Publication Rate of Papers Presented at the SCHOT Congresses between 2013 - 2019

Abstract

Introduction The publication rate is a widely used parameter to assess the quality of medical congresses, which varies between 36% and 67% in the different Traumatology and Orthopedics societies. The objective of our study was to evaluate the publication rate of abstracts presented at congresses of the Chilean Society of Orthopedics and Traumatology (SCHOT).

Material and Methods Cross-sectional observational study. The SCHOT database was reviewed with the abstracts of free papers presented at the SCHOT congresses between 2013 and 2019. A search of each abstract was carried out in Pubmed, SciELO, Google Scholar and SCHOT Journal, in order to identify the coincidence of the publication with the abstract. A matching publication was defined as one with identical titles or with minor modifications between the abstract and the publication.

Results 1599 oral papers presented on the podium were evaluated, 215 ended up in publication in a journal (13.5%). Observational studies (n = 171) represented 79.5%, while experimental studies (n = 44) represented the remaining 20.5%. The committees with the highest publication rate were knee (23.7%), ankle and foot (17.8%).

Conclusions Between 2013 and 2019, the publication rate of papers presented at the SCHOT congress was 13.5%, which is low compared to similar international studies. The data reported in this study could promote future authors presenting at the SCHOT congress to achieve scientific publications, increasing the academic activity in our specialty.

Keywords

SCHOT - publication rate - annual meeting - podium - Level of Evidence: 4

Introduction

One of the central stages in medical research is the dissemination of scientific results to provide evidence that allows better decision-making in the treatment of patients and, on the other hand, stimulate research by exposing it to peers.

The most common way to disseminate medical research is through presentations at conferences and scientific publications. Studies accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals are regarded as the gold standard for disseminating research. These publications offer comprehensive details that enable readers to thoroughly assess the study's methodology, results, the researcher's discussions, and conclusions, thus facilitating a critical analysis of the published work.[1] In contrast, podium presentations are presented in a summary manner with limited information. Nevertheless, this form of immediate dissemination has the potential to influence clinical decisions, even without necessarily providing high-quality evidence to support them.[2] The publication rate of papers presented is a parameter widely used to evaluate the quality of medical conferences.[2] [3] Several studies have been carried out at different Orthopedics and Traumatology conferences, demonstrating publication rates between 36 to 67%,[4] [5] [6] with up to 90% of the abstracts published in a period of 4 years in some societies.[5] [7] [8]

The congress of the Chilean Society of Orthopedics and Traumatology (SCHOT) is an annual event that brings together all the subspecialties of traumatology in Chile, which has gained great importance at the Latin American level, however, there is no data regarding the rate of publication.

The objective of this work is to identify the publication rate of the abstracts presented at the SCHOT congresses between 2013 and 2019, identifying the subspecialties and institutions with the highest publication rates.

Materials and Methods

Cross-sectional observational study. A secondary analysis of the SCHOT database was performed. All summaries of free papers presented on the podium of the society's congress from 2013 to 2019 with complete information were included. Summaries of videos or posters were excluded, as well as presentations by authors with incomplete information or duplicates.

The abstracts were classified by year of presentation. The evaluation of the summaries was carried out independently by the authors (three traumatology and Orthopedics residents and a research fellow). The databases used to identify presentations coincident with publications in journals were Medline, SciELO, Google Scholar and RCHOT Journal. A coincident publication was defined as one with identical titles between the abstract and the publication. The authors, independently, carried out a double search verification per year in order to additionally identify those works with a different title but with a coincidence of keywords, main authors and first co-author. This was done considering the possibility that the original title has undergone minor modifications in the publication process.

All abstracts submitted with matching publications were evaluated in their entirety. The review of hypotheses, methodology and results of the study were considered to evaluate the similarity in extenso. Additionally, the publication data were analyzed: title of the journal, year of publication, type of study, impact factor, indexing in the Journal Citation Reports® (JCR) and, finally, the level of evidence of the study according to the Oxford Center for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM). In the event of doubts and differences, these were resolved by two senior researchers. The last search access was in December 2020.

The data were processed in Microsoft Excel (v.17.0) and STATA (v.16.0). Qualitative data analysis was performed using X.[2] The comparison of two or more data sets with normal distribution was used by ANOVA, using the Bonferroni correction. Differences were considered significant when the p value was less than 0.05.

