Low immediate scientific yield of the PhD among medical doctors

BMC Medical Education

Research Article

Christian Lewinter¹  Lauge Østergaard¹  Emil L. Fosbøl¹  Sofie Rerup¹  Simon Juul¹  Jawad Butt¹  Nirusiya Shanmuganathan¹  Mohammed H. Ahmed¹  Julie Davidsen¹  Philip L. Fosbøl² 

[1] Department of Cardiology B, University Hospital of Copenhagen, Rigshospitalet Blejdamsvej 9, 2100, København Ø, Denmark;The Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark;

关键词: Observational study;    Danish PhD schools;    Medical degree;    PhD;    Peer-reviewed publications;    Medicine;    Surgery;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12909-016-0713-2

 received in 2015-06-16, accepted in 2016-07-19,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundWe studied the scientific yield of the medical PhD program at all Danish Universities.MethodsWe undertook a retrospective observational study. Three PhD schools in Denmark were included in order to evaluate the postdoctoral research production over more than 18 years through individual publications accessed by PubMed.ResultsA total of 2686 PhD-graduates (1995–2013) with a medical background were included according to registries from all PhD schools in Denmark. They had a median age of 35 years (interquartile range (IQR), 32–38) and 53 % were women at the time of graduation. Scientific activity over time was assessed independently of author-rank and inactivity was measured relative to the date of graduation. Factors associated with inactivity were identified using multivariable logistic regression. 88.6 % of the PhD theses were conducted in internal medicine vs. 11.4 % in surgery. During follow-up (median 6.9 years, IQR 3.0–11.7), PubMed data searches identified that 87 (3.4 %) of the PhD graduates had no publication after they graduated from the PhD program, 40 % had 5 or less, and 90 % had 30 or less. The median number of publications per year after PhD graduation was 1.12 (IQR 0.61–1.99) papers per year. About 2/3 of the graduates became inactive after 1 year and approximately 21 % of the graduates remained active during the whole follow-up. Female gender was associated with inactivity: adjusted odds ratio 1.59 (95 % confidence interval 1.24–2.05).ConclusionsThe scientific production of Danish medic PhD-graduates was mainly produced around the time of PhD-graduation. After obtaining the PhD-degree the scientific production declines suggesting that scientific advance fails and resources are not harnessed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Fosbøl et al. 2016