Phantom Publications Among Applicants to a Colorectal Surgery Residency Program

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have reported that as many as one third of applicants misrepresent their publication record on residency or fellowship applications. OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence of potentially fraudulent (or "phantom") research publications among applicants to a colorectal surgery residency program. DESIGN: Electronic Residency Application Services applications were reviewed. All listed publications were tabulated and checked whether they were published using various search engines. SETTING: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. PATIENTS: Applicants from 2006 to 2008. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We searched for phantom publications, defined as peer review journal citations that could not be verified. Demographics and other academic factors were compared between applicants with phantom publications and applicants with verifiable publications. RESULTS: Of the 133 study group applicants, there were 91 (68%) males and 58 (44%) whites. Median age of the study cohort was 32 years (range, 27-48 y). Eight-seven of 130 applicants (65%) listed a total of 392 publications. Thirty-six (9%) of these 392 citations could not be verified and were considered to be phantom publications. The 36 phantom publications were identified in 21 applicants, representing 16% (21/133) of all applicants and 24% (21/87) of all applicants who cited publications. We found no significant difference in any demographic or other studied variable between applicants with phantom publications and those with verifiable publications. When comparing applicants with 3 or more phantom publications with applicants with verifiable publications, the former group had a significantly higher rate of individuals over age 35 (50% vs 24%; P = .02), foreign medical school graduates (75% vs 20%; P = .03), and individuals with 5 or more publications (100% vs 30%; P = .01). LIMITATIONS: Publications may simply have been missed in our search. We specifically may have failed to find publications in foreign journals. CONCLUSION: The significance of professionalism and ethical behavior must be emphasized in surgery training programs.