Publication patterns of posters and oral presentations at the Annual Meeting of the Joint AANS/CNS Cerebrovascular Section

OBJECTIVE

The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) Joint Cerebrovascular (CV) Section serves as a centralized entity for the dissemination of information related to CV neurosurgery. The quality of scientific conferences, such as the CV Section's Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery Annual Meeting, can be gauged by the number of poster and oral presentations that are published in peer-reviewed journals. However, publication rates from the CV Section's meetings are unknown. The objective of this study was to assess the rate at which abstracts presented at the AANS/CNS CV Section Annual Meeting from 2014 to 2018 were subsequently published in peer-reviewed journals.

METHODS

The abstract titles for all accepted poster and oral podium presentation abstracts from the 2014-2018 Annual Joint AANS/CNS CV Section Meetings were searched using PubMed. A match was defined as sufficient similarity between the abstract and its corresponding journal publication with regard to title, authors, methods, and results. Five-year impact factors (IFs) from Journal Citation Reports (JCR), the country of the corresponding author, and the number of citations in the Scopus database were obtained using the articles' digital object identifier when available, or the exact article title, journal, and year of publication.

RESULTS

Of the 607 total poster and oral presentations from the 2014-2018 Annual Meetings of the AANS/CNS Joint CV Section, 46.29% (n = 281) have been published. Published articles received 3233 total citations for an average number of citations per article (± SD) of 10.89 ± 16.37. The average 5-year JCR IF of published studies was 4.64 ± 3.13. Additionally, 98.22% of published abstracts were in publication within 4 years from the time the abstract was presented. The most common peer-reviewed neurosurgical journals featuring these publications were the Journal of Neurosurgery, World Neurosurgery, the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery, Neurosurgery, and the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience.

CONCLUSIONS

Nearly half of all poster and oral presentations at the annual meetings of the AANS/CNS Joint CV Section from 2014 to 2018 have been published in PubMed-indexed, peer-reviewed journals. The average number of citations per publication (10.89 ± 16.37) reflects the high quality of abstracts accepted for presentation. It is important to continuously assess the quality of research presented at national conferences to ensure that standards are being maintained for the advancement of clinical practice in a given area of medicine. Conference abstract publication rates in peer-reviewed journals represent a way in which research quality can be gauged, and the authors encourage others to conduct similar investigations in their subspecialty area of interest and/or practice.

Academic Degree Bias Among Speaking and Leadership Roles at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meetings, 2016-2021

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the proportion of Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DOs) across various speaking and leadership roles at recent American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) annual meetings.  Design: Meeting programs from the AAOS were publicly accessed and compiled between 2016 and 2021. Two categories of AAOS meeting participants were created. Invited speaker and faculty roles included moderators of symposia and program committee members while authors of presented papers were classified into academic roles. The proportion of DOs in each role type (invited speaker, academic) was recorded for each meeting program. The representation of DOs in these roles was then examined longitudinally across our analysis period using Pearson's Correlation.  Results: Overall, 1.1% (119/10,636) of all roles were held by DOs. Across our analysis period, DOs were disproportionately underrepresented as invited faculty or speakers (0.1%, 4/2791) compared with academic roles (0.1% vs 1.5%, p<0.001). Specifically, DOs were underrepresented as program committee members (0.08% vs 1.5%, p<0.001), symposia lecturers (0.1% vs 1.5%, p=0.004), and moderators of paper presentations (0.3% vs 1.5%, p=0.01).  Conclusion: Between 2016-2021, DOs were disproportionately represented as invited speakers or faculty at AAOS annual meetings. Our definition of diverse perspectives may need to expand to include osteopathic physicians.

Annual Meeting Content Analysis: Leveraging Annual Meetings to Promote Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry

BACKGROUND

There is an increasing need to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in all aspects of academic medicine, including through continuing medical education. Although professional medical organizations' annual meetings play an instrumental role in continuing medical education for physicians, there are no studies describing DEI content in the annual meeting programming of professional medical organizations, including the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (ACLP), the primary professional organization for consultation-liaison psychiatrists.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the ACLP annual meeting titles using Content Analysis.

