Publication patterns of posters and oral presentations at the annual joint AANS/CNS Spine Summit

The American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves' annual Spine Summit brings together researchers and specialists to collaborate and advance science. An increase in publication patterns in neurosurgical journals has been seen in recent years, reflecting advancements in the 21st century. However, previous studies on publication patterns for the Spine Summit are outdated and do not account for recent clinical and technological advancements. The aim of this study was to assess recent publication patterns to compare them with previous trends to explore recent changes and developments.

Abstract titles from Spine Summits between 2014 and 2020 were searched using PubMed and Google Scholar, with matches between presentations and articles defined by similarities in title, authors, methods, and results. Collected variables included article title, first author, publication year, journal impact factor, and citation counts from the Scopus database. Due to a change in presentation format in 2015, analysis was conducted separately for 2014 (oral platform vs oral posters) and collectively for 2015 through 2020 (awarded vs nonawarded oral presentation abstracts).

A total of 1592 abstracts were analyzed, with a publication rate of 64.5% (n = 1027) and a mean time from presentation to publication of 0.92 ± 1.14 years. Notably, 57.7% (n = 919) of presented abstracts were published within 4 years. The number of presented abstracts in 2020 reached 297, a 290.8% increase from 2014. Papers based on these abstracts appeared in 109 journals, accumulating 23,126 citations, with a mean of 24.79 ± 35.26 citations per article. The top 5 journals with the most abstract-associated publications, representing the highest percentages of all abstract-related publications, were World Neurosurgery (14.5% [149/1027]), Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine (14.8% [152/1027]), Neurosurgery (10.9% [112/1027]), Spine (8.8% [90/1027]), and The Spine Journal (6.4% [66/1027]). The percentage of presented abstracts that were published as articles between 2014 and 2020 significantly increased to 64.5% from 54% between 2009 and 2012 (p < 0.05).

Almost two-thirds of the abstract-based articles were published in peer-reviewed journals. Compared with an earlier study on publication trends for abstracts presented at the Spine Summit, there has been a notable increase.