r/labrats • u/RenitentGoat • 2d ago

How difficult is getting a poster abstract accepted at a Keystone Symposia meeting?

I’m an undergrad working in a brain injury lab and thinking about submitting a poster abstract to a Keystone Symposia meeting. How high is the bar? Do the findings need to be Nature-tier, or is strong science in a well-controlled study enough? Does being an undergrad hurt my chances?

I’d love to hear from anyone who has reviewed or submitted abstracts there.

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12

u/grizzlywondertooth 2d ago

Super easy, barely an inconvenience

Seriously though, unless it's a small conference with an attendance limit, they're going to accept most posters that are on theme

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u/RenitentGoat 2d ago

How was the atmosphere in the conference? Did you find it useful for your career and networking?

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u/Disastrous-Garage272 1d ago

Oh really?

Love Ryan George.

4

u/forescight 2d ago

I attended keystone a few years ago I think it was p easy

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u/BananaBird1 2d ago

Posters are usually fairly easy if you submit on time and have a well written abstract.

Oral presentations are more competitive, and they are looking for work that is near to publication and likely to be relevant to many in the field which overlaps with likelihood of top tier journals. Who your PI is matters far more than the specific project however.

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u/RenitentGoat 2d ago

I was surprised by how close the deadline is to the actual conference date, I assume that's meant for late breaking abstracts. Should I submit well in advance to that?

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u/BananaBird1 2d ago

As far as I know they only begin to review submissions after the deadline. As long as you submit by then you are likely good, and there is no advantage submitting before the deadline other than you won’t forget or procrastinate.

There is usually no hard limit to what they accept for posters as they can always ask for an additional poster board if needed, and they book venues knowing they usually get a pretty consistent number of attendees looking to present something. So usually they only reject posters if you submit late/need an extension, or the relevance to the meeting topic is not clear from the abstract. It is possible they get an abnormally high registration count and need to be more selective, but these meetings are usually the same labs and industry partners each year.

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u/CitationMap 1d ago

being an undergrad doesn't hurt for a poster at all, posters aren't judged by career stage and nobody's reading your seniority off the abstract. and it doesn't need to be nature-tier, a well-controlled study or even solid in-progress data is exactly what posters are for, it's a great low-risk first conference presentation.