Turning Oral Presentations at the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry's Annual Meeting Into Published Articles: A Review and Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Oral presentations at academic conferences typically describe recent or ongoing research projects or provide literature reviews. However, conversion of these presentations into full-length journal articles is not routine. OBJECTIVE: We sought to assess the frequency with which oral presentations at the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry's annual meetings from 2012 to 2018 were turned into peer-reviewed publications and review the factors that affected publication of them. METHODS: Conference presentation titles and authors from the 2012-2018 Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Annual Meetings were searched using PubMed to find corresponding published reports by the presenters. Data were organized in an Excel spreadsheet, and the time to publication, the journals in which they were published, and general content areas were recorded and analyzed. RESULTS: Of the 287 oral presentations delivered during the study period, 47% were published in a peer-reviewed journal. Articles were published in 72 different journals; the journals that published the most articles were Psychosomatics, General Hospital Psychiatry, Psycho-oncology, Academic Psychiatry, and the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The most common subspecialty topics of the published articles were neuropsychiatry, psycho-oncology, surgery and transplantation, and delirium. The mean time to publication after presentation was 1 year. CONCLUSION: Knowledge of the rate at which presentations are converted into peer-reviewed publications can be used to enhance the academic success of presenters, and strategies to enhance the rate of publication (e.g., by coaching on scientific writing or by selecting oral presentations with the highest publication potential) can be established.

Publishing Case Reports: Educational Strategies and Content Recommendations.

BACKGROUND: Case reports continue to serve as valuable educational tools; they facilitate case-based learning and provide excellent opportunities for collaboration. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to review the benefits of writing case reports and to analyze the characteristics of case reports published in a journal that focuses on care at the interface of psychiatry and medicine. METHODS: The literature on writing case reports as tools for medical education was reviewed. Then, case reports published in Psychosomatics were examined, and quantitative data (e.g., subjective quality measures, number of references and authors) were recorded. RESULTS: Of the 76 case reports published during a 3-year span (2015-2017), the majority examined an unusual presentation or treatment (86%), used an approach to teaching and critical thinking (84%), provided a sizable literature review (80%), and discussed a differential diagnosis of signs, symptoms, and disorders (53%). CONCLUSIONS: Case reports provide intellectually-challenging opportunities for learning that foster scientific thought, encourage the use of evidence-based medicine, improve writing and critical thinking, provide experience with the peer-review process, and help to develop skills needed to write scholarly publications.