Research productivity of first-year Canadian ophthalmology residents: a 12-year trend

Research experience is one criterion of the selection process for applicants to residency training programs. We aim to quantify temporal trends in research productivity of medical students who matched into a canadian ophthalmology residency program.

Retrospective database review.

A total of 465 residents commencing ophthalmology training from 2010 to 2022 in 15 Canadian ophthalmology residency programs.

The names of all residents commencing training in ophthalmology in all Canadian programs from 2010 to 2022 were identified. Bibliometric data including publication count and type, authorship position, and H-index corresponding to the match year were extracted from the Scopus database. Descriptive and univariate statistics were used to characterize and assess trends in research productivity.

A total of 461 ophthalmology residents (99% complete data set) from all 15 residency programs representing 1179 publications, including 679 ophthalmology-related publications, were identified. Most publications were original research (676; 58%), followed by case reports and letters (324; 27%) and reviews (162; 14%). Overall, 62% of residents had at least 1 publication at the time of the match, with a mean of 2.56 ± 3.49 publications and a mean H-index of 1.03 ± 1.48 publications. There was a significant increase (p < 0.001) in all research productivity metrics except senior authorship in the period 2019-2022 compared with 2010-2018. Notably, 91% of residents had ≥1 publication in 2022 compared with 38% in 2010.

First-year ophthalmology resident publication productivity doubled from 2010-2016 to 2017-2022 suggesting a greater emphasis on scholarly work from medical trainees, a trend similar to that reported in other specialties.