Trends In Academic Productivity Among Canadian Clinical Medical Physicists By Career Stage
Abstract
Purpose
Clinical innovation is essential for advancing radiation therapy and is often led by clinically medical physicists. As the clinical and academic landscape evolves, establishing a research portfolio presents challenges and new opportunities for medical physicists. This study evaluates the academic output of certified medical physicists over time, comparing productivity by career stage.
Methods
The Sosido database was queried to compile a list of Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP) members, and their peer-reviewed publication counts across three consecutive time periods (2016-2018, 2019-2021, 2022-2024). The database includes all publications indexed in PubMed, covering citations from MedLine and the National Library of Medicine. Each COMP member was assigned the year they received their Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine (MCCPM) certification. For each period, the total publication count was calculated, and members were categorized based on clinical experience, distinguishing early career (≤ 7 years of clinical experience) from fellowship (FCCPM)-eligible, clinically established physicists. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare number of publications from these two groups.
Results
For the 2016-2018, 2019-2021, and 2022-2024 time periods, the number of medical physicists with at least one publication was 225 (123 early, 102 established), 273 (114 early, 159 established), and 308 (102 early, 206 established), respectively. In the same time periods, the average (± standard deviation) number of manuscripts for early versus established medical physicists were respectively 2.6 (± 4.2) vs 4.4 (± 6.4), 2.4 (± 4.0) vs 4.5 (± 7.2), and 2.5 (± 5.4) vs3.9 (± 5.7) (p < 0.05 for all periods).
Conclusion
Publication trends across consecutive time periods demonstrate relative stability in the early and established cohorts. Consistently lower publication output in early career medical physicists suggests that it takes time to initiate an independent research portfolio post-residency and may require targeted support to facilitate their academic development.