How Well Do They Convert? Trending ASAPS Presentations to Publication From 1995-2010

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) sponsors an annual conference that promotes education, advocacy, and care. There, researchers deliver abstracts as podium and poster presentations. Subsequently, ASAPS encourages submitting these research findings for publication. Yet, many never become published manuscripts.

To quantify the conversion rates of oral abstract presentations to publication from 1995 to 2010. Secondary objectives included evaluating trends in presentations, publications, time to publication, and published journal distribution.

Comprehensive literature search in PubMed cross-referencing oral abstract presentations and determining peer-reviewed publication status. The conversion rate and time to publication was calculated.

A total of 569 oral presentations met the inclusion criteria. The mean annual presentations was 35.6. A total of 360 presentations became journal publications. The mean annual publications was 22.5. The mean conversion rate was 63.3% (R², 0.1271; P-value of .23). The mean time to publication was 19.8 months. Most publications occurred within two years of presentation (87.5%). Publications appeared in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (PRS, 48.6%), Aesthetic Surgery Journal (ASJ, 27.8%), Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (APS, 5.6%), Annals of Plastic Surgery (AnnPS, 4.2%), Clinics in Plastic Surgery (CPS, 3.9%), and other journals (10%). Trending ASJ publications vs other journals in five year intervals demonstrated an increase from 18.7% to 58.8%.

While the number of presentations and publications declined, the time to publication, and conversion rate remained largely the same. Despite its short existence, ASJ became the predominant journal publishing ASAPS abstracts by the end of the study period.