Accepting Poster Abstracts

Deadline: May 8th

2015 National Conference on Health Statistics

The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) invites you to submit a poster abstract for this year’s Poster Session at the 2014 National Conference on Health Statistics, to be held at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in North Bethesda, MD, August 24–26, 2015. Conference registration is free and attendees will have the opportunity to meet and talk with NCHS staff from all surveys and programs, as well as representatives from other government agencies.

The objective of the Poster Session is for researchers to present original research on health, health data, and statistics, and to provide a forum for discussion with colleagues interested in their research. Abstract submissions are invited across all topic areas within the field of public health and statistics. The best student abstract submissions and posters will be recognized.

For additional information or to submit an abstract, visit:http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/events/2015nchs/poster_session.htm.

Poster Session

The 2015 National Conference on Health Statistics, to be held in North Bethesda, MD, August 24–26, 2015, will include a Poster Session.

The goal of the Poster Session is to offer a venue for researchers from academia, industry, and government agencies to present original research on health, health data, and statistics, and provide a forum for informal discussion with interested colleagues. Research is not limited to National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) data.

Poster abstract submission is now open

DEADLINE: All abstracts must be submitted no later than

11:59 PM (EST) May 8, 2015.

Submission Instructions for Poster Abstracts

The online submission process is now open. All abstracts must be submitted no later than 11:59 PM (EST) May 8, 2015. Sign up for e-mail updates to receive information about the 2015 conference.

The following guidelines must be strictly adhered to in preparing your abstract:

The abstract (excluding title and authors) should not exceed 300 words. Longer abstracts will not be considered.
Include title, co-authors, and body of abstract.
Abstracts must be structured with the following subheadings, in this order:
- Background: Statement of the research issue addressed in your study.
- Objective: A sentence stating your study question(s).
- Methods: A concise description of the study design, data sources, and analytical methods.
- Results: Key findings from data analysis (do not state that results will be discussed).
- Conclusions: Summary statement of key findings.
Do not include figures or tables in the abstract.
Spell out abbreviations the first time you use them.
Double-check spelling, grammar, punctuation, and all your data before you submit.
Do not use nonstandard characters (see table below) or formatting (bold, underline, italics) as they will not convert properly. If working in a word processor, we recommend saving the file to a .TXT format and resolving nonstandard character issues in a text editor such as NotePad for Windows or TextEdit for Mac.

Problem Character(s)	Sample Symbol	Suggested Replacement
"Smart" or curly quotes	“ ”	Single and double quotes should use straight quotes (i.e., " or ').
Degree symbols	°	Spell out word or use degrees or deg.
Super or subscript text	O2 or O₂	Place text normally (e.g., CO2 instead of CO₂)
Copyright, trademark, and registered trademark symbols	© ™ ®	Use: (c) for copyright (tm) for trademark (r) for registered trademark
Plus/minus symbol	±	Use a plus sign followed by a minus sign: +- or +/-
Less than or greater than symbols	< > ≤ ≥	Use English equivalents (i.e., less than, greater than, less than or equal to, or greater than or equal to)
Accented, tilded, and umlauted characters	á ñ ü	Use the plain text version of the character in question (e.g., a, n, u)
Greek characters	α β γ	Use English equivalents (e.g., alpha, beta, gamma)

Abstract Review Process

All research abstracts (with author information deleted) will be peer reviewed and will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Objectives/research questions are clearly stated;
Methodology and approach are appropriate;
Data source(s) are adequately described and appropriate;
Data analyses are appropriate and transparent;
Results are presented and easy to understand;
Conclusions are consistent with the results;
Overall presentation and quality;
Use of proper abstract format and requirements;
Public health significance and originality of ideas and methods.

Student Awards

Although all researchers are encouraged to submit an abstract, there will be a special focus on students, with the following award opportunities:

Student Research Showcase — Four students who submit exceptional abstracts will be offered the opportunity to present their research orally in lieu of a poster presentation. The oral presentations will be given during the Student Research Showcase.
Student Poster Prize — Student posters deemed exceptional will be chosen as finalists for the Outstanding Student Poster Awards and displayed for the remainder of the conference.

Note: To be eligible for one of these student awards, the first author MUST be a student at the time of submission.

To view previous award recipients, see 2012 NCHS Poster Sessions.

Notification of Acceptance

Abstract acceptance letters will be e-mailed to authors by June 8, 2015.

Web Posting

Accepted abstracts will be made available to conference participants prior to the conference on the NCHS website AS SUBMITTED—no substitutions or editorial changes will be made.

To view previous events and presentations, see 2012 NCHS Poster Sessions.