METHODS

We examined the publicly available ACLP annual meeting content titles on the ACLP website from 2010 to 2021. National DEI leaders from ACLP's DEI subcommittee iteratively generated keywords that covered a broad scope of DEI-related themes. Each annual meeting's content was independently coded by 2 members of the DEI subcommittee with discrepancies adjudicated by 2 additional members. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the content of the annual meeting.

RESULTS

Of the 2615 annual meeting titles from 2010 to 2021 that were analyzed, 2531 were not coded to have DEI themes. Three percent (n = 84) of titles were coded to have a DEI theme as follows: Culture/diversity (n = 20, 24%), bias/disparities (n = 17, 20%), race/racism (n = 17, 20%), social justice (n = 12, 14%), gender/sexism (n = 10, 12%), and LGBTQ+ (n = 8, 10%). The frequency of DEI titles each year ranged from 1% (2010, 2018) to 17% (2021) with an increase in DEI content in 2021 (n = 24, 17%).

CONCLUSIONS

Although professional medical organizations like the ACLP are poised to leverage their continuing medical education platforms embedded in annual meeting programming to train consultation-liaison psychiatrists on DEI topics, our findings suggest more work is needed to develop and promote DEI-focused educational programming for their annual meetings.

State of the Art and New Trends from the Second International StemNet Meeting

The Second International StemNet (Federation of Stem Cell Research Associations) meeting took place on 18-20 October 2023 in Brescia (Italy), with the support of the University of Brescia and the Zooprophylactic Institute of Lombardy and Emilia Romagna. The program of the meeting was articulated in nine sections: (1) Biomedical Communication in Italy: Critical Aspects; (2) StemNet Next Generation Session; (3) Cell-Free Therapies; (4) Tips and Tricks of Research Valorisation; (5) Stem Cells and Cancer; (6) Stem Cells in Veterinary Applications; (7) Stem Cells in Clinical Applications; (8) Organoids and 3D Systems; (9) induced pluripotent stem cells (iPCS) and Gene Therapy. National and International speakers presented their scientific works, inspiring debates and discussions among the attendees. The participation in the meeting was high, especially because of the young researchers who animated all the sessions and the rich poster session.

State of the Art and New Trends from the 2022 Gism Annual Meeting

The 2022 Italian Mesenchymal Stem Cell Group (Gruppo Italiano Staminali Mesenchimali, GISM) Annual Meeting took place on 20-21 October 2022 in Turin (Italy), with the support of the University of Turin and the City of Health and Science of Turin. The novelty of this year's meeting was its articulation, reflecting the new structure of GISM based on six sections: (1) Bringing advanced therapies to the clinic: trends and strategies, (2) GISM Next Generation, (3) New technologies for 3D culture systems, (4) Therapeutic applications of MSC-EVs in veterinary and human medicine, (5) Advancing MSC therapies in veterinary medicine: present challenges and future perspectives, (6) MSCs: a double-edged sword: friend or foe in oncology. National and international speakers presented their scientific works with the aim of promoting an interactive discussion and training for all attendees. The atmosphere was interactive, where ideas and questions between younger researchers and senior mentors were shared in all moments of the congress.

Summary of fifth annual public MCBK meeting: Mobilizing computable biomedical knowledge (CBK) around the world

The massive growth of biomedical knowledge in computable formats poses a challenge for organizations as they consider mobilizing artifacts to be findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable, and trustable. Formed in 2016, the Mobilizing Computable Biomedical Knowledge (MCBK) community is taking action to ensure that health organizations have the infrastructure in place to access and apply computable knowledge; to develop national policies and standards that require all data to be discoverable and available for safe and fair use; and to promote the widespread adoption and implementation of health knowledge in support of healthcare, biomedical research, public health, and education. This report summarizes the main outcomes of the Fifth Annual MCBK meeting, also considered the first manifestly global MCBK meeting, which was held virtually July 12 to 13, 2022. Over 200 participants from diverse domains around the world joined this meeting to frame and address important dimensions for mobilizing CBK.

The 2021 American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons Annual Meeting Proceedings to be Published Online; Open to All

This year's 2021 American Association of HIp and Knee Surgeons Annual Meeting Proceeding will be published online and open access.

