Abstract Submission

Invitation to Submit

We invite you to submit an abstract for consideration for the 44th Australian & New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law Congress being held from 2-5 December 2026 in Brisbane, Queensland.

We encourage you to take this opportunity to present your research, innovative programs, and significant findings to an engaged audience of professionals in the community. Presentations at the congress enrich the discussions and contribute to the growth of knowledge in our field.

We offer various presentation formats, including oral presentations, posters and symposia presentations, to ensure a diverse and engaging program.

Presentations are encouraged to be focused on original research, case studies, frameworks, or practical applications relevant to the overall theme; The Forensic Dilemma: Balancing Public Safety and Human Rights.

Submissions will be reviewed by our Scientific Committee to ensure the selection of high-quality contributions for presentation.

All presentations involving research with human subjects are required to adhere to the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2025).

To submit your abstract, please visit our submission portal on this website and follow the instructions provided. Please don’t hesitate to contact our conference managers, at mail@conferencedesign.com.au, if you have any questions.

We look forward to receiving your abstract and having you join us for an inspiring and stimulating conference.

Submit an Abstract

Submit your Oral or Poster abstract HERE
Submit your Symposium HERE
Submission Instructions & Guidelines
Presentation Formats
Other Information

Important Dates

  • Call for Abstracts Open
    1 May 2026
  • Call for Abstracts Close
    22 July 2026
  • Notification of Acceptance
    28 August 2026
  • Presenter Registration Due
    28 September 2026
  • Congress Starts
    2 December 2026

Presentation Themes

While we encourage submissions from all topics relevant to the intersection of psychiatry, psychology and law, particular focus will be given to presentations related to the theme of The Forensic Dilemma: Balancing Public Safety and Human Rights, including the below sub themes:

  • Detention, supervision, and decision-making
  • Forensic practice
  • Accuracy versus and fairness
  • Civil commitment
  • CMIA outcomes (including fitness to stand trial and mental impairment)
  • Impact of political discourse on clinical policy and practice
  • Policy and law reform
  • Risk assessment
  • Preventative approaches
  • Trauma-informed practice in the justice system
  • Reflective practice and practitioner wellbeing
  • Multidisciplinary approaches
  • Children and young people and developmental approaches
  • First Nations
  • Diversity
  • Access to justice / systemic barriers
  • Policing and investigative approaches
  • Online environments
  • Radicalisation and extremism

Abstract Submission Instructions

All abstracts and symposia are to be submitted online via the portals above.

1. Prepare your Abstract

  • Title: Use a descriptive title of up to fifteen words that indicates the content of the abstract. Titles are printed in uppercase.
  • Authors: Include the given name and family name of every contributing author, separated by a comma.
  • Affiliations: Include each author’s organisation, suburb, state, and email address (optional). The presenter will be indicated in the program, not the abstract.
  • Abstract: Prepare a 250-word abstract for all presentation types including:
    • The purpose of the presentation
    • The nature and scope of the topic
    • The issue or problem under consideration
    • The outcome of the conclusion reached
    • References

2. Corresponding Author

Open the submission portal and enter the contact details of the corresponding author. The corresponding author is the one who serves as the lead presenter.

3. Abstract Submission Details

You will need to enter the following details for each abstract you submit:

  • Presentation title (15-words)
  • Abstract (250-words)
  • Preferred presentation format
  • Preferred theme
  • Names of authors
  • Affiliations of authors
  • Indicate the presenter(s).
  • Short biography of the presenter (100-words)

Abstract Guidelines

  • Abstracts may describe unpublished or published work. If previously published, abstracts should include additional information not in the original publication.
  • You must declare a potential conflict of interest.
  • Ensure that your abstract is grammatically correct and free of other errors.
  • Use single spacing for all text.
  • Do not use abbreviations in the title of the abstract.
  • When using abbreviations in the abstract, spell them out in full at the first mention.
  • Capitalise the first letter in trade names.
  • Accepted abstracts will appear exactly as submitted.
  • Industry representatives are welcome to submit an abstract for consideration, however, submissions that are commercially or sales-focused will not be considered.

Human Research Submission Requirements

Authors of submissions involving human research should be confident that the research was conducted in a manner consistent with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research.

The questions authors will be required to answer Yes/No to when submitting the abstract include:

  1. Does the paper present results arising from human research (e.g. does it use data gathered directly from people or originally identifiable data about people collected from files/databases)?
  2. Was the research approved by an NHMRC-authorised Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) or an international equivalent?
  3. If the research was not approved by an HREC (or equivalent), did it receive organisational research governance review and approval as low-risk human research (see Chapter 5.1 of the National Statement)?

Presenter Registration

All presenters must register for the congress and pay the appropriate registration fee. Presenters also need to meet their own travel and accommodation costs.

Correspondence

The submitting author will be the only point of contact for all communication regarding the abstract, including acceptance notification.

Presentation Formats

You are asked to note a preferred presentation format when submitting. As there are limited places, particularly for oral presentations, the committee may request that you consider an alternative format. Authors will be advised and asked to confirm if they wish to present in the new format.

Oral Presentations

Oral presentations will be allocated 20-minutes, plus 5-minutes for question time.

Posters

Posters allow for direct interactions with other attendees and facilitate detailed discussions. Posters can present research in progress, projects, clinical topics, quality improvement initiatives, and case studies.

Symposia Presentations

Symposia sessions provide an opportunity for in-depth exploration of a topic or theme. Symposia comprise 3-4 abstract presentations.

Symposia sessions will be allocated 90-minutes, including question time.  Symposia proposals are to be submitted in two parts.

