Abstracts

Abstract submission deadline date: Closed
Delegate's notification deadline date: 4 May 2009

You are invited to submit abstracts describing your research and advocacy efforts to address the many dimension of sexual violence. Abstracts should be submitted according to the conference themes and focus on one of the areas outlined in the sexual violence research agenda. The call for abstracts welcomes multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural perspectives and preference will be given to efforts undertaken in, or focusing on low and middle income countries. There are three types of sessions: oral presentations, posters presentations and roundtables. Abstracts not accepted for oral presentation may be selected for a poster session.

Conference Themes

The themes for the SVRI Forum 2009 are:

• Sexual violence and HIV
• Sexual violence and mental health
• Sexual violence and conflict and emergency settings
• Sexual violence and prevention
• Health sector responses to sexual violence
   

Sexual Violence Research Agenda

The Sexual Violence Research Agenda serves as the first step in the process of identifying key research gaps and sharing them with researchers, funders of research, policy makers and other key stakeholders. The eight key focus areas of the Sexual Violence Research Agenda are:

1. Nature, prevalence, social context and risk factors associated with sexual violence
2. Appropriateness and effectiveness of sexual violence services
3. Sexual violence prevention
4. Sexual violence and restorative justice
5. Sexual violence in conflict and emergency settings
6. Child sexual abuse
7. Human trafficking for sexual exploitation
8. Traditional harmful practices (including female genital mutilation)

Guidelines for Submitting Abstracts

Please complete the online abstract form. (Closed)

Your abstract will be reviewed by a technical committee selected by the SVRI. If your abstract is accepted, it will appear in its full form in the abstract book which will be distributed at the conference. Oral and poster abstract presentations will also be made available on CD-Rom and on the conference and SVRI websites.

Please note: The method of submission is via e-mail.
No faxed copies will be accepted. 

Oral Presentations
Selected oral presentations must be in English, no longer than 10 minutes duration, plus five minutes for questions.

The SVRI Forum 2009 offers two options for abstract submission:

Option 1
Abstracts presented under the first option should contain brief statements of:

• Background: study hypothesis or description of the study, objectives of the study;
• Methodology: methodology used or approach taken in the study;
• Results: summary of specific results;
• Conclusions: discussion of the main outcomes of the study.
• Forum theme: identify theme which best fits your abstract.

Option 2
Abstracts presented under the second option should contain brief statements of:

• Issues: summarise the key issue (s) of the study;
• Description: describe the research, project, experience, service and/or advocacy;
• Lessons learned: conclusions and implications of the study;
• Next steps: possible next steps for implementation or further research.
• Forum theme: identify theme which best fits your abstract.

Guidelines for Abstract Submission

Instructions for preparing the abstract document (Example in pdf format, 63 kb)

• Abstract must be typed in single spacing, be clear and legible
• Abstract must be submitted in English
• Abstract title in boldface, capital letters (uppercase) and centered
• Presenting author to be underlined (Please do not underline co-authors)
• Institutions affiliations, city, state for all authors
• Where appropriate, the text may be structured using the following headings:
  Introduction or Objectives; 2 Methods; Results; Conclusions
• Number of words for whole abstract (250, excluding Title, Authors and Institutions)

All addresses must be correct and complete. The SVRI must be notified of any change of address. The SVRI will not be responsible for missing correspondence. If you have any queries regarding your abstract submission please contact Deon Salomo at deon.salomo@mrc.ac.za.

Poster Presentations
Accepted posters will be on display in a prominent position throughout the conference. Poster should measure 90 cm (width) and approximately 1.2m (height). Full details for the preparation of posters will be included in the poster acceptance letter.

Criteria
Criteria for abstract/poster selection include relevance, originality of the research, methods and design, potential contribution to the area of sexual violence, quality of content and findings, practical/policy outcomes, and identification of future areas of research/research priorities.

Slide Presentations
LCD Projectors will be available. If any other special equipment is required, please specify at the time of submitting the abstract.