Academic productivity of neurosurgeons practicing in the Joint Residency Advisory and Accreditation Committee accredited programs

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Bibliometric indexes are often used to evaluate and compare neurosurgeons and departments, and they were shown to correlate with academic rank and department reputation. We evaluated academic productivity of neurosurgeons practicing in departments accredited by the Joint Residency Advisory and Accreditation Committee (JRAAC) and European Association of Neurological Surgeons (EANS). METHODS: In this cross-sectional study we calculated number of publications, citations, h-index and m-quotient from the Pubmed/MEDLINE and Web of Knowledge databases for 285 neurosurgeons affiliated with 19 department that are accredited or in-progress of accreditation by the JRAAAC. Academic productivity was compared as a function of academic rank, research degree. RESULTS: Median number of publication in Pubmed/MEDLINE and Web of Knowledge indexed journals were 13 (range: 0-352) and 15 (range: 0-323), respectively. Median h-index was 4 (range: 0-41) and median m-quotient was 0.56 (range: 0-2.86). There was a significant variability between the studied departments in median number of publications and h-index (p=0.001). Professors and associate professors had significantly higher bibliometric indexes than neurosurgeon without academic rank (all p-values <0.001). Department chairmen had higher bibliometric indexes than other faculty members (all p-values <0.001). Neurosurgeons holding a research degree authored more publications and higher bibliometric indexes than faculty members not holding a research degree (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study evaluating academic productivity of neurosurgeons practicing in Europe and Turkey. Higher academic rank and advanced research degree were associated with greater academic productivity. Further studies exploring regional differences in academic productivity of European neurosurgeons are encouraged.