Rethinking Our Annual Congress-Meeting the Needs of Specialist Physicians by Partnering With Provincial Simulation Centers

Canada's maintenance of certification programs for physicians has evolved to emphasize assessment activities. Our organization recognized the importance of offering more practice assessment opportunities to our members to enhance their practice and help them comply with a regulation from our provincial professional body related to ongoing continuing education. This led us to rethink our annual congress and enrich the program with a curriculum of interdisciplinary simulation sessions tailored to meet the needs of a broad audience of specialists. Our challenges are similar to those of many national specialty societies having limited access to simulation facilities, instructors, and simulation teams that can cover the breadth and scope of perceived and unperceived simulation needs for their specialty. Our innovative solution was to partner with local experts to develop 22 simulation sessions over the past three years. The response was very positive, drawing 867 participants. Over 95% of participants either agreed or strongly agreed that their simulation session (1) met their learning objectives, (2) was relevant for their practice, and (3) encouraged them to modify their practice. Narrative comments from a survey sent to the 2018 participants four months after their activity indicated several self-reported changes in their practice or patient outcomes. We were able to centralize offers from organizations that had previously worked in silo to develop simulation sessions meeting the needs of our members. Proposing simulation sessions allowed our organization to establish long-term partnerships and to expend our "educational toolbox" to address skill gaps not usually addressed during annual meetings.

Charting the course from abstract to published article

OBJECTIVE

Abstracts act as short, efficient sources of new information. This intentional brevity potentially diminishes scientific reliability of described findings. The authors' objective was to 1) determine the proportion of abstracts submitted to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) annual meeting that subsequently are published in peer-reviewed journals, 2) assess AANS abstract publications for publication bias, and 3) assess AANS abstract publications for differing results.

METHODS

The authors screened all abstracts from the annual 2012 AANS meeting and identified their corresponding full-text publication, if applicable, by searching PubMed/MEDLINE. The abstract and subsequent publication were analyzed for result type (positive or negative) and differences in results.

RESULTS

Overall, 49.3% of abstracts were published as papers. Many (18.1%) of these published papers differed in message from their original abstract. Publication bias exists, with positive abstracts being 40% more likely to be published than negative abstracts. The top journals in which the full-text articles were published were Journal of Neurosurgery (13.1%), Neurosurgery (7.3%), and World Neurosurgery (5.4%).

CONCLUSIONS

Here, the authors demonstrate that alone, abstracts are not reliable sources of information. Many abstracts ultimately remain unpublished; therefore, they do not attain a level of scientific scrutiny that merits alteration of clinical care. Furthermore, many that are published have differing results or conclusions. In addition, positive publication bias exists, as positive abstracts are more likely to be published than negative abstracts.

Gender Representation in Speaking Roles at the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons Annual Meeting: 2012-2019

BACKGROUND

The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) has one of the lowest percentages of women members among orthopedic surgery subspecialty societies, having increased from 1.3% to 3.1% since 2012. Our purpose was to report the representation of women in various speaking roles at the AAHKS annual meeting over this time period.

METHODS

We accessed the 2012-2019 AAHKS annual meeting programs online and reviewed all paper presenters, symposium faculty, and session moderators. We recorded instances of women speakers and their degree and specialty. We calculated the percentage of women speakers, women orthopedic surgeon speakers, women session moderators, and women symposium faculty for the overall period of 2012-2019, and for each annual meeting.

RESULTS

Between 2012 and 2019, 33/877 (3.8%) of all speakers at AAHKS were women. Of these, 21 were women orthopedic surgeons, or 2.4% of all speakers. The proportion of total women speakers per year ranged from 1.7% (2017) to 6.4% (2013). Twenty-four of 492 (4.9%) paper presenters were women, and 12/492(2.4%) were women orthopedic surgeons. Four of 143 (2.8%) session moderators were women, and all were orthopedic surgeons. Five of 245 (2.0%) symposium faculty were women, and 0/245 (0%) were women orthopedic surgeons.

