Factors Associated with Successful Publication of Pharmacy Resident Research ProjectsTitle: Factors Associated with Successful Publication of Pharmacy Resident Research Projects
Presenters: Victoria Michel-Milian
Author: Victoria Michel-Milian, Eric K. Shaw, Amy Taylor
Contact information: [email protected]Background:
American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) accreditation standards require pharmacy residents to include research components as part of the practice advancement objective. Despite this, publication rates remain as low as 13% per resident submission, with program publication success rates ranging from 1.8% to 36.2%. Multiple barriers to publication have been suggested but there is a paucity of data for characteristics that lead to successful residency publication. The purpose of this study is to identify key factors that promote successful publication of pharmacy resident research projects.
Methodology: This study was an observational case-control study of pharmacy residents who presented research projects at pharmacy regional conferences from January 2022 through August 2024. Using ASHP’s list of regional residency conferences, abstracts were identified and assigned a random number to select for inclusion. To identify published vs non-published articles, the included abstracts were cross-referenced with PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science using project titles, author names, and institution affiliations. The primary objective of this study was to determine what factors contribute to successful publications for pharmacy residents. Secondary objectives were to assess potential influencing factors including rates between study characteristics, influence of program characteristics, and commonalities between published studies. In addition to descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and t-tests were performed using SPSS version 28.0.
Results: This study included 104 abstracts; 15 (14.4%) of were published as of December 1, 2025. Of the outcomes compared, having any author previously published was significantly associated with publication success (80% vs 67.4%, p<0.001). Programs with a research committee also had statistically higher publication rates (60% vs 28.9%, p=0.015). Of the abstracts published, majority of specialties were infectious diseases (23.1%), ambulatory care (18.3%), and critical care (11.5%). Out of the evaluated studies, primary authors were mainly PGY1 residents (78.8%) with the remainder being PGY2 residents (21.2%). Of the published studies, 40% were from a PGY2 program. The mean number of authors per abstract was 3.7 ±1.75. Secondary and tertiary authors most commonly held a PharmD plus a board certification in a specialty (61.7% for secondary and 56.8% for tertiary authorship), with only a few medical degrees (3.2%). There were no significant associations found for when results were published on the conference abstract, center type, listed mentorship program, research coordinator, dedicated time for research or study type. Notably, when comparing published studies, chart reviews had the highest publication rate (29.4%), while quality improvement and surveys had zero published studies. Limitations include incomplete abstract lists across some conferences, inability to confirm resident status for all abstracts, potential author misidentification due to common or changed names, and dependence on websites for program characteristics.
Conclusions: This study successfully identified some key attributes to pharmacy resident publication including prior publication experience among co-authors, presence of a research committee, and increased number of authors. To increase publication rates, residency programs should consider establishing research committees and ensure residents are precepted by experienced, previously published mentors.
