2nd Research Conference
of the Faculty of Health Sciences - 2026
Author Guidelines for Abstracts
The 2nd Research Conference of the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Open University of Sri Lanka (OuFHSRC 2026) invites to submit abstracts under the conference’s thematic areas. Accepted abstracts will be published in the OuFHSRC 2026 Proceedings and made available on the conference website.
- The abstract must report original previously unpublished research work.
- Each author may submit a maximum of three (03) abstracts.
- The Author Declaration Form (signed by all authors) must be uploaded at the time of submission. The review process will not be commenced until all relevant documents and information are completed.
Submission
Authors should submit blind abstracts (NOT including authors’ names) through the Conference Management Toolkit (CMT) of the online submission system, and details of ALL AUTHORS must be added to the Authors section of the CMT submission page. Soft copies of the following documents are requested to be uploaded on or before 25th February 2026 (The abstract to the SUBMISSION FILE section and all other documents to the SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL section).
- Abstract
- Author Declaration form
- Ethical approval (if applicable)
All submissions involving human or animal research must include a copy of the ethics approval letter issued by an Ethics Review Committee. Such letters should be uploaded as SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL.
Guidelines for Abstract Structure
The abstract must be written in a structured format, summarizing the study under subheadings; background, objective/s, methods, results/findings, and conclusion/s.
Authors should ensure to use the “abstract template of OuFHSRC – 2026” which can be downloaded from the OuFHSRC 2026 webpage, leaving sufficient space to add names of authors and their affiliations.
Specific guidelines
- All abstracts must be written in English (British English).
- Authors should submit the error-free version of the abstracts.
- File format: prepare the abstract using MS Word 2007 or 2010. Save your file with the .doc extension (i.e., .doc format).
- Paper size: B5
- Margins: All margins 2.5 cm
- Font type and size: Times New Roman, 11 pt (except for the Title and Affiliations), single-spaced.
Title
- Should not exceed 120 characters (including spaces) or two lines.
- Use Times New Roman, 12 pt, bold, centered alignment.
- Only the first letter of the first word should be capitalized (except for proper nouns and scientific names). Scientific names should be italicized. If common or vernacular names follow the scientific name, included them in parentheses.
- Abbreviations and acronyms should not be used in the title unless unavoidable.
Authors
- Follow the given style for author names: Surname / Family name followed by initials with dots (e.g., Perera, A.P.).
- Use Times New Roman, 11 pt, centered alignment.
- Affiliations should be indicated with superscript Arabic numerical placed at the end of surname/ family name.
- If authors have different affiliations, use superscript Arabic numerals (e.g., 1, 2) to link each author to the corresponding affiliation.
- If all authors share the same affiliation, superscript numerals should not be used.
- Underline the name of the presenting author.
- The corresponding author should be indicated with a superscript * sign at the end of the name.
- Email address of the corresponding author should be provided (Times New Roman, 10 pt) after the affiliation of the authors as shown in the template.
Affiliations
- Use Times New Roman, 10 pt, italic, centered alignment.
- List affiliations on separate lines.
Body of the Abstract
- Word limit: maximum 250 words (excluding the title, authors, affiliations, and keywords)
- Font: Times New Roman, 11 pt.
- Line spacing and alignment: single-spaced, no extra spacing before or after, and justified text.
- Any abbreviations should be defined at first use in the text.
- Scientific names (e.g. organisms) should be italicized. If common vernacular names follow the scientific name, they should be provided in parentheses.
- SI Units must be used throughout. Please refer to the website: https://www.bipm.org/en/measurement-units or the latest edition of a relevant text.
- There shall be no citations or references in the abstract.
Keywords
- Mention a maximum of 05 keywords. Times New Roman, 11 pt, italic. Organise the keywords in alphabetical order. Separate the words by commas.
Acknowledgments
- Acknowledgement should be restricted to funding agencies/institutions writing in as a single sentence. Names of individuals should not be given.
- Times New Roman, 10 pt,
Mode of Presentation
- The final mode of presentation (oral or poster) will be decided based on reviewers’ recommendations.
- Editorial Board reserves the right to reassign the theme of the abstract selected by the authors to a more relevant theme, if necessary.
- Acceptance notification will be sent via email to the corresponding author.
- If the presenting author or any other authors is/are unable to present at the scheduled session, the corresponding author will be blacklisted from the OuFHSRC of the Open University of Sri Lanka for three (3) consecutive years.
Guidelines for Withdrawal
- Withdrawal before acceptance:
- Authors may withdraw their submission before receiving the notification of acceptance.
- Email the request to the Conference Secretary (oufhsrc@ousl.lk), clearly stating the title and reference number of the abstract to be withdrawn.
- Withdrawal after acceptance:
- Once an abstract is accepted to be published in the OuFHSRC 2026 proceedings, withdrawal will not be permitted.
Further Inquiries
For additional information regarding abstract submission, please contact:
Email: oufhsrc@ousl.lk
Tel: 0702012568 (8.30 am – 4.30 pm)
Acknowledgement:
The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft, and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support