Bibliometric productivity of academic emergency radiology faculty in the United States: Current status

Bibliometric benchmarks for academic emergency radiology faculty are not well established. We assessed the bibliometric profiles of U.S. academic emergency radiology faculty and determined the independent contributions of academic rank, faculty track, sex, and fellowship institution affiliation to scholarly productivity. A secondary aim was to compare bibliometric productivity of emergency radiology faculty against four other radiology subspecialties using rank-adjusted cross-subspecialty models.

This cross-sectional bibliometric analysis included 518 emergency radiology faculty from 67 U.S. institutions, with data collected from Scopus between September and December 2025. For cross-subspecialty comparisons, linear mixed-effects models adjusting for rank and institutional clustering were applied.

No significant sex differences were found at any rank after Bonferroni correction. Research/tenure-track faculty were significantly more productive than clinical-track faculty at the associate and full professor levels, but not at the assistant professor level. The productivity advantage of ASER-recognized fellowship institutions was entirely explained by their higher proportion of research/tenure-track faculty. After rank adjustment, emergency radiology faculty had significantly lower bibliometric output than neuroradiology and cardiothoracic imaging faculty (all p < 0.001). Interventional radiology was the most comparable subspecialty, with no significant differences in citations or h-index.

Academic rank is the primary driver of bibliometric productivity in emergency radiology. Based on the findings of this study, faculty track independently influences output at mid- and senior career stages. No significant sex differences were identified. The fellowship institution productivity advantage reflects track composition rather than program presence. Emergency radiology faculty demonstrate lower rank-adjusted output than neuroradiology and cardiothoracic imaging, while remaining most comparable to interventional radiology.