Call for Submissions (General & Student)

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The 22nd Ontario Pest Management Conference (OPMC) will be held in conjunction with the Entomology Society of Ontario (ESO) from October 24-26, 2025. The following call is for the OPMC portion of the conference, which will be held Friday, October 24. See ESO's website for details on submitting to their student competition and for registration to both conferences.

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Before submitting to the conference, note the new date and location at the Royal Botanical Gardens (Rock Garden). Anyone chosen to present at OPMC must be there in person for the OPMC portion of the meeting.

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The OPMC features research on all aspects of pest management associated with plant, animal and human health. See www.ontariopmc.ca for more details on the conference. For the 2025 conference, OPMC will be soliciting abstracts for:

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1. CropLife Graduate Student Oral Competition (sponsored by CropLife Ontario Council) – 6 spots total (15 min length): first place $750 award and plaque, second place $250 award

2. CropLife Graduate Student Poster Competition (sponsored by CropLife Ontario Council) – 6 spots total: first place $750 award and plaque, second place $250 award. NOTE: Posters will be pre-judged for 2025 - see special poster competition instructions below.

3. C. Ron Harris Undergraduate Poster Competition (sponsored by OPMC) – 4 spots total: one $500 award and plaque for the winning undergraduate (or diploma) student. NOTE: Posters will be pre-judged for 2025 - see special poster competition instructions below.

4. General Oral – Non-competitive. One spot available (10 min length). Priority will be given to CropLife sponsors and presentations which fit the theme.

5. General Posters – Non-competitive. Limited spots available.

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For all categories, entries must meet OPMC submission and presentation requirements. See instructions for 2025 below. For submissions to the ESO portion of the conference, see the ESO website.

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Submissions in diverse areas of pest management are encouraged. See below for abstract submission and oral/poster formatting requirements for all categories. The OPMC submission period for all categories (student competition and general) opens at 8am on Monday, July 28 and closes 11:59pm on Monday, September 8. Entries before or after this period will NOT be accepted. 

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SPECIAL STUDENT POSTER COMPETITION INSTRUCTIONS FOR 2025

Student poster judging will occur via Zoom in the week prior to the conference. Students will be able to sign up for a 15 minute judging time slot on one of 2 separate dates, where they will briefly present their poster and answer questions from the judges. In order to qualify for an award, students are also required to be in attendance during the specified poster presentation periods (morning and afternoon breaks) on the day of the conference. Further instructions will provided to students chosen to participate.

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OPMC SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

All entries must be submitted through the online portal here: https://www.ontariopmc.ca/submissionform. We will not accept entries in any other format. For question/problems on this system, please email us at ontariopmc@gmail.com. Entries for ALL categories must be received by Monday, September 8 at 11:59pm to be considered for the conference. This applies only to OPMC's competition. See ESO's website for details on submitting to that portion of the conference.

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Please read the submission form in detail, including footnotes. General category submitters do not need to fill out anything in the student competition section.

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GENERAL CATEGORY 

We have limited openings available on the 2025 agenda for submitted posters and oral presentations in the general category. Researchers or other industry members interested in submitting IPM-related research that are not eligible or not accepted for the student competition may submit to these categories. Priority for oral presentations will be given to CropLife sponsors.

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Abstract submissions for both general categories (including CropLife) must be received by Monday, September 8 at 11:59pm to be considered. Formatting for orals and posters are the same as for the student competition. Please refer to the After Acceptance section below.

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STUDENT COMPETITION 

General Eligibility

• The student must:

  • Be the principal investigator and presenter of the presentation or poster.

  • Be currently enrolled in a degree program (undergraduate, diploma or graduate) or have graduated from a degree program since the last conference (November 2024). NOTE: New graduate students can enter the undergraduate competition if they are presenting undergraduate research that was completed since November 2024.

  • Must be attending a Canadian university.

• Students who have won in a category in a previous year are not eligible to reenter in that category but can enter another category or the general categories. 

• Graduate students wishing to enter the Graduate Oral Competition must be presenting at least 2 years of their own data (2 field seasons or laboratory equivalent as a graduate student).  Students with less than 2 years of graduate data will only be considered for the Graduate Poster Competition.

