INSTRUCTIONS FOR ABSTRACTS

Unite For Sight encourages you to submit an abstract for presentation at the Global Health & Innovation Conference. The goal of the conference is to exchange ideas about best practices across all fields of global health, international development, and social entrepreneurship. Professionals and students are eligible to submit an abstract.

Abstract Categories

The abstracts may be research-focused, clinical-focused, or program-focused. The abstract must describe work that is evidence-based, and the work should not be in the early implementation or brainstorming stage.

Those in an early stage of development should instead submit an abstract for the Social Impact Pitch Sessions.

You should not submit both an abstract and a social impact pitch. You should determine if your proposed submission discusses work that is in the early implementation or brainstorming stage without data or results (social impact pitch), or if your proposed submission includes data and results (see below for abstract submission details).

  • Global Health

  • Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship

  • International Development

  • International Education

  • NGOs and Community-Based Programs

  • Scientific and Medical Laboratory-Based Research

  • Clinical Research

  • Advocacy and Health Policy

Deadlines

Late Breaking Abstract Deadline: January 15, 2024

Presentations submitted by January 15 will be reviewed for the possibility of presenting a poster presentation, or a pitch presentation.

Instructions For Submitting Unite For Sight Conference Abstracts

How To Submit an Abstract

First, register for the 22nd annual Global Health & Innovation Conference. At the time that you register to attend the conference, you will be invited to thereafter submit your abstract. You must register for the conference first in order to submit an abstract for review.

If your registration and payment do not transmit properly, please review the page to be sure that you have filled in all of the required fields on the form.

Word Limit

Abstracts must be no longer than 250 words. Longer abstracts will not be reviewed and will be automatically rejected.

Conference Registration is Required

Submitting an abstract represents a commitment to attend the 2025 Global Health & Innovation Conference, irrespective of acceptance of an abstract. The opportunity to submit an abstract for consideration is available only to those who plan to attend the conference for educational and networking purposes, and not to those who wish to attend exclusively for the opportunity to present. Therefore, all persons submitting an abstract must register and submit payment to attend the conference at the time that they submit the abstract.

Preferred Method of Presentation

When you submit your abstract, please indicate your preferred method of presentation at the start of your 250-word abstract:

  • Oral Presentation Preferred (December 15 deadline)

  • Poster Presentation Preferred (January 15 deadline)

  • Social Impact Pitch (January 15 deadline)

  • No Preference

If you do not indicate your preference at the beginning of your abstract, it will be assumed that you have no preference. Your preference must be included within the abstract, as subsequent preference submissions by email would not be included with the materials that are reviewed by the committee.

The best abstract submissions submitted by December 15 will be given an option for oral presentation. All others that are accepted will be poster presentations at the poster session.

Submission Format

The 250-word abstract must be formatted to include design and methodology, original data and results, and conclusion. The headers (i.e. preferred method of presentation, design, and methodology, etc.) do not count in the maximum word count.

  • Preferred method of presentation: <indicate if you prefer oral presentation (if submitted by Dec 15), poster presentation, or have no preference>

  • Design and methodology: <enter your text here>

  • Original data and results: <enter your text here>

  • Conclusion (include a discussion about why this abstract is important): <enter your text here>

Selection Criteria

Students and professionals are eligible to submit an abstract for presentation. Professionals may be accepted to present a poster presentation or an oral presentation as a featured speaker. Undergraduate and graduate students, as well as recent college graduates, may be accepted to present a poster presentation or an oral presentation in the "Student and Young Leaders in Global Health" sessions. There is limited space in the schedule to add more oral presentations, so the majority of abstracts accepted for presentation are invited for poster presentation.

Abstract submitters should ensure that their abstracts provide sufficient detail so that reviewers will be able to fully evaluate the author's work, research design, data, analysis, and results.

Each conference participant may submit only one abstract for presentation at the Unite For Sight Conference. If more than one abstract is submitted by the same conference participant, only the first abstract submitted will be considered.

Before submitting an abstract, please first be sure to review the instructions and abstract examples.

The abstract will be reviewed according to the following criteria:

  • Design and Methodology: Describe how the program or research was implemented and how the data was collected and analyzed. Clearly state the number of participants/sample size.

  • Original Data and Results: What are the results, impact, and outcomes?
    This is the most important section of the abstract. In order to be accepted for presentation, the abstract must include data that supports the abstract's conclusions, and the sample size must be sufficient to confirm the accuracy of the conclusions.

    • Research-focused abstracts: The abstract must delineate the statistical data.

    • Abstracts describing models, programs, or ethnographic research: The abstract must include metrics, including data, outcomes, and social impact. What change does the program work to achieve, how does the program measure the impact, and is the program achieving results? In order to be accepted for presentation, the abstract must discuss outcomes and not just outputs. Learn about outcomes, as well as the difference between outputs and outcomes: "Outcomes are Essential in Global Health"

    • Policy-focused abstracts: The abstract should describe a successful advocacy strategy and the social impact.

  • Relevance, Impact, and Importance: What are the implications of the findings? Why is this abstract important to global health, international development, and social entrepreneurship?

  • Quality of Abstract: The abstract must be well-written and demonstrate thought and attention to detail. The abstract must be clearly written with background, clear and sound methodology, original data and results, as well as a conclusion. Research studies involving human subjects are globally required to have Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, and a copy of the IRB approval letter may be requested for accepted oral presentations that intend to present the results of a research study.

  • Bio: A 250-word (max) narrative biography is required at the time of the abstract submission. The bio should be a description of your educational and professional background. The bio must be submitted in paragraph form and should not be in list or curriculum vitae format.

Co-authors

The conference participant who will be in attendance and presenting the abstract must submit the abstract under their name. If both authors will be in attendance, then either of you may submit the abstract. The author submitting the abstract must be the presenter at the conference, and this author will also receive all communication from Unite For Sight.

Other authors are encouraged to attend the conference, but the other authors will not be the presenter of the abstract at the conference.

Abstract Review and Selection

Decisions will be announced around January 15, and decisions are final based on the abstract submitted by the deadline.

If the abstract is selected for presentation at the conference, the author submitting the abstract must be the presenter at the conference. The presenter should be a leader in the research or program. Co-authors may register for the conference separately and attend the session, but they may not present.

If selected for oral presentation, only the abstract submitter may present at the conference and be listed on the conference website.

If selected for poster presentation, the abstract submitter must be the presenter at the conference. Other authors on the poster may be listed on the conference website.

Abstract Acceptance and Next Steps

If my abstract is accepted for oral presentation, what are the next steps?

  • The abstract author will be notified by email that their abstract has been reviewed and accepted for oral presentation.

  • The author will be required to submit an oral presenter agreement in order to confirm their intent to give an oral presentation at the conference.

  • Accepted presenters must adhere to deadlines and guidelines, and they must promptly respond to communication.

If accepted for poster presentation, what are the next steps?

  • The abstract author will be notified by email that their abstract has been reviewed and accepted for poster presentation.

  • The author will be required to submit a poster presenter agreement in order to confirm their intent to give a poster presentation at the conference.

  • Accepted presenters must adhere to deadlines and guidelines, and they must promptly respond to communication.

Questions?

If you have any questions, please email us at jstaple@uniteforsight.org