Full publication of abstracts of randomised controlled trials published at International Continence Society meetings'.
OBJECTIVE
To find out how many abstracts reporting randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that are submitted to scientific meetings of the International Continence Society (ICS) are later published in full, and any predictors of full publication.


METHODS
The appropriate issues of "Neurourology and Urodynamics" and the Proceedings of the ICS for 1998 and 1999 were hand-searched for the abstracts reporting RCTs. Bibliographic databases (Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Healthstar, Psychlit, CINAHL) were searched, using the authors' names, to find full publications. Authors were contacted when no full publication was found to check that all full publications had been found. This was repeated for 1987.


RESULTS
Sixty-three abstracts reporting RCTs were found in 1998 and 1999. Twenty-five of these (40%) were followed by full publication. The only characteristic that predicted full publication was the use of a no treatment control group. In 1987, 16 of 19 abstracts (84%) went on to be published in full.


CONCLUSIONS
The rate of full publication of abstracts reporting RCTs submitted to recent ICS meetings is low. It is lower than the rate of 56% found in other meetings. As it is widely regarded as unethical not to publish in full, ICS members should make every effort to write-up studies for peer-reviewed publication.
Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, PO Box 913, Dunedin, 9001, New Zealand. peter.herbison@otago.ac.nz
Peter
P
Herbison
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D014572:Urology