Methods and Results of the Review Process

Summary

The review committee for the VIIth World Symposium on Cardiac Pacing set up a selection process for the 964 submitted abstracts to guarantee a fair and evenhanded selection of the papers to be presented at the congress. Each abstract was reviewed by three internationally recognized specialists in their field using a scoring system. The individual reviewers had been trained prior to the review process by completing a test review. Among the 573 papers accepted for presentation 48.4% came from Western Europe, 27% from North America, 8.4% from Eastern Europe, the majority of the remaining abstracts from other developed nations all around the world. The acceptance ratios were similar for Western Europe and North America, the representation of lesser developed countries had to be guaranteed despite somewhat lower scores. Geographical differences revealed a slightly greater interest for clinical pacing in North America and in the Asian developed countries, while papers dealing with technology were represented in a larger portion from some of the rapidly growing Asian developed countries.