Finishing What’s Started: Publication Rates of AUGS Oral Presentations

Objectives: The annual Pelvic Floor Disorder (PFD) Week sponsored by the American Urogynecologic Society (AUGS) is a prominent forum for the urogynecology community to present cutting-edge research. Traditionally abstracts chosen for oral presentations are considered to be of the highest scientific quality and impact, but little is known on how often these presentations make it to publication. Our aim is to assess the rate of publication of short and long oral presentations from the 2019 and 2020 PFD Week at 1, 2, and 3 years.

Methods: We evaluated all short and long oral presentation abstracts from the 2019 and 2020 AUGS PFD Week using the publicly available Urogynecology abstract supplements. Abstract information including author gender, principal investigator H-index, journal impact factor, and funding status were collated. Time to publication was determined by the number of months intervening between publication and presentation at PFD Week. Article publication rates at 1, 2, and 3 years from the time each meeting was held were calculated. Statistical analysis was performed with student's t-test and chi square test.

Results: We identified 214 short oral and 83 long oral abstracts from the 2019 and 2020 PFD Week meetings, 203 of which were published (68.3%). The 1, 2, and 3 year publication rates were 29.4%, 55.6%, 63.6% for the short oral abstracts and 37.3%, 71.1%, and 77.1% for the long oral abstracts (Figure 1). Long orals were more likely to be published than short orals (OR 1.99, 95% CI 1.1-3.6; p=0.02). Long orals had a higher principal investigator H-index (24.1 vs 16.8, p< 0.001), were more likely to be funded (80% vs 52%, p< 0.001), and were published in higher impact journals than short orals (5.7 vs 3.3, p=0.003). There was no difference in mean time to publication between long and short oral abstracts (13.4 +9.1 vs. 14.6 +8.6 months).
There was no difference in first author gender, level of training, institution location, or principal investigator H-index between published and non-published abstracts.

Conclusions: Over 30% of oral presentations from PDF Week 2019 and 2020 are not published, although most abstracts are published within 15 months of presentation. Long oral abstracts are more likely to be published, funded, and featured in higher impact journals than short oral abstracts. Ultimately, timely publication is critical for effectively disseminating advancements in scientific knowledge. Oral presentation abstract authors should be encouraged to pursue publication of their research.