Call for Abstracts

Important dates

• Abstract information session: 13 March 2024
  
• Call for abstracts closes: Sunday 14 April 2024
• Abstracts reviewed: May 2024
• Successful presenters contacted: Thursday 9 May 2024 Late May 2024
• Early Bird registrations close: Sunday 30 June 2024 (all presenters/authors required to be registered by this date).

Before submitting your abstract

 Familiarise yourself with the conference themes and presentation types (listed below)

  Prepare a 350-word abstract, abstract aims and learning objectives and save in an easily accessible place. Your abstract submission will be completed via a text box only, so we recommend you have your abstract content ready to 'copy and paste' into the portal 

  Create an account in the call for abstracts portal, and follow the instructions to submit your abstract. Abstracts can be saved as a draft, but must be finalised in order to be assessed for inclusion in the program 

  You may submit more than one proposal under the same account.

Abstract themes

The theme for the conference is Mental Health Nursing – Advancing Equity, Access, and Diversity and considers how mental health services provide care to all people in our diverse communities. To do this, we need to nurture and build a workforce that is inclusive and representative of all cultures, genders, identities, and abilities. 

Presentation types

If you would like to put your abstract forward for an award, please make sure to read the abstract award criteria to ensure that your selected presentation type is appropriate.

Abstract review process

The ACMHN uses a blind review process for all abstract submissions to present at the International Mental Health Nursing Conference and strives to include high quality research and clinical papers. This process is overseen by the Scientific Chair. 

All abstracts satisfying the basic requirements will be subject to a blind review by at least two independent reviewers, who will have no knowledge of the name of the author/s or of the other reviewer/s. Members of the ACMHN Board are not eligible to participate in the review process. 

Reviewers apply a simple set of criteria to each abstract, which are then given a numerical ranking. Abstracts are then tabulated according to their numerical ranking and submission date i.e. abstracts which attract the same ranking are then ordered according to the date of submission, with contributions submitted first, listed first. Offers are made to presenters from the highest ranking abstract down, and a program is developed.

Where a presenter is not able to participate, or withdraws their abstract from the program, an offer is made to the next presenter down the list to take their place in the program. 

Presenters are advised that the ACMHN International Mental Health Nursing Conference provides delegates with a program that reflects and leads contemporary mental health nursing practice. As such, all abstracts are to be presented using appropriate terminology for people who experience mental health issues. Terms such as 'mentally ill people', 'the mentally ill' and 'case/subject' and 'the mentally ill case' are not accepted. Rather, descriptors should be person-centered, such as 'people/person who experience XYZ', 'consumer', 'service user', 'person with disability, gender diverse, sexually diverse', 'person with a lived experience' or 'client'. Abstracts which do not meet this criteria will not be eligible for review.

Submitting your abstract

All abstracts must be submitted via the call for abstracts portal. Follow the below steps to submit your abstract:

1. Prepare a 350-word abstract and save in an easily accessible place. Your submission will be completed via a text box only, so we recommend you have your abstract content ready to 'copy and paste' into the portal. Your 350-word abstract should cover:
• The content of the presentation
• Key issues explored
• Who should attend the presentation and why
2. Prepare a 100-word presentation summary in plain English (non-scientific).
3. Prepare an additional 2-3 learning objectives and aims of your abstract, explaining the key points delegates will take away from your session
4. Click SUBMIT ABSTRACT at the top of this page and create an account in the call for abstract portal. Note, you will need to create a new account for the 2024 conference (your 2023 conference account is no longer active)
5. Follow further instructions in the portal to complete your abstract submission
6. You will receive a confirmation email once your abstract is submitted for review
7. Abstract's may be saved as a draft, to be finished at a later date, but it must be finalised in order to be considered in the review
8. You may submit more than one abstract all under the same account.

For a successful abstract, you should highlight something new, innovative and thought provoking and the format encourages discussion and active participation amongst delegates. Your speakers should be engaging, informative and confident.

If your abstract is accepted you must agree to register and pay the Early Bird Registration price.

Abstract submission closes Sunday 14 April 2024.

Guidelines

• Online submission is the only method of abstract submission
• Submissions can be saved as Draft in the abstract portal but must be finalised to be considered
• Abstracts submitted for presentation will be published exactly as received and should be checked for spelling and grammar prior to submission
• You may submit more than one abstract all under the same account
• Abstracts will only be accepted as 350-word text format abstracts. We recommend writing your abstract in Word and saving to your desktop prior to starting the submission process, then 'copy and paste' the abstract content into the relevant section of the abstract
• All presentations should be primarily in English. If English is not the first language of speakers/projects please provide details on how you will provide access for delegates (i.e., translator, subtitles…). If you need assistance with this, please contact the Program Committee
• All speakers must attend and present the conference in person
• It is the responsibility of the presenter/author to ensure that the abstract is submitted correctly. For assistance with submissions, contact acmhn@conlog.com.au.
• It is the responsibility of the presenter/author to ensure their abstract explains how it relates to the themes
• Where there is more than one presenter all correspondence will be sent to the person who submitted the abstract
• Every effort will be made to accommodate the presenter/author presentation preference however the Program Committee reserves the right to allocate the presentation to best suit the program
• The invitation to submit an abstract does not constitute an offer to pay travel, accommodation or registration costs associated with the conference. Similarly, no presenter fee is paid to successful presenters
• If your abstract is accepted, all speakers agree to register and pay the Early Bird registration price.