Evaluating academic productivity and match outcomes in neurosurgery residents from medical schools without a neurosurgery residency program: a 2016-2022 bibliometric analysis.

Transition of the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 to a pass/fail structure has focused attention on medical student research in residency application. Previous studies have explored how various factors affect the neurosurgery match success, but none have focused on applicants from schools without a neurosurgery residency program. The authors compiled a list of neurosurgery residents matched from 2016 to 2022 from schools lacking a neurosurgery program. They gathered demographic and bibliometric data, focusing on academic productivity before residency. The distinction between the top 40 and non-top 40 programs used the 5-year institutional h-index (ih[5]-index) of departments. Between 2016 and 2022, the gross number of students entering neurosurgery from schools without a home program rose from 15 to 26 in 2021, declining to 23 in 2022. The range of matched applicants per school was 0 to 10. The median number of publications per resident increased from 2 in 2016 to 5 in 2022 (p < 0.001). The lowest and highest numbers of publications by applicants were 0 and 40, respectively, with 22.5% reporting no publications. The lowest and highest h-indices by applicants were 0 and 11, respectively, with nearly one-third (31.2%) possessing an h-index of 0. Applicants from schools lacking a neurosurgery residency program who matched into top 40 programs had a publication range of 0-11, with a higher median of 3 compared with those who did not (median 2, range 0-8). While no significant differences were found in publication numbers (p = 0.084), a difference in h-index was observed (p = 0.024) between the two groups. Publications significantly correlated with the h-index, with each additional publication increasing the h-index by 0.19 (p < 0.001, adjusted R2 = 0.3348). Median publication counts have increased in this cohort, but they do not distinguish top 40 program matches. Conversely, the h-index, correlating with publication quantity and journal impact factor, does.