Analysis of Plastic Surgery Publications Among Successfully Matched Integrated Plastic Surgery Residents

Research productivity has become an increasingly important metric in the evaluation of integrated plastic surgery (IPS) residency applicants, particularly following the transition of United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 to pass/fail scoring. Little is known about the content and type of plastic surgery-specific publications among matched applicants.

A retrospective cohort study was conducted using publicly available data on matched IPS residents from the 2022 to 2024 application cycles. PubMed-indexed publications were collected and screened for plastic surgery relevance. Each included article was categorized by subspecialty (eg, craniofacial, microsurgery, aesthetics) and article type (original research, systematic review/meta-analysis, narrative review, etc.). First- and second-author roles were also recorded.

Among 555 matched residents across 85 programs, 1612 plastic surgery-specific publications were identified. Craniofacial (26.3%), microsurgery (18.5%), and breast (12.6%) were the most common subspecialties, whereas burn (0.7%) and basic sciences (3.7%) were the least represented. Microsurgery publications declined by 35.2% during the study period, whereas aesthetic and gender-affirming care publications increased. Original research comprised 48.4% of all articles, with systematic reviews/meta-analyses rising from 17.0% in 2022 to 31.6% in 2024, an 85.9% increase. Concurrently, narrative reviews, case reports, commentaries, and letters to the editor declined proportionally.

Publications related to subspecialties such as craniofacial and microsurgery remained dominant, although a shifting emphasis toward aesthetic and gender-affirming care research was observed. These findings may help guide mentorship, inform applicant strategy, and improve transparency in IPS residency selection.