Publication productivity and academic ranking in medicine: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Open Access
- Author:
- Zaorsky, Nicholas
- Graduate Program:
- Public Health Sciences
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- March 20, 2019
- Committee Members:
- Carol S Weisman, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Vernon Michael Chinchilli, Committee Member
Kristen H Kjerulff, Committee Member - Keywords:
- academics
promotion
productivity
h-index
m-index - Abstract:
- Objective: The purpose of the current work is to systematically review, synthesize, and analyze the available literature on publication productivity and academic ranking across specialties. Summary Background Data: Publication performance of academic medical faculty members is used for hiring, promotion, grants, and awards. Methods: A PICOS/PRISMA/MOOSE selection protocol was used to find studies that reported on h-indices and m-indices across academic ranks. Data from 19 studies were pooled using weighted random effects meta-analyses via the DerSimonian and Laird method. Results: Data on 14,567 physicians were analyzed and summary effect sizes for mean h-indices were determined at each academic level. The random effects estimate for mean h-index of assistant professors was 5.22 (95% CI, 4.21-6.23, I2=98.76%, n=6,609), 11.22 (95% CI, 9.65-12.78, I2=97.08%, n=3,508) for associate professors, 20.77 (95% CI, 17.94-23.60, I2=97.63%, n=3,626) for full professors, and 22.08 (95% CI, 17.73-26.44, I2 =95.88%, n=816) for department chairs. Similar trends were seen for the m-index, across the 3 included studies. Our study is limited due to the variation in h-index calculation depending on database used, reporting differences, limited studies published about internal medical fields, and an inherent time bias, where studies published more recently had higher h-indices due to its natural growth over time. Conclusions: H-indices are associated with successive academic rank. The results of this study may be used as an additional metric for benchmarking research productivity in hiring, promotion, grant, and award assessments based on publication productivity across academic medical specialties.