Publication rate of abstracts presented at the Annual Meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society

Although the timely conveyance of information at national meetings like tho se of the Orthopaedic Research Society is critical to the dissemination of new scientific research, the ultimate goal of most researchers is to publis h work in peer-reviewed journals referenced in Medline. All of the abstract s that were presented at the podium at the 1991, 1992, and 1993 annual meet ings of the Orthopaedic Research Society and printed in the appropriate yea rly transactions were included in this study (n = 888, 296 per year). A det ailed computerized Medline search of each author on the abstract and the ap propriate keywords from the title was performed until a publication was fou nd; otherwise, the abstract was excluded. The database was searched through June 30, 1997. A total of 463 (52%) of the abstracts were published by Jul y 1, 1997. The percentages for each individual year were similar: 148 (50%) were published in 1991, 162 (55%) in 1992, and 153 (52%) in 1993. Publicat ion of the majority of these papers (93.1%, 431 of 463) occurred within 4 y ears of the respective meeting. The Journal of Orthopaedic Research publish ed the majority of these papers (17.5%), followed by The Journal of Bone an d Joint Surgery (American), the Journal of Biomechanics, Clinical Orthopaed ics and Related Research, and Spine (each 5.2%). No significant differences in the rate of publication were observed between papers of 10 broad subjec t categories (p = 0.103). These results are similar to those from other bas ic science meetings and to the recently reported results for the annual mee ting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.