All abstracts must be submitted online using the electronic abstract form on the SESAM Barcelona 2018 website. Abstracts sent by post or email will not be accepted. To begin your submission, please select the green ‘Submit Abstract’ button on the left-hand side of the page.

FORMAT

You will need to submit your abstract in one of the following formats: 

• Descriptive Studies - Oral Presentation or Poster is for abstracts describing a methodology or educational program, to be presented as oral or poster.
• Research Studies – Oral or Poster Presentations is for abstracts describing experimental or observational studies, to be presented as oral or poster.
• Workshop is for interactive workshops where the participants should enjoy a great learning experience. Interactivity for the participant is highly important.
• Roundtable is for roundtable sessions you would organise. SESAM roundtable Sessions are interactive group sessions that create opportunities for in-depth learning through discussion with facilitators and attendees in an active information exchange. Keep in mind that you must make this in agreement with the panel members.
• Expert Panel is a session gathering different experts and discussing together a specific theme in simulation in healthcare. Interaction with the audience is strongly recommended.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

General guidelines

Failure to observe these guidelines may result in disqualification.

• Abstracts must be submitted in English. Abstracts in Spanish can also be submitted for SESAM 2018. It should be stated in the Abstracts submission system by clicking the related box.
• The correct subject from the list below must be selected to ensure correct scoring. The content of the abstract must be subject-related.
  1. Assessment Using Simulation
  2. Centre Administration and Program Evaluation
  3. Curriculum Development
  4. Debriefing
  5. Faculty Development
  6. Interprofessional / Team Education
  7. New Technologies and Innovation
  8. New Technologies and Innovation (supported by SimGHOSTS)
  9. Patient Safety/Quality Improvement
  10. Physiologic Modelling and Simulation
  11. Technical Operations
  12.  Technical Operations (supported by SimGHOSTS)
• Abbreviations may be used after defining them first.
• Trade names cannot be mentioned in the title. However, trade names in brackets will be accepted in the body of the text.
• Research and Descriptive Studies abstracts can only be submitted for the SESAM Barcelona 2018 Meeting if it has not previously been published or presented. You will be asked to confirm this during the submission process.
• It is the intent of SESAM to provide high-quality sessions focused on educational content that is free from commercial influence or bias. Thus the submitting author of an abstract is requested to declare any potential conflicts of interest for all authors during the submission process.
• The submitting author must certify that all co-authors have agreed for the abstract to be submitted. You will need to confirm this during the submission process.
• Ensure your abstract does not contain spelling, grammatical or scientific errors. The abstract will be reproduced exactly as submitted and no proofreading will be undertaken.

Formatting guidelines

Scientific abstracts - Descriptive Studies and Research Studies

• An abstract can only be submitted for the SESAM Barcelona 2018 Meeting if it has not previously been published or presented. You will be asked to confirm this during the submission process.
• Abstracts must meet international ethical standards. An ethical statement will be requested during the submission process.
• For Descriptive Studies: the abstract should be organized into three sections: Introduction & Aims, Description and Discussion.
• For Research Studies: the abstract should be organized into three sections: Introduction & Aims, Methods and Results & Discussion.
• Abstracts are limited to 400 words in total.
• One figure/table can be included. The image must be either a JPG or GIF. It must be larger than 50x50px and between 45KB and 500KB in size. Tables are recommended to be submitted as Word files.

Workshops, Roundtables and Expert Panels

The abstracts submitted should clearly indicate the objective of the session and be organized as following:

• Workshops: introduction & aims, learning objectives, session description (planned activities), educational methods, expected impact, target audience, maximum number of participants and equipment requests.
• Roundtables and Expert panels: introduction & aims, session description (planned activities), expected impact, target audience, maximum number of participants and equipment requests.

Equipment requests will be fulfilled if possible. Facilitators/Moderators should make their own arrangements for their proposed activities.

AFTER SUBMISSION

• The reviewers will evaluate the scientific abstracts (Research and Descriptive Studies) according to the quality of the content, quality of the writing and the educational value. Specifically they will assess if the abstract:
  • Has an informative title and is structured as recommended, with correct spelling/grammar and coherent writing
  • Has educational value
  • Provides context
  • Clearly stated hypothesis or questions
  • Concisely describes the methodology/educational program (Descriptive Studies) or concisely described study design (Research Studies)
  • Discusses the interest and impact of the proposed study, and argues the novelty of the methodology/educational program (Descriptive Studies) or presents results clearly supporting the hypothesis and discusses them based on the presented data
  • Is an important contribution to theory or knowledge
  • Is a novel or innovative contribution
  • Is relevant to conference aims and for conference delegates
• Depending on the evaluation of the abstract and on the relevance of the work the scientific committee may propose another format for presentation during the meeting. If this is the case, the authors will be notified in the acceptance email. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that emails from the SESAM admin team can reach them. Full presentation guidelines will be included in the acceptance email.
• The reviewers will also evaluate the Workshops, Roundtables and Expert panels according to the planned activities and their viability on the available timeline, dynamics and interactivity, relevance for the target audience, novelty or innovative contribution. Depending on the evaluation, authors may be invited to improve/adjust the proposed session.
• The submitting author will be notified of the decision on 15th February, by email, to the same email address provided in their online SESAM profile.
• If you need to withdraw your abstract, a written statement reflecting the reasons for this decision must be sent to sesam@worldspan.co.uk no later than 14 March 2018.

IMPORTANT DATES

• Submissions accepted from: 4th September 2017
• Submission deadline: 15th November 2017
• Submission deadline extension: 27th November 2017
• Notifications to submitters: 15th February 2018
• Earlybird registration deadline: 28th February 2018

If you experience any problems submitting your abstract, or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the SESAM Admin Team by email to sesam@worldspan.co.uk or by telephoning +44 (0)1745 828400.