Outcome of Abstracts Presented at IADR General Meetings In 2014 And 2015

Objectives: Abstract presentations at scientific meetings provide a platform to share and discuss new research. These abstracts should subsequently be published as a full-text article in peer-reviewed journals to allow the dissemination of new research work. The subsequent publication rates also serve as a quality measure of the abstracts presented at the meeting. The aim of this study was to determine the publication rate of abstracts presented at the International Association of Dental research (IADR) general sessions in Cape Town 2014 and Boston 2015, as well as factors involved from presentation to publication.
Methods: A systematic search of PubMed and Google Scholar databases was performed of the abstracts identified from the IADR abstract archives website. Abstract titles, first, second, last author’s name and key words were used to identify whether an abstract resulted in a publication. Abstracts published in full-length articles were then analysed for mode of presentation, publication dates, journals and their impact factors, country of origin of first author, changes in author and/or title as well as study design.
Results: There were a total number of 5847 abstracts presented at the 2014 and 2015 IADR general sessions, of which 1241 were oral presentations and 4606 poster presentations. 60.9% of posters presented and 72.1% of oral presentations were consecutively published as a full-length article in a scientific journal. The average publication rate of abstracts was 63.3%. USA had the highest number of published abstracts with a publication rate of 64.9% (1204 of 1855) followed by Brazil and Japan which were 62.3% (587 of 938) and 67.9% (342 of 504). The mean time from presentation to publication was 13 months. 92% of abstracts had a change in authorship or title from initial presentation to publication.
Conclusions: More than half of abstracts presented at IADR general sessions eventually lead to a full article publication in a peer-reviewed journal. There is scope for further guidance for researchers to ensure scientific work is properly disseminated and published.