Background/Purpose: The American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals (ACR/ARHP) Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) provides a premier forum for the rapid dissemination of novel clinical and basic science research in the fields of rheumatology and immunology. We recently investigated the publication outcomes of abstracts presented at the 2006 ACR/ARHP ASM in Washington, D.C. (November 12-16, 2006). We estimated that 59.1% of all abstracts presented at the meeting were published as full-length peer-reviewed manuscripts within 5 years of presentation. In order to assess the reasons behind non-publication of the remaining research, we administered a survey to a cross-section of authors who we previously identified as presenting abstracts that remained unpublished.

Methods: Of 2156 abstracts presented at the 2006 ACR/ARHP ASM, we classified 879 abstracts as “not published” following an extensive PubMed search for potential publication matches. Primary authors of non-published abstracts were anonymously surveyed via an internet questionnaire to identify factors that prevented presented research from reaching full-length publication status.

Results: A total of 713 primary authors had at least one abstract presented at the 2006 ACR/ARHP ASM that did not result in publication as a full-length manuscript.  Abstracts that described studies in rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and systemic sclerosis constituted approximately 39.7% of all presented abstracts and included 38.6% of all unpublished abstracts (non-publication rates: 38, 43, and 41%, respectively). A cross-section of 459 authors, who served as primary author on 599 unpublished abstracts, was surveyed. Sixty-five authors (14.2%) responded to the questionnaire, reflecting 117 abstracts (19.5%). At the time of the survey, 10 abstracts (8.5%) were reported as being published as full-length manuscripts within the 5 years following their presentation and were supported by corresponding citations. Three additional abstracts were confirmed as being published, but reached this status during the period between January-June 2012, which was outside of the defined search period. The primary reasons reported for non-publication included: 1) Insufficient time to prepare manuscript (35.2%); 2) a co-author was responsible for authoring the manuscript (29.6%); and 3) the study was still ongoing (16.7%). 

Conclusion: Although most of the abstracts presented at the 2006 ACR/ARHP ASM were eventually published in peer reviewed journals, data indicates that the lack of subsequent publication was related to the presence of time constraints or deferred responsibility for authorship rather than the quality of the data.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/factors-contributing-to-non-publication-of-abstracts-presented-at-the-american-college-of-rheumatologyassociation-of-rheumatology-health-professionals-annual-meeting/