Call for Abstracts: International Conference on Transport & Health Smart Cities. Disruptive Mobility. Healthy People.

ICTH 2019-Melbourne aims to provide valuable insights into the health impacts of technological disruptions in transport and urban planning, governance, strategic and policy decision-making, performance tools and the potential return on investment of a dynamic system. Join us to learn HOW the most innovative minds in academia, practice and policy are bridging the gap between scientific investigation and real-world application.

Abstract Submission Opens ​6 March through 8 May 2019


Submission of an abstract represents a commitment to attend ICTH 2019-Melbourne, irrespective of acceptance of an abstract. The opportunity to submit an abstract for consideration is available only to those who plan to attend the conference for educational and networking purposes and not to those who wish to attend exclusively for the opportunity to present. Presenters of accepted abstracts will be REQUIRED to register by the Early Registration deadline. Failure to register will result in the automatic withdrawal of the abstract.

Full Session Proposals
ICTH 2019 - Melbourne will accept full session proposals. This opportunity is offered to authors interested in combining efforts to present a comprehensive interactive workshop on a particular topic. Proposal MUST include 3 - 4 abstracts and a descriptive summary. Each abstract will be required to be submitted individually and undergo the formal peer-review process. Details for proposal submission will become available through the abstract submission portal; opening March 2019.

Abstract Submission Guidelines
Each abstract considered for presentation at ICTH will go through a formal peer-review and scoring process. Final abstract scores are calculated as the average of three (3) individual peer-reviewer assessments. Scientific/research abstracts and practitioner/policy/case study abstracts will be assessed separately. Only the highest scoring abstracts will be given the option for oral presentation. All others that are accepted will be presented as pecha kucha or a poster based on peer-review scoring and recommendations.

NOTE: Due to the interactive nature of ICTH with regard to team assignments and scheduling, each author indicating a preference for an oral presentation will be limited to one (1) standard oral, one (1) pecha kucha and two (2) poster presentations. 

Authors will be asked to select and submit an abstract in their preferred presentation format:

  • Standard Oral (15 Minutes)
  • ​Standard Oral including an interactive audience component (Team members will have an extra 30 minutes in the session to create a participatory activity to engage audience members.)
  • Pecha Kucha - An oral presentation of 20 slides for 20 seconds each (6 minutes and 40 seconds in total). This is a fast-paced and FUN alternative! Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PechaKucha for details.
  • Poster - Presentation and judging will be completed on the session day assigned to each author


The author's presentation preference will be taken into consideration along with scoring and recommendations received by each of the three peer-reviewers. Final decisions with regard to presentation format are at the discretion of the ICTH Programme Committee.

Co-Authors
The author attending ICTH and presenting the abstract must submit the abstract under their name. If co-authors will be in attendance, either one of the authors may submit the abstract. The author submitting the abstract must be the presenter at the conference. This author will receive all communications from ICTH. Other authors are encouraged to attend, but will not be considered as a presenter of the abstract at ICTH unless approved by the assigned session team members. Other authors listed on the abstract will be included in the ICTH on-line, printed programme and on the Journal of Transport & Health published abstract.

Invited Abstract Categories
The theme for ICTH 2019 is "Smart Cities. Disruptive Mobility. Healthy People.​Abstracts are invited on the general headings below with sub-headings indicating the specific categories; all within the overarching theme of transport and health. Note that an "Other" category will be included under each main heading. To present at ICTH 2019-Melbourne, your abstract DOES NOT need to focus on technology or disruptive mobility. The overall theme of the conference will highlight emerging issues of smart cities and disruptive mobility; however the primary focus is the impact of transport (and urban/rural) planning and design on quality of life, health and well-being in communities.

