OBJECTIVES: Bibliometrics is defined as the study of statistical and mathematical methods used to quantitatively analyze scientific literature. The application of bibliometrics in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery is in its infancy. The authors calculate a number of publication productivity measures for female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgeons within the US. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We obtained a list of research contributions to US female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgeons through the EuropePMC database from January 1, 1978 to September 1, 2018. These data were cross-referenced with the entire cohort of practicing female pelvic surgeons, who were identified using the National Provider Identification database as not all practicing FPMRS published. The h-index, g-index, and mquotient were calculated for 431 female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgeons on September 1, 2018. EuropePMC (PubMed) was accessed. Bibliometric profiles were created for each provider. The h-index is defined as an individual having h papers with at least h citations. In other words, it corresponds to the point where the number of citations crosses the publications listed in decreasing order of citations. With articles ranked in decreasing order of the number of citations that they received, the g-index is the largest number such that the top g articles received (together) at least g 2 citations. The m-quotient is the h-index divided by the number of years since the author's first publication. Continuous data were compared using the Mann-Whitney test for variables that were not normally distributed and with t-test for variables that are normally distributed. RESULTS: Five hundred ninety-eight board-certified female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgeons and 72% were identified as having published. A total of 11,717 research publications were authored by 431 female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgeons. The median h-index, g-index, and m-quotient were 5, 8 and 0.54, respectively (Figures 1 and 2). The FPMRS physicians publishing research were 51% male, typically less than 65 years old, and were allopathic graduates from United States medical schools in the late 1990s or early 2000s. CONCLUSION: Female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgeons produce a substantial amount of research literature.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.