Part 1 should include the following:

  • The symposia title
  • The chair’s name and affiliation
  • 50-word biography of symposia chair
  • A 150-word overview of the symposia session

Part 2 will include:

  • Upon submitting the symposia session overview, you will receive a confirmation email with a link to upload the individual abstracts
  • Please upload between 3-4 individual 250-word abstracts. The chair can do this or send the email with the link to individual presenters to upload
  • Each individual abstract will need to reference the Symposia Session title. This is noted in the submission section at the bottom of the confirmation email.

Symposia with only three (3) presentations may go over the standard 20-minute time frame per presentation.

Review & Selection Process

The scientific committee will review all submitted abstracts according to the review criteria.

Selection Process

The Scientific Committee will allocate presentations to the program considering the score of the abstract, recommendations from reviewers, the author’s preference for presentation format, and the balance of the program.

Abstract authors will be notified of acceptance, rejection or change of format via email. Presenters are then required to confirm their acceptance and their participation in the congress by registering for the congress by the date specified above. Unsuccessful abstracts submitted for oral presentation will be offered a poster presentation if the selection criteria are met. No correspondence will be entered into as to why individual abstracts did not receive an oral presentation.

Scoring

All submissions will be reviewed against set criteria to ensure consistency and fairness in the review process.

  • Readability
  • Conceptual framework and methodology
  • Originality
  • Relevance

Submission & Presentation Information

Authors’ Permission

By submitting an abstract all authors are deemed to have agreed to release the content to the congress organisers and give permission to publish the abstract and presentation in all congress publications including on the website, in the app and printed material.

Presenter Guidelines

A set of guidelines to assist presenters will be made available before the conference.

Cancellations or Change of Presenter

Please avoid late cancellations or changing the presenter as material will be pre-printed with the speaker’s name and organisation and cannot be changed at a later date. If you need to cancel or change the presenter, please advise Conference Design at mail@conferencedesign.com.au as early as possible.

Disclosure Of Interest Statement

We recognise the considerable contribution that industry partners make to professional and research activities. We also recognise the need for transparency and the disclosure of potential conflicts of interest by acknowledging these relationships in publications and presentations. Where relevant, all authors must include a disclosure of interest statement in their abstract and if accepted in their presentation. For example, The Melon Institute and Metabolism Corp are funded by the University of Oxbridge, UK. No pharmaceutical grants were received in the development of this study.

Speaker Biography

A brief biography of the presenter is to be provided when you submit your abstract. Biographies may include the presenter’s position, career details and major work achievements. Biographies should be written in the third person. If your abstract is accepted, your biography will be used when introducing you as a speaker at the conference.

Uploading Your Presentations and Posters

You will be sent links to upload your PowerPoint slides and posters via Drobox.

Permission for Material Presented

Please ensure you have documented permission to use any images, music or other content in your abstract and presentation. Do not include any images copied from the internet. Getty Images and other image agencies crawl the internet looking for images that have been copied without the appropriate licenses. You are liable for all copyright infringements that arise from your presentation.

Copyright and Ownership of Material

All materials, including but not limited to presentations, slides, posters, abstracts, papers, and any other written or visual content presented at the event, are the intellectual property of us or the respective authors and presenters. The authors or presenters retain ownership rights to their materials.

Audio Visual Equipment Available

Each session room will be equipped with the following equipment:

  • A presentation laptop running Windows 10 or 11
  • Data projector
  • Screen
  • Lectern
  • Microphone, including sound for your presentation
  • A clicker to progress your slides
  • A laser pointer or mouse for pointing

All slides will be run from the presentation computer.

If you have a complex presentation, which includes multiple media files, we suggest you bring your laptop as a backup in case of difficulties loading your presentation.

If you use a Mac, have a complex presentation or require a specific or uncommon program, we suggest you bring your laptop as a backup in case of difficulties loading your presentation. You will need to arrange this in advance with the AV technicians. Please provide any specific audio-visual requirements to the Conference Secretariat at mail@conferencedesign.com.au.

PowerPoint Presentation Tips

  • All presentations should be in PowerPoint.
  • PowerPoint should be in a 16:9 aspect ratio.
  • Video and audio clips should be embedded in your slides rather than linked to external files.
  • There should be no more than 5 x 1-line bullet points per slide.
  • The optimum title text is 45 – 55 points and no smaller than 36 points.
  • Body text should be at least 26 points.
  • Avoid UPPERCASE letters as they are hard to read.
  • Please keep to the time limit of your presentation

Speaker Preparation Room

Please bring your presentation to the congress on a USB stick as a backup. Go to Speaker’s Preparation room at least 4 hours before or the day before your presentation. A technician will be available to load and check your presentation and to discuss any audio-visual queries you may have. If you are not providing slides for your presentation, please advise the AV technician in the Speaker’s Preparation room 4 hours before your session.

Writing an Abstract

An abstract is a short document that captures the interest of potential attendees of your session. Your abstract should engage the reader by telling them what your presentation is about. The title of the proposed presentation is also important; short attention-catching titles are the most effective, however, it is also important to ensure that the title describes the subject.

These are questions to consider when writing your abstract.

  • Does the title succinctly describe the topic?
  • Does the abstract clearly state the topic of the presentation?
  • Does the abstract say how the research or project was or is being undertaken?
  • Does the abstract give a concise summary of the findings?
  • Does the abstract indicate the value of the findings and whom the findings will benefit?
  • Does the abstract engage the reader by telling them why they should attend the presentation?
  • Is the abstract well written in terms of conciseness, language, and grammar?
  • Does the abstract conform to the structure outlined and the word limit?
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