Publication Trajectories of Today's Canadian Academic Plastic Surgeons: A Bibliometric Analysis

Introduction: The landscape of academic research has evolved notably in recent decades, shifting towards earlier career publications and more interdisciplinary collaborations. This study aims to identify research productivity trends among Canadian academic plastic surgeons. Methods: The Web of Science and MEDLINE databases were searched by plastic surgeon names and for each result, the author list position, year of publication, journal, and citation counts were collected. Surgeons’ demographics, including gender and medical school graduation year, were obtained from provincial college websites. Publication rates over a plastic surgeon's career trajectory were analyzed by surgeons’ current decade of practice. Results: There were 3661 included entries in our database, corresponding to 2831 unique publications by 245 surgeons (71%, 175/245 men). The median year of medical school graduation was 2002 (SD 12 years). Surgeons in more recent decades of practice (decade 1 or decade 2) published earlier and more frequently per career decade. A wide distribution of publication rates (range 0-66) was found for surgeons currently in their fourth decade of practice. From 2005 to 2020, the number of publications per year increased dramatically, from 36 publications in 2005 to 198 publications in 2020. Citations normalized by years from publication remained stable. The proportion of first authorship decreased from 0.63 and 0.42 in the pre-medicine and educational decades, to 0.09 and 0.08 by the third and fourth decades of practice (p < .001). Conclusion: An emerging trend of earlier and increased publications among newer generations of surgeons was seen. Incentives to participate and mentor in research for surgeons gaining seniority are suggested.