Publications Rates for Podium and Poster Presentations From the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society: 2008-2012

Abstract

Background:

National orthopaedic meetings are used to disseminate current research through podium and poster abstract presentations. Not all of these abstracts go on to full-text journal publication. The purpose of this study was to determine the publication rates of podium and poster presentations from the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) annual meetings between 2008 and 2012.

Methods:

All accepted podium and poster abstracts from the 2008-2012 AOFAS annual meetings were compiled from the AOFAS office, Physician Resource Center website, and hardcopy meeting programs. PubMed and Google Scholar searches were performed for journal publications using key words in the presentation abstracts and authors’ names. Full-text journal publication rates for the presentations were calculated per year, as were the most common journals of publication.

Results:

Overall full-text publication rate was 73.7% for podium presentations and 55.8% for posters. Podium presentations were published in a journal significantly more often than posters (P < .0001; odds ratio 2.17 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.64-2.86]). The mean time to publication was 1.5 and 1.4 years for podium and poster presentations, respectively (P = .124). The most common journal for podium and poster publications was Foot & Ankle International.

Conclusion:

Podium abstracts were significantly more likely to be published compared to posters. The AOFAS overall full-text journal publication rate was one of the higher reported rates compared with other national orthopedic society meetings, which have ranged from 34% to 73%.

Keywords

publication rate abstract AOFAS annual meeting

Introduction

The American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) has been holding meetings since 1971, which have served as venues for members to share scientific advances in a timely manner through presentation of abstracts.³ Since the meetings’ inception, the number and variety of abstracts submitted to and presented at the AOFAS meetings has increased. Several studies have reviewed the abstract to full-text journal publication rates for other orthopedic society meetings, reporting from 34% to 73% published at a minimum of 3 years from presentation.^{2,4-10,12-20,25-28,30} No similar study has reviewed rates for the AOFAS. The purpose of this study was to determine the publication rates for podium and poster abstract presentations at the national annual AOFAS meetings from 2008 to 2012.

Methods

All podium, poster, and e-poster abstracts presented at the AOFAS annual meetings from 2008 to 2012 were compiled with help from the AOFAS office, AOFAS Physician Resource Center website,³ and hardcopy annual meeting programs collected by the senior author. AOFAS staff provided data on the number of abstracts submitted and accepted to the annual meeting for the years reviewed in this study.

Abstracts were divided into 2 groups: podium presentations and poster/e-poster presentations. Two investigators conducted PubMed and Google Scholar searches of all abstracts identified, using June 30, 2016, as the cut-off date. This allowed for a minimum of 4-year follow-up from the July 2012 conference, with up to 8 years from the July 2008 conference, which was desired given that prior studies have found a plateau in publication rates between 3 and 4 years.^8,15,21 Key terms from the abstracts were searched with each author individually. Considerable consistencies between the authors, title and abstract demographics, study design, and conclusion were required to be considered a successfully published match. If a “no match” resulted, the abstract was considered to not have a full-text publication. These methods were consistent with previously published literature.^4,7,15,25

The overall publication rates for podium and poster abstracts were calculated. The abstract and matched full-text publication title, authors, authors’ country of origin, and journal of publication were recorded. Time to publication was recorded as the duration of time from presentation to either paper publication or electronic publication ahead of print, whichever occurred first. The first day of the month was used if a specific publication day was not given. The podium and poster full-text publication rates, mean time to publication, and the percentage published within 3 years from presentation were calculated. The most common journals of publication were tabulated for the podium and poster presentations.

Statistical Analysis

Categorical continuous data were summarized using counts, percentages, means, and standard deviation. Two-tailed t test was used to determine significance between continuous variables. Fisher exact test was used to assess trends in abstract publications over time. An odds ratio was calculated to determine any difference between podium and poster publication rates. A P value of ≤.05 was considered statistically significant.

Google Sheets (Alphabet Inc, Mountain View, CA) was used to collect and store the data. The statistical analysis was done in SAS 9.3 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC).

