Fate of Abstracts Presented at the Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand Annual Scientific Meetings

Amy Hort; Peter Yoon; Qiuye Cheng; Ahmer Hameed; Jerome Laurence; Wayne J Hawthorne; Henry C Pleass

doi:10.1016/j.transproceed.2020.10.032

Fate of Abstracts Presented at the Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand Annual Scientific Meetings

Transplant Proc. 2020 Dec 13:755-761. doi: 10.1016/j.transproceed.2020.10.032. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Amy Hort¹, Peter Yoon², Qiuye Cheng², Ahmer Hameed², Jerome Laurence³, Wayne J Hawthorne⁴, Henry C Pleass⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW, Australia; Westmead Clinical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
² Department of Surgery, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW, Australia.
³ Department of Surgery, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW, Australia; Westmead Clinical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia; Department of Surgery, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia.
⁴ Department of Surgery, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW, Australia; Westmead Clinical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia; The Centre for Transplant and Renal Research, Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead, Australia.
⁵ Department of Surgery, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW, Australia; Westmead Clinical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: henry.pleass@sydney.edu.au.

PMID: 33328139
DOI: 10.1016/j.transproceed.2020.10.032

Abstract

Background: The numbers and characteristics of the abstracts presented at the Annual Scientific Meetings (ASM) of the Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) that are converted to peer-reviewed publications have not been analyzed previously.

Methods: All abstracts presented at the TSANZ ASM from 2013 to 2017 were reviewed. A literature search was performed using a search algorithm to identify the full-text publications of the presented abstracts. Correlation between abstract characteristics and publication rate was then examined using Cox proportional hazards regression and Kaplan-Meier curves to distinguish the predictors for publication. Over the 5-year period, 576 abstracts were presented, with a total of 164 (28.6%) presentations converted to publications. The majority of publications occurred within the first 3 years, with the mean time to publication being 16.6 (standard deviation = 14.6) months. The median impact factor for published research was 4.74 (interquartile range = 3.06-5.58). Multivariate analysis identified clinical science papers, systematic reviews and surveys (likelihood ratio = 1.42, 5.02, and 2.01; P = .040, .000, and .010, respectively) as the most important predictors for publication.

Conclusions: The rate of abstracts presented at the TSANZ ASM over 5 years that were converted to publication in a peer-reviewed journal was 28.6%. Clinical papers, systematic reviews, and surveys were more likely to be published. An ongoing strict abstract selection process will contribute to improving conversion of abstracts into full-text peer-reviewed articles.