Society of Gynecologic Investigation: what gets published?

To compare publication rates of the plenary slide presentations (plenary), concurrent slide presentations (concurrent), and poster presentations (poster) at Society for Gynecologic Investigation (SGI) meetings for the interval 1990 to 1999.

The SGI program and abstract books for years 1990-1999 were examined, with all plenary and twice the number of randomly selected concurrent and poster abstracts identified. For each abstract, PUBMED was used to search for authors and subject topics, if needed. Rates of publication in various journals were compared: group 1: weekly general journals (New England Journal of Medicine [NEJM], Journal of the American Medical Association [JAMA], Nature); group 2: monthly obstetrics/gynecology journals (American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Obstetrics and Gynecology); and group 3: other journals (Placenta, Journal of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Fertility and Sterility, etc). Factors predicting ultimate publication were assessed by multivariable analysis.

Over the 10-year period, 75% of the plenary, 75% of the concurrent, and 66% of the poster abstract presentations were published (P = not significant [NS]), with the majority being published in group 3 journals. Multivariable analysis did not find any factor predictive of publication in plenary, concurrent, or poster groups. Sixty-five percent of all presentations were basic science-related and this did not change over time.

SGI presentations have an overall publication rate of 68%, which is higher than that reported in the literature for other societies (29-45%). Furthermore, the plenary and concurrent publication rates were not different from the poster publication rate. This suggests that all types of presentations are of quality as measured by publication rate. The SGI continues to publish predominantly basic science research, which is one of its missions.