Resident lead research abstracts from the SIS Annual meeting are frequently published in high impact metrics

Author(s):
Daithi Heffernan; Andrew Stephen

Background:

Presenting at national scientific meetings is costly and time consuming, commodities in short supply in the 80-hour work week environment. Conversion of abstracts to published manuscripts remains a key goal and critical currency for academic surgeons. Across scientific fields conversion rates of abstracts to manuscripts varies from 8% to 70%. The Surgical Infection Society(SIS) annual meeting and associated Surgical Infections(SI) journal are dedicated to advancing the science and care of surgically related infections, as well as fostering careers of young surgeons.

Hypothesis:

Given the SIS commitment to mentorship, the SIS annual meeting is a forum for the presentation of high quality, resident led, basic and clinical research as denoted by high rates of conversion to full manuscripts with high impact metrics including Surgical Infections (SI) journal.

Methods:

Abstracts and meeting programs for 2014 and 2015 SIS annual meetings were reviewed. Literature search was conducted for published manuscripts generated from these meetings. Abstracts were categorized Basic(BasSci) or Clinical Science(ClinSci), Plenary(Plen), Oral(OP) or Poster(PP) presentation. Author listings were reviewed for Resident(RA) or New Member(NM) and whether senior authors were SIS members. The senior author was “leadership role” if he/she had served on an SIS committee. If converted, the Impact Factor(IF) of the journal at the time of publication was recorded.

Results:

Of the 198 abstracts, 102 Plen or OP. Overall, 119(60%) abstracts converted to manuscripts. 43/119 manuscripts(36%) were published in SI. The other 76 spanned 51 different journals (average IF=5.2 (range 0.5-72.4). 19 of the 21 Plen(90.5%) converted (mean IF=11.8), with 6(31.5%) appearing in SI. Among OP, 70%(51/81) were converted (mean IF= 4.4), and 21 of these 51(41%) were published in SI. The lowest publication rate occurred among PP(46%). The IF of Plen manuscripts was higher than other groups (11.2 vs 3.6;p=0.03). ClinSci were more likely published in SI versus BasSci(63% vs 4%;p<0.01). Resident abstracts(RA) were most likely converted into manuscripts(OR2.1(95%CI=1.1-3.8). Although not statistically different, the IF of manuscripts was highest among RA (4.7 vs 3.8), and was most pronounced among RA ClinSci (IF – 5.1 vs 3.3) manuscripts. 84% of senior authors were members of SIS. Among senior authors rates of conversion were higher if the senior author had held a leadership role in SIS(67% vs 47%;p=0.02). No additive effect was noted for presidents or past presidents of SIS.

Conclusions:

The SIS annual meeting is an excellent venue for high impact quality basic and clinical scientific research. In keeping with the core mentorship environment of SIS, residents and leadership roles members most likely converted abstracts to manuscript.