Who Publishes During Residency? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Peer-Reviewed Publication Among Residents in the United States

Background/Objectives: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requires US residents to participate in scholarship, but no review has pooled how many physician residents publish during training. We estimated the proportion who published at least 1 peer-reviewed article during residency and compared specialties. Methods: In October 2026, we searched PubMed, Europe PMC, OpenAlex, ERIC, and ClinicalTrials.gov (protocol, osf.io/eupxr). AI agents screened records, two AI models from different developers independently extracted outcome data, and an author decided every disagreement against the source. Proportions were pooled with random-effects generalized linear mixed models. Results: Of 172 included studies, 32 US studies (13,450 residents) reported the primary outcome. The pooled proportion was 59.6% (95% CI, 48.7% to 69.6%). Surgical specialties had 68.7% and medical specialties 29.6%. Adjusted for data source and pre-intervention status, the odds of publishing in medical cohorts were less than one-third of those in surgical cohorts: odds ratio (OR), 0.28 (95% CI, 0.12 to 0.63). Conclusions: About 60% of US residents publish during training, but specialties differ widely, and medical specialties have the most room for improvement.