Medical Student Research in Surgery: From Abstract Presentation to Publication

Early career mentorship in surgical research often begins in medical school, and scholarly activity in the forms of abstract presentations and publications is seen as a critical criterion in residency applications. The goal of this study was to examine how often medical student abstract presentations at the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress are eventually published as peer-reviewed publications.

Medical student abstract presentations from ACS Clinical Congress 2014 to 2018 were reviewed. Abstract information was cross-referenced for companion peer-reviewed publication in the PubMed and Google Scholar databases.

In total, 219 students presented abstracts at the ACS Clinical Congress between 2014 and 2018. Of these, 101 (46%) led to publications in 61 different journals. The percentage of presentations that were published was 63% from 2014, 51% from 2015, 56% from 2016, 39% from 2017, and 25% from 2018. Medical students were named as first authors on 54%, second authors on 19%, and third authors on 13% of publications. The basic science presentation category had the greatest conversion to publications (54%), followed by clinical research (48%) and outcomes (45%).

Forty-six percent of medical student abstract presentations at the ACS Clinical Congress were converted to peer-reviewed publications. While it is encouraging that the ACS Clinical Congress is a productive forum to showcase medical student scholarly activity, more can be done to encourage full translation of research activity to peer-reviewed work. Further studies should be performed to look at influential factors amongst medical students, faculty mentors, and medical schools.