1. ORIGINALITY: The paper should deal with new concepts or novel applications of established concepts. It may describe substantial improvements of existing theories or present new data in support and extension of these theories. Comparative or supportive data should be included.

2. STATUS OF PROJECT: The abstract should establish that the project is well-developed and should present data or results to support the hypothesis. Data should have been subjected to preliminary analysis, at a minimum. Preference will be given to abstracts showing concrete results with practical applications.

3. TECHNICAL CONTENT: Objectives and scope of the project should be stated. The conditions under which the data were obtained and the general procedures/ methodology used should be presented. Conclusions should be drawn directly from the investigation.

4 .BENEFITS AND SIGNIFICANCE: Actual benefits and widespread applications should be reported. Has the project helped clean water or reduced pollutants and discharges? Does the method described save time and money? Is it more accurate? Is it more effective? Is this an unusual case or typical of general applications?

5. QUALITY: The adequacy of an abstract is considered indicative of the quality of the final paper or poster and of the presentation at WEFTEC 2003. Authors should prepare their abstracts with care, paying attention to style, organization of the abstract, and accuracy of data presented. In addition, during all WEF conferences individual presentations, including visual aids, are monitored. The quality of these prior presentations are considered in judging current submissions.

SCORING

• 1 Outstanding
• 2 Superior
• 3 Good
• 4 Fair
• 5 Poor

Any abstract receiving a score of 5 in one of the categories should not be selected for presentation as an obvious weakness has been identified.