[How many reach their goal? Outcome of abstracts presented at the XXIV AAEEH (Spanish Liver Study Association) Congress and their progress over time].
BACKGROUND
The aim of the abstracts presented at scientific meetings is their publication in a peer-review journal. In this study, we analysed the publication rates of the abstracts submitted to the 24th AEEH meeting (1999) and also to see if this was stable over time.


METHODS
We assessed the publication rates of the abstracts presented at the 24th AEEH meeting in journals included in MEDLINE. As a comparison tool, we did the same with the abstracts submitted to the 34th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL). The same procedure was carried out on the three subsequent editions of AEEH meetings to evaluate the continuity in the long term.


RESULTS
Of the abstracts submitted at the 24th AEEH meeting, 52.8% (93/176) were published: 71.4% of those had been accepted for oral presentation, 54% as a poster and 41% were non-accepted abstracts. From the 34th EASL Annual Meeting, 27.1% (248/913) of the submitted abstracts were published (p < 0.001 compared to AEEH), 52.5% of those were accepted for oral communication, 33.1% accepted as a poster communication and 18.1% from non-accepted abstracts. Moreover, this high publication rate of the abstracts of AEEH meeting at 1999, was maintained during the following three years (47.55 and 54%, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
a) The publication rate of abstracts presented at 24th AEEH meeting was excellent and superior in comparison to the EASL rate of the same year; b) almost three quarters of abstracts accepted for oral presentation and more than half of those accepted as a poster were finally published, and c) high publication rates seem to be maintained over time.
Cifuentes
Inmaculada
I
Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Ctra. del Canyet s/n, 08916 Badalona, Barcelona, Spain.
Bartolí Solé
Ramón
R
Miquel Planas
Mireia
M
Cabré Gelad
Eduard
E
Morillas Cunill
Rosa Maria
RM
Planas Vila
Ramón
R
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015706:Bibliometrics; D003226:Congresses as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D035081:Editorial Policies; D005762:Gastroenterology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006040:Goals; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012955:Societies, Medical; D013030:Spain