May 29-31, 2008
JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa
Phoenix, AZ USA

Abstract Submission Guidelines

Everyone submitting an abstract must complete all information requested on the online form. After you have completed all of the information, you will receive an e-mail confirmation that your abstract has been submitted.

Eligibility for the APSA 39th Annual Meeting

Abstracts are welcome on any subject in clinical and experimental pediatric surgery including patient series, new operations, laboratory findings, preliminary results, diagnostic techniques, etc. In rare instances, a case report may be applicable. The intent of the scientific program at the annual meeting is to include the broadest possible scope of the science and practice of pediatric surgery. Any regular, international or associate member of APSA is eligible to submit an abstract for consideration. Abstracts from candidate members and non-members require sponsorship by a member.

CRITERIA
Abstracts will be judged on originality, scientific merit, study design, clarity of expression, presentation of data, adherence to the rules of submission, and relevance to pediatric surgical care or research.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

ABSTRACT TITLE
Short and descriptive titles are preferred, avoiding the declarative or interrogatory title styles.

DISCLOSURES

Commercial Disclosure
Authors must disclose any financial interest/relationship that they have with any commercial interest related to the content of the presentation that occurs May 2007 through June 2008. Completion of a more detailed disclosure statement prior to presentation will be required for all abstracts accepted.

In addition, authors must identify any off-label or experimental uses of any drugs that are presented in the abstract.

Institutional Review Board and/or Animal Care Committee Approval Must be Indicated for All Studies Involving Human Subjects and/or Animals IRB and/or IACUC approval is required for retrospective reviews and case reports. Indication on the abstract form that IRB and/or IACUC approval has been obtained implies that written approval from the appropriate institutional committee has been obtained and copies of this approval will be immediately sent to the APSA headquarters office with your abstract number indicated on the approval letter or form. Abstracts indicating IRB and/or IACUC approval without the approval letter or form on file with the APSA headquarters office will not be considered. There will be no exceptions to this rule. More detail about each approval type is below.

INFORMED CONSENT – INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD (IRB) APPROVAL
Any studies involving human subjects must conform to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association (Clinical 57 Research 1966; 14:103) and must meet all of the requirements governing informed consent of the country in which it was performed. IRB approval, or the equivalent, must be indicated on the abstract form for it to be considered. Copies of IRB approvals must be forwarded to the APSA headquarters office immediately upon submission of an abstract. Abstracts requiring IRB approval will not be considered without proof of IRB approval. Indicate your abstract ID number on your form. No exceptions to this rule will be made.

USE OF ANIMALS – ANIMAL CARE COMMITTEE APPROVAL
All studies involving the use of animals must conform to the 1991 revision of “Guiding Principles in the Care and Use of Animals” (American Physiological Association, Bethesda, MD 20814-3991). IACUC approval must be indicated on the abstract form for it to be considered. Copies of IACUC approvals must be forwarded to the APSA headquarters office immediately upon submission of an abstract. Abstracts requiring IACUC approval will not be considered without proof of IACUC approval. Indicate your abstract ID number on your form. No exceptions to this rule will be made.

CATEGORIES
Abstracts submitted under the category "Cancer/Oncology" will first be considered for presentation at the joint APSA/IPSO symposium to be held on Wednesday, May 28, 2008. Abstracts addressing cancer/oncology that are not selected for presentation at the APSA/IPSO symposium may then be considered for presentation at the APSA meeting on May 30 or 31.

The complete list of category options are:

• Cancer/Oncology (Note details above regarding this category.)
• Clinical Surgery
• Clinical Care
• Ethics and Child Advocacy
• Experimental Surgery
• Fetal Surgery/Developmental Biology
• Transplantation
• Trauma
• Miscellaneous Clinical
• Miscellaneous Basic Science

ABSTRACT TEXT

• Abstracts must be limited to no more than 300 words and one graphic element (if you submit a graphic element, it will not count against the 300 word limit).
• Abstracts with tables will be accepted, but tables are limited to 7 columns and 10 rows maximum. All tables, regardless of size, are equivalent to 35 words against the 300 word abstract limit.
• The abstract should state clearly the reasons for the study or review, the results obtained and the conclusions. Promises to explain the work or vague presentations of data will result in rejection.
• The Program Committee prefers and will look with greatest favor on abstracts submitted in the Purpose-Methods-Results-Conclusion format. The Purpose section should be a succinct statement of the research question or hypothesis to be addressed. The Methods section should include the clinical setting (taking care not to identify the institution), sampling criteria, inclusive dates, etc. The control group should be adequately described. Specific mention should be made of the number of experimental subjects or patients in groups (n=). The statistical method and levels of significance should be included. The Results should be stated in sufficient detail to support the conclusion, with only enough interpretation to indicate relevance; extended discussion or literature reviews should be avoided. The Conclusion should summarize the abstract (We conclude...) with a brief statement of findings clearly supported by the data, consistent with the research purpose, and with a minimum of further suggestions or inferences. The conclusion should be readable as a short, stand-alone statement.
• The Program Committee will consider abstracts submitted in different styles only when the above-described format is inappropriate to the content.
• Tables, figures and graphs should not be used in the abstract unless they are simple and illustrate the central theme of the work in ways that text could not.
• Abbreviations conjured up for use within an abstract are annoying and require constant reference on the part of readers, and non-standard abbreviations should be avoided. There should be no abbreviations used in the conclusion. Authors agree to copy editing of the abstract.
• Authors and institutions must be omitted from the abstract text. Because of the blinding process used by the Program Committee, these rules must be observed, and fairness requires that non-conforming abstracts be returned without consideration.

