Conversion to publication rate of abstracts presented at annual congresses of the International Society of Forensic Radiology and Imaging

Background The International Society of Forensic Radiology and Imaging (ISFRI) aims to advance forensic radiology and imaging worldwide through its journal Forensic Imaging , formerly Journal of Forensic Radiology and Imaging , and annual congresses. A way to measure success and quality of research presented at these congresses is by assessing the abstract to publication conversion rate. Objective To evaluate the percentage of abstracts that were published and identify the journals in which they appeared. Materials and methods The publication rate of scientific abstracts from ISFRI and joint ISFRI and International Association of Forensic Radiographers (IAFR) congresses between 2012 and 2022 was determined. Searches were conducted in Pubmed, Google and Google Scholar, followed by manual checks of the table of contents of Journal of Forensic Radiology and Imaging and Forensic Imaging . Results were compared with conversion rates from radiological and nuclear imaging, and forensic medical studies in the Cochrane review by Scherer et al., supplemented with other relevant publications. Results Of 464 presented abstracts, 221 (47.6 %) were eventually published as full articles. Most abstracts were original research 279 (60.1 %), followed by 99 (21.3 %) case reports, and 79 (17.0 %) reviews. Abstracts were published in a wide variety of journals, but the majority 52 (23.5 %) were published in the society’s own journal. Conclusion The conversion rate of the annual ISFRI and joint ISFRI and IAFR congresses was higher than other radiological societies, yet over 50 % of abstracts remains unpublished. Future research should explore reasons for non-publication to address these issues and increase the conversion rate.