Publication performance and research output of Neurology and Neurosurgery training institutes in India: A 5-year analysis

Abstract

Context: Scientific publications are a reflection of the quality of the clinical and academic work being carried out in an institute. Training in the process of research and scientific writing are important components of the residency curriculum. Aims: The publication performance and research output of institutes training residents in neurology and neurosurgery were evaluated. Setting and Design: Internet-based study. Methods: This study was based on the data available on the websites of the Medical Council of India and the National Board of Examinations. The PubMed search interface was used to determine the publication output of institutes over the past 5 years (2010-2014). Google Scholar was used to determine the citation performance of each paper. The publication parameters were normalized to the number of faculty members in each institute as listed on the institutional web page. The normalized publication performance for an institute was computed by comparing the figures for that institute with the national average. Results: Institutes could be ranked on several criteria. There was a high degree of clustering of output from the top 5% of the institutes. About 13% of the neurology intake and 30.9% of neurosurgery intake over the past 5 years has been into the institutes that have not published a single paper during this period. Conclusions: This evaluation of the publication performance and research output of neurology and neurosurgery training institutes would serve as a baseline data for future evaluations and comparisons. The absence of any publication and research output from several training institutes is a matter of concern.