Present & Convene

Sessions

Scientific Sessions

Overview

Scientific session proposals, including Union session proposals are submitted for review and accepted and allocated by the program committee. Approved scientific session proposals submitted to sections will be allocated oral, poster, or eLightning session types by the program committee after the abstract submission process.

The proposal guidelines are provided to help inform your submission. Detailed proposal requirements are included on the proposal submission site.

Restrictions and specifications

Please keep these items in mind.

  • The program committee generally will not consider:
    • Proposals that are celebratory or honorary in nature. Sessions cannot be in tribute to a specific person or contain the name of a scientist in the session title. Names can be used in the description when used in context with scientific results and focused on the person’s contribution to the field overall.
    • Proposals that are primarily advertisements of commercial products and services, or that contain the name of a specific experiment in the title or description. Opportunities to exhibit or sponsor activities at AGU23 will be available soon.
  • Primary conveners must be current 2023 AGU members. Primary conveners who are members of an affiliated society/organization and primary conveners who are non-geoscientists may request a membership waiver. The deadline to request a waiver was 19 July. Please contact the AGU Scientific Program Team with any questions. 
  • Conveners may submit multiple proposals, but we ask that you ensure the topics are different and across sections.
  • It is not possible to request an oral session. The program committee will assign final session formats and not all sessions will receive an oral component, but conveners may propose a poster-only session.
  • AGU expects that at least one session chair will be onsite in San Francisco to chair in-person sessions. Session chairs do not need to be listed as conveners.
  • All first authors, including invited authors, who submit an abstract to a session are subject to the AGU membership fee and abstract submission fee. The presenter must also pay the meeting registration fee.
  • The program committee may ask that similar session proposals merge to avoid duplication in the meeting’s scientific program. They may also ask conveners to revise a session proposal description. Following the proposal deadline, the program committee will reach out to conveners to make these requests if needed.

Invited author policies

Proposals should not include potential invited authors or make special requests.

  • If your proposal is accepted, you may invite up to two authors to submit abstracts to your session once abstract submissions open in June. Union sessions do not have an invited author limit. 
  • AGU’s main objectives for allowing invited authors include:
    • Raising the profile of a session.
    • Enticing authors who would not otherwise submit an abstract to a session.
    • Enhancing diversity or interdisciplinary perspectives
    • Featuring early-career scientists.
  • Session conveners may not be the first author or presenting author on an invited abstract in the session they are convening, but:
    • Conveners can submit contributed abstracts to be presented as a poster in their own session.
    • Conveners may be invited authors in other sessions.
    • NOTE: Student and early career conveners are exempt from this rule and may be scheduled as oral presentations in their own sessions.
  • Not all approved sessions will receive an oral allocation from the program committee, conveners should not promise an oral presentation to invited authors.
  • Detailed policies and instructions for inviting authors will be posted in June.

Reminders

Before submitting, please:

Next steps

  • If you submitted a proposal, you will be notified of acceptance or rejection in mid-June.
  • After session submissions and after abstract submissions, the program committee reserves the right to:
    • Reject or merge multiple proposals submitted by the same convener(s) on related topics or across sections,
    • Move sessions to another AGU section,
    • Merge proposals on similar topics,
    • Request that conveners revise the session title and/or description. 
    • Notify conveners if sessions need to be merged or have their descriptions revised. 
  • Conveners must be available in May and August to respond to any inquiries from the program committee.
  • Approved sessions will be open to receive abstract submissions from mid-June through2 August.
    • Conveners are responsible for ensuring that the abstracts submitted to their session are topically appropriate and should work with the program committee if an abstract is better suited for another session or is not appropriate for the meeting.
    • Promotional resources for session conveners will be available in mid-June.
  • The final decision on your allocated session type (i.e., oral, poster, or eLightning session) and schedule will be made by the program committee.
    • Conveners will be informed of their session type assignments in late August. During this period, conveners who are AGU members can log into the abstract management site to begin abstract reviews and session scheduling (arranging the order of their abstracts).
    • Conveners will be informed of their session’s scheduled date and time when the online meeting program is released in early October.