The publication rate of oral presentations presented in national congresses of Turkish Society of Cardiovascular Surgery

Background: This study aims to investigate the literature contribution of oral presentations presented in the largest national congresses of the Turkish Society of Cardiovascular Surgery. Methods: A total of 675 orally presented abstracts during biannually organized 12th, 13th, and 14th congresses were reviewed using the PubMed and Google Scholar databases in May 2018. Abstracts were searched for institutions where they were submitted, publication status in scientific journals, type of peer-reviewed journal, and publication year. Results: Of a total of 675 oral presentations, 69.1% were clinical studies, 18.8% were case reports, and 12.1% were experimental researches. Of all accepted abstracts, 47.3% were from university hospitals, 36.1% were from training and research hospitals, and 16.6% were from other multi-center institutions. A total of 279 (41.3%) abstracts were published in a scientific journal. There was a significant difference among the institutions in terms of the rate of publication (p=0.04), and the university hospitals had the highest rate. The mean time from presentation to publication in a scientific journal was 16.7 +/- 9.1 (range, 4 to 60) months. Conclusion: The rate of published abstracts from the last three congresses of the Turkish Society of Cardiovascular Surgery is higher compared to the literature results reporting national congresses of other specialties, but is lower than the international congresses. We believe that this ratio should be increased to reach the same level as international reports and the methods to encourage researchers to publish should be developed.