Pre-residency research, publications may be predictive of future academic career
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Pre-residency publication history is associated with later publications in journals with a high impact factor and first authorships and may predict a future academic career, according to a study.
Conducting research is now considered an important part of training as a physician and an asset in the residency selection process.
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“Faced with the challenge of reviewing an increasing number of applications each year, program directors are looking for quantifiable data to compare candidates and predict their future success,” the study authors wrote.
By looking at residency program websites and emailing program directors, a database of ophthalmologists who graduated in the U.S. between 2013 and 2016 was assembled. The name of each ophthalmologist was then searched in PubMed to find all associated publications. Data on first authorship and journal impact factor were recorded. Finally, each ophthalmologist was searched on Google to find out whether they had pursued an academic career.
A total of 964 ophthalmology graduates were identified, accounting for about half of the potential graduates within the established time frame. Of them, 824 (85.5%) had PubMed-indexed publications, 503 (52.1%) published before residency, 596 (61.8%) published during residency, and 606 (62.9%) published after residency. Further, 628 (65.1%) were first authors, 588 (61%) published in journals with an impact factor score of 3 or more, and 316 (32.8%) pursued an academic career.
Publishing before residency was positively correlated with publishing during and after residency. First authorship and an impact factor score of 3 or more had the strongest positive correlation with publishing during residency, followed by pre-residency publication. Pre-residency, intra-residency and post-residency publications, as well as first authorship and journal publications with an impact factor of 3 or more, were more often and more significantly associated with academic than community-based ophthalmologists.
“Pre-residency publications may be correlated with future research or choice of an academic career in ophthalmology,” the authors said.
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