The fate of research abstracts submitted to a national surgical conference: a cross-sectional study to assess scientific impact.
BACKGROUND
Conference abstracts often lack rigorous peer review, but potentially influence clinical thinking and practice. To evaluate the quality of abstracts submitted to a large surgical conference, presentation and publication rates were investigated to assess scientific impact.


METHODS
A Cross-sectional study of abstracts submitted to Dutch Surgical Society meetings from 2007 to 2012 was conducted. Presentation rates, publication rates in MEDLINE-indexed journals using PubMed Central database, and actuarial times to subsequent publication were investigated.


RESULTS
Of 2,174 submitted abstracts, 1,305 (60%) abstracts were accepted for presentation. Actuarial 1, 3, and 5-year publication rates were 22.4%, 62.2%, and 68.6% for presented abstracts, compared with 20.9%, 50.3%, and 57.7% for rejected abstracts, respectively (log-rank x(2) 23.728, df1, P < .001). Publications resulting from abstracts presented at the conference had a significantly higher mean (±standard error) impact factor (4.4 ± .2 vs 3.4 ± .1, P < .001), compared with publications from previously rejected abstracts.


CONCLUSIONS
We advocate critical appraisal of the use of findings of scientific abstracts and conference presentations. The 5-year abstract-to-publication ratio is proposed as a novel quality indicator to allow objective comparison between scientific meetings.
Department of Surgery, Ikazia Hospital Rotterdam, Montessoriweg 1, Rotterdam, 3083AN The Netherlands. Electronic address: v.demeijer@erasmusmc.nl.
Vincent E
VE
de Meijer
Department of Surgery, Ikazia Hospital Rotterdam, Montessoriweg 1, Rotterdam, 3083AN The Netherlands.
Simon P
SP
Knops
Faculty of Medicine, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Joris A
JA
van Dongen
Faculty of Medicine, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Ben M
BM
Eyck
Department of Surgery, Ikazia Hospital Rotterdam, Montessoriweg 1, Rotterdam, 3083AN The Netherlands.
Wouter J
WJ
Vles
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D013502:General Surgery; D006801:Humans; D055811:Journal Impact Factor; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D009426:Netherlands; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012955:Societies, Medical
5-Year abstract-to-publication ratio; Publication bias; Publication rate; Research abstract; Scientific conference; Surgical research