Conventions used in the Online Abstract System

Submitting your abstract, one step at a time

By submitting your abstract for presentation at the upcoming ASPS meeting, you are simultaneously submitting your abstract and poster for publication in the open access journal, PRS Global Open (prsglobalopen.com). If accepted for presentation, the ASPS will publish your abstract or poster in an abstract supplement in PRS Global Open, and any and all charges will be covered on your behalf.

To the authors of the accepted abstracts and posters I encourage you to write and submit a full-fledged manuscript based on your abstract. With this publication, I invite all abstract authors to submit these works to Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery or Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery–Global Open through Editorial Manager (PRS:www.editorialmanager.com/prs; PRS Global Open:www.editorialmanager.com/gox). Of course, this is not a binding request: we encourage you to submit your full paper to any Journal you so desire; all published literature in our field can help improve Plastic Surgery. The choice is yours, and we look forward to reading your final work soon.

The Online Abstract System divides the abstract submission process into steps so that authors can enter information and confirm it is correct before moving to the next step. By following the buttons at the bottom of each page in the submission process, you will automatically proceed through every step needed to submit an abstract. One page will follow another until you are finished.

After clicking the submit button at each stage, you will see a growing set of information that you have entered. You should proof it each time it appears, clicking the "Next step" button at the bottom of the page if the information is correct.

Once you are ready to submit, click the "SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT" button at the bottom of the "Call for Papers" page. Select the appropriate topic link to begin the submission process.

From there, the steps involved in abstract submission are:

Information is saved at each step of the process. If you lose your Internet connection or must interrupt the process for any reason, you can easily pick up later where you stopped.

Abstract Qualifications

Material presented must be original*. No portion of abstracts submitted can be from previously published material, in any publication, in either print or online mediums. Do not submit the same abstract text –even if they have different titles or slightly modified text- to different categories or if it has been previously published. Your entries must all be substantially different. IF you do not follow this request, and your similar abstracts get accepted to the program and consequentially published in the PRS Global Open abstract supplement, then you will have committed a publishing ethics violation of ‘duplicate publication’ and be subject to the consequences. If you submit your abstract or poster for presentation at another meeting, you must verify that it will not be published as part of a Journal Supplement as well. Known meetings that publish their abstracts include ASPS, PSRC, EPSRC and AAPS. Do not submit your abstract or poster to ASPS if you already have, or plan on, submitting to the aforementioned meetings, as well as any others that may include publication. If you submit your full-manuscript for possible publication in any Journal, it cannot be published before your accepted abstract podium presentation. To be safe, request that your article not be published before September 1, 2019. The fully published version of your manuscript must cite, acknowledge, and referenced the abstract published in PRS. If you publish your abstract in duplicate, you are committing an ethical violation of scholarly publishing, and are subject to punitive action including not being allowed to present, institutional notification and discipline, and possible retraction.

Making Corrections

The functions that are available to you at any phase in the submission process are shown to the left of these instructions, as links on the Abstract Control Panel. These links let you easily return and make corrections at any step along the way. If, for example, you realize after entering the 7th author that you made a mistake in the abstract title, just click on the ENTER TITLE link and change the title. If you made a mistake in an author's name, just click on the author's name in the Abstract Control Panel; the author information form will reappear in this space with the author's name on it, and you can change it right there. Select from the Abstract Control Panel when you want to go back to make revisions and don't want to back up all the way there, or if you encountered an "invalid record number" or "corrupt data" error after backing up.

When making corrections, Do Not Use the "Back" Button On Your Browser.


Instructions for using the Online Abstract Submission System


For Posters Only -- select from the list of available topics and then proceed with the following steps


Step 1 -- Enter Title

Enter the information requested under TITLE:

Then click the "Submit" button at the bottom of that page.

Within a few seconds you will receive an email confirming your initial submission. If you do not receive an email, please check your spam folder.


Step 2 -- Add Author(s)

If you are satisfied with the confirmation of the abstract title, click the "Authors" button at the bottom of the page. Or click the "Authors" link that now appears in the Abstract Control Panel to enter the first author's contact information. Fill in the requested information on the Author Information Sheet. Then click the "Submit Information" button at the bottom of that sheet.

Repeat the process if there are co-authors. The presenting author should be listed as the first author. The system will automatically set the first author listed as the presenter. Only one presenter will be allowed.


