Doctorate in cardiology at FM-USP Heart Institute from 1994 through 2004: defense and publication.

BACKGROUND A study evaluated the relationship between the defense of dissertations and their publication within the realm of the entire Medical School of the University of São Paulo (FM-USP). The existence of differences among different areas of knowledge and the time between defense of dissertations and their publication is questioned. OBJECTIVE To characterize publications related to dissertations defended in graduate courses of the Heart Institute (InCor) of the University of São Paulo Medical School (FM-USP). METHODS A retrospective survey was carried out featuring graduate work at FM/USP for the 1994-2004 period. Initially, data were collected on students who defended dissertations during this period, on their advisors, and on the dissertations defended in the course of the period. Then, by crossing these data with data from Medline and Web of Science, publications by these authors and data were located that referred to the respective publications. RESULTS During that period, 268 dissertations were defended, resulting in 195 publications within a period of up to 10 years after their defense. The median time for publication after defense was one year and nine months, with a median impact factor of 2.1, and a median of 4 citations per paper. There was no statistically significant correlation among any of the data studied. CONCLUSION A significant percentage of the dissertations were published, and in the group studied, publication took place within increasingly short times after their defense. This fact may be related to the success of the graduate commissions' policies and to the importance currently lent to debates on this theme, all of which contribute to improvement in the quality of graduate studies.