Scientific meeting abstracts: significance, access, and trends. Bull Med Libr Assoc 1998 Jan;86(1):68-76
Date
04/29/1998Pubmed ID
9549015Pubmed Central ID
PMC226328Scopus ID
2-s2.0-0031970049 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 31 CitationsAbstract
UNLABELLED: 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.
METHODS: 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.
RESULTS: 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.
CONCLUSIONS: 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.
Author List
Kelly JAAuthor
Jeffrey A. Kelly PhD Professor in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Congresses as TopicData Collection
Databases, Bibliographic
Information Services
Information Storage and Retrieval
Library Collection Development
MEDLINE
Peer Review
Public Policy
Publishing
Societies, Medical
United States