ORIGINALITY
Abstracts are submitted with the understanding that the data and essential substance are original. Originality requires that the data are not part of any other work previously published or pending acceptance by any book or journal, or previously presented at or being considered by any other national or regional meeting (other than the ACS Surgical Forum), and that the work will not be submitted elsewhere prior to the date of the APSA meeting. Members, corresponding authors and sponsors have a duty to avoid any appearance of duplicate publication. The Board of Governors has instituted penalties for authors and/or sponsors who do not comply with these originality guidelines.

Videos are exempt from the originality requirement. Videos that have been presented at other meetings may be submitted for consideration.

AUTHORS
Credit for authorship implies substantial contributions to conception, design, analysis and interpretation of data, and to writing and revising the abstract. The number of authors should be reasonable, given the subject and experimental design. Data generated from multiple institutions should include an author from each institution or permission from a representative from each institution to use the data.

SPONSOR
If none of the authors is a member, an APSA member must sponsor the abstract. The sponsor agrees to assume the responsibilities above. In addition to making sure the abstract is valid, ethical and understandable, the sponsor must also make sure the presentation is of value to the membership. Sponsors will assist the presenter at the meeting and with editing should a manuscript be submitted to the Journal of Pediatric Surgery. If none of the authors is an APSA member, a signed letter from the sponsor or an e-mail originating from the sponsor must be sent to APSA headquarters (eapsa@eapsa.org) affirming this level of supervision, and assuring the Program Committee that oversight will continue through preparation of presentation (including slides) and the manuscript.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
A corresponding author must be designated for each abstract. The Program Committee prefers that the corresponding author be an APSA member. In addition to acting as the liaison with the Program and Publications committees, the duty of the corresponding author is to warrant to the association that he or she has reviewed the material to assure the quality and integrity of the work, and to supervise preparation of the manuscript and presentation.

PRESENTATION LIMITS
The number of verbal presentations any individual can make is two, although they are allowed to present an unlimited number of posters.  Authors agree to present their abstracts on the days and times assigned by the Program Committee.

PRESENTATION PREFERENCE
Authors shall indicate their preferred method of presentation: verbal, poster, verbal or poster (at the Program Committee’s discretion), or video only. Authors agree to accept the decision of the Program Committee as final. Based on the overall scoring and abstract content, the Program Committee will assign an abstract accepted as a verbal presentation as either a six-minute or three-minute talk. Below are descriptions of potential ways the abstract may be presented:

• Verbal six-minute presentations (plus discussion) are usually clinical or experimental studies or a clinical series. If a manuscript is submitted for publication in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, it should accurately reflect the substance of the abstract, conform to the Journal’s instructions for contributors, and be otherwise acceptable to the Publications Committee. A manuscript is strongly encouraged but not required.
• Verbal three-minute presentations (plus discussion) are most appropriate for new techniques or operations, case reports, a small series without statistics, etc. A manuscript for the Journal of Pediatric Surgery is not required but may be submitted to the Publications Committee for consideration.
• Posters are appropriate for preliminary results or other subjects that lend themselves to this medium. An author must be present with the poster during the designated times of the poster sessions. A manuscript for The Journal of Pediatric Surgery is not required but may be submitted to the Publications Committee for consideration. The Program Committee members will designate the top four posters as Posters of Distinction at the annual meeting.  Along with this title will come a monetary prize.
• Video presentations (plus discussion) are most appropriate to demonstrate new techniques or operations. Video submissions must include an abstract submitted through the abstract submission site. A video can be submitted only as a video and not as a verbal or poster presentation. Videos should be a maximum of five minutes running time, must include audio narration of the procedure (presenters should not plan to narrate from the podium), must be formatted using Windows Media Player and be compatible with Windows XP. Submit two videos: one without author and institution names within the video (to assure blinded review) and one complete video with author and institution names included (to be used for presentation at the annual meeting, should your video be accepted). Videos should be submitted to the APSA headquarters office at 111 Deer Lake Road, Suite 100, Deerfield, IL yy, U.S.A. and must be received by October 15, 2007. Include your name and the abstract control/tracking number (it will start with “08-A-“and will end with “-APSA”) on your video disk or DVD. The videos will not be returned to you. Accepted videos will be displayed on the APSA Web site. In order to ensure that the quality of the video is clear and viewable to the APSA membership, we request that videos are submitted in digital format only. VHS videotapes and videos without audio will not be considered.

NOTIFICATION
The Program Committee will meet in December. All authors will be notified of the status of their abstracts via e-mail by Dec. 20, 2007, with details to follow via mail. The committee is cognizant of the deadlines of other societies to which authors may wish to submit their work.

MANUSCRIPTS
Authors may submit a complete manuscript, conforming to the Instructions for Contributors of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, to the Publications Committee in April 2008. Additional information will be provided if your abstract is accepted for presentation. Submission of manuscripts is not required, but is encouraged.

INTERPRETATION AND SUGGESTIONS
The Program Committee welcomes inquiries about interpretations of these rules. Suggestions from the membership have been very helpful in the past and are always welcome.

Updated: February 27, 2008