Given the aging urologic workforce and projected shortage by 2035, it is important to examine current trends in student authorship as it may signify student interest in the field.7 Prior studies have explored the influence of student authorship on the scholarly impact of principal investigators from various specialties, but there is limited research on student and female authorship in urology.1,8–11 Our objective was to assess current trends in female and student authorship in one high impact urology journal. Our results may serve a starting point for future investigations on trends in urology authorship.
We found an increase in female authorship overall, though this did not reach significance. There were more female first authors in papers that had student authors, compared to papers without student authors. Perhaps the most notable finding of our study is that student involvement in research enhanced principal investigators’ research impact: principal investigators publishing with a student author had a significantly greater mean H-index compared to those without student authors. This suggests that the mentor-mentee collaboration may be mutually beneficial. Therefore, encouraging faculty mentorship and student involvement in urology research may benefit faculty as well as help to enhance female student interest in urology.
Written by:
- Maya T. Zhou, MS4, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA
- Shaun E.L. Wason, MD, FACS, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston MA
- Kan CK, Qureshi MM, Paracha M, Sachs TE, Sarfaty S, Hirsch AE. Effect of Medical Student Contributions on Academic Productivity: Analysis of Student Authorship Over Time. AMEP. 2021;Volume 12:481-489. doi:10.2147/AMEP.S301041
- Benway BM, Kalidas P, Cabello JM, Bhayani SB. Does Citation Analysis Reveal Association Between h-Index and Academic Rank in Urology? Urology. 2009;74(1):30-33. doi:10.1016/j.urology.2008.10.045
- Weissbart SJ, Stock JA, Wein AJ. Program Directors’ Criteria for Selection Into Urology Residency. Urology. 2015;85(4):731-736. doi:10.1016/j.urology.2014.12.041
- Elliott B, Carmody JB. Publish or Perish: The Research Arms Race in Residency Selection. Journal of Graduate Medical Education. 2023;15(5):524-527. doi:10.4300/JGME-D-23-00262.1
- Halpern JA, Lee UJ, Wolff EM, et al. Women in Urology Residency, 1978-2013: A Critical Look at Gender Representation in Our Specialty. Urology. 2016;92:20-25. doi:10.1016/j.urology.2015.12.092
- Findlay BL, Lyon TD, Bearrick EN, et al. Characterization of Gender Differences in H-index Within Urological Subspecialties. Journal of Urology. Published online May 8, 2023. doi:10.1097/JU.0000000000003537
- McKibben MJ, Kirby EW, Langston J, et al. Projecting the Urology Workforce Over the Next 20 Years. Urology. 2016;98:21-26. doi:10.1016/j.urology.2016.07.028
- Paracha M, Hirsch AE, Tseng JF, McAneny DB, Sachs TE. Scholarly impact of student authorship on surgical research. The American Journal of Surgery. 2019;217(1):175-179. doi:10.1016/j.amjsurg.2018.07.045
- Paracha M, Kim KN, Qureshi MM, et al. Scholarly Impact of Student Participation in Radiation Oncology Research. International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics. 2018;101(4):779-783. doi:10.1016/j.ijrobp.2018.02.154
- Prasad M, Paracha M, Goodman D, Cabral HJ, Christiansen SP, Subramanian ML. The Scholarly Impact of Student Authorship in Ophthalmology. Journal of Academic Ophthalmology. 2023;15(01):e41-e45. doi:10.1055/s-0043-1761277
- Svider PF, Husain Q, Mauro KM, Folbe AJ, Baredes S, Eloy JA. Impact of mentoring medical students on scholarly productivity: Medical student collaboration. International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology. 2014;4(2):138-142. doi:10.1002/alr.21247