Abstract: The Benefit of a Formal Plastic Surgery In-Service Conference in Improvement of In- Service Scores

ConClusion: We have found that study methodology is not associated with higher citation rates. Instead, nonscientific factors are strong predictors of high citation rates in plastic surgery. Our study provides evidence that citation rates differ between plastic surgery subspecialties and these differences should be taken into account whenever citation rates are utilized for analytical and comparison purposes. At the editorial level, our results also highlight the importance of using objective metrics to assess the rigorousness of research methodology. The fact that sample size or level of evidence were not associated with higher citation rates suggests that utilizing tools like journal quality checklists may be needed to improve the current quality of plastic surgery research.