Research - Presenting Abstracts
Individuals wishing to present original communications to the Society, either as free papers or as posters, should prepare an abstract which provides sufficient information to allow the Council to assess the merits of the communication. Selection of abstracts is competitive, but the Council members score abstracts independently and try to ensure that the programme reflects the multidisciplinary nature and wide-ranging interests of the society. We especially encourage submission of abstracts relating to the symposia and theme of a conference.
Deadline dates for submission of abstracts for meetings are published in the Society’s newsletters and on the website meeting page. Each meeting of the Society includes at least one session for the presentation of free papers. Each paper is allotted 15 minutes in the programme, of which 10 minutes should be given to presentation of the paper and 5 minutes to questions from the meeting.
When Posters are included in the programme they are displayed where they can be easily viewed by those attending the meeting and should be A0 Portrait where possible.
Work in Progress
There is poster space available for Work in Progress. Please submit abstracts using the format and procedure for completed work but include ‘WIP’ in the title and a statement of ethical approval obtained in the results section.
The Adjudication Process
All abstracts are seen and assessed by members of the Council who grade each abstract on a scale from 0-10. Abstracts with a mean score <5 will be rejected. Authors may be asked to make minor modifications to their abstract prior to acceptance. Accepted abstracts will normally be presented at the next meeting of the Society after the adjudication. The organisers try to fit all accepted submissions into the meeting either as oral or poster presentations. The form of presentation is decided to ensure a varied and interesting meeting programme.
In the unusual event of there being too many accepted submissions to exceed time or space available the abstract may be held over until the next meeting. In cases of oversubscription of acceptable abstracts for any meeting preference will be given to submissions from people who are already Associate Members. Although the abstract acceptance for the following meeting is guaranteed, the mode of presentation won’t be decided until all abstracts for that meeting are reviewed and scored.
All correspondents submitting abstracts are informed of the results of the adjudication including, where appropriate, reasons for rejection or amendments required.
Use of Abstracts by the Society
Abstracts for completed work which attract the highest scores from the council reviewers (i.e. 6 points or higher) are published in Clinical Rehabilitation (subject to the approval of the editor). Presenters are given the opportunity to revise their abstract prior to publication in the light of questions of discussion during the meeting.
In rare cases, even though an abstract has been accepted, the content of the paper is considered unacceptable, either by Council or the members of the Society, when it is presented at the meeting.
These cases usually concern the scientific credibility of the work or a mismatch between abstract and presentation. It may be necessary to withhold an abstract from publication and the presenter may lose their entitlement to apply to full membership of the Society at that time.
Please note if an abstract is accepted by the SRR and is accepted for publication in Clinical Rehabilitation, that it will be published without further permission being sought and that the usual copyright conditions of the journal apply, which in essence does not restrict the author at all but protects his/her/their rights.
NIHR information about research, service evaluation and audit
http://www.hra-decisiontools.org.uk/research/ then follow the links to this overview:
http://www.hra.nhs.uk/documents/2016/06/defining-research.pdf