399: Conversion of society for maternal fetal medicine (SMFM) abstract presentations to manuscript publications

Abstract

To evaluate the rate of conversion of SMFM Annual Meeting abstract presentations (’abstracts’) to full manuscript publication (‘pub’) over time. Full manuscript publications corresponding to all SMFM oral abstracts 2003-2009 inclusive, and SMFM poster abstracts in 2003, 2005, and 2007 (random sample years selected) were manually searched in PubMed. An abstract was considered to ‘match’ a full pub if the abstract and pub titles as well as main methods and results were similar and the abstract 1st author was a pub author. In cases of uncertainty, the abstract-pub match was reviewed by a 2nd physician researcher. Time to pub, pub rates over time, and pub rates among US vs. non-US authors were examined. PMID numbers were also collected to determine if >1 abstract contributed to a manuscript. Data were analyzed using Wilcoxon rank-sum, ANOVA, and chi-square. 2455 abstracts presented at SMFM over the study period, including 544 orals (56 main plenary, 56 fellows plenary, 432 concurrent), were reviewed. 1406/2455 (57%) were published, generating 1228 unique pubs. Oral abstracts had a consistently higher rate of conversion to pubs vs. posters (78% vs. 51%, p<0.001). The median time to pub was 19 (IQR 9-39) months, and was significantly shorter for orals vs. posters (12.5 vs. 22 months, p<0.001). Pubs related to SMFM abstracts were published in 175 different journals, most commonly AJOG (602/1406, 43%), Obstet Gynecol (139/1406, 10%), and J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med (92/1406, 7%). The proportion of abstracts resulting in pub varied significantly over the study period (p<0.001, figure). Pub rates were higher if the abstract’s 1st author was affiliated with a non-US institution (66% vs. 55%, p<0.001). Non-US authors were less likely to combine multiple abstracts into one publication (8% vs. 14%, p=0.003). Most SMFM abstract presentations are converted to full manuscript publications. Abstracts presented as orals and by non-US primary authors had higher rates of publication.