An Analysis of Publication Productivity During Residency for 1506 Neurosurgical Residents and 117 Residency Departments in North America

Abstract

BACKGROUND:Bibliometrics is defined as the study of statistical and mathematical methods used to quantitatively analyze scientific literature. The application of bibliometrics in neurosurgery continues to evolve. OBJECTIVE: To calculate a number of publication productivity measures for almost all neurosurgical residents and departments within North America. These measures were correlated with survey results on the educational environment within residency programs. METHODS: During May to June 2017, data were collected from departmental websites and Scopus to compose a bibliometric database of neurosurgical residents and residency programs. Data related to authorship value and study content were collected on all articles published by residents. A survey of residency program research and educational environment was administered to program directors and coordinators; results were compared with resident academic productivity. RESULTS:The median number of publications in residency was 3; median h-index and Resident index were 1 and 0.17 during residency, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in academic productivity among male neurosurgical residents compared with females. The majority of articles published were tier 1 clinical articles. Residency program research support was significantly associated with increased resident productivity (P < .001). Scholarly activity requirements were not associated with increased resident academic productivity. CONCLUSION: This study represents the most comprehensive bibliometric assessment of neurosurgical resident academic productivity during training to date. New benchmarks for individual and department academic productivity are provided. A supportive research environment for neurosurgical residents is associated with increased academic productivity, but a scholarly activity requirement was, surprisingly, not shown to have a positive effect.

An analysis of cross-continental scholarship requirements during neurosurgical training and national research productivity

“…A similar result was shown in a recent analysis of American residency program research output, in which mandated research did not correlate with improved productivity. 19 Authors of that study postulated that this finding may be attributable to a culture in which research is informally established in many of the high-output institutions, thereby making a requirement unnecessary. However, for programs seeking to establish the culture, such a requirement may be useful.…”

“…Institutions can foster supporting educational environments via the provision of protected research time, funding, medical editorial assistance, and travel stipends. 19 In fact, the lack of protected time and institutional resources, including training in research design and conduct, has been identified as one of the greatest barriers to research involvement among physicians in various specialties. 9,21 Notably, however, a program's designation of a "research requirement" was not shown to have a significant impact on departmental productivity in the large neurosurgery resident cohort mentioned above.…”

“…Authors of that study reasoned that research is engrained in the culture of many of the highly productive programs and does not require formal designation, while programs with an explicit requirement may be in the early stages of such a culture change. 19 The translation of these findings to the global arena of neurosurgery is unclear and likely influenced by various country-or region-specific factors including socioeconomic status, density of neurosurgeons, and research infrastructure and support. At present, there is limited literature on identifying and evaluating research requirements during neurosurgical training in nations outside of North America.…”

Impotence literature: Scientometric analysis of erectile dysfunction articles between 1975 and 2018

“…A bibliometric assessment of the ED literature can assistant sexual medicine specialists and urologists to better sense their broadcasting tendencies. In recent years, many bibliometric publications have been issued in the best medical bulletins (Khan et al, ). To our knowledge, several articles have evaluated authorship trends, impact scores and quotation for ED articles in sexual medicine and urology journals.…”

Characteristics, Trends, and Factors Associated With Publication Among Residents of Oman Medical Specialty Board Programs

“…[9][10][11] However, our reported publication rate was lower than rates reported in the literature. [9][10][11]13 Recent studies reported variable publication rates between programs depending on programmatic interventions, 14 ranging from 10% in internal medicine 9 to 54% in general surgery. 11 Although women represented nearly two-thirds of all enrolled residents, men were 2 times more likely to publish in peer-reviewed journals.…”