537 The Arms Race Control Score (ARCS) Indicates Academic Productivity During Neurosurgical Residency and Post-Residency Academic Career Status

INTRODUCTION: The application and screening process for neurosurgical residents has transformed. Currently, no unifying metric effectively evaluates applicants across diverse backgrounds or predicts physician career trends. The Arms Race Control Score (ARCS), a novel screening metric, measures academic productivity using PubMed-indexed articles amid an oversaturation of low-effort publications. METHODS: UCLA and Stanford residents entering residency training from June 2004 to June 2017 were extracted for key bibliometric indicators such as: gender, additional degrees, total number of PubMed-indexed publications during residency (TPDR), ARCS score, academic status, and academic institution national rankings. Quantitative analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, and multivariate regressions were optimized. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Within this multi-institutional cohort, a total of 70 residents and 1,315 published works were included, with 53% (N=37) employed in academic (A) institutions and 47% (N=33) in non-academic (NA) practice. Bivariate analysis revealed similar TPDR (A: 18.4 vs NA: 19.2, p = 0.175), higher trending ARCS scores (A: 