Abstract Background: Although scientific researchers aim to present their projects at academic conferences and their theses as a step toward publication, not all projects mature to become a peer-reviewed manuscript. The publication rate of meetings can be utilized to assess the quality of presented research. Our objective was to evaluate the publication rates of abstracts presented at the Association of Spine Surgeons of India annual Conference V. T. Ingalhalikar (VTI) Gold Medal Paper session and the Association of Spine Surgeons of India (ASSI) fellowship program thesis. Materials and Methods: We reviewed the VTI Gold Medal Papers presented in the annual meeting program of ASSI in the past 5 years and the submitted thesis topics of the past eight batches of ASSI fellows. Published abstracts were identified from PubMed, Google search, Scopus, and follow-up mail with the researcher. Results: Publication rates were 69.4% (25/36) and 32% (18/56) for VTI Gold Medal abstracts and ASSI Theses, respectively. VTI Gold Medal Papers were published in 15 different journals, with the most published journal being the Global Spine Journal (GSJ). ASSI theses were published in 13 different journals, with the GSJ being the most published journal being the GSJ. The impact factor of the published journals ranges from 1.6 to 4.2 for VTI Gold Medal Papers and from 1.6 to 2.4 for ASSI theses. All the published VTI Gold Medal Papers ( n = 25) were from 12 different academic institutions, and 18 published ASSI theses were from 10 different institutions. The publication rates of various institutions range from 66% to 100% for VTI Gold Medal Papers and 0% to 66.6% for ASSI theses. Conclusion: The publication rates of VTI Gold Medal abstracts were higher than those of ASSI theses. VTI Gold Medal Papers hit high impact journal, often compared with ASSI theses. The publication rates of both ASSI theses and VTI Gold Medal Papers could be higher than current rates, and we recommend mentor- and institute-driven guidance and support to convert projects into peer-reviewed publications. Academic handover of the research works to the fellow juniors and implementation of the thesis board will help in publishing more research projects. It is also recommended that high-quality studies with solid methodology be chosen for fellows’ theses work.
Valantine et al. (Fri,) studied this question.