Plastic Surgery 2017: The Abstract Supplement

The publication of our Society’s abstracts in PRS Global Open (which is indexed in SCOPUS, indexed in Web of Science’s eSCI, listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, listed in PubMed Central, and discoverable in PubMed) is monumental because it signifies a Western embrace of globally accessible plastic surgery information and research. As most of you know, up until last year, we had published the unique and engaging scientific abstracts and posters from this meeting in the pages (electronic and print) of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery for over a decade and, thanks to the ASPS’ generosity, we were able to present every PSTM abstract supplements for free for a limited, promotional period of time. But, by publishing via our open access journal, the meeting abstracts and posters can now be disseminated to the maximum number of interested researchers, young scientists, and readers; open access articles are free to the end users anytime, anywhere, forever. It’s no secret that I love abstracts and posters: they represent research about explode on the scene. Every abstract has the potential to change our field, change how we practice, and change what we know. That is the promise of abstracts, and why we continually and proudly publish them. But now, a growing number of societies and groups around the world, from Italy to Ireland and Russia to the United States, are publishing these abstracts freely across the globe, via PRS Global Open; this truly allows the abstracts and posters to extend beyond the walls of the convention centers and classrooms and spread across the globe. The future of our field’s clinical and research discoveries are now free to read, share, cite, and discuss for all. I encourage you to read them and join the worldwide plastic surgery movement in improving plastic surgery patient safety, outcomes, and care 1 article—1 abstract—at a time.