Authorship Activity of Program Directors of Radiology Residency Programs in the U.S

Program Directors have responsibility for maintaining the academic focus and ensuring mentorship for the next generation of radiologists. The goal of this study was to identify the academic productivity and scholarly activity of Program Directors (PDs) of radiology residency programs in the U.S.

A list of all DR residency programs PDs was obtained from the American Medical Association (AMA) Residency and Fellowship Database. Academic productivity information about each PD was obtained from their publicly available Scopus profiles, or from PubMed if Scopus profile was unavailable. Metrics of scholarly activity were recorded including the number of publications and citations using median with interquartile ranges (IQR). The differences in number, citation count, and citation rate between first/last-author and co-author publications were analyzed using non-parametric univariate analysis. All individual publications were analyzed for predictors of citation count using a multivariable Poisson regression model of publication characteristics.

Among the 195 PDs, the median h-index was 4 (IQR: 1-11; range: 0-61). The top 10th percentile (by h-index) of authors (n=20) contributed 40% [1620/4100] of all publications and 65% [61,105/94,577] of all citations. 18% (35/195) had one or no publication. Another 8% had a co-author publication, but no first/last author publication. In the previous 5 years, 8% of PDs on Scopus (11/136) had no publication, and 23% (31/136) had no first/last author publication. PDs with <20 years since graduation had significantly fewer publications (median 3 [1-10]), compared to PDs with >20 years since graduation (median 14 [6-37], P<0.001) in the previous 5 years.

Scholarly activity in PDs of U.S. academic radiology programs is low, with top 10th percentile contributing significantly more towards overall publications and citations. The trends point towards lower scholarly productivity over time. Academic radiology leadership may need to address this as the future course is charted.