Transport and Health Behaviour

  • Active travel
  • Disruptive mobility & cultural shifts
  • Methods, performance measures & outcomes
  • Public education/public involvement
  • Social marketing & other behavioural interventions

Technologies for Smart Cities

  • Autonomous/connected vehicle technologies
  • Transport Network Companies (TNC); Uber, Lyft and others
  • Technologies to assist active travel (i.e., Wayfinding apps, etc)
  • Infrastructure adaptations & technologies
  • Electric vehicles (including e-bikes)
  • Renewable energies

Transport and Health Impacts of Cities

  • Road safety danger reduction & injury
  • Health/environmental impact assessments
  • Air quality & pollution
  • Noise & water pollution
  • Climate change
  • Community severance
  • Mental health


Planning for Smart Cities

  • Urban/rural planning
  • Complete/healthy streets/governance
  • Aging populations
  • Disability assisted mobility (paratransit)
  • Planning & infrastructure challenges
  • Built environment density, distance
  • Monitoring & evaluation
  • Socio-technical challenge
  • City trials, Intervention studies and natural experiments
  • Safe routes to school
  • Work/school travel plans


Sustainable Urban Transformation

  • Green/natural space (biodiversity)
  • Environment/social justice/inequities
  • Transport economics
  • Infrastructure for transport beyond the private car (i.e., walking/cycling)


Abstract Submission Details
Abstract Submission Opens ​6 March through 8 May 2019
Excluding the title, your abstract should not exceed 400 words. Word counts will be automatically limited by the online submission software.

You will be asked to indicate your professional discipline. This information is important to ensure that each team has an equal mix of cross-disciplinary professionals. If you consider yourself as fitting into more than ONE category, please indicate your university degree field of study.

  • Health/Public Health
  • Transport
  • Urban Planning
  • Other:________________


You will be asked to self-identify what professional category your work falls under. NOTE: If you are employed by an academic institution, you are NOT considered a practitioner.

  • Practitioner
  • Researcher
  • Undergraduate or Masters’ Student
  • Doctoral Student
  • Post-Doctoral Early Career Researcher (aged <35 years old or within 5 years of  degree completion)


Researcher Abstracts
Four (4) major headings of a scientific abstract must be included: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Authors are encouraged to use additional sub-headings where appropriate.

  • The results section must include a formal statistical analysis of quantitative or qualitative research investigation (where appropriate). Hence, robust results should be presented. For quantitative studies, this would usually mean including statistics, such as confidence intervals.
  • Abstracts stating that ‘results will be presented’ will not be considered (however results of ongoing analyses are acceptable).
  • Results of a systematic review are acceptable.


Case Study/Practitioner Abstracts
Relevant sub-headings are at the discretion of the submitting author. Case study and practitioner abstracts should be descriptive enough to outline the project or idea including the methods used and a statistical data analysis (if applicable), and include any outcomes of the work. Case Study/Practitioner Abstracts will be subjected to a different scoring criteria from the Research Abstracts.

General Abstract Guidelines

  • No references, tables or figures are permitted
  • Use International characters only
  • Type in normal sentence case DO NOT TYPE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
  • Do not use abbreviations - You may know what they mean, but we do not
  • Use only accepted keyboard characters
  • Separate each paragraph with one hard return


If you will be performing a content cut and paste, we recommend using the “paste as plain text” button in the tool bar along with the “custom character” button.  If any erroneous characters remain you will be alerted upon submission and provided with the opportunity to amend the submission.

Cash Awards
Cash prizes ($250 AUD) will be awarded to the two (2) highest scoring abstracts (including oral, pecha kucha and poster) in each of the following five (5) categories:
1.      Practitioner
2.      Researcher
3.      Doctoral Student
4.      Undergraduate or Masters’ Student
5.      Post-Doctoral/Early Career Researcher (aged <35 years old or within 5 years of  degree completion)
6.      2 Best Posters - judged on-site (separate from the high scoring abstracts)

NOTE: Winners of a high abstract award will not be considered eligible to compete in the best poster competition.

Publication Opportunity
All accepted/presented abstracts will be published in an online supplement to the Journal of Transport and Health (JTH) www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-transport-and-health/ and the conference programme app. Based on the topic area of interest, selected abstract authors will be asked to submit a full manuscript to the JTH following the conference. NOTE: YOU MUST PRESENT AT ICTH TO RECEIVE AN INVITATION TO PUBLISH. Submitted manuscripts will undergo a formal peer-review process. Accepted manuscripts will be published in the next suitable issue of the JTH and also as a virtual conference issue online. For more information, please contact Dr. Jennifer Mindell at j.mindell@ucl.ac.uk

Make sure to reference to the document 'Advice for Authors' available on the Elsevier website www.elsevier.com/authors and especially the section for early career researchers http://www.elsevier.com/early-career-researchers/home

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