A. General Information

a) Please submit your Abstracts online, by using the online abstract submission form. Abstracts sent by surface mail or email cannot be accepted.

b) Following successful online submission, you will receive by e-mail an “Abstract Submission Confirmation”, indicating that your abstract was received in good order. This confirmation message contains a number which must be referred to in all correspondence related to the submitted abstract. Please print or save this message on your computer, as it will serve as confirmation of successful abstract submission.

c) If you do not receive this Abstract Submission Confirmation message within a few minutes from your submission, then your abstract was not submitted successfully (i.e, was not registered in the database). In this case, you are kindly requested to repeat the procedure, or to contact the Meeting Secretariat at abstracts@echsa.org for further information and assistance.

d) Submission of an abstract constitutes a commitment by the author(s) to present it at the Meeting, if it is accepted. At least one co-author of each accepted abstract must register for the Meeting before 23 March 2023. Accepted abstracts of which no co-author registers for the meeting by this date will be excluded from the Scientific Program. In addition, failure to register for the Meeting by at least one co-author of an accepted abstract, without valid excuse at the discretion of the Program Committee, may jeopardize future acceptance of abstracts.

e) Only abstracts which contain original data can be submitted. Abstracts should not be submitted if reporting data already submitted to or presented at another scientific meeting, or, if the data have been accepted for publication or published in a print or online journal.

f) Abstract submission deadline : 3 March 2023, at midnight CEST. Notification to authors will be sent via email by 13 March 2023.

g) Published abstracts will be available in the online ECHSA abstract archive during and after the Meeting.

B. Technical requirements

a) Language: All abstracts should be submitted and presented in English, which is the official language of the Meeting, using accurate grammar and spelling suitable for publication. Abstracts will be reproduced exactly as submitted. No proofreading will be done.

b) Corresponding Author: The abstract submission form should be completed by the Corresponding Author, who will be responsible for all future communications regarding the submitted abstract.

c) Each submitter (Corresponding Author) is required to create a user account  indicating an account email address and a password. The email and password indicated will be used for all online forms of the Meeting (namely, the Registration Form).

d) Draft status and abstract corrections: If you chose not to click on the “submit” button (Step 6 of the abstract submission form), your abstract will be saved as “Draft” within the submission system. You will be able to review, edit, modify and submit the draft later, until (but not after) the submission deadline.  Please note that abstracts remaining in Draft Status after the deadline cannot be considered for review. Once submitted, it will not be possible to make any corrections to the abstract (such as authorship, presenter details, contents, etc.) Should you wish to correct your abstract, you must withdraw it and submit a new corrected version, prior to the deadline (see below for withdrawal procedure).

e) Abstract Withdrawal: If, at any time, you wish to withdraw an abstract successfully submitted, please notify us as quickly as possible at abstracts@echsa.org, stating the title and number of the abstract to be withdrawn. Please note that withdrawal will still be possible after the submission deadline but no later than 20 March 2023.

C. Format & Online submission instructions

Title:
Maximum 35 words, typed in Sentence-case, except for abbreviations and study names. Please be careful that your title might be truncated if you copy and paste it into the field.

Category:
You must select one of the following categories under which your abstract will be classified:
a) Oral or Poster Presentation 
Please note, that the Abstract Review Committee will make final decisions regarding acceptance to oral or poster presentation, considering scientific value, author’s preferences  and scientific program limitations.
b) Best/Worst Case Presentation 
Please note that, in addition to the typed abstract description, the Power Point presentation of the case report including any related video material must be submitted at the same time. Instructions for uploading slide presentation and  videos will be available online.
c) Surgical Video Presentation
Please note that a typed abstract description must be submitted, as well as the video itself. Instructions for uploading videos will be available in the online form.

Authors:
Names of authors should be written in upper/lower cases in the following way:
1. Full name with first letter in upper case (e.g. John)
2. Surname (Family Name) with first letter in upper case (e.g. Smith)
Please enter the FIRST NAME in full, followed by the SURNAME (Family Name), for each author, without abbreviations (e.g. John Smith, and NOT J. Smith).

Affiliations:
In this field, affiliation details for all authors should be provided. Details (when available) should be written in the order below. Please note that authors' addresses need not be shown.
1. Unit or Section
2. Department
3. University and/or Hospital
4. City
5. Country
Please use numbering to indicate matching between authors and their respective affiliations. Each affiliation should be entered only once (not repeated for every author). In cases where an author has more than one affiliation, kindly use more than one number (e.g. John Smith 1,2).

Text Body: 
The text (excluding title, authors, and affiliations) should not exceed 300 words.
The use of tables, figures or references is not allowed.
The structure of the text must confirm to the following format:
For Oral/Poster Presentations
→ BACKGROUND/PURPOSE
→ METHODS
→ RESULTS
→ CONCLUSIONS
For Case Presentations/Surgical Video Presentation
→ BACKGROUND/PURPOSE
→ CASE REPORT SUMMARY DESCRIPTION
Typed text and title must be free from abbreviations. While standard abbreviations will be accepted, all other acronyms are to be written in extensor, the first time they appear in the abstract. Eg: European Congenital Heart Surgeons Association (ECHSA).

D. Abstract evaluation & Authors' notification

All successfully submitted abstracts will be evaluated by the Program Committee, which will also determine whether each accepted abstract will be presented orally or as poster, as well as the day and time of presentation. A decision email message will be sent to the Corresponding Author (abstract submitter).
In order to maximize participant engagement at the Meeting, a submitter can only present one accepted oral abstract, case report or video. In case more than one abstract is accepted, a different co-author must be designated for each accepted oral presentation, case report, or surgical video.

Statements of Originality and Copyright Transfer
By submitting an abstract to this Scientific Meeting, the submitting-corresponding author provides, on behalf of all co-authors, their consent to have names, affiliations and biographical material being used in connection with the publication of your work.
Furthermore the author(s) attest and warrant that they are sole authors of the work, that all co-authors have participated in and agree with the content and conclusions of the work, and that the work is original (except for extracts from copyrighted works fully authorized by the copyright holders) and does not infringe upon any copyright, proprietary, or personal right of any third party, and that all statements declared as facts are based on thorough examination and investigation for accurateness.
The corresponding author signs for all co-authors, and accepts responsibility for adhering to the present rules for submission and presentation on behalf of all co-authors.
The content of each submitted abstract is the property of the author(s). However, if the abstract is accepted, the submitter agrees, on behalf of all co-authors, to transfer and assign to the organizers the rights to publish, reproduce, distribute copies and prepare derivative works such as press releases. This includes use in indexes or search databases in print, electronic, or other media.
The author(s) retain the right, after presentation at the Meeting, to subsequently include the work in articles, books, or derivative works provided said use does not imply the endorsement of the organizers.

Conflict of interest
The Scientific Committee requests all presenters to disclose any potential conflict of interest. Oral Abstract Presenters are requested to disclose potential conflicts of interest regarding their presentation in the first slide. Poster presenters are requested to disclose potential conflicts of interest regarding 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.

Data Privacy
By certifying that you have read these Submission rules, you also confirm having received the prior approval from the co-authors to provide their data to the organizers. The information you supply on this application is required to process it and it will be held in the organizers' customer data files. It may be used for marketing and communication purposes by the organizers and its contractors only. You have the absolute right to access, amend and oppose any use of this personal data by writing to the organizers.