Guidelines for the submission of abstracts
SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT
General information
1. There is a 300 word limit.
2. Before you submit your abstract ask your supervisor to check it, including the author list. Trainees sometimes submit abstracts without explicit approval from their supervisor. This results in frantic phone calls to correct authors who have been omitted or who are in the wrong order and/or trying to fix data. It is very often too late for us to make these amendments.
3. After you have submitted your abstract you can amend it until it is scored. However, you MUST complete the submission process if you make any edits to your abstract.
4. Abstracts are scored by the BPNA Research Committee. You will be notified whether or not abstract has been selected by the end of October.
5. To present, you must be registered for attendance at the conference AND must be one of the submitted authors.
6. Pharmaceutical companies are permitted to submit abstracts that contain their own data, but the presenting author must be a doctor or allied health professional currently practicing clinically in Paediatric Neurology or other related discipline and must be one of the submitted authors.
7. If you are submitting an abstract on behalf of a Charity and need further guidance please do get in touch with abstracts@bpna.org.uk.
8. Encore abstracts are permitted. In the 'Disclosures' section of your submission, please state where the abstract has been previously accepted.
9. All selected abstracts are published in 'Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology' (DMCN). You can include the publication reference on your CV. Submission of your abstract acknowledges your acceptance that the abstract will be published in the BPNA Conference app and online and by DMCN.
How to register on the abstract submission system
If you are a BPNA member, have submitted an abstract previously or have booked to attend a BPNA course, then you will already be a registered a user as the log-in details are the same. If you have forgotten your log-in details, use the 'forgotten password' link. To register as a new user:
1. Register your user details. You will only need to do this once. You can submit as many abstracts as you wish, using this registration ID.
2. We will send an email confirming abstract submission and notification of whether or not your abstract has been selected to the email you register and also to the presenter and senior author.
3. You can use your user login details to register for the conference and any future courses or events. Use the 'forgotten password' link on any of our websites if you need a reminder.
How to submit an abstract
Before submitting your abstract, please prepare it in a word document and have it ready to copy and paste.
1. Log in using your email address and password. Use the 'forgotten password' link for a reminder.
2. On the left hand navigation, click 'Submit Abstract'.
STAGE 1 OF 7
Select 'Yes' or 'No' if you are submitting on behalf of a charity or a pharma company.
Enter the title of your abstract. Spell out any abbreviations or initials. Click ‘Next’.
STAGE 2 OF 7
- Paste the text for your abstract into the box.
- Abstract text: 300 words maximum (it will not be reviewed if it exceeds this).
- Use these headings: Objective, Methods, Results, Conclusions, Acknowledgements (if appropriate).
- Be clear and accurate: the editing process has to be done very quickly and there is no time to go back to authors with queries. Stylistic and glaring errors will be corrected.
- Do not include tables, graphics or references.
- Indicate if you have any disclosures to make (eg was your study funded by a pharmaceutical company? Is it an encore abstract?)
- Select the topic in which your abstract belongs. Click 'Proceed to next step'.
STAGE 3 OF 7 Entering the authors and their affiliations
- Enter first name and family name. Indicate if they are a Trainee or Medical student. Click Add Author
- Create the first affiliation for your first author. Click Save. If they have a second affiliation, create it. Click Save.
- Repeat Step 7 until all your first author's affiliations are created.
- To add an additional authors, click Add another author. You can add the affiliations you have already created to the new author. Or, you can create different affiliations.
- Repeat Step 9 until you have added all your authors. Click Save and Proceed
- Review the authors and affiliations you have entered. Authors must be entered in the order that they should appear in the abstract journal supplement. You can change the order using the 'Up' and 'Down' buttons. You can edit author names and edit affiliations using the buttons.
STAGE 4 OF 7 Presenting author details
- Select the presenting author (the presenter MUST be an author and must attend the conference).
- Add their contact details. Click Save and Proceed.
STAGE 5 of 7 Senior author details
- Select the senior author. Click Save and Proceed.
- Input the senior author's contact details. Click 'save details'.
STAGE 6 of 7 Additional information
Please tick to confirm if you will attend the conference in person or online.
Also, indicate if you there is a video associated with your abstract that is appropriately consented that you would like to be considered for the Video Challenge session.
STAGE 7 of 7 Prize eligibility
Please check that you have indicated if the presenter is a Trainee or Medical Student, as they will be eligible for a prize. Click Save and Proceed.
SUMMARY
Please review your abstract details. Click 'edit' to amend any section.
Insert your name to confirm "all the authors listed on this abstract have given their approval for me to submit the abstract. The senior author has reviewed the content and approved the abstract text and the order in which the authors are listed. I understand I will not be able to make any changes to the content or authors after selection."
SAVE OR SUBMIT
- ‘Save for later’. Your abstract will not be submitted for scoring. It will be saved to edit further and submit later. You can find it again by logging into www.bpna.org.uk/abstracts.
- ‘Submit abstract’ – your abstract will be submitted for scoring. If necessary, you can return to it later to amend by logging into www.bpna.org.uk/abstracts. NOTE, IF YOU EDIT AFTER SUBMISSION, YOU MUST CONTINUE TO THE END TO RESUBMIT.
ATTENDANCE
- All presenters are expected to register for the conference
- All oral, oral poster and video challenge presenters must register to attend the physical conference
- Virtual/online Poster presenters can attend either the virtual or physical conference.