Presentation to publication: proportion of abstracts published for ESPR, SPR and IPR

Advancement of knowledge requires presentation and publication of high-quality scientific research. Studies submitted for presentation undergo initial peer review before acceptance and the rate of subsequent publication may be taken as an indicator of access to publication for pediatric radiology studies.

Evaluate the proportion of abstracts also published in journals for pediatric radiology conferences and identify factors associated with publication success.

All Medline articles that originated from oral presentations at the European Society for Paediatric Radiology (ESPR), the Society for Pediatric Radiology (SPR) or the International Pediatric Radiology (IPR) conferences between 2010 - 2012 were evaluated. Descriptive statistics to evaluate published and unpublished groups were calculated overall and split by characteristics of the abstracts such as number of authors.

Overall number of abstracts published was 300/715 (41.9%), with most articles published in radiology specific journals (181/300; 60.3%), with median impact factor 2.31 (interquartile range [IQR]: 1.65-3.14, range: 0-18.03). Those published after the conference (262/300, 87.6%) had a median time to publication of 18 months and for those published before, the median time was -11 months. Median sample size in published articles was 52 (IQR: 33-105, range: 1-6,351).

Of pediatric radiology oral abstracts, 41.9% achieve publication after a period of at least 3 years from presentation. Studies originating from certain countries and on certain subspecialty topics were more likely to get published.