Confirmation of research publications reported by neurological surgery residency applicants

Previous studies have reported that as many as 30% of resident and fellow applicants misrepresent their publication record on their residency and fellowship applications. To determine if neurologic surgery residency applicants were guilty of similar rates of misrepresentation, we reviewed the applications submitted to our institution in the year 2001-2002.

There were 102 applications submitted to our neurologic surgery residency program for the 2001-2002 academic year. All publications listed by applicants on the Central Application Service for Neurologic Surgery were verified using various online bibliographic databases including MEDLINE and an interlibrary search. Manuscripts listed as being "in press" were authenticated by contacting the journals' editorial office while those listed as either "in preparation" or "submitted for publication" were excluded.

Seventy-three (71.6%) candidates reported 212 published citations, including 129 (61%) journal articles, 13 (6%) book chapters, and 70 (33%) printed abstracts. Twelve of these applicants also listed 13 papers as being "in press." Overall, among the entire applicant pool, there were nine examples of possible misrepresentation in six applicants (6%). One applicant provided inadequate information to verify a book chapter. Another candidate cited four journal articles with the authors' names, even though his name was not listed among them. Two applicants included one citation each without listing any of the authors' names. Verification of these citations revealed that neither of them was a coauthor, although one was acknowledged. Among the articles listed as "in press," one was still under consideration for publication, and one could not be verified because of the journal's discontinuation.

We confirmed that applicants who reported their names along with their published citations did so honestly and accurately. In our study, misrepresentation of published manuscripts among neurologic surgery residency applicants was rare when compared to candidates in other specialties.