CALL FOR ABSTRACTS — 139th APHA Annual Meeting
Theme: Healthy Communities Promote Healthy Minds & Bodies
APHA-Student Assembly
Submission Deadline: Friday, February 11, 2011
The Student Assembly of the American Public Health Association (APHA-SA) invites abstracts from students in public health or other related fields presenting results of scientific research, program evaluations, policy analysis, and lessons learned from research or practice. We also invite abstracts pertaining to public health student issues in general (such as education, curricula, training, employment trends, student leadership, advocacy, etc.)
The theme of the 2011 APHA Annual Meeting is, "Healthy Communities Promote Healthy Minds & Bodies" and abstracts that reflect this theme are particularly encouraged. Other themes for which APHA-SA encourages submissions include:
- Behavioral Science / Health Education Student Projects
- Environmental / Occupational Health Student Projects
- Epidemiology / Biostatistics Student Projects
- Health Services Administration / Management Student Projects
- International / Global Health Student Projects
- Maternal and Child Health Student Projects
- Nutrition Health Student Projects
- Public Health Policy / Practice Student Projects
- Student Topics in Healthy Communities Promoting Healthy Minds & Bodies
Abstracts of 250 words or less may be submitted for oral or poster sessions. The deadline for submission to APHA-SA is Friday, February 11th, 2011 at Midnight PST (it is recommended authors not wait until the last minute to submit abstracts due to potential technical issues). Late abstracts cannot be accepted.
Submission of an abstract to the Student Assembly is an expression of the presenting author’s intentions of attending the Annual Meeting and presenting the work should it be accepted. Abstracts should reflect work by the presenting author undertaken while in school, either in an undergraduate or graduate program.
Submission and Review: All Abstracts must be submitted electronically using the APHA Meeting website by the date published on the APHA website for the Student Assembly. Late, faxed, and email submissions cannot be accepted. APHA will send email notices of acceptance to abstract authors in early June 2011.
All Abstracts are subject to masked peer review by at least three reviewers. Please remove any references to a specific institution in the body of the abstract to permit masked review and ensure fairness. By submitting an abstract proposal, the author(s) agree that, if accepted, the paper will be presented as scheduled.
Abstracts should be submitted in a structured format. Please use one of the following two formats:
Structured Abstract Format (suitable for abstracts on scientific research):
o Background: Study objectives, hypothesis, or a description of the problem;
o Methods: Study design, including a description of participants, procedures, measures, and appropriate analyses;
o Results: Specific results in summary form; and
o Conclusions: Description of the main outcome of the study.
Alternative format (suitable for abstracts about policy, programs, interventions, and other types of research evaluations):
o Issues: A short summary of the issue(s) addressed;
o Description: Description of the project, experience, service, or advocacy program;
o Lessons Learned: A brief description of the results of the project; and
o Recommendations: A brief statement of next steps.
Review Criteria: Standardized criteria will be used to evaluate all abstract submissions. These criteria include: (1) adherence to specified format as indicated under structured abstract format, (2) importance/originality, (3) description of subject matter, (4) methodology/sound conceptual framework, and (5) clarity of content. Note that incomplete abstracts will not be judged.
Final Program: The final program will be based on peer-reviewer evaluations of the abstract proposals with consideration for available time and space, the program theme, and diversity of topics. Because of limited sessions and space, the programmers may not be able to accommodate your preference for presentation format (oral versus poster). However, if you will only present your abstract in your preferred format, please make note of this in the section “Comments to Programmers”. Topical sessions are determined based on accepted submissions. All topics related to the APHA Annual Meeting are encouraged.
Only listed authors who are both APHA members and registered for the Annual Meeting may present accepted work. APHA does not provide any financial support for author attendance at the Annual Meeting. However, the Student Assembly offers a Student Presenter Scholarship for students that are presenting during APHA-SA sessions. Information concerning the Scholarship Competition will be emailed to all authors of accepted abstracts. ONLY students presenting during APHA-SA sessions are eligible for this competition. Please note that acceptance of an abstract is not a guarantee of scholarship support.
All expenses incurred for presenting at APHA are the sole responsibility of the student author. Presenters must pay their own APHA membership, registration, travel, and lodging.
If presenting at the APHA Annual Meeting is contingent on receiving financial support, please do not submit an abstract – there is only limited space for student presentations, and it is not fair to other students to withdraw your abstract just before the APHA Annual Meeting because of lack of funds.
Also note there are NO free or reduced registrations for presenters. Student presenters must pay the student registration rate.
Though we have accepted abstracts with research that is still in progress at the time of submission, the project must be completed by the Annual Meeting. It is also important to note that after the submission deadline has passed, NO CHANGES to the title or body of text will be allowed. Therefore it is important that your abstract contain the correct information at the time of submission, which should include any preliminary results and/or anticipated results.
Before preparing your abstract, it is recommended that you review the Abstract Writing Guide available at http://aphastudents.org/docs/abstractguide05.pdf. This document was written by a former programmer of APHA-SA, based on common errors seen in student abstract submissions in previous meetings.
Likewise, it is recommended to review previously accepted student abstracts at http://www.apha.org/meetings/pastfuture/pastannualmeetings.htm. You can see previous research and presentations completed by students during APHA-SA sessions (select the meeting, APHA Student Assembly, and then a session).
It is recommended to also review the Abstract Submission FAQ at http://aphastudents.org/docs/abstractsubmissionfaq.doc Many of your questions may have already been answered there.
If you have any questions, contact the APHA-SA Program Planners directly at programming@aphastudents.org. Planners can only respond to e-mail inquiries NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE.
Continuing Education Credit
APHA values the ability to provide continuing education credit to physicians, nurses and health educators at its annual meeting. Please complete all required information when submitting an abstract so members can claim credit for attending your session. These credits are necessary for members to keep their licenses and credentials.
For a session to be eligible for Continuing Education Credit, each presenter must provide:
1) an abstract free of trade and/or commercial product names
2) at least one MEASURABLE objective (to understand or to learn are not measurable objectives).
Examples of Acceptable Measurable Action Words:
Explain, Demonstrate, Analyze, Formulate, Discuss, Compare, Differentiate, Describe, Name, Assess, Evaluate, Identify, Design, Define or List.
3) A signed Conflict of Interest form with a relevant qualification statement
Thank you for your assistance in making your session credit worthy.
Contact Annette Ferebee at annette.ferebee@apha.org if you have any questions.
Program Planner Contact Information:
Alberto Caban-Martinez, MPH, CPH
Epidemiology and Public Health
University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine
1120 N.W. 14th Street, 10th Floor (R-669)
Clinical Research Building, Rm 1075
Miami, FL 33134
Phone: 305-401-4150
Fax: 305-243-5544
acabanAPHA@gmail.com
and
Cameron Culver
School of Medicine
University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio
7703 Floyd Curl Drive
San Antonio, TX 78229-3900
Phone: 713-823-5266
cculverapha@gmail.com