Submitting Your Abstract

All abstracts must be submitted through this system. The main abstract text and the abstract title must be copied or entered into the abstract template before being uploaded to the system. Please download the template before you start the submission process. Please click here to download the template.

Detailed instructions to assist you with your abstract are available in the Abstracts Guidelines document. Please click here to download the guidelines.

Step 1 : Download the Abstract Template

The abstract template is a Microsoft Word document which has been specially created to ensure that all abstracts are submitted in the same format. You must either type or copy your abstract title and main content into the template.

Step 2 : Gather Your Abstract Information

Along with the abstract title and content, you will be asked for the following information:

References: You can enter up to 5 references. Referencing must be Harvard style. Please do not include any references in the abstract template. You will be asked to enter them directly into the system.

Keywords: You will be asked to choose the primary keyword that your abstract should be considered under, and to choose up to 3 additional keywords. The full list of keywords is detailed in the Abstract Guidelines document. You must choose at least one keyword from the list provided on screen.

Learning Outcomes: You will be asked to enter up to 3 learning outcomes for your abstract. You must enter at least one learning outcome. The total word count for the learning outcomes must not exceed 32. We advise typing them into Microsoft Word (or other word processing application) first. The system will warn you if you exceed 32 words.

Research governance compliance/ethical approval: If your abstract reports research carried out in health or social care settings, you must provide the details of the ethical approving organisation and reference number. If it does not, then you will not need this item. The system will ask you if the abstract does or does not report research carried out in health or social care settings. You must answer either yes or no.

If you answer yes, then you will be asked to enter the reference number and issuing body. Please have this information to hand before you start to submit your abstract.

Principal Author: You will be asked if you are the principal (main) author for the abstract. If you are, then your contact details will be used. If you are not, you will be asked to enter the name and contact details of the principal author. You must enter the Title, Initials and Surname of the principal author, along with their email address and their postal address. Please have this information to hand before you start to submit your abstract.

Authors Affiliations: You will be asked to enter the affiliations of ALL authors for the abstract. You may enter a maximum of 10 institutions. You will be asked to state the institutions to which each author is affiliated after all institutions and authors have been added. Please ensure that you have the institution name, region and country for each institution that each author of the abstract is affiliated to.

This information will be printed in the book of abstracts. Institutions should be entered in the order in which you wish them to appear in the book of abstracts. That is, if the principal author is affiliated to the University of Durham, and also to Leeds Metropolitan University, and you wish for the University of Durham to appear first in the list, enter the University of Durham in the first set of boxes.

Once you have entered all the institutions that authors of the abstract are affiliated to, you will be asked which of these institutions the principal author is affiliated to. You will need to check the correct box(es).

Contributing Authors: You will then be asked if there are any contributing authors for the abstract. If there are no contributing authors, you can proceed. If there are contributing authors, they should be entered in the order in which you wish them to appear in the book of abstracts.

You will be asked to enter the author title, initials and surname. You will also be asked to check the boxes next to the institution(s) that the author is affiliated to.

You may enter a maximum of 10 contributing authors. Please have the details of any contributing authors and the institutions to which they are affiliated ready before commencing the abstract submission process.

NOTE: Abstracts may be completed in a series of steps. If, for example, you start to enter your abstract and realise that you do not have all the relevant information to hand, you will be able to save your submission before finalising it. You will then be able to log back in to the system and resume the submission process.

Authors Biographies: You must submit a brief biography for the principal author, and may submit one for one additional contributing author. The biographies should not contain more than 25 words. You will be able to copy and paste the biography text from your word processor into the box supplied on the system. Please have the biographies ready prior to starting to submit.

Co-Author Agreement: If you have entered any contributing authors, you will be asked if all co-authors have agreed to present in the absence of the principal author. If you have not entered any co-authors, you will not be asked this question. If you have not obtained prior agreement from any contributing authors, please do so before starting the abstract submission process.

Service Users: You will be asked if there are any service users involved in the presentation. If there are, you will be asked to enter their names. If not, you will click the Next button.

Presentation Type: You will be asked to choose your first preference for presentation format from a list which includes paper presentation, seminar, round table, workshop, poster display, poster discussion sessions and innovative technology. You must select one of these as your first preference and one of the others as your second preference.

Session Format: You will be asked to describe how you will present your work and how you plan to involve your target audience. The box provided allows for a maximum of 30 words. We advise that you type it out first in your word processor and then you will be able to copy and paste it into the box provided. You must provide a description of how you will present your work.

Target Audience: You will be asked to select the target audience for your abstract. A list of options will be presented and you should check all of the boxes next to the audience levels that you are targetting with this abstract.

Preferred Conference: You will be asked if you are happy to present at all of the concurrent conferences, or to choose just one.

Awards: You will be asked if you wish for your abstract to be considered for one of the awards (open only to members of the British Association of Occupational Therapists). If you do, then you will be asked to choose the award and to enter your BOAT number. If you do not, then you will click the Finish button.

When you have all this information to hand, you should go to the abstract submission site and log in (if you have already registered, or register and log in if you have not yet done so).

