1. How to get your abstract accepted Maureen Wood Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology University of Aberdeen

2. AIMS
Some must do’s
General principles
Improve a poor abstract

3. Imperatives Read the instructions Follow them! Submit on time
Late submission is easiest way to reject

4. AND Essential Have something worth saying How to make point? Advisable
Prepare early
Revise, revise and revise!

5. Revision Correct spelling and typos that give a bad impression
80-cell embryos; 15M PrOH
Remove waffle and refine sentences to pack in information
Check data

6. Title Length? Amusing/serious? Limited number of characters?
Not too long
Amusing/serious?
Must be informative
Key points

7. Title –Examples
Pregnancy following transfer of vitrified porcine embryos produced in vitro
Prospective randomised study of human oocyte cryopreservation by slow-rate freezing or vitrification
Sperm morphology and selection of cases for in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection

8. Title –Examples
In vitro maturation in oocytes collected from stimulated cycles. Is it worth it?

9. Title
Early embryo development is an indicator of implantation potential

10. Title
Early embryo development is an indicator of implantation potential
Early human embryo development is an indicator of implantation potential OR
Early embryo development is an indicator of implantation potential in human

11. Title
The effect of blastomere removal on development to the blastocyst stage

12. Title
The effect of blastomere removal on development to the blastocyst stage
The effect of blastomere removal from human Day-3 embryos on development to the blastocyst stage

13. Authors Obey instructions How many? Max number list in full Format
Everyone who contributed
Hangers on?
Unit policy?

14. Body of Abstract Use format given None given? Information – no waffle
Previous abstracts
Continuous text
Create format
Information – no waffle

15. Introduction Brief and to the point Why did I do this work? Background
Aim

16. Methods Points vital to your study eg Retrospective/prospective
Randomised (how?)
Controls
Age/cause infertility
No embryos transferred
Definitions
Statistical test

17. Methods HFEA/Ethics committee approval
Room for manoeuvre when everything else is written!

18. Results MOST important section Evidence for conclusions NEVER SAY eg
“Results will be discussed”
“Data will be presented”

19. Results Be factual eg sample size (no. replicates) correct units
means need ± SE
statistical test used (in methods?)
P value

20. Results Include important results Descriptive data - quantify
Eg Surveys
who/how? (methods)
proportion responded (representative data?)
quantify outcome

21. Conclusions Be specific – no waffle Include critical appraisal
eg “The results of this retrospective comparison suggest …… A prospective randomised trial is required to confirm our findings.

22. References Unnecessary in abstract If you must then keep simple
First author surname et al (date)
Plus initial, journal, vol no. and 1st page no. after conclusion

23. Acknowledgements Funding body usually acknowledged
Specified in instructions?

24. Tips First author take responsibility Write a draft
Get everyone involved in revision
Edit/prune/add
REVISE and REVISE
First author final proof, circulate for approval and submit on time