Research Productivity Trends Among Residents Applying for Orthopaedic Spine Fellowships in the United States: A Bibliometric Analysis

Study Design Retrospective bibliometric analysis Objectives The purpose of this study was to identify research trends and characterize the academic profiles of orthopaedic spine fellows from 2018 to 2023 in the United States (U.S.) during their residency training. Methods The North American Spine Society (NASS) Fellowship Directory was used to identify orthopaedic spine fellowships in the U.S. Fellowships that listed graduating fellows from 2018 to 2023 were included for analysis. For each fellow, total number of publications, citation count, authorship, and fellowship program were compiled using Scopus and spine fellowship websites. Only publications and citations in years prior to the start of fellowship were collected. H-index was calculated using these totals to reflect pre-fellowship research output. Results Thirty-eight programs qualified with 181 fellows from 2018 to 2023. Fellows published an average of 7.9 ± 10.6 articles, with 112.6 ± 226.0 citations per fellow. Most publications involved middle authorship (65.8%) and 37.2% focused on spine surgery. Average number of publications per fellow (11.4 ± 9.1) and h-index (5.0 ± 3.1) were highest for fellows in programs located in the northeast region of the U.S. Fellows with a graduation date of 2023 had the highest average number of publications (10.6 ± 16.4), number of citations (136.5 ± 321.2), and h-index (4.3 ± 4.3). Conclusions There has been an increasing trend in the number of pre-fellowship publications, citations, and h-index among orthopaedic spine fellowship applicants. Research productivity was found to be the highest among spine fellows in programs in the northeast region.