is an opinion given to us by an official from the US Copyright Office.

If a presentation stays on the Internet for a limited period of time and downloading is not permitted, then one can argue that this is a presentation at a conference. If the presentation remains on the Internet for an unlimited period and is freely available, then it is difficult to argue that it is not a publication.

Can the same material be submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed journal?
Some journals may view your presentation as a publication rather than as a presentation at a meeting. Journals may not have a set policy and deal on a case by case basis. Use your judgement. You can check with the journal you intend to publish in.

For a discussion on a radical transformation in the publishing of scientific articles, see "LEARNED INQUIRY AND THE NET: THE ROLE OF PEER REVIEW, PEER COMMENTARY AND COPYRIGHT" by Stevan Harnad at http://citd.scar.utoronto.ca/EPub/talks/Harnad_snider.html; see also a related On-Line Forum from AMERICAN SCIENTIST
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How does one cite the abstract or presentation at INABIS '98?
Recommendations for styles of citing information found on the Internet can be found in Citation Style Guides for Internet and Electronic Sources (http://www.library.ualberta.ca/library_html/help/pathfinders/style/style.html) and in Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (NEJM 336: 309-315,1997 ).

As an example, a reference to a presentation in the symposium chaired by Simantov, would be:

Dus L, Ratovitski T, Tauber M, Tafet GE, Pantaleoni GCE and Simantov R (1998): Transcriptional and posttranslational regulation of 5-HT transporters expressed constitutively or in transfected cells. On-line Proceedings of the 5th Internet World Congress on Biomedical Sciences '98 at McMaster University, Canada (available from URL: http://www.mcmaster.ca/inabis98/simantov/dus0133/index.html).

Is there a limit to the number of authors on a poster?
The maximum number of authors on a poster is 10.
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What if I make a mistake when I submit my poster?
Just resubmit the poster. It is also useful if you send a supplementary email to inabis98@mcmaster.ca to let us know that you have made a mistake, and the second poster that you submitted is the correct one.
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Can more than one poster be submitted from the same lab or researcher?
Yes. As long as the total number of presenters is 10 or less.
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Can I submit graphics with my poster? What about animated gifs?
You can submit graphics and animated gifs as a part of your poster. After your abstract has been approved, and poster submission begins, you will be able to indicate whether or not you would like to include graphs or other pictures with your results. If you indicate yes, you will be contacted via email to make the proper upload arrangements. When preparing your graphics, please take into account that not all of our viewers will be using extremely fast connections. Please try to keep the graphics as small as possible. Also, all graphics must be saved as either .GIF files or *.JPEG/.JPG files.

Animated gifs are also no problem, within reason. Please keep the pictures less than 20k in size if possible. Animated GIFs tend to chew up bandwidth.
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How should my poster be organized? Should I follow the guidelines for scientific presentations or papers?
Set your poster up as you would a normal submision to a scientific journal or conference. You will need to include contact information, names of the authors, abstract, materials, methods, results, discussion and conclusion, as well as references. Templates will be posted at the Congress site in October.
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inabis98@mcmaster.ca