2025 Spine Society of Australia 36th Annual Scientific Meeting4 - 6 April 2025 | Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR THE SPINE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING

Abstracts submissions for the Spine Society of Australia 36th Annual Scientific Meeting opens on Monday, 14th October 2024 and closes on Monday, 9th December 2024.

Submitted abstracts must represent original work that has not been previously published or presented. The Spine Society of Australia expect that the nominated author will present the material and scientific data appearing in the submitted abstract, upon acceptance by the Scientific Committee. The data must not be modified or updated for the presentation without the prior written approval of the Scientific Secretary. 

The Review Committee will select abstracts for either an oral podium presentation or a poster presentation unless the author indicates a specific preference for a poster presentation only.

Podium Presentations will be 6-minute oral presentations in English with allocated question time of 4-minutes.

Posters
Posters at the Spine Society ASM will be displayed in both paper/cloth and electronic format. Instructions will be forwarded on acceptance of a poster. Authors must be in attendance to hang their poster.

In 2025 the Spine Society of Australia will once again be including a poster presentation session to the main program. Electronic posters must be submitted by Friday 14th March 2025 where they will be judged on style, content and scientific merit. The posters awarded the highest scores will be selected to be presented in a short oral presentation on the final day of the conference. Further details will be made available on acceptance of an abstract.

Instructions to submit an abstract

• Abstracts must be submitted using the structure of the abstract template. 
• Author details and affiliation MUST NOT be included in the abstract
• Abstracts must have a 300 word maximum
• All abbreviations must be defined in the body of the abstract
• Do not include references in the abstract text
• No tables or graphs are to be included in the abstract.

Introduction           
Provide a clear statement of the aims or purpose of the study.

Methods
Give a brief description of the study design, population or specimen preparation, data collection and processing.

Results           
Only data collected and processed prior to the abstract being submitted will be accepted. Important statistical results (such as confidence intervals, p- values or correlation coefficients) should be included.

Conclusion           
What does the study show? Make simple statements that are supported by the evidence shown in your results.

All presenters must register for a minimum of one day of the conference by the Early Bird Deadline for registration (Friday 28th February 2025) otherwise the presentation will be withdrawn from the program.

Presentation Awards
Presenters of successful abstracts will be in the running for the 2025 Spine Society Awards totalling $16,000. Awards include:

• Spinal Research Award – $10,000 for the best spinal research paper submitted & presented at the conference
• Best Paper Award - $2,000 for the best paper presented at the conference
• Best Poster Award - $1,000 for the best poster presented at the conference
• Alastair Robson Award - $1,000 for most outstanding contribution by a clinician/s in clinical practice
• The Rob Johnston Award - $1,000 for the best paper presented by a surgical trainee
• The Clayton Adam Award - $1,000 for the best paper presented by a junior research scientist

For further information on the Spine Society of Australia Awards, click here.

Declaration of interest
All authors (including all co-authors) must complete a declaration of interest. The sources and value of all funds used to conduct the study must be declared.

On completing the abstract submission you will receive an Abstract ID number and details on how to complete the disclosure responsibilities, which MUST be completed by all authors associated with the paper by Friday 24th January 2025. Failure of any author to complete the declaration will result in the paper’s withdrawal from the program. It is the responsibility of the presenting author to ensure that all co-authors have complied with the declaration requirements.

Early Career Participant Scholarships
In order to ensure that the Spine Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting is accessible to Australasian (Australia / NZ) early career participants, Conference Scholarships will be offered in 2025. A total of $10,000 is being made available for scholarship with a maximum of $1,500 per applicant to go towards registration, travel and accommodation. Priority for Scholarships will be given to applicants who have submitted an abstract for consideration for an oral or poster presentation for the ASM.

Follow the link to find further information on applying for an Early Career Participant Scholarship. Scholarship applications close midnight AEDT Friday, 7th February 2025.

For any enquiries, please email the Conference Secretariat: ssaasm@dccam.com.au   Tel: +61 2 9954 4400