What happens to qualitative studies initially presented as conference abstracts: a survey among study authors

Qualitative research addresses important healthcare questions, including patients’ experiences with interventions. Qualitative evidence syntheses combine findings from individual studies and are increasingly used to inform health guidelines. However, dissemination bias—selective non-dissemination of studies or findings—may distort the body of evidence. This study examined reasons for the non-dissemination of qualitative studies. We identified conference abstracts reporting qualitative, health-related studies. We invited authors to answer a survey containing quantitative and qualitative questions. We performed descriptive analyses on the quantitative data and inductive thematic analysis on the qualitative data. Most of the 142 respondents were female, established researchers. About a third reported that their study had not been published in full after their conference presentation. The main reasons were time constraints, career changes, and a lack of interest. Few indicated non-publication due to the nature of the study findings. Decisions not to publish were largely made by author teams. Half of the 72% who published their study reported that all findings were included in the publication. This study highlights researchers’ reasons for non-dissemination of qualitative research. One-third of studies presented as conference abstracts remained unpublished, but non-dissemination was rarely linked to the study findings. Further research is needed to understand the systematic non-dissemination of qualitative studies.