Publication outcomes of abstracts presented at an international toxicology conference

Introduction: The timely and formal publication of material presented at national and international meetings is critical to the dissemination of new information to the medical community. The conversion rates for toxicology abstracts to full-text publications at previous North American toxicology meetings were low. No study has assessed the publication rate from the European Association of Poisons Centers and Clinical Toxicologists (EAPCCT). Methods: We reviewed 269 abstracts presented at the 2013 EAPCCTcongress. We searched the PubMed, EMBASE, and Medline databases using the first, second, and last authors’ names and keywords, through November 2018. Results: Forty-seven of 269 abstracts (17%) subsequently appeared in 29 different peer-reviewed journals, led by Clinical Toxicology (13 out of 47, 28%). Leading countries of origin were the USA (8), UK (7) and Italy (6). The proportions of publications from native English-speaking and non-native English-speaking countries were similarly low (16% vs. 19%). Conclusions: Fewer than one in six abstracts reached publication within five years of the 2013 EAPCCT meeting. This rate is lower than in other specialty medical societies.