Results

From 2008 to 2012, a total of 1262 abstracts were submitted to the annual AOFAS meeting. Of these, 376 podium and 635 poster abstracts were accepted for presentation. For all abstracts presented, the overall full-text journal publication rate was 62.4%. For podium abstracts, the overall full-text journal publication rate was 73.7%, whereas for poster abstracts, it was 55.8%. There was no statistically significant increase in abstract publications for podium (P=.44) or poster (P=.28) abstracts presented between 2008 and 2012. The majority of podium abstracts presented were from the United States, followed by Europe and Korea (Table 1). No poster abstracts listed the authors’ location in the program, so no analysis by country of submission was possible.

Table 1.

Characteristics of Published Full-Text Abstracts.

	Podium
Published Location^a	Yes,n (%)(n = 277)	No,n (%)(n = 99)	Percentage Publication^b
United States	128 (50.8)	50 (63.3)	71.9
Europe	67 (26.6)	14 (17.7)	82.7
Korea	21 (8.3)	3 (3.8)	87.5
Canada	15 (6.0)	3 (3.8)	83.3
South America	9 (3.6)	4 (5.1)	69.2
Japan	6 (2.4)	2 (2.5)	75.0
Asia	4 (1.6)	0 (0.9)	100
Australia/New Zealand	2 (0.8)	3 (3.8)	40.0

A total of 44 podium abstracts did not list authors’ location; no poster abstracts listed author location in the program.

The podium abstract publication rate by country.

From 2008 to 2012, there was an increase in the number of podium and poster presentations at the AOFAS annual meetings (Tables 2 and 3). Of the published works, 86.3% of podium and 88.1% of poster abstracts made publication within 3 years. The mean time to journal publication for podium abstracts was 1.5 (range, –1.2 to 5.8) years and was 1.4 (range, –1.5 to 6.8) years for posters. The negative range represents abstracts published prior to presentation at the meetings. Prior to presentation at the meetings, 5.6% of podium abstracts and 6.5% of poster abstracts had already been published. The remaining yearly podium and poster publication breakdown can be found in Tables 2 and 3.

Table 2.

Podium Abstract Publication Rate.

	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	Total
Podium presentations	44	59	75	105	93	376
Journal publication rate, % (n)	63.6 (28)	69.5 (41)	76.0 (57)	77.1 (81)	75.3 (70)	73.7 (277)
Time to publication, y, mean (range)^a	1.65 (0.18 to 3.93)	1.82 (−0.63 to 5.79)	1.63 (−0.77 to 5.48)	1.40 (–1.20 to 4.89)	1.35 (−0.89 to 3.95)	1.53 (−1.20 to 5.79)
Published within 3 y of the meeting, %	82.1	75.6	87.7	91.4	87.1	86.3

Negative number denotes publication prior to meeting. Twenty-one (5.6%) podium presentations were published prior to the meeting. All publications from meeting year to June 2016 are included, allowing for a follow-up period of up to 8 years for the 2008 meeting and as few as 4 years for 2012.

Table 3.

Poster Abstract Publication Rate.

	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	Total
Poster presentations	105	104	137	80	209	635
Journal publication rate, % (n)	63.3 (67)	49.0 (51)	55.5 (76)	57.5 (46)	53.6 (112)	55.8 (352)
Time to publication, y, mean (range)^a	1.53 (−0.40 to 6.76)	1.25 (−0.79 to 5.88)	1.46 (–1.52 to 5.73)	1.50 (−0.79 to 3.96)	1.23 (–1.06 to 3.95)	1.37 (–1.52 to 6.76)
Published within 3 y of the meeting, %	85.1	88.2	85.5	84.8	92.9	88.1

Negative number denotes publication prior to meeting. Forty-one (6.5%) poster presentations were published prior to the meeting. All publications from meeting year to June 2016 were included, allowing for follow-up period of up to 8 years for the 2008 meeting and as few as 4 years for 2012.

