For Congress in 2024, BEVA and EVJ introduced the clinical descriptive abstract (CDA) category and we are pleased to report that feedback from Congress was resoundingly positive. The CDA category was introduced to encourage clinicians to report observations from clinical cases that shed light on possible harms, treatment outcomes, or approaches to diagnosis and therapy that would be of interest to congress delegates. This also aimed to further encourage abstract submissions from clinical practice that may have previously found it difficult to convey the detail of their case(s) in the traditional clinical research abstract (CRA) format.
Notable descriptive abstracts from clinical practice were 'Standing, cone-beam, computed tomographic contrast tenography in 17 horses with tenoscopically confirmed findings' from Owen Fletcher, 'Maternal dexamethasone administration to hasten the onset of parturition in two mares with musculoskeletal disorders' from Justin McNaughten, and 'Factor IX deficiency and haemolysis in a Thoroughbred colt foal in the UK' from Katie Burden. However I would like to congratulate Guy Hinnigan whose presentation of the clinical descriptive abstract entitled 'Variation in the composition of the manica flexoria in the horse' was the recipient of the Sam Hignett award and Nadine Ogden whose presentation of the clinical research abstract entitled 'Computed Tomography of the equine caudal back and pelvis: pathological findings in 56 clinical cases (2018-2023)' which was the recipient of the HBLB Award. All of the published abstracts are available and are open access with Equine Veterinary Journal here.
The CDA format remains an option for 2025 abstract submissions; an important differentiation between the two submission types is word count, with the descriptive option allowing 500 words. The headings for the descriptive abstract aim to be more open and encourage description, allowing authors more freedom and perhaps reduce the perceived importance of trying to demonstrate or report something of statistical significance. Another very important difference between abstract types is that for a descriptive abstract (and only this route) authors can upload supplementary files for reviewer use to aid reviewers in understanding the material presented.
We are very much looking forward to receiving research and descriptive abstract submissions for Congress 2025! Submissions open Thursday 16 January 2025 and close Thursday 6 February 2025. Authors whose work is presented at BEVA Congress 2025 are encouraged to consider expanding their work to publish in either Equine Veterinary Education or Equine Veterinary Journal and I am pleased to announce that the latter's submission fee will be waived for Congress CRA and CDA authors until September 2026.