Quantifying Research Productivity From First-year US Integrated Plastic Surgery Residents After USMLE Step I Pass/Fail Conversion

Abstract

Background: Matching into integrated plastic surgery residency is extremely competitive. Although previous studies have examined the research output of matched residents, a thorough investigation of their types of publications, authorship trends, and citation metrics has not been performed following the transition of Step 1 to a pass/fail system. Identifying trends among successful matriculants may guide medical students toward successful preparation for the current application process. Methods: Research profiles for 213 first-year US integrated plastic surgery residents from the 2024–2025 cohort were analyzed using Scopus. Variables included publication count, number of first-author publications, types of publications, and journal impact factor. Residents were tiered into quartiles based on the amount of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding received by their programs’ associated universities or hospitals. Univariate regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship between NIH tiers and various research output characteristics. Results: The 2024–2025 integrated plastic surgery residency cohort had a median of 5 publications. First authorship contribution was evident in 32.6% of all publications, and 59.2% of all publications discussed plastic surgery-related topics. Original research articles were 66.4% of the studies. Journals published in had a median impact factor of 2.1. No significant differences were observed between NIH funding tiers and any of the research output characteristic variables. Conclusions: This study may guide future US integrated plastic surgery applicants toward success in the match by offering a qualitative and quantitative overview of the current landscape of research output characteristics for successful matriculants.