Research and academic output evaluation for career initiation or progression: Critical issues for Health Professionals

Abstract

In current times, much stress is being laid on the evaluation of research productivity of researchers or faculty in addition to the academic qualifications and experience for the purposes of recruitment, promotion, and research grant funding. Over the years, several quantitative indices have been devised for this purpose. Some of these indices such as h-index, impact factor and e-index are being extensively used by research organizations, universities, accreditation bodies and funding agencies for basic scientists as well as health professionals. In the absence of any formal training, these parameters or their advantages and shortcomings may not be well understood by the health professionals, especially in the early stages of their careers and sometimes, even by the evaluators. A big unanswered question is the validity of the same criteria for health professionals as are applicable for the basic science researchers. Since health professional undertaking research assignments are neither adequately trained in basic research nor can they comprehend these indices well, the same yardstick to evaluate these two widely different groups of researchers often places the health professionals at a disadvantage.

This paper aims to highlight certain vital issues related to the application of research productivity indicators for recruitment and career progression of health care professionals.

Keywords:

• Health professionals
• research output evaluation
• bibliometrics
• h-index
• g-index
• e-index
• Altmetrics

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Neeta Kumar

Neeta Kumar, MD is Professor and In-charge at the Department of General Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India.

Ruchika Gupta

Ruchika Gupta, MD, MBA is Scientist D in the Division of Cytopathology, ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida, India.

Sanjay Gupta

Sanjay Gupta, MD is Scientist G & Head, Division of Cytopathology, ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida, India.