Abstract Submission Guidelines

Scientific tracks

The 9th IAS Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2017) welcomes the submission of abstracts for original contribution to the field in the following scientific tracks:

• Track A: Basic Science
• Track B: Clinical Science
• Track C: Prevention Science
• Track D: Implementation Science

For detailed descriptions of each scientific track, please visit the track scope and objectives page. Please click here to view all abstract categories.

Call for abstracts

We encourage work that introduces new ideas and concepts, research and understandings to the field, as well as analysis of both successes and failures. Please read the following guidelines carefully before submitting your abstract:

• Abstracts can only be submitted online via the conference profile on our website; submissions by fax, post or email will not be considered.
• All abstracts must be written in English.
• It is the author’s responsibility to submit a correct abstract. Any errors in spelling, grammar or scientific facts in the abstract text will be reproduced as typed by the author. Abstract titles will be subject to a spell check if the abstract is selected for presentation.

Late breaker abstracts

A small number of late breaker abstracts will be accepted to be presented orally or as posters at the conference. Late breaker submissions must be data of unquestioned significance that meet a high threshold of scientific merit.

During submission, authors will have to justify why their abstract should be considered as a late breaker. The same submission rules apply for the late breaker abstracts as for the regular abstracts, but each presenting author may only present one late breaker abstract at the conference. The late breaker abstract submission will be open from 24 April to 15 May 2017.

The percentage of abstracts selected as late breakers will depend on the number of submissions, but selection will be far more rigorous than for regular abstracts.

4th International HIV/Viral Hepatitis Co-Infection Meeting

Abstracts pertinent to HIV/viral hepatitis co-infection research (in particular around HIV co-infection with hepatitis B and C) can be considered for inclusion in the 4th International HIV/Viral Hepatitis Co-Infection Meeting. An optional tick box will appear in the submission form for co-submission to this meeting, allowing authors to indicate if they would like their abstracts to be considered for the meeting and asking them to explain briefly how the abstract is related to HIV/viral hepatitis co-infection research.

For further information, please visit the 4th International HIV/Viral Hepatitis Co-Infection Meeting webpage.

Questions

• For technical questions regarding the abstract submission system, please contact the abstract support team at [email protected].
• For general questions regarding abstracts, please see the FAQ page.
• For questions related to the 4th International HIV/Viral Hepatitis Co-Infection Meeting, please contact [email protected].

Policies for abstract submission

Abstracts should not include libellous or defamatory content. Material presented in abstracts should not violate any copyright laws. If figures/graphics/images have been taken from sources not copyrighted by the author, it is the author’s sole responsibility to secure the rights from the copyright holder in writing to reproduce those figures/graphics/images for both worldwide print and web publication. All reproduction costs charged by the copyright holder must be borne by the author.

An abstract which has been previously published or presented at a national, regional or international meeting can only be submitted provided that there are new methods, findings, updated information or other valid reasons for submitting.

If preliminary or partial data have been published or presented previously, the submitting author will be required to provide details of the publication or presentation, along with a justification of why the abstract merits consideration for IAS 2017. This information will be considered by the Conference Advisory Committee when making final decisions.

If the author neglects to provide these required details and justification, or if evidence of previous publication or presentation is found, the abstract will be rejected.

The conference organizers regard plagiarism as serious professional misconduct. All abstracts are screened for plagiarism and when identified, the abstract and any other abstracts submitted by the same author are rejected. In addition, the submitting author’s profile and scholarship application, in the case one has been submitted, will also be cancelled.

IAS 2017 may negotiate co-submission of abstracts to certain independent affiliated events, pre-conferences and/or external events. Visit www.ias2017.org for updated information.

The conference supports only research that has been conducted according to the protocol approved by the institutional or local committee on ethics in human investigation. Where no such committee exists, the research should have been conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki of World Medical Association. The IAS 2017 Conference Advisory Committee may enquire further into ethical aspects when evaluating the abstracts.

In the case of IAS 2017, as well as most scientific/medical conferences, all conference abstracts are released to delegates and media under a strict embargo policy. A detailed breakdown of the embargo variations for different types of abstracts is available on the IAS 2017 Conference Embargo Policy page.

Abstract submission process

Before submitting an abstract, authors must create a conference profile. More than one abstract can be submitted through the conference profile. After an abstract has been created, modifications can be made until the submission deadline.The final deadline to submit the abstract is 25 January 2017, 23:59 Central European Time.

The track category is the general heading under which the abstract will be reviewed and later published in the conference printed matters, if accepted. The track category which best describes the subject of the abstract should be chosen. During the submission process, you will be asked to select one track category for your abstract.

