Annual Research Symposium 2016

THEME: Empowering Humanity: Challenges and Responses

The Editorial Committee for the Annual Research Symposium of the University of Colombo invites the academic staff members of the University of Colombo to submit abstracts/extended abstracts to be considered for presentation at the Technical Sessions of the Annual Research Symposium in October 2016. The abstracts should be based on original research work and, if accepted, should be presented by a staff member or a postgraduate student of the University of Colombo. All accepted abstracts will be published in the Proceedings Book of the Annual Research Symposium 2016, University of Colombo.

The deadline for submission of the abstracts is 15 July 2016

To be considered, each submission should include the following documents.

1. Abstract – not exceeding 300 words
2. Extended abstract (inclusive of background, objectives, research design/materials and methods, results/ findings, conclusions) – not exceeding 1000 words
3. The author’s declaration form.

Guidelines for the preparation of the abstracts and extended abstracts are attached. Please follow the instructions carefully. Please note that abstracts/extended abstracts not prepared according to the guidelines provided, or submitted after the deadline, will not be considered. Authors should send in their abstracts/extended abstracts to the Faculty Editors by 15 July 2016.

Dr. Shravika Amarasekara
Editor – Annual Research Symposium

Dr. Naazima Kamardeen
Co-Editor – Annual Research Symposium

1] Guidelines for the preparation of abstracts

i. The abstract must report original research.

ii. An author may submit one abstract as a single author and one abstract as a co-author OR no more than three abstracts as co-author.

iii. The title should be brief and explain the study reported. Capital letters should be used only for the first letter in the first word of the title and proper nouns.

iv. The author/s names and addresses –

• Capital letters should be used only for the initials and the first letters of the surnames of authors.
• The address of the Institution in which the work was carried out should be included under the author’s name.
• If the collaborators are from different Institutions, the addresses of the Institutions should be included in the brief. In this case, the addresses of the co-authors should be indicated by a number in superscript after the authors’ names and before the respective addresses (as shown below).

Example (multiple authors):

I.P. Menikpurage¹, D. T. U. Abeytunga¹, R. L. C. Wijesundara²

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of Colombo, Colombo 03.

² Department of Plant Sciences, University of Colombo, Colombo 03.

v. The text of the abstract should not exceed 300 words.

vi. Standard abbreviations of SI units should be used.

vii. The abstract should be coherent and free of language errors.

viii. Two copies of the abstract should be submitted electronically on separate pages of a single Word document. The first copy should contain the name(s) of the author(s) and institutional affiliations. The second copy should carry only the title and the text and should not contain the name(s) of the author(s) and place(s) where the research has been carried out.

ix. A maximum of five keywords should be provided.

x. Acknowledgements should be restricted to the names of funding agencies providing sponsorship.

xi. Use the font “Times New Roman” size 11 with 1.5 spacing on A4 paper.

2] Guidelines for the preparation of extended abstract (should be submitted with each abstract)

i. The text should not exceed 1000 words.

ii. The text should cover the following aspects: Background, Objectives, Research Design/Materials and Methods, Results/ Findings, Conclusions and References.

iii. The extended abstract should be coherent and free of language errors.

iv. Two copies of the extended abstract should be submitted electronically on a single Word document. The first copy should contain the name(s) of authors and institutional affiliations. The second copy should not contain the name(s) of the author(s) and the place(s) where the research has been carried out.

v. Tables and diagrams can be included and should be referred to in the text as Table 1 or Fig. 1.

vi. References should be limited to only essential ones.

vii. Use the font “Times New Roman” size 11 with 1.5 spacing on A4 paper.