The Rise of Productivity Culture: Assessing Trends in Scholarly Output Among Medical Students Applying to General Surgery

OBJECTIVE To evaluate longitudinal trends in scholarly output among U.S. MD applicants to general surgery and assess associations with match competitiveness. DESIGN Repeated cross-sectional, cycle-level longitudinal analysis of publicly available the National Resident Matching Program data from 2007 to 2024. SETTING United States National Resident Matching Program. PARTICIPANTS U.S. MD senior applicants to general surgery residency programs across 9 match cycles. RESULTS Mean scholarly output among U.S. MD applicants increased from 2.2 in 2007 to 10.9 in 2024. The proportion of matched applicants with 5 or more scholarly products increased significantly over time ( β = 0.037/year, p < 0.001) while those with zero scholarly products declined ( β =−0.015/year, p < 0.001). Matched applicants demonstrated higher scholarly output than unmatched applicants (5.6 vs 3.8 products). CONCLUSIONS Scholarly output among general surgery applicants has increased substantially over time, driven primarily by temporal trends rather than changes in competitiveness. Our findings suggest a shift toward a “productivity culture” in residency applications, with implications for surgical education structure, including equity and residency selection practices.