IntroductionThe purpose of this work was to determine the current publication output of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists radiation oncologists (ROs) to serve as a baseline contributing to future assessment of the effectiveness of the College's Research Action Plan 2024–26.MethodsAn online survey was sent to all ROs in the College's member database in March–April 2024 requesting a list of publications between 2022 and 2023. A PubMed search was performed to cross‐check the self‐reported publications. Given the low response rate (8%), an additional PubMed search was performed for the non‐responders. The primary outcomes were publication proportions and rates, and the secondary outcomes were demographic correlates (gender, country, seniority).ResultsThere were 536 eligible ROs (56% males; 80% practicing in Australia; median 12.4 years post‐Fellowship) with 1,012 unique publications identified. The proportions of ROs with at least one publication in any‐, first‐ and last‐author positions averaged 45%, 15% and 17% per year, respectively. On multivariable analysis, there were statistically significant differences in publications by seniority (higher proportions of last‐authorships but lower proportions of first‐authorships, for those ≥5 years post‐Fellowship) and by country (lower any‐, and last‐authorships for New Zealand [NZ] than Australia or Singapore).The mean numbers of any‐, first‐ and last‐authorships were 1.6, 0.18 and 0.29 per RO per year, respectively. On multivariable analysis, there were statistically significant differences by gender (males had more any‐, and first‐authorships), seniority (senior ROs had more last‐authorships but less first‐authorships) and country (lower numbers of any‐, and last‐authorships for New Zealand).ConclusionThis organization‐wide study provides comprehensive baseline RO publication data and identifies opportunities for the College to further address correlated disparities.
