Peer-reviewed publication following presentation at a regional surgical meeting

Objectives The aim of the study was to investigate the proportion of publications arising from work presented at a regional surgical meeting. Design A list of all presentations to the Welsh Surgical Society 1983-95 was compiled and a detailed search made of the Medline Database. The surgical topic of each presentation, the date of presentation, the date of publication and the journal of publication were recorded. Setting University Hospital of Wales. Results Four hundred and ninety-six papers were presented to the society, of which 402 (81%) were by trainees. The most frequent topics of presentation were colorectal (15%), vascular (15%) and hepato-pancreatico-biliary (11%). Two hundred and thirty-three papers (47%) have been published in peer-reviewed journals. The most popular journals for publication were Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (19%), British Journal of Surgery (16%) and Journal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (8%). The median time from presentation to publication was 17.0 months (interquartile range 10.0-27.5 months). Conclusions Regional surgical meetings have an important role in the annual surgical calendar and they are the ideal initial setting for presentation by trainees.