ABSTRACT GUIDELINES

• Delegates who would like to present their work at the Speciality Days event, either orally or as a poster, are invited to submit an abstract for consideration by the Scientific Programme Chairs.
• ESSKA Members / ESSKA Section Members and Non-Members are invited to submit abstracts.
• There are no fees to submit an abstract.
• Abstracts can only be submitted online via the Abstract Submission System. Abstracts sent by post or email will not be accepted. No exceptions will be made.
• The submitter will be required to create a user account in order to submit an abstract. This can be done through the registration system. Once logged in you will be able to select ‘Submit an Abstract’ from the tabs at the top.
• Abstracts can be saved in “Draft” status and be modified or withdrawn until the submission deadline (16 June 2019 at 17:00 (CET))
• Edits can still be made on an already submitted abstract. However, the edited abstract will have to be re-submitted before the deadline, for it to be considered. The submitted/draft abstracts cannot be edited after the submission deadline.
• Only abstracts that have been submitted properly will be considered for the ESSKA Speciality Days 2019.
• Any technical questions regarding the submission process should be sent to esska@abstractserver.com. All other abstract related questions can be sent to esska-sd-scientific@kit-group.org

• The abstract must address scientific questions, detail clinical observations, or contain primary scientific data.
• Abstracts should be submitted in clear English to allow the reviewers to focus on the scientific content of the abstract. Non-English speaking authors are encouraged to have their abstract checked for grammar and spelling.
• Please ensure your abstract does not contain spelling, grammar, or scientific mistakes, as it will be reproduced exactly as submitted. Linguistic accuracy is your responsibility. No proof reading will be done.
• Do not slice results from the same study into multiple abstracts. The Scientific Programme Chairs reserve the right to reject abstracts when inappropriate slicing of data is suspected. Similarly, do not submit a copy or close copy of an abstract under more than one topic. Abstracts that appear to be submitted multiple times under different topics will be rejected.
• All research and studies in submitted abstracts that involve human subjects or experimental animals must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki.
• No revisions can be made after the abstract submission deadline.

 

The media, companies and institutions issuing news releases, and others are required to abide by the embargo policies governing the meeting. The abstracts selected for presentation at ESSKA Speciality Days 2019 will be available online two weeks prior to the meeting.
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The information contained in the abstracts is embargoed until the abstracts are available online. Coverage of information that goes beyond that which is contained in the four corners of the abstract (e.g., additional analysis, commentary, or updated information from those individuals and companies involved in the study) is embargoed according to the following criteria:

• For oral presentations: the embargo time is the start time of the session in which the presentation is being made.
• For poster presentations: the embargo lifts when the poster session containing the poster opens for viewing in the morning (i.e., when the poster hall opens that day).

Authors and Co-Authors

• The first/presenting author is responsible for ensuring that all authors have read the abstract and agreed to be co-authors.
• The presenting author of the abstract must be registered for the meeting.
• The submission of an abstract constitutes a formal commitment by the submitting (presenting) author to present the abstract (if accepted) in the session and the time assigned by the Scientific Programme Chairs. Registration fees will not be waived.
• A maximum of 50 authors is permitted on each abstract, plus one (1) group.
• Adding Co-authors: please fill out the family names, first names, and institution, city, country and email addresses of each co-authors.

Conflict of Interest

• It is the intent of the ESSKA to provide high-quality sessions focused on educational content that is free from commercial influence or bias. Thus, the submitting/presenting author of an abstract is requested to declare any potential conflicts of interest for the presenting author during abstract submission.

Abstract Body

• For standardisation, the acceptable length of the abstract is a maximum of 2500 characters. This does not include the author’s details, titles, tables and figures.
• Abstract Title: Clearly indicate the nature of the investigation. The abstract title and text may not contain trade names. It should be short and significant. The text must be orthographically suitable for publishing. The Scientific Committee reserves the right to replace trade names in accepted abstracts.
• Abstract Text: The Abstract should be as informative as possible. Abstracts should use the following structured format:

• Introduction: Which should establish the context, background and purpose of the study.
• Objectives:  Which should outline the content or expectations of the work being presented.
• Aims: Which should describe the overall goal that the research project or study is hoping to achieve.
• Methods: Which should contain sufficient information to be able to understand the experimental design, the analytical techniques and the statistics used in the study. Please precise if the study is prospective or retrospective. Statistical procedures must be specified.
• Results: Which should contain objective data to answer the scientific question(s).
• Conclusions: Which should provide only conclusions of the study directly supported by the results, along with implications for clinical practice, avoiding speculation and overgeneralization.

