- Meeting Format: The ISHLT 2021 Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions is being planned as a hybrid meeting, including online and in-person components. Acceptance of an invitation to give a presentation at this meeting based on a submitted abstract includes presenting either in the live/online or online only format as determined by the meeting format, and the presentation will be recorded.
- Responsibility of Presenting Author: The person indicated as presenting author during abstract submission will be the sole point of contact for information regarding the submission and is responsible for notifying all co-authors regarding the outcome of the abstract submission and any changes to the program, as communicated by ISHLT, in a timely manner. The presenting author cannot be an employee of a commercial company, as defined by ACCME.
- Submission Fee: There is a $25 USD nonrefundable fee for submitting an abstract.
- Abstract Revisions: Revisions to a submitted abstract can be made up until the submission deadline of October 27, 2020, 11:59 p.m. ET (North America). After this deadline, revisions to the abstract are NOT permitted.
- Permission to Publish in Print and Digital Formats: Submission of an abstract signifies that the abstract author(s) have given permission for the abstract to be reproduced in print in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation and in digital formats of ISHLT’s choosing for distribution and/or sale by ISHLT.
- Permission to Record in Digital Formats: Acceptance of an invitation to give a presentation based on a submitted abstract signifies that the presenter has given permission for his/her presentation to be recorded in digital formats of ISHLT’s choosing for distribution and/or sale by ISHLT.
- Previous Publication of Abstracts: Research based on an accepted abstract may not be presented if the abstract is published as an article prior to April 27, 2021.
- Abstract Withdrawal: The decision to withdraw should occur only in exceptional circumstances and must be made collectively by all authors. ISHLT reserves the right to withdraw any presentation that is in violation of the Society's Abstract Submission Policies.
- Presentation of Data: Any abstract author who accepts an invitation to give a presentation based on a submitted abstract agrees to present the data described in the abstract and may not present data not described in the abstract. Any presenter who does not present the data described in the abstract and/or declines the presentation invitation without arranging for the presentation to be given by an abstract co-author (pending approval of ISHLT), will be appropriately sanctioned from future participation in ISHLT meetings by the Society’s Board of Directors.
- Informed Consent: Submission of an abstract signifies that the author(s) agree and confirm that their study involving human subjects adheres to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association, adheres to the principles of the ISHLT Statement on Transplant Ethics, and meets the informed consent requirements of the institution and country in which the study was performed.
- Compliance with Declaration of Istanbul: Submission of an abstract signifies that the author(s) agree and confirm that their study involving human subjects adheres to the principles of the Declaration of Istanbul and to the principles of the ISHLT Statement on Transplant Ethics. IMPORTANT: Due to ongoing concerns about compliance with the Declaration of Istanbul and the ISHLT Statement on Transplant Ethics, abstracts related to transplantation and involving either organs or tissue from human donors in China will not be accepted for consideration to the Annual Meeting. This policy will be reviewed on an annual basis.
- Use of Animals: Submission of an abstract signifies that the author(s) agree and confirm that their study involving the use of animals conforms fully within current NIH, EU, or analogous national guidelines for the care and use of animals.
- Use of Institutional Names and Commercial Trade Names: For purposes of blind scoring, institutional names must be omitted whenever possible in the title and body of the abstract. Authors are requested to avoid the use of commercially branded names of medications or devices. If a specific medication/device is only identifiable by its trade name, then this should appear in brackets after a generic description of the medication/device.
- Content Validity and Fair Balance: Authors are required to prepare fair and balanced presentations that are objective and scientifically rigorous. All recommendations involving clinical medicine must be based on evidence that is accepted within the profession of medicine as adequate justification for their indications and contraindications in the care of patients. All scientific research referred to, reported, or used in support or justification of a patient care recommendation must conform to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection and analysis.
- Use of Generic Versus Trade Names: Abstracts must use scientific or generic names when referring to products. Should it be necessary to use a trade name, then the trade names of all similar products or those within a class must be used.
