Dermatology Online Journal’s lead article in the January 2012 issue presents research from the University of California Davis (Sacramento) indicating that dermatology applicants who list greater numbers of “in preparation” or “submitted” manuscripts on their ERAS dermatology applications gain a significant advantage in the match, even though only 16.3% of these articles are ever published. Surprisingly, these authors found that applicants with published articles were not more likely to match. (Maverakis E, Li C, Alikhan A, Lin T, Idriss N, Armstrong AW. The affect of academic “Misrepresentation” on residency match outcomes. Dermatology Online Journal 18 (1):1; http://dermatology.cdlib.org/1801/1_org/01_11-00285/article.html).
These authors also researched applicants who specifically identified the prestigious Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (JAAD) as the recipient of 17 articles reported as submitted on applications. JAAD could only verify that 6 of these articles had been submitted to them.
These findings are certainly disturbing to many in academic dermatology, and this publication has the potential to radically change dermatology match outcomes in 2012 and future years based on previous predictive models. Dermatology residency programs that count numbers of publications and include unpublished manuscripts in the totals may ironically be rejecting applicants who have really published.
The University of Texas Medical Branch Dermatology Interest Group (UTMB DIG) is a resource for medical students interested in Dermatology as well as for dermatologists and residents.
Editors
Current Editors: Jane Onyemachi and Madelyn Schmidt
(Please email editors if there is blog-worthy news that you would like to see shared)
Past Editors: Fareen Momin, Andrea Francis, Renat Ahatov, Michael Phan, Elise Weisert, Michael Ryan, Keith Wagner, Tim Allen, Kristyna Gleghorn, Dung Mac, Alex Acosta, William Tausend, Sheila Jalalat, Rebecca Philips, Chelsea Altinger, Lindsey Hunter, Alison Wiesenthal, Leslie Scroggins, Mara Dacso, Ashley Group, Fadi Constantine, Emily Fridlington, Joslyn Witherspoon, Tasneem Poonawalla.