Current Rates of Publication for Podium and Poster Presentations at the American Society for Surgery of the Hand Annual Meetings

Abstract

Background: <br/> <span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: ArialMT;">Research projects are presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Society for Surgery of the </span>Hand (ASSH). It is unknown how many achieve publication in peer-reviewed journals. We sought to determine current rates of publication of podium and poster presentations. <br/>Methods: <br/> <span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: ArialMT;">All ASSH podium and poster presentations from 2000 to 2005 were reviewed, and an Internet-based </span>search using PubMed and Google was conducted to determine whether the presented studies had been published. Times to publication and journal names were recorded. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. Fisher's exact test was conducted to compare current trends with previous trends. <br/>Results: <br/> <span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: ArialMT;">Of 1127 podium and poster presentations reviewed, 46% were published in peer-reviewed journals. </span>Forty-seven percent of published presentations (242 presentations) were in <em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: Arial-ItalicMT;"><em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: Arial-ItalicMT;">Journal of Hand Surgery </span></em></span></em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: ArialMT;">, and 11% (59 </span>entations) were in <em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: Arial-ItalicMT;"><em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: Arial-ItalicMT;">Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery </span></em></span></em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: ArialMT;">. Forty-five percent of presentations were published within </span>2 years and 66% within 3 years. The publication rate for podium presentations was significantly higher than that previously reported for <em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: Arial-ItalicMT;"><em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: Arial-ItalicMT;">Journal of Hand Surgery</span></em></span></em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: ArialMT;"><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: ArialMT;">, at 54% compared with 44% (</span></span><em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: Arial-ItalicMT;"><em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: Arial-ItalicMT;">P</span></em></span></em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: ArialMT;">=0.004).</span> <br/> Conclusions: <br/> <span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: ArialMT;">Currently, fewer than half of the studies presented at Annual Meetings of the ASSH achieve publication </span>in peer-eviewed journals. Presentations are most likely to be published within 3 years, and almost half are published in <em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: Arial-ItalicMT;"><em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: Arial-ItalicMT;">Journal of Hand Surgery </span></em></span></em><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-family: ArialMT;">.</span>