The 2025 National Research Conference for the Prevention of Firearm-Related Harms aims to bring attention and focus to the current state of the science and research on firearm related harms across the lifespan.

The Scientific Committee of the Conference is seeking symposium, workshop, oral, and poster submissions on research encompassing all aspects of firearm-related harms, and from a wide array of disciplines (e.g., criminology, economics, education, engineering, medicine, nursing, psychology, public health, public policy, social work, sociology), focus areas (e.g., suicide, youth violence, community violence, unintentional injury, intimate partner violence, school shootings, mass shootings, technology and firearms, police violence, politically motivated violence), and along the translational research spectrum (e.g., law reviews, implementation, impact evaluation, phenomenological meaning, epidemiology, risk and protective factors, primary prevention, secondary & tertiary prevention, policy). We also invite submissions focused on cross-cutting issues including novel data, design, and measurement methodology. The Committee is particularly interested in research addressing disparities in firearm-related harm outcomes. Have questions? Check out our FAQ doc for quick answers!

Guidelines

Authors may submit proposals for symposia, technical workshop sessions, oral presentations, or poster presentations. If submissions for symposia and workshops are not selected to be included in the scientific programming, authors will have the opportunity to re-format and submit the science for consideration as an oral or poster presentation. Decisions on symposia and workshops will be made prior to the deadline for oral and poster submission, to allow at least two weeks for authors to resubmit their science for consideration in the new format.

Only submissions that follow the stated requirements will be considered. We understand that different fields may have different guidelines for writing abstracts, but to ensure fair scoring, all of the guidelines below must be followed. Due to a limited number of presentation slots, all submissions will undergo a selective review process, with priority given to submissions demonstrating innovative or rigorous methodological approaches or impactful results.

Abstracts should not be published or presented elsewhere prior to submission. We will not accept abstracts of proposed research or projects.

Accepted submissions must be presented in-person at the meeting taking place November 19 -21 in Tempe, Arizona, and we do not anticipate options for pre-recording or virtual presentations. The 2025 conference will not be free, and all presenters will be expected to register and pay applicable registration costs. Travel award applications will be released at a later date. Conference organizers are monitoring the status of institutional or federal travel restrictions and may consider switching to a virtual format or postponing the conference. However, submitters should plan for the conference to take place in person. We will keep submitters informed as more details become available.

Important Dates

Timeline for Symposia + Workshops

• Opening of Submissions: Thursday, May 1

• Submission Deadline: Sunday, June 1 @ 11:59 PM ET

Workshop and Symposium decision emails will be sent by the end of June, 2025.

Timeline for Oral/Poster Presentations

• Opening of Submissions: Thursday, May 1

• Submission Deadline: Wednesday, July 9 @ 11:59 PM ET

Oral and Poster decision emails will be sent by early September 2025.

All abstracts must be submitted through the online submission system links. We cannot accept abstracts that are emailed or mailed to us. Abstracts must be written and presented in English.

Tips for Submitting: You will need to create an account prior to beginning your submission. After clicking the button to submit an abstract, you will be prompted to create an account by selecting "Need to create an account?". Provide your email address and create a password. This step will need to be done for each of the submission types as they are separate web pages. We suggest using the same login information each time.

Additionally, we suggest clicking "Save" to ensure you preserve your progress as you complete your submission.

If you login to submit another abstract, or make changes after an initial submission, you will be taken to the "My Submissions"page after logging back into this system. Your contact information will automatically populate as the primary contact details for the submission. 

You may return to the online submission site to revise your abstract up until the deadlines.  After this date/time, the submission site will close and no additional changes, edits, revisions, etc. can be made to the title, content, authors, or disclosure information.