title: Publication Rate of Abstracts Presented at the Annual Congress of the European Society for Surgical Research during 2008-2011.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The presentation of scientific studies at major meetings serves to rapidly share study results with the scientific community. On the other hand, full-text publication of abstracts in peer-reviewed journals ensures the dissemination of science. This study examines the publication rate (PR) of meeting abstracts presented at the European Society for Surgical Research (ESSR) congresses and determines/compares the factors affecting the PRs.
  
  
  METHODS
  All presentations at the ESSR congresses held during 2008-2011 were retrospectively assessed. Manuscripts indexed in PubMed were included. The meeting year, journal impact factor (IF) in the publication year, study type, presentation type, time to publication and geographic origin of studies were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among a total of 1,368 oral and poster abstracts, 48.7% (n = 391) of the oral presentations (OPs) and 29.7% (n = 168) of the poster presentations (PPs) were published in medical journals indexed in PubMed. The mean IF of the journals was 2.696 (0.17-14.95). The journals that published OPs had a higher IF than the journals in which PPs were published (2.944 vs. 2.118; p < 0.001). The PR was also higher in the OP group than in the PP group of journals (p < 0.001). The time to publication was 17.5 months (-166 to 82) and was shorter for PPs than for OPs (14.02 vs. 19.09 months; p = 0.01). According to the study type, experimental studies had a significantly higher PR (53.7%; p < 0.001); however, there was no significant difference in PR in terms of the prospective or retrospective nature of clinical studies. The clinical studies were also compared according to the IF values of the journals in terms of the prospective or retrospective nature of the study, and no significant difference was found (p = 0.62).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The ESSR congress is an efficient meeting for researchers from varied surgical disciplines and has a PR equivalent to that of similar scientific meetings. The congress has achieved a PR of 40.9% over 4 years with an average IF of 2.696 and a mean time to publication of 17.5 months, which is equivalent to that of similar scientific meetings. OPs have a higher PR in journals with greater IF values as compared with PPs.
authors: Department of General Surgery, Izmir Military Hospital, Izmir, Turkey.
authors: Ulvi Mehmet
authors: UM
authors: Meral
authors: Umit
authors: U
authors: Alakus
authors: Murat
authors: M
authors: Urkan
authors: Orhan
authors: O
authors: Ureyen
authors: Nisa Cem
authors: NC
authors: Oren
authors: Aylin
authors: A
authors: Ozturk Meral
authors: Eylem
authors: E
authors: Çağıltay
authors: Mehmet Fatih
authors: MF
authors: Can
mesh_terms: D003226:Congresses as Topic; D005060:Europe; D013502:General Surgery; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012955:Societies, Medical; D013997:Time Factors