Instructions for Authors

• In this meeting, you will be provided with three forms of communication:

1. Oral presentations.  An oral abstract is required for 10-minute presentation with 5-minute discussion, which will run in parallel sessions over the 3-day period.
2. Poster presentations.  An oral abstract is needed for the poster session.
3. Workshops.  A workshop summary is required for the parallel workshops.  The sessions are designed for hands-on or colloquia (academic) types of contributions, with a maximum of 2-hour duration.  This section allows more than one presenter and ideally for all authors presenting.

Please fill the ISPW Submission Form for your preferred type form of communication.

• We would particularly welcome research communication and workshops addressing the following social pharmacy and pharmacy practice topics:

1. Pharmacy public health
2. Preventative healthcare
3. Pharmacy and health policy
4. Pharmaceutical policy and opinions
5. Pharmacist and health consumer protection
6. Ethical pharmaceutical promotion
7. Social and cultural issues
8. Patient perspectives
9. Pharmacy and healthcare services
10. Pharmacist interventions
11. Professional and inter-professional issues
12. Medication use
13. Drug use behaviors
14. Drug safety and pharmacoepidemiology
15. Medicine and health information
16. Pharmacy education
17. Communication studies
18. Pharmaceutical economics
19. New and emerging roles and research

If you are not sure whether your work suits this meeting, please discuss with the ISPW Scientific Committee at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

• A workshop summary or an abstract must be submitted via our website in MS.Words (.doc file format only). You must first download th Workshop Summary Template or Abstract Template. Then complete your workshop summary or abstract according to the guidance below and save it as an MS Word file using the specified format. When you are ready to submit your file, please click on this SUBMISSION PORTAL to fill out the ISPW submission form and upload your MS Word file. 

• If you cannot send your work for any reason, please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to resolve your problems before the submission deadline.
• For workshops, a workshop summary together with a completed ISPW Submission Form must be sent by February 15, 2012, 17:00 (Thailand time). In case of oral or poster presentations, an abstract with a completed ISPW Submission Form must be submitted by March 15, 2012, 17:00 (Thailand time).
• Your files for submission should follow the following formats:

• As a presenting author, you can present only one paper, either oral or poster form, but may be listed as co-author on any number of abstracts.  This will allow researchers as many as possible to disseminate their work.  In addition to the presentation, you may arrange a workshop as you wish.
• You will be informed of the results by May 1, 2012.
• If your workshop summary or oral/poster abstract is accepted, any amendment must be completed and returned by May 15, 2012.  The abstract or summary will be included in the proceedings of the 17th ISPW only when the presenting author confirms his or her ISPW registration.  Thus please register as soon as possible to ensure your valuable piece of work will be actually added to the proceedings.
• After the meeting, all abstracts will be published online in the journal, Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy (RSAP), and indexed in many well-known databases.  They are therefore subject to additional, minor copyediting to appear in the journal.

Workshop Summary Structure

• Your workshop summary should be structured and fit on a single side of A4 paper as shown in the Workshop Summary Template.  Please use this template for your workshop preparation.
• A workshop summary must be typed in Arial font, i.e. 12-point Arial with bold typeface for the workshop title and 10-point Arial with regular typeface for the rest of details.  The summary should be within 500 words limit with no tables or figures.  Please use single spacing and do not skip lines between sections.  The beginning of each section must begin on a new line.  Underline the section headings, i.e. Introduction, Aims of the workshop, Learning Objectives, Description of workshop activities and Additional information, but not the succeeding colon.  Details of the summary include:
  
  Title – Please start a title with a capital letter and use capital letters for all key words, except articles, prepositions and conjunctions that need to be small letters.  It should have no more than 150 characters including spaces and should not contain any abbreviations, if possible.
  
  Authors’ names – List all authors’ names under the title by typing their family names followed by initials of first and middle names, such as Jongwiwatchai B, Heed NP.  Where there is more than one author, the presenting author should be named as the first author.  Authors’ affiliations, including city, state/province and country, should be specified after placing a superscript number on each author surname.  Use an asterisk to identify the corresponding author and elaborate his or her contact details at the bottom of the abstract.
  
  Introduction – Specify the rationale of the workshop and relevant details.
  
  Aims of the workshop – Specify the workshop aims most relevant and concisely.
  
  Learning Objectives – Specify the workshop objectives that you expect participants to learn and achieve after completing the session, for example, “At the end of this workshop, participants should be able to …”.  The outcomes may be involved in knowledge, skills, attitudes or values.
  
  Description of workshop activities – Describe the activities you plan to perform in the workshop, e.g. going through the PowerPoint for 30 minutes and then splitting participants into groups, etc.
  
  Additional information (if required) – Specify any pertinent information, e.g. special materials needed, audiovisual aids, etc.
  
  Special characters, such as Greek letters, mathematical signs, arrows, etc, are not accepted. Only simple ASCII characters can be used.  Tables or figures must not be added to the abstract, although they can be utilized in the oral or poster presentation.

Abstract Structure

• Submitted abstracts must be original and not previously published elsewhere.  All abstracts from qualitative or quantitative projects are welcome.
• Your oral/poster abstracts should be structured according the RSAP format as described below.  It must fit on a single side of A4 paper (see the Abstract Template).  Please use this template for your abstract preparation.  Please check at the Sample Abstract for further clarification.
• An abstract must be typed in Arial font, i.e. 12-point Arial with bold typeface for the abstract title and 10-point Arial with regular typeface for the abstract body and authors details.  The abstract should be approximately 250 – 300 words (or maximum of 300 words) with no tables or figures.  Please use single spacing and do not skip lines between sections.  The beginning of each section must begin on a new line.  Underline the section headings, i.e. Objectives, Methods, Results and Conclusions, but not the succeeding colon.  Details of the abstract include:
  
  Title – Please use capital letter for the first alphabet of the title and all key words, except articles, prepositions and conjunctions that need to be small letters.  It should have no more than 150 characters including spaces and should not contain any abbreviations, if possible.
  
  Authors’ names – List all authors’ names under the title by typing their family names followed by initials of first and middle names, such as Lim HS, McCleod D.  Where there is more than one author, the presenting author should be named as the first author.  Authors’ affiliations, including city, state/province and country, should be specified after placing a superscript number on each author surname.  Use an asterisk to identify the corresponding author and elaborate his or her contact details at the bottom of the abstract.
  
  Objectives – Specify the objectives of the study clearly.
  
  Methods – Include study design, date and method of data collection, population and sample(s), study instrument, data analysis and ethical approval (if necessary).
  
  Results – Present actual results of research or audits.  Forthcoming results, results in preparation, or simple descriptions of processes being implemented are discouraged and will not be considered by the panel.
  
  Conclusions – Draw a conclusion from the findings to answer the research questions or objectives.  Recommendations for future studies or practices may be included as appropriate.
  
  Special characters, such as Greek letters, mathematical signs, arrows, etc, are not accepted. Only simple ASCII characters can be used.  Tables or figures must not be added to the abstract, although they can be utilized in the oral or poster presentation.