Background: A Cochrane methodology review shows that approximately half of conference abstracts reporting biomedical research are subsequently published as full reports. This presents difficulties to systematic reviewers who seek to identify a relevant dataset which is as complete and unbiased as possible. We wished to assess the equivalent publication rate for methodological research. We used data from a project to enhance the Cochrane Methodology Register (CMR), which was funded by The Cochrane Collaboration and involved linking records for the same empirical study. On entry to CMR, records are assigned codes relating to subject area and type of report and we sought to assign additional coding to link together records for the same research. Objectives: To assess the extent to which abstracts of methodology research, initially presented at Cochrane Colloquia, have subsequently been published as full reports; overall and within specific areas of methodology (e.g. statistics and information retrieval). Methods: CMR was searched for abstracts reporting methodology research, which had been presented at oral and poster sessions at Cochrane Colloquia (1997–2007). CMR, PubMed and EMBASE were searched for full publications for the same research. Results: CMR contained 909 abstracts of methodology research from 11 Colloquia. Preliminary data suggest that up to 600 (66%) of these have not been published in full. We found full publications for 310 abstracts (34%). The mean time to first full publication was just under two years. Most research was published in full within four years after the abstract presentation, with a few studies appearing up to a decade later. Analysis of the publications by methodology area is ongoing. Conclusions: The rate of full publication of Cochrane Colloquia abstracts related to studies of research methodology seems to be lower than that for biomedical research more generally.