Evaluation of Research Productivity among Academic Vitreoretinal Surgeons Using the Relative Citation Ratio

Abstract

Purpose: To provide relative citation ratio (RCR) benchmark data for the field of vitreoretinal surgery.

Design: Cross-sectional bibliometric analysis.

Subjects: Fellowship-trained vitreoretinal faculty at Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited institutions.

Methods: Academic vitreoretinal surgeons were individually indexed using the National Institutes of Health iCite Website. Publication count, mean RCR score, and weighted RCR score were collected for each author between June and July 2022 and included PubMed-listed articles from 1980 to 2022. Data were compared by gender, career duration, academic rank, and acquisition of a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

Main outcome measures: Total number of publications, mean RCR value, and weighted RCR value.

Results: Our sample consisted of 677 academic vitreoretinal surgeons from 113 institutions. These physicians produced highly impactful research with a median publication count of 30 (interquartile range [IQR], 11-82), median RCR of 1.78 (IQR, 1.09-3.00), and median weighted RCR of 59.83 (14.31-195.78). Academic rank and career duration were associated with increased publication count, mean RCR, and weighted RCR. Publication count and weighted RCR differed significantly by gender; however, no difference was observed with mean RCR.

Conclusions: Current academic vitreoretinal surgeons have high mean RCR values relative to the National Institutes of Health standard RCR value of 1. This benchmark data serves as a more accurate gauge of research impact within the vitreoretinal community and can be used to inform self, institutional, and departmental evaluations. Additionally, the mean RCR may provide an accurate metric for quantifying research productivity among historically underrepresented groups that are disadvantaged by time-dependent factors, such as number of publications.

Financial disclosure(s): The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.

Keywords: Academic medicine; Bibliometrics; Relative citation ratio; Research productivity.