IX Malta Medical School Conference, 2015 Guidelines, terms and conditions The Organizing Committee of the IX Malta Medical School Conference invites the submission of abstracts for consideration and inclusion in the scientific programme. Submission can only be carried out online, via the conference website on the provided form. Submissions by fax, email or postal mail will not be accepted. Following submission, the corresponding author will receive an automated email confirmation to acknowledge receipt of the abstract. All abstracts accepted for the conference will be published in a supplement of the Malta Medical Journal, and will be provided to every delegate. By submitting an abstract, all authors are granting permission to the Malta Medical Journal to publish the accepted abstract in this supplement. The deadline for abstract submission has been extended to midnight of Monday 7 September 2015. Abstract submission guidelines 1. Abstracts may only be submitted in English. 2. Each submission can have a maximum of ten authors. These must include a corresponding author, who will be deemed to assume responsibility for submission. 3. When preparing your abstract, be guided by the norms of scientific writing. 4. All abbreviations must be defined the first time they appear in the text. 5. Abbreviations must not be used in the title. 6. Tables, figures and references may not be used. 7. Use generic names for drugs or medical equipment. Commercial names may not be used unless they are imperative to the scientific value of the study. 8. The authors must disclose any significant financial or other relationship with the manufacturer(s) of any commercial product(s) or service(s) discussed in their presentation, by filling in any relevant details in the Disclosure and funding sources field on the submission form. If no such relationship exists, enter None into this field. 9. Authors should indicate their presentation preference ‐ poster or oral, as well as the speciality under which they wish their abstract to be categorized. However note that the final oral/poster and speciality classification decisions remain the prerogative of the scientific committee. Please note that in the case of accepted posters, the presenting author will be required to deliver a very short presentation, using not more than 3 PowerPoint® slides, at an assigned time during the poster viewing session. Important points 1. Make sure to include full details of all authors. Abstracts lacking this information will not be accepted. 2. Please make sure that the email address you provide does not belong to an account that is often full and therefore bounces back messages. 3. Do not create multiple accounts using different email addresses, since editing of submitted material can only be effected via the same account. 4. Once an abstract is submitted, it cannot be electronically retracted by any author. If an author wishes to retract a submitted abstract, he/she should email the Conference Secretary with the request, indicating the full title of the abstract. Only the designated corresponding author has the authority to request retraction of a submitted abstract. 5. The authors must attest to and are solely responsible for the authenticity of the submitted abstract. However, the corresponding author is deemed to assume responsibility for all the authors, and in the event of any such requirement, the IX Malta Medical School Scientific Committee will only enter into correspondence with the designated corresponding author. 6. The abstract should be meticulously proofread before submitting. 1 7.
The spelling of all author names and the sequence in which they are listed should be carefully checked. 8. The submission of an abstract constitutes a commitment by the authors to present their work at assigned times at the Conference, if accepted. 9. Submitted material should be original and should not have been published elsewhere as a paper or article, in print or electronic format, prior to the Conference. 10. Any expenses associated with the preparation and/or submission of an abstract, are the sole responsibility of the authors. After submission 1. A submission confirmation email will be automatically sent to all authors. Please note that automatic e‐mail confirmation may sometimes be blocked by corporate networks or spam filters. In case of difficulty, please email the Conference Secretary. 2. Notification of abstract acceptance and selected type of presentation (oral/poster) will be later sent electronically to the corresponding author. 3. It is mandatory for the presenting author of every accepted abstract, to register for the conference and to settle payment as soon as possible. Registration may be in full, or only for the day of presentation. Failure to do so will result in the respective abstracts being removed from the conference proceedings book. Reviewing procedure and selection 1. Submitted abstracts will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee, and will be evaluated on the basis of originality, scientific value and relevance to clinical care and biomedical sciences. 2. The Scientific Committee reserves the right to reject abstracts, and to choose between oral or poster presentations for accepted submissions. 3. The Scientific Committee reserves the right to allocate accepted presentations to speciality areas which may be different to those recommended by the authors. 4. The decisions of the Scientific Committee are final. 2 IX Malta Medical School Conference, 2015 Guidelines to using the online abstract submission form Note that all fields marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory 1. Title Use normal sentence case (not title case) for your title. Do not capitalize the first letter of words, unless (a) they start a sentence, (b) they are proper nouns, registered trademarks or similar, or (c) they refer to an established body (e.g. NICE guidelines). Remember to use the correct scientific nomenclature including italics, where necessary (e.g. general Latin terms such as in vitro, in vivo etc., binomial nomenclature for Genus species etc.) 2. Authors Select the number of authors from the dropdown on the right hand side. A maximum of 10 authors can be included for every submission. For each author please include the required details. Note that the email address is a mandatory field for all authors. The Middle Name is optional. Only ONE of the ID Card No and Passport No fields is mandatory. For ID Card No, please make sure to use exactly 7 digits followed by the designated letter with no spaces. If your ID card number is less than 7 digits long, then prefix it with the appropriate number of zeros. Make sure to tick the appropriate radio button to indicate the corresponding author, and to select the preferred presentation type and the preferred speciality category. The corresponding author email address will be the only one used for any communication regarding the abstract. Therefore ensure that the email address you provide does not belong to an account that is often full and bounces back messages. Please ensure that the sequence and spelling of all authors is correct. This same sequence will be reproduced in the abstract book. 3. Abstract The abstract structure has been divided into 4 fields, with a maximum combined length of 250 words. Due to the different types of scientific work that may be presented at the conference, the Scientific Committee has only made the Introduction and Conclusion fields mandatory (e.g. this format (introduction and conclusion only) can used for a case report). However, unless there is reason to do otherwise, authors are recommended to follow the scientific norms of abstract writing, and use the following structure: Introduction: E.g. Single gene disorders constitute a subset of …….. (Include the Aim of the study at the end of this section, if relevant) Methods: E.g. Two hundred patients were selected from the …….. Results: E.g. The allelic frequency of xyz was ….. Conclusion: E.g. The significant phenotype‐genotype association of ……. Please note:  Never leave blank lines, not even between paragraphs  Do not press [ENTER] unless to start a new paragraph. Allow text to wrap normally at the end of each line – do not attempt to impose any justification by introducing additional spaces.  Do not use tables, figures or references.  Avoid unnecessary use of abbreviations. If you do use an abbreviation, make sure you write it in full the first time it appears in your abstract.  Use the proper nomenclature for Greek letters (ie α not alpha).  Remember to use the correct scientific nomenclature including italics, where necessary (e.g. general Latin terms such as in vitro, in vivo etc., binomial nomenclature for Genus species etc.)  The term p for p‐values should be expressed in italic lower case.  The term n (italic, lower case) should be used to refer to a sample of the whole eligible population, while N (italic, upper case) should be used when referring to the whole eligible population. 3 4. Disclosure and Funding Sources Authors must disclose any significant financial or other relationship with the manufacturer(s) of any commercial product(s) or service(s) discussed in their presentation, by filling in any relevant details in this field. If no such relationship exists, enter “None” into this field. 5. Presentation recording The organising committee would like to be able to use some presentations for non‐commercial educational purposes at a later stage. Please click the respective radio button, to grant or deny permission for such use. 6. Submission panel Tick the check box to confirm that you agree with the Guidelines, terms and conditions, and click the Submit Abstract button to submit the abstract. An acknowledgement, together with a copy of the submitted information will be automatically sent to the corresponding author by email. If these instructions are not adhered to, the abstract will be rejected and returned to the corresponding author. 4