What is the fate of the abstracts submitted at the French Congress of Digestive and Hepato-biliary Surgery?

Abstract

Goal: The aim of this study was to objectively analyze the characteristics of abstracts submitted to the annual joint congress of the SFCD (French Society of Digestive Surgery) and the ACBHT (Association of Hepato-biliary Surgery and Transplantation), in order to identify factors associated with acceptance for presentation at the Congress and of subsequent publication in a scientific journal.

Material and methods: All abstracts submitted between 2005 and 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. Univariate and multivariate analysis were perfomed to determine the factors associated with acceptance for presentation at the Congress and/or for subsequent publication in the medical literature (based on PubMed).

Results: The number of submissions increased from 128 in 2005 to 223 in 2012, i.e., an increase of 74.2%. Among the 1352 abstracts, 1106 (81.8%) were retrospective studies while only 15 (1.1%) were randomized controlled trials. The two principal themes were hepato-bilio-pancreatic surgery in 606 studies (44.8%) and colorectal surgery in 364 studies (26.9%). The overall rate of acceptance for the Congress was 49.9%, of which 21.0% were accepted for oral presentation. In multivariate analysis, the factors associated with acceptance for oral presentation were the geographic origin of the study (P<0.001), studies including >100 patients (P=0.01), and the prospective nature of the study (P=0.045). The rate of subsequent publication was 61.9% for studies accepted for oral presentation, 39.7% for studies accepted for poster presentation, and 25.9% for studies that were not accepted (P<0.001). In multivariate analysis, the factors associated with subsequent publication were geographic origin of the study (P=0.003), the experimental character of the study (P<0.001), and acceptance for presentation at the Congress (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Only half of the studies submitted for presentation at the annual Congress of the SFCD/ACBHT are accepted; this nevertheless constitutes a quality measure associated with nearly a 50% chance of subsequent publication in the medical literature.

Keywords: Digestive surgery; Medical journals; Meeting abstracts; Peer review; Publication.