Publication rate of scientific abstracts presented at ESSR 2008 and 2009

Objective During the ESSR 2011 Research Committee Meeting, the duration of intellectual property of a research proposal was discussed. A duration of 2 years from idea to publication was suggested. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how many ESSR 2008 and 2009 scientific abstracts were PubMed cited in print within 2 years of the congress. Materials and methods In September of 2011, two researchers independently performed a literature search using author names and title words of all ESSR 2008 and 2009 scientific abstracts published in Skeletal Radiology. In case of similarity or doubt, a senior reviewer made the final decision. Publication details were recorded and analyses were performed in Microsoft Excel (Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA). Results Until September of 2011, 62 out of 137 ESSR 2008 and 2009 scientific abstracts (45 %) were PubMed cited in print [2008:34/73(47 %); 2009:28/64(44 %)]. 54 out of 137 abstracts (39 %) were PubMed cited in print within 2 years of the congress [2008:30/73(41 %); 2009:23/64(36 %)] including eight out of 137 abstracts (6 %), which were already published before the congress [2008:4/73(5 %); 2009:4/64(6 %)]. The top-ranking journal in absolute numbers of publications was Skeletal Radiology. The top publishing country was the United Kingdom. Study sample size and first author position between abstract and publication did not change in the majority. Conclusions Thirty-nine percent of ESSR 2008 and 2009 scientific abstracts were published within 2 years of the congress including 6 % that were already PubMed cited in print before the congress.