Department of Dermatology, Liverpool Hospital, Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia.
Laboratory of Translational Cutaneous Medicine, Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia.
Australas J Dermatol. 2023 May;64(2):213-220. doi: 10.1111/ajd.14025. Epub 2023 Mar 27.
Academic dermatologists in Australia and New Zealand provide high-quality and meaningful contributions to the understanding of disease and therapeutic translational research. Concerns have been raised by the Australian Medical Association regarding the decline of clinical academics in Australia as a whole, however, such trends in scholarly output have not previously been analysed for Australasian dermatologists.
A bibliometric analysis of dermatologists in Australia and New Zealand was conducted in January and February 2023. Available Scopus profiles for all dermatologists were used to measure lifetime H index, scholarly output, citation counts and field-weighted citation impact (FWCI) in the last 5 years (2017-2022). Trends in output over time were measured using non-parametric tests. Differences in output between subgroups stratified by gender and academic leadership positions (associate professor or professor) were measured using Wilcoxon rank-sum and one-way ANOVA tests. The scholarly output of recent College graduates was also analysed as a subgroup, comparing the same bibliographic variables in the 5 years preceding and 5 years following awarding of their fellowships.
From the 463 practising dermatologists in Australia and New Zealand, 372 (80%) were successfully matched to Scopus researcher profiles. Of these dermatologists, 167 were male (45%) and 205 (55%) were female, and 31 (8%) held academic leadership positions. Most dermatologists (67%) published at least one paper in the last 5 years. The median lifetime H index was 4, and between 2017 and 2022 median scholarly output was 3, the median citations were 14 and the median FWCI was 0.64. There was a non-significant trend towards fewer publications per year, however, citation count and FWCI decreased significantly. By subgroups, female dermatologists published significantly more papers between 2017 and 2022, and other bibliographic variables were comparable to male dermatologists. However, women were underrepresented in positions of academic leadership-comprising only 32% of this cohort despite representing 55% of dermatologists. Professors were also significantly more likely to have higher bibliographic outcomes than associate professors. Finally, analysis of recent College graduates highlighted a significant decline in bibliometric outcomes pre- and post-fellowship.
Overall, our analysis identifies a trend towards decreased research output by dermatologists in Australia and New Zealand in the last 5 years. Strategies to support dermatologists in research endeavours, particularly women and recent graduates, will be essential in maintaining strong scholarly output among Australasian dermatologists and thereby sustaining optimal evidence-based patient care.
澳大利亚和新西兰的皮肤科学术专家在疾病的理解和治疗转化研究方面做出了高质量且有意义的贡献。然而，澳大利亚医学协会对澳大利亚临床学术人员的减少表示担忧，但目前尚未对澳大拉西亚皮肤科医生的学术成果趋势进行分析。
我们于 2023 年 1 月至 2 月对澳大利亚和新西兰的皮肤科医生进行了文献计量分析。使用 Scopus 中所有皮肤科医生的可用资料，测量了终身 H 指数、过去 5 年（2017-2022 年）的学术产出、引文计数和领域加权引文影响（FWCI）。使用非参数检验测量随时间推移的输出趋势。使用 Wilcoxon 秩和检验和单因素方差分析检验按性别和学术领导职位（副教授或教授）分层的亚组之间的输出差异。还分析了最近学院毕业生的学术成果，比较了他们获得研究员资格前后 5 年的相同文献计量变量。
在澳大利亚和新西兰的 463 名执业皮肤科医生中，有 372 名（80%）成功匹配到 Scopus 研究人员资料。这些皮肤科医生中，167 名是男性（45%），205 名是女性（55%），31 名（8%）担任学术领导职务。大多数皮肤科医生（67%）在过去 5 年内至少发表了一篇论文。终身 H 指数中位数为 4，2017 年至 2022 年期间，学术产出中位数为 3，引文中位数为 14，FWCI 中位数为 0.64。每年发表的论文数量呈下降趋势，但引文数量和 FWCI 显著下降。按亚组分析，女性皮肤科医生在 2017 年至 2022 年期间发表的论文明显更多，其他文献计量变量与男性皮肤科医生相当。然而，女性在学术领导职位上的代表性不足——尽管她们占皮肤科医生的 55%，但只占这一群体的 32%。教授的文献计量结果也明显高于副教授。最后，对最近学院毕业生的分析强调了在获得研究员资格前后，文献计量结果明显下降。
总的来说，我们的分析表明，过去 5 年来，澳大利亚和新西兰皮肤科医生的研究产出呈下降趋势。支持皮肤科医生从事研究工作的策略，特别是支持女性和最近的毕业生，对于维持澳大拉西亚皮肤科医生的强劲学术成果并维持最佳循证患者护理至关重要。
