The publication rates of presentations at major spine specialty society meetings (NASS, SRS, ISSLS)

Study Design. A review of all the presentations at three major spine specia lty meetings held over a 3-year period. Objectives. To determine the rate of publication in peer-reviewed journals after presentations at major spine meetings conducted annually by the follo wing three organizations: North American Spine Society (NASS), Scoliosis Re search Society (SRS), and International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine (ISSLS). Summary of Background Data. The rate of publication for presentations at na tional and international meetings has been determined for medical and surgi cal subspecialties. This rate has been used to judge the quality of the con tent of the meetings and to determine the validity of the research presenta tions. Methods. All presentations either in poster or oral presentation form were entered into a database covering a 3-year period for spine specialty meetin gs conducted annually by the following three organizations: NASS 1990 to 19 92, SRS 1991 to 1993, and ISSLS 1991 to 1993. A computer search for each ab stract was performed with the Melvyl Medline Plus database to determine if the abstract had been published in a peer-reviewed journal from 1990 to the end of 1997. Publication rates for presentations at these three meetings w ere determined over a 3-year period. Results. A total of 1186 abstracts were listed over a 3-year period in the final programs of these three meetings for the years 1991 to 1993 (SRS, ISS LS) and 1990 to 1992 (NASS). Of these 1186 abstracts, 516 were published in peer-reviewed journals, giving an overall publication rate of 43.5%. The p ublication rates for the three different meetings (NASS, SRS, ISSLS) were s imilar, with values of 40%, 470%, and 45% respectively. More than 90% of th e publications resulting from these meetings were published within a period of 4 years from the date of the meeting. Conclusions. The publication rates of presentations at three major spine sp ecialty meetings are high and quite comparable with the publication rates o f meetings in other medical subspecialties. This reflects the high quality of the meeting programs and validates their selection process.