Summary
Background
The allotment of grants is increasingly dependent on benchmarking of scientific output.
Still, data to benchmark such output for plastic surgeons are lacking. Therefore,
we retrieved these data for plastic surgeons in The Netherlands.
Methods
We analysed the bibliographic and some biographic characteristics of all 223 plastic
surgeons registered in The Netherlands from 1950 through 2004, as well as of all 61
trainee plastic surgeons. Biographic characteristics were obtained through the Netherlands
Society of Plastic Surgery and bibliographic characteristics were retrieved from PubMed® and the Science Citation Index®. With these data, we established a trend of publications at various moments in the
careers of plastic surgeons.
Results
The age at graduation from medical school (27 years) and at the defence of PhD before
registration (32 years) did not differ between specialists and residents. Eighteen
residents (0.30) had already obtained a PhD, compared to the 34 specialists (0.15)
who obtained their PhD prior to registration. Specialists made 2396 contributions
to 1758 PubMed-indexed articles and residents made 327 contributions to 323 articles.
Sixty percent of the specialists had published by the time of registration, whereas
79% of the current residents had already done so. The resident-authors had contributed
to more articles (mean 6.8) than their predecessors had done at the moment of their
registration (mean 4.7). Surgeons and residents published the greater part of their
work in plastic surgery journals with relatively high impact factors. Sixty percent
of the articles by residents and 45% of the articles by specialists had been cited
by others, and articles by residents obtained a mean of 3.8 citations as compared
to 4.3 citations to articles by specialist. Most specialists published until six years
after registration.
Conclusions
The quantity and quality of publications by plastic surgeons and residents from The
Netherlands increased over the studied 55-year period. Most specialists published
from the moment of their graduation at medical school until six years after their
registration as plastic surgeon. The residents of 2004 published more and better than
their predecessors.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic SurgeryAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Status of clinical research in academic health centers: views from the research leadership.JAMA. 2000; 286: 800-806
- Pediatric surgical workload during the past decade: impact on clinical activity and hospital finance at a children's hospital.J Pediatr Surg. 1999; 34: 133-136
- Improving the Surgeon's participation in research: is it a problem of training or priority?.J Surg Res. 2000; 91: 5-8
- Effects of managed care on teaching, research, and clinical practice in academic plastic surgery.Ann Plast Surg. 2002; 48: 348-354
- Recent trends in National Institutes of Health funding of surgical research.Ann Surg. 2002; 236: 277-286
- Impact-factor rewards affect Spanish research.Nature. 2002; 417: 898
- One hundred citation classics in general surgical journals.World J Surg. 2002; 26: 1099-1105
- Why the impact factor of journals should not be used for evaluating research.BMJ. 1997; 314: 498-502
- Most cited papers in Toxicon.Toxicon. 2004; 44: 345-359
N.C.B.I.-N.L.M.-N.I.H. Pubmed®. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/.
Thompson-ISI. Science citation index expanded® 1946–2004. Available at: http://portal.isiknowledge.com/.
Thompson-ISI. Journal citation reports®. Available at: http://portal.isiknowledge.com/.
- PubMed Central and the new publishing landscape: shifts and tradeoffs.Acad Med. 2000; 75: 4-10
- Impact of the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.Plast Reconstr Surg. 1992; 90: 717-722
- Early predictors of career achievement in academic medicine.JAMA. 1992; 267: 1372-1376
- Manuscript quality before and after peer review and editing at Annals of Internal Medicine.Ann Intern Med. 1994; 121: 11-21
- Authorship.Plast Reconstr Surg. 1983; 71: 411-412
- Science and anaesthesia.Anaesthesia. 1985; 40: 733-734
- Trends in research support and productivity in the changing environment of academic surgery.J Surg Res. 2004; 116: 197-201
- Factors determining the ultimate fate of a plastic surgery applicant.Plast Reconstr Surg. 2003; 111: 981-984
- Leaving the fold.Plast Reconstr Surg. 1991; 88: 325-327
Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 18, 2007
Accepted:
December 5,
2006
Received:
October 31,
2006
Identification
Copyright
© 2007 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