Overall, podium abstracts went on to journal publication significantly more often than poster abstracts (P < .0001; odds ratio 2.17 [95% CI, 1.64-2.86]) (Table 4). The 3 most common journals for published podium abstracts were Foot & Ankle International (FAI) (50.4%), The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (JBJS) (13.0%), and The American Journal of Sports Medicine (AJSM) (4.3%). For poster abstracts, the 3 most common journals were: FAI (36.9%), The Journal of Foot & Ankle Surgery (JFAS) (9.4%), and Foot & Ankle Specialist (FAS) (8.5%) (Table 5).

Table 4.

Comparing Podium and Poster Presentation of the AOFAS Annual Meeting.

	Abstracts Published^a	Time to Publication (y)
Total podium	73.7% (277)	1.53 ± 1.31
Total poster	55.8% (352)	1.37 ± 1.34
Odds ratio (95% CI)	2.17 (1.64 to 2.86)
P value^b	P < .0001	P = .124

Abbreviations: AOFAS, American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society; CI, confidence interval.

Percentages (counts in parentheses).

Significance was set at P ≤ .05.

Table 5.

Journals of Publication for Podium and Poster Abstracts.^a

	% Podium(n = 277)	% Poster(n = 352)
Foot & Ankle International	50.4 (140)	36.9 (130)
The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery	13.0 (36)	6.5 (23)
American Journal of Sports Medicine	4.3 (12)	2.8 (10)
Foot & Ankle Specialist	3.2 (9)	8.5 (30)
Journal of Foot & Ankle Surgery	3.2 (9)	9.4 (33)
Foot and Ankle Surgery	2.9 (8)	3.4 (12)
Bone & Joint Journal ^b	2.5 (7)	1.7 (6)
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research	1.8 (5)	1.7 (6)
Orthopedics	1.4 (4)	1.7 (6)
Clinical Biomechanics (Bristol, Avon)	1.1 (3)	1.7 (6)
Techniques in Foot & Ankle Surgery	0.7 (2)	2.3 (8)
Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society	0.4 (1)	1.7 (6)
Other^c	14.8 (41)	21.6 (76)

Values are percentages of total publications, with the count in parentheses.

Formerly, The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery–British Volume.

Remaining journals with abstract publications less than 6.

Discussion

This is the first study in the orthopedic literature to assess the full-text journal publication rates from the AOFAS annual meeting. From 2008 to 2012, we found an overall AOFAS annual meeting full-text publication rate of 62.4%, with a publication rate of 73.7% and 55.8% for podium and poster abstracts, respectively. The podium publication rate from the AOFAS was one of the highest for general and subspecialty orthopedic meetings, which have ranged from 34.0% to 73.3% over the last 2 decades (Table 6).^{2,4-10,12-20,25-28,30} This may indicate a strong commitment among the foot and ankle community to pursue publication, and/or a higher acceptance rate into foot and ankle journals, but further analysis is needed to determine which of these truly play a role.

Table 6.

Comparison of Publication Rates of Other Orthopedic Society Meetings.

Orthopedic Conference	Years Reviewed^a	Mean Years to Publication	Podium Publication Rate, %	Poster Publication Rate, %	Overall Conference Publication Rate,
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS)¹²	1990-1992	1.7			46.0
North American Spine Society (NASS)²⁸	1990-1992	–			40.0
American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH)¹⁰	1990-1992	–			52.0
American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM)³⁰	1990-1993	–			68.1
Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA)¹⁹	1990-1995	1.3	64.0
International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine (ISSLS)²⁸	1991-1993	–			45.0
Scoliosis Research Society (SRS)²⁸	1991-1993	–			47.0
Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA)³⁰	1991-1993	–			50.9
Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS)⁵	1991-1993	Median 1.7	52.0
Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA)¹³	1991-1994	2.4	52.7
Musculoskeletal Tumor Society Meeting¹⁴	1992, 1995, 1997-1999	1.8	41.0
AAOS¹⁸	1993	1.7	44.0
OTA²⁰	1994-1998	Podium 2.1Poster 1.8	67.0	52.0	58.0
AAOS⁴	1996	1.5			34.0
American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS)¹⁷	1996-2001	1.8	58.0
International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Sports Medicine (ISAKOS)⁹	1997	–			34.6
ISSLS²⁷	1998-2000	–	54.1
AOSSM¹⁶	1999-2001	Median 1.8	59.4
ISAKOS⁹	1999	–	39.3
Shoulder and Elbow Session of the AAOS⁷	1999-2004	2.6	66.0	51.0	58.0
ASSH²⁵	2000-2010	1.5	49.0
AAOS⁸	2001	–	52.0	47.0	49.0
POSNA²	2002-2006	Podium 2.2Poster 1.8	–	–	50.7
POSNA²⁶	2003-2005	1.6			58.9
AOSSM¹⁵	2006-2010	–	73.3	56.9	67.1
American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (current study)	2008-2012	Podium 1.53Poster 1.37	73.7	55.8	62.4

