Scholarly Output and Match Outcomes Among Otolaryngology Research Fellows: A Bibliometric Cohort Study

ObjectiveMedical students applying to Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (OHNS) increasingly complete a dedicated research year, yet the relationship between research-year output and match success is poorly defined. We compared research-year scholarly output between fellows who did and did not match into OHNS and examined whether output and home program status were associated with matching.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective bibliometric cohort study of 82 research fellows from 10 OHNS research fellowship programs. PubMed-verified publications were counted at application, at residency start, and cumulatively.ResultsSixty-two of 82 fellows (75.6%) matched into OHNS. OHNS-matched fellows had higher research-year-associated publication counts than non-OHNS-matched fellows, with a median of 1 vs 0 at application (p=0.006) and 5 vs 3 at residency start (p=0.005) and more had ≥1 first-author publication at application (45.2% vs 15.0%; p=0.02). Each additional research-year publication at application was associated with higher odds of matching (OR 1.68; 95% CI, 1.19-2.82; p=0.02). Home-program status was not associated with matching (adjusted OR 1.74; 95% CI, 0.55-5.45; p=0.34).ConclusionsGreater research-year publication output, both at the time of application and at the start of residency, was associated with matching into OHNS, whereas home-program status was not.