title: Publications and extramural activities of general internal medicine and medicine subspecialty clinician-educators: a multicenter study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Generalist clinician-educators may have more difficulty than specialists satisfying common promotion criteria (peer-reviewed publication and extramural reputation). This study compared publication rates and participation in extramural activities among subspecialist and generalist clinician-educators, and sought to determine the views of clinician-educators on the use of publication and reputation in determining their promotion.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional questionnaire was delivered to 526 clinician-educators identified by the chairs at ten randomly selected U.S. medical schools in 2002.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 270 clinician-educators responded. Medicine subspecialist clinician-educators reported more peer-reviewed publications than did general internal medicine (GIM) faculty (mean 26.4 versus 10.2, p < .003). Independent predictors of having a greater number of peer-reviewed publications were subspecialty membership (p < .01), less time spent in clinic (p < .01), focus of scholarship (p = .01), academic rank (p < .01), higher quartile of National Institutes of Health funding received by respondent's department (p < .01), and years on faculty (p = .03). A greater proportion of GIM faculty reported spending most of their protected time on scholarly activities less amenable to publication (p = .05). A greater proportion of subspecialists felt peer-reviewed publication should be required for promotion (p < .01), but a minority of both groups felt this should necessarily entail original research.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Subspecialist clinician-educators generate significantly more peer-reviewed publications than do their GIM colleagues. clinician-educators hold diverse views on the role of publication and reputation in determining their promotion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
authors.forename: Robert R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Kempainen
authors.forename: Edward F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: McKone
authors.forename: Gordon D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Rubenfeld
authors.forename: Craig S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Tonelli
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers / Q000458:organization & administration; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002322:Career Mobility; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017712:Peer Review, Research; D014481:United States; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data