Abstracts vs. manuscripts: making informed decisions

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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast, where academic clinicians learn the skills

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to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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As clinicians, we spend a decade or more as trainees learning to take care of patients.

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When we finally start our careers, we want to build research programs, but then we find

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that our years of clinical training did not adequately prepare us to lead our research

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program.

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Through no fault of our own, we struggle to find mentors, and when we can't, we quit.

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However, clinicians hold the keys to the greatest research breakthroughs.

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For this reason, the Clinician Researcher podcast exists to give academic clinicians

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the tools to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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Now introducing your host, Toyosi Onwuemene.

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Welcome to today's episode of the Clinician Researcher podcast.

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I'm your host, Toyosi Onwuemene, and I'm super excited to be talking to you today about

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abstracts and manuscript submissions.

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So this came up for us a few days ago, where we were, as a team, talking about abstract

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submissions.

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So our major society abstract submission deadline is on the horizon, and we've been talking

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about submitting an abstract for a few weeks, but now we're close to the deadline.

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So all of a sudden, everyone's like, oh my goodness, I'm not ready.

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This analysis is not done.

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Oh no.

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And there's a lot of angst and a lot of worry.

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And as the leader of my research team, I have an opportunity to stop and reset, reframe,

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and help everybody just reset the expectations for how I feel about abstracts and manuscripts.

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So I'm going to share with you what I shared with my team.

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And this may not be your own view.

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And if you've been in research a long time, you probably have some very, very strong views

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about how things should be done.

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So this is really a matter of personal opinion, and you are welcome to have a different opinion.

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I would love it if you would share it with me, because I'm always open to see how other

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investigators are thinking about this.

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But I'm going to share with you a couple of things that I talked to my team about with

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regard to abstracts versus manuscripts submissions.

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So the first thing I talked about is, first of all, just for everyone to pause and recognize

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that they're doing outstanding work.

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If you are a researcher, especially if you are a physician doing research in any capacity,

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kudos to you, because for the most part, you didn't directly go into medical school to

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be a researcher.

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You went into medical school for clinical training, because that's what medical school

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is about, clinical training.

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And if along your medical school residency fellowship, you've actually gotten research

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training, or maybe you didn't get research training, and somehow you're making research

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work anyway, kudos to you, because you've gone above and beyond your training in order

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to have a research program that's doing work.

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And so first of all, I want you to recognize that you do good work.

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Congratulations.

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Well done.

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And you should be celebrated that you are going above and beyond really your medical

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training to do research.

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And you may say, well, I did have research training, and that's why I'm doing research.

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Great.

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That's not everybody.

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But even if you had the training, the fact that you are actually doing the research is

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to be commended, especially because you probably are still seeing patients.

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And it's hard to do both.

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And there are many people who get the research training who don't do the research.

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So I'm saying pause and just recognize that you're doing good work and you should be celebrated.

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And if there's nobody celebrating you, I'm celebrating you right now.

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And I'm asking you to pause and celebrate yourself.

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First recognize that you're doing excellent work and well done.

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The second thing that I think is important to share is that, you know what, abstracts

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are great.

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Abstracts are great because they allow you to communicate your science pretty early on.

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So it takes time to develop a full manuscript for publication.

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And you submit it, it goes through the review process.

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It could be a few months before you finally can say, wow, this work that I've done is

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now out in the public for everyone to see.

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It's now published.

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It takes a while for that to happen.

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Abstracts are an opportunity to present your preliminary research before it's fully mature.

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And the process for review is stringent, at least depending on the meeting.

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But it's usually not as well scrutinized as when your manuscript is being submitted for

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publication.

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And how do I know that?

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If you look at all the abstracts that are submitted and how many actually make it to

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publication, it's a fraction.

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It's a fraction of the abstracts that are published in meetings that actually make it

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to publication of the full manuscript.

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So you know, the abstract is a way to get your work out there early and the scrutiny

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is not as great, and so it does allow you to communicate your science.

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And what are the benefits of that?

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Number one, you get to talk about your science in a public space.

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People ask you questions, you answer them.

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And it's great to have the opportunity to answer questions about your research, because

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many times you think a lot of the things you're doing are intuitive and people have questions.

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And then you have to ask yourself, wait a minute, why are we doing this?

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And so answering questions forces you to do that.

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What else is a benefit of abstract submission?

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Well, the other benefit is that you get to go to a meeting and you meet other people

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and they ask you questions, you ask them questions back, you get to know each other, boom, you're

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networking.

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And presenting an abstract, whether that is a poster abstract or an oral abstract, gives

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you the opportunity to meet people in a way that's legit, which is, you know, it feels

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a little bit different if you just walk up to someone and say, hey, I am and here's my

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card.

