Guidelines for free paper and poster abstracts

Submissions for free paper and poster abstracts are only accepted via the online submission form.
All correspondence will be with the person who submits the abstract.

Important dates
− Submission deadline: Monday, 11 November 2024, 23:59 UTC
− Submitter notified of acceptance by email: Monday, 20 January 2025
− Presenter registration deadline: Monday, 3 March 2025

Presenters MUST register for the World Congress by the presenter registration deadline or the presentation may
be removed from the programme. Presenter substitutions are not allowed except in extraordinary circumstances in
which case they must be discussed and approved in advance by the Scientific Programme Committee – SPC (see
Questions for contact information).

Financial support
ISPO does not provide any financial support – such as a registration waiver, accommodation and/or travel support –
to presenters. Presenters are responsible for their own expenses related to their congress participation.

Online submission form

Submissions are accepted via the online submission form (https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/45217/submitter)
only. First, you will be directed to register for an Oxford Abstracts account. If you have submitted an abstract for
ISPO 2019, 2021 and/or 2023, you already have an account and can log into this account if you remember these
details – email address is mandatory, password can be reset.

Once you have registered or logged in, you can make your submission by completing all mandatory fields in the
online submission form. If mandatory fields are left incomplete and/or a word count exceeds the permitted
limit, your submission will be marked as 'incomplete' and you need to edit and resubmit it prior to the submission
deadline. Any submission that is incomplete by the closing date will not be reviewed.

Language
The official language of the congress is English. Submissions are accepted and presentations held in English only.

Presentation category
During online submission, the presentation category for which you wish your abstract to be considered should be
selected from the following options:

− Free paper (oral) or poster presentation

− Poster presentation only

If you require clarification of the session formats, please review the descriptions below. The SPC reserves the right
to assign a submission to a different presentation category if it is deemed more appropriate.

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Session format
Free paper sessions: A free paper is a professional communication describing qualitative/quantitative/mixed
methods research such as a technique, case study, case series, clinical trial, review, experiment, delivered as an
oral podium presentation during the congress. Abstracts of free papers are reviewed by a panel of experts to verify
relevance, quality and innovation. Top ranking free papers are selected for oral presentation. Free paper
presentations are generally grouped into sessions that are thematically related.

Poster presentations: A poster may describe qualitative/quantitative/mixed methods research such as a

technique, case study, case series, clinical trial, systematic review, or experiment. In contrast to free papers, a
poster may present preliminary results or works in progress. Abstracts of poster presentations are reviewed by a
panel of experts to verify relevance for delegates. Accepted posters are displayed either physically or digitally, with
designated poster viewing times to allow attendees to interact with poster presenters. Selected presenters of the
highest ranked posters may be invited to present in rapid fire poster pitches.

NEW: The 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) student competition: The 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) is an academic competition
that assists current students with fostering effective presentation and communication skills. Interested students
registered in an undergraduate, masters or PhD programme are invited to submit abstracts to this competition via
the regular submission of free paper and poster abstracts. Eligible participants will need to indicate that they would
like to submit to this specific competition.

Applicants can submit their abstract to be considered for the 3MT student competition as well as the free paper and
poster sessions given the latter enables a more fulsome overview of their work. Further information about the 3MT
student competition and submitting to that format can be found in the Guidelines for the 3MT student competition.

Congress topics
The programme will be organised by topics that are of interest to the international P&O community. During online
submission, the submitter will be asked to select the primary and secondary topics applicable to their free paper /
poster.

For 2025, the congress theme is "Science in Practice, Practice in Science: Collaboration and innovation for
sustainable rehabilitation". We encourage presenters to highlight links to the focus on sustainable rehabilitation
where possible.

The SPC reserves the right to assign a submission to a different topic if it is deemed more appropriate.

Title
The title of the abstract should concisely reflect the content. Please enter the title in Title Case (use capital letters
for the important words or proper nouns), maximum of 20 words.

Abstract body
A structured abstract of max. 400 words is to be submitted via the online system. Please also note that if your word
count is over the permitted limit, your abstract will be marked as 'incomplete'. We advise preparing the abstract in
WORD and then copying and pasting it from WORD into the abstract fields of the online submission. Copying one
table or one figure with a caption from WORD is allowed. Be aware that the content of the entire abstract inclusive
of one figure or table and its caption must fit on one page.

