Association between Graduate Degrees and Publication Productivity in Academic Neurosurgery

Many neurosurgeons pursue graduate degrees as part of their training. In some jurisdictions, graduate degrees are considered a necessary condition of employment in academic neurosurgery. However, the relationship between possession of a graduate degree and eventual research productivity is not well established. We used bibliometric methods to analyze publications from academic Canadian neurosurgeons, with an emphasis on level of graduate training.

All neurosurgeons holding academic appointments at Canadian institutions from 2012-2016 were included. Over that time frame, Scopus was used to quantify the number of papers, number of citations, 5-year h-index and 5-year r-index, CiteScore, authorship position, and paper type (clinical or basic science). Publication output was compared between neurosurgeons grouped as MD-only, MD-Masters, or MD-PhD.

In total, 2557 abstracts from 131 Canadian neurosurgeons were analyzed. We found that MD-Masters neurosurgeons published significantly more total papers, clinical papers, and first/last author papers than MD-only neurosurgeons. MD-PhD neurosurgeons had the same findings, in addition to more basic science papers, in journals with a higher CiteScore, 5-year h-index, and 5-year r-index than both other groups. These results were preserved even with significant outliers removed. There was no difference if graduate degrees were obtained before or after starting residency. There was no correlation with career length and number of recent papers published.

The attainment of a graduate degree has an important association with future publication productivity for academic neurosurgeons. These data should be useful for hiring committees considering the value of graduate degrees from applicants for positions in academic neurosurgery.