Ten-Year Publication Trajectories of Health Services Research Career Development Award Recipients: Collaboration, Awardee Characteristics, and Productivity Correlates

• Published in: Evaluation & the health professions 2016-03, Vol.39 (1), p.49-64
• Main Authors: Halvorson, Max A., Finlay, Andrea K., Cronkite, Ruth C., Bi, Xiaoyu, Hayashi, Ko, Maisel, Natalya C., Amundson, Erin O’Rourke, Weitlauf, Julie C., Litt, Iris F., Owens, Douglas K., Timko, Christine, Cucciare, Michael A., Finney, John W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age Distribution; Authors; Awards; Awards and Prizes; Career development; Characteristics; Citations; Cooperative Behavior; Curricula; Grants; Health administration; Health care; Health services; Health Services Research - statistics & numerical data; Health technology assessment; Humans; Medical research; Minority Groups; National Institutes of Health (U.S.) - statistics & numerical data; Periodicals as Topic - statistics & numerical data; Productivity; Publishing; Research Personnel - statistics & numerical data; Research Support as Topic; Researchers; Resumes; Sex Distribution; United States; United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality - statistics & numerical data; United States Department of Veterans Affairs - statistics & numerical data; Veterans
• ISSN: 0163-2787; 1552-3918
• DOI: 10.1177/0163278714542848

This study’s purpose was to identify distinct publishing trajectories among 442 participants in three prominent mentored health services research career development programs (Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health, and Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality) in the 10 years after award receipt and to examine awardee characteristics associated with different trajectories. Curricula vitae (CVs) of researchers receiving awards between 1991 and 2010 were coded for publications, grants, and awardee characteristics. We found that awardees published at constant or increasing rates despite flat or decreasing rates of first-author publications. Senior-author publications rose concurrently with rates of overall publications. Higher overall publication trajectories were associated with receiving more grants, more citations as measured by the h-index, and more authors per article. Lower trajectory groups were older and had a greater proportion of female awardees. Career development awards supported researchers who generally published successfully, but trajectories varied across individual researchers. Researchers’ collaborative efforts produced an increasing number of articles, whereas first author articles were written at a more consistent rate. Career development awards in health services research supported the careers of researchers who published at a high rate; future research should further examine reasons for variation in publishing among early career researchers.