A Guide to ISMRM’s HTML-Based Abstract Submission Process (2023)

Step 1: Create a NEW Account

On the left side of the submission site’s login page, click “New to this site?” to create a new account. Accounts from past years will not work on this meeting’s submission site.

On the next page, select the appropriate society and then click the “Create a New Abstract” button. A new abstract ID will be created for each submission.

Be sure to select ISMRM from the drop-down!

Selecting the wrong society here can result in your abstract being rejected simply by being reviewed by the wrong reviewers!

On the top of the page you will see a row of circles marked 1-7. You can click these to switch back or forth to edit the information on each page.

Step 2: Add Authors

We recommend you start entering authors early, even before your abstract is ready to submit! Be sure to verify with your co-authors how they want their name and institution to appear on the abstract, and make sure you have their preferred email address entered correctly.

Be sure to identify the First Author and check the relevant box. The First Author is also the corresponding author. Please fill in all fields marked with a red asterisk: *

Step 3: Enter your Abstract

This is the core of the submission process. Start with the title, which is limited to 125 characters. Below this, the page will automatically include Section 1, “References,” and “Acknowledgments.” You can add and title new sections, such as “introduction,” “methods” or whatever else you would like, by clicking the “Add New Section” button.

You can copy and paste your abstract text into the appropriate sections. All formatting will be stripped from this text unless you use the “Paste from Word” button, which looks like this:

You can also add bold, italic and other formatting as needed. DO NOT create a Synopsis section yet. You will be asked to add this later in the submission process.

There will be a separate field to enter your synopsis. Please do not include the synopsis in this part of the process.

Special Characters

Individual Greek characters tend to come across reliably when copied from Microsoft Word. However, since the abstract will be rendered in HTML, equations are a separate issue. These will be entered using MathJax. For those who are unfamiliar with MathJax or those used to working in e.g. MathType, there are several equation tools on the web. One suggestion is HostMath. To use HostMath, click the buttons on the left panel to enter the mathematical symbols you need. The top right panel is the coding and the bottom right shows how the equation will appear to the reader. Once you are satisfied with the equation, copy all of the code in the upper right panel to your document or directly into the appropriate section in the submission site.

In the toolbar of a given text field, there are two buttons for entering equations into the text: “Insert Equation Tag” and “Insert Inline Equation Tag.”

Insert Equation Tag is for an offset equation, which is an equation that will be displayed on a line by itself. This button inserts $$ into the text.

Insert Inline Equation Tag is for an inline equation that will appear in the body of the text. This button inserts $$$ into the text.

Important: The $$ or $$$ tags must be added on both ends of your equation or it will not display correctly.

As you can see in the above figure, the format should be $$a+b=c$$ for offset equations or $$$a+b=c$$$ for inline equations. Thus, the way you get your MathJax equation into this document is to paste the text you copied from HostMath in between these symbols. For example, $$\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^2–4ac}}{2a}$$.

Once you are done with your first section, you can add more sections by clicking the “Add New Section” button. This will give you another box to enter the section title and the body text for the next section. Continue this process until you are done entering all of your text. Next, click the “Save & Continue with my Abstract” button. Don’t forget, there is a 850 word limit on the abstract length. The site will tell you if you are over this limit.

Please click “Save All” frequently to ensure you don’t lose your work.

Step 4: Add Figures

On the figures page, start by clicking the “Add New” button. This creates a new gray box where you can select a file to upload and enter the figure caption. Despite the “Figure: 1” text above the box, the system does not automatically number the figures, tables or captions. Please begin each caption with something like “Figure 1:” or “Table 1:” so your images are numbered.

To upload an image, click the “Select” button at the top of the gray box and select the image file on your local machine. These files can be in many formats including jpg, gif and png (note: tiff files will not work). Next, enter the caption. Figure captions are limited to 500 characters each. Next, click “Save” in the bottom left of the gray box. A small preview thumbnail of your figure will appear in the gray area. To add more figures, click the Add New button and follow the above steps for each figure.

Once you are done uploading your figures, click the “Save & Continue with my Abstract” button. You can upload up to 5 figures for each abstract. There is a maximum file size of 2MB for each figure. Finally, please upload tables as figures.

If you upload more than one figure, the next page will ask you to specify which images are your primary and secondary. First select your primary image, followed on the next page by your secondary. These selections will affect which images appear in the Proceedings, the Program, and digital poster teaser slides.

Step 5: Abstract Detail

This step is very important to get your work presented in the session of your choice. Please read this thoroughly and choose appropriate categories and keywords.

There are 8 major scientific categories for 2023 (see box). Each category will have a “restricted” list of keywords (formerly named “labels”) from which you will select your Primary keyword and an “unrestricted” list that contains all the keywords (list link). There are 179 keywords from which to choose. This year, you also get the option to add a third keyword and it is entirely up to you to type one in!

The following are a couple real examples from 2022 to get you started:

As you can see, it depends on you to determine in which session you see your abstract being presented. What audience are you interested in?

Here are a few tips to help you with the process:

1. Is your abstract on technical development and methods-heavy? Choose a technical category (Acquisition & Analysis, Physics &Engineering, Contrast Mechanisms).
2. Is your abstract on clinical application of a technique? Choose a more clinical category (Neuro, Body, Cardiovascular, Musculoskeletal, Pediatrics)
3. Do you think your abstract could fit both technical and a clinical category? Choose a technical primary category and a clinical secondary category or vice-versa.
4. Do you think your abstract only goes in ONE category? In this case your primary and secondary categories would be the same but your choice of keywords may change (see example 2)
5. Cannot find your keyword from our list? Use the empty space provided for third keyword and self-populate it with your own words.

In addition to oral presentation and digital posters, this year we are re-introducing the possibility of presenting your work as a traditional paper poster. Each traditional poster will have its own QR code which will be linked to a video abstract of your work for people to listen to and can be useful if your abstract contains videos or 3D images.

New to this year is the possibility of presenting educational exhibits. These are traditional paper posters where you can provide an educational content of a topic of interest. Radiologists, clinicians and trainees get an opportunity to send in abstracts that have educational value such as “how to implement clinical fMRI protocol?,” “Neuroanatomy for beginners,” or “what is parallel imaging?”

Now we get to the synopsis. This is a 100-word summation of what you think your abstract is about. This will appear on digital teaser slides.

The 250-character summary is what will appear on digital slides. Think of it as a sort of “sales pitch” for people browsing the slides to click on your abstract.

Fill in the rest of the information on this page regarding subject compliance, stipends, etc.

Step 6: Disclosure

Fill in all of your disclosures here. If you have declarations, a space will appear for you to enter details.

Step 7: Proofread

Click the “View Abstract” button. This is how your abstract will appear. Double-check everything in your submission. We recommend you have one or more co-authors also proofread everything. To save a copy of your submission, print the abstract page as a PDF.

Remember, you can click the circles at the top of the page to go back to those sections to make edits.

Step 8: Submit

All done? Click the Submit button. This one is complete!

Abstract review will take place over the next couple months, and acceptance notifications will be emailed to first authors after the AMPC meeting in January.

If you have more abstracts to submit, go back to the submission site’s home page, click “Create a New Abstract” and proceed through these steps again.

Return to the Call for Abstracts Page