The following structure is to be adhered to: Download the abstract template for further guidance.
1. Background (max. 70 words suggested)
2. Aim (max. 30 words suggested)
3. Method (max. 100 words suggested)
4. Results (max. 130 words suggested, one image or one table can be inserted, see *note below)

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5. Discussion and conclusion (max. 70 words suggested)

6. References (optional, max. 50 words)
7. Acknowledgements (optional, max. 20 words)

*NOTE: The figure or table should be legible at a maximum size of 5”/12.7cm x 2.5”/6.4cm. If you upload one figure
or one table as part of your abstract, please review the appearance of your submitted abstract via the link, which is
included in the email notification you receive after completing your submission.

Abstract triage
Responding to recommendations from the 2023 World Congress Scientific Committee, a pre-submission abstract
feedback option will be trialled for the I.S.P.O. 20th World Congress. The aim of this feedback option is to help
authors to improve the clarity, structure, and overall quality of their submissions.

Authors can consider the reviewer feedback and revise their abstract before formally submitting it to the usual
peer review process. Reviewers will handle all information in the abstract confidentially.

To request feedback by the end of October, please send your abstract in word format by Monday, 14 October
2024 to [email protected].

We particularly encourage authors who may be new to writing scientific abstracts, do not have mentors available
to give critical feedback or, who may have had submissions rejected previously to engage in this developmental
process. Please note that integrating the reviewer feedback does not guarantee acceptance.

Author information
During online submission, the following information is required for all authors:
− full name
− affiliation (organisation/institution, city, country)
− email address
− phone number

The submitter will be asked to indicate the presenter. One of the listed authors must be the presenter. It is
recommended to limit the selection to one presenter.

Session chairs
Each free paper session is chaired by two session chairs. The SPC may assign presenters as chairs unless during
online submission, the submitter indicates that the presenter is not available to chair a session. ISPO does not
provide any financial support (such as a registration waiver, accommodation and/or travel support) to session chairs.

Consent to publication
During online submission, the submitter is required to consent to publication of the submitted abstract.
The submitter is responsible for receiving consent from all authors before completing a submission.

Conflict of interest disclosure

During online submission, the submitter will be asked to disclose any conflict of interest on behalf of each author.
For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations. If no conflict exists, please
state that ‘The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.

If a conflict of interest does exist, the disclosure must clearly indicate how the conflict will be managed / mitigated
in the presentation to avoid undue bias to the presentations. Submissions that do not explain how conflicts will be
managed may be rejected. Conflict of interest disclosure may be published as part of the submitted abstract.

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Abstract review
Submissions will be peer reviewed – the review process is double blinded, meaning that author and reviewer
information is not shared with either party. Notifications will be distributed by Monday, 20 January 2025. All
programme decisions are the responsibility of the SPC.

We cordially invite submitters to further contribute to the congress programme development by acting as reviewers
for free paper and poster abstracts when invited to do so.

Presentation information
Abstracts accepted for free paper (oral) presentation will be presented during free paper sessions, which are
generally scheduled for 60-90 minutes. This timeframe includes presenter introductions, presentations and
audience questions/ discussion. Presenters will be notified of the length of their presentation when the abstract is
accepted.

Abstracts accepted for poster presentation will be presented in the exhibit hall (further details on the format to
follow).

Please note the presentation rules for abstracts contributing to the 3MT student competition as they are listed in
the Guidelines for the 3MT student competition.

Presentations should not be specific to a particular brand of product. However, they may deal with a generic (non-
branded) range of products (see Conflict of interest disclosure).

Details of the on-site presentation will be communicated to the submitter closer to the congress. The submitter is
responsible for ensuring that these details are shared with the presenter(s).

Prizes
A number of Best Paper and Poster Prizes will be awarded during the World Congress Closing Ceremony on
Thursday, 19 June 2025. Top ranking abstracts based on peer review (in the poster and free paper categories) will
be considered for prizes. During the congress, a committee of judges will review the selected presentations and
make recommendations on the awards. The best 3MT student presentations will be awarded with one Judge’s
award and one People’s choice award. The awarding of prizes is at the discretion of the SPC.

Contributing to the I.S.P.O. 20th World Congress presentation repository

To further enhance the availability and accessibility of content presented at the World Congress, ISPO invites
presenters to create recordings of their presentations and upload their posters for dissemination and archiving
through ISPOs eLearning platform (ISPOLearn). Details on formatting requirements and submission processes will
be available on acceptance notification.

Questions
If you have any questions regarding the online submission system or your scientific content, please contact the
I.S.P.O. World Congress team:

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +49 341 678 -8237 or -8238

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