title: A gender-based comparison of academic rank and scholarly productivity in academic neurological surgery.
abstract: The number of women pursuing training opportunities in neurological surgery has increased, although they are still underrepresented at senior positions relative to junior academic ranks. Research productivity is an important component of the academic advancement process. We sought to use the h-index, a bibliometric previously analyzed among neurological surgeons, to evaluate whether there are gender differences in academic rank and research productivity among academic neurological surgeons. The h-index was calculated for 1052 academic neurological surgeons from 84 institutions, and organized by gender and academic rank. Overall men had statistically higher research productivity (mean 13.3) than their female colleagues (mean 9.5), as measured by the h-index, in the overall sample (p<0.0007). When separating by academic rank, there were no statistical differences (p>0.05) in h-index at the assistant professor (mean 7.2 male, 6.3 female), associate professor (11.2 male, 10.8 female), and professor (20.0 male, 18.0 female) levels based on gender. There was insufficient data to determine significance at the chairperson rank, as there was only one female chairperson. Although overall gender differences in scholarly productivity were detected, these differences did not reach statistical significance upon controlling for academic rank. Women were grossly underrepresented at the level of chairpersons in this sample of 1052 academic neurological surgeons, likely a result of the low proportion of females in this specialty. Future studies may be needed to investigate gender-specific research trends for neurosurgical residents, a cohort that in recent years has seen increased representation by women.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurological Surgery and Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Krystal L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Tomei
authors.affiliation: Rutgers University - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Meghan M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Nahass
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurological Surgery and Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Qasim
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Husain
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurological Surgery and Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Agarwal
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurological Surgery and Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Smruti K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurological Surgery and Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Peter F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Svider
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurological Surgery and Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA; Center for Skull Base and Pituitary Surgery, Neurological Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, 90 Bergen Street, Suite 8100, Newark, NJ 07103, USA.
authors.forename: Jean Anderson
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Eloy
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurological Surgery and Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA; Center for Skull Base and Pituitary Surgery, Neurological Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School, 90 Bergen Street, Suite 8100, Newark, NJ 07103, USA. Electronic address: james.liu.md@rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: James K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000574:American Medical Association; D015706:Bibliometrics; D035843:Biomedical Research; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009493:Neurosurgery / Q000193:education*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014481:United States
keywords: Academic productivity; Academic promotion; Academic rank determination; Academic rank in surgical specialties; Gender comparison; Surgical faculty productivity; h-index