GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACT

 

    ​ABSTRACT PREPARATION

    SUBMITTED ABSTRACTS SHOULD INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING

    • Presenting author's and co-authors' details
      • Full first and family name(s).
      • Affiliation details: Mission, Project, Operative Centre, country, email address (corresponding author)
    • Abstract title – limited to 25 words in UPPER CASE
    • Abstract text – limited to 300 words. We recommend using word-processing software (for example, Word) for editing your abstract and counting the number of words.

     

    Your abstract should clearly and concisely give enough information about your research project to allow a reader to understand: why your research was needed; what you did; what you found out; and, importantly, what your findings mean for patients, MSF operations, or more widely.

     

    Abstracts should be structured and clearly state:

    • Background and aims

    - Please describe the relevant background e.g. for MSF projects, detail why MSF is present in the region, what the project involves, and the setting (e.g. community, clinic, or hospital).

    - Programme descriptions: the introduction must describe what your programme is and what it aims to do.

    - You need to explain why this study/medical programme is needed – what information gap is it addressing/what would have happened without it?

    - Describe the aim of the study/ medical programme and name the methodology (e.g. in a prospective cohort study, we aimed to establish whether... or in this programme description, we assessed.).

    • Methods

    - Research studies: Describe what was done? How the data was collected? How data were analysed? Ensure your comparison group is clear.

    - Programme descriptions: Describe how you analysed the programme; avoid duplicating information in introduction and methods sections; include any comparison group or programme if available.

    • Results

    - Research studies: Give primary outcomes, relate to aims stated in the introduction and to the methods described in the methods section – do not include results from work not described in the methods section.

    - Programme descriptions: Describe the outcomes of the programme, relate to aims stated in the introduction.

    • Conclusions

    Your conclusions should describe the implications of your work and any recommendations you may have for its future.

    - Explain the significance of your main findings – why are they interesting? Are you the first to report this? Is this the largest cohort? Is this a unique cohort? Don’t just repeat your results again.

    - Explain the implications (potential impact) of your study/programme – what this means for practice, policy or advocacy for MSF or others. Do not overstate your implications and ensure that any conclusions relate directly to the results you report.

    - How would you like your results to be used by MSF?

    - Propose next steps and a way forward. Abstracts stating "data will be discussed in the presentation" will not be accepted.

    - Include limitations to your study/programme.

     

    • For Case studies please use the following structure:
      • Introduction
      • Case Description
      • Discussion

    More information about this specific format here.

     

    • Please only use standard abbreviations. Place special or unusual abbreviations in parentheses after the full word appear the first time.
    • Use generic names of drugs. Express numbers as numerals.
    • Tables – A maximum of 2 tables of up to 10 rows x 10 columns can be included per abstract.
    • Graphs and Images – A maximum of 2 images can be included per abstract.

     

    When submitting the abstract, the abstract submitter have to confirm the following:

    • All named authors have previewed this abstract and that all information is correct.
    • All named authors are sole owners or have the rights of all the information and content.
    • I confirm that the contact details are those of the corresponding author, who will be notified about the status of the abstract. The corresponding author is responsible for informing the co- authors about the status of the abstract.

     

    ​ETHICS

    MSF abstracts must have had ethics oversight and been approved for submission to MSF Paediatric Days by the Medical Director from the Operational Centre responsible for the research. Please see the MSF Ethics Review Board (ERB) for guidance. For research from other organisations, abstracts should have the relevant Ethics Committee oversight.

    For MSF staff, we will verify if that the study you are submitted have been approved by the Medical Director of your section by sharing the list of submitted abstracts with the Medical Director of each Operational Center.

     

    SUPPORT

    Assistance is available to review/assist in abstract writing. If you require this, please contact paediatricdays@msf.org.

     

    DISCLOSURE

    Disclosure of financial relationships that the author(s) may have with the manufacturer/ supplier of any commercial products or services related to the work, should be indicated in the appropriate box on the abstract form.

     

    If you have any questions, please get in contact with us: paediatricdays@msf.org