H-Index Predicts Academic Rank Among Orthopaedic Surgery Faculty

Research productivity, education, and clinical performance have become increasingly central to faculty promotion decisions in orthopaedic surgery. The Hirsch index (h-index) has emerged as an objective tool for quantifying academic impact, but its relationship with academic rank in orthopaedic surgery remains incompletely understood.

We analyzed faculty data from the top 50 academic orthopaedic surgery programs ranked by Doximity. We identified faculty members from institutional websites and collected academic metrics from Scopus, including h-index, publication counts, first-author publications, last-author publications, career length, and m-index (h-index divided by the career length). We used a multivariate analysis and recursive partitioning to identify predictors of senior academic rank (associate or full professor).

Of 2,744 faculty reviewed, 1,520 academic orthopaedic surgeons met the inclusion criteria. The median h-index was 15 (interquartile range [IQR]: 7-27), and the median career length was 19 years (IQR: 13-28). In multivariate analysis, h-index and career duration emerged as the strongest predictors of senior academic rank. Multivariate recursive partitioning identified the h-index, number of publications, first-author publications, and career length as influential predictors. Faculty at institutions ranked 1 to 25 demonstrated significantly higher academic productivity across all metrics than those ranked 26 to 50 (p < 0.001). The trajectory of research productivity shows a consistent increase with career duration, with the m-index plateauing mid-career.

Our findings indicate that the h-index and career length are significant predictors of senior academic rank. Academic productivity was higher at programs ranked 1 to 25 by Doximity compared with those ranked 26 to 50. While productivity metrics generally increase with career duration, the m-index plateaus in mid-career.

Level III, Prognostic Study. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.