Results

Following selection by the congressional commission, a total of 1,599 works were presented in podium format at the SCHOT congresses between 2013 and 2019, meeting the requirements for our analysis ([Fig. 1]).

Fig. 1 Flowchart: summary of PRISMA methodology used for review.

Description of the Submitted Works

Annually an average of 228 (SD ± 47) works were presented in podium format. Exceptionally, 2016 had a higher oral presentation rate than estimated ([Fig. 2]). The majority (70.7%) came from clinical institutions, followed by 16.4% from academic institutions and 12.9% from a combination of both. During 2013 to 2019, the committees with the highest presentation rate at the congress were: (1) knee and sports traumatology, (2) hip, (3) shoulder and elbow, (4) hand and microsurgery, (5) foot and ankle and (6) spine. ([Table 1])

Table 1

ID	Committee	Total presentations (n)	Percent frequency (%)	Publications	Percent frequency (%)
1	Limb lengthening and reconstruction	28	1,75	2	0,93
2	Hip	269	16,82	37	17,21
3	Spine	169	10,57	30	13,95
4	Shoulder and elbow	231	14,45	23	10,7
5	Hand and microsurgery	184	11,51	10	4,65
6	Orthopedic oncology	50	3,13	2	0,93
7	Children's orthopedics	148	9,26	10	4,65
8	Foot and ankle	177	11,07	38	17,67
9	Knee	273	17,07	51	23,72
10	Sports traumatology	22	1,38	4	1,86
11	Tumors	3	0,19	0	0
12	Others	45	2,81	8	3,72
	Total	1599	100	215	100

Fig. 2 Oral presentations of works at the SCHOT per year (N = 1599).

Publication of Submitted Works

Between 2013 and 2019, a total of presented 215 papers ended up being published in peer-reviewed journals. This translates to an average publication rate of 13.5% over the span of 7 years. The year 2014 recorded the highest publication rate per year with 18.7% ([Fig. 3]).

Fig. 3 Publications of works presented according to the year of the SCHOT congress (n = 215).

94% coincided between what was presented and what finally ended up being published. The average time between presentation and publication was 1.4 years (SD ± 1.5). More than half of the articles (n = 120) were published before two years (55.8%) and almost all of the articles (n = 211) were published equally or before 4 years (98.6%). .

When evaluating the publication rate of the works presented in the last 4 years (2017-2020), 87 articles were found, which represents a publication rate of 14.5%.

The knee (23.7%), foot and ankle (17.7%), hip (17.2%), and spine (13.9%) subspecialties were the commissions that had the highest overall publication rates. The subspecialties with the smallest average difference between presentation of work and its publication equal to or less than 1 year were: limb lengthening and reconstruction (100%), hip (51.3%), spine (53.3%), hand and microsurgery ( 60%), knee (56.8%) and others (62.2%) (p = 0.035).

In relation to the type of study ([Fig. 4]), 79.5% of the published articles were observational (n = 171) with 93 analytical studies and 78 descriptive studies. The remaining 20.5% were experimental studies (n= 44) with 25 of them with non-randomized controlled trials.

Fig. 4 Publications according to the type of study, by year of the SCHOT conference.

83.3% of the articles were published in international journals (n= 179) ([Fig. 5]). Of the articles published in national journals (n = 36), 83.3% were published in the SCHOT journal. A total of 156 publications belonged to indexed journals. The overall mean impact factor was 2.3 (SD ± 1.3). Non-publication in indexed journals was associated with descriptive studies (p= 0.04).

Fig. 5 Number of articles according to Journal (n = 215).

According to the type of affiliation, there was no significant difference in relation to the type of study published. Academic institutions represented 51%, which together with the 14.2% that declare themselves as clinical-academic, total 65.2% of publications with some academic relationship.

Discussion

The presentation of summaries in podium format at conferences or annual meetings is a widespread, efficient practice that facilitates the rapid dissemination of advancements across diverse Traumatology and Orthopedics research areas.[4] [9] Nevertheless, the publication of these studies in a scientific journal is the gold standard for dissemination to the scientific community, because the written manuscripts undergo thorough review and rigorous analysis of their methodology and conclusions prior to approval.[5] Evaluating publication rates provides an objective measure of the quality and significance of each congress.[6] [7]

