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Submitting an Abstract: Why It Matters and How to Maximise Your Chances of Selection
Submitting an abstract to a neuroscience conference is an excellent opportunity to share your work, gain feedback, and connect with a broad and diverse community of researchers. Whether you’re a PhD student, postdoc, early career researcher, or undergraduate, presenting your work can support career progression, foster collaborations, and showcase your research skills.
What Are Abstracts?
An abstract is a concise summary of a research project, audit, case study, or quality improvement initiative. In conferences, abstracts allow reviewers and attendees to quickly assess a project’s focus and relevance. Abstracts may follow a structured format (introduction, aims, methods, results, and conclusions) ensuring clarity and consistency and helping readers evaluate the significance of the work efficiently.
Why Are Abstracts Important?
Abstracts are often the first, and sometimes only, part of your project that reviewers or attendees read. A well-crafted abstract demonstrates the relevance, originality, and methodological rigor of your work. It is essential for selection for poster or oral presentations and can also be published in conference programs or online repositories, creating a permanent record of your research.
Beyond conferences, abstracts are widely used in journals, grant applications, and professional reports to communicate findings efficiently, support knowledge sharing, and highlight potential collaborations.
How Abstracts Can Help Your Career
Submitting and presenting abstracts can provide several career benefits:
- Provides Constructive Feedback - Receive peer input to refine your research design, analysis, and interpretation.
- Builds Visibility and Reputation - By enticing people to your main work – you can gain exposure to a broad audience and establish credibility in your field.
- Opens Networking Opportunities - Connect with potential collaborators, mentors, and supervisors.
- Enhances Communication Skills - Distil research into clear, compelling narratives; practice oral and visual presentation skills.
- Supports Career Progression - Conference presentations strengthen CVs, fellowship applications, and grant proposals.
- Encourages Critical Thinking - Clarify research questions, methods, and results to approach projects strategically.
As a reviewer for the BNA for several years now, a strong abstract in my opinion contains a few things.
They are written with a wide audience in mind. Specifically, they should be accessible to neuroscientists from different disciplines and career stages.
A successful submission clearly and concisely sets the scene by outlining the current “state of play” in the field and identifying the specific problem or knowledge gap being addressed.
Reviewers are looking for abstracts that quickly communicate why the question matters, often in a way which leaves the reader with a forehead-smacking moment saying “Of course you are doing this, I’m surprised it has taken this long for the field to do it!”.
A compelling abstract also explains how the chosen methods are well suited to answer the research question, particularly when those approaches may not be familiar across all areas of neuroscience. Briefly highlighting what is innovative or distinctive about the methodology helps reviewers appreciate its value.
Finally, strong abstracts clearly articulate the impact of the findings - what they reveal, why they are important, and how they advance understanding in the field. Emphasising relevance, clarity, and significance gives your abstract the best chance of being selected.
How to Set Yourself Up for Success: Tips for Selection
To maximise your chances of having your abstract selected:
- Focus on Clarity and Structure - Use a concise, structured format: Background → Methods → Results → Conclusion. Avoid jargon.
- Emphasise Novelty and Impact - Highlight what is new and why your findings matter.
- Be Specific and Evidence-Based - Include key results and support your conclusions with data.
- Tailor to the Audience - Make abstracts accessible to neuroscientists from diverse disciplines.
- Follow Guidelines - Adhere to word limits, formatting, and submission instructions.
- Make It Compelling - Begin with a strong opening sentence; use active language.
- Highlight Broader Significance - Explain the potential implications of your work for research, clinical practice, or neuroscience understanding.
- Proofread and Get Feedback - Have colleagues or supervisors review your abstract.
Upcoming Opportunities to Submit Abstracts
Ready to submit? Don’t miss the upcoming deadlines and opportunities to share your work with the neuroscience community.
- FENS Forum 2026 – Deadline: 27 January 2026
- BNA Members’ Meeting 2026 – Deadline: 10 February 2026
- SfN – May 2026 – exact date to be confirmed
NB You can submit the same abstract for multiple meetings. It is always worth noting any feedback from submissions that were not accpeted and amending first, and of course making sure that the content is as up to date as possible.
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