Deadlines & sessions
- When are abstracts due for vEGU21?
Due to the continuing and escalating difficulties for our community around the globe, the #vEGU21 abstract submission deadline has been extended by one week to Wednesday, 20 January at 13:00 CET. No changes to abstracts will be possible after this time.
- What are vPICO sessions, and how will they work?
vPICOs are modelled after the EGU General Assembly's popular interactive touchscreen presentations. Each session will feature approximately 20 abstracts per time block of 90 minutes and begin with a 'lightning round' of live 2-minute talks (each based on 1 slide) moderated by the conveners. Following this introduction, each abstract will have its own 'breakout' live text chat to stimulate further discussion, just as PICO presenters assemble around individual touchscreens to continue their conversations in Vienna. While the breakout chats are happening, the session's central webinar room will remain open for a central discussion hosted by the conveners.
- Which platform is used for the live presentations?
Each session has a session page featuring the abstracts with their display materials, a central text chat, and a stream from the live presentations. Attendees will watch the live presentations' stream rather than accessing the actual live video chat. This live video chat is only accessed by conveners, co-conveners, chairpersons as defined in the system, presenting authors of abstracts, and individual speakers defined by the conveners.
- How will presenting authors show their 1 slide?
All presenting authors will be asked to upload a single slide in form of a pixel graphic (*.png, *.jpg, 150 dpi) at least 24 hours before their session starts. These slides are uploaded to the live video chat. A conference assistant will switch the slides from speaker to speaker.
- How will solicited speaker presentations differ from standard ones?
Conveners will have the flexibility to schedule a small number of longer (5-minute or 10-minute) solicited presentations during each session's lightning round.
- Is it possible to extend the live presentations with a discussion subtitle?
Conveners can structure their sessions by subtitles. These are only meant to subdivide the abstracts by topics. Subtitles are not meant to add discussion time between individual abstracts. The vPICO session format does not foresee any discussion between the live presentation. Instead, the breakout live text chats per abstract are provided to hold discussions and answer questions.
- How long will the medal and award lectures be, and when will they take place?
Division medal lectures will take place as live webinars lasting approximately 45 minutes each. The lengths and formats of ECS award lectures will be decided by each Division President in consultation with their division officers.
Fees
- How much does it cost to submit an abstract?
An abstract submission costs €40. Because EGU has put resources into making meeting attendance more financially accessible in 2021, fee waivers are available to cover registration costs rather than abstract processing charges (APCs) for those who qualify.
- Why are you charging for registration this year?
EGU is incurring considerable costs to run the meeting, so we unfortunately aren't able to offer free attendance. The registration fee is much lower compared to an in-person meeting and EGU has established an extensive registration fee waiver programme. We welcome feedback for future years at general-assembly@egu.eu.
- What does the registration fee entitle me to?
Everything! Registration provides you with full access to the new platform (external link to YouTube) and the complete digital experience, which will include hundreds of scientific sessions, where you can comment on presentations before, during, and after the meeting; interactive EGU Short Courses; dozens of inspiring medal and award lectures; ten Great Debates and Union Symposia; an exhibition area; a jobs & careers centre; and dedicated networking areas.
- Do people who qualify for a vEGU21 registration waiver still need to pay for an EGU membership?
You don't need to be an EGU member to qualify for a fee waiver. The only exception are retired scientists. This is taken into account in the online registration form. However, only EGU members can be listed as first authors on submitted abstracts.
- Why can't I buy a membership for the first author on my abstract?
The reasons you cannot buy a membership for another person are related to European GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations). Becoming an EGU member involves several mandatory acceptances of personal contacts, which cannot be accepted on behalf of anyone other than the person submitting the information.
- Why must my registration fee invoice be issued to my institution?
By law, within the EU all meeting invoices must include the VAT rate of the country where the conference venue is located. For fully virtual meetings like vEGU21, registration invoices sent to institutions don’t include VAT. Instead, regulations require that the institutions pay the VAT in their home country, a procedure that requires a VAT ID for institutions from EU countries (reverse charge procedure). Because most individuals aren’t able to obtain a VAT ID, it’s not possible for Copernicus to issue private invoices for vEGU21 attendance.
Displays, commenting, & licencing
- What's a display?
It's whatever you want! Prior to vEGU21, the authors of each abstract will have 50 MB of space to upload whatever materials will most help them share their research with the community. This can be one graphic, a few slides, or an entire presentation; it just needs to be in a *.pdf, *.ppt/pptx, *.pps/ppsx, *.png, or *.mp4 format and conform to EGU's current Code of Conduct. If you are uploading multiple files (e.g., for files with embedded videos), one file should be clearly identified as the primary file. The display materials will be available for viewing and commenting as soon as they are uploaded (which will be possible beginning on 1 April) until 31 May 2021. Display materials submitted under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0) will subsequently be archived on EGUsphere.
- Can I opt out of the Creative Commons licence? Are my uploaded display materials visible to everyone?
Similar to abstracts, display materials are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0), which allows anyone to share them as long as the authors are cited. If your display materials require another licence, please clearly indicate this in your file (e.g., © Authors. All rights reserved). In either case, authors grant Copernicus Meetings the right to store their display materials online for viewing and download by registered individuals.
- Can display materials be downloaded and used by viewers?
Yes, according to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0), a registered user may download display materials and share them as long as the authors are cited. If your materials require a different licence, please clearly indicate this in your file (e.g., © Authors. All rights reserved).
- What's Open Science and what does it mean for protecting my ideas at vEGU21 if I share them using a Creative Commons licence?
Open Science refers to an 'open' and transparent approach to conducting scientific research, which includes sharing the products and processes of your research, from your raw data and code or tools you developed during your work to the final publications at the end. Each abstract submitted to vEGU21 will receive a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), the most common way to uniquely identify objects on the internet – particularly those shared under a Creative Commons licence – to make sure that it is properly attributed to the listed authors and therefore protects the researcher’s ownership over them. More information is available here.
- Will the sharing of my display materials impact a future publication elsewhere?
Submitting abstracts and display materials to vEGU21 does not impact future publication. Journals usually encourage authors to discuss their work at conferences prior to submitting a manuscript, and most allow posting on a not-for-profit preprint server such as EGUsphere prior to submission. Examples of these policies can be found at all EGU journals, Nature, AGU, and Science.
- What do you mean by 'commenting', and how will it work?
Abstract authors are invited to opt in to allow comments and feedback on their display materials. Commenting is enabled for meeting participants logged in with their Copernicus user IDs, and their names are disclosed. This feedback option will be open from 1 April through 31 May.
Troubleshooting
- I'm having trouble submitting my abstract; what should I do?
Please check that there is no inherited (or embedded) formatting issue in your text that could be causing difficulties during the submission process. If you're still having trouble, please email egu21@copernicus.org for assistance.
- I made a mistake entering my name/credit card/info for my invoice. How do I fix it?
Please contact accounting@copernicus.org to correct any mistakes in your invoice details.
- How can I tell if my abstract was successfully submitted?
You and your co-authors will receive an email confirming your submission. You can also check your abstract information.