Factors associated with clinical dental faculty research productivity

The purpose of this study was to determine factors that are associated with increased individual research productivity among clinical faculty in 67 United States and Canadian schools of dentistry. Individual faculty research productivity was defined as the total number of articles in refereed journals and book chapters published during an academic career. The 328 respondents represented a response rate of 62.8 percent from a 25 percent stratified random sample of faculty who (1) had full-time appointments and held at least the D.M.D./D.D.S. or foreign equivalent, (2) taught in a clinical department of the dental schools, and (3) were not department chairpersons and did not hold administrative positions (assistant dean, associate dean, or dean) within the dental school. Respondents reported a mean of 9.9 years in full-time dental education, a mean of 10.8 publications, and a mean of 7.5 hours spent in research per week. Forward addition multiple regression analysis demonstrated that five predictor variables, from a total of 20 variables evaluated, accounted for 59.9 percent of the variance in individual faculty research productivity. These predictor variables were total dollar amount of past research funding, career age, training status, colleague utilization in conducting research, and conducting research from planned goals.