Guidelines for preparation of submissions
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
You may prepare three types of submissions.
Oral communication
- Reporting on work of scientific or technical interest, that is relevant to one of the defined conference themes.
- Presentation to the plenary audience (15 minutes presentation, 5 minutes questions).
- Submissions take the form of a short paper (2,500 words).
Case story
- Illustration of an applied example or case study on health surveillance, that is relevant to one of the defined conference themes. This should be practical rather than scientific.
- Presentation to the plenary audience (10 minutes presentation, 5 minutes questions).
- Submissions take the form of a short paper (2,500 words).
Poster presentation
- Presentation of a physical printed poster (A0 or A1 format), describing work that is relevant to one of the defined conference themes.
- After review, a subset of poster presentation submissions may be selected for short oral communication (5 minutes presentation, 2 minutes questions). You may indicate if you would be interested in such presentation, and will be contacted if your submission is selected.
- Submissions take the form of an abstract (500 words).
For all types of submission, please ensure the following general criteria are met:
- All submissions must follow English language conventions.
- The work presented must understandable on its own.
- Your submission will not be edited if accepted, and will appear in the conference proceedings as submitted. Therefore, it is important that it is coherent with the instructions below.
- Use standard abbreviations. Place a special or unusual abbreviation in parentheses after the complete word the first time it is used.
- Use a dot in front of decimals (example: 0.23). Use a comma in numbers greater than 999 (example: 2,358).
Detailed guidelines for preparation of each submission type are provided below. You may download these guidelines here.
The deadline for submission is 28 February 2026.
Do not include the title or the author names in the body text of your paper. You will fill in this information during the online submission process and the title, the author names and affiliations are automatically added to your abstract at the end of the submission process.
IDENTIFYING INFORMATION
Title:
- The title should concisely describe the topic and setting of the work.
Authors and affiliations:
- Include authors who substantially contributed to the work only. Conventionally, the first author would be expected to have contributed more significantly than subsequent authors.
- The affiliation (institution, city and country) of all authors should be provided.
- Indicate which author will be presenting the work.
- The email address of the corresponding author should be specified.
Keywords:
- You may specify up to 5 relevant keywords.
GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION
Oral communication
The entire paper must not exceed 2,500 words.
Subheadings:
- The paper should generally contain the following subheadings: Summary, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and References.
- Additional subheadings such as Conclusions and Acknowledgements may be included.
- You have flexibility to modify subheadings if appropriate for the specific content of the paper.
Summary:
- Key information on objectives, design and major findings, relevance and importance.
Introduction:
- A description of the background and context, the problem(s) under investigation or the proposed hypothesis. This should also indicate the rationale for carrying out the work and its relevance.
Materials and Methods:
- Study design (if relevant) and methodologies applied.
- If no specific materials were used, a section title of 'Methods' will suffice.
Results:
- The outputs or findings generated by the work, summarised and presented with sufficient quantitative data and statistical tests.
- Only completed work should be presented. Incomplete or provisional results are not acceptable.
Discussion:
- This section should synthesize and interpret the findings and results, contextualising these within relevant scientific or policy frameworks. It should also present the work's impact, benefits and/or relevance.
- This synthesis should be complete and coherent. Discussion of incomplete or provisional results is not acceptable.
References:
- In the paper text, references should be numbered in the order they are cited, by placing the number in parentheses, for example: (1).
- Under the References subheading:
- List numbered references according to the order they are cited in the text.
- In case of more than two authors, use only the last name of the first author, followed by et al.
- The year of the publication follow the authors' last names.
- For brevity, omit the titles of the references.
- Use abbreviated journal names. For reference, please see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals/
- Example: 1. Goutard et al. (2015) Prev Vet Med 120: 12-26.
Tables and Figures:
- Figures and Tables are optional. If used, they should support and illustrate key results. You may upload one Table or Figure.
- Figures may use colour but this should be done appropriately and discriminately, to ensure good contrast and accessibility.
- If display text is used within Figures, the text size should be such that it is well readable.
- Colour photographs may be used.
- Resolution of Figures and Tables should be comparable with journal guidelines.
- Tables should contain a limited number of horizontal lines (as required); avoid vertical lines.
- Figures and Tables need to be supplied with descriptive captions.
Case stories
As case stories may be more variable in structure and background, and reflect actual experience rather than scientific principles, the format is more flexible.
These papers may have the same length as oral submissions i.e. up to 2,500 words.
Subheadings:
- The following subheadings are recommended to structure the presentation, but may be adapted to suit the specific case.
Context:
- The setting in which the surveillance initiative was implemented. You may apply further subheadings as relevant and appropriate.
Outcome / impact:
- What difference did the case / initiative make?
Relevance for others:
- This section should provide some information on the scope to transfer your experience to other settings, such as:
- What can others learn from the experience?
- What is the relevance outside your own setting?
- How would this work in a different country/state/sector?
Recommendations:
- Consider, among other things, the following:
- Is it worthwhile for others to implement a similar approach?
- What relevant considerations apply? In retrospect, what changes would you make?
- Does the work continue?
References:
- In the paper text, references should be numbered in the order they are cited, by placing the number in parentheses, for example: (1).
- Under the References subheading:
- List numbered references according to the order they are cited in the text.
- In case of more than two authors, use only the last name of the first author, followed by et al.
- The year of the publication follow the authors' last names.
- For brevity, omit the titles of the references.
- Use abbreviated journal names. For reference, please see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals/
- Example: 1. Goutard et al. (2015) Prev Vet Med 120: 12-26.
Tables and Figures:
- Figures and Tables are optional. If used, they should support and illustrate key results. You may upload one Table or Figure.
- Figures may use colour but this should be done appropriately and discriminately, to ensure good contrast and accessibility.
- If display text is used within Figures, the text size should be such that it is well readable.
- Colour photographs may be used.
- Resolution of Figures and Tables should be comparable with journal guidelines.
- Tables should contain a limited number of horizontal lines (as required); avoid vertical lines.
- Figures and Tables need to be supplied with descriptive captions.
Poster presentation
For poster presentation, a submission of an abstract of maximum 500 words is sufficient.
Although there is substantial flexibility in the design and implementation of the poster, to aid reviewing of the submissions, this abstract should follow either the flow of oral communications or of case stories (as detailed above).
Tips for preparing your poster:
- All posters should include title, name of authors, institutions, cities and countries.
- The lettering of the title should be a least 25 mm high and the main text at least 10 mm high.
- The poster should be easily readable from a distance of 2 metres.
- The language of the poster should be English.
- The dimension of the printed poster should be no larger than A0 portrait (84.1 cm wide x 118.9 cm high / 33.1 inches wide and 46.8 inches high).
- Posters will be displayed as printed physical material. You should plan to print and bring the poster to the conference yourself. There may be some opportunity to print material on site, but do not assume this will be the case.
- Mounting boards and materials will be provided.
- The conference organisers take no responsibility for lost, left or damaged posters.