Introduction

Submitted abstracts will be included in the scientific program of the 2nd Middle East Congress on Age, Ageing & Alzheimer's.

The Scientific Committee invites delegates to submit abstracts (for oral and poster communications) to be presented at the congress. The deadline for submission is 01/07/2009. Decisions about acceptance will be notified around one month after the submission.

The congress program is primarily organized around four main themes:
· Middle East and Aging
· Health Care Services for the Elderly
· Education and training for the team
· Alzheimer's disease
· Mental Health
· Health sciences / Geriatric Medicine
· Behavioural and social sciences
· Social research, policy and practice

When you submit your abstract, you are applying to one of these themes.
The abstract must address scientific issues around a coherent theme of interest to a broad audience.

Each oral communication session will have six speakers for a total of 90 minutes. Posters will be presented during the poster sessions. All speakers/presenters are required to register and pay the registration fee.

Online submission procedure

Instructions for the submission of an abstract
To facilitate the review process, please pay careful attention and complete all application fields. Incomplete applications cannot be processed. When submitting your abstract, please select one of the themes that is most descriptive of the submission's content. Then choose among the main topics of the Congress. The information will be used in assigning reviewers and in composing the final program.
Abstracts, only in English, must be submitted only online between February 2009 - 01 August 2009. Abstracts must be submitted on or before the closing date. Please note that late submissions will not be considered.

The abstract should include the following information:
- Title (max 100 characters).
- Abstract body (max. 300 words), separated in:
· Introduction
· Methods and materials
· Results
· Conclusion

Submission of abstracts is limited to two per person. Should an individual participate in more than one session, the Scientific Committee does not guarantee that those presentations will be scheduled in non-conflicting time periods. It is assumed that the first author will be the presenter.
By submitting an abstract at MECAAA Tripoli 2009, authors are assumed to give consent and authorize the organizers to publish the abstract, and to include it in any congress publications.

Click here to view the abstract submission form

Review process

The Scientific Committee will review all abstracts submitted on time, within the specified format. The organizers reserve the right to reject any abstract for failure to comply with submission guidelines above mentioned, linked from this page, or communicated via the organizers.

Abstracts will be selected based on the scientific interest of the topics, the expected (near) future scientific breakthroughs and/or highlights and the achievements of the speakers in the field.

Abstracts may be accepted as they stand. In some cases, the Scientific Committee may accept an abstract provided that the submitter accepts modifications necessary to improve the abstract.

Notification of acceptance

All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their submission by e-mail up to three months after the submission, and no later than August 31st 2009. Further details will be sent end Sept 2009, giving the time, session and place of accepted presentations. The abstracts will be definitely accepted once the organizers have replied and confirmed their participation.

If e-mail notification is not received by the end of August , please contact the organizing secretariat at aabyad@cyberia.net.lb

The accepted abstracts will be published in the abstract book of the congress - supplement of the Journal of Middle East Journal of Age and Ageing which will be distributed to all participants at the congress. After the congress, the accepted papers will be published in the online proceedings on the congress website. Further information and guidelines will follow closer to the congress.

Registration of presenting authors (oral and poster communications)
Please note that submitting an abstract for presentation at the 2nd MECAAA Congress does not constitute registration for the congress. Presenters are required to register but they will be exempted from the registration fees.

Withdrawal of a submitted abstract

If you want to withdraw a submitted abstract please contact us at aabyad@cyberia.net.lb

Important dates

Agreement and disclosure

All authors are requested to disclose potential conflicts of interest. Speakers are requested to disclose potential conflicts of interest regarding their current presentation in the first slide of their presentation. Session chairs are requested to disclose potential conflict of interest regarding the topics of the presentations during their session in the first slide of the session. Poster presenters are requested to disclose potential conflicts of interest regarding their current poster presentation at the bottom of their poster. This will allow the audience to take potential conflicts of interest into account when assessing the objectivity of the presentation. Potential conflicts of interest can involve: grants, honoraria, shares, paid positions on advisory boards, etc.

By submitting an abstract, all proposed participants agree that:

• the abstract must comply with ethical guidelines for scientific research in general, and in particular for human and animal research.
  
• the MECAAA Tripoli 2009 Scientific Committee will not consider incomplete abstracts or any abstract including persons who are not eligible (see guidelines above).
  
• each abstract submitter is committed to participate to the congress in case of acceptance.
  
• in case the abstract is accepted, each presenter accepts the conditions of participation to the congress as defined by the organizers.
  
• the Scientific Committee may require changes in topics for the abstract before final acceptance.
  
• the organizers may refuse any change to an abstract after it has been accepted by the Scientific Committee, and therefore may reject an abstract which would no longer correspond to the approved abstract. Any change must have the prior approval of the Scientific Committee.
  
• in no event will the organizers be liable for the content of an abstract with respect to its participants or any other person or institution.