Abstracts
Guidelines for Abstract Submission
Adhering to submission guidelines is crucial for abstract acceptance. Key points include:
Encourage your mentees to start early and review the official ICASA website for the most up-to date guidelines.
ICASA 2025: Abstract Mentorship Programme
All individuals who submit abstracts are not eligible for the SAA Abstract Mentorship Programme. Please, note that only SAA paid members are considered for mentorship. Being an abstract mentee does not guarantee that your abstract will be selected for presentation after the mentorship programme.
For any further inquiries, please contact us at abstract@saafrica.org.
Please read the following guidelines carefully before submitting your abstract:
Submit Your Abstract NowAll submissions will be acknowledged upon successful submission via the website.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The number of authors per abstract is –not limited. However, only one author can be listed as the presenting author. Use a standard style, Arial font and size 11 when formatting your text. This will help to prevent special characters from getting lost when copying your text to the online abstract submission form. Always make sure to check the final abstract with the system’s preview function before submission, and edit or replace it as necessary.Tables, figures, literature references, and acknowledgements should not be part of the abstract’s content. It is the principal author’s responsibility to submit a correct abstract. Any errors in spelling, grammar or scientific fact will be reproduced as typed by the principal author.
Abstracts must not have been published for presentation to any other national or international conference or meeting or already published in any journal. An abstract that was submitted but was not accepted in previous conferences is valid and may be submitted for ICASA.
Define all abbreviations and concepts in your abstract at first use.
For therapeutic agents, only International Non-proprietary Name (INN) should be used (trade names are not permitted). If you have any questions regarding your abstract submission, please contact the abstract support team at abstract@saafrica.org
We encourage work that introduces new ideas and conceptualizations, research and understandings to the field, as well as analysis of both success and failure.
Abstracts should disclose primary findings and avoid, whenever possible, promissory statements such as “experiments are in progress” or “results will be discussed”.
Your abstract, if accepted, will be published in its full form in the abstract/programme book, and made available on the conference (ICASA) website. A flash drive will be distributed to all registered delegates at the conference.
The Conference offers two options for abstract submission: OPTION 1 and OPTION 2.
Submit Your Abstract NowThe first option is most suited for scientific research. Abstracts presented under the first option should contain concise statements of:
Background: indicates the purpose and objective of the research, the tested hypothesis or a description of the problem being analysed or evaluated.
Methods: describe the setting/location for the study, study design, study population, data collection and methods of analysis used.
Results: present as clearly as possible the findings/outcome of the study, with specific results in summarized form. The inclusion of gender breakdown of data is strongly encouraged.
Conclusions and Recommendations: briefly discuss the data and main outcome of the study. Emphasize the significance of HIV prevention, treatment, care and/or support, and future implications of the results.
Submit Your Abstract Now
The second option is most suited for presenting new knowledge or analysis important for understanding and responding to the HIV epidemic and its future implications. It is suited for information gained through systematic knowledge production/ management, other than scientific research or evaluation including community-level experiences and best practices in response to HIV and AIDS. This process must include some evidence provided through the data obtained.
Abstracts presented under the second option should contain concise statements of:
Issues: a summary of the issue(s) addressed by the abstract.
Description: a description of the intervention, project, experience, service and/or advocacy.
Lessons learned: conclusions and implications of the intervention or project. Data that support the lessons learned and evidence must be included.
Next steps: possible next steps for implementation, or recommendations.
Submit Your Abstract NowThe inclusion of gender breakdown of data is strongly encouraged and should be provided as well as a comprehensive gender analysis in the results section whenever possible. If applicable, your abstract should include the number and percentage of men and women participating in your research or project, and gender disaggregated data. If your research or project was specific to one gender, please state.
Submit Your Abstract NowThe abstract track category is the general heading under which your abstract will be reviewed and later published in the conference printed matters if accepted. Please choose the category which best describes the subject of your abstract. Refer to the Track Categories section of the website to get more information.
ICASA has identified a number of cross-cutting themes, with relevance across the five tracks. These cross-cutting themes will help structure the whole programme of the conference and will serve as a basis for interdisciplinary sessions conveying presentations from various tracks and disciplines on relevant issues. In addition to choosing the Track Categories, you may also indicate that it is relevant to your abstract.
In addition to the abstract category, please indicate 3-5 keywords (free text, maximum 25 characters per keyword) in bold at the bottom of your abstract. The keywords must be representative of the content of the abstract. If relevant, please specify the subject/population, setting/location and objective/outcome.
ICASA CONFERENCE PROFILE
Before submitting an abstract, you need to create a Conference profile from which you can enter the abstract system. You can submit one or several abstracts from your Conference profile. After an abstract has been created, modifications can be made before the abstract submission deadline 31st May 2025. No modifications can be made after the abstract submission deadline.ABSTRACT BLIND PEER REVIEW
All submitted abstracts will go through a blind peer-review process carried out by a reviewing committee. Three independent reviewers will review each abstract.
Notification of Acceptance or Rejection to Corresponding Author Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent to the submitting (corresponding) author from 25th – 29th August 2025. Please note that only the corresponding author will receive an email pertaining to the status of the submitted abstract and is responsible for informing all co-authors.