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Abstract submission


ABSTRACT SUBMISSION HAS NOW ENDED

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS

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Deadline for submission: October 31st, 2007

Abstracts may only be submitted using the electronic abstract form.

Attention: if you have problems submitting your abstract, please contact: Lars Ofstad, lars.o.ofstad@ntnu.no
The importance of abstracts

The Scientific Committee will build a major part of the conference programme on submitted abstracts. For this reason the abstract deadline must be set early.
Three types of presentations are foreseen:

  • Poster presentation:
    • Dedicated Poster viewing sessions, including poster tours guided by faculty members
    • Poster discussion sessions, where selected posters will be discussed by faculty members
  • Free communications in 16 to 18 parallel sessions (up to 108 oral presentations)
  • Plenary lectures – 4 outstanding abstracts will be selected for presentation in plenary

All accepted abstracts (both oral and poster presentations) will be published in “Palliative Medicine” (the Research Journal of the EAPC), and on the Congress website.

Purpose of the abstract

Authors should remember that the abstract allows the reviewers and the Scientific Committee to make an informed decision about the quality of the research and its suitability for inclusion in the scientific programme. Abstracts also provide conference participants with written information about each presentation.

Criteria for abstract submission

Abstracts should meet the following criteria.

  • The abstract text cannot exceed 2000 characters (including space, excluding title and authors).
  • Abstracts must be written in English, explained abbreviations may be used.
  • The abstract text must not contain any information about the presenters or institutions involved, to facilitate the blind review process.
  • References are not required in abstracts. If supplied, they are included in the character count.
  • Although case reports, will be considered by the scientific committee, authors should be aware that such abstracts will be given a low priority.
  • Abstracts of empirical studies must outline the:
    • research aims – please state the specific object of study
    • study population (where appropriate)
    • study design and methods
    • method of statistical analysis
    • results (abstracts with preliminary results will be considered – see late breaking abstracts)
    • conclusions
    • Generic drug names should be preferred. The use of trade names is discouraged, and should only be used when necessary.
    • The author is required to indicate at the end of the abstract, the main source of funding of the study.

Late breaking abstracts

Studies describing work in progress must be indicated at the submission as late breaking abstract in specific field of the submission form. To be acceptable as work in progress the abstract should report either preliminary results, or at least declare the stage of data collection relative to the final sample. Only a very small fraction of the abstracts are expected to fall into this category. They may be given a conditional acceptance if the reviewers and the scientific committee consider them outstanding and of great interest to the audience. The authors will be required to submit a final abstract by latest 15 February 2008 with the final data they are planning to present. The committee will then proceed to accept or reject the abstract.

Presentation type

Authors must indicate whether they will accept to give an oral presentation if their abstract should be chosen. The final decision about the type of presentation suitable for the programme will be made by the Scientific Committee.

Abstract categories

The Scientific Committee devised a list of research categories in order to group the abstracts into various themes. Many abstracts could fit in more than one category. The indication of the author can be re-categories by the reviewers and the scientific committee in order to shape the final programme.

Please choose the category that is best suited for your abstract:

  • Pain
  • Dyspnoea & breathlessness
  • Fatigue & cachexia
  • Cognitive symptoms and delirium
  • Other symptoms
  • Assessment & measurement tools
  • Audit & quality control
  • Basic & translational research
  • Bereavement
  • Evaluation of education programmes
  • End of life care & quality of death
  • Epidemiology
  • Ethics
  • Family & care givers
  • Medical sociology
  • Psychology & communication
  • Research into policy
  • Research methodology
  • Research into the organization of services
  • Cardio-pulmonary diseases
  • HIV / AIDS
  • Neurological disorders
  • Other non-cancer
  • Palliative care in elderly
  • Palliative Care in Children and Adolescents

Review Process

The Scientific Committee will base its decisions on the assessment of independent reviewers. All abstracts will be reviewed blind by three independent reviewers according to the following criteria:

  • Aims-Background-Context (Relevance of hypothesis, clearly state aims).
  • Quality of Method (Sampling, Data collection, Analytical strategy; Stringency of theoretical position, reference to relevant knowledge base, etc.).
  • Relevance to Palliative Care (All abstracts should demonstrate relevance to some aspect of palliative care practice, policy or research work, or make a contribution to a relevant theoretical or methodological debate).
  • Originality of Research (Is new data being presented? Stringency of Arguments when repeating previous work).
  • Clear Presentation of Results (Data Interpretation, Statistical Power, Application to Palliative Care Practice, etc.).
  • Conclusions (supported by the data presented, quality of interpretation of own work)

Handling Procedures

Once the electronic submission is concluded the first author will receive an automatic confirmation by email with an abstract number to which he/she will need to refer for any inquiries.

Authors will be notified of the decision of the Scientific Committee end of January 2008. They will need to confirm their attendance at the Forum and register within one month of notification.

Please note that publication of the selected abstract(s) and inclusion in the scientific programme is subject to the payment of the registration fee of the presenting author.