28th Belgian Congress of Rheumatology

The Royal Belgian Society of Rheumatology takes great pleasure in announcing the 28th Belgian Congress of Rheumatology, taking place in Namur on 18 – 20 September 2024. 

This year’s congress will take place at Namur Expo.

Call for Abstracts

Submission Deadline: 15 May 2024

Authors will be notified of the acceptance of their abstract by email by 25 June 2024.

Authors can submit their abstracts for oral or poster presentation. It is to be noted that the Scientific Committee will select a limited number of abstracts for oral presentation in the Young Investigators’ Meeting, the abstract sessions and the Thieves Market (send us your most remarkable clinical cases!). The other abstracts will be accepted for poster presentation, after peer review (see scoring and evaluation guidelines below).

The three most challenging clinical cases submitted for the Thieves Market will be selected by the scientific committee for an oral presentation. This year, a 750 € prize will be awarded to the young clinician who presents the best of these three selected clinical cases. Only trainees or rheumatologists within maximum 3 years of board certification can apply.

Encore abstracts are accepted.

Download the abstract template here.

Submission Guidelines

You can submit several abstracts at the same time and add abstracts later on:

  • Click on the link below to start and create a profile.
  • Fill out your personal details and go through the submission procedure.

Your abstract(s) is/are only uploaded successfully when you receive an automatic reply confirming your submission(s).

IMPORTANT: The uploaded Word file(s) must contain title, authors & affiliations and the actual abstract.

Click here for step by step guidance through the online submission procedure.

Instructions for Authors

  • Abstracts must be written in English not exceeding 450 words (including title, authors, affiliations), and must be submitted as a Word file (xxx.doc) via the online submission form.
  • Use font Arial 10 characters per inch (font size 10).
  • Use single spacing and type the text unjustified without hyphenating words at line breaks. Use hard returns only to end headings and paragraphs, not to rearrange lines
  • Type title in sentence case in bold with no full stop at the end
  • Type family name first followed by the initials of the first name of the authors (Rubens P.P., Van Eyck J. etc.)
  • Type affiliation underneath the authors: Department, Institution, City, Country (do not mention street addresses, PO boxes or zip codes). When there are multiple affiliations number them as follows and use the semi-colon between the multiple affiliations:
    • 1Dept. A, Hospital A, City, Country; 2Dept. B,
      Hospital B, City, Country etc.
  • Organise the abstract in sections as follows:
  • Background/Purpose
    Background or statement of purpose
  • Methods
    Methods, materials, and analytical procedure used
  • Results
    Summary of the results in sufficient detail to support conclusion
  • Conclusion
    Conclusions reached
  • Paragraph headings should by typed in bold with no colon at the end. Do not use the heading ‘Abstract’. Each heading should be in a separate paragraph.
  • Max 2 figures or tables are allowed.
  • The use of References must be limited to max 3. When you list references, use superscript numbers in both the text and the reference list. Use Arial font size 8 for references

Scoring and evaluation Guidelines

  • Abstracts will be scored in a non-blinded manner
  • Abstract with scores < 5 will not be accepted to the conference.
  • 2 abstract subtypes 1. Original research, 2. Clinical cases.
  • The submitting author is asked to indicate whether/not he/she prefers to present at the Young Investigator Meeting Y/N or the Thieves Market (if eligible).
  • Guidelines for scoring
    10 = outstanding (oral)
    9 = excellent (oral)
    8 = very good (oral/poster)
    7 = good (oral/poster)
    6 = good (poster)
    5 = fair (poster)
    4 = insufficient (reject)
    3 = poor (reject)
    2 = very poor (reject)
    1= very poor (reject)
  • Clinical cases: Case reports and the efforts of young colleagues when presenting interesting cases is to be encouraged (as an overarching principle). Applications for the Thieves’ Market must be done as part of the submission process. Only trainees and rheumatologists within 3 years of board certification can apply.
  • For all abstracts: Scoring instructions: please add ‘Suggested for oral presentation Y/N
Submit your abstract here