Full-text publication rate of studies reported as 2013 SoFCOT meeting abstracts

Academic Impact of French Hip&Knee Surgery Society (SFHG): A bibliometric analysis

INTRODUCTION

The French Hip & Knee Surgery Society (SFHG) brings together French-speaking hip and knee expert surgeons. There has been an exponential growth of orthopaedic surgical activity over the last decade and hip and knee surgery clinical research has had a similar growth. Despite this, the SFHG's contribution to the orthopaedic literature remains poorly known. To answer this question, we conducted a bibliometric study using data from the national SIGAPS database between 2013 and 2022 to determine: (1) the number of publications produced by SFHG members, (2) the proportion of articles produced by SFHG members in relation to French orthopaedic production, (3) impact markers for articles produced by SFHG member surgeons, (4) collaboration networks between SFHG member surgeons, and (5) the number of publications produced by SFHG members.

HYPOTHESIS

The number of articles produced by SFHG member surgeons will represent a significant proportion of French scientific output in orthopaedics.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

The analysis was carried out by cross-referencing the SFHG membership list with the French database of the "Système d'interrogation, de gestion, d'analyse des publications scientifiques" (SIGAPS) and the InCites platform. Among the 189 SFHG members, we identified a list of 183 SIGAPS identifiers in the national database, corresponding to 127 distinct individuals with publications over the period 2013-2022. Several indicators were studied: number of publications; SIGAPS score for the different WoS categories; number and percentage of publications in the top1% and top10%.

RESULTS

Of SFHG's 189 members, 127 have been identified by the SIGAPS database as "publishers". Over the last decade, 2306 articles have been published by SFHG members. The number of publications has risen steadily, from 203 publications in 2013 to 261 publications in 2022. All SIGAPS categories were represented. Most articles were published in rank D (n = 719; 31.2%) C (n = 552; 23.9%) and B (n = 549; 23.8%) journals. Authors were in first (n = 624) or last position (n = 730) in 58.7% of publications. Orthopaedics (1,639; 71.1%), Surgery (1,124; 48.7%) and Sports surgery (335; 14.5%) were the most frequently observed topics. Orthopaedics & Traumatology: Surgery & Research is the most popular journal for SFHG members' articles, with 655/2306 articles published over the last decade, representing a 32.2% market share. Of the 2160 publications indexed on the Web of Science, 1807 (83.7%) had a French corresponding author. 31 articles (1.4%) were in the Top 1% of most-cited articles worldwide, and 310 were in the Top 10% of most-cited articles worldwide (14.5%).

DISCUSSION

SFHG is a major player in orthopaedic research in France. In 2022, it accounted for 19% of the annual volume of French scientific publications in the field of orthopaedics and traumatology.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

IV; Retrospective study without control group.

Abstracts accepted for the 2021-2023 French Orthopaedic and Traumatology Society meetings: Proportion of women submitters

BACKGROUND

Women are underrepresented in orthopaedic and trauma surgery worldwide, with proportions of 4% to 17% across countries and 9.1% in France. The annual meeting of the French Society for Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery (SOFCOT) provides opportunities for quantifying the representation of women, which has not yet been accurately evaluated. The objectives of this retrospective study were: 1) to evaluate the proportion of women relative to men who submitted abstracts accepted for presentation at annual SOFCOT meetings, 2) to analyse this proportion in each abstract category, and 3) to compare the professional profiles of submitting authors.

HYPOTHESIS

Among authors with abstracts accepted for presentation at annual SOFCOT meetings, only a minority were women.

METHODS

This retrospective study evaluated all abstracts accepted for presentation at the annual SOFCOT meetings held in 2021, 2022, and 2023. For each accepted abstract, the gender and professional profile of the submitting author were assessed. The female/male ratio was determined for each abstract category and professional profile for each of the three years.

RESULTS

The female/male ratio among authors of abstracts accepted in 2021, 2022, and 2023 was 161/923 (14.9% women), 128/541 (19.1%), and 120/550 (17.9%). The proportion of women was significantly less than the proportion of men for abstracts on the knee (41/333, 11% women (p = 0.0008)), hip (23/209, 9.9% (p = 0.002)), trauma (53 /358, 12,9% (p = 0.017)), and tumours (14/119, 10.5% (p = 0.04)). The proportion of women was also significantly smaller than the proportion of men among residents/fellows (154/491, 23.5% (p < 0.0001)), senior surgeons in non-university institutions (42/400, 11.5% (p < 0.0001)), and senior surgeons in university hospitals (23/164, 12.3% (p = 0.009)).

DISCUSSION

The representation of women compared to men remains low at annual SOFCOT meetings despite being greater than the overall representation of women among orthopaedic surgeons in France. These results highlight the appeal of research and growing interest for orthopaedic surgery among women. Scientific societies and surgical teams must continue to encourage this dynamic.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

III; retrospective case-control study.

Publication dynamics: what can be done to eliminate barriers to publishing full manuscripts by the postgraduate trainees of a low-middle income country?

