A Ten-Year Analysis of the Research Funding Program of the Orthopaedic Trauma Association

Background The Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA) awarded over $3 million in research grants during 2000 through 2009. However, little is known regarding the outcomes of this funding program. Given the continued constraints in securing research dollars, we evaluated the research funding program of the OTA over this ten-year period. We studied the association of grant funding with (1) the publication rate, (2) the cost per publication, (3) the journal impact factor for published manuscripts, and (4) the dollar amount of extramural funding secured. Methods Grants from the target period were identified with use of the OTA online archive. The title of each grant and the name of the principal investigator were used to search across seven scientific databases for associated publications. Results Over the study period, $3,507,050 was awarded through 131 grants (thirty-three clinical, thirty-nine basic science, and fifty-nine resident). A total of 202 associated publications (seventy-three for the clinical grants, eighty-four for the basic science grants, and forty-five for the resident grants) were identified. Twenty-two (67%) of the clinical grants led to at least one publication compared with thirty-one (79%) of the basic science grants and twenty-four (41%) of the resident grants. The cost per publication was $26,892 for the clinical grants compared with $11,357 for the basic science grants and $13,111 for the resident grants. The mean impact factor of the journals containing the publications was 2.58. Conclusions Over the study period, the publication output for the funded projects was substantial. Basic science grants had the highest publication rate. The three types of grants resulted in publication in peer-reviewed journals with similar impact factors.