Academic Productivity: A Guide for Students, Residents, and Fellows

Plastic surgery is a unique specialty where innovation and research lie at its core. As such, plastic surgeons are routinely encouraged at all stages of their careers to contribute to research within the specialty. Time constraints and demands of practice, at all stages, including residency, fellowship, and early practice can make research feel impossible. In residency, protected time off is required to develop a system to be academically productive and several residency programs have built in that year of research as a requirement for graduation. Meanwhile, fellowship is often a one-year-long training, and submissions for The Aesthetic Meeting for The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery are due in October, the same time as the written boards. This generates significant pressure at the start of the fellowship to write and contribute. Early practice is a time of board collections and focus, as well as hard work, which all can take away from focus on research. Here we seek to provide an outline and some advice to help develop a research collaborative and a culture that permits exponential growth in contributions to the literature.¹ Whether the author is a student, resident, fellow, or young attending, we suggest the following tips for guidance toward success in academic productivity: