The outcome of abstracts presented at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology annual meetings

Abstract

Many abstracts presented at scientific meetings are never published as articles in peer-reviewed journals. Using PubMed search and custom computer programs, we retrospectively reviewed all 4824 abstracts presented at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology annual meetings from 2005 to 2007, and found an overall publication rate of 36% for a 3-year maximal follow-up. This rate is comparable with that of other medical societies with published data. The publication rate varied from 10 to 62% among different subspecialties. The format of presentation, either platform or poster, was also a significant predictor of outcome, with 42-50% publication rate for platform abstracts and 32-36% for poster abstracts. Country of origin and the use of statistical methods did not seem to affect outcome significantly. The average time from abstract submission to article publication was 18 months. Seven journals accounted for over half of all publications, and the top three journals were American Journal of Surgical Pathology (16.2%), Modern Pathology (9.1%), and American Journal of Clinical Pathology (8.3%).