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Publish or Perish: The Effect of Journal Editing on Scholarly Output
Sarah E. Sasor; Julia A. Cook; Peter J. Nicksic; Scott N. Loewenstein; Sunil S. Tholpady; Michael W. Chu
Indiana University
2018-01-31
Presenter: Sarah Sasor
Affidavit:
Agree with above
Director Name: William Wooden
Author Category: Resident Plastic Surgery
Presentation Category: Clinical
Abstract Category: General Reconstruction
Purpose:
Peer-reviewed research is essential to advance surgical knowledge. Reviewers and editorial board members play a critical role in disseminating the most up to date information. The purpose of this study is to analyze authorship trends in academic plastic surgeons and editorial board members and identify factors that influence scholarly output.
Methods:
ScopusŪ was used to determine the top-ten plastic surgery-related publications based on 2016 CiteScores. Editorial board members were identified on journal websites. Academic plastic surgeons were identified on institutional websites. Data was collected on gender, degrees, board certification, titles, and practice type. Number of published manuscripts and h-index were obtained from Scopus. Statistical analysis was performed in SPSS (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL).
Results:
A total of 255 board-certified plastic surgeons were identified as editorial board members. The majority were male (89%) and in academic practice (74.9%); 15.4% were members of multiple editorial boards. 830 academic plastic surgeons were identified from 91 accredited training programs in the US, of which 23% served on editorial boards. Mean years in practice was 16.7 for editorial board members and 15.5 for non-members (p=0.14). Editorial board members published more (82.0 vs. 36.2 manuscripts, p<0.001) and had high h-indexes (18.0 vs. 10.4, p<0.001) than non-members. Serving on multiple editorial boards positively correlated to h-index (1:16.5, 2:24.1, 3:32.3, 4:33.0; p=0.02).
Conclusion:
Research productivity is a metric for promotion in academic medicine. Experience on an editorial board positively correlates with scholarly output and can be a significant contributing factor for career progression.
