Publication records and bibliometric indices of postprofessional pharmacy fellowship directors

Abstract

Background Scholarship is an essential component of fellowship programs. Postprofessional fellowship directors are considered research mentors, but their publication records have not been documented. Objectives The primary purpose of this research was to characterize the publication records and bibliometric indices of the current postprofessional fellowship directors listed on the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) website. A secondary purpose was to compare the publication metrics of distinct groups within this cohort. Methods Using the Web of Science database, the publication records of all listed postprofessional fellowship directors on the ACCP website were collected. Forty‐nine unique directors were identified from the website. Bibliometric indices calculated included: lifetime publications, publications/year, h‐index, m‐quotient, lifetime citations, citations/year, average citations/paper, productivity, and creativity. In addition, we compared peer reviewed fellowship directors and non‐peer‐reviewed fellowship directors, infectious disease fellowship directors, and noninfectious disease fellowship directors, and National Institutes of Health (NIH)‐funded fellowship directors and non‐NIH funded directors. The Kruskal‐Wallis analysis of variance for nonparametric data was used to assess differences between groups. The a priori level of significance was set at P < .01. Results Within our research cohort, 12 (24%) of the fellowship directors had less than 10 lifetime publications and 12 (24%) had an h‐index of less than five. Infectious disease directors had higher bibliometric indices than noninfectious disease directors (P < .01) as did NIH‐funded researchers when compared with their nonfunded counterparts (P < .01). Gender differences, secondary degrees, and peer‐review status were not significantly different between groups. Conclusion Fellowship directors should possess an established record of scholarly activity to function in the role of research mentor. Benchmarking of bibliometric indices could be an important tool in the overall evaluation of fellowship director qualifications in the future.