Based on our findings, out of the 1599 papers presented at SCHOT conferences, 215 articles were successfully published. This translates to a publication rate of 13.5%, with an even higher rate of 14.5% for presentations with less than 4 years of follow-up. This signifies a noteworthy increase in our publication rates during this period, which might actually be underestimated when accounting for the time required to complete the publication process from the initial submission of the work.[1] [7] [8] [9]

Publication rates in Latin American Orthopedics and Traumatology congresses have been barely described. Ejnisman et al.[9] reported a publication rate of 26.6% from the Brazilian Congress of Orthopedics and Traumatology (CBOT) in 2007, attributing a lower rate compared to American congresses due to a greater number, variety and access to scientific journals in the United States, and the tendency of authors to publish in the same language. In Chile this is reversed, 83.3% of publications are international, probably due to the limited supply at the national level of indexed scientific journals in the specialty. We only have one scientific journal of the specialty at the national level (not indexed), which could further limit the publications compared to the findings of Ejsnisman et al. Other factors related to the non-publication of articles presented at a conference is the bias towards a greater tendency to publish only studies with positive results.[3] [10] [11] On the other hand, it may be that works of low scientific level are being accepted for the podium, which is usually done to increase the participation of members in congresses. However, there are other factors that influence the low publication rate, since writing an abstract for a conference involves less effort compared to developing, writing and completing the process necessary to achieve scientific publication. When comparing with international results in which the publication rate is between 36 to 67%,[4] [7] [12] these high percentages are possibly biased since some conferences could be publishing these abstracts in their own journals.

The average time until publication is 1.4 years (SD ± 1.5), the fidelity of the works (94.0%) and the increase in our publication rate in recent years, suggests presentations on the podium of the SCHOT congress of more robust and complete studies.[4] [5] The average impact factor was 2.3. After comparing the type of study and impact factor using ANOVA test, no significant association was found between these data sets. However, it should be considered that the impact factor of a journal does not represent the quality of each article evaluated individually, therefore, when considering the scientific quality of a journal we must consider other associated factors.[13] In relation to the committee of origin, the knee, ankle and foot, and hip groups are the ones with the highest publication rate, which is in accordance with the findings of other studies.[1] [7] When analyzing the study design of those works that were published, it was highlighted that the majority of these were observational (79.5%). A weakness of our study is that we did not have information on how many works were rejected from journals before being published.

This study highlights a greater participation of podium works from institutions defined as clinics, 70.7%. However, in relation to the publication process, it is the academic institutions that complete the publication process most frequently. This represents 51%, which, added to the 14.2% that declare themselves as clinical-academic, total 65.2% of publications. This correlates with what was previously described by Castaldi et al.,[10] who described that 68% of the publications are related to a university institution. They also suggest that this would be explained by a greater interest in the development of research, and a greater availability and disposition of academic professionals to carry out and direct the different scientific processes for the preparation of the articles. We consider that it is a fundamental point to promote the development of research in centers not linked to university institutions and to generate the appropriate conditions for its development, given that their casuistry and experience can be fundamental for the scientific community.

To our knowledge, this is the first study that describes the publication rates of the SCHOT congress, this being the main national congress of Orthopedics and Traumatology. This study can serve as a basis for subsequent studies at the local level. Additionally, although the search system was the same, there may be subjectivity according to the criteria of each researcher. On the other hand, the analysis of conference presentations less than 4 years old could underestimate the results, considering that 90% of publications are completed within the first 4 years.[7] [8] [9] It is essential to promote the development of local lines of research with greater rigor regarding their methodology and promote their publication in both national and international journals. More studies are needed to verify the publication rate of papers presented at conferences considering at least 4 years of follow-up.

Conclusion

From 2013 to 2019, the publication rate for papers presented at the SCHOT conference stood at 13.5%, which is relatively lower when compared to analogous international studies. However, it's worth noting that this figure might be conservative due to the absence of medium-term follow-up.

The data reported in this study, including the significant number of unpublished abstracts, may serve as an incentive for prospective authors presenting at the SCHOT congress to aspire to attain scientific publications. This has the potential to bolster academic engagement within our field.

Conflict of Interest

Dr. Julio Urrutia reported following roles:

Presidente Sociedad Chilena de Ortopedia y Traumatología 2021 (No payments).

Deputy Editor JAAOS Global (January 2020-September 2021) (No payments).

Deputy Editor The Spine Journal (Since June 2021) (Stipend received).

Disclosures

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Publication History

Received: 10 December 2021

Accepted: 22 August 2023

Article published online:
30 October 2023