Instructions for Authors

Belgian Surgical Week 2018

Ostend, May 3-4-5, 2018

IMPORTANT DATES

01-01-2018: opening abstract submission

14-02-2018: definitive closure abstract submission

From 14-03-2017: final review by the scientific committee

SUBMISSION RULES

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION OPENS 01 JANUARY 2018

Please submit your abstract via: http://www.belgiansurgicalweek.be > abstracts > instructions for authors.

Please follow the instructions given online, otherwise your abstract cannot be selected for review.

4 types of abstracts will be considered, so-called ‘tracks’:

  • Free papers (oral/poster)
  • Case reports (oral/poster)
  • Videos
  • BAST-Trainee-Trainer session (BAST session on Thursday May 18th 2017: Both resident and teacher should be present)

A summary of the guidelines is as follows:

  • The abstract language is English
  • The text should be not more than 300 words (304 including the paragraph labels, see infra)
  • The use of 1 table or 1 graph is possible
  • The abstract must consist of four paragraphs labelled: OBJECTIVE, METHODS, RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS
  • The text and the title should be free from abbreviations, except those commonly used. It should concisely address the problem and the purpose of the study (OBJECTIVE); how the study was performed (METHODS); the main findings with numerical data and statistical significance (RESULTS); and the principal conclusions drawn from the study (CONCLUSIONS)
  • The title of the abstract should be printed in CAPITAL LETTERS; the name(s) of the author(s) should be preceded by the full first name (middle name Initial optional) - omit titles.
  • The number of authors is unlimited.
  • Only co-authors are allowed to present the paper
  • Since the abstracts will be judged anonymously, the text should not reveal the institutional affiliation
  • Within each track, mark the category which best describes the subject of your abstract

Provided categories:

  • Abdominal
  • Bariatric/metabolic
  • Breast
  • Cardio-thoracic
  • Colorectal
  • Endocrine
  • General surgery
  • Hepato-bilio-pancreas
  • Hernia
  • Paediatrics
  • Upper GI
  • Sarcoma
  • Trauma
  • Vascular

Abstracts will not be accepted by e-mail or fax. All abstracts should be submitted and posted according to the format and instructions described above no later than the deadline  14 February 2018 at midnight (23:59:59 CET).

FREE PAPER AND CASE REPORT - ORAL SESSIONS

Free papers are allocated 8 minutes presentation time followed by a discussion period of 2 minutes. Case report papers are allocated a presentation time of 7 minutes followed by a discussion period of 3 minutes. Please note that only data projection will be available.

FREE PAPER AND CASE REPORT - POSTER SESSIONS

After review by the scientific committee, some papers might be held for the poster sessions. During the conference, a ‘best poster session’ will be held where the best 10 posters are given the opportunity for a short oral defense presentation with a 3-slide-powerpoint (excluding the poster itself) during a 3 minute presentation.

FREE VIDEO SESSIONS

Free videos are allocated a maximum of 8 mins with 2 mins discussion. Video content should be made in the perspective of educating surgeons and members of surgical teams to improve the care of the surgical patient as well as safeguard the standards of care in an optimal practice environment. Narration is required and must be in English.

Review will be based on a classical written abstract scheme. Together with the written submission, you are required to upload a low quality video (max. 50MB) during the abstract submission process. You can lower the size of the rough file by compressing to eg. compression H.264, lower the resolution to 640x360px and/or lower the frame rate to 15fps (adds a slight stutter, but axes the size to 75%). Also changing bitrate can make you rough file smaller. During the conference, obviously the full quality video can be shown.

At the time of the conference, the full quality video files should be presented in advance to the session at the technicians desk to test the movie. Be sure to have a windows compatible file, i.e. with file extension avi, mpeg2 or QuickTime. Note that some avi-movies sometimes may cause incompatibility with the software depending on the encoding process, and that the subsequent software decoder may not be available at the time of the conference.

Video requirements summary:                                                                                                                                           

- running time of maximum 8 minutes

- English narration included                                                                                                                           

- video formats: MPEG2, AVI, QuickTime.

The best video will be submitted to the next Annual Meeting of American College of Surgeons, which will be held in Boston (Massachusetts, US) on October 21-25, 2018, following the rules of ACS (www.facs.org, submission deadline March 1st, 2018). An award from RBSS is awarded to the winning video to cover travel expenses in case of acceptance for the ACS meeting.

