Chances of abstract being selected at a major conference

[CaptainZeki]

Hi all,

I am new to research conferences and submitted an abstract for a major conference to be held later this year (AAPediatrics). I wanted to ask what is the acceptance rate of abstracts overall? Or are all abstracts accepted? Any insight would be great!

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[SurfingDoctor]

Hi all,

I am new to research conferences and submitted an abstract for a major conference to be held later this year (AAPediatrics). I wanted to ask what is the acceptance rate of abstracts overall? Or are all abstracts accepted? Any insight would be great!

Abstracts are rarely peer reviewed. They want you to present an abstract because they want you to attend because that's how societies make their money.

 

[CaptainZeki]

Abstracts are rarely peer reviewed. They want you to present an abstract because they want you to attend because that's how societies make their money.

Oh dang so most abstracts are accepted if they follow the guidelines?

 

[SurfingDoctor]

Oh dang so most abstracts are accepted if they follow the guidelines?

Pretty much. Now, your abstract can be selected for a talk, which is peer-reviewed (or your PI is or happens to know the person who is picking the talks… ya know, political favors), but generally speaking, if you submit on time, it’s accepted. Late-breaking submissions however are not always accepted, but if you submit by the original deadline… you’re good.

 

[CaptainZeki]

Pretty much. Now, your abstract can be selected for a talk, which is peer-reviewed (or your PI is or happens to know the person who is picking the talks… ya know, political favors), but generally speaking, if you submit on time, it’s accepted. Late-breaking submissions however are not always accepted, but if you submit by the original deadline… you’re good.

Thank you! I hope mine is accepted. Its just an evaluation for a QI project

 

[GoSpursGo]

There are a handful of major conferences which actually are peer reviewed even for posters. But I can say with confidence that AAP is not one of them

 

[mvenus929]

There are a handful of major conferences which actually are peer reviewed even for posters. But I can say with confidence that AAP is not one of them

I mean, I've reviewed abstracts for the AAP conference (specifically for the Section on Trainees Posters), so not 100% true, but as a reviewer, I just made a recommendation... the final say went to the editor. I've had friends who have not been accepted to AAP for stuff. And I've had a poster rejected from Pediatric Endocrine Society.

But yeah, in general, abstract acceptance is pretty high... it's just a matter of whether you're presenting a poster vs an oral presentation.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I mean, I've reviewed abstracts for the AAP conference (specifically for the Section on Trainees Posters), so not 100% true, but as a reviewer, I just made a recommendation... the final say went to the editor. I've had friends who have not been accepted to AAP for stuff. And I've had a poster rejected from Pediatric Endocrine Society.

But yeah, in general, abstract acceptance is pretty high... it's just a matter of whether you're presenting a poster vs an oral presentation.

Sorry… I was typing quickly so rereading I realize I was imprecise.

Almost all conferences have some sort of peer review. But the bar is generally quite low. And I think that is especially true for students/residents if it is a conference where they have their ownPoster session (which I vaguely recall AAP may do). This also makes intuitive sense, as the more posters they accept the more registration fees they get to collect 🙂

 

[TelemarketingEnigma]

I have reviewed for a conference before (only vaguely medicine adjacent though, pre-med school) and it’s actually kind of surprising how truly terrible/baffling some of the submissions are. We rejected some that literally made no sense in the context of the conference topic or were clearly unscientific (no, we do not believe that you’ve reanimated dead human beings). But if the science seemed relatively sound and we could understand what you were talking about, most things got accepted.

 

[imidazzle92]

I've submitted trash to conferences and had it accepted, the same stuff barely made the cut for lower-tier specialty journal. Usually acceptance is easy - just make sure it's written well/makes logical sense. Winning awards at these conferences is a bit tougher.

 

[AlteredScale]

DDW is very hard to be accepted to. They rarely, if at all, accept case reports.

 

[Lawpy]

I’m surprised people are seriously discussing the peer review of abstract submissions since that never once came to my mind until now. Even top conferences in a lot of specialties are pretty generous in abstract acceptances. As long as you aren’t submitting garbage, you should be fine

 

[SurfingDoctor]

Again, the bar is low by design. Yes, someone reviews the abstracts to make sure they are in readable English and appropriate for the conference, but beyond that, there’s not much else.

Academic societies have their bottom lines driven heavily by conference attendance by members and vendors. I’ve sat on board member meetings. Revenue for most academic societies is generally conference>journal>>member dues. From a financial and business standpoint, it would make no sense to create a high bar and limit the best source of income.

 

[CaptainZeki]

Thank you all for sharing. Didn’t know any of this.