Publication Rate and Evidence-Based Evaluation of Abstracts Presented at the Annual Veterinary Orthopaedic Society Conference

Introduction: Scientific abstracts are a common method for disseminating new research. There is no information on the publication rate of orthopaedic surgery abstracts presented at the annual Veterinary Orthopedic Society (VOS) Conference. The objectives of this study were to document the publication rate, the publication timeline, and the level of evidence (LoE) of abstracts presented at an annual orthopaedic meeting.

Materials and Methods: All conference abstracts from the 2001 to 2014 annual VOS meeting were reviewed, and final publication was determined through a comprehensive bibliographic search.

Results: Over 14 conferences, 1,112 scientific abstracts were presented with an overall publication rate of 47%. The majority of abstracts had low LoE scores, and those abstracts were published less timely than ones with higher LoE scores. Once presented, most abstracts took 1 year to be submitted and 2 years to be published. Dog (45%) and cadaveric (19%) studies were the most common. Publication occurred most frequently in Veterinary Surgery (40%), VCOT (17%), and AJVR (12%).

Discussion/Conclusion: The publication rate for abstracts presented at the annual VOS meeting is lower than those from a more generalized U.S. veterinary surgery conference. Publication occurs most frequently in a select group of journals and the subject matter is limited in scope with a focus on dog and cadaveric studies. Overall, most abstracts presented at VOS contain a lower level of evidence.

Acknowledgment: There was no proprietary interest or funding provided for this project.