free communication presentations in sport medicine and science meetings and publication in indexed journals

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the publication rate of free communications – oral and poster formats – presented at meetings of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and Centro de Estudos do Laboratório de Aptidão Física de São Caetano do Sul (CELAFISCS). We randomly selected 100 free communications (50 oral and 50 posters) in the CELAFISCS and ACSM meetings as well as those presented by Brazilian authors at the ACSM meetings, in the year 2001, and determined the publication rate during the following six years. A literature search was carried out on the following data bases: Scielo, Medline, Sport Discus, LILACS and EMBASE. The publication rate was higher at ACSM than at CELAFISCS for oral (30 vs. 12%, p = 0.003), poster (34 vs. 2%, p = 0.000) and oral + poster (32 vs. 7%, p = 0.000) free communications. No signifi cant difference was found in publication rates by free communication format – oral vs. poster – in the ACSM (30 vs. 34%, p = 0.649), as opposed to CELAFISCS (12 vs. 2%, p = 0.013) and to Brazilian authors presenting at the ACSM (56 vs. 26%, p = 0.000). These results may contribute to the decision-making processes of reviewers responsible for the concession of fi nancial support to researchers and scientifi c meetings. Future studies are needed in order to determine the reasons for these low publication rates.

Resumo O principal objetivo do estudo foi investigar a taxa de publicação dos temas livres – formatos oral e pôster - apresentados nos congressos do American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) e do Centro de Estudos do Laboratório de Aptidão Física de São Caetano do Sul (CELAFISCS). Foram selecionados aleatoriamente 100 temas livres (50 orais e 50 pôsteres) nos congressos do CELAFISCS e do ACSM e aqueles apresentados pelos brasileiros nesse último, realizados no ano 2001, sendo calculada a taxa de publicação nos seis anos subseqüentes. Para as estratégias de busca, foram utilizadas as seguintes base de dados: Scielo, Medline, Sport Discus, LILACS e EMBASE. A taxa de publicação dos temas livres do ACSM foi signifi cativamente maior do que a taxa de publicação daqueles apresentados no CELAFISCS para as formas oral (30 vs. 12%, P = 0,003), pôster (34 vs. 2%, P = 0,000) e oral + pôster (32 vs. 7%, P = 0,000). Não houve diferença signifi cativa da taxa de publicação de temas livres oral e pôster no ACSM (30 vs. 34%, P = 0,649), ao contrário do que se observou no CELAFISCS (12 vs. 2%, P = 0,013) e para os brasileiros no ACSM (56 vs. 26%, P = 0,000). Esses dados podem contribuir para a tomada de decisão de pareceristas e assessores responsáveis pela concessão de auxílios fi nanceiros para pesquisadores e eventos científi cos. Estudos futuros são necessários para determinar as causas dessas baixas taxas de publicação.