Center for Evidence-Based Medicine and Health Care, Catholic University of Croatia, Ilica 242, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia.
BMC Med Res Methodol. 2021 Nov 8;21(1):243. doi: 10.1186/s12874-021-01442-3.
The purpose of a conference abstract is to summarize the main points of a research-related report that will be presented at an academic conference. However, some conferences accept and publish abstracts without results, which is contrary to the basic idea of a conference abstract as a dissemination tool. A conference abstract without results included is called a "promissory abstract". This study aimed to analyze the frequency and characteristics of promissory conference abstracts, i.e. abstracts submitted without results, accepted at Cochrane Colloquia.
We analyzed 8297 conference abstracts accepted at 25 Cochrane Colloquia, organized in 1994-2020, which were publicly available on the website of the Cochrane Library. Two authors screened abstracts to identify promissory abstracts. We extracted characteristics of promissory abstracts.
Among abstracts accepted for Cochrane Colloquia, 8.7% were promissory; 475 (66%) were accepted as poster presentations, 241 (34%) as oral presentations and 1 as a workshop. The median number of authors in promissory abstracts was 4 (interquartile range: 3 to 6 authors). In 245 (34%) promissory abstracts, affiliations of authors were not reported. The authors were most commonly affiliated with the following countries: UK (472; 36%), Canada (N = 123; 26%), China (N = 76; 16%), United States (N = 66; 14%) and Australia (N = 53; 11%). There were 512 (71%) promissory abstracts in which study design was not reported.
Promissory abstracts were commonly accepted at Cochrane Colloquia. Such abstracts deserve further attention, as they are detrimental in terms of the dissemination of new knowledge presented at a conference. Conference organizers could ask authors to update the abstract results subsequently to enable the dissemination of information presented at a conference.
会议摘要的目的是总结将在学术会议上报告的与研究相关的主要内容。然而，一些会议接受并发表没有结果的摘要，这有悖于会议摘要作为传播工具的基本理念。包含无结果的会议摘要被称为“承诺性摘要”。本研究旨在分析在 Cochrane 专题会议上接受的、没有结果的承诺性会议摘要（即提交但无结果的摘要）的频率和特征。
我们分析了 1994 年至 2020 年期间在 Cochrane 图书馆网站上公开的 25 次 Cochrane 专题会议上接受的 8297 份会议摘要。两位作者筛选摘要以确定承诺性摘要。我们提取了承诺性摘要的特征。
在接受的 Cochrane 专题会议摘要中，有 8.7%是承诺性的；475 份（66%）被接受为壁报展示，241 份（34%）为口头报告，1 份为研讨会。承诺性摘要的作者中位数为 4 人（四分位距：3 至 6 人）。在 245 份（34%）承诺性摘要中，作者的所属机构未报告。作者最常来自以下国家：英国（472 人；36%）、加拿大（123 人；26%）、中国（76 人；16%）、美国（66 人；14%）和澳大利亚（53 人；11%）。512 份（71%）承诺性摘要未报告研究设计。
承诺性摘要在 Cochrane 专题会议上常被接受。此类摘要值得进一步关注，因为它们不利于会议上呈现的新知识的传播。会议组织者可以要求作者随后更新摘要结果，以促进会议信息的传播。
