The Spring Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF) is a time each year when we suspend our other campus activities to celebrate the academically centered creative endeavors and research efforts of Elon’s students. SURF brings to light our students’ wonderful academic and creative pursuits. SURF 2024 will be held on April 30 (Tuesday), 2024. We invite you to join and support the student presenters and performers as they share the joy of exploration and discovery that are the hallmarks of an intellectual community. The SURF 2023 Program is available here.

 

The SURF Submission Process

The SURF 2024 abstract submission deadline is Friday, March 8th, 2024 at 5:00 pm.

SURF abstracts must be reviewed before submission by two Elon faculty members other than your mentor. We ask mentors and students to work together to identify two faculty members with content expertise to review your abstract prior to submission. The process should follow the following guidelines:

  1. The student and mentor draft an abstract for submission to SURF.
  2. The student and mentor collaboratively identify two faculty with content expertise to serve as reviewers.
  3. The student forwards the abstract to the reviewers. Please be mindful of the submission date and review time.
  4. The student receives their abstract back from the reviewers with comments and makes appropriate changes in consultation with their mentor.
  5. Once the mentor approves the abstract, then the student may submit it to SURF.

To be accepted to SURF and to receive any support from the Undergraduate Research Program, applicable approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) must be in place before any data collection from human subjects takes place. In alignment with Federal guidelines, beginning June 1st, 2024, all investigators within our institution—comprising faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students, principals, and co-investigators—must have completed CITI training. For what you must complete for CITI training, please click here.

Students may not serve as a PI for an IRB study. They should work with a faculty mentor who will serve as PI and be responsible for the oversight of the study. If you have any concerns or questions or want to discuss this policy further, please email the IRB Chair, Marna Winter at mwinter2@elon.edu.

It is essential that the abstract is well-written and in language understandable by representatives of any discipline across campus. Discipline-specific jargon should be avoided, and if necessary, should be clearly defined. Abstracts and titles must be in the English language. 

It takes several weeks to organize the SURF programming. In order to facilitate a timely release of the SURF program, please make sure that the information you provide in the submission form and the abstract are accurate and consistent. It is also very helpful if you respond to our emails in a timely manner.

In order to facilitate the submission process, we will share a list of information needed for completing the SURF 2024 submission. This list will help you get prepared for the submission. Please note that this list is NOT the actual submission survey. You still need to go to the SURF 2024 submission site to provide the relevant information and upload the abstract.

SURF Abstract Submission

You must submit an abstract to present at SURF. Use the abstract guidelines below to help you prepare your submission. The guidelines also include sample abstracts.

SURF Abstract Guidelines

* To help with SURF abstract preparation, the Writing Center will host a workshop on “Write and Revise your SURF Abstract” on March 5, 2024 (4:30pm-5:30pm). Please check this website for more details.

When you are ready to submit your abstract, please do so using this online form. To start the submission process, you need to first log into your Elon account using your Elon email and password.

SURF Presentation & Preparation Guidelines

For Poster Presenters:

SURF 2024 Poster Preparation Guidelines

SURF 2024 Poster Printing Information

* To help with poster preparation, the Writing Center will host a workshop on “Design and revise your SURF poster” on April 18, 2024 (4:30pm-5:30pm). Please check this website for more details.

For Oral Session Presenters:

SURF 2024 Oral Presentation Guidelines

Current & Archived SURF Programs

2023 2022 2021 2020(abstract booklet only) 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012