Increased Resident Research over an 18-Year Period: A Single Institution's Experience

(1) To evaluate changes in the resident publications over time, including before and after duty hour restrictions, and (2) to identify factors statistically associated with publications during residency.

Retrospective review of bibliometric data.

Residents who graduated from an otolaryngology residency program from 1996 to 2013 were evaluated. Thomson Reuters Web of Science was searched to determine the number of indexed peer-reviewed publications before and after implementation of resident duty hour restrictions in 2003. Resident demographics, PhD degrees, training tracks, and postgraduation plans were collected to determine factors associated with publication rate using multivariable regression analysis.

During the studied period, 75 residents completed otolaryngology residency training and published a total of 294 papers, averaging 3.92 publications per resident during training. After work hour restrictions were implemented, the mean number of publications increased from 1.21 to 5.10 (P < .0001). First author publications, clinical publications, and basic science publications all increased (P < .001). In regression analysis, T32 grants (β = 6.98, standard error [SE] = 1.87, P = .0004) and the time period after duty hour restrictions were introduced (β = 4.72, SE = 1.73, P = .0083) were positively associated with resident publications. Gender, PhD degree, and pursuit of fellowship training were not associated with increased publications (P > .05).

There has been a significant increase in resident publications over time, coinciding with the implementation of work hour restrictions. T32 grants were most predictive of increased resident publications, while PhD degrees were not significantly associated.