An Analysis of Publications Regarding Scholarly Activity Among Osteopathic Education Institutions

Objectives: The research question for this project focused on understanding the scope of publications and conference presentations related to the topic of scholarly activity at osteopathic institutions. Our objectives were to describe scholarly activity trends in osteopathic medical education from 2010-2020 and to identify opportunities for librarians to support scholarly activities at their institutions.

Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis from a larger scoping review that looked at trends in academic and clinical settings for osteopathic medical education in the United States from 2010 - 2020, excluding any references to COVID-19. The research pulled was related to staff, faculty, or trainees in colleges of osteopathic medicine, residency training, or other settings where osteopathic medical education occurs. The secondary analysis focused on all articles related to scholarly activity and research in osteopathic medical education. We completed textual analysis to identify the primary features of the works, such as identifying the status (student, faculty, etc.) of primary investigators or the article's topic. We also identified larger themes within the sources and opportunities for medical librarians to impact education related to scholarly activity and research.

Results: From the initial 1,200 results included in the larger scoping review, we pulled approximately 100 works whose primary focus was scholarly activity. These works included peer-reviewed articles, opinion pieces, and conference abstracts. Some of our topics include but are not limited to, rates of osteopathic authorship in specialty journals, increasing research and scholarly activity at the student level, and limitations of and challenges inherent in doing research in an osteopathic setting.

Conclusions: This project highlights opportunities for librarians who support osteopathic students, faculty, and physicians to get involved in research as more osteopathic medical schools and residencies increase their research and scholarly activity focus. Librarians are uniquely suited to be involved in education, collaboration, and support in the research process and may be underutilized in osteopathic educational settings.