Abstract
We are again in that transition period that occurs each year. The last group of residents has moved on to their next position and the new group of residents is starting to settle in at their practice site. For many, the following passage from Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities fully or partially applies to this point in their lives:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us …”
The new group of residents is starting to think about what type of project they are going to complete during their residency, while the previous group is now focusing on their new position and may have already packed away or put aside the various documents, reports, and papers associated with their residency program. For some, the required project 1 is quickly becoming a memory.
Despite all the time and effort that goes into many research or residency projects, a large number of them are not published in the medical or pharmacy literature.1–6 An analysis presented at The Southeastern Residency Conference found that most of these projects were never published. The investigators looked at the projects presented at the Conference in 1981, 1991, and 2001 and then tried to locate their subsequent publication within 6 years of the respective conference. The publication rate following the 1981 conference was 20%, the 1991 conference was 15.7%, and the 2001 conference was 12.5%. The median time to publication was 22.8 months. 3 The Cochrane Collaboration found a publication rate of 44.5% in their analysis of presentations from scientific meetings and 63.1% for those classified as randomized or controlled clinical trials with a median time to publication of 19.6 months. 4
Some of you are still probably wondering why you should publish your residency project given these historically poor publication rates. The project is done, residency is over, and isn't it just time to move on? Others of you are wondering how you would get this done with all the new demands of your latest position and personal life.
The quick response to these questions is: If the project was important enough to do, then it is important enough to share your experience and results with others so they can benefit from your efforts.
The other potential responses to these questions include the following:
It is something to add to your curriculum vitae and to be proud of.
It helps to build the reputation of the residency program you just completed or started.
It recognizes the time and effort that you and your coauthors put into the project.
Most of all, you are contributing to improvements in patient care.
If you are a resident who has not started the publication process or has not even considered the publication process, it is not too late. But it is critical in the life of the project and an important step in your career development to act now. If you have already started the publication process, congratulations. Don't give up. It will be worth the effort. If you are just starting your residency, it is not too early to consider the publication step of the project's life. Instead, it is the perfect time to include this as an item on your to-do list and add it to the timeline for the project.