CONCLUSION

Although the percentage of women AAHKS members has grown since 2012, the small percentage of women orthopedic surgeons speaking at AAHKS has not. There were no women orthopedic surgeons included on symposium faculty over this entire period. We appreciate and encourage efforts to improve gender diversity among speakers at AAHKS annual meetings.

Highlights From AES2020, a Virtual American Epilepsy Society Experience

Due to COVID-19 a live, in-person meeting was not possible for the American Epilepsy Society in 2020. An alternative, virtual event, the AES2020, was held instead. AES2020 was a great success with 4679 attendees from 70 countries. The educational content was outstanding and spanned the causes, treatments, and outcomes from epileptic encephalopathy to the iatrogenicity of epilepsy interventions to neurocognitive disabilities to the approach to neocortical epilepsies. New gene therapy approaches such as antisense oligonucleotide treatment for Dravet syndrome were introduced and neuromodulation devices were discussed. There were many other topics discussed in special interest groups and investigators' workshops. A highlight was having a Nobel prize winner speak about memory processing. Human intracranial electrophysiology contributes insights into memory processing and complements animal work. In a special COVID symposium, the impact of COVID on patients with epilepsy was reviewed. Telehealth has been expanded rapidly and may be well suited for some parts of epilepsy care. In summary, the epilepsy community was alive and engaged despite being limited to a virtual platform.

Fate of abstracts from American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery Annual Meetings

OBJECTIVES

The American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) Annual Meeting provides a unique platform for the dissemination of research in laser and energy-based technologies, which are regularly utilized in cosmetic dermatology. We sought to elucidate the fate of the abstracts presented at ASLMS meetings over 3 years.

METHODS

We conducted a literature search for all abstracts presented at ASLMS meetings in 2013, 2014, and 2015 to determine publication rate, latency to publication, and journals of publication.

RESULTS

The publication rate of abstracts presented at the 2013, 2014, and 2015 ASLMS meetings was 50.3%, 49.1%, and 43.5%, respectively. Average latency to publication was 16.1 months across these three years. Publication outcomes differed across general discipline, abstract type, poster category, clinical focus, and study design.

CONCLUSION

Our findings provide insight into the likelihood of publication, as well as potential contributing factors, for abstracts presented at ASLMS. With about half of all abstracts reaching publication, our study highlights the significant volume of research presented at this unique meeting that does not reach a broader audience through publication and thus is limited in its potential clinical applications in cosmetic dermatology.

Factors associated with the publication outcomes of paediatric proceedings presented at 2010-2016 the International Associations for Dental Research annual meetings

The International Associations for Dental Research (IADR) annual meeting is one of the most important dental meetings throughout the world, and researches about paediatric dentistry presented in this platform are often used to guide clinical work. To evaluate the publication outcomes of oral and poster paediatric proceedings, which were accepted by the International Associations for Dental Research (IADR), annual meetings from 2010 to 2016 and to analyse the possible factors influencing an abstract's progression to publication. Oral and poster abstracts were retrieved from the official website of IADR (2010-2016). Searching for subsequent publications was conducted in PubMed and Google Scholar (up to March 2019). Two authors independently selected studies, collected, and analysed data. A total of 1396 abstracts were identified, including 275 oral presentations and 1121 poster presentations. Finally, 606 were published in peer-reviewed journals, with a publication rate of 43.41%. Abstracts were published earlier if it is from Europe, well funded, presented orally, or with large sample size. The high publication rate of the IADR proceedings supported the impact of IADR annual meetings on paediatric dentistry in the last 10 years.

High Publication Rate of Abstracts Presented at Lumbar Spine Research Society Meetings

Background

Although publication rates from multiple orthopedic research conferences have been published in the literature, the publication rates of abstracts presented at the Lumbar Spine Research Society (LSRS) meetings have never been reported. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the publication rates from the LSRS annual meeting years 2008-2012 and then to compare those rates with that of other spine research society meetings.

Methods

Podium presentations from 2008 to 2012 and poster presentations from 2010 to 2012 were reviewed. For each presentation, a PubMed search was performed to determine if a full-text publication existed. χ² tests were used to compare LSRS publication rates to those of other spine meetings. In addition, impact of published articles was evaluated by average citation count and average journal impact factor.

