Abstract submission

Deadline date for submission: January 15, 2008.

The Scientific Committee invites authors to submit abstracts to be considered for inclusion in the Scientific Programme.

No abstracts can be submitted since the deadline of abstract submission has passed

Instructions

The on-line registration system will take you step-by-step through the submission of your abstract. To get access to the abstract form, you will be requested to enter a log-in name and a password,
which you can choose yourself. We strongly advise you to write down your login name and password. Before submitting your abstract you can access and edit your abstract as often as necessary. After
submitting your abstract, you will receive a confirmation of the submission by e-mail. Please note that you will not be able to edit your abstract anymore once you have pressed the SUBMIT button. When corrections are still necessary, please contact the Congress Organiser.

If you need help or review of the structure and language, please send an e-mail to the ISBT Central Office (info@isbt-web.org). This e-mail will be forwarded to the Chairman of the ISBT Education Committee. If you do require assistance from the Education Committee, please ask for this as early as possible. The deadline for this service is December 15, 2007.

Abstracts

1. Information or concepts expressed must be novel, ideally at an international level. However, corroboration of published data at a local level, or provision of simple statistics (e.g. microbial positivity rates in donors), if they are unusual or if they reveal, e.g. changes following specific interventions would be acceptable.
2. In all instances, the scientific method must be sound and results or outcomes should be within the abstract. Plans for work on their own would not usually constitute an adequate abstract.
3. The abstract should be submitted in English.
4. A void personal criticisms of individuals. Criticism should be restricted to the scientific content, on an evidence base (i.e. with reason for the criticism).
5. Graphics, figures and pictures are not allowed.
6. Tables should be simple and can be submitted via the website as well.

General Principles

You will need to complete:

1. Name and complete address including correct email address of the first (presenting) author, to whom correspondence will be sent.
2. Abstract title: please use capital letters only. The title (including spaces) should not exceed 200 characters. Do NOT type a full stop (.) at the end of the title.
3. Category: select one of the topics
4. Presentation preference: select poster, oral or no preference.
5. Text of the abstract: No more than 500 words. You can add your e-mail address at the end of the abstract for publication if you wish.
6. Do not use HTML codes and ‘end of lines’ as the text will wrap automatically.
7. Do not include a table in the body text of your abstract, but create a Joint Photographics Expert Group (.jpeg) (maximize size: 400 Kb per image) and attach this document following the instructions on the web site.
8. Please adopt the following structured format:
   a. Background
   b. Aims
   c. Methods
   d. Results
   e. Summary/conclusions
9. Registration of co-authors: please fill out the surnames, initials, institute, city, country and e-mail address of the co-authors. Do not state the main author as a co-author.
10. Graphics, figures and pictures are not allowed. Tables should be simple and should be attached as .jpeg. When a table or graph is created in other image creating software, save as a .jpeg with a density of preferably 300 but at least 150 dpi, max. size 400 Kb.

How to create a .jpeg table in PowerPoint
(maximum size 400 Kb)

• Create a blank PowerPoint slide, using the predefined layout showing one big white field.
• Leave background colour white
• Set your font at: Arial 20pt, black.
• Set up the table using the “Insert -> Table” function or the Insert Word table function.
  Create some more columns that you later join for the description of rows. Adjust the layout of the table, joining and splitting cells, using the Tables and Borders Toolbar.
• Please take into account: Depending on the number of characters used per cell you will be able to create a table with a maximum of 9 columns by 12 rows.
• Using the handles fit your table to the size of the slide. Either to the right and left and/or to the top and bottom there should be no white borders around your table.
• Complete the table with your data.
• When cells still show a lot of white, enlarge the font size. Never use a font size smaller than 20 pt.
• Make a separate slide for each table.
• Save as a .jpeg. (The slides will now be exported to a directory created by PowerPoint).

Language setting of your keyboard

The keyboard configuration of computers in non-Western countries often causes problems with the printing of the proceedings when special non-Western characters have been used. To avoid these problems you need to change the language setting of your computer. This can be done by opening “Start” then “Settings”, then “Control Panel” and then choosing “Keyboard.” Once in this menu, set the language of your computer to English (United States) or US (International). Next, open MS Word (or the word processing software you are using) and set the letter type to Arial - Western. In the preparation of your abstract, if you require certain special characters that are not available, (e.g. ‘±’, ‘®’, ‘ì’), use the insert symbol feature (special characters). To do this, select Arial as the font (Unicoded, if possible), then  select the required character, and copy and paste the symbol into the text of the abstract. If a special character is still not available, describe the character, e.g. ‘alpha’. Authors who do not want to make use of the special character feature should put their references between brackets: (1).

Browser font preference

Before inserting/submitting your abstract select Unicode as the preferred font. If Unicode is not available, please select Western.

Abstract review, selection and publication

1. An international panel of experts will review the abstracts. An abstract may be selected for an oral or poster presentation or for publication only.
2. The first (presenting) author will receive a confirmation of acceptance for oral presentation, poster presentation, publication only or a notice of rejection, by e-mail in February 2008. Oral presenters will be informed about the type and the date of the session and presentation guidelines will be provided.
   Poster presenters will be informed about the date of the poster session and will receive guidelines for their presentation. All accepted abstracts will be published in the abstract book which will be published by Vox Sanguinis.
3. Authors of poster presentations will receive, together with their confirmation of acceptance, an Official poster reply form. Without returning this signed reply form no poster board will be reserved. This policy was created to decrease the number of poster no-shows.