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It's different when they walk up to your poster and you're having a conversation, then it

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feels natural.

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The networking feels more natural.

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So abstract presentation, whether that be poster or oral, is an opportunity to present

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your work and to network as well.

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The other thing that abstract presentation gives you is an opportunity to travel and

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really meet other researchers and learn about their work.

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And so it expands your horizons because you're like, oh, you know, they're doing something

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similar to us, but look at what they did instead.

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And it helps you think differently about the work that you do.

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And so abstract submissions are really important.

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But here's the thing about abstracts.

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You know, you want to make sure that your abstract submission doesn't get in the way

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of the rest of your science.

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Now, what do I mean by that?

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Well, sometimes in the rush to do an abstract, you put all your work aside.

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You're like, I'm just going to work on this abstract because it's the most important thing

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in life.

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And you know what, it feels important because a deadline is there and that's what deadlines

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do.

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They kind of force you into action.

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But it's not more important than the work you were doing yesterday or doing today and

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will continue to do tomorrow.

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And there just needs to be space created for it so it doesn't like, you know, move all

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your work aside.

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And so the thing to recognize is that the work you're doing is still important and abstract

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submissions are important, but they shouldn't necessarily like eclipse everything.

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And so it's important to pace yourself and prepare for abstract submissions in advance

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so that it doesn't become like a crisis two nights before the abstract is due.

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Okay.

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Now, sometimes you are ready to submit a paper for consideration in a journal and you know

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that it may take a few months for this paper to be accepted and you're like, oh, I'll just

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put it together and submit it in an abstract.

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Yes, mature, mature research that's, you know, all the analysis is already complete.

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It's ready for prime time.

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Those are most likely to become oral abstract presentations, which is so prestigious.

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But here's the rub.

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For most meetings, you don't get to publish your paper before the abstract is presented

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at the meeting.

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And so sometimes, abstracts can delay your submission of the full manuscript.

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And that's important to consider when you're submitting a manuscript that you want to be

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published by the time perhaps a grant goes to review.

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And so you also want to consider whether the abstract submission is worth it if it delays

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the submission and publishing or publication of a full original manuscript.

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So those are the things you have to weigh.

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And people always say, oh, talk to your mentor.

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And it's great.

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Please talk to your mentor.

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And for those of you who are leading, and you may not even have a mentor to talk to

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about it, it's just important to weigh these things and to recognize that published manuscript

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is weightier than abstract.

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And so think about that as you're making your decisions.

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I think what's also important is to prioritize the value of your time as well.

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And so it's great to go for meetings.

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Everyone should go for a meeting.

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Everyone should have the opportunity to network.

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But also think about the investment that it takes to go to a meeting.

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And if the work that you're presenting is not necessarily work that is mature, and so

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you know that you probably will submit it and it will be a poster abstract, you want

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to ask, is it worth the investment of submitting it so that you can go to a meeting halfway

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across the country, pay a couple of thousand dollars, and submit it as a poster?

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So those are all things you need to consider.

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At the end of the day, what am I saying?

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Please communicate your science.

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Let people know what you're doing.

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It is so important that the work you do is shared.

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Because if you don't share it, we don't know about it.

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And if we don't know about it, then we can't use the information that you're sharing with

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us to transform our work or to transform patients' lives by implementing the work that you're

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doing.

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So please share your work.

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But as you're considering abstract submission versus full-length manuscript submission,

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recognize that they're not the same.

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One actually does have higher value than the other.

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The full published manuscript has higher value.

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And many abstracts don't make it to submission.

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So when you're thinking of many abstracts don't make it to a full manuscript publication.

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So when you're thinking about contributing, you want to make sure you're contributing

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your highest value work.

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Sometimes things that are not so high value or high quality can make it to an abstract

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and be accepted as an abstract.

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And then when you go to submit the full-length manuscript, you recognize that the standards

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are not the same for submitting a full-length manuscript.

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So you do want to make sure that you're doing high-quality work that will ultimately make

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it into the sphere of publication where everybody gets to really understand what you do.

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All right.

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So at the end of the day, do I say submit the abstract, don't submit the abstract?

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You should absolutely make the decision on your own.

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But you should just think about the difference between the two and think about whether it's

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worth the energy invested to go for the abstract when you maybe could work on the original

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manuscript submission, which may be a bigger deal than the abstract.

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All right.

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That's all I have for you today.

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It's been a pleasure talking with you.

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I look forward to talking with you again next time on the Clinician Researcher Podcast.

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Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast, where academic

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clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they

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have a mentor.

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If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself.

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Someone else needs to hear it.

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So take a minute right now and share it.

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As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation

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of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.