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to determine the publication rate of free paper abstracts presented by the postgraduate (PG) trainees and determine the reasons for non-publication. A mixed methods study was conducted. PG trainees presenting free papers at the at the Pakistan Society of Chemical Pathologist conferences from 2012 to 2018 were included. Three databases were searched to identify if the abstracts were published or not. The PG trainee authors of abstracts not published as full manuscript, were surveyed to determine the barriers and challenges in publishing a manuscript.

RESULTS

The average rate of full manuscript publication was 51.8% (n = 93/177) for the abstracts presented by the PG trainees. Publication rate was higher for oral (n = 73/119, 61.3%) compared to poster presentation (n = 20/58, 34.5%). Most of the manuscripts were published after two years of abstract presentation. The survey showed that the main challenges to publishing an abstract were lack of time, limited scientific writing or submission skills, lack of funding for publication fee, and negative or statistically non-significant results. This reflects a need to arrange workshops/symposia for the PG trainees of low-middle income country (LMIC) to enhance their writing and time management skills and improve the full manuscript publication rate from LMICs.

Do bibliometric findings differ between Medline, Google Scholar and Web of Science? Bibliometry of publications after oral presentation to the 2013 and 2014 French Society of Arthroscopy (SFA) Congresses

INTRODUCTION

Bibliometrics consists in quantitative and qualitative analysis of an individual's or group's communication (volume, visibility), and impacts research funding. There are a number of bibliometric data sources, functioning in different ways and liable to give rise to differing statistics. This point has not been investigated in relation to publication following presentation to a French congress. We therefore conducted a study comparing the main bibliometric instruments, aiming to assess: (1) publication rates following oral presentation to the 2013 and 2014 French Society of Arthroscopy (SFA) Congresses according to the database used, and (2) citation rates for these publications according to database.

HYPOTHESIS

Publication and citation rates differ according to database. Material and method All 199 Abstracts of oral presentations to the 2013 and 2014 SFA Congresses were included. Based on author names and key-words, manual search was conducted in the Medline, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases. Publication characteristics (citation rate) were studied using the 3 databases and the French SIGAPS (Système d'Interrogation, de Gestion et d'Analyse des Publications Scientifiques: Scientific Publication Search, Management and Analysis System) website.

RESULTS

Publication rates according to Medline and Google Scholar were the same (48.2%: 96 articles for 199 presentations), but significantly lower on Web of Science (44.7%: 89/199; p=0.002). Citation rates differed significantly (p<0.001) between sources, with Google Scholar listing a mean 1.5-3.4-fold more citations per article than the other 2 databases. Citation rates between the 3 databases correlated strongly (r=0.93).

DISCUSSION

The example presented in this study illustrates the differences in bibliometrics found between different databases. There was a 4% difference (7/199 articles) in publication rates following oral presentation to an SFA Congress, and even greater differences in citation rates per article, with 1.5-3.4-fold more citations according to Google Scholar. Bibliometric studies need to acknowledge the database(s) being used, which should be as many as possible to enhance exhaustiveness.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

IV; descriptive epidemiologic study.

Publication rate of studies presented at the French Arthroscopic Society Meeting in 2014

INTRODUCTION

Publication rates for studies reported at French Arthroscopic Society (Société francophone d'arthroscopie, SFA) meetings are not known. A comprehensive search of podium presentations to the 2014 SFA meeting was performed, assessing: (1) publication rate for meeting abstracts, and (2) bibliometric parameters including journal Impact Factor.

HYPOTHESIS

The full-text publication rate for abstracts accepted for the 2014 French Arthroscopic Society (SFA) meeting was around 47.1%: i.e., the rate reported for the 2013 meeting of the French Society of Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology (SoFCOT).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Bibliometric analysis of all abstracts accepted for the 2014 SFA annual meeting was undertaken by the Junior French Arthroscopic Society (SFA Junior), who collated the podium presentations. Reported studies were retrospective in 43 cases (54%) and prospective in 36 (46%). They consisted in clinical studies in 52/79 cases (66%), experimental studies in 4 (5%), cadaver or animal studies in 13 (16.5%), epidemiological studies in 8 (10%), a case report in 1 (1.2%) and a literature review in 1 (1.2%). Thirty-two (40.5%) concerned the shoulder and 31 (39%) the knee. Publication was checked on systematic PubMed-Medline search of authors' names. Articles found on PubMed-Medline were downloaded into the SIGAPS scientific publication search, management and analysis system database. Journal impact factor and SIGAPS category (A to E) were obtained, as were number of citations and h-index. This was a descriptive study, assessing numbers; results were reported as number and percentage.

RESULTS

Overall publication rate was 31/79 (39.2%): 20/31 clinical studies (64.5%), 6 cadaver studies (19.4%), 3 epidemiology studies (9.7%), 1 experimental study (3.2%) and 1 literature review (3.2%). Mean 2014 SFA meeting-to-publication time was 18.7 months [range, -2 to 60 months]. Journal SIGAPS categories were A for 4 articles (13.3%), B for 13 (43.3%), C for 3 (10%), D for 9 (30%), with no E category articles but 1 article (3.3%) without SIGAPS category.

CONCLUSION

The publication rate for abstracts accepted for report to the 2014 SFA annual meeting was lower than for the 2013 SoFCOT meeting. The high level of the journals in question testified to the quality of the studies reported at the SFA meeting.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

IV, retrospective study.