Scientific civility and academic performance

In modern science, interdisciplinary and collaborative research is encouraged among scientists to solve complex problems. However, when the time comes to measure an individual's academic productivity, collaborative efforts are hard to conceptualize and quantify. In this study, we hypothesized that a social behavior coined "scientific civility", which encompasses civility, collaboration, cooperation, or a combination of these, enhances an individual's productivity influencing their academic performance. To facilitate recognition of this unique attribute within the scientific environment, we developed a new indicator: the C score. We examined publicly available data from 1000 academic scientists at the individual-level, focusing on their scholarly output and collaborative networks as a function of geographic distribution and time. Our findings strongly suggest that the C score gauges academic performance from an integral perspective based on a synergistic interaction between productivity and collaborative networks, prevailing over institutionally limited economic resources and minimizing inequalities related to the length of individual's academic career, field of investigation, and gender.

Prevalence of incivility between ophthalmology and emergency medicine residents during interdepartmental consultations

OBJECTIVES

Since incivility is linked to adverse effects in patient care and health care worker well-being, evaluation of the prevalence of incivility during the formative years of residency training is warranted. The aim of this study was to determine the perceived presence and degree of incivility between emergency medicine (EM) and ophthalmology residents during emergency department (ED) consultations.

METHODS

We conducted a single-site, survey-based study, targeted to ophthalmology and EM residents. The survey we distributed included questions adapted from validated and widely used surveys measuring incivility in the workplace (Workplace Incivility Scale) and incivility within the ED.

RESULTS

Ophthalmology (13/15, 86.7%) and EM (42/48, 87.5%) residents participated, with an overall response rate of 55 of 63 (87.3%). Most residents (47/55, 85.5%) reported some degree of incivility during consultations, with a greater proportion of females reporting incivility (100%) than males (77.4%, p = 0.033). A total of 52.7% of respondents reported occurrence of incivility on a quarterly basis; 21.8% reported monthly, 10.9% weekly, and none daily. Incivilities were reported most commonly during nonurgent consults (85.5%). The two most common incivilities reported by trainees were when the other party paid little attention to their statements or opinions (80% of residents) or doubted their professional judgment (74.5% of residents). More female trainees reported jokes being told at their expense compared to males (15.8% vs. 0%, p = 0.049). Residents most often attributed incivility to stress (78.2%), loss of empathy/burnout (63.6%), or attempts to shift responsibility to another party (60.0%). Among EM residents surveyed, incivility was identified as occurring most often during consultations with surgical specialties.

CONCLUSIONS

Incivility during interdepartmental consultations between EM and ophthalmology is commonly reported by physicians-in-training. It occurs more often during consultations deemed as nonurgent and is more commonly reported by females. Given its associations with adverse outcomes, interventions to decrease incivility early in training may be warranted.

The effect of a split in WAIS-R VIQ and PIQ scores on patients with cognitive impairment and psychiatric illness

This study examined the clinical effects of cognitive impairment on the course of patients who have a major psychiatric disorder. Surprisingly, a statistical split between Verbal and Performance IQ on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised is not a marker for greater psychiatric morbidity.