The influence of industry sponsorship on the acceptance of abstracts and their publication

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether abstracts with industry sponsorship are more likely to be oral presentations, be published, and the effect of nonspecific author disclosure on identification of sponsorship. Study Design: We reviewed abstracts accepted for the urogynecology scientific meeting from 1998-2006 and subanalyzed publication status of studies from 2002-2004. Results: One hundred twenty-four of 1091 abstracts (11.4%) and 45/376 (11.9%) of oral presentations had industry sponsorship. Industry-sponsored was not significantly more likely than nonindustry sponsored research (RR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.33-1.36) to be an oral presentation or be published (RR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.53-1.34). Twelve of 36 studies (34%) were correctly identified as sponsored with the use of a nonspecific author disclosure compared to 22/22 (100%) when sponsorship was disclosed separately. Conclusion: Researchers without sponsorship can be reassured their work is as likely to be accepted for oral presentation and publication. A policy of full author disclosure makes identification of sponsored studies difficult, and specific sponsorship statement is necessary.