In many countries, as in France, medical training is not complete until the defense of a thesis, based on a research project; however, the publication of research work is not mandatory. This study investigated the evolution of the publication pattern of pediatric residents and identified the possible factors associated with an increased productivity, by investigating both thesis and non-thesis-related publications.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of pediatric residents who graduated from the Medical University of Marseille in France over a 20-year period (1996–2015). Their theses were retrieved from the French database of university theses (SUDOC). Their publications were collated by scanning the PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Non-thesis-related publications were included up to 1 year after the medical thesis defense and medical thesis publications were included without date limits. For each thesis or publication, the resident's characteristics, the supervisor's characteristics, the thesis characteristics, and bibliometric features were retrieved.

Out of the 148 graduated residents, 110 (74%) published articles (thesis-related article with no publication deadline and non-thesis-related articles with a publication deadline of up to 1 year postgraduation): 76 residents (51%) published their medical thesis and 88 residents (60%) published at least one non-thesis-related article. In multivariate analysis, publishing the thesis was significantly associated with a shorter dissertation length (43 vs. 84 pages [median]; p=0.009**) and with a thesis supervisor more experienced in supervising theses (P=0.01**). The thesis publication rate increased significantly over the years (P=0.005**), with the number of theses published tripling. Dissertation length significantly decreased over the years (linear slope=−4.13 pages/year; P<0.0001***). In multivariate analysis, the number of publications per resident was significantly higher when the resident had also completed a scientific thesis (β=1.62; P=0.007**), when he or she had published more papers during the post-residency period (β=0.40; P<0.0001***) and when he or she graduated at an older age (β=0.24; P=0.04*).

The thesis publication rate of pediatric residents has improved significantly in 20 years; however, these results are from a single-center study. Publishing the thesis was significantly associated with shorter dissertation length and a more experienced thesis supervisor.