CFP: What does "no references" mean?

[jujubea]

I'm working on a CFP right now -- reviewed the guidelines and it says "Do not include name of coauthors or references in the abstract".

Does that mean I cannot reference particular scholars in the abstract? This would be really difficult, as my work is about addressing specific scholars' gaps... 

[AP]

You can mention them but you don't need to include the reference. Consider:

"Benedict Anderson argued that nationalism in the Americas spurred from... My research expands this view by... (Anderson, 1983)" vs "My research expands Benedict Anderson's core argument on the building of nationalism by..." 

They are basically saying "do not use the limited space on names and years".