Publication of material presented at radiologic meetings: authors' country and international collaboration

Abstract

Purpose: To estimate the influence of the authors' country and collaboration on the probability of subsequent full publication of material from oral presentations at the 2000 European Congress of Radiology (ECR).

Materials and methods: After searching the Medline database for articles published between 2000 and 2003, all articles that originated from presentations at the ECR in 2000 and were published in journals indexed in the Journal Citation Report were evaluated. Relative likelihood of full publication depending on the country in which an abstract originated was compared with that of Austria, which is the host country of the ECR. The chi(2) test was used to compare publication rates according to country of origin and collaboration. The median and interquartile range of the impact factor of publications according to country of origin and collaboration in the abstract were analyzed by using the Kruskal-Wallis test. The percentage of articles published in journals ranked in the top quartile (top 25% of journals according to impact factor) was calculated.

Results: Of 1020 presentations, 403 articles (39%) with significant (P < .001) variations according to country of origin were identified. Studies originating from the United States had the highest percentage of full publication (62%; relative likelihood, 1.41), median impact factor (4.5), and percentage of articles in the top quartile (54%). Radiology was the top quartile journal, with the most articles published (60%). Impact factor differed according to country of origin (P < .001). Abstracts submitted with collaboration between (a) European countries and countries outside of Europe (other than the United States) and (b) different European countries had the highest publication rates (83% and 52%, respectively; P = .03).

Conclusion: The country of origin of an abstract was useful in predicting the chances of full publication of the abstract, with the United States having the highest publication rate. Authors were more likely to publish an article if it had been prepared with international collaboration.