Publication of Abstracts Presented at an International Healthcare Simulation Conference

We aimed to determine the publication rate for abstracts presented at the International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) and the time between abstract presentation and publication. We also aimed to describe the study features influencing subsequent publication and the relationship between these features and journal impact factors (IFs).

All types of accepted abstracts from the 2012 and 2013 IMSH were reviewed. We extracted the following data from each abstract in duplicate: presentation format, subject, type of scholarship, research method, study design, outcome measure, number of institutions in authorship group, and number of study sites. PubMed and Google Scholar were searched (January 1, 2012 to August 1, 2016) using the names of the first, second, and last author for comparison with abstracts. Journal of publication and IF were recorded. Data were summarized with descriptive statistics. Bivariate and multivariate analysis was performed to explore the association between publication status and other variables.

Of 541 abstracts, 22% (119/541) were published with a median time to publication of 16 months (interquartile range = 8.525), ranging from 0 to 43 months. The study characteristics associated with a greater likelihood of publication were the following: research-type abstract, quantitative studies, randomized trials, studies with patient or healthcare-related outcomes, multiple institutions represented in authorship group, and multicenter studies. Studies with multiple institutions in authorship group and multicenter studies were published in higher IF journals (P < 0.05).

The publication rate of 22% for abstracts presented at IMSH is low, indicative of the relatively new nature of simulation-based research in healthcare.