• Other Items for Consideration
  • In clinical studies, please state whether informed consent was obtained and whether the study was approved by a recognized medical ethics committee.
  • If the research included in your abstract was supported by a pharmaceutical or diagnostics company, you can indicate this when submitting your abstract.
  • Please indicate the funding agency of your work if applicable.
  • Abbreviations should be defined.
  • The setup of experimental studies must be documented.
  • It is not allowed to submit an abstract several times to different topics of the event.
  • If off-label use of drugs was involved in the study, please state this clearly.

Table and Figures

• Tables and Figures may be allowed depending on under which main category the abstract is submitted. Further details regarding size and specifications for each main category can be found directly on the Abstract Submission System on the right side of the page, once a main category is selected.

Prior Publication

• Abstracts submitted to regional or national orthopedics meetings can be submitted to the ESSKA Speciality Days 2019 Meeting for inclusion in the programme.
• Authors will be permitted to submit their abstract to ESSKA Speciality Days 2019 as long as the abstract has not been published at the time of submission or will not be published prior to ESSKA releasing the abstract (two weeks prior to the meeting).

 

Language Setting of Your Keyboard

The keyboard configuration of computers in non-Western countries may cause problems with the printing of the abstracts when special non-Western characters are used. To avoid these problems the language setting of your computer should be changed.

To do this select “Start” then Settings”, then “Control Panel” and then choosing “Keyboard.” Once in this menu, set the language of your computer to English (United Kingdom). Next, open MS Word (or the word processing software you are using) and set the font type to Arial.

In the preparation of your abstract, if you require certain special characters that are not available, (e.g. ‘±’, ‘®’, ‘μ’), use the insert symbol feature (special characters). To do this, select Arial as the font (unicoded, if possible), then select the required character, and copy and paste the symbol into the text of the abstract. If a special character is still not available, describe the character, e.g. ‘alpha’.

The Scientific Section’s Chairs and additional experts will review the abstracts. Each abstract will be reviewed by 2 or more different experts. Abstracts may be selected for oral presentation, poster presentation, publication only or rejection. The first author will be notified in Late June/July 2019, at the email address provided during submission, about whether or not their abstract has been accepted.
Accepted papers will be published for quotation on the ESSKA Academy. Access will be enabled first to all ESSKA Members and delegates of the ESSKA Speciality Days, and available to public access after one year.

The reviewers will judge the abstracts according to the following criteria:

• Evaluation criteria are: Hypothesis, relevance, material and methodology, results and conclusions. Is the abstract original?
• Does it address an important scientific question?
• Is the abstract clearly written with all salient facts?
• Does the work adhere to ethical guidelines?
• Is there evidence of statistical method if appropriate?
• Are the conclusions justified by the results?
• Abstracts that show formal errors (multi-submission or already published) will be rejected.

​Please note:

• No revisions can be made after the abstract deadline.
• The best scoring abstracts will be selected for oral presentation.
• Oral Presentation: Authors of abstracts selected for oral presentation will be informed about the date and time of the session. Presentation guidelines will be made available online.
• Poster Presentation: Poster presenters will be informed about the date and time of the e-poster exhibition. Poster guidelines will be made available online. Posters will be organised within the session using the topics chosen by the submitter in the online system.
• All accepted abstracts will be published online and will be made available on the ESSKA Speciality Days 2019 website two weeks prior to the Meeting.
• Please also note that Section’s Scientific Chairs are at liberty to modify the Scientific Programme at any time, which therefore, may or may not include Free Paper Sessions.

If authors wish to withdraw their abstracts from presentation or publication, they are requested to notify ESSKA via e-mail to esska-sd-scientific@kit-group.org  before 3 June 2019. Withdrawn abstracts will not be presented nor will these be published.

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