An Analysis of Duplicate Presentations at the 2014 Through 2016 AOSSM and AANA Annual Meetings

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown a high incidence of duplicate presentations at research conferences within different medical disciplines. PURPOSE: To determine the rate and analyze characteristics of duplicate presentations at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) and Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA) Annual Meetings. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: Meeting programs for the 2014 to 2016 AOSSM and AANA Annual Meetings were searched. All podium presentation abstracts from each AOSSM meeting were cross-referenced with podium presentation abstracts from AANA meetings from all 3 years of the study period to locate all duplicate presentations. Duplicate presentations were then analyzed for changes in abstract title, author order, and addition or removal of authors. RESULTS: A total of 192 and 213 abstracts were accepted for podium presentations at the AOSSM and AANA Annual Meetings, respectively, during the study period. This included 65 presentations at the 2014 AOSSM Annual Meeting, 72 in 2015, and 55 in 2016. Overall, 28 AOSSM presentations (15%) were also presented at an AANA Annual Meeting, including 9 (14%) from the 2014 AOSSM meeting, 15 (21%) from the 2015 meeting, and 4 (7%) from the 2016 meeting. Of the 28 duplicate presentations, authors often altered their abstracts in several ways, including changing the abstract title (14; 50%), changing the author order (17; 61%), and adding or removing authors (10; 36%). Duplication rates were not significantly different between the years (P = .10). CONCLUSION: A moderate proportion of abstracts presented at the AOSSM and AANA Annual Meetings are duplicates. Meeting committees may want to consider stricter guidelines to ensure only original work is presented at these meetings.