The Otolaryngology Match: A Bibliometric Analysis of 222 First-Year Residents

Objective/hypothesis: Research has long been acknowledged as important to successfully matriculate into an otolaryngology residency position. The objective of this study is to perform a bibliometric analysis to quantify the importance of scholarly productivity in the otolaryngology match process.

Study design: Retrospective database review.

Methods: A list of all Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited otolaryngology residency programs were identified. Websites of programs were reviewed to identify first-year otolaryngology residents for the 2016 to 2017 academic year and compared to two previous academic years. Research output measures were collected. Residencies were tiered 1 to 5 by departmental research output.

Results: Two hundred twenty-two records of first-year otolaryngology residents starting residency in 2016 were identified. After adjusting for number of total publications, number of original research articles, number of review articles, number of case reports, number of first author publications, number of otolaryngology-related publications, highest journal impact factor, average journal impact factor, and years since publication, h-index and number of total publications were associated with increasing tier of matriculation based on research output (P < .0001). Only number of publications correlated with increasing h-index (B = 1.11). With regard to applicant trends, there has been an increase in scholarly productivity as measured across all research parameters in the past 3 years.

Conclusions: Research is an important component of successfully matriculating into an otolaryngology residency program. The h-index is a reliable tool to quantify research output and predict the tier of matriculation with regard to institutional research output. There has been a steadily increasing level of scholarly output among applicants in the past 3 years.

Level of evidence: NA Laryngoscope, 129:1561-1566, 2019.