NATA Research & Education Foundation
FREE COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM

for the

National Athletic Trainers' Association Annual Meeting & Clinical Symposia

Philadelphia, PA; June 22 to June 25, 2010

 

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION PROCESS - PLEASE REVIEW CAREFULLY

Thank you for your interest in the NATA Research and Education Foundation Free Communications Program. Our goal is to provide a forum where researchers and clinicians can disseminate research and clinical case studies. However, NATA Research and Education Foundation expects abstracts to meet a minimum level of scholarly and academic rigor and only accepts high quality submissions for oral or poster presentation.

 

Please read all instructions carefully as most rejections result from improperly structured abstracts or failure to include required elements such as measures of disperson for example. Abstracts are printed in the annual Supplement to the Journal of AthleticTraining and must therefore be submitted in publishable quality and in a specific format and free of copy editing mistakes. The Free Communications Committee has made an extensive effort to provide instructions and examples for investigators to follow. Because of the vast number of submissions, abstracts not submitted in the proper format or those with copy editing mistakes will be rejected. Because of limited time and resources, corrections cannot be sought for individual abstracts. The links below provide detailed instructions and examples.

 

The NATA Research and Education Foundation provides two different submission options. The first is the traditional, or Peer Reviewed Track which is available to anyone. The second option is only available to undergraduate or masters level graduate students and is call the Student Exchange Track. The Student Exchange Track offers an opportunity for undergraduate and master students to present their research results at the NATA Annual Meeting.  The main distinction between the two tracks is the level of review applied to each.  The level of scientific review applied to submissions for the Peer Reviewed Track is rigorous.  Abstracts rejected from the Peer Reviewed Track will not be transferred to the Student Exchange Track. The Student Exchange Track will allow students an option to share scholarly information without being subjected to a rigorous scientific review of the content of the abstract. Submissions for the Student Exchange Track must pass only a mechanical review, and all will be presented in Poster format at the NATA Annual Meeting. The reasons for adding the Student Exchange Track are to encourage more students to participate in the Free Communications Program, and to afford more of our younger members the opportunity to participate in a forum for information exchange at the national level.

 

The following chart provides details comparing the features of each track.  Be sure you understand the features of each track before making your selection below.  Please call the NATA Foundation office (800-879-6282 ext.150) with any questions.

 

 

2010 FREE COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM

Student Exchange Track

Peer Reviewed Track

Eligible Participants

     > Undergraduate Students

     > Master’s Students

     > Doctoral Students

     > Faculty / Staff / Others

 

YES

YES

NO

NO

 

YES

YES

YES

YES

Type of Abstract Allowed

     > Original Research

     > Case Report

 

YES

NO

 

YES

YES

Review Process Applied

     > Mechanical / Format Review

     > Blinded Content Review

 

YES

NO

 

YES

YES

Presentation Format Allowed

     > Poster Presentation

     > Oral Presentation

 

YES

NO

 

YES

YES

Eligible for Student Awards

NO

YES

Abstract Published in JAT

NO

YES

CEUs Awarded for Presentation

YES

YES

 

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION IS DECEMBER 1, 2009

 

Select the link below for the instructions for the track you prefer.

 

PEER REVIEWED TRACK INSTRUCTIONS          STUDENT EXCHANGE TRACK INSTRUCTIONS