Assessment of the NIH-supported relative citation ratio as a measure of research productivity among 1687 academic neurological surgeons

Author:

Reddy Vamsi1,Gupta Arjun2,White Michael D.1,Gupta Raghav2,Agarwal Prateek3,Prabhu Arpan V.4,Lieber Bryan5,Chang Yue-Fang1,Agarwal Nitin1

Affiliation:

1. Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;

2. Department of Neurological Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey;

3. Department of Neurological Surgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;

4. Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas; and

5. Department of Neurological Surgery, Detroit Medical Center, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan

Abstract

OBJECTIVEPublication metrics such as the Hirsch index (h-index) are often used to evaluate and compare research productivity in academia. The h-index is not a field-normalized statistic and can therefore be dependent on overall rates of publication and citation within specific fields. Thus, a metric that adjusts for this while measuring individual contributions would be preferable. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has developed a new, field-normalized, article-level metric called the “relative citation ratio” (RCR) that can be used to more accurately compare author productivity between fields. The mean RCR is calculated as the total number of citations per year of a publication divided by the average field-specific citations per year, whereas the weighted RCR is the sum of all article-level RCR scores over an author’s career. The present study was performed to determine how various factors, such as academic rank, career duration, a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree, and sex, impact the RCR to analyze research productivity among academic neurosurgeons.METHODSA retrospective data analysis was performed using the iCite database. All physician faculty affiliated with Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)–accredited neurological surgery programs were eligible for analysis. Sex, career duration, academic rank, additional degrees, total publications, mean RCR, and weighted RCR were collected for each individual. Mean RCR and weighted RCR were compared between variables to assess patterns of analysis by using SAS software version 9.4.RESULTSA total of 1687 neurosurgery faculty members from 125 institutions were included in the analysis. Advanced academic rank, longer career duration, and PhD acquisition were all associated with increased mean and weighted RCRs. Male sex was associated with having an increased weighted RCR but not an increased mean RCR score. Overall, neurological surgeons were highly productive, with a median RCR of 1.37 (IQR 0.93–1.97) and a median weighted RCR of 28.56 (IQR 7.99–85.65).CONCLUSIONSThe RCR and its derivatives are new metrics that help fill in the gaps of other indices for research output. Here, the authors found that advanced academic rank, longer career duration, and PhD acquisition were all associated with increased mean and weighted RCRs. Male sex was associated with having an increased weighted, but not mean, RCR score, most likely because of historically unequal opportunities for women within the field. Furthermore, the data showed that current academic neurosurgeons are exceptionally productive compared to both physicians in other specialties and the general scientific community.

Publisher

Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group (JNSPG)

Subject

Genetics,Animal Science and Zoology

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