Contribution of national congress presentations to scientific literature: An analysis of efficiency

Emergency medicine (EM) is one of the oldest specialties in medicine because individuals are faced with situations requiring an emergency response from the very first moment of their existence. Despite being so old, EM was officially regarded as a branch of science around the world in 1960. In Turkey, it was accepted as a specialty in 1993.1 Emergency medicine is a young and rapidly developing branch of science in Turkey. The EM congress was held for the first time in Turkey in 2001. Since 2004, congresses have been organized under the guidance of EM associations in Turkey, which are still continuing their activities. National and international congresses provide an environment for scientific studies that allows these studies to be discussed and improved, and enhance their quality. Similarly, the presentations given at the EM congresses have an important place in showing the contributions of EM, which is still developing, to the science. The publication of presentations given at the scientific congresses in peer-reviewed journals is one of the indicators of the scientific quality of both these scientific studies and congresses. However, all these presentations could not reach the stage of publication as expected. The scientific publication rate (PR) of presentations given at the congresses held in Turkey and foreign countries varies between 13% and 74%.2 The present study aimed to research the PRs of presentations given at 9th Turkish Emergency Medicine Congress (9th TEMC) and 9th National Emergency Medicine Congress (9th NEMC) held by two different national EM associations in 2013 in peer-reviewed journals in the subsequent 4 years. The study also aimed to examine the factors that might affect the publication of presentations and the characteristics of peer-reviewed journals in which the presentations were published.