Scholarly activity in academic plastic surgery: the gender difference

Abstract Background The number of women in medicine has grown rapidly in recent years. Women constitute over 50% of medical school graduates and hold 38% of faculty positions at United States medical schools. Despite this, gender disparities remain prevalent in most surgical subspecialties, including plastic surgery. The purpose of this study was to analyze gender authorship trends. Materials and methods A cross-sectional study of academic plastic surgeons was performed. Data were collected from departmental websites and online resources. National Institute of Health (NIH) funding was determined using the Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools database. Number of published articles and h-index were obtained from Scopus (Elsevier Inc, New York, NY). Statistical analysis was performed in SPSS (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL). Results A total of 814 plastic surgeons were identified in the United States. Compared to men, women had significantly fewer years in practice ( P P P P  = 0.04). 5.1% of women and 6.9% of men received NIH funding during their career ( P  = 0.57). There was no gender difference in scholarly output among NIH-funded surgeons. Overall, years in practice, academic rank, chief/program director title, advanced degrees, and NIH funding all positively correlated with academic productivity. Conclusions This study identifies significant gender disparities in scholarly productivity among plastic surgeons in academia. Future efforts should focus on improving gender equality and eliminating barriers to academic development.