The h-Index for Associate and Full Professors of Dermatology in the United States: An Epidemiologic Study of Scholastic Production

Academic promotion requires evidence of scholastic production. The number of publications by a scientist is the most frequently reported metric of scholastic production, but it does not account for the impact of publications. The h-index is a bibliometric measure that combines both volume and impact of scientific contributions. The physicist Jorge E. Hirsch introduced this metric in 2005.¹ He defined it as the number of publications (h) by an author that have been cited at least h times. For example, a scientist with 30 publications including 12 that have been cited at least 12 times each has an h-index of 12. h-Index is a superior predictor of future scientific achievement in physics compared with total citation count, total publication count, and citations per publication. Hirsch² proposed h-index thresholds of 12 and 18 for advancement to associate professor and full professor in physics, respectively.²

h-Index values are not comparable across academic disciplines because they are influenced by the number of journals and authors within the field. Scientists in disciplines with numerous scholars and publications will have higher h-indices. For example, the mean h-index for full professors of cardiothoracic anesthesiology is 12, but the mean h-index for full professors of urology is 22.^3,4 Hence, h-index thresholds for professional advancement cannot be generalized but must be calculated on a granular, specialty-specific basis.

In a prior study on h-index among academic dermatologists in the United States, John et al⁵ reported that fellowship-trained dermatologists had a significantly higher mean h-index than those without fellowship training (13.2 vs 11.7; P<.001). They further found the mean h-index increased with academic rank.⁵

In our study, we measured mean and median h-indices among associate and full professors of dermatology in academic training programs in the United States with the goal of describing h-index distributions in these 2 academic ranks. We further sought to measure regional differences in h-index between northeastern, southern, central, and western states as defined by the National Resident Matching Program.

Methods

Institutional review board approval was deferred because the study did not require patient information or participation. Using the Association of American Medical Colleges Electronic Residency Application Service website (https://www.aamc.org/services/eras/) we identified dermatology residency training programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and participating in the Electronic Residency Application Service for the National Resident Matching Program in the United States. We visited the official website of each residency program and identified all associate and full professors of dermatology for further study. We included all faculty members listed as professor, clinical professor, associate professor, or clinical associate professor, and excluded assistant professor, volunteer faculty, research professor, and research associate professor. All faculty held an MD degree or an equivalent degree, such as MBBS or MDCM.

We used the Thomson Reuters (now Clarivate Analytics) Web of Science to calculate h-index and publication counts. The initial search was basic using the professor’s last name and first initial. We then augmented this list by searching for all variations of each professor’s name, with or without middle initial. Each publication in the search results was confirmed as belonging to the author of interest by verifying coauthors, institution information, and subject material. For authors with common names, we additionally consulted their online university profiles for specific names used in their “Selected Publications” lists. In a minority of cases, we also limited Research Domain to “dermatology.” Referring to the verified publication list for each dermatology professor, we used the Web of Science Citation Report function to determine number of publications and h-index for the individual. We tabulated results for associate and full professors and subgrouped those results into 4 geographic regions—northeastern, southern, central, and western states—according to the map used by the National Resident Matching Program. Descriptive statistics were performed with Microsoft Excel.

Results

We identified 300 associate professors and 352 full professors from 81 academic institutions. The number of associate professors per institution ranged from 1 to 25; the number of full professors per institution ranged from 1 to 16. The median and mean h-indices for associate and full professors, including interquartile values, are shown in the Table. There was a broad range of h-index scores among both academic ranks; median and mean h-indices varied more than 5-fold between the bottom and upper quartiles in both associate and full professor cohorts. Median interquartile h-index values for upper-quartile associate professors overlapped with those of lower-quartile full professors (Figure 1). h-Index for associate and full professors was similar across the 4 regions defined by the National Resident Matching Program. Median h-index was highest for full professors in western states and lowest for associate professors in southern states (Figure 2).

Figure 1. Interquartile median h-index by academic rank.

Figure 2. Regional median h-index distribution (associate professor/full professor).