Abstract Guidelines and FAQs

1. Abstract Title: Please use a short and concise title that indicates the content of the abstract. (Note: the title is not included in the total character count of 2,200).
2. Abstract Body Text: Your abstract may have up to 2,200 characters, which does not include title, authors, groups, and affiliations. Tables and graphics (maximum of 500 characters) are included in the character count. Spaces are not counted. Do NOT include abstract title, authors or keywords in abstract text. Abstract text may be submitted using either of the following methods: Copy/paste, direct entry keystrokes, or file upload. Your abstract may be written without the use of the following bolded headers (e.g., Background, Methods, Results, Conclusion). However, follow the abstract guidelines to ensure all required information about your study is provided in your abstract.
3. Author(s) Information: Author(s)'s name(s), institution(s), location(s), title(s).
4. CE Disclosures: Relative to this activity, instructors, planners, content reviewers and managers who affect the content of a CME/CE activity are required to disclose relevant financial relationships they have with commercial interests (i.e., any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients). (Please note: FEMS submitters will not need to submit a CE Disclosure during abstract submission.)
5. Abstract Language: Abstract/Grant/Award submissions should be in English.

• Clinical Tracks (AAR, CPHM, CIV, POM):
  • The reason for the study or how the study came about (e.g. hypothesis, discovery or central question) should be clearly stated.
  • Methods must be included.
  • Data must be objectively gathered, analyzed and reported.
  • Data must support the stated conclusion(s).
  • All presentations dealing with the isolation, purification, structure-activity relationships, mechanisms of action, in vivo/in vitro microbiology, PK/PD in animals and Pre-US IND or non-US early phase I studies must include meaningful data (e.g., producing organism, purification steps, physical-chemical characterization, structures, MICs, ED50s to describe new compounds and their properties, and that chemical structures of lead compounds will be included as part of the poster presentation. Please note: Any posters or talks dealing with a specific small molecule antimicrobial agent must provide a chemical structure, or a literature reference to the structure, in order to be presented at the meeting. Abstracts describing biological data on an antimicrobial agent whose chemical structure has not been defined should be submitted to the HMB track.
  • Scientific presentations at World Microbe Forum will be expected to transparently report a study’s scientific rigor, including, but not limited to the following: 1) experimental design; 2) methodology; 3) data collection; 4) analysis; and 5) interpretation and report of results. Other key components of scientific rigor included, if applicable, are sample size, randomization, blinding, and replication.
• Basic Science Tracks (AES, EEB, HMB, MBP):
  • The reason for the study or how the study came about (e.g. hypothesis, discovery or central question) should be clearly stated.
  • Data must be objectively gathered, analyzed and reported.
  • Data must support the stated conclusion(s).
  • Conclusion(s) should be made, but the study does not need to be fully complete (the standard to present at Microbe is not the same as to publish in a journal).
  • Abstracts describing biological data on an antimicrobial agent whose chemical structure has not been defined should be submitted to the HMB track.
  • Scientific presentations at World Microbe Forum will be expected to transparently report a study’s scientific rigor, including, but not limited to the following: 1) experimental design; 2) interpretation and report of results.

• No identifying features such as names of authors, hospitals, medical schools, clinics, or cities may be listed in abstract text. Inclusion here may result in rejection of the abstract.
• The abstract must include the following: Background, Objectives, Methods and Results
• The title should be as brief as possible but long enough to clearly indicate the nature of the study.
• All abbreviations must be defined in first use.

A Times New Roman Font is NOT recommended. Avoid use of fonts specific to the software application you use. This is particularly true for symbols as some character sets do not translate well resulting in lost information.
Note: An additional entry line has been added to the electronic submission to accommodate credits, footnotes, etc.; a character limit of 300 is applied to this field but does not count towards the character count of the abstract body.

Is there a registration deadline for abstracts?
All abstract presenters must be registered to participate in the meeting. Abstracts submitted by March 19 must register by May 11.  General Abstracts/Late-breaker abstracts submitted by May 7 must register by June 1.

All World Microbe Forum abstracts will be embargoed until 24 June 2021. Some abstracts will be embargoed to coincide with the times they are presented at the meeting. Embargo times and dates will be clearly marked on all press releases.

Additionally, press releases and other promotional activity by third parties must coincide with the date and time of the presentation.

When asking for outside comment on press releases or news stories before the embargo has lifted, journalists are requested to ensure that the embargo is respected. ASM/FEMS reserves the right to ban any journalist from the meeting who breaks the embargo or breaches the media policy in any other way.

If your research has already been published, please contact the ASM communications office to discuss how to handle promoting your abstract at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For FEMS abstracts please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Plagiarism will not be tolerated in submitted abstracts. All submitted abstracts identified with plagiarism will be sent to the Program Committees for review and handling.

Please refer to the NIH ORI publication, Avoiding Plagiarism, Self-plagiarism, and Other Questionable Writing Practices, for additional information.