Conferences and Scientific Meetings: Abstract Guidelines

Who can submit an abstract

Our audience is academics, clinicians and patient representatives. The IPCRG welcomes abstracts from academics and all members of the multi-professional team, including patients and patient representatives, so long as it is relevant to this global respiratory community. Topics should be related to the prevention, diagnosis, management and palliation of communicable and non-communicable respiratory diseases, and respiratory risk factors in family medicine, primary care centres, outpatient clinics and other settings where diagnosis and prescription is carried out. Abstracts are a maximum of 300 words and may include one figure or table.

Following a very successful first session at our 8th Scientific Meeting in Brașov, Romania, we are also accepting abstracts for Creative Enquiry Presentations, which express lived experience through creative or artistic media to help think creatively. This can be proposed in all 3 abstract categories. Simply tick the ‘creative communications’ box if you wish to present in this format. Examples of this sort of presentation can be found here.

Abstract Categories

Clinical Research Results

  • Your abstract may be a summary of the findings of exploratory, effectiveness or implementation research that addresses a clinical question and uses a research method. You must include data and the work must be relevant to a primary care audience with an interest in respiratory health. Bear in mind that IPCRG campaigns for patient care to be evidence-based, using evidence from real life, and includes populations representative of primary care populations.
  • The questions from our Research Prioritisation exercise provide a useful guide to what would be of most interest to our audience.
  • Use the IMRaD format (meta-analyses may require a different format), including an Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion. 

See Appendix 1 in the abstracts guide in the sidebar for detailed guidance and information.

Research Ideas Abstract

  • The Research Ideas category is for proposals for research that has been carefully planned but is yet to be conducted. This can include protocols for approved research, which may already be underway.
  • The abstract should include the research question, background, methodology and questions to discuss.
  • IPCRG actively encourages practitioners to submit an abstract, being aware that there are few academic centres of primary respiratory care. We would be delighted to receive abstracts describing a research question and a methodology that can then benefit from peer discussion and challenge to increase research capability in primary care respiratory research. 
  • The questions from our Research Prioritisation exercise are a good starting point for your research ideas, and ideas can include air quality, tobacco use and dependence, physical activity, breathlessness, cough, asthma, COPD, multi-morbidity including chronic respiratory disease, respiratory infections including TB, RSV and post-COVID syndrome.

See Appendix 2 in the abstracts guide in the sidebar for detailed guidance and information.

Service Development & Evaluation Abstract

  • Service Development & Evaluation abstracts should evaluate an intervention to create and/or improve a service or interventions that benefit respiratory health, including educational interventions and quality improvement programmes. This can include surveys.
  • It should follow the below format:
  1. Aim
  2. Brief outline of context: assessment of existing situation and analysis of its causes: How did you quantify the problem – if there was one? Did you involve others at this stage? How did you assess the causes of the situation?
  3. Brief description of the change/intervention and why you thought it would work
  4. Strategy for change: who, how, following what timetable
  5. Impact of changes
  6. Lessons learned
  7. Messages for others

See Appendix 3 in the abstracts guide in the sidebar for detailed guidance and information.

Guide to Abstract Submission

Word Count & Format: There is a maximum of 300 words allowed for the body of the abstract.

Figures and tables: You may include one image or table to illustrate the work further. Please ensure that you have permission to use any images that you display in your abstract submission; otherwise, you may be liable for copyright infringement and associated charges. Images can be in any format and up to 5MB in size. Any patient-identifiable images must have the patient’s written permission for display. Note on adding tables and images: Tables and Diagrams can be uploaded added and added as supporting files and not to the abstract’s body text. Tables or Diagrams should be uploaded as jpg. or png. files and clearly labelled e.g. 1) Tables: Table 1 – Table title 2) Diagrams: Figure 1 - Figure Title.

Abstracts should be written in full sentences in English: A correct sentence structure and grammar must be used and please check your spelling. Abstracts must be written in plain English. If this is your second language, please have your abstract proofread by a colleague with good written English skills. (Il en va de même en français pour les résumés en langue française)

All abstracts with author permission will also be added to IPCRG online resources and IPCRG will disseminate these to its network.

13th IPCRG World Conference and 1st North African Interdisciplinary Respiratory Forum: when abstract submission opens, click here to submit an abstract and find the abstract submission guidelines.