Abstracts

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION WILL OPEN ON 1 MARCH

General Guidelines

Abstracts should contain the following four components:

  • Background: a concise statement of the issue under investigation or a hypothesis;
  • Materials & Methods: the experimental methods used (including the statistical analyses employed);
  • Results: specific findings (promises such as “to be completed” or “to be presented” are not acceptable, including statistical analyses;
  • Conclusions: a summary of findings that are supported by your results; concluding statements such as “the results will be discussed” are not acceptable.

Please note that abstracts cannot be accepted if tables, graphs, grant acknowledgements or literature references are included. The maximum word count for the abstract body is 500 words.

Abstracts are considered as official communications to the conference and will be treated confidentially. For those abstracts that are accepted, submitters agree to attend the meeting and present their abstract as scheduled. Abstract submitters for abstracts that are accepted for oral or mini-oral presentation will be eligible for travel and accommodation support.

We would like to advise abstract submitters to not pay registration until the decision regarding their abstract is known.

Abstract submission

Authors can submit their abstracts electronically using the button “Submit Abstract”. You will be redirected to the submission website. Please follow the step-by-step directions, which will enable you to upload the abstract. To ensure your abstract retains any special characters or formatting, the abstract must be in Microsoft Word format.

Categories for abstract submission

For purposes of review and programming, abstracts are divided into topical categories. Selection of the most appropriate category is important as it determines who reviews your abstract. The International Conference Committee reserves the right to reassign your abstract to a more appropriate category.

Abstract topics

  • Antiretroviral treatment and HIV care
  • Community/civil society engagement
  • Epidemiology
  • HIV co-infections, including hepatitis, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections, and (re)emerging pathogens
  • HIV prevention including HIV vaccines and antibodies
  • Information technology innovations for HIV (mHealth, electronic records, social media, etc.)
  • Knowledge translation to policy and programming
  • New PrEP technologies and PrEP rollout
  • Regulatory, ethical, and research conduct issues
  • Basic science and HIV cure
  • Economics, innovative financing, development goals
  • Health system strengthening
  • HIV and co-morbidities
  • Implementation science, cost-effectiveness, and modelling
  • Key Populations: prevention and treatment challenges
  • Laboratory monitoring/diagnostics
  • Paediatrics and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT)
  • Socio-behavioural research
  • Structural determinants and interventions
  • Stigma and discrimination
  • Women and HIV

Young Investigators/Postdoc/MD

We are pleased to offer free registration to young investigators with an accepted abstract and a 50% discount on the registration fee for young investigators without an accepted abstract. IMPORTANT: free registration is offered to the presenting author of the abstract only.

The applicant should:

  • be 35 years of age or younger; or,
  • be a Master/PhD student; or,
  • have obtained a MD / PhD degree in the last five years

An application form needs to be completed by a supervisor and received by the Virology Education secretariat at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the conference.

Virology Education will contact the young investigator with instructions regarding registration for the conference once the application has been received.

The Joep Lange Award

The highest-scoring abstract submitted to INTEREST will be designated with the Joep Lange Award. In honor of the co-founder of INTEREST, Prof. Joep Lange, this special recognition for outstanding research is announced during the conference each year. The recipient receives free registration plus travel and accommodation to attend the next INTEREST.

Notification of abstract acceptance and presentation format

It is the responsibility of the corresponding/presenting author to inform all co-authors of the abstract’s status. Please notify the Conference Secretariat if you have not received notification. If your abstract is accepted, one author is required to register for the conference and present the paper as scheduled. Guidelines for preparing your oral and/or poster presentations will be sent after your abstract has been accepted.

Abstract publication

Accepted abstracts will be published in the Abstract Book. All abstracts will be published in the journal Reviews in Antiviral Therapy & Infectious Diseases. Please note that the conference secretariat cannot be held responsible for any typing or language errors in the submitted abstracts.