Methodologists and their methods. Do methodologists write up their conference presentations or is it just 15 minutes of fame?
OBJECTIVE
To assess the extent to which abstracts of methodological research, initially presented at meetings on systematic reviews, have gone on to be published as full articles.


METHODS
Full publication was assessed in three ways: a search was carried out of The Cochrane Library; a search was conducted using MEDLINE; and a questionnaire was sent to the contact author of each abstract.


RESULTS
Approximately half of the abstracts had not been, or were unlikely ever to be, published in full.


CONCLUSIONS
The rate of full publication of abstracts related to the methodology of systematic reviews seems similar to that for randomized trials.
Hopewell
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Clarke
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D000043:Abstracting and Indexing; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D017594:Publication Bias; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012107:Research Design; D006113:United Kingdom