The publication rate of presented abstracts at a congress and determining its publication factor

Abstract

Background/Aim: Congresses, scientific fairs on an academic platform, are held in numerous disciplines all over the world and bring physicians together. Through these congresses, the physicians can follow the latest developments in their profession and present their work. Many researchers first present their work in a congress, then update their work in the light of the feedbacks and publish them in a peer-reviewed journal. Although many oral and poster presentations are made in scientific congresses, a small portion are finally published in a peer-reviewed journal. This may be because the effort spent in preparing an abstract is much less than that spent during the preparation of an entire manuscript. However, the publication of a presentation in a peer-reviewed journal is a gold standard factor showing the quality of research and that it is worthy of publication. More detailed congress abstract evaluation criteria and their proximity to the procedures involved during the journal acceptance stage will likely enhance the publication rate. The purpose of this study was to perform a detailed evaluation of presentations at congresses held by the European Society of Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ESTES) in 2013, 2014, 2015 and determine their rates of publication in peer-reviewed journals. Methods: The booklets for three consecutive annual ESTES congresses (2013, 2014, 2015) containing presented papers were accessed online. All oral and poster presentations were analyzed, and published studies in peer-reviewed journals that are indexed in Google Scholar database until 2019 were identified. These published studies were then analyzed and used to determine the Publication Factor for Congress (PFC) for these congresses. Results: The total number of presentations at ESTES congresses in 2013-2015 was 1746, of which 878 were oral (50.2%) and 868 (49.8%) were in poster form. 450 (25.7%) of these were subsequently published in peer-reviewed journals that are indexed in Google Scholar database. 148 of the published papers (32.9%) were based on poster presentations, and 302 (67.1%) were from oral presentations. Conclusion: The publication rate of oral and poster presentations presented at the 2013-2015 ESTES congresses from the date of the congress to 2019 was 25.7%. Oral presentations were published more than poster presentations. It suggests that the papers with high publication potential have a high tendency to be presented as oral presentations by the authors. Determination of publication rates and publication factor for a congress at specific intervals may increase the motivation of authors at the participation and submission stages and strengthen the brand value.