Call for Abstracts: 2025 ACVS Surgery Summit
The 2025 ACVS Surgery Summit will be held October 23–25 at the Seattle Convention Center, Seattle, WA.
Scientific Abstract Guidelines
Instructions for abstract preparation
Abstract submission timeline
- Abstract online submission deadline: 11:59 pm (ET), Wednesday, May 14, 2025
- Abstract acceptance notification: June 25, 2025
Two abstracts are required for submission:
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- a short abstract for Surgery Summit Proceedings and the online version of Veterinary Surgery; and
- a long abstract for scoring and evaluation only; the long abstract will not be published.
The College will only accept abstracts that comply with the statement on Humane Care and Use of Animals.
All abstracts should be designated as a research or clinical project.
Research is defined as all in vitro studies and investigative protocols that involve the use of research or laboratory animals or bench-top research methods.
Clinical is defined as investigation protocols that involve clinical patients.
Submission type
Using the drop-down menu, select the type of abstract you are submitting.
Title: Must be limited to 45 characters including spaces.
This short title will be used in Surgery Summit-related material. This title should reflect the content of the abstract. Limited use of commonly accepted abbreviations or acronyms is acceptable. Use title case (first letter of each word is capitalized, except for certain small words, such as articles and short prepositions).
Long title
The long title should be brief and accurately reflect the content of the abstract. Do not use abbreviations in the long title; use title case.
Short abstract
Single-spaced and cannot exceed 250 words. Do not include the title, authors’ names, or authors’ affiliations. Do not underline, italicize, capitalize, or bold for emphasis within the text. Do not insert a blank line between paragraphs or sections. Do not include references to figures or tables in the short abstract.
The required sequence is shown below; however, do not use these subheadings (e.g., Reasons for performing the study) in the short abstract.
- Reasons for performing the study
- Hypothesis/objectives
- Methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Main study limitations
- Scientific or clinical relevance
CV/Resume
A CV/resume must be uploaded at the time of submission for the presenting author.
Abstract authors
The authors’ information is used to generate the list of names and affiliations in the published abstracts for the Surgery Summit.
- The submitting author MUST also be the presenting author. As the submitting author, you MUST also enter yourself as the presenting author in the list of co-authors.
- Include all co-authors, include yourself as the presenting author, who should be given credit for this abstract. You may add as many co-authors as necessary. You must provide complete information for each field: first, middle initial and last names, company, city, state, and country.
- Author names will be listed, last name, first and middle initials (i.e., Aulakh KS).
Company fields
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- Use the “Company” field to list the university or practice name. If there is no university or practice, enter ‘N/A’ in the field.
- Use the “Company 2” field to include departments within the university that should be recognized.
- Be certain that the company name is consistent for each author. Do not spell out university for one author and abbreviate for a second author.
- Use the arrows/numbers to order the co-authors in the exact position you wish them to appear, including the presenting author.
- If a co-author has more than one affiliation, create two separate entries for that author with different company names and locations.
SAMPLE:
Video-Endoscopic Comparison of Laryngeal Morphology in Young Thoroughbred Horses Sedated with Butorphanol and Detomidine.
Almonte Bermudez H 1;3, Johnson CR2, Schumacher J3, Berk JT4.
1Park Equine Hospital, Versailles, KY; 2Equine Surgical Services, Park Equine Hospital, Lexington, KY; 3University of Tennessee, College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Knoxville, TN; 4Equine Medical Associates, Lexington, KY
Long abstract
The long abstract is divided into five sections. Abstracts that exceed 1,000 words in total will not be reviewed. This should be expanded text to describe the material more completely. Redundancy between sections should be avoided (e.g., do not repeat results in the discussion). Each section needs to be entered separately as follows:
- Reasons for performing the study: Brief background on general topic and previous work. Should concisely convey the need, significance/impact of the work presented in the abstract. Avoid making broad statements that should be assumed knowledge (points will be deducted for such statements).
- Hypothesis/objective(s): Clearly state the objective(s) of the study and the hypothesis (if applicable).
- Methods: Briefly describe the methodology of research or technique used in this study. Methods should be appropriate to answer the hypothesis or problem that generated the work. Statistical methods used for data analysis, if applicable, should also be included. Statistical methods must also be appropriate for evaluating the data/testing the hypothesis.
- Results: Briefly describe the key results of the study.
- Discussion: Include a brief interpretation of the results and how the hypotheses/objectives have been addressed. Do not repeat information that is provided in the results.
- Study limitations: All studies have limitations. Briefly outline some of the key limitations of the study. Failure to discuss key/relevant limitations will result in the abstract being declined.
- Scientific or clinical relevance: Why are the results of this study important? How can the information derived from this study or technique be applied to the specialty of veterinary surgery? How is this information innovative?
- References: Only relevant references should be included, and they will count towards the total word count.
- Graphics: Only one file may be uploaded. Please include all figures, photos, and graphs in a single PDF in the order they are referenced in the text and label accordingly. No names, institutions, or sources of support should appear within the text of the long abstract. Graphics must be relevant to understanding the information in the abstract/methods/results of the study.
Scoring and evaluation process: long (blinded) abstracts
Reasons for performing the study (5 points)
Hypothesis/objectives (10 points)
Methods (20 points)
Results (20 points)
Discussion (10 points)
Study limitations (10 points)
Scientific or clinical relevance (15 points)
Overall quality of abstract, grammar, scientific writing (10 points)
Step 1: All abstracts to be considered for the Residents’ Forum are reviewed and ranked by the respective small and large animal abstract review committee. The top 15 abstracts in small animal and the top 15 abstracts in large animal are placed in the Residents’ Forum.
Step 2: All remaining abstracts not selected for presentation in the Residents’ Forum but determined by the Residents’ Forum committee to be of appropriate scientific content will be assigned to either the poster session or for an oral presentation during the appropriate seminar within the Surgery Summit program depending on content and relevance to veterinary surgery and allied sciences.
Poster submitters will indicate their interest in being considered for a Flash Poster presentation. Flash poster presentations are an optional poster presentation that does not take the place of your full abstract poster presentation. The goal is to entice attendees to come and find out more about your research by providing them with snippets of information about your study.
NOTE: Abstracts submitted for possible oral presentations that received an acceptable score are required to be presented as a poster if not scheduled as an oral presentation due to limited slots in the program.