EVALUATION OF THE CONVERSION RATE OF ABSTRACTS AND “E-POSTERS” FROM THE 2016 CANADIAN ORTHOPAEDIC ASSOCIATION CONGRESS INTO SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES

The publication of scientific research work is essential to disseminate the results observed and to benefit the scientific community. It also makes it possible to obtain local, national, and even global recognition. It also makes it possible to obtain funding, essential to carrying out future work. Many national scientific societies have studied the publication rate of papers presented at their annual meetings. There is currently no data regarding the conversion rate of an oral communication into an original article for the Canadian Orthopedic Association. We therefore conducted a study: to evaluate 1) the publication rate of communications accepted at the 2016 COA congress in Quebec City; and to describe 2) the characteristics of the articles influencing their publication. This bibliometric study included the 334 abstracts accepted for the annual conference of the COA in Quebec in 2016 (minimum 6 years of follow-up). Publication status was investigated using electronic databases MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science and CENTRAL between July and October 2022. All authors listed at the time of abstract and e-poster submission were identified and researched independently to confirm publication of the work presented at the 2016 COA. Time between communication and publication was censed. The quality of the publication was defined using the impact factor of the journals. The abstracts covered topics of orthopedics in 270 cases (80.8%), traumatology in 33 cases (9.9%), oncology in 9 cases (2.7%), basic research in 18 cases (5.4%) and teaching in 4 cases (1.20%). It was adult topics in 282 cases (88,9%) and pediatric topics in 35 cases (11,1%). The most importants subtopics was hip (82 cases, 25%), knee (70 cases, 21,1%) and shoulder (42 cases, 12,7%). The format of the scientific work was an oral communication in 205 cases (61.2%), and a “e-poster” in 129 cases (38.6%). The overall publication rate was 56%. Oral communications represented 68% of publications (n=139) and e-posters represented 54% (n=70). Oral communications were significantly more published than e-posters (p<0,01). The median delay between communication and publication in a referenced scientific article was 13 months [0;57]. Subgroup analysis showed a more favorable publication rate for prospective (n=101) versus retrospective studies (n=75) (p=0,025), international versus national (p=0,02) with significant versus non-significant results (p=0,005). Systematic reviews and meta-analyses had a significantly higher publication rate than case reports. Work on orthopedics was more published than other themes, particularly traumatology. The publication rate of oral communications and e-posters from the 2016 COA annual conference in Quebec City after 6 years is higher than other studies of this type. The impact factor of the journals publishing these articles confirms the quality of this conference.