Ultimate publication rate of unpublished manuscripts listed on radiology residency applications at one institution

This study was designed to assess the ultimate publication rate of unpublished manuscripts listed on radiology residency applications.

A retrospective review was performed on all 628 Electronic Residency Application Service applications submitted to a single-institution radiology residency program in 2010. Publication status of unpublished manuscripts listed as "accepted," "in press," "provisional accepted," or "submitted" was assessed two years later by searching PubMed, Google Scholar, and journal- or conference-specific Web sites. Manuscripts were considered "published" if they appeared in a peer-reviewed journal with the applicant as an author. Impact factors of proposed and publishing journals were compared.

Five hundred fourteen (81.8%) of the 628 applicants listed a total of 1,431 manuscripts: 952 (66.5%) "published," 64 (4.5%) "in press," 95 (6.6%) "accepted," 27 (1.9%) "provisional accepted," and 293 (20.5%) "submitted." After two years, 81.3% (52/64) of "in press," 58.9% (56/95) of "accepted," 70.4% (19/27) of "provisional accepted," and 43.7% (128/293) of "submitted" manuscripts were published (P < .01). The proposed and publishing journal matched in 50.8% (65/128) of "submitted" manuscripts (P < .01). The impact factor of the proposed versus publishing journal was 4.189 versus 2.898 (P < .01) for "submitted" manuscripts.

One-third of manuscripts listed on radiology residency applications were unpublished at the time of application. More than half of those listed as "submitted," and approximately one-third of those listed as "accepted," "in press," or "provisional accepted," remained unpublished after two years. Residency selection committees should consider these publication rates when assessing applicants.