2026 Symposium
Deadline for Abstract Submission: Dec. 8, 2025
2026 Abstract Submission Form
Abstract Acceptance:
Work can be submitted to one of the five categories. Abstracts that do not contain data may be accepted for an online recording on VoiceThread but will not qualify for an in-person presentation or award consideration. If selected for an in-person presentation, but the first author is unable to attend the symposium to present the poster, the poster will be converted to a virtual abstract.
To be eligible for participation, an applicant must be a currently enrolled medical student at Baylor College of Medicine (regular M.D. and dual M.D. degree programs; with the exception that M.D./Ph.D. students cannot submit basic science research performed during their time in graduate school). Research must have taken place during medical school and no undergraduate research will be accepted. Faculty mentors may be from other institutions; if so, we request a brief statement describing when and how the work was performed parallel to attending Baylor College of Medicine, including the faculty mentor’s contact information.
Acceptance will be based on the following criteria:
- Well-prepared, concise, appropriate, and understandable abstract
- Clear goal/hypothesis, methods, results, and conclusion/discussion sections
- Relevance and novelty of project
- Abstracts must be submitted before the deadline
Abstract Verification:
By submitting an abstract to the organizers, you verify that the described work was performed during your medical student enrollment at Baylor College of Medicine, even if the work was performed elsewhere. You also verify that this work has not been presented at any previous Henry JN Taub & James K Alexander Medical Student Research Symposium (other presentation venues including publication are acceptable).
Abstract Guidelines:
Complete the online abstract submission form and upload a copy of your abstract. Type your abstract single-spaced, using an Arial type font in 12-point font size (do not change current format of the file). An abstract submission template and example is provided for your reference. Abstracts that do not follow the specified guidelines will be rejected without consideration.
- Presenter: Must be the first author of abstract. Write your name and year; if several (up to max. 3 allowed) medical students contributed equally, list all names. Each student can submit only 1 abstract as a first or equally contributing author (presenter) but may be listed as co-author on other abstracts.
- Select one of the five research categories (or indicate “Review” if applicable)
- Indicate if you are on the presentation is related to your inquiry project.
- Title: Capitalize and bold the entire title - make the title as brief as possible (less than 100 words)
- Authors: List all author names (first and last name of each author, no degrees); presenting medical student must be first author; if several medical students contributed equally (3 maximum), designate those with a * after their names and write “* EQUAL CONTRIBUTION” under author list
- List faculty mentor(s), degree, and affiliation
- State one or two educational objectives (statement of the purpose of the study confined to a single sentence; no bullet points).
- Write your abstract: a maximum of 250 words are allowed (including the headings) - use your ”word count” tool and fill in your exact word number in the space provided. If several medical students contributed equally, please contact the organizers for special abstract adjustments. In any case, the entire text must fit on one (1) single page (including figures & tables).
- Separate your abstract into Background (why?), Goal/Hypothesis (what?), Methods (how?), Results (sufficient detail to support the conclusion), and Conclusion (based on what you measured); no literature references
- The abstract cannot refer to future data
- Check accuracy of spelling; do not use underline or bold for emphasis
- Remember that participants are selected solely on the basis of the abstract; thus, a well-planned and well-written abstract is of utmost importance. We encourage you to seek guidance from a faculty mentor in preparing your abstract