Trends in Academic Productivity Among Radiologists During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Published in: Journal of the American College of Radiology Vol. 20; no. 2; pp. 276 - 281
• Main Authors: Chan, Alex, Flash, Moses J.E., Guo, Teddy, Zattra, Ottavia, Boms, Okechi, Succi, Marc D., Hirsch, Joshua A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.02.2023
• Subjects: COVID-19; COVID-19 - epidemiology; Female; Humans; Male; Pandemics; Radiologists; Radiology; research productivity; Retrospective Studies; COVID-19; radiology; research productivity
• ISSN: 1546-1440; 1558-349X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jacr.2022.10.005

There is a scarcity of literature examining changes in radiologist research productivity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study aimed to investigate changes in academic productivity as measured by publication volume before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This single-center, retrospective cohort study included the publication data of 216 researchers consisting of associate professors, assistant professors, and professors of radiology. Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test was used to identify changes in publication volume between the 1-year-long defined prepandemic period (publications between May 1, 2019, and April 30, 2020) and COVID-19 pandemic period (May 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021). There was a significantly increased mean annual volume of publications in the pandemic period (5.98, SD = 7.28) compared with the prepandemic period (4.98, SD = 5.53) (z = −2.819, P = .005). Subset analysis demonstrated a similar (17.4%) increase in publication volume for male researchers when comparing the mean annual prepandemic publications (5.10, SD = 5.79) compared with the pandemic period (5.99, SD = 7.60) (z = −2.369, P = .018). No statistically significant changes were found in similar analyses with the female subset. Significant increases in radiologist publication volume were found during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the year before. Changes may reflect an overall increase in academic productivity in response to clinical and imaging volume ramp down. [Display omitted]