Results

From 2008 to 2012, a total of 332 podium and poster presentations were identified. The overall publication rate was 55.1% (183/332). For podium presentations, this was greatest in 2012 (66.0%) and lowest in 2008 (51.5%). For poster presentations, this was greatest in 2012 (53.6%) and lowest in 2010 (25.0%). The publication rate of presentations is statistically greater than the publication rates of Eurospine (37.8%, P < .001), North American Spine Society (40.0%, P < .001), The International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine (45.0%, P = .012), and the Scoliosis Research Society (47.0%, P = .042) but not statistically different than that of Cervical Spine Research Society (65.7%, P = .059). In addition, the average citation count per published article categorized by year ranged from 13 to 31. The average journal impact factor of published articles categorized by year ranged from 2.31 to 2.55.

Conclusions

While LSRS is a relatively young society, these findings point to the high quality of presentations at this scientific meeting. These findings speak to the scientific rigor of presentations at LSRS.

Clinical Relevance

This study helps clinicians and scientists gauge the quality of a research meeting and make informed choices on which gatherings to attend.

Oral presentation to publication: publication rates of abstract presentations across two pediatric neurosurgical meetings

OBJECTIVE Both the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Joint Section on Pediatric Neurological Surgery (AANS/CNS Pediatric Section) and the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ISPN) annual meetings provide a platform for pediatric neurosurgeons to present, discuss, and disseminate current academic research. An ultimate goal of these meetings is to publish presented results in peer-reviewed journals. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the publication rates of oral presentations from the 2009, 2010, and 2011 AANS/CNS Pediatric Section and ISPN annual meetings in peer-reviewed journals. METHODS All oral presentations from the 2009, 2010, and 2011 AANS/CNS Pediatric Section and ISPN annual meetings were reviewed. Abstracts were obtained from the AANS/CNS Pediatric Section and ISPN conference proceedings, which are available online. Author and title information were used to search PubMed to identify those abstracts that had progressed to publication in peer-reviewed journals. The title of the journal, year of the publication, and authors' country of origin were also recorded. RESULTS Overall, 60.6% of the presented oral abstracts from the AANS/CNS Pediatric Section meetings progressed to publication in peer-reviewed journals, as compared with 40.6% of the ISPN presented abstracts (p = 0.0001). The journals in which the AANS/CNS Pediatric Section abstract-based publications most commonly appeared were Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics (52%), Child's Nervous System (11%), and Journal of Neurosurgery (8%). The ISPN abstracts most often appeared in the journals Child's Nervous System (29%), Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics (14%), and Neurosurgery (9%). Overall, more than 90% of the abstract-based articles were published within 4 years after presentation of the abstracts on which they were based. CONCLUSIONS Oral abstract presentations at two annual pediatric neurosurgery meetings have publication rates in peer-reviewed journal comparable to those for oral abstracts at other national and international neurosurgery meetings. The vast majority of abstract-based papers are published within 4 years of the meeting at which the abstract was presented; however, the AANS/CNS Pediatric Section abstracts are published at a significantly higher rate than ISPN abstracts, which could indicate the different meeting sizes, research goals, and resources of US authors compared with those of authors from other countries.

Publication Rate of Podium Presentations From the North American Spine Society Annual Meetings

STUDY DESIGN

Observational study.

OBJECTIVES

To determine the publication rate of podium presentations from the North American Spine Society (NASS) annual meetings from the years 2009 to 2011.

METHODS

In April 2015, a PubMed search was conducted using titles from the paper presentations as well as the authors. Of the search results that were found, the specific scientific journal in which the article was published was recorded. We analyzed further the top 4 destination journals and trends in publications in these journals over the study period. No study funding was obtained for this research, and there are no potential conflicts of interest or associated biases.