- Commercial Influence: Presenters of research based on accepted abstracts are not permitted to receive any travel, hotel, or registration stipends or other financial assistance related to the ISHLT Annual Meeting from any company whose products or services are discussed in the presentation. Presenters of research based on accepted abstracts may not receive direct input regarding the content of the presentation from any company whose products or services are discussed in the presentation.
- Rules for Employees of Commercial Interests: Employees, owners, and patent holders of a commercial interest are generally not permitted to serve as the first author, presenting author, senior author, or primary author of an abstract. In rare circumstances where the work does not involve any academic collaborators, exceptions to this policy MAY be considered on a case by case basis. After all abstracts have been selected, ISHLT will initiate this process by communicating with the primary author of any abstract which list an industry employee, owner, or patent holder as first author, presenting author, senior author, or primary author of that abstract.
- Embargo Policy: The information contained in the abstracts is embargoed until the abstracts are available online. The abstracts selected for plenary, oral, and poster presentations will be posted online in compliance with the Securities and Exchange Commission's Regulation FD. At that time, the embargo will lift on the data included in the abstract, including the abstract title, presentation time and date, and study authors. Information that goes beyond that which is contained in the four corners of the abstract (e.g., additional analysis, commentary, or updated information from those individuals and companies involved in the study) is embargoed according to the following criteria:
- For oral presentations: The embargo time is the start time of the session in which the presentation is being made.
- For poster presentations: The embargo lifts when the poster session containing the poster opens for viewing in the morning.
- Conflict of Interest Disclosure: Disclosure of all relevant financial relationships is required by all abstract authors. Full and complete disclosure for EVERY author must be submitted with the abstract. It is the responsibility of the individual submitting the abstract to obtain and provide complete and accurate disclosure information for each author listed on an abstract. Each individual author is responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the disclosure information submitted on his/her behalf.
If no relevant financial relationships exist for a given author, this must be stated. Failure to provide complete disclosure information will result in disqualification from participation in the educational activity. This requirement is intended neither to imply any impropriety of such relationships nor to prejudice any individual presenter or author. It is merely to identify such relationships through full disclosure and to allow ISHLT to assess and resolve potential influences on the educational activity prior to the planning and implementation of an educational activity.
Definitions
Financial Relationships: Financial relationships are those relationships in which the individual benefits by receiving a salary, royalty, intellectual property rights, consulting fee, honoraria for promotional speakers’ bureau, ownership interest (e.g., stocks, stock options or other ownership interest, excluding diversified mutual funds), or other financial benefit. Financial benefits are usually associated with roles such as employment, management position, independent contractor (including contracted research), consulting, speaking and teaching, membership on advisory committees or review panels, board membership, and other activities from which remuneration is received, or expected. ACCME considers relationships of the person involved in the CME activity to include financial relationships of a spouse or partner. The ACCME has not set a minimum dollar amount for relationships to be significant. Inherent in any amount is the incentive to maintain or increase the value of the relationship.
Contracted Research: With respect to personal financial relationships, contracted research includes research funding where the institution gets the grant and manages the funds and the person is the principal or named investigator on the grant.
Conflict of Interest: Circumstances create a conflict of interest when an individual has an opportunity to affect CME content about products or services of a commercial interest with which he/she has a financial relationship. The ACCME considers financial relationships to create actual conflicts of interest in CME when individuals have both a financial relationship with a commercial interest and the opportunity to affect the content of CME about the products or services of that commercial interest. The ACCME considers “content of CME about the products or services of that commercial interest” to include content about specific agents/devices, but not necessarily about the class of agents/devices, and not necessarily content about the whole disease class in which those agents/devices are used. With respect to financial relationships with commercial interests, when a person divests themselves of a relationship it is immediately not relevant to conflicts of interest but it must be disclosed to the learners for 12 months.
Commercial Interest: A
commercial interest is any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients. The ACCME does not consider government agencies or providers of clinical service directly to patients to be commercial interests.
Commercial Supporter Influence: Abstract Reviewers, Board Members, Committee Members, Taskforce Participants, Authors, and Guidelines Developers are not permitted to receive any direct remuneration or gifts from any commercial entities for any activity in which they are an official representative or a participant on behalf of the Society, nor should they be subject to direct input from a commercial supporter regarding any such activity.