Abstract
Objective The North American Skull Base Society (NASBS) multidisciplinary annual conference
hosts skull base researchers from across the globe. We hypothesized that the work
presented at the NASBS annual conference would reveal diverse authorship teams in
terms of specialty and geography.
Methods In this retrospective review, abstracts presented at the NASBS annual meeting and
subsequently published in the Journal of Neurological Surgery Part B: Skull Base between 01/01/2011 and 12/31/2020 were collected. Variables extracted included year,
type of presentation, and author names and affiliations. Statistical analyses were
performed with SPSS V23.0 with p-values less than 0.05 considered significant. Geographic heat maps were created to
assess author distribution, and a network analysis was performed to display authorship
collaboration between geographic regions.
Results Of 3,312 published abstracts, 731 (22.1%) had an author with an affiliation outside
of the United States. Fifty-seven distinct countries were represented. Three-hundred
twenty-four abstracts (9.8%) had authorship teams representing at least 2 different
countries. The top five US states by abstract representation were Pennsylvania, California,
New York, Ohio, and Minnesota. A majority of authors reported neurosurgery affiliations
(56.7% first authors, 53.2% last authors), closely followed by otolaryngology (39.1%
first authors, 41.5% last authors). No solo authors and very few (3.3%) of the first
authors reported a departmental affiliation outside of otolaryngology or neurosurgery.
Conclusions Authors from many countries disseminate their work through poster and oral presentations
at the NASBS annual meeting. Ten percent of abstracts were the product of international
collaboration. Most authors were affiliated with a neurosurgery or otolaryngology
department.
Keywords
skull base - conference - presentation - authorship - diversity - abstract - global
surgery - global neurosurgery