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

• Background: indicate the purpose and objective of the research, the hypothesis that was tested or a description of the problem being analysed or evaluated.
• Methods: describe the study period / setting / location, study design, study population, data collection and methods of analysis used.
• Results: present as clearly and as much in detail as possible the findings / outcome of the study. Please summarize any specific results.
• Conclusions: explain the significance of your findings / outcomes of the study for HIV prevention, treatment, care and/or support, and future implications of the results.

The following review criteria will be used:

• Is there a clear background and justified objective?
• Is the methodology/study design appropriate for the objectives?
• Are the results important and clearly presented?
• Are the conclusions supported by the results?
• Is the study original, and does it contribute to the field?

 Authors are encouraged to provide a breakdown of data by sex and other demographics such as age, geographic region, race/ethnicity, and/or other relevant demographic characteristics in submitted abstracts, when appropriate. Your abstract should include the number and percentage of men and women (and additional breakdown by gender and/or ethnicity if appropriate) that participated in your research, and results should be disaggregated by sex/gender and other relevant demographics. Analyses of any gender based differences or any other differences between sub-populations should be provided in the Results section, if relevant.

A standard font, e.g. Arial, should be used when formatting the text. This helps to prevent special characters from getting lost when copying the text to the online abstract submission form. Ensure to check the final abstract with the system’s preview function before submission, and edit or replace as necessary.

The abstract text body is limited to 350 words. Titles are limited to 30 words.

A maximum of two tables/graphs in total can be included. A graph/image (in JPG, GIF or PNG with ideally 600 dpi) counts as 50 words and a table counts as 5 words per row (50 words maximum).

Common reasons for abstract rejection:

• Abstract poorly written
• Not enough new information
• Clear objective and/or hypothesis missing
• Methods (either quantitative or qualitative) inadequate and/or insufficient to support conclusions
• Summary of essential results inadequate and/or missing
• Study conclusions are not supported by the data
• Linkage between different parts of the abstract not comprehensible
• Duplicate or overlap with another abstract
• Study too preliminary or insufficient to draw conclusions
• Study lack of originality

• Abstracts should disclose primary findings and avoid, whenever possible, promissory statements such as “experiments are in progress” or “results will be discussed”.
• If English is not your native language, we recommend that you have your abstract reviewed by a native speaker before submission.
• The conference offers an Abstract Mentor Programme for less experienced submitters. Please see further information below.

After submission of the abstract, a confirmation email will be sent to the abstract submitter. In order to receive confirmation, please ensure that emails from [email protected] are not marked as spam by your e-mail provider.

Support programmes

The goal of the IAS 2017 Abstract Mentor Programme is to provide an opportunity for young and/or less experienced abstract submitters to have their draft abstracts mentored by more experienced authors before submitting their abstract to the conference.

Abstracts submitted by authors that have volunteered to be a mentor in the programme will not automatically be accepted. The same applies for abstracts submitted by authors that were mentored by the programme.

For more information please visit the Abstract Mentor Programme webpage.

Abstract authors interested in applying for a scholarship must complete a full scholarship application, available through your Conference Profile from 1 December 2016 to 1 February 2017.

For more information please visit the Scholarship Programme webpage.

Abstract review and selection process

All submitted abstracts will go through a blind peer-review process carried out by an international reviewing committee. Each abstract will be reviewed by at least three reviewers.

The Conference Advisory Committee makes the final selection of abstracts to be included in the conference programme. Abstracts can be selected for oral presentation, in oral abstract sessions, or to be presented as a poster. A small number of highest-scoring posters are selected for presentation in oral poster discussion sessions; the majority of the posters will be displayed in the Poster Exhibition.

Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent to the submitting (corresponding) author by the end of March. Please note that only the corresponding author will receive an email concerning the abstract and is responsible for informing all co-authors of the status of the abstract. Authors whose abstracts have been accepted will receive instructions for the presentation of their abstract.

Each presenting author may present a maximum of two abstracts at the conference. The number of submissions is, however, not limited. Should an author have more than two abstracts accepted for presentation, a co-author must be named as presenting author for one or more abstracts.

In addition, each presenting author may also present one late breaker abstract at the conference.

Publication of accepted abstracts

The submission of the abstracts constitutes the authors’ consent to publication. If the abstract is accepted, the authors agree that their abstracts are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) license. The license allows third parties to share the published work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it for any purposes, under the condition that IAS 2017 and authors are given credit, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear. Authors retain the copyright of their abstracts, with first publication rights granted to the IAS.

Accepted abstracts may, therefore, be published on IAS websites and publications, such as the IAS 2017 Online Conference Programme and other conference materials, the IAS abstract archive, the Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS), etc.