• Students wishing to enter to the Graduate or Undergraduate Poster Competitions must be presenting at least one year of their own data (not literature reviews or previous student’s work). If you are unsure whether your data is applicable, please contact us at ontariopmc@gmail.com.

 

Selection Criteria

Due to limited space, not every student submitting an abstract will be accepted into the competition. The selection of entrants into the competition will be based on ensuring a balance of disciplines and research programs, how advanced the student is in their graduate program, how closely the entrant followed the instructions in the call for abstracts, and, to a lesser degree, order of abstract submission.

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Close adherence to all competition instructions and deadlines is a requirement of the competition. Five percent of a student’s overall score will be assigned by the committee based on their ability to follow ALL competition instructions, including formatting and deadlines.

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Frequent Student Submission Mistakes

Authors and Affiliations

1) A student should never be the only author on a scientific presentation. Check with your supervisor on who should be listed.

2) For the author field, only list initials of first name(s) and last name (no middle name initials) of all authors. For example, Sean Westerveld = S. Westerveld, Mary Ruth McDonald = M.R. McDonald

3) Indicate affiliations by putting a number in brackets after the author name in the author field, and then the same number before the appropriate affiliation in the affiliation field. For example, Author field: S. Westerveld (1), M. Filotas (1), F. Shi (2); Affiliation field: (1) Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness, Simcoe, ON, Canada; (2) Ontario Ginseng Growers Association, Simcoe, ON, Canada.

 

Abstract

1) Keep abstracts to 250 words or less.

2) Spelling and grammar often lead to lost marks. Consider having your abstract reviewed by a third party before submitting. Do not rely on autocorrecting. Note: the form will not accept italics or special characters. You will not lose marks for these issues.

 

Data Being Presented

Data presented in graduate student competitions must be generated by the student or under the student’s supervision. There are always co-authors that share the ownership, but this is what qualifies as your “own data”. Data generated by past students or staff in your lab does not qualify as your own data but can be added as a supplement as long as your own data still qualifies you for the category. Literature reviews alone are not accepted in any category.

 

Deadlines

Every year students lose considerable marks in the competition for failing to meet one or more deadlines. All deadlines, not just the submission deadline, count towards your score. You will be given clear instructions on the deadlines upon acceptance into the competition.

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Student Competition Scoring

Students will be scored by a panel of judges using standardized judging forms. The full scoring criteria will be sent to all competitors upon acceptance into the competition. 

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AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Entrants will be informed of their acceptance into the competition or conference within two weeks of the submission deadline. Successful participants will be expected to register for the conference upon notification of their acceptance. Students and general submitters will receive follow up emails from OPMC with additional instructions and deadlines. Failure to follow all instructions will also reduce the student’s score in the competition and may affect their continued acceptance in the competition.

 

ORAL PRESENTATION FORMAT AND INSTRUCTIONS

• Presentations must be 12 minutes in length + 3 minutes for questions and discussion

• Use Power Point format. To avoid incompatibility problems, limited use of animation is recommended. 

• Student presenters will be required to send a PDF copy of their presentation to the judging coordinator a few days prior to the conference (deadline to be sent upon acceptance) to help facilitate judging.

• General oral presenters will be encouraged to send a copy of their presentation for posting on the OPMC website after the conference.  

• Both student and general oral presenters will need to bring a copy of their presentation on a USB memory stick to the conference.

 

POSTER PRESENTATION FORMAT AND INSTRUCTIONS

• Posters must be 4’ (height) x 3’ (width), portrait format. The header should include the title, authors and institution where the work was conducted. Photos of the presenting author can be included on the right side of the header.

• Student competitors must be present at the poster during the designated poster viewing times (morning and afternoon breaks). General poster presenters are encouraged but are not required to be present at their posters during the breaks.

• For the student competition only, a PDF copy of your poster must be sent to the judging coordinator by email (instructions to follow) approximately 10 days prior to the conference (deadline to be sent upon acceptance) so judges can review poster content in advance.  Failure to submit a copy of your poster by this time will result in disqualification from the competition. 

• General poster presenters are encouraged to submit a PDF copy of their posters for posting on the OPMC website after the conference.

• Posters can be set up on the board displaying your assigned Poster Number beginning at 8:00 am on October 24 and must remain in place until afternoon coffee is over. Any posters not claimed at the end of the conference will be removed and discarded by organizers unless other arrangements have been made.