Bibliometrics and National Institutes of Health Funding: Associated Factors in Academic Rhinology

Abstract

Our study aims to evaluate demographics and research productivity in academic rhinology and to establish the relationship between bibliometrics such as the Hirsch index (h-index) and the more recently developed relative citation ratio (RCR) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. Retrospective cohort study. The demographics of academic rhinologists were collected from institutional faculty profiles (N = 207). Funding data were obtained from the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Reports Database. The h-index was calculated using Scopus. The mean (m-RCR) and weighted RCR (w-RCR) were calculated using the NIH iCite tool. The majority of academic rhinologists were men (72.9%). Only 8.7% of rhinologists (N = 18) received NIH funding. Rhinologists receiving NIH funding had greater h-index (31 vs. 11), m-RCR (2.6 vs. 1.6), and w-RCR (339.9 vs. 44.7) (P < 0.001). Men had greater h-index (14 vs. 10, P < 0.001) and w-RCR (56.8 vs. 36.9, P = 0.025) but not m-RCR (1.7 vs. 1.6, P = 0.799) than women. Stratifying by academic professorship rank and across all career durations, h-index, m-RCR, and w-RCR were not significantly different between men and women. Among academic rhinologists the h-index, m-RCR, and w-RCR were all associated with receiving NIH funding. Similar h-index, m-RCR, and w-RCR between men and women across all academic professorship ranks and career durations suggests production of similar quality and quantity of research. The m-RCR and w-RCR help to address some of the limitations of the h-index and are useful for assessing research productivity.