RESULTS

Over the study period, 671 paper presentations were available and 342 were published (51% publication rate). The highest publication rate was from the 2011 annual meeting, with 55.3%, and the lowest year was 2010, with a rate of 46.43%. Spine (32.75%), The Spine Journal (19.01%), Journal of Neurosurgery Spine (7.31%), and European Spine Journal (6.73%) were the top 4 destination journals. Over the study period, we found a significant decrease in publication rate in Spine (P = .001) and a significant increase in publication rate in The Spine Journal (P = .003). There were no significant difference in publication rate over the study period in Journal of Neurosurgery Spine (P = .15) or European Spine Journal (P = .23).

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first study to our knowledge evaluating the publication rate of podium presentations from recent North American Spine Society annual meetings. We found an overall publication rate of 51%.

Conversion of Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine abstract presentations to manuscript publications

OBJECTIVE

We sought to evaluate the rate of conversion of Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) annual meeting abstract presentations to full manuscript publications over time.

STUDY DESIGN

Full manuscript publications corresponding to all SMFM oral abstracts 2003 through 2010 inclusive, and SMFM poster abstracts in 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2009 were manually searched in PubMed. An abstract was considered to "match" a full publication if the abstract and publication titles as well as main methods and results were similar and the abstract first author was a publication author. In cases of uncertainty, the abstract-publication match was reviewed by a second physician researcher. Time to publication, publication rates over time, and publication rates among US vs non-US authors were examined. PubMed identification numbers were also collected to determine if >1 abstract contributed to a manuscript. Data were analyzed using Wilcoxon rank sum, analysis of variance, t test, and logistic regression.

RESULTS

In all, 3281 abstracts presented at SMFM over the study period, including 629 orals (63 main plenary, 64 fellows plenary, 502 concurrent), were reviewed. Of 3281, 1780 (54.3%) were published, generating 1582 unique publications. Oral abstracts had a consistently higher rate of conversion to publications vs posters (77.1% vs 48.8%, P < .001). The median time to publication was 19 (interquartile range, 9-36) months, and was significantly shorter for orals vs posters (11 vs 21 months, P < .001). Over the study period, rates of publication of orals remained constant, but rates of publication of posters were lower in 2007 and 2009 compared to 2003 and 2005. Publications related to SMFM abstracts were published in 194 different journals, most commonly American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (39.8%), Obstetrics and Gynecology (9.7%), and Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine (6.5%). Publication rates were higher if the abstract's first author was affiliated with a non-US institution (64.8% vs 51.1%, P < .001) and if the abstract received an award (82.7% vs 53.3%, P < .001). In regression models, oral presentation at SMFM, first author affiliation with a non-US institution, submission for American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology SMFM special issue, and year of abstract presentation at SMFM were associated with full manuscript publication.

CONCLUSION

From 2003 through 2010, full manuscript publication rates of SMFM abstracts were high and consistent, and time to publication decreased/improved across the study period for oral presentations.

An undergraduate neuroscience seminar based on the annual meeting of the society for neuroscience

We have recently planned and taught an advanced undergraduate seminar at our respective institutions that uses a unique mechanism to explore topics that are on the cutting edge of neuroscience. The course material is centered on the topics of presentations scheduled for the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience held each fall. The instructor and students (∼15) select several topics that are the subject of special lectures, panels, and keynote addresses included in the Program for the Annual Meeting. Each week the class reads and discusses several articles on the topic of one of the lectures, panels or addresses. By the time the Annual Meeting is held, the class is intimately familiar with the content of the planned presentations. The class then travels to the Annual Meeting and attends these presentations along with events of personal interest and keeps a journal of what they learn. Upon returning from the Annual Meeting, the students discuss the assigned presentations and also prepare and deliver their own presentation on a neuroscience topic of personal interest using information obtained at the meeting. Students also prepare an in-depth final paper on their presentation topic in the form of a Current Opinions in Neurobiology review article. The outcomes for the students are many fold: Students explore topics on the cutting edge of neuroscience through the review of primary literature and experience a major scientific conference first hand, which is attended by over 30,000 neuroscientists from around the world. This experience helps neuroscience "come alive" for the students and provides them with valuable opportunities to meet world-renowned researchers, prospective graduate mentors, and possibly future employers. Students also have the chance to develop important professional skills through critical evaluation of research, exposure to different presentation styles, and preparation of an in-depth research paper and oral presentation.