title: Factors affecting scientific productivity of German oral-maxillofacial surgery training centers: a retrospective cohort study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify factors associated with scientific productivity (SP) of German oral-maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) training centers.
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective cohort study was composed of a set of data from German OMFS training centers. A total of eight predictor variables were grouped into demographic, structural, and personal categories. The outcome variables were average publications in 2013 per senior staff, and percentage of OMFS trainees with >1 publications. Descriptive and univariate statistics were computed using P < 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The sample included outputs from 62 OMFS departments (34 [54.8 %] university-based; 46 [74.2 %] in large cities). Average publications were 2.4 ± 3 per senior staff (range, 0-27), and 160 trainees (31.7 %) published >1 papers. The number of publications and productive trainees was not linked to department name and number of female senior staffs, but publication count was significantly increased when the hospital was in a metropolis (P = 0.018) or university-based (P < 0.0001), the OMFS' chairperson and >3 staffs within the department had a postdoctoral degree (German "Habilitation") (P = 0.013 and <0.0001), and the chairperson had h-index >10 or the first/last authorship in 2013 (P < 0.0001). Female senior surgeons were less scientifically productive than the male ones (P = 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SP of German OMFS training centers is greatly different across the country and influenced by city size, university base, educational backgrounds, and research activities of chairpersons and senior staffs. This helps students, trainees, and young surgeons to reach the career choice that is personally appropriate. The involved organizations may need to encourage research output of less productive surgeons/centers. Increasing postdoctoral-qualified staffs will increase SP of the department.
authors.affiliation: Research Group for Clinical and Psychosocial Research, Evidence-Based Surgery and Ethics in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, niels.pausch@medizin.uni-leipzig.de.
authors.forename: Niels Christian
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Pausch
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Neff
authors.forename: Keskanya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Subbalekha
authors.forename: Kittipong
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dhanuthai
authors.forename: Nattapong
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sirintawat
authors.forename: Poramate
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pitak-Arnnop
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001319:Authorship; D015331:Cohort Studies; D018865:Dental Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004493:Education; D004499:Education, Dental, Graduate / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019647:Oral Surgical Procedures / Q000193:education*; D011642:Publications / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies