Research Guides: Grey Literature in the Health Sciences: Meeting Abstracts

Why Search for Meeting Abstracts?

"Less than half of all studies, and about 60% of randomized or controlled clinical trials,initially presented as summaries or abstracts at professional meetings are subsequently published as peer-reviewed journal articles."¹

¹From the Plain Language Summary of: Scherer RW, Langenberg P, von Elm E. Full publication of results initially presented in abstracts. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2007, Issue 2. Art. No.: MR000005. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.MR000005.pub3.

Searching for Meeting abstracts and Conference Proceedings

Many conference proceedings, meeting abstracts, and symposia are published in journal supplements. These supplements are generally not indexed in PubMed so you need to search other places to find them.

In some cases, you'll find meeting abstracts or conference proceedings listed at the individual presentation level. Other times, the database may be arranged at the meeting or conference level.
Society webpages may archive conference abstracts and presentations

The links below provide instructions on where and how to find abstracts and proceedings online.

Places to Find Meeting Abstracts & Conference Proceedings

BioMed Central This link opens in a new window
Find meeting abstracts published in BMC journals and the BMC meeting abstracts service.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
Choose publication types "Meeting Abstracts," "Overall," "Congresses," "Consensus Development Conference," and/or "Consensus Development Conference, NIH" under Limits.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Limit to document type "conference paper" or review bibliographies for cited meeting abstracts/posters/papers.
F1000Research This link opens in a new window
Open access repository for articles, data, posters and slide presentations across biology and medicine.
Embase This link opens in a new window
Use conference abstract and conference paper publication types or filters.