title: Publication performance of women compared to men in German cardiology.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Abstract presentations at scientific congresses are a preparation for publication in peer reviewed journals. The present study aimed to investigate the prediction of abstract acceptance of peer reviewed publications focusing on the difference between male and female first authors.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated 8411 abstracts submitted to the German Cardiac Society by 2090 females and 6321 male scientists. Abstract grading (3 to 9 reviewers, blinded on a 5-point scale) separated those accepted and rejected followed by a bibliometric analysis of Medline publications from 2006 to 2012.
  
  
  RESULTS
  While rating of abstracts was not different between males and females (p=0.475), publication rate of females was lower compared to males (17.5% vs 24.4 ≥%, p<0.001). Female authors achieved a higher impact factor in their publications (5.1 ± 0.2 vs 4.4 ± 0.1, p=0.0003) and were more often listed on papers in highly ranked journals (impact factor ≥ 5) than males. Although, more accepted abstracts than rejected ones were published in high rank journals, a considerable number of papers were generated from rejected abstracts (22%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Female cardiologists had a better publication success than males concerning high rank peer reviewed publications. Acceptance in blinded abstract evaluation often detects work published later, while rejected contributions still might represent high quality work suitable for publication in peer reviewed journals.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Innere Medizin III, Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes, DE-66424 Homburg, Germany. Electronic address: michael.boehm@uks.eu.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Böhm
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Innere Medizin III, Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes, DE-66424 Homburg, Germany; German Cardiac Society, DE-40237 Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Papoutsis
authors.affiliation: German Cardiac Society, DE-40237 Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gottwik
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Innere Medizin III, Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes, DE-66424 Homburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ukena
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002309:Cardiology / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D059232:Laboratory Personnel / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D008297:Male; D017712:Peer Review, Research / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: Gender-science; General cardiology; Medical publishing