Outcomes/Epidemiology/Socioeconomics Urology Resident Publication Output and Its Relationship to Future Academic Achievement Glen Yang, Uwais B. Zaid, Bradley A. Erickson, Sarah D. Blaschko, Peter R. Carroll and Benjamin N. Breyer* From the Department of Urology, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, California Abbreviations and Acronyms h-index = Hirsch index Submitted for publication June 8, 2010. Study received institutional review board ap- proval. Supported by National Institutes of Health/Na- tional Center for Research Resources University of California-San Francisco-Clinical and Translational Science Institute Grant UL1 RR024131 and National Institutes of Health Grant K12DK083021 (BNB). * Correspondence: Department of Urology, Ambulatory Care Center, University of California- San Francisco, 400 Parnassus Ave., Box 0738, San Francisco, California 94143 (telephone: 415- 206-8815; FAX: 415-206-5153; e-mail: bbreyer@ urology.ucsf.edu). Purpose: Scholarly research is considered by many to be an important component of residency training but little is known about the quantity and types of publications produced by urology residents. To our knowledge whether publication efforts during residency predict future academic publication performance is also unknown. We evaluated resident productivity, as measured by peer reviewed publication output, and determined its relation to future publication output as junior faculty. Materials and Methods: We assembled a list of graduating residents from 2002 to 2004 who were affiliated with the top 50 urology hospitals, as ranked in 2009 by U.S. News & World Report. PubMed® was queried to determine the publica- tion total in the last 3 years of residency of each individual and during years 2 to 4 after residency graduation. Resident publication output was stratified by re- search time and fellowship training. The relationship between resident produc- tivity and future achievement was assessed. Results: We assessed the publication output of 251 urologists from a total of 34 training programs affiliated with the top 50 urology hospitals. Subjects published a mean total of 3.5 and a mean of 2.0 first author papers during training. Greater research time during residency was associated with increased productivity dur- ing and after residency. Publication during training correlated with publication during the early academic career. Conclusions: Publication output correlated with increasing dedicated research time and was associated with the pursuit of fellowship training and an academic career. Publication during residency predicted future academic achievement. Key Words: urology; internship and residency; manuscripts as topic; faculty, medical; career mobility ACADEMIC scholarship in the form of peer reviewed publications is an im- portant component of training during urology residency 1 and yet barriers to resident research exist, such as limited time, funding and research mentors. 2 Understanding the quantity and types of publications produced by urology resi- dents may aid in evaluating trainees and developing residency program guidelines but little is known about resident pub- lication output. Also, the significance of resident publication rates in predicting future academic achievement is not clear. Others have begun to quantify res- ident publications, primarily using voluntary surveys. 3–5 In orthopedic surgery the amount of dedicated re- search time correlated with resident publication output and the attain- ment of research grants but did not affect whether residents pursued an academic career. 4,5 In radiation oncol- 642 www.jurology.com 0022-5347/11/1852-0642/0 Vol. 185, 642-646, February 2011 THE JOURNAL OF UROLOGY ® Printed in U.S.A. © 2011 by AMERICAN UROLOGICAL ASSOCIATION EDUCATION AND RESEARCH,INC. DOI:10.1016/j.juro.2010.09.097