Nicholas G Zaorsky1, Emily O'Brien2, Jennifer Mardini3, Eric J Lehrer4, Emma Holliday5, Carol S Weisman6. 1. N.G. Zaorsky is assistant professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, Penn State Cancer Institute, and assistant professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4932-1986. 2. E. O'Brien is a third-year medical student, Department of Radiation Oncology, Penn State Cancer Institute, Hershey, Pennsylvania. 3. J. Mardini is a third-year medical student, Department of Radiation Oncology, Penn State Cancer Institute, Hershey, Pennsylvania. 4. E.J. Lehrer is resident physician, Department of Radiation Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York. 5. E. Holliday is assistant professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. 6. C.S. Weisman is Distinguished Professor of Public Health Sciences, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Health Policy and Administration, Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Academic medical faculty members are assessed on their research productivity for hiring, promotion, grant, and award decisions. The current work systematically reviews, synthesizes, and analyzes the available literature on publication productivity by academic rank across medical specialties. METHOD: The authors searched PubMed for medical literature, including observational studies, published in English from 2005 to 2018, using the term "h-index," on July 1, 2018. Studies had to report on h-indices for faculty in academic medicine and, if available, other publication metrics, including number of citations, number of publications, and m-indices, stratified by academic rank. The DerSimonian and Laird method was used to perform meta-analyses for the primary (h-index) and secondary (m-index) outcome measures. RESULTS: The systematic review included 21 studies. The meta-analysis included 19 studies and data on 14,567 academic physicians. Both h- and m-indices increased with academic rank. The weighted random effects summary effect sizes for mean h-indices were 5.22 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.21-6.23, n = 6,609) for assistant professors, 11.22 (95% CI: 9.65-12.78, n = 3,508) for associate professors, 20.77 (95% CI: 17.94-23.60, n = 3,626) for full professors, and 22.08 (95% CI: 17.73-26.44, n = 816) for department chairs. Mean m-indices were 0.53 (95% CI: 0.40-0.65, n = 1,653) for assistant professors, 0.72 (95% CI: 0.58-0.85, n = 883) for associate professors, 0.99 (95% CI: 0.75-1.22, n = 854) for full professors, and 1.16 (95% CI: 0.81-1.51, n = 195) for department chairs. CONCLUSIONS: Both h- and m-indices increase with successive academic rank. There are unique distributions of these metrics among medical specialties. The h- and m-indices should be used in conjunction with other measures of academic success to evaluate faculty members for hiring, promotion, grant, and award decisions.
PURPOSE: Academic medical faculty members are assessed on their research productivity for hiring, promotion, grant, and award decisions. The current work systematically reviews, synthesizes, and analyzes the available literature on publication productivity by academic rank across medical specialties. METHOD: The authors searched PubMed for medical literature, including observational studies, published in English from 2005 to 2018, using the term "h-index," on July 1, 2018. Studies had to report on h-indices for faculty in academic medicine and, if available, other publication metrics, including number of citations, number of publications, and m-indices, stratified by academic rank. The DerSimonian and Laird method was used to perform meta-analyses for the primary (h-index) and secondary (m-index) outcome measures. RESULTS: The systematic review included 21 studies. The meta-analysis included 19 studies and data on 14,567 academic physicians. Both h- and m-indices increased with academic rank. The weighted random effects summary effect sizes for mean h-indices were 5.22 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.21-6.23, n = 6,609) for assistant professors, 11.22 (95% CI: 9.65-12.78, n = 3,508) for associate professors, 20.77 (95% CI: 17.94-23.60, n = 3,626) for full professors, and 22.08 (95% CI: 17.73-26.44, n = 816) for department chairs. Mean m-indices were 0.53 (95% CI: 0.40-0.65, n = 1,653) for assistant professors, 0.72 (95% CI: 0.58-0.85, n = 883) for associate professors, 0.99 (95% CI: 0.75-1.22, n = 854) for full professors, and 1.16 (95% CI: 0.81-1.51, n = 195) for department chairs. CONCLUSIONS: Both h- and m-indices increase with successive academic rank. There are unique distributions of these metrics among medical specialties. The h- and m-indices should be used in conjunction with other measures of academic success to evaluate faculty members for hiring, promotion, grant, and award decisions.
Authors: Albert H Kwon; Dirk Varelmann; Sergey Karamnov; Alexander H Slocum; Leena K Pradhan-Nabzdyk; Jeff L Xu; William J Mauermann; Daniel R Brown; Carlos B Mantilla; Christoph G S Nabzdyk Journal: J Educ Perioper Med Date: 2021-01-01