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Measuring h-index and scholarly productivity in academic dermatology in Canada

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Abstract

Promotion in academia heavily relies on research productivity. The h-index is a standardized metric used to quantify research productivity at the individual level. We evaluated factors associated with h -index in dermatology across select Canadian academic centers with special focus on sex and academic rank. Medical academic centers throughout Canada with dermatology training programs were included. For each faculty member, we extracted the following data from public sources: sex, graduate degree, academic rank, years since the Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCPC) certification or equivalent, recent Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funding and H-index (based on Scopus author profile). Log-linear univariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed to evaluate the association between h-index and these factors. An ordinal logistic regression was performed to explore sex differences in academic ranking. Our results showed that out of 300 faculty members across Canada, 155 were females (51.67%) and 145 were male (48.33%). H-index was available for 279 dermatologists. The average h-index was 8.35 (SD 11.53) and the median was 4.00 (1st quartile = 2.00, 3rd quartile = 10.00). Higher h-index was associated with more years since dermatology certification, successive academic rank, graduate degree and recent CIHR funding, but not with sex. In conclusion, h-index was not associated with sex when controlling for potential confounders. These results could reflect recent demographic changes in the field with an increase in newly appointed female dermatologists. Longitudinal assessment of academic productivity in dermatology is needed to assess the impact of continued efforts to promote equal opportunities in the field.

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Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Marleine Azar

  2. Division of Dermatology, McGill University Health Centre, 1001 Decarie Boulevard, Montreal, QC, H4A 3J1, Canada

    Francois Lagacé, Anastasiya Muntyanu, Elena Netchiporouk, Linda Moreau, Denis Sasseville & Ivan V. Litvinov

  3. Department of Dermatology and Skin Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Youwen Zhou

  4. Division of Dermatology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Charles Lynde & Neil H. Shear

  5. Division of Dermatology, Laval University, Quebec City, QC, Canada

    Steve Mathieu

  6. Division of Dermatology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Rachel Asiniwasis

  7. Division of Dermatology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Robert Gniadecki

  8. Division of Clinical Epidemiology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Elham Rahme

Authors
  1. Marleine Azar
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  2. Francois Lagacé
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  3. Anastasiya Muntyanu
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  4. Elena Netchiporouk
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  5. Youwen Zhou
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  6. Charles Lynde
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  7. Linda Moreau
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  8. Steve Mathieu
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  9. Denis Sasseville
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  10. Rachel Asiniwasis
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  12. Robert Gniadecki
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  13. Elham Rahme
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  14. Ivan V. Litvinov
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Contributions

Concept and design: MA, IVL. Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: MA, IVL. Drafting of the manuscript: MA, IVL. Statistical analyses: MA, EN, ER, IVL. Critical revision of the manuscript: all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ivan V. Litvinov.

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Conflict of interest

Ivan Litvinov is the president of the Skin Research Group of Canada and research coordinator in the Division of Dermatology, McGill University. Other authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

Ethics approval was not required since the current study reviews data that is publicly available and no human participants were recruited.

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Azar, M., Lagacé, F., Muntyanu, A. et al. Measuring h-index and scholarly productivity in academic dermatology in Canada. Scientometrics 128, 1071–1090 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-022-04589-y

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