Abstract submission

An abstract is a summary of a paper (research publication). The study and results reported should be novel and not simply an extension of previously published work.

Online: connect to myERS and choose the menu Abstract and select Congress submission. https://my.ersnet.org/

Abstracts that are considered as late-breaking must contain novel data and this data must became available for public dissemination only after the standard abstract deadline on 13 February 2020.

The study and results reported should be novel and not simply an extension of previously published work. The late-breaking abstract round is not designed to favour investigators who unintentionally missed the deadline for the regular abstract submission.

You must submit your late breaking abstract online by logging in to myERS and choosing the 'Abstract' menu, and then select 'Congress submission'. The submission period for late-breaking abstract is from 1 May to 31 May 2020.
Note that the submission is not free, €75 submission fee applies for each late-breaking abstract submission (non-refundable). For people based in Switzerland additionally 8% VAT will apply.

Abstracts are intended to present scientific studies and research. If your study is currently ongoing and you only have preliminary data, but it seems relevant or significant, you can submit the abstract. However please be aware that abstracts with incomplete data may have less chance of being accepted for the ERS International Congress.

After your abstract is accepted you cannot update the content of your abstract for the official publication as the accepted version will be published, however you are permitted to present updated information onsite at the Congress.

A maximum of three abstracts (including Late-breaking abstracts) may be submitted by the same author.

We do not encourage to submit the case study abstracts, however we accept them if they are well prepared. We do not provide specific templates for this kind of abstracts. You may however consider submission of Clinical Case by the 13th February deadline.

Yes; when you are submitting your abstract you will have the opportunity to disclose your conflict of interest. Conflict of interest statement is only required for the first author.

Title: The title should be an accurate description of the abstract's contents. It should explain as much as possible about the context and the aims of the study. The title should be about 10–12 words long, and should include the scope of the investigation, the study design and the goal. The title should be a description of what was investigated rather than a statement of the results or conclusions. The abstract title should be easy for the reader to understand and should not include jargon or unfamiliar acronyms or abbreviations. The title should not be in capital letters.

Authors: The list of authors should be restricted to those individuals who carried out the study, conceived it, designed it, gathered the data, analysed the numbers and wrote the abstract. The author who will present the abstract should be listed first. Every listed author should read and approve the abstract before it is submitted.

Main text: A good abstract should address the five following questions in the relevant sections:

1. "Why did you start?" – Introduction or background / You should summarise, preferably in one sentence, the current knowledge specifically in relation to the work you are presenting.

2. "What did you try to do?" – Aims and objectives / State the aim of your study, and ideally include a short statement of the study's hypothesis. A legitimate scientific study is not done "to prove that something is true" but rather "to find out whether it is true." The distinction may seem small but it makes a significant difference. A formal hypothesis shows that you are objective.

3. "What did you do?" – Methods / In an abstract, the description of the methods has to be concise, and much of the details of what was done must be omitted. However, in a few short sentences, you can give the reader a good idea of the design of the study, the context in which it was done, and the types of patients or measurements that were included.

4. "What did you find?" – Results / It is important to give the main results of the study, not in subjective terms ("We found device X to be superior to device Y") but also in the form of some real data. You will need to choose which findings to report here: it should be the most important data in your study, and the findings on which your conclusions will be based. Do not include a table or figure unless you need it to show your results.

5. "What does it mean?" – Conclusions / Here, space constraints generally limit you to a single sentence of why you think your findings are important, and their potential implications. Keep your conclusions reasonable and supportable by the findings of your study. Remember that if your study was restricted to certain patients, or a particular therapy, or a specific device, its results may not extend beyond these restrictions.

Please see the full guidelines for more information

If none of the answers above could help you, you can contact the ERS office. We will do our best to answer your queries within a maximum of 5 working days. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

We do not accept abstract which was already presented and published. However you can submit something similar to the ERS International Congress, we expect some addition/new data to an abstract presented at another congress.

Copyright for abstracts is retained by authors (see on submission Terms & Agreement "11. Copyright, if this abstract is accepted, will be held by the author or employer (as part of the conditions of the author(s)'s employment).")

The abstracts are not published under a creative commons framework (Creative Commons licencing is most generally used to 'describe' how you can 'use/re-use' an open access document). The abstracts are not published open access. They are free to access (on both the ERS platforms and when they are published as a supplement of the ERJ), which is different to open access, and are copyright to the author.

The maximum length of an abstract is 1,810 characters including characters and spaces in the following: Abstract Title, Abstract Body, Table, and Figures. N.B. if you insert a table, one character will be deducted per cell. If you insert an image/picture/figure, it will deduct 277 characters.

There is no limit regarding number of authors. However, the list of authors should be restricted to those individuals who carried out the study, conceived it, designed it, gathered the data, analysed the numbers and wrote the abstract. The author who will present the abstract should be listed first. Every listed author should read and approve the abstract before it is submitted.

The late-breaking abstract round is not an extension for the regular abstract submission deadline.

If none of the answers above could help you, you can contact the ERS office. We will do our best to answer your queries within a maximum of 5 working days. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Abstract notification will be sent to the author's email address (the one used during abstract submission) by mid-June 2020.

All abstracts have been graded anonymously by a panel of minimum three reviewers on the basis of the following 4 main criteria (on a scale from 1/lowest to 6/best, 3 average acceptance rate):

• The scientific strength
• The methodology
• The data provided
• The novelty and /or originality of its findings

Based on these elements, abstracts were accepted or not to be presented at the Congress. Then, when allocating abstracts into sessions, the ERS officers also had to take into account the limitation of slots in the Congress Programme.

The information regarding type, date and time of the session that your abstract is accepted to, as well as the official invitation letter (visa letter) will be sent to your email address along with abstract acceptance notification.

Full content of accepted abstracts will be visible in the online programme and congress app from 29th of August 2020 (the week prior the beginning of the Congress). This date excludes abstract under embargo which will be visible on the day of the presentation.

Abstracts will be published in a supplement of the September 2020 edition of the European Respiratory Journal (ERJ).

You cannot modify your abstract's body nor title after it is submitted.
After you receive the notification that your abstract is accepted to the ERS Congress you will be able to modify only the list of authors.
To ensure that changes to the author's list are considered, make sure the changes are done in due time, at least one month prior the Congress starts to ensure the abstract are updated on all platforms.

You will have to login to the abstract platform and edit the authors list or to change the presenting author.

After you received the notification that your abstract is accepted to the ERS Congress you are able to modify the list of authors yourself.

You will have to login to the abstract platform and edit the authors list to change the presenting author.

If your abstract is accepted you need to contact the ERS office with the completed abstract withdrawal form.

To ensure that your abstract is withdrawn from the ERS 2020 Congress Programme send the completed form in due time, at least one month prior the Congress starts to ensure that all platforms are updated.

You cannot change the submission category. However, note that if the content would better fit another category, the organisers of the abstracts sessions might move your abstract into a different category.

No, after you abstract is selected to the ERS Congress, the allocation (schedule and presentation type) is decided by the International Congress Programme Committee and you will have no option to modify this.

All notifications will be sent out by end of June 2020

No, grant or sponsorship is not offered for the late-breaking abstract submissions.

No, sponsorships and grants are specifically attributed to carefully selected candidates, rendering sponsorships and grants non transferable.

No, the grant or sponsorship is related to your abstract submitted and accepted for the ERS International Congress 2020 and not any other ERS event.

If none of the answers above could help you, you can contact the ERS office. We will do our best to answer your queries within a maximum of 5 working days. Thank you for your patience and understanding.