Commercial Innovation of the Year Competition

Starting the Process
Please plan to start early when writing and submitting abstracts.

• Start early by gathering current information about authors and affiliations. You may also return to the submission site at a later date to upload your final documents or make any changes.
• Starting the writing process early provides time for review by your colleagues and co-authors, which can substantially improve the quality of an abstract.

Title

Submit your title in mixed case and sentence format. How you choose to enter your information is how it will appear to the public if your abstract is selected. Your title should include specific information about the technology. Abstract reviewers often suggest preferences for abstracts to review based on the abstract titles. Therefore, it is in your best interest to provide specific information in your title to match the best reviewers for your abstract.

Main Text

• The abstract should clearly indicate the hypothesis or design objective of the study.
• Abstracts should directly describe the innovation of the study.
• Abstracts should clearly indicate the impact for current or future applications.
• Results should be substantive and not just implied. Validation studies should be included when available.
• Studies that are completed are often ranked higher than studies that are still in progress. Therefore, focus on accomplished studies rather than future studies.
• To encourage a blinded review in which reviewers are not aware of the identity of the abstract authors, please use a passive voice when listing information that will be referenced. For example, “We used our technique…[1]” should be rephrased as “A technique was used…[1]”.

Character Limit

There is a limit of 3200 characters, for the text of your submission. The character count includes spaces. You will be advised of your character count usage throughout the submission process as you save and move to the next step. One image with a description is permitted per submission, and the description will not count against your character total.

Abstract Limit

There are no restrictions on the number of submissions you may submit or on the number of submissions you may present. However, the WMIC will screen for and remove duplicate abstract submissions from review.

References

References to published literature are expected. The reference format can be truncated to save page space if needed, but the truncated format should provide sufficient information for locating the publication. A reference to work that has not yet been accepted for publication is not allowed.

Uploading Documents

When uploading documents during the submission process, the title of the document can be viewed by reviewers, and therefore should not include information that would identify the authors of the abstract. For example, a document called “John Smith Supplementary Data” should be uploaded as “Supplementary Data for Abstract XYZ.”

Final Tasks

Before submitting, review your full abstract for spelling, typos, and omitted information, and check the spelling of all author names and affiliations. How you choose to enter your information is how it will appear to the public if your abstract is selected. Please submit your personal financial disclosure in a timely manner. It is the submitting author’s responsibility to remind all co-authors that they need to submit their financial disclosures; an email is auto-generated to all co-authors after abstract has been successfully submitted. The link to the Abstract Submission site will be available soon- please check back for updates.