From abstract to peer-reviewed publication: country matters

Purpose: Studies have shown that conversion of scientific knowledge from discovery to practice is suboptimal. About 1/3 of abstracts presented at the American Heart Association (AHA), American College of Cardiology (ACC), and European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Scientific Sessions are published within 2 years of the conference. Less is known about the relative difference between countries in regards to likelihood of publication.

Methods: Using a validated automated computer algorithm, we searched the ISI Web of Science to identify peer-reviewed publications of abstracts presented at the AHA, ACC, and ESC Scientific Sessions from 2006-2008. We performed multivariable logistic regression analysis to compare countries' odds of publication within 2 years of the conference. Country was defined as the country of the authors and the United States was used as the referent in the model.

Results: From 2006-2008, the number of abstracts presented at the AHA, ACC, and ESC were 11365, 5005, and 10838, respectively. Within two years, 30.6% of the abstracts were published; ranging from 34.5% for AHA, 29.5% for ACC, and 27.0% for ESC (p<0.0001). After adjusting for abstract characteristics we observed a significant variation among countries in terms of odds of subsequent publication (Figure).

Conclusions: Our results show that conversion of science from an abstract into a peer-reviewed publication varies significantly by country. Local national initiatives should be deployed in order to break down barriers to publication.