E. F. Garner1, N. P. Valsangkar2, L. G. Koniaris2, K. I. Bland1, H. Chen1 1University Of Alabama at Birmingham,Birmingham, Alabama, USA 2Indiana University School Of Medicine,Indianapolis, IN, USA
Introduction:
Academic productivity as measured by publications, citations, and extramural research funding is often an important factor in the promotion of academic surgeons. The H-index accounts for the quantity and significance of an individual’s academic contributions. While previous studies have demonstrated regional differences in scholarly impact in other medical specialties, we describe the geographic distribution of academic productivity among US surgeons.
Methods:
An established database of surgical department faculty from the top 50 NIH-funded universities was used for this study. Academic metrics were obtained using publically available data online from Scopus, Grantome, and NIH RePORTER. Physicians were categorized into four geographic regions: Northeast, Midwest, South, and West. Two-sided Wilcoxon tests were used for comparisons.
Results:
4,078 surgical department faculty were included. Overall, 21.5% were female. There were 11.7% instructors, 32.0% assistant, 23.6% associate, and 32.6% full professors. Faculty in the West had a higher median H-index compared to the other regions (13 vs. 10; p <0.0001) with no other pairwise differences between the other regions. Faculty in the West also had significantly more citations in the past three years (p <0.001). Faculty in the Midwest were less likely to have NIH funding when compared to the other regions (Fig.1).
Conclusion:
Academic productivity of surgical faculty in the United States varies by geographic region. Surgical faculty in the West had higher research output with respect to citations over the past 3 years and H-index. Academic productivity may differ between regions in part due to variable emphasis on research, clinical and educational responsibilities.
