Kelly J A
Bio-Medical Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455, USA.
Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1998 Jan;86(1):68-76.
Abstracts of scientific papers and posters that are presented at annual scientific meetings of professional societies are part of the broader category of conference literature. They are an important avenue for the dissemination of current data. While timely and succinct, these abstracts present problems such as an abbreviated peer review and incomplete bibliographic access.
Seventy societies of health sciences professionals were surveyed about the publication of abstracts from their annual meetings. Nineteen frequently cited journals also were contacted about their policies on the citation of meeting abstracts. Ten databases were searched for the presence of meetings abstracts.
Ninety percent of the seventy societies publish their abstracts, with nearly half appearing in the society's journal. Seventy-seven percent of the societies supply meeting attendees with a copy of each abstract, and 43% make their abstracts available in an electronic format. Most of the journals surveyed allow meeting abstracts to be cited. Bibliographic access to these abstracts does not appear to be widespread.
Meeting abstracts play an important role in the dissemination of scientific knowledge. Bibliographic access to meeting abstracts is very limited. The trend toward making meeting abstracts available via the Internet has the potential to give a broader audience access to the information they contain.
在专业学会年度科学会议上发表的科学论文和海报摘要属于会议文献这一更广泛的类别。它们是传播当前数据的重要途径。虽然这些摘要及时且简洁，但存在诸如同行评审简略和文献检索不完整等问题。
对70个健康科学专业学会进行了关于其年会摘要发表情况的调查。还联系了19种经常被引用的期刊，了解它们关于引用会议摘要的政策。在10个数据库中搜索会议摘要的存在情况。
70个学会中有90%发表其摘要，近一半发表在学会期刊上。77%的学会为会议参会者提供每份摘要的副本，43%以电子格式提供其摘要。大多数接受调查的期刊允许引用会议摘要。对这些摘要的文献检索似乎并不普遍。
会议摘要在科学知识传播中发挥着重要作用。对会议摘要的文献检索非常有限。通过互联网提供会议摘要的趋势有可能使更广泛的受众获取其中包含的信息。
