Fate of Abstracts Presented at the Saudi Ophthalmology Society Conferences 2015-2018.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to determine the publication rates of abstracts presented at the annual Saudi Ophthalmology Society (SOS) Conferences from 2015 to 2018.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study on abstracts collected from the scientific programs for the SOS meetings from 2015 to 2018. Titles and first authors' names were used in the search process on PubMed. A Chi-square test was conducted to compare between the categorical variables. Kruskal-Wallis test was used for nonnormally distributed variables.

Results: A total of 365 abstracts were presented in the SOS Conferences from 2015 to 2018. In the SOS meetings (2015-2018), the publication rate was 45.7%. Seventy-two (43.1%) of the published abstracts were published in journals with an impact factor. The mean impact factor was 1.4 ± 1.9. The median time to publication was 12.0 months (range: 0-60 months). On univariate analysis, basic science (P < 0.001), abstracts on rare diseases (P = 0.003), affiliation with eye hospitals (P < 0.001), and public hospitals (0.007) were associated with a higher publication rate. On multivariate analysis, basic science studies (odds ratio [OR]: 4.23, confidence interval [CI]: 1.77-10.12, P = 0.001), rare topic-related abstracts (OR: 2.03, CI: 1.22-3.38, P = 0.007), and eye center affiliation (OR: 1.67, CI: 1.03-2.68, P = 0.036) were associated with a better publication rate. The factors associated with publication in high impact factor journals were oral abstracts (P = 0.007) and noncase report abstracts (P = 0.023).

Conclusion: Basic science studies, rare topic-related abstracts, and first author affiliation with an eye center were all associated with a higher publication rate. Orally presented and noncase report abstracts increased the chance of publication in higher impact factor journals.