Step 3 : Register, Activate and Log In

Log in to the system which you can access from the College of Occupational Therapists website (www.cot.co.uk). Before you can log in, you must register as a user. All registrations must be activated. When you complete the registration process, an email is immediately sent to the email address supplied. You click on the link in the email and your registration will be activated.

If you do not receive the email, you can go to the site and ask for a manual activation. You do this by clicking on Registered User Log In and clicking the link to the Manual Activation page. As the manual activation requires a human being to receive and process it, manual activation will not take place immediately.

If you have registered and activated your registration and you subsequently forget your password, you can ask for the password to be sent to your email address. This does not require manual intervention and is processed immediately.

If you have any technical queries (such as how to register or how to activate) please contact our support team (email is the best option) support@eventznet.ie or by phone during standard office hours on ROI: ++ 353 1 525 2028 ; UK ++ 44 28 909 976 10.

For enquiries relating to the 34th Annual COT Conference, please contact the conference secretariat: Happening. Email: cot@happen.co.uk. Telephone: 028 9066 4020

Step 4 : Start the New Abstract Submission Process

Abstracts may be completed in a series of steps. If, for example, you start to enter your abstract and realise that you do not have all the relevant information to hand, you will be able to save your submission before finalising it. You will then be able to log back in to the system and resume the submission process.

NOTE: You must be logged in to the system to submit an abstract.

Please have all your abstract information ready before you start, as this will make life a lot easier for you. We strongly advise that you have any text parts (such as learning outcomes or biographies) in a file in your word processor so that you can copy and paste them into the system.

You will be able to type them in, but there is no spell checker (for example) in the small boxes provided for this information.

NOTE: The abstract title and content MUST be entered into the abstract template document. You must save the template document to your computer, and make sure that the file is closed before you try to upload it to the system.

If you do not do this, then you will not be able to enter your abstract as the system will reject it.

Click the New Abstract Menu Item

This will bring you to the page where you will see the New Abstract button as well as a list of any abstracts that you started to submit but have not yet completed. Click the New Abstract button.

A new window will open up. Some internet browsers will not allow this window to open up unless you tell it that "pop-up" windows are allowed on this website. If you know how to enable pop-up windows, you should allow them for this website. If you do not know how to enable pop-up windows, please click here for detailed information.

Navigating the System

The system is designed to be as few steps as possible, and to ensure that you can both enter and change information as required.

In the image below you will see that there are 6 steps across the top of the page. Step 1 is green. When the Step is green, it means that you are currently on that step. Each step may have a number of different items within it.

For example, Step 1 is where you enter the abstract title and upload the completed abstract template containing your abstract main content.

When you see a * next to an item, this means that you must complete the section. For example, if you did not enter any text into the box for the title in the image below, you would not be able to proceed.

In each stage of each step you will see a Next button. Pressing the Next button will save the information you have entered and present the next stage or step to you. Once you have completed a stage, you will be able to go back and change the information if you have to.

In the illustration below, Abstract Title has been entered for the title of the abstract. To change this, click on the edit button (the green square with an e inside it). This will give you access to changing and saving the change.

When you have finished a step, clicking on the Next button will bring you to the next step automatically.

If you need to stop at any point, you can click the Close Window button to close the window. Any information you have entered in that stage will be lost. You will be able to resume entering your abstract by going to the Your Abstracts page.

All abstracts that you have submitted fully, along with those that have been started but not completed, are listed on this page.

In the illustration above, the abstract is in the Partially Submitted Abstracts. To resume entering the abstract data, click on the Resume button. To delete the abstract, click on the Delete button.

Please note, that if you delete the abstract, it can not be recovered. Fully submitted abstracts can not be deleted, nor can they be changed.

When you click on the Resume button, the abstract will open up on the step page that you were on when you last saved information. If you need to go back to a previous step, click on the step number on the top of the page. You can only click on previous step numbers, and must use the Next buttons to move forward.

In the illustration below, the abstract submission has resumed on Step 2. Step 2 contains 4 stages: References, Keywords, Learning Outcomes and Research Governance Compliance/Ethical Approval. When you have completed each stage, the Next Step button is displayed.

NOTE: As this system is a web based system there is a limit to the amount of time that the you will be logged in for without doing anything. This means that if you leave the system whilst you are in the middle of submitting an abstract your session will time out after about 20 minutes.

You will see a message similar to the one below:

If this happens, click on Close Window and then on any of the menu items on the page that is then displayed. You will find the partially submitted abstract on the Your Abstracts page.

Please note that information is not saved to the database until you have uploaded your abstract template file. If you have entered the title only, the abstract will not be saved.

Step 5 : Completing the Abstract Submission Process

Once you have completed all the steps the final button is the Finish button:

NOTE: You must click the Finish button. If you do not, your abstract will not be submitted. Once you have clicked the finish button, you will not be able to edit or change any of the information submitted in the abstract.

You will see the final screen which will show you your abstract reference and give you the opportunity to print the abstract submission: