Publication Rate and Evidence-Based Evaluation of Abstracts Presented at the American College of Veterinary Surgeon's Annual Meeting.

Abstract

To document the publication rate of abstracts presented at 10 ACVS conferences and report the time required for publication and level of evidence. Literature review. All scientific abstracts published in the ACVS proceedings from 2001 to 2010 were reviewed. The level of evidence of each abstract was evaluated and scored (1-4). Publication information was determined after a broad bibliographic search through multiple online databases. The overall publication rate for ACVS abstracts (n=1,395) was 66% and 11% were published before conference presentation. The majority of abstracts focused on the dog (35%) or the horse (33%). Most (90%) abstracts were submitted to veterinary-based journals. The median time (interquartile range [IQR]) from abstract presentation to journal submission was 222 days (107-541), from journal submission to acceptance for publication was 122 days (89-185), and from acceptance to publication in a journal was 208 days (151-289). The time from abstract presentation to final publication took 449 days (238-794). Of the abstracts, 4% were of level 1 evidence, 9% level 2, 66% level 3, and 21% level 4. Studies with a higher level of evidence were submitted, accepted, and published quicker than ones with a lower level of evidence. The publication rate was 61%, 71%, 68%, and 65% for level 1, 2, 3, 4 evidence, respectively. The publication rate of scientific abstracts presented at the ACVS conferences is comparable to other biomedical conferences. The subject matter is limited in scope and focused mainly on dogs or horses. Most abstracts contained lower level of evidence. Studies with higher levels of evidence were submitted, accepted, and published more timely. However, the publication rate was similar for abstracts of all levels of evidence.