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Background: Collaborations are an essential element of scientific activity and particularly important in fields such as pediatric anesthesiology, where the evidence base in general is relatively limited. A recent scientometric analysis revealed a geographic diversification of publication activity in pediatric anesthesiology within the last two decades, accompanied by a surge in international collaborations., Objectives: Given the hypothesis of a similar growth in the activity and dynamics of publications in pediatric anesthesiology, the objective of this scientometric study was to analyze the publication activity and collaboration habits in research in pediatric anesthesiology from Germany, Austria and Switzerland (D-A-CH)., Method: This secondary analysis identified all publications on pediatric anesthesiology with an affiliation from the D‑A-CH countries between 2001 and 2020 from PubMed and Web of Science. The query parameters included the timeframe 2001-2020, authors' affiliations tied to anesthesiology departments (using various forms of the term "anesthesia"), and the mention of pediatric interest in titles or abstracts. The data underwent standardization to account for linguistic variations. The publications were assigned to a state, city and institution based on the correspondence address, to a year based on the publication date and to a source based on the journal. The primary endpoint was publication activity and dynamics, represented by the number of publications and the respective growth rates (calculated as the linear regression slope). Secondary endpoints included the share of collaborations within and outside the D‑A-CH region (at the country and institutional level), the distribution of publication activity and the most prominent sources of publications., Results: Between 2001 and 2020 a total of 3406 publications on pediatric anesthesiology involving authors from the D‑A-CH countries were identified. Of these 2807 (82.4%) had a correspondence address in D‑A-CH. The average annual growth rate of publications with a correspondence address was + 2.9% for the D‑A-CH countries and + 7.7% for publications with collaborations. The number of publications in which an institution from D‑A-CH was named as a coauthor from a correspondence address outside D‑A-CH also increased by an average of 7.4% per year during the study period. The majority of collaborations occurred between institutions within the D‑A-CH region, although Swiss institutions exhibited a much higher proportion of collaborations outside the region. Of all publications with a correspondence address 90% originated from 46 cities. The most prominent source was Die Anästhesiologie for publications from Germany, and Pediatric Anesthesia for publications from Austria and Switzerland., Conclusion: The number of publications in pediatric anesthesiology from the D‑A-CH countries has increased over the past two decades, accompanied by a surge in collaborations. It is hoped that increased collaboration will contribute to a higher level of evidence in pediatric anesthesiology care., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The time-intensive work of publishing in scientific journals is an important indicator of job performance that is given much weight during promotion procedures for academic positions. The current study applied the job demands-resources model and analyzed whether family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) moderated associations between work stress and feelings of exhaustion as a job resource and whether feelings of exhaustion ultimately mediated the link between work stress and academic employees' publication activity. The current online cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted in 133 academic employees (65.4% women, 34.6% men; M age = 41.9, SD = 10.1) at an Austrian medical university and assessed employees' numbers of publications, H-index, work stress, feelings of exhaustion, FSSB, and work-family services used. Manifest path models revealed that FSSB moderated the link between experiencing high levels of work stress and strong feelings of exhaustion, especially in employees who had at least one child below the age of 18. Part-time employment was most strongly linked with lower numbers of publications and lower H-index levels. The finding that FSSB acted as a job resource mostly for employees with at least one child below 18 underlines the fact that FSSB is different from other forms of supervisor support. The current study supports recommendations to increase the amount of work-family services and to change organizational norms to be supportive of the successful management of family and work obligations.

Studies have continuously shown that fewer women than men achieve leadership positions in academic medicine. In the current study we explored gender differences in clinical position among academic physicians at three university hospitals, each in a different European country. These countries, Sweden, the Netherlands and Austria, differ in terms of gender equality. We analyzed whether the number of children, working hours or publications could explain gender differences in physicians' clinical position. In this cross-sectional questionnaire study 1333 (54% female) physicians participated. Physicians were asked about their gender, age, number of children, working hours and clinical position. We used structural equation models to explore the influence of gender on the physicians' clinical position in each of the three countries. We explored whether the association between gender and clinical position could be explained by number of children, working hours or publication activity. The analyses revealed that at all three university hospitals gender influenced clinical position. These gender differences in clinical position could be partly explained by gender differences in publication activity. Female physicians as compared to male physicians were likely to publish fewer articles, and in turn these lower publication numbers were associated with lower clinical positions. The number of children or working hours did not explain gender differences in publication activity or clinical position. Therefore, factors other than unequal allocation of household labor, such as the academic working environment, may still disproportionately disadvantage women's progress, even at universities in countries with high rates of gender equality such as Sweden.