Searching for Conference Abstracts

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Oftentimes when searching the literature, you may want to include conference abstracts. These can be vital sources of information in subject areas that are on the forefront of research or where the literature is scarce. However, finding and using conference abstracts can sometimes lead to confusion and frustration.

The first source of frustration is that conference abstracts are just that, abstracts. There are no full-text article associated with them. Sometimes the authors may publish an article later from their conference abstract, but this would be a separate citation. The “full-text” may only be a PDF of the poster abstracts, but typically will not include any more information than the database record.

The second source of frustration is finding these conference abstracts. Not every database includes conference abstracts, so if you are only searching PubMed you will not find them, as PubMed does not typically index conferences (including conference papers, posters, presentations, etc.).

The following databases are great for searching for conference abstracts/posters and papers:

  • Web of Science: WOS Core Collection includes Conference Proceedings Citation Index- Science (CPCI-S) –1994-present and Conference Proceedings Citation Index- Social Science & Humanities (CPCI-SSH) –1994-present.
  • Embase: “Embase includes conference abstracts from important biomedical, drug and medical device conferences dating back to 2009. It currently indexes 7,000+ conferences covering over 2.4 million conference abstracts-advanced information that can’t be found searching MEDLINE alone.”
  • Scopus: “9 million conference papers from proceedings and journals.”

Takeaways:

  1. Not every database indexes conference abstracts – PubMed does NOT generally index conference abstracts.
  2. Most of the time the meeting abstract is included in the database record (unless it is a summary record to all the abstracts from a conference).
  3. There is no full-text article for a conference abstract – it is possible that later an article will be published based on the same study presented initially as a conference abstract, however that will be a separate citation.

 

MSK Nurse Practitioner Fights Measles Outbreak

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Measles is at its highest levels in the United States in more than 25 years. One MSK employee has made headlines for her work spreading accurate information about disease prevention within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, the center of the New York outbreak.

Dr. Blima Marcus, DNP, is a nurse practitioner at MSK and a member of the Orthodox Jewish community. Recent Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Gothamist articles highlight her work countering misinformation about vaccines. She has organized workshops in homes, presenting accurate science in a non-judgmental way, and has trained others to lead the sessions.

With the Orthodox Jewish Nurses Association and the newly founded organization, Engaging in Medical Education with Sensitivity, she developed and distributed a document that refutes the claims made by an anti-vaccination pamphlet being sent to families in the ultra-Orthodox community. About 10,000 copies of her pamphlet have already been distributed, with New York’s Health Department requesting 29,000 more.

Drug Information via DailyMed

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Provided by the US National Library of Medicine, DailyMed provides trustworthy information on marketed drugs. The content of this resource is updated daily by the US Food and Drug Administration. Current content includes well over 100,000 entries.

Daily Med Homepage

Link to DailyMed from the MSK Library’s Databases A-Z list and if you have any questions about this resource, please don’t hesitate to ASK US.