BAST-TRAINER-TRAINEE SESSION - ORAL SESSION

These abstracts will be scored by the BAST Board. This BAST session is scheduled on Thursday May 3rd 2018. The abstract should describe an interesting case that are to be presented by the residents. The trainer should also attend the session and can also present. This is an interactive session with multiple choice question provided by the presenting resident and with the availability of an electronic voting system. The use of images and videos is encouraged, high quality images are required and a maximum of 60 seconds per video is allowed. Further instructions on presentation will follow. After review some papers might be held for case report sessions.

DECISION

The program committee will meet 3 weeks after the closure of the abstract submission. The best abstracts are selected based on the average score by the reviewers and allocated for presentations as free paper (oral or poster), case report, video or trainer-trainee session. Selected abstracts are considered to be incorporated in dedicated sessions presided by the responsible scientific society or section along with invited lectures based on their relevance with the topic of the session. Abstract acceptance and program scheduling should be communicated to the corresponding author’s e-mail address before April 1st 2017.

For your abstract to be included in the final scientific program, it is mandatory to register for the congress and to settle payment as soon as you have received the notification of abstract acceptance, but the latest before April 15thRegistration after this date does not guarantee the possibility to present your work.

Please check the boxes if eligible for awards during the abstract submission process.

Abstracts will be published in an online supplement of the Acta Chirurgica Belgica.

PRIZES AND AWARDS

BEST ABSTRACT AWARD

The Board of the Royal Belgian Society of Surgery (RBSS) has decided to award this year a best abstract award for the two best clinical and the two best basic research papers selected by the Scientific Committee worth 1.500 € and 1.000 € each.

The criteria for application for the prizes are as follows:

  1. Applicants are not to be older than 35 years at the time of the Belgian Surgical Week.
  2. Applicants are to be member of the Royal Belgian Society of Surgery, latest by 14th February 2018, the date of closure of the abstract submissions.
  3. Free paper abstracts for presentation at the Belgian Surgical Week are to be submitted at the latest before midnight of 14 February 2018 (absolute deadline).
  4. The finalists will be chosen among the four best scored abstracts and will be notified latest by April 1st.
  5. The first author of the paper is to submit a full manuscript by April 20th 2018 which can be used by the jury to analyze the research more in debt before the actual Award session. Failure to submit the manuscript on time will automatically disqualify the applicant for the prize, but not for the presentation.
  6. The four selected papers are to be presented as oral communications in the ‘RBSS Young Investigator Challenge’ session scheduled on Thursday morning May 3rd during the 19th Belgian Surgical Week.
  7. The papers will be scored by a jury composed of RBSS Board members and will be based on the scientific quality of both the presentation and of the submitted manuscript.
  8. The dedicated presentation time is foreseen for 10 minutes with 5 minutes discussion by a discussant invited by the Board.
  9. Publications in the Acta Chirurgica Belgica is strongly encouraged but publications in another journal is also supported by the RBSS.

            The winners of the prize will be announced at the Surgical Night.

         If you wish to participate in the contest, don’t forget to tick the appropriate box when submitting your abstract via the conference website of the BSW: www.belgiansurgicalweek.be!

BEST POSTER AWARD

The Board of the Royal Belgian Society of Surgery (RBSS) has also decided to award this year an award for the TWO best poster presentations defended during the Speed Dating Poster Session on Friday May 4th. This award is worth 250€ each.

BEST VIDEO AWARD

We have the pleasure to announce that for the 2018 edition of the BSW, RBSS is organizing a competition of best video abstract, with video formats arranged according to the submission rules of the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons.

Video presentations on the different subtopics (Abdominal Wall, Breast, Colorectal, Endocrine, HepatoBiliary & Pancreatic, Obesity & Metabolic, Upper GI, Pediatric) can be submitted.

The best video will be submitted to the next Annual Meeting of American College of Surgeons, which will be held in Boston (Massachusetts, US) on October 21-25, 2018, following the rules of ACS (www.facs.org).

In order to cover the travel’s costs in case of acceptance, an award to the best video is granted to cover travel and lodging expenses at a maximum travel cost of EUR 1.000,-.

BAST AWARD

The best presentation during the BAST session will be chosen by the audience. Trainee and trainer should be present at time of presentation in order to be eligible to win a prize worth €750.

  

         If you wish to participate in the competitions, don’t forget to tick the appropriate box when submitting your abstract via the website of the Surgical Week: www.belgiansurgicalweek.be!

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION WILL OPEN JANUARY 1st 2018 00.00 CET AND CLOSE definitively FEBRUARY 14th 2018 23.59.59 CET

>>> Submit your abstract here. <<<

You will be redirected to Easychair, the abstract management system for BSW 2018.

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