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Indian Pediatr 2011;48:
818-819 |
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Fate of Award Winning Papers at Annual
Conference of Indian Academy of Pediatrics: a 13 years’
Experience |
Hema Mittal and Piyush Gupta
Department of Pediatrics, University College of Medical
Sciences and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Delhi 110095, India. Email:
[email protected]
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The present study was conducted to determine the rate of publication
of research papers winning awards at the annual pediatric conference
of Indian Academy of Pediatrics. Secondary objective was to identify
the factors facilitating their publication, if any. Overall, 75 papers
were awarded between 1995 and 2007; of these, 28 (37%) were
subsequently published till January 2011. Papers originating from
North India, medical colleges, and those with an experimental design
had higher chances of subsequent publication.
Key words: Award papers, Biomed journals, PEDICON,
Pediatrics, Publication.
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Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) is a prestigious national body in
pediatric subspecialty in India. The annual conference of IAP "PEDICON" is
a popular and esteemed event. Scientific research from India and other
countries is presented. A maximum of 6 papers are awarded each year. There
are 4 prestigious award categories in oral paper presentations with 2
awards each in VB Raju (Child Health) and James Flett (Social Pediatrics)
category and 1 each in SS Manchanda (neonatology) and ST Achar
(Pediatrics) award category. The best papers with high quality of
scientific research are selected for these prestigious awards by an
eminent panel of judges after complex scoring system. Thus, winning this
prestigious award implies high quality, research work. However, it is not
known whether these papers are submitted for publication or if submitted
finally clear the peer review procedure in an indexed journal to achieve
wider dissemination and recognition. We studied the publication rates of
award winning papers at PEDICON from 1995-2007. Secondary objective was to
ascertain the factors that facilitated subsequent publication.
The abstract papers chosen for presentation in the
award winning category were obtained from the proceeding book of the
PEDICON (national conference) from 1995-2007. The year 2007 was chosen to
allow sufficient time for the presented papers to reach publication. The
published papers were retrieved by exhaustive computerized search by
PubMed, Ind Med and Google server as of January 2011. Appropriate key
words from the title combined with each author’s name were used to
identify the corresponding publication. If a hit was not obtained, the
process was repeated with each author’s name. Individual efforts were also
made to contact all the awardees (whose papers could not be traced in the
published domain) by email and postal mail.
Data were recorded including award category, sex of
awardees, geographical area of origin (as per 5 IAP zones), organization
of origin (medical college or other), design of the study (descriptive or
experimental). Zonal or institutional predominance in any award category
was noted. The published papers were also analyzed for type of journal and
time lag of publication.
A total of 75 papers received awards in past 13 years;
and of these 28 (37%) papers were eventually published. Detailed
distribution of published papers and its correlation with various factors
is detailed in Table 1. The papers were published mostly in
indexed Indian journals (Indian Pediatr-19, Indian J Pediatr-5)
and 4 in international journals (Breastfeeding J, Asian J Pediatr, Eur
J Child Neurol and Hum Vaccin). The time from presentation to
publication for 28 papers ranged from 2 to 77 months (average 23.4 ± 11.79
months); the majority (20/28) were published in the first two years of
presentation. Higher number (46%,16/35) of the papers presented before the
year 2000 were published as compared to those papers presented after 2000
(30%,12/40).
TABLE I Factors Facilitating Publication of Award Winning Papers at PEDICON Between 1995-2007
|
Papers |
Papers |
P |
|
Awarded |
Published |
Value |
|
(n=75) |
(n=28) |
|
Award Category |
James Flett |
27(36%)* |
10(37 %) |
0.74 |
VB Raju |
26(34.7%) |
8(30.8%) |
|
ST Achar |
13(17.3%) |
6(46.2%) |
|
SS Manchanda |
9(12%)* |
4(44.4%) |
|
Zonal Distribution |
North |
35(46.7%) |
20(57.1%) |
0.004 |
South |
5(6.7%) |
– |
|
West |
20(26.7%) |
7(35%) |
|
Central |
14(18.7%) |
1(7.1%) |
|
East |
1(1.3%) |
– |
|
Sex of the Presenter |
Male |
47(62.7%) |
15(31.9%) |
0.46 |
Female |
28(37.3%) |
13(46.4%) |
|
Institute of Origin |
Medical College |
54(72%) |
26(48.1 %) |
0.003 |
Others |
21(28%) |
2(9.5%) |
|
Study Design |
Descriptive |
62(82.7%) |
20(32.2 %) |
0.04 |
Experimental |
13(17.3%) |
8(61.5%) |
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*SS
Manchanda was not awarded for 4 years and James Flett was awarded to
3 papers in the years 2006. |
There is growing pressure in the academia for
publication. Granting of awards and constructive criticism of the best
papers presented at meetings may also increase the chances of publication.
Previous publications on the rate of full paper peer reviewed publications
originating from abstracts presented at professional medical meetings,
describe rates ranging from 35 to 65% [1-3]. However, whether award
winning presentations have higher chances of subsequent publication is
unreported. The only study comparing the publication rate of award papers
selected at Undergraduate Medical Congress of ABC Foundation School of
Medicine, Brazil, documented a publication rate of 47.9% (n=71)
[4]. Lack of subsequent interest/guidance for preparing the written
manuscript as per the journal style and format were also cited as reasons
for not getting the publication. Thus, winning an award does not, on its
own, appear to be a strong motivation/reason to ensure subsequent
publication in a peer reviewed journal. The degree of motivation to
publish the paper appears to be the maximum in a medical college setting.
Contributors: PG conceived the study. The data were
collected by PG and HM. Research design was formulated by PG and HM.
Statistical analysis was done by HM. HM wrote the manuscript which was
edited by PG. Both authors approved the final manuscript.
Funding: None.
Competing Interests: None stated.
References
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proceedings of the All India Ophthalmological Conference, 2000 and
subsequent publication in indexed journals. Indian J Ophthalmol.
2008;56:189-95.
2. Harvey SA, Wandersee JR. Publication rate of
abstracts of papers and posters presented at Medical Library Association
annual meetings. J Med Libr Assoc. 2010;98:250.
3. Tan PCF, Graham CA. Full text publication rates of
studies presented at an Asian Emergency Medicine scientific meeting. Hong
Kong JR Emergency Medicine. 2010;17:154-7.
4. Fede AB, Michele da Costa, Miranda MC, Lera AT, Ueda
A, Antonangelo DV, Schaffhausser HL, et al. Experience with the ABC
Foundation School of Medicine undergraduate meeting. Rev Assoc Med Bras.
2010;56:313-7.
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