Analysis of Research Productivity of Neurosurgical Residents in Turkey and Publication Rates of Theses

AIM: To analyze the resident's contribution toward research productivity and the publication rates of theses conducted in neurosurgery departments across Turkey. MATERIAL and METHODS: A retrospective bibliometric analysis was conducted using databases of Council of Higher Education Thesis Center (TC), Scopus, and Journal Citation Reports. Neurosurgeons who uploaded their graduation thesis to the TC database between the years 2000 and 2017 were considered. Each neurosurgeon was individually searched for in the Scopus database regarding their publication production. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were employed for statistical analysis. RESULTS: We identified 709 neurosurgeons, and 269 (37.9%) of them published their theses in indexed journals. The average interval between the publication year of the thesis and the year of the neurosurgery training completion was 3.8 +/- 2.7 years. Neurosurgeons who published their theses in the first two-year period after graduation had published their theses in significantly higher impact factor journals than those who published theirs between 3-5 years (p=0.015) and more than 5 years after graduation (p<0.001). We identified 8 (1.1%) and 347 (49%) neurosurgeons who had pre-residency and intra-residency publications, respectively. Neurosurgeons who published an infra-residency article had a significantly higher overall publication counts compared with those who did not (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The ratio of publication of theses in the field of neurosurgery is higher than the ratios previously indicated for various studies. We have provided new benchmarks for individual academic productivity during and after the residency.