Abstract
Background
The scientific activity of neurosurgeons and neurosurgery residents as measured by bibliometric parameters is of increased interest. While data about academic output for neurosurgeons in the USA, the UK, and Canada have been published, no similar results for German neurosurgical residents exist. Within this study, we aim to evaluate the academic output of German neurosurgery residents in 35 academic residency programs.
Methods
Data for each resident were collected from the departmental websites, Pubmed, and Scopus. Further analyses evaluated the relationship between publication productivity, sex, and academic degree (Dr. med.).
Results
Data from 424 neurosurgery residents were analyzed. A total of 1222 publications were considered. A total of 355 (29%) of the 1222 publications were first-author publications. The average number of publications per resident was 2.9; the average h-index and m-quotient was 1.1 and 0.4, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in academic output and h-index among neurosurgical residents with a doctoral degree compared with residents without such degree (5.3 vs. 1.3, p < 0.0001 and 2.0 vs. 0.5, p < 0.0001).
Conclusion
This is the very first study evaluating the academic output of neurosurgical residents in academic neurosurgical departments in Germany.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Comments
Interesting data for the attention of all EANS members and non-members (ACTA readers) to be aware of and try to copy in their own centers/country.
Jesus Lafuente.
Barcelona, Spain.
This article is part of the Topical Collection on Neurosurgery Training
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Kilinc, F., Gessler, F., Dubinski, D. et al. Academic output of German neurosurgical residents in 35 academic neurosurgery residency programs. Acta Neurochir 161, 1969–1974 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-019-04011-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-019-04011-2