Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is one of the leading causes of death around the world. While we work hard to develop new drugs and fix the underlying causes of AMR, it’s vital that we protect the antibiotics we have.

As part of our Keep Antibiotics Working programme, we are holding an essay completion aimed at UK Medical Students. Entrants are invited to submit up to a 1000 words, entitled: ‘Can medical students do anything useful to support the antimicrobial resistance agenda?’

First, second and third place winners will be presented with certificates. The first prize winner will be awarded free entry to the BSAC Spring Conference 2022 to receive their certificate. Deadline for entry is 14th February 2022.

Guidance and Regulations

Eligibility

• The competition is open to all medical students currently enrolled at a UK medical school at the time of submission.
• Entries are invited on the essay ‘Can medical students do anything useful to support the antimicrobial resistance agenda?’
• Plagiarism will result in disqualification.

Essay submission

• Essays must be submitted to the following email address: FDrummond@BSAC.org.uk
• The essay must be submitted as a single Word document, submissions made in PDF (or other formats) will not be accepted.
• Essays must be up to 1000 words.
• Deadline for entries is Monday 14th February 2022 before 17:00 (GMT).

Judging

• Essays will be marked by a judging panel selected by the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) and the Keep Antimicrobials Working steering group.
• The panel will be looking for both general and clinical knowledge of antimicrobial stewardship and original critical thinking. The judge’s decision is final.

The Prize

• The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners will be presented with certificates, and the 1st prize winner will have free entry to the BSAC Spring Meeting 2022 to receive their certificate.
• The winners are expected to provide the full text of their essay for publication on the BSAC/KAW website.
• No prize will be awarded if a sufficient standard is not reached.

Format

• The essay should be double spaced, and the margins should not be excessively wide. A clear, legible single font and point size (ideally Arial 10) should be used throughout.
• All submissions should include a title page comprising essay title, author name, author affiliation (i.e., medical school), email address, and word count.
• There is a limit of 1000 words in the main text of the article. Title page, references and figure legends will not count towards the word limit.
• There should be no more than two figures/tables, and there should be a maximum of 20 references. Figures/tables should be included within the main text where appropriate.
• References: Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all references, which must be checked against the original material. References should be cited in the text using sequential numbers. Superscript numbers should be used and should be placed after any punctuation. When referring to several references, separate individual numerals by a comma or a hyphen for a range greater than two references. For instance: This was first discovered by Jones,1 and later confirmed by several other groups of investigators.^2,3,5-7 Papers accepted for publication, but not yet published, may be included in the reference list; they should be listed as ‘in press’, with the name of the journal and the likely year of publication. All references should be listed numerically at the end of the text in Vancouver style. Each reference should be preceded by a number (not superscript). For example: 1 McMullan BJ, Andresen D, Blyth CC, et al. Antibiotic duration and timing of the switch from intravenous to oral route for bacterial infections in children: systematic review and guidelines. Lancet Infect Dis 2016;16(8):e139-52.