1183 - Updated National Benchmarks for Research Productivity among U.S. Radiation Oncology Residency Graduates, 2020-2025

Purpose/Objective(s): Scholarly productivity is a required component of radiation oncology (RO) residency training, and previous analyses have found that the productivity of U.S. RO residents, in terms of first-author publications, increased between 2002-2007 and 2015-2019. In this study, we sought to establish updated national benchmarks for research productivity among U.S. RO residents who graduated between 2020 and 2025.

Materials/Methods: U.S. RO residents who graduated between 2020 and 2025 were identified using publicly available data. PubMed was queried to identify first-author manuscripts published from the start of the PGY-2 year through 3 months post-residency graduation. These data were compared to those from residents who graduated residency between 2015 and 2019. Publication counts were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test. Statistical significance was defined as a = 0.05.

Results: We identified 1,128 residents who graduated between 2020-2025 and 910 residents who graduated between 2015–2019. 2020-2025 graduates had a higher mean number of first-author publications (3.44 vs 2.90), a greater proportion of individuals with =5 publications (27.2% vs 20.7%), and a lower proportion of individuals with zero publications (21.5% vs 23.3%) than 2015-2019 graduates. Median publications were 2 in both cohorts (IQR 1–4 vs 1–5), though distributions differed (P = 0.03). Within the 2020–2025 cohort, however, graduates from 2024–2025 had lower mean publication counts than those graduating between 2020–2023 (3.17 vs 3.58), a higher proportion of individuals with zero publications (25.2% vs 19.7%), and a lower proportion of individuals with =5 publications (22.5% vs 29.6%).

Conclusion: Research productivity among U.S. RO residents has continued to increase in recent years. However, the lower productivity observed in the most recent graduating classes, who matched during a time of decreased competitiveness in the specialty, warrants continued follow-up.