Increasing use of classification systems was seen in the most recently published articles. When a system was adopted by authors, the Clavien-Dindo classification was used most frequently. While there has been increased use of standardized reporting systems in articles mentioning surgical complications, there is room for increased implementation.
8 5What ' s known on the subject? and What does the study add? It is well known that the transition of a presented abstract in a scientifi c meeting to a journal article improves the quality of the meeting and prevents an abstract being incorporated into meta-analyses or practice guidelines without proper appraisal. This is the fi rst analysis of USANZ Annual Scientifi c Meeting abstracts ' conversion to full publication. With relatively low publication rates compared to other international meetings, this review identifi es the need for mechanisms to encourage USANZ researchers to convert their abstracts into published articles.The numbers and characteristics of the abstracts presented at the Annual Scientifi c Meetings (ASM) of the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand (USANZ) that are converted to peer-reviewed publications have not previously been analysed and published. We undertook a review of all abstracts presented at the USANZ ASM from 2005 to 2009. A PubMed search was performed between 15 June and 15 July 2012, using a search algorithm to identify the full-text publications of the presented abstracts. Correlation between abstract characteristics and publication rate was then examined to distinguish the predictors for publications. Of 614 abstracts that were presented at USANZ ASM between 2005 and 2009, 183 papers were published, giving a publication rate of 29.80%. The papers were predominantly published in urological journals and were more likely to be published if they were presented by an international author or were retrospective studies or if basic science research. The mean (SD) time to publication was 14.46 (13.89) months and the mean Impact Factor of journals where papers were published was 2.90. The overall publication rate was relatively low compared with other urological meetings held in America and Europe. USANZ has a challenge of encouraging higher-quality research from the authors to further enhance its publication rate and consequently the calibre of the meeting itself.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.