The influence of industry sponsorship on the acceptance of abstracts and their publication.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine whether abstracts with industry sponsorship are more likely to be oral presentations, be published, and the effect of nonspecific author disclosure on identification of sponsorship.


METHODS
We reviewed abstracts accepted for the urogynecology scientific meeting from 1998-2006 and subanalyzed publication status of studies from 2002-2004.


RESULTS
One hundred twenty-four of 1091 abstracts (11.4%) and 45/376 (11.9%) of oral presentations had industry sponsorship. Industry-sponsored was not significantly more likely than nonindustry sponsored research (RR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.33-1.36) to be an oral presentation or be published (RR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.53-1.34). Twelve of 36 studies (34%) were correctly identified as sponsored with the use of a nonspecific author disclosure compared to 22/22 (100%) when sponsorship was disclosed separately.


CONCLUSIONS
Researchers without sponsorship can be reassured their work is as likely to be accepted for oral presentation and publication. A policy of full author disclosure makes identification of sponsored studies difficult, and specific sponsorship statement is necessary.
McLennan
Mary
M
Division of Urogynecology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, St Louis University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63117, USA. mclennam@slucare1.sluh.edu
Leong
Fah Che
FC
Steele
Andrew
A
Harris
Jenine
J
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003226:Congresses as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D030881:Disclosure; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D033181:Information Dissemination; D017594:Publication Bias; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012955:Societies, Medical; D014481:United States