Available online 1 November 2022

Traditionally, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires residency programs to implement research and other scholarly activities into their training curriculum. Encouraging residents to publish during residency is believed to promote research throughout their careers; however, the rate of research outcomes among general surgery residents remains unknown. Our study aims to determine associated factors that influence publication rates before, during, and after general surgery residency.

This observational study employed a cross-sectional design. We examined whether research outcomes during general surgery residency was associated with academic advancement or continued research involvement after residency. We identified 321 general surgery residency programs on the Doximity website and randomly selected 50 to include in our sample. Of these programs, graduate rosters for 31 programs were located and subsequently included. Of the 405 residency graduates identified, we recorded the number of peer-reviewed publications, H-indices, fellowships, and whether the graduate pursued a career in private practice or academia.

Among the 405 physicians analyzed, 3815 total publications were identified with a mean of 9.4 (SD 11.8) per person. The most reported study design was observational studies (46.5%; 1775/3815) and the least reported was systematic reviews/meta-analyses (1.4%; 52/3815). The number of publications before residency positively correlated with having a higher h-index (r = 0.4). We also found that physicians who completed a fellowship had more publications during residency (mean = 4.7, SD = 6.5) than those not pursuing a fellowship (mean = 1.5, SD = 2.7; t= -4.3. p ≤ 0.001). We observed a statistically significant increase in the likelihood a physician pursued a career in academic medicine if they pursued a fellowship (OR: 3.77, 95% CI: 2.0-7.2) and if they had published research as a primary author (OR 1.25, 95% CI: 1.0-1.5).

Increased research productivity was associated with continued academic pursuits and an increased likelihood of pursuing fellowship training after residency.

Scholarly research activity – including research publications, national presentations, and community incentives – remains an integral part of medical education and physician training. By conducting research, medical professionals build upon critical thinking skills, evidence-based practice, and improving quality patient care. Several studies have highlighted the benefits of conducting research in preclinical and clinical years.1, 2, 3 For example, Evans et al. advocated that research provides

Our cross-sectional analysis does not contain human subjects as defined by the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Code of Federal Regulations policy 45 CFR 46.102(d) and (f)15; therefore, it is not subject to Institutional Review Board approval. All study materials, protocols, analysis scripts, and raw data are available on Open Science Framework15(https://osf.io/b9wyt).

Our Doximity search returned 321 general surgery residency programs; from which, 50 programs were randomly sampled. Among the 50 programs, only 28 (56%; 28/50) programs provided public records for previous graduates from 2013 to 2015. Of the remaining 22 (44%; 22/50) programs emailed to identify residency graduates, 3 programs responded via email with records of graduates. From the 31 (62%; 31/50) programs included, we recorded a total of 405 general surgery graduates in our analysis (Fig. 1).

Results from our study suggest the number of peer-reviewed publications, first-author publications, and author h-index scores produced by general surgery residents are associated with a higher likelihood of pursuing academia or fellowship training. Authors of first authorship publications both before and during residency were more likely to pursue a fellowship and career in academic medicine. Gender analyses did not result in any statistically significant differences. Our findings suggest a

Our strengths include data extraction in a masked, duplicate fashion. Further, data extraction training was conducted by a senior investigator (I.F.) prior to data extraction. Lastly, we developed a protocol a priori and have uploaded all data to OSF to increase reproducibility and transparency. Limitations to our study include that we did not account for all scholarly works such as newspapers and presentations because these forms of research activity are not publicly available. This may

Research is an integral part of surgical education and is the backbone of future developmental changes of new physician scientists. Our findings illustrate individuals who entered into academia or pursued a fellowship published more than individuals who entered into private practice. Additionally, graduates of programs receiving T32 or T35 funding were neither more nor less likely to pursue fellowships or academic careers. Our findings provide insight for associations between research

No financial or other sources of support were provided during the development of this protocol. Matt Vassar reports grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Office of Research Integrity, and the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, all outside the present work. Dr. Hartwell reports receiving funding from the National Institute of Justice for work unrelated to the current subject. All other authors have nothing to report.

© 2022 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.