Fate of Abstracts Presented at Annual Meetings of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons from 2015 to 2019.

Background: Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) annual meetings provide opportunities to disseminate cardiothoracic research. We assessed rates of publication of STS abstracts as manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals over five years and determined factors associated with successful publication.

Methods: The STS "Annual Meeting Archive" was searched online for abstract books from STS annual meetings from 2015-2019. Abstract books were reviewed for information about presented abstracts. A PubMed and Google search was then performed to identify corresponding peer-reviewed journal publications.

Results: A total of 1451 abstracts were presented at STS annual meetings from 2015-2019. Overall publication rate of accepted abstracts as manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals was 1097/1451=75.60%. Most published manuscripts were published in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery (750/1097=68.37%). Median duration between abstract presentation and peer-reviewed journal publication was 313[IQR=212.5-458] days. Only 29/1451=2.00% of abstracts won an award, and all 29 of these award-winning abstracts were published as a manuscript. Oral presentation was associated with increased odds of publication compared to poster presentation (OR=1.28[95% CI=1.04-1.71], p=0.021). Median 5-year impact factor of peer-reviewed journals containing these manuscripts was 5.04[IQR=5.04-5.04], and corresponding manuscripts were cited a median of 4[IQR=1-9] times. Overall, 836/1097=76.20% of manuscripts published in peer-reviewed scientific journals had a corresponding North American author.

Conclusions: Annual STS meetings are a forum for the presentation of high-quality research. The rate of publication of accepted STS abstracts as manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals is >75%, comparing favorably with national meetings of other surgical societies, and >2/3 of published manuscripts are published in STS's official journal.