Assessing the Research Impact of U.S. Academic Uveitis Specialists Using the Relative Citation Ratio.

Abstract

To assess the research productivity and impact of U.S. academic uveitis specialists using the relative citation ratio (RCR). Cross-sectional bibliometric analysis. A list of U.S. academic ophthalmology departments was obtained using the FREIDA Residency and Fellowship Database (American Medical Association). Department websites were reviewed to identify all affiliated fellowship-trained uveitis specialists. Publication count, mean RCR (m-RCR), and weighted RCR (w-RCR) for each specialist were obtained from iCite (National Institutes of Health). Only original research articles were included. Data were compared by gender, PhD completion, academic rank, and year of residency graduation. A total of 180 uveitis specialists associated with 88 academic ophthalmology departments were identified. Across this group, median publication count was 25.00 (interquartile range [IQR] = 9.00-56.75), median m-RCR was 1.28 (IQR = 0.83-1.94), and median w-RCR was 27.62 (IQR = 7.43-84.88), with significant variation by residency completion year (P < .001) and academic rank (P < .001). Notably, no significant differences in these measures were observed across gender or PhD acquisition. As a group, the median m-RCR of U.S. academic uveitis specialists exceeds the standardized RCR value of 1, albeit with significant variability across individuals. Our results serve as important benchmark data which can be used for improved assessment of the relative scholarly impact of academic uveitis specialists.