Step 3 -- Disclosure

A completed disclosure must be filled out for each author. You may either complete each author's disclosure for him/her, or share the login information for each author to complete him/herself.

To complete a disclosure form, click on the "Not Answered" link next to your name in the Disclosure step.


Step 4 -- Final Data Input

In an effort to promote evidence-based medicine, ASPS is now asking that abstract submissions include additional details about the work. Following the upload of your abstract text, you will be asked to provide information in separate fields on the questions below:

  1. Type of clinical question
  2. Research Design
  3. Level of Evidence
  4. ASPS Evidence Rating Scales

    Critical Appraisal Tools


Step 5 -- Submit Abstract Text

After the disclosures have been completed, click the Continue button that appears at the bottom of the disclosure page, or click the "TEXT" link that now appears in the Abstract Control Panel.

General Guidelines

Abstract text must include the following:

Reference Citations

  1. A MAXIMUM of 5 references may be included and should be entered at the end of your text.
  2. References do count against your total 500 word abstract text limit; abstracts with more than five references may be rejected.
  3. All citations must be numbered and must be cited in numerical order in the text. If you do not have "call-outs" in the text, the references will be deleted.
  4. Reference call outs should be superscript, and appear after punctuation.
  5. Use the standard AMA formatting for references:

Periodicals (journals, magazines, and newspapers) should have abbreviated titles; to check for the proper abbreviation, search for the Journal Title through LocatorPlus at the National Library of Medicine website.

A maximum of 5 references will be accepted. All citations must be numbered and cited in numerical order in the text. Use AMA style to format your references. Any citations NOT called out via numerical citation in the text of the abstract will be removed.


Step 6 -- Confirmation

You will be given one more chance to review your abstract. Please correct any errors that you see. Then click the button at the bottom of that page, labeled "Conclude Submission".

You will see "Abstract Submitted for Review" at the top of the next page if your abstract has been submitted successfully. If an error occurs during submission and you don't see this message, please report this to our technical support staff and retrieve your abstract later and try resubmitting the text.

You only need to click the button labeled "Conclude Submission" once. Any changes that you make to the submission afterwards will automatically be displayed to the chair when your abstract is reviewed.


You will receive confirmation of your submission at each step. Take note of the abstract ID number and password assigned to your submission. With that information you can return to this page if you lose your Internet connection, or if you must interrupt the submission process, or if you would like to modify your submission at any time prior to the deadline.

Look at the confirmations carefully. Most authors (and all editors) can find mistakes in the first submission of an abstract. If you see an error, just click the appropriate link in the Abstract Control Panel and correct it. After you have submitted all required information, you should see all of that information in the confirmation on your screen; if you don't, it means that the information was not received and you should try again.

Abstracts that are too large will not be accepted or stored. If you receive an error message telling you to reduce the word count, please do so; otherwise, no text will be stored.


Retrieve and Modify an Existing Abstract

To retrieve and view or modify an existing abstract:

  1. Return to https://asps.confex.com/asps/2019am/cfp.cgi
  2. Have your Abstract ID number and password handy when you return.
  3. Enter your abstract ID and /Password and click the "Login" button.
  4. Use the Abstract Control Panel to view or modify the desired part of the abstract. For instance, click Title to change a title. Then click the Submit button to send your changes.
  5. To correct abstract text that was submitted as an HTML file, see above.
If you retrieve and make changes to your abstract, you do not need to find or click the button labeled "Conclude Submission". Any changes that you make to a submission will automatically be displayed when your abstract is reviewed.


Withdraw a Paper

  1. If the Abstract Control Panel is visible and the desired abstract ID appears at the top of it, then skip to #2 below. Otherwise:
  2. Select WITHDRAW from the Abstract Control Panel.
  3. Under the Comments to Organizers section, type in your reason for withdrawing your paper.
  4. Click the Submit button at the bottom of the page.
  5. You will see Paper withdrawn from meeting on the confirming page.

Reverse a Withdrawal

  1. Retrieve your abstract as described above.
  2. Select "Re-submit" from the Abstract Control Panel.
  3. Select the "UnWithdraw" button.
  4. The Paper Withdrawn message should no longer appear on the confirming page.


Ask for help if you run into any problems.

Report a technical problem by clicking on that link in the abstract control panel. If you need help urgently, call (401) 334-0220 for assistance.  Please specify the program to which you were submitting and, if you have already been issued it, your abstract ID number.