Overall,
86 out of the total 489 oral scientific papers presented in ten annual conferences subsequently underwent journal publication resulting in a publication rate of 20%.
The publication percentages of various radiological modalities were as follows (Fig: 1) PET/CT (40%),
Nuclear Medicine (Non-PET) (33%),
CT (21.5%),
ultrasound (21.5%),
interventional radiology (20%),
radiography (20%) and MRI (17%).
Neuroradiology (70/17),
genitourinary (59/14),
gastrointestinal (50/6),
hepatobiliary (38/7) and musculoskeletal (37/3) were the top five subspecialties in terms of maximum number of oral scientific presentations (Fig: 3).
Cardiac imaging (40%),
thoracic imaging (31.5%),
breast imaging (28%),
head and neck imaging (25%) and neuroradiology (24%) were the top five published subspecialties (Fig: 4).
Analysis by author’s city of origin revealed that authors from the city of Karachi dominated the annual conferences with a total of 192 scientific papers,
48 of which were subsequently published equating to publication percentage of 25% (Fig: 5).
The publication percentage of the top five cities were Peshawar (31%),
Karachi (25%),
Faisalabad (24%),
Islamabad (19%) and Lahore (11%). This unveils that the authors from Peshawar,
Karachi and Faisalabad consistently publish high percentages of oral scientific papers (Fig: 6).
Analysis by the category of publishing journal revealed that a total of 64 articles were published in local Pakistani journals and 28 were published in international journals (Fig: 7).
Pakistan Journal of Radiology (PJR) was the most preferred journal followed by Journal of Pakistan Medical Association (JPMA) and Journal of Postgraduate Medical Institute (JPMI) (Fig: 8).
The overall review of the annual conferences shows that the 29th annual conference held in 2013 had the maximum publication rate i.e 22.47% (Fig: 9).
Additionally,
there has been a steady progressive decline in publication rate from 2013 to 2017 from 24% to 0%,
the reason for which remains unclear. Author’s city of origin (p = 0.212),
subspecialty (p = 0.74) and modality (p = 0.024) were not associated with subsequent publication. The average publication rate of the last ten annual conferences was 20%.
It is reported that the publication rates of scientific conferences range from 11% to 78%1,5. Data suggests that at least one-quarter of the studies initially presented at the conferences are never published2.
Therefore,
a comparison with some of the renowned international radiological conferences was done (Fig: 10,
11).
Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) has more than 54,000 members across the globe.
Arrive et al,
states that 635 abstracts presented at the 1995 annual assembly of RSNA were subsequently expanded into manuscripts with a publication rate of 33%3.
According to Will Loughborough et al,
the European Society of Radiology (ECR) comprising of more than 83,801 members has a publication rate of 43%,
as a total of 360 out of 840 papers presented at the ECR 2010 were finally published2,4. French International Congress of radiology comprising of over 6000 members from the world of imaging has a a publication rate of 43% during the annual conferences of 2008,
2009 and 20106.
The Radiological Society of Pakistan with a total of 1130 life members has publication rate of 20% during the last ten annual conferences.
The results of our study are in keeping with the international trends.