Publication rate of abstracts presented at the Canadian society of otolaryngology- head and neck surgery annual meetings: a five year study 2006–2010

BACKGROUND: To determine the rate of publication in a peer-reviewed journal for all oral presentations made at the Canadian Society for Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery’s Annual Meetings from 2006–2010. METHODS: All abstracts were searched by keywords and authors’ names in Medline via PubMed and Google Scholar. Authors of presented abstracts not found to be published were contacted directly for further information. RESULTS: 50.5% of presented abstracts (n = 198) were subsequently published with an average time to publication of 21 months. For those abstracts found not to be published 74.6% (n = 167) of authors responded with further information about their research, 66% (n = 89) of abstracts with author response that were not published were never submitted for publication. Authors’ main reasons for not publishing were that the research was still in process (34%, n = 21) or that a resident or fellow working on the project “had moved on” (26%, n = 16). CONCLUSION: The publication rate for the Canadian Society for Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery’s Annual Meetings from 2006–2010 is within the range reported by other conferences and specifically other Canadian conferences in different specialties; however, roughly half of presentations went on to be published. The main barrier to publication was bringing projects to the submission stage and not rejection by journals. Resources such as more time for research or personnel to coordinate projects may result in a greater rate of project completion.