Abstracts
19th World Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care
Ready for the Future
Abstracts Submission Information
The Scientific Committee for the 19th World Congress welcome submission of a wide range of abstracts that will contribute to and shape the scientific programme of the congress in Helsinki.
Whether you are conducting cutting-edge empirical research or engaging in academic critique or theoretical analysis, if it relates to palliative care, there is a place for your abstract in the congress.
Clinicians, practitioners, academics and researchers, your insights, latest findings and innovations are invaluable if palliative care is to be ‘ready for the future’.
Reasons to submit your abstract
- Visibility: the title of your work and the names and organisations of the authors of accepted abstracts will be published in the congress programme and the congress abstract book.
- Global networking: getting an abstract accepted provides an opportunity to present and discuss your work with experts in the field from around the globe.
- Improve palliative care: by presenting your work at the congress you are contributing to the advancement of the field of palliative care.
- Improve yourself: Submitting a great abstract is a skill which you can develop and build. Presenting an accepted abstract offers an opportunity to develop and strengthen your presentation skills.
- Get published. All accepted EAPC abstracts are published in a special supplement of Palliative Medicine, which has online open-access.
- Be creative: accepted abstracts are invited for presentation orally or by poster, you can be creative in how you present your work to encourage engagement and interaction with the audience.
- You might win an award for submitting the highest scoring abstract and get to present your work at an EAPC plenary session.
Process:
The abstract submission platform will open in August 2024 and close at midnight (CET) on 31 October. There will be no extension of this deadline.
During the month of November, all submitted abstracts will undergo a robust, scientific peer review. EAPC has a large pool of expert reviewers from the field of palliative care. Each abstract will be reviewed, assessed and scored by a minimum of three reviewers.
The scientific committee will review all abstract scores in December 2024. From this they will make the final selection of abstracts to be presented during the congress. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent to corresponding authors in January 2025.
Abstract types:
The committee welcome both empirical research abstracts and non-empirical abstracts:
Empirical abstracts | Describe empirical research and systematically constructed reviews that use qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods. |
Non-empirical abstracts | May describe policy developments, new service initiatives and the like. They do not report the results of empirical research or systematically constructed reviews. |
Structure of the abstracts:
| Empirical abstracts | Non-empirical abstracts |
Background | Briefly articulate the evidence that underpins this work including what is known, what is not known, and why this work is needed. | Briefly articulate the evidence that underpins this work including what is known, what is not known, and why this work is needed. |
Aim/Research Question or Hypothesis | Present the aim, question or hypothesis that guided this work. | Present the aim of this work, or what its purpose was |
Methods/What was done | Succinctly present the design and methods of the work including a statement of design, and information as relevant to the approach taken.
For empirical work this may include information about the population, setting, sampling, recruitment, data collection and data analysis approaches. For some studies information about the intervention tested may be needed.
For review work this may include information about the review design, data sources, search approaches, and analysis/synthesis approach. | Briefly present what was done. How did you go about planning and implementing any intervention? |
Results/Outcomes | Present brief information about the participants/papers or other data included in the study. Present succinct information about the main findings of the study. | What happened because of your initiative or intervention? Were they measured or otherwise described? |
Discussion | Indicate the main implications of this work for policy, research or practice. Assess the novel contribution of this work when compared to what is known. | Indicate the main implications of this work for policy, research or practice. What can people learn from your experience? |
Key Dates & Deadlines
The abstract submission platform will open in August 2024 and close at midnight (CET) on 31 October. There will be no extension of this deadline.
- 00Days
Submission guidelines
- Abstracts can only be submitted online through our dedicated EAPC abstract platform. Abstracts submitted by email will not be accepted.
- Abstracts must be submitted in English. UK or US spelling is permitted, and you should be consistent throughout your text. Abstracts must not exceed 300 words.
- The presenting author of an accepted abstract must register to attend the congress.
- The number of abstracts you can submit is unlimited however, presenting authors may present a maximum of 2 accepted abstracts.
- Once all abstracts have been scored and the accept/reject decisions made, we will then inform those authors who are listed as the presenting authors on more than 2 abstracts (poster and oral), that they need to allocate another presenting author.
- Abstracts should contain only original content that has not been previously published or presented elsewhere.
Submission regulations
- By submitting an abstract intended for presentation at the EAPC 2025 congress the first author (= presenter) warrants that at the time of submission the material has not been previously published or presented in any publication or other scientific congress. If accepted, the presentation at EAPC 2025 must present original work. If the work has been presented or published elsewhere between submission and presentation, this must be acknowledged and the work presented should be distinctively different such that it is an original contribution to the proceedings.
- The first author (= presenter) may present a maximum of 2 accepted abstracts.
- Abstracts will be published as submitted.
- Presenter changes are allowed and must be made in the submission portal.
- All sections of the online abstract submission system must be completed. Incomplete abstracts will not be considered for review.
- Authors can edit their submission up to the deadline of 31 October 2024.
- The abstract text, including the title, must not contain any information about the presenters or the institutions involved, this is to facilitate the blind review process.
- Drugs should be referred to by the generic name.
- Illustrations and graphs are not allowed, one table is permitted per abstract .
- Authors can select their preferred presentation type, however the decision of the scientific committee will be final.
Important note: Any presenter who does not present their abstract in the format that has been agreed and accepted by the scientific committee, other than for reasons of force majeure, shall not be permitted to present an abstract at EAPC Congress the following year. This suspension shall last for five years if the author does not inform the EAPC Congress Officer, prior to the start of the congress that they are not able to attend.
Oral presenter Guidance
Guidelines for slides
- A maximum of 1 slide per minute of presentation is permitted.
- A maximum of 7 lines per slide and 5 words per line is recommended.
- Avoid using slide animations or transitions.
- Slide 2 must include a conflict of interest statement (see slide template)
The slide template for the congress can be downloaded here EAPC 2024 slide template
If you choose to use your own organisations branded slides then please ensure that you adhere to the following guidelines:
- Use 16:9 slide size.
- Use standard Windows fonts only.
- Use high-contrast lettering and readable fonts (minimum font size of 24).
- Use high-contrast colours (dark text on a light background or vice versa).
All presentations must be checked and uploaded at the Media Check room in the congress venue. Your presentation must be delivered to the technical staff at the Media Check room at least two hours before the start of your session. Presenters are encouraged to bring electronic backup copies. Please note that the organising committee is not responsible for damaged files or unreadable files or formats.
Poster Presenters
In response to the feedback we gained from the delegates who attended our 2023 congress in Rotterdam, we have changed how we are going to present posters in Barcelona:
- 20 of the highest scoring poster abstract authors have been asked to present their poster in a 2-minute elevator pitch at one of the poster presentation sessions at the congress. Their printed posters will be on display in the poster room on the day they present and their ePoster will be available in the congress app and at poster terminals in the venue.
- The highest scoring 300 poster abstract authors have been invited to have a printed poster on display during the congress and submit an ePoster. There will be 2 printed poster sets:
- Set 1 – on display in the poster room on Thursday
- Set 2 – on display in the poster room on Friday
- All other accepted poster abstract authors have been invited to submit an ePoster.
- ePosters will be available to view at poster terminals in the venue and in the congress app.
Printed Poster Guidelines
The highest scoring poster abstracts will be displayed on poster boards during two sessions at congress. All posters will also be displayed as ePosters – follow the guidance below in relation to submitting your ePoster online. Authors are r
esponsible for the printing and transport of their posters to the congress.
Please note the following when preparing your poster for display on the poster boards:
- Posters should be in PORTRAIT format.
- Poster dimensions should not exceed 1280mm high and 960mm wide.
- Include the title and authors at the top of your poster in easily readable font. Indicate the presenting author if different from the first author.
- Text and illustrations should be readable from a distance of 2 meters.
Time schedule
- Printed posters will be organised in two sets. Authors will be informed which set their poster is in (Thursday or Friday) and the poster display board number. Authors need to ensure that their poster is on display before 9am and that it is taken down at the end of the day.
- Poster set 1 Thursday 16th May
- Poster set 2 Friday 17th May
- Please note that you have to set up and remove your poster yourself.
- Necessary equipment will be available in the poster room.
- Hosts from the organising committee will guide you.
- In order to allow for fruitful scientific discussions, we recommend that you stay close to your poster during the breaks.
All posters (including those chosen to be displayed on poster boards during the live poster sessions) will be electronic and can be viewed at the congress on ePoster stations and via the congress app. Authors will be invited to upload their e-posters using a dedicated link which will be sent out to them prior to May 2024. If enabled the author can also record a short video file to present the poster.
Poster content guidance
- ePosters must be one page and should be saved as a pdf or ppt/pptx file. There is no preferred size for the poster upload as long as it is in the same proportions as A0, A1, A2, A3, or A4 so that it will easily printed on an A4 sheet.
- ePosters should be formatted in portrait style.
- Your poster must have a clear message, a logical layout and should be easy to comprehend in a couple of minutes.
- Make sure that the specific sections (such as the background, methods, results and conclusions) are easy to locate on the poster.
- Text and images should be easy to view on a screen or when printed on an A4 page. Recommend fonts: “sans serif” fonts such as Arial, Calibri, Century Gothic, Helvetica, Tahoma and Verdana.
- Design the individual sections of your poster so that they can be quickly read – avoid large blocks of text and long sentences.
- Supporting images (e.g. graphs, tables, illustrations, photographs) can be very helpful and are often necessary to display results. Make sure that the images are easy to understand, and not overloaded with information.
- Avoid background images and watermarks that may detract from the readability of your poster.
Information to be included:
- Title
- Subtitle
- Author, Affiliation, City, Country (repeat for each author)
- University/Affiliate Logos
- Background/Relevance
- Research Question/Hypothesis
- Methods/Methodology
- Participants/Sample
- Results/Images
- Conclusion/Summary
- References
- Poster number
