The Careers and Professional Activities of Graduates
of the NIGMS Medical Scientist Training Program
September 1998

Appendix III - Definitions and Criteria Used in Analyses of Curricula Vitae

Postdoctoral Research Training Support. This included training that was identified on the curriculum vitae as postdoctoral training or was associated with such titles as postdoctoral research fellow, research associate, or staff fellow (e.g., for NIH intramural positions). This training had to last for 9 or more months. In identifying the organization supporting the postdoctoral training, more than one source was possible, and determining the type of sponsoring organization was done by consulting lists of available postdoctoral awards and programs in the biomedical sciences. The various types of postdoctoral training sponsors were: 1) NIH (through both extramural and intramural postdoctoral traineeships and fellowships; clinical investigator, physician-scientist, or similar research career development awards were excluded); 2) other federal agencies (e.g., the National Science Foundation and the Department of Veterans Affairs); 3) private industry (e.g., Bell Laboratories); 4) private foundations (e.g., postdoctoral awards funded by the American Cancer Society, the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust); and 5) other sources, which most typically were faculty research grants or institutional funds.

Clinical Fellowships. This included training that was typically listed in the curriculum vitae in a section on postdoctoral or postgraduate training and was labeled as a clinical fellowship in a specialty (e.g., gastroenterology, infectious diseases, and rheumatology). This fellowship also had to be 9 or more months in duration. NIH intramural clinical associate positions were considered as both clinical fellowships and postdoctoral research training, given that they frequently provided both types of experiences.

Source of Research Support. This included the receipt by the individual of grants and contracts for carrying out research; support for training programs, predoctoral/postdoctoral fellows, instructional activities, and equipment were not included. Only awards made after the completion of postdoctoral research and clinical training and before 1996 were included. The type of sponsoring organization was also classified, and outside sources (e.g., foundation grant directories) were consulted when questions arose. The types of sponsoring organizations were: 1) NIH, including research grants and research career development awards; 2) other federal agencies (e.g., the National Science Foundation, the Department of the Army, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Veterans Affairs); 3) industry (e.g., Abbott Laboratories, General Electric Company, Glaxo Wellcome Inc., and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company); 4) private foundations (e.g., the American Heart Association and affiliates, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the American Cancer Society, and the McKnight Foundation); and 5) other organizations (e.g., state departments of health). The last category also included grants made by institutional committees using NIH Biomedical Research Support Grants or American Cancer Society institutional grant funds.

Employment. To be included in the analyses, the employment had to occur after the completion of all postdoctoral research and clinical training and had to begin no later than 1995. When appropriate, multiple positions were included (e.g., clinical associate professor at a university and staff physician at a VA hospital). Temporary appointments such as a 12-month position as a visiting scientist while on sabbatical were excluded, as well as those that were part of the individual's responsibilities in the primary position (e.g., a professor who also is director of graduate studies of the department).

Clinical Activities. For clinical activities to be included, the individual had to be involved in some type of patient care role, either full-time or part-time. Such participation did not include responsibilities as an intern, resident, or clinical fellow. Examples included faculty members who were attending physicians at an associated teaching hospital and/or who indicated regular participation in grand rounds, physicians in independent or group medical practices, and staff hospital positions (e.g., staff surgeons or pathologists).

Type of Journal. To be counted as a publication, an article had to have appeared no later than 1995 ("in press" articles were not counted). Both peer-reviewed and invited articles and reviews were included, although entries identified by the individual as an editorial, letter to the editor, or book review were excluded. The article also had to appear in one of the journals indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information and included in its Current Contents Journal Coverage as of January 1996. The use of this last criterion allowed classification of the article as being focused on (or of interest to) research in the basic sciences (including the life, agricultural, biological, environmental, physical, engineering, or computing sciences), clinical medicine, or both. It also represented a crude cut at journal quality, given that the listed journals were chosen by the ISI on the basis of editorial board review, evaluation of content and format by journal experts, and statistical analyses of the impact and use of the published material. Among the journals in each category were: