Attainment of an Additional Graduate Degree Is Associated With Sustained Scholarly Activity Beyond Surgical Residency

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether attainment of an additional graduate-level degree during general surgery residency, such as an MSc, MPH, MBA, or PhD, is associated with increased research productivity beyond completion of training.

Design: Observational cohort study comparing publication productivity of general surgery residency graduates who did and did not obtain a degree. PubMed queries and the Web of Science Core Collection were used to capture publication metrics. Graduate characteristics, including degree attainment, were obtained from an institutional database. Practice webpages were reviewed to designate an academic surgical practice, defined as an assistant, associate, or full professorship appointment.

Setting: Single academic general surgery residency program.

Participants: Categorical general surgery residency graduates who performed at least 1 year of dedicated research.

Results: 1768 total publications, representing 1500 unique publications, were authored by 54 residents, of which 18 (33.3%) residents attained an additional graduate-level degree during dedicated research. 1369 (91.3%) publications had identifiable Journal Impact Factors and citation data. Degree attainers were more likely to be female (55.6% vs. 25.0%, p = 0.03) and spend more time in dedicated research (mean 2.2 vs. 1.8 years, p = 0.02). Overall, degree attainers published more frequently during residency (median 4.4 vs. 2.1 publications/year, p < 0.001) and fellowship (median 2.0 vs. 1.0 publications/year, p = 0.046). Analysis of the first 4 post-training years demonstrated degree attainers produced 1.2 more publications per year among all graduates (2.3 vs. 1.1 publications/year, p = 0.02) and 1.6 more publications per year among graduates practicing academic surgery (3.3 vs. 1.7 publications/year, p = 0.02). There were no differences in the Journal Impact Factor or publication citations per year among degree and nondegree attaining graduates.

Conclusions: Attainment of an additional graduate-level degree was associated with increased research productivity that was sustained beyond surgical residency. Programs with the goal of training academic surgeons should support professional degrees during dedicated research years.

Keywords: Professionalism; academic surgery; research productivity; residency education; scholarly activity.