The conference years reviewed in the study listed; publications are listed chronologically based on conference years reviewed.

The reasons podium and poster presentation abstracts did not go on to journal publication were not directly addressed in this study but have been addressed in previous literature. Although there are many plausible explanations for why presented work does not always complete the path to peer-reviewed publication, the most cited reasons by authors of unpublished studies were failure to complete the manuscript, lack of time, or a still ongoing study.^23,29 Of the 65.8% of unpublished studies from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery 1996 meeting, nearly 50% of authors reported lack of time being the main factor for not publishing.²³ It is likely that some studies will be published many years after their abstract presentation but fall outside the review period of this study. Alternatively, some authors may never intend for their work to go on to full-text publication after the abstract presentation.

Out of all journal publications in this study, 86.3% of podium and 88.1% of poster publications occurred within 3 years, which is consistent with other societies’ time to publication over the last 2 decades.^4,14,25,28 Over the 5 meetings evaluated, there was a decrease in time to publication from presentation, although not significant. One recent article in the pediatric orthopedic literature did see a significant decrease in time to publication.² This may reflect a more prompt journal peer-review process²⁴ or a shift to authors submitting manuscripts sooner. It may also be attributable to the increasing number of journals and open-access journals.

Three other orthopedic specialty societies compared podium to poster presentation rates (Table 6).^15,20,26 Podium presentations from the 1994 to 1998 Orthopaedic Trauma Association,²⁰ 2003 to 2005 Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America,²⁶ and the 2006 to 2010 American Orthopaedic Society of Sports Medicine meetings all showed that podium abstracts were significantly more likely to be published in a journal compared to poster presentations, which is consistent with our comparison of podium and poster publication rates. We did not account for initial abstract meeting submission acceptance rates or journal submission rates for podium or poster presentations, which may make the publication comparison misleading. Still, the greater number of published podium presentations may reflect the increased scrutiny of podium abstracts. Abstracts not accepted for podium presentation may be offered poster presentation, especially with an overall increasing number of posters and e-poster acceptances offered. Posters may be of lower quality studies and thus less likely to be accepted by peer-reviewed journals, or their authors may not have ever intended for them to go on to full-text publication.

Our study did have several limitations. We limited our search to PubMed (MEDLINE) and Google Scholar, since these 2 search engines were used in similar publication rate studies.^1,2,8,15,25 A recent study of Google Scholar reported a 100% reference return rate when searching citations from 29 systematic reviews published in JAMA and the Cochrane Library.¹¹ Furthermore, a comparison study found that MEDLINE returned more search results than EMBASE.²² Based on the reported validity of the search engines used, we are confident we were able to retrieve nearly all full-text publications. Second, we chose a 4-year minimum follow-up period to allow for full-text journal publications. A review of the American Association for Hand Surgery annual meeting²⁵ reported a 3% increase in journal publications from 4 to 10 years after meeting presentation. Therefore, it is likely that a small number of abstracts still will be published in journals over the next several years, but the 2008 to 2012 time frame was selected to give the most up-to-date analysis of publication rates while allowing time for the majority of publications to be completed.

Conclusion

The overall full-text publication rate for abstracts presented at the AOFAS annual meeting was one of the higher reported rates compared to other national orthopedic society meetings at 62.4%. Podium abstracts were significantly more likely to be published compared to poster abstracts.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the AOFAS and specifically James Walwark, IT Coordinator, for helping to collect the abstract information from the annual AOFAS meetings.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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