FRI0589-HPR Investigating the Publication Rates of Physiotherapy Abstracts Presented in Eular Congresses
Authors: U.Z. Koçak, D. Bayraktar, B. Unver
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2014)

<h3>Background</h3> Annual EULAR Congress is one of the biggest events in the field of Rheumatology and every year lots of participants from different professional backgrounds, including physiotherapists, participate in it. Last year, 3889 abstracts were submitted, 3050 abstracts were accepted and 2142 abstracts were presented. It was reported that full text publication rates after congresses indicate the scientific success of congresses. <h3>Objectives</h3> The aim of this study was to investigate the publication rates of accepted abstracts about physiotherapy in EULAR Congresses. <h3>Methods</h3> The European League Against Rheumatism Abstracts2View™ site was screened and the abstracts, archived under the section of physiotherapy between 2004 and 2012, were included in this study. Neither the abstracts, belonging to 2002-2003 years, were included as there was no physiotherapy section, nor 2013 abstracts were investigated because of inadequate time between 2013 EULAR congress and the present study. Titles and authors of the abstracts were searched in Pubmed, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases. <h3>Results</h3> Totally 188 abstracts were detected. Forty-seven (25%) abstracts were found as full-text articles. Two abstracts noticed as their full-text publication time was prior to the EULAR Congresses. The time between presentation time in EULAR and full text publication time was determined as mean 18.78 months (1 - 64 months). Countries sending highest number of abstracts were Turkey with 43 abstracts (22.9%), Brazil with 41 abstracts (21.8%), and the United Kingdom with 19 abstracts (10.1%). BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders (7 abstracts), Disability and Rehabilitation (5 abstracts), Clinical Rheumatology (4 abstracts) and Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine (4 abstracts) were the journals in which most abstracts were published as full-text articles. <h3>Conclusions</h3> As far as we know, this study is the first study that investigates the publication rates of physiotherapy abstracts in the rheumatology field. In the literature, the publication rates of the physiotherapy abstracts of Orthopedics and Sports Physical Therapy Congresses were reported as 25.4%. A recent study of Kalyoncu et al. was reported that publication rates for the all abstracts presented in EULAR Congress in 2008 were around 35%. It was seen that the full text publication rates of the physiotherapy abstracts which were presented in annual EULAR Congresses were similar to ones which were presented in Orthopedic and Sports Physiotherapy congresses, but lower than EULAR 2008. There could be many reasons for those results as there might be abstracts in the publication process or full texts that we could not find due to several reasons (publication in other languages or local journals etc.). Regarding the publications of these studies, we think that the rates will get higher. According to our results, EULAR congresses might be scientifically valuable for physiotherapists especially working in the field of Rheumatology, but physiotherapist should be encouraged for full text publication after the EULAR meetings. <h3>References</h3> Smith HD, Bogenschutz ED, Bayliss AJ, et al. Full-text publication of abstract-presented work in physical therapy: do therapists publish what they preach? PhysTher. 2011;91(2):234-245. Kalyoncu U, Yilmaz S, Cinar M, et al. Features and publication rates of scientific abstracts presented at a rheumatology congress: EULAR 2008. Ann Rheum Dis 2011;70 (Suppl 3):438. <h3>Disclosure of Interest</h3> None declared <h3>DOI</h3> 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.2109