Abstract Guidelines

Specifications:

Rationale: A brief statement of purpose of the study and the hypothesis to be tested.

Methods: Summarize the predictors and outcomes analyzed, as well as the methods used.

For abstracts reporting clinical research, a sentence or phrase presenting the most important selection criteria for subjects should be included.

Results: Provide a summary of the results including quantitative data, presented in sufficient

detail with statistical analysis when possible to support the conclusions.

Conclusions: Summarize the impact and significance of the findings. It is not sufficient to

state, “The results will be discussed,” or “other data will be  presented,” etc.

Be sure to use the words “Rationale, Methods, Results and Conclusions” in the body of your abstract to indicate the start of each new section. See the Sample Abstract included in this document. Author information should not be included in the body of the abstract.

Abstract Length

The maximum length of an abstract submitted is 250 words. Use of the words “Rationale, Methods, Results and Conclusions” as described above will not count towards the 250 word total.

Title

Capitalize only the first letter of each word of the title.

Abbreviations

The use of standard abbreviations is desirable (i.e., rbc, kg, mg). A special or unusual abbreviation should be placed in parentheses after the first appearance of the full word which it represents. Do not use periods after abbreviations or initials. Numerals rather than words should indicate numbers, except to begin sentences.

Drug Names

Non-proprietary (generic) names are preferred and should be used in the title of the abstract. Generic drug names are not capitalized in the body of the abstract. If a proprietary drug name is used in the body of the abstract, the first letter is capitalized.

Format

You may use your word processor’s capabilities for bold, underline, italic, subscript and superscript, or use the tools provided when entering your abstract. Bold the words Rationale, Methods, Results and Conclusions used to separate one section of the abstract from another. Text that will be in italics in published form (e.g., genus, species) may be formatted as italics.

Review

Abstracts will be graded by several reviewers on the following criteria; Clinical or basic science significance, Methodology and as an Overall submission. Reviewers are also asked to flag abstracts that involve research on human or animal subjects if the corresponding approvals are missing.