a while ago i had to put in an abstract for a poster. I asked my supervisors if i could do this - however i totally forgot to email the abstract i did. I know they get funny about stuff like this - SO what shall i write in an email.... hello!! I wrote that abstrat for the xxxx but i totally forgot to send it to you both. Please forgive me :-)

grovel like there is no tomorrow!

Yeah, I advise lots of grovelling! Were they co-authors? In which case they should really have given their approval before you submitted and might be slightly cross. How about saying apologies for submitting this without showing you first (then explain about the tight deadline etc). You could then offer to withdraw the abstract if they are not happy. They are unlikely to ask you to do this but it shows willing on your part and puts the ball back in their court.

Good luck!

I have done the same thing a couple of times with paper presentations...mentioned to my supervisor I was thinking about submitting something but then got in a rush near the deadline and didn't have time to send it to her to look at. In one case she didn't read the abstract until it was published in the conference proceedings! I haven't found her to be angry about this at all, if anything pleased that I was trying to publicise the work and expose myself to the views of others. Try not to worry too much, and if your supervisor is angry explain about the pressure of the deadline (academics should understand this!) and say that you will try to leave more time in future to run abstracts by your supervisor before sending them off.

I think the key questions is were you the only author on the abstract? If so, you have less to worry about. If you also put your supervisors down as co-authors (as is often the case with PhD students), then they may be unhappy about having their name against some work that they didn't get a chance to approve (I know I would be in big trouble if I did this!). Don't want to worry you though, you know your supervisors and how they are likely to react.

well it was for a phd poster thing. I asked them if i could do it - but i didnt put theyre names on... i totalyl forgot. oh no.... I dont know n e thing bout this name writing ethic stuff.

oh, it isn't a conference thing?

i got an email back who told me not to be so silly and not to worry!!!

Excellent, glad there were no slapped wrists! :o)