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Guidelines
What an abstract must contain, how review works, the rules for speaking and for posters, virtual presentation, certificates and how presentations are judged.
The short version: abstracts are accepted until 15 October 2026 against any of the 25 scientific tracks, review takes two days, oral slots are 20 minutes including questions, and posters are one metre square and printed before you travel. The detail follows.
What an abstract must contain
Submit through the portal, or by email attachment if the upload gives you trouble. Write in plain English and assume an expert reader from a different subfield — this audience spans psychiatry, psychology, nursing and neuroscience.
Each submission needs six things:
● The submitting author’s name, credentials, email and institutional affiliation
● A short biography and a recent photograph of that author
● A title that describes the work rather than gesturing at it
● Your preference for an oral slot or a poster board
● Whether you will present in Boston or remotely
● The scientific track the work belongs to
What we accept
Original research, systematic reviews, clinical case studies and service evaluations. Work must be unpublished and not under review elsewhere at the time you submit. You may send as many abstracts as you like provided each stands on its own; send each one once, since duplicates are discarded rather than read twice.
Speaking
Oral slots are 20 minutes end to end, questions included, and chairs hold to it because an overrun takes time from whoever follows you. Aim to finish presenting at fourteen or fifteen minutes.
Build your deck in PowerPoint or PDF, send it 15 days ahead so it can be loaded and checked, and bring a copy on a flash drive. Sit through your whole session rather than arriving for your own slot.
Posters
Boards are one metre square. Print before you travel — there is no printing at the venue. Lay the poster out so a passing reader can follow the argument from two metres away without you beside it; dense paragraphs lose them.
Mount at least an hour before your round opens, stay with the board while it runs, and take it down afterwards. Anything left is disposed of rather than stored.
Presenting remotely
You receive a personal access ID a few days ahead. Log in twenty to thirty minutes early so sound and screen sharing can be sorted while it still does not matter, and test your setup the day before rather than on the morning. The 20-minute limit applies exactly as it does in the room. Where a time zone makes live delivery impractical, send a pre-recorded talk ten days ahead and join live for questions.
Certificates
Every registered participant receives a certificate with their name and affiliation under CPD approved provider #785794. In Boston you collect it at the close on 21 November; remote delegates receive it by email within two to three working days.
The point that catches people out each year: a co-author who has not registered does not receive a certificate, even where their name appears on an accepted abstract.
How presentations are judged
Chairs score every presentation and awards are announced at the close of day two. Four things carry most weight:
● Does the argument hold? Clear structure, evidence that supports the claim, a conclusion the data earns.
● Can the room follow it? Plain language, slides that support rather than duplicate the talk, eye contact rather than reading.
● Did it finish on time? Keeping to twenty minutes is a courtesy to the next speaker, and it is scored as one.
● Is there something new? An original finding, method or application, rather than a survey of the literature.
Accessibility is scored alongside these. The audience spans several disciplines and many first languages; a talk pitched only at specialists in your own subfield loses marks it did not need to.