An evaluation of the final results of abstracts presented at the Annual National Congresses of the Turkish Association of Pediatric Surgeons

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the full-text publication rate of abstracts presented at the Annual National Congresses of the Turkish Association of Pediatric Surgeons (TAPS) and to perform a comprehensive evaluation of the quality and characteristics of the published articles. Materials and methods: Abstract books were reviewed between 2017 and 2022. Keyword searches were performed in PubMed and Google Scholar using titles and author names to track full-text publications. Results: A total of 1,289 abstracts were presented at the Annual National Congresses of the TAPS over a five-year period, with an annual mean of 257.8±56.2. Of these abstracts, 50.8% (n=654) were oral presentations, and 49.2% (n=634) were posters. Clinical studies constituted 95% of the abstracts presented. Single-center retrospective studies were the most common study design, with 44.8%. Multicenter studies accounted for only 1.1% of the papers. Of the papers, 271 (21%) were published as full-text articles in 137 different journals, with a mean time to publication of 1.85±1.53 years after the presentation. Of these articles, 125 (46.2%) were published in SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded)-indexed journals, 43 (15.8%) in ESCI (Emerging Sources Citation Index)-indexed, and 103 (38%) in journals not indexed in WoS (Web of Science). Of the 103 articles published in journals not indexed in WoS, 74 were indexed in the TR Index. Of the journals that included full-text articles, 41.3% (n=112) did not have an impact factor (IF). A total of 107 (67.3%) publications were published in journals with an IF between 1 and 5, while three (1.9%) were published in journals with an IF of 15 or higher. There was no statistically significant difference between the IFs of the journals in which basic science studies and clinical studies were published (p=1.00). Conclusion: The publication rate of the papers presented at the Annual National Congresses of the TAPS was 21%, which is quite low compared to the rates observed in similar studies. In addition, most of the papers presented were published in journals with low IF. The low number of multicenter and prospective studies is another noteworthy issue. This study reveals the need for national, multidisciplinary, and prospective studies.