How to use the online abstract submission system This document contains instructions for how to submit abstracts using the online abstract submission system for consideration for the 25th International Symposium on ALS/MND to be held in Brussels, Belgium 5-7 December 2014. This document contains information on:  Deadlines  Preparing your abstract  Submitting your abstract  Overview of submission process  Amending your abstract  Software requirements  Withdrawing an abstract Deadlines: Submission: 30 May 2014 Amendments and alterations: 11 July 2014 Withdrawal: 8 August 2014 Published online: 10 November 2014 We advise you to enter the submission site and begin your submission well in advance of the deadline of 30 May 2014. Back to top Preparing your abstract  The title should be as brief as possible but long enough to indicate clearly the nature of the study.  Do not include author names in the title or body of your abstract because a ‘blind’ reviewing process will be used. You will be asked to enter the names online during the submission process.  Avoid toping abstracts with very basic descriptions of ALS/MND eg ‘ALS is an adultonset, rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease’ as an opening sentence.  Abstracts containing figures or tables cannot be accepted.  All subheadings should be in bold font.  SI units should be used and non-standard abbreviations must be fully defined when first used.  Please ensure that the text of your abstract is spellchecked before it is input into the abstract textbox as this function is unavailable on the abstract submission system.  Please note that it is the author’s responsibility to ensure that the content of the abstract is grammatically correct and comprehensible.  References in the text should be cited as numbers in brackets.  State brief and clearly the Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion, References and Acknowledgements of the work: Background: Give a brief background to the work described. Objectives: State clearly the objectives of the work. Case Study: Clearly state the nature of the case study to be presented. Please note Case studies will be treated as Work in Progress Poster Presentation unless, in the opinion of the Programme Committee, they add significant new knowledge to the field. Methods: Describe your selection of observations or experimental subjects clearly. Results: Present your results in a logical sequence. Please ensure that data presented are statistically robust, clearly stating P and N values where necessary. Discussion and conclusions: Emphasize new and important aspects of the study and conclusions that are drawn from them. References: References should be listed in order of citation at the end of the text and should be of the following style: Cereda C, Gabanti E, Corato M et al ALS 2006; 7:227-234 All authors should be quoted for papers with up to three authors; for papers with more than three authors the first three should be quoted followed by ‘et al’. Incomplete references will be removed at the editor’s discretion. Acknowledgements: Authors are strongly encouraged to enter the source(s) of contributed support to the research conducted within the abstract. This should include any financial support together with any resources provided, such as DNA samples, tissue or cell lines. Back to top Submitting your abstract Log in  All abstracts must be submitted online, via a link on the MND Association’s website www.mndassociation.org/symposium. To log into the submission system you will need to register your details by following the on screen instructions. You will then receive an automatic confirmation email.  If you are submitting more than one abstract and will be the primary contact for these abstracts, use the same login to submit each abstract  After logging in, you will be taken to a screen from which the submission process starts. Please read the instructions on this screen carefully. If you want to submit a new abstract you should click on ‘Click here to submit a new abstract’. Back to top Overview of submission process  Submitting an abstract is a multi-step process. Each step asks several questions:  All steps: Some questions are marked ‘Required’. We cannot accept your abstract until these questions have been answered.  All steps: If you do not know the answer to a question, for example you may not be sure in which theme your abstract should be presented you can skip the question and return on a later occasion to complete it.  Step 1: You can copy the abstract title and the abstract text into the designated textboxes using the paste buttons of the built-in Word Processor. Please note that any previous formatting will be lost if you do not use the paste buttons of the built in Word Processor. In order to insert symbols, superscript or subscript characters please use the buttons provided.  Please take care when entering author names and affiliations. Author names only require the first initial and surname such as ‘J Bloggs’ instead of ‘Joe Bloggs’. Please ensure the correct initials are used. We cannot take responsibility for errors that appear in the final publication.  Step 3: Please refer to the subject index from previous symposia as a guide to which keywords could be used. Please do not use ‘ALS’ or ‘MND’ as keywords.  Step 10: If you would like your abstract to be included in the Poster Prize Competition please check the relevant box. Poster prize entry is restricted to early career researchers (please see our website and Conditions of Acceptance for Abstracts for full details, www.mndassociation.org/symposium).  Final step: Once you have completed this step, click the ‘Finish’ button. If you have answered all of the required questions then your abstract will be given a reference number and you will receive email confirmation.  If you have to stop part way through the process your submission, or have not answered all of the required questions your abstract will be held in temporary storage until you return later and complete all the questions. When you log in again you can click on your incomplete abstract and resume submission.  Summary step: Please ensure that you carefully check all of the details of your submission and print a copy of this page for your records. Back to top Amending your abstract  You may wish to change your answers to some of the questions on the submission form, or even to change the abstract itself.  Log in to the abstract submission system.  You will see a list of the abstracts that you have submitted. Click on the abstract that you wish to change.  Amending an abstract is just the same as the original submission process except that the online form will be automatically filled in with the answers that you gave previously. You do not have to change an answer if you do not want to.  When you reach the final step and press ‘Finish’ you will be sent an email confirming that your abstract has been amended, provided you have answered all required questions.  Submitted abstracts may be amended up until the deadline of 12 July 2014. Back to top Software requirements  The system is entirely web based so it requires only that the user should have an adequate web browser - Internet Explorer version 4 onwards, Netscape version 4.7 onwards, or equivalent. This means that anyone who has a PC or Mac that’s no more than 5 years old should be able to submit an abstract, and in practice we have had successful submissions from systems that are much older than this.  The system does not use ‘cookies’ or rely on fixed IP addresses, so it can be used in high security academic environments. However, in common with many websites, problems may arise if users have set their browser or firewall security levels so high that normal functioning of web pages is disrupted.  We advise you to enter the submission site and begin your submission well in advance of the deadline of 30 May 2014. This will ensure that any difficulties can be resolved before the deadline. Back to top Withdrawing an abstract  If you wish to withdraw an abstract please contact the MND Association by email as soon as possible using the following email address: abstracts@mndassocation.org  Due to publishing deadlines, abstracts withdrawn after 08 August 2014 will still be published in the journal supplement (if previously advised, see above) and as such on the MND Association’s website. Back to top Version 1.0 February 2014 Version 1.5 Published online deadline amended, 24 April 2014