Measuring Medical Student Scholarly Activity After a Structured Plastic Surgery Research Fellowship: A Bibliometric...

Area of Science:

• Plastic Surgery Research
• Medical Education
• Academic Productivity

Background:

• Plastic surgery is a highly competitive medical specialty.
• Medical students often pursue research fellowships to strengthen their residency applications.
• Dedicated research experiences are crucial for competitive specialty matching.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the academic productivity of medical students during a plastic surgery research fellowship.
• To analyze scholarly output over a 7-year period at a single academic institution.
• To assess the impact of structured research fellowships on student academic contributions.

Main Methods:

• Bibliometric analysis of 26 medical student research fellows' scholarly activities.
• Inclusion of peer-reviewed articles, books, book chapters, and video editorials.
• Data collection included publication numbers, citation counts, and h-index.

Main Results:

• 24 of 26 fellows published 177 scholarly activities (93.22% articles), cited approximately 322 times.
• Mean publications per fellow: 6.69; mean h-index: 1.46.
• Significant positive correlation found between years in fellowship and h-index/publications per year.

Conclusions:

• Structured plastic surgery research fellowships enhance medical students' research output.
• Fellowships provide a valuable platform for meaningful academic engagement.
• Continued increase in publications is suggested post-fellowship participation.