Abstract Submission

In order to attract the best abstracts to the EfCCNa Congress we are awarding three prizes for the best written abstracts and one prize for the best poster. The winners of the EfCCNa Best Abstract Award and the EfCCNa Best Poster Award will be entitled to a free registration for the next EfCCNa Congress.

Abstracts for review can be submitted for oral or poster presentations in one of the topics below. If your abstract doesn’t fit in one of these topics, you can submit it at Miscellaneous (topic numbers 9-Clinical /11-Professional).

The Scientific Committee will make the final selection of abstracts to be included in the Congress programme. Accepted papers will be divided into two categories:

• Oral presentations of 15 minutes including a few minutes for discussion in one of the parallel sessions
• Poster presentations displayed during the Congress in the exhibition area

All presenters must register before the early registration fee deadline. Acceptance of abstracts into the programme is contingent upon receipt of the registration fee.

To be selected to present you are required to submit an abstract for oral or poster presentation via the online abstract submission system. 

• All abstracts must be submitted electronically. Faxed or hard copy submissions will not be accepted.
• All abstracts must be written in English.
• Authors may submit a maximum of two abstracts as leading author but can be mentioned as a co-author of other papers.
• The deadline for submission of abstracts is 15 November 2021 23:59:59 CEST. 

Step 1. Prepare your abstract. Please carefully read all the instructions in the next section. Abstracts not submitted in this format may not be considered for review.

Step 2. Enter the online abstract submission system and follow the instructions. After having completed the required details, you can paste the text of your abstract in the appropriate section.

Step 3. After having completed the submission process you will receive an automatically generated email to confirm that your abstract has been submitted successfully. Please check your spam folder if you have not received this confirmation.

Please note: 
Submitting an abstract does not automatically register you for participation to the Congress. All presenters of accepted abstracts must register for the Congress before the early registration fee deadline.
In line with the EfCCNa policy, a honorarium or expense payment cannot be provided for the presenters.

Please carefully read these guidelines for the prepartion of your abstract. Abstracts not submitted in this format cannot be considered for review. If you have any difficulties or queries about the abstract format, please contact the Registration Office Parthen (contact details at the bottom of this page).

Size

• The maximum length of the abstract title is 20 words.
• The maximum length of the abstract is 300 words. 
• Longer titles and abstracts will be rejected by the system. The submission programme will automatically calculate the size and will not allow submissions that do not fit these size requirements. All numbers are included in the word count. 

The title and the authors’ details are not to be included in the abstract template; there are separate fields for that in the abstract submission system. 

Title

• Maximum length of the title: 20 words. Please make sure to type the title correctly.
• Do NOT type the abstract title in capital letters.
• Do NOT put a full stop after the title.
  Example 1: Guidelines on care for patients with COVID-19
  Example 2: Respiratory Failure. A summary

Body of the abstract

Text should be single-spaced throughout, in Calibri 10 point font. Please do NOT change the font!

Abstracts in all categories and without exception should be structured as follows:

• Text should not contain subheadings, underlines or bold type (except for the headers for the sections within the abstract, as described further below).
• Abstracts should be written in the past tense, stating what was done, not what is being, should or will be done.
• Use only standard abbreviations ("Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals"). Non-standard abbreviations should be kept to a minimum and defined in parentheses in the text. In general, no more than 2 non-standard abbreviations should be used and should only be used to replace words appearing 4 times or more in the text. Use International System of Units except for pressure; use cmH2O or mmHg with kPa units in brackets (optional).
• Tables, graphs, diagrams, images or pictures are NOT allowed.
• Acknowledgement of supporting institutions may be made at the end of the text.
• References are not to be included.

Spelling

• It is the author’s responsibility to submit a correct abstract. Any errors in spelling, grammar or scientific fact in the abstract text will be reproduced as typed by the author.

Lay-out and structure

For all categories of abstracts, please type your abstract using the paragraph headers mentioned further below, and in the following way:

• include the below mentioned paragraph headers in bold and followed by a colon (:)
• Insert a space after the header, then follow with the text
• Start the next paragraph on the next line.
• Do NOT insert a white line in between the different sections of your abstract

Research abstracts shall contain brief but complete statements of:

Introduction: Indicate the purpose and objective of the research, the hypothesis that was tested or a description of the problem being analysed or evaluated.
Aim: State the study aim or research question.
Setting & participants: Describe the setting/location for the study and study population.
Methods: Describe the study design, ethical considerations, data collection and methods of analysis used
Results: Present as clearly and detailed as possible the findings/outcome of the study, with specific results in summarised form.
Conclusion(s): Briefly discuss the data and main outcome of the study, treatment, care and/or support, and implications of the results. The text should not contain statements alluding to results or conclusions not presented in the text; abstracts stating "will be discussed", "will be described" or "will be presented" will be rejected.

Clinical/professional practice abstracts shall contain brief but complete statements of:

Aims: Indicate the purpose and aim of the presentation.
Introduction/outline: Indicate what is known about the topic (evidence-based where relevant), the relevance to patients or to staff, and outline the presentation.
Recommendations: Outline the relevance to European practice/education.

Please follow the instructions mentioned in the online abstract submission system. You will receive an email to confirm that your abstract has been submitted successfully.

All submitted abstracts will go through a blind peer-review carried out by an international reviewing committee.

Reviewers will give rankings from 1 to 5 points, taking into consideration the following five criteria:

1. The quality of abstract presentation
2. A clear introduction outlining the issue
3. A clear presentation of results or issues
4. A clear description of implications and conclusions
5. The relevance of the subject/originality and impact on the profession

After giving the rankings, reviewers will submit the recommended presentation style (oral or poster).

Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent to the submitting (corresponding) author on or around 7 January 2022. 

Please note that only the corresponding author will receive mail concerning the abstract and is responsible for informing all co-authors of the status of the abstract.

• Abstracts should not have been published more than once in any English language medical or nursing peer-reviewed journal and should not have been presented at more than one meeting from which such publications arise. Studies with substantial changes in methodology and/or with substantial additional data may be submitted, presented and published a second time, but rewritten abstracts on the same study should not.
• Copyright of the abstract(s) is assigned to EfCCNa and/or the EfCCNa 2022 Congress.

Accepted abstracts can be published in the Final Programme, Abstract book and Congress app made available during the Congress.

By accessing and/or using the online abstract submission system, you agree to the terms and conditions as stated in the information above. By accessing and/or using this system you agree (also on behalf of co-authors) to the terms of the abstract submission guidelines. Please note that transfer of copyright applies to all material submitted through this online system.

The personal information supplied in connection with the abstract submission will be held by the congress organiser (EfCCNa) as a record of attendees and parties expressing interest in the 9^th EfCCNa Congress 2022. By submitting an abstract for this congress the parties concerned are agreeing that the congress organisers may:

• use that personal information to contact them by email, direct mail or telephone, in order to supply information relevant to this congress and future EfCCNa congresses.
• use that personal information to be included in the congress documentation, such as an abstract book, dedicated congress app, online and/or printed scientific programme and abstracts (oral and poster) overviews.