Analysis of recent Australasian Sonographers Association ( ASA ) conference abstracts: How many progress to publication?

This study seeks to determine the first Australian conference abstract to publication rate for recent Australasian Sonographers Association (ASA) conferences. Secondary outcomes include analysis of conference location, abstract distribution for posters and oral presentations, abstract author institution, and citation number of identified publications. Methods Retrospective analysis of ASA conference abstracts published in Sonography Special Issues from 2015 – 2017 was conducted. Data from 605 published abstracts was reduced to 297 Australian abstracts. Thirty five New Zealand and International, 133 workshops, and 140 incomplete conference abstracts with missing data were excluded from final analysis. Use of Google Scholar, PubMed and Google databases was undertaken. Abstract titles, key words, institutions and/or authors' names and institutions were used to find peer‐reviewed papers authenticated through open access, publicly available author information or library access. Results Between 2015 and 2017, posters averaged 16.00 ± 7.0 abstracts, and oral presentations 83.0 ± 17.0 abstracts. Fifty‐nine publications from sixty‐three Australian conference presentations were identified, distributed across twenty‐nine journals. The ASA conference abstract to full publication rate was 19.9%. Publications found had in excess of 430 citations. Conclusion The conference abstract to publication rate was 19.9%, at the lower end of reported radiology conferences, and comparable to sonography conference abstract to publication rates.