Contribution of six characteristics of an abstract to the acceptance of that abstracts for the EURAPS annual scientific meeting

An abstract submitted for a scientific plastic surgical meeting has several characteristics on the basis of which the abstract may be selected for presentation at the meeting. To what extent these characteristics influence the perceived overall scientific merit of the abstract is incompletely understood. We assessed the contribution of each of six characteristics: originality, number of cases, method of study, period of follow-up, justification of conclusions, and expected impact on the participants at the meeting. The ratings by four peer reviewers of the characteristics of each of 194 abstracts submitted for the 2001 annual scientific meeting of the European Association of Plastic Surgeons (EURAPS) were compared with the selection of the abstracts for the final program of the meeting. We found the characteristic 'methodology' to contribute significantly more to the selection of the abstracts on Clinical Studies than any of the other characteristics. For Basic Research abstracts all of the six characteristics were found to equally contribute to the selection for the final program. In the Aesthetic Surgery category, 'conclusion' and 'impact' were slightly more influential than other characteristics.