Leveraging Google Scholar to Facilitate Resident Research Reporting

Area of Science:

• Medical Education Research
• Scholarly Activity Tracking
• Digital Scholarship Tools

Background:

• Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires annual resident scholarly activity reporting.
• Current reporting methods can be time-consuming and may lack accuracy or completeness.
• Accurate tracking of resident publications is crucial for academic and professional development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of Google Scholar in identifying resident publications.
• To compare Google Scholar data with ACGME self-reported scholarly activities.
• To determine if Google Scholar can supplement or improve existing reporting mechanisms.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study comparing resident Google Scholar profiles with ACGME self-reports (2018-2020).
• Inclusion criteria: publications prior to June 30, 2020, during residency at Rush University Medical Center.
• Independent data collection and comparative analysis of publication records.

Main Results:

• 23 of 24 residents (96%) created Google Scholar profiles.
• Google Scholar identified 22 total publications, with 18 (78.3%) concordant with self-reports.
• Google Scholar identified 9 additional publications not included in ACGME self-reports.

Conclusions:

• Google Scholar profiles accurately identify resident publications, including those missed by ACGME self-reports.
• Utilizing Google Scholar can enhance the completeness and accuracy of resident scholarly activity tracking.
• This digital tool offers a promising solution for efficient and comprehensive publication monitoring in graduate medical education.