Publication Rate and Impact Factor of Abstracts Presented at SSC Congresses 2011 to 2014

BACKGROUND: The annual congress of the Swiss Societies of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery is the most important national platform for Swiss researchers in these specialities. Every year there are a high number of oral presentations and posters. However, more important is their publication in international journals. We determined publication rates, impact factors (IFs) and their temporal trends in seven cardiological domains. METHODS: The abstract booklets of the congresses 2011–2014 were downloaded and all talks and posters presented during the meeting extracted. In PubMed we assessed whether each of these papers was published, the journal and its IF in the respective publication year. We excluded case reports, papers published >6 months before the congress and abstracts presenting national data from multicentre studies (unless the first/last author of the paper was from Switzerland). The percentage of published papers and their mean/median IF were calculated overall and per year separately for each domain. We also compared major Swiss hospitals regarding their individual publication rates. RESULTS: A total of 715 abstracts were included, of which 52% were published as of February 2017. The lowest average publication rate in a domain was 36% and the highest 69%, with mean IFs between 2.5 and 7.8. The lowest average publication rate in one of the major hospitals was 16% and the highest 70%. CONCLUSIONS: Abstracts presented during the congresses had a high chance of being published, usually in papers with a good IF. This reflects the good quality of research in cardiology in Switzerland.