Factors associated with successful publication of abstracts in women malignancies: Are we closing the gender gap?

Abstract

11034 Background: We aimed to determine abstract characteristics associated with successful peer-reviewed publication after presentation at ASCO annual meeting in the women’s malignancy category (breast & gynecologic cancer). Awareness of this could help meeting organizers & attendees understand factors associated with impactful abstracts. Methods: All oral & poster abstracts (OA: n = 53 & PA: n = 527) in Breast (Loco/Regional/Adjuvant & Metastatic) & Gynecologic cancers category (2017 & 2018 meeting) were included. Subsequent publication was confirmed by searching PubMed by title, names of first & last authors for abstracts published by January 2021. Time to online publication, US or foreign journal publication & impact factor (IF) were recorded. We also recorded number of authors, single/ multi-institution studies & gender of first/ last author, which was confirmed by viewing biography details on their institutional websites. Descriptive analysis was performed & association between above factors & publication matrix was analyzed using multiple logistic regression model, Chi-square and t-test. Results: 45/53 OA (85%) & 269/527 PA (51%) were published in peer-reviewed journals. Median number of authors for published PA was 12 vs 11 for unpublished (p = 0.24). Females (F) presented 34% (18/53) OA & 49.3% (260/527) PA. 55% (143/260) PA presented by female authors & 47.1% (126/267) presented by male (M) authors (p = 0.073) were published. No difference in publication between single vs multi-institution studies (p = 0.76) for PA was noted. Average time to journal publication for OA & PA was 15.45 (SD +/- 3.37) & 17.73 (SD +/- 1.27) months (mo) respectively. Mean IF for OA was 27.95 (SD+/- 6.18) while for PA was 10.96 (SD+/- 1.75). For published OA, 33% (15/45) had female first & 29% (13/45) had female last authors. For published PA, 50.2% (135/269) had female first while only 37.5% (101/269) had female last authors. There was no association between gender of last author to IF (p = 0.39), single vs multi-institution study (p = 0.48) or time to publication (p = 0.44) for PA. Conclusions: More than 75% of OA & 50% of PA were successfully published regardless of gender, number of authors or institutions involved. We observe a slight disparity in senior authorship for females and although this was not statistically significant, we are encouraged that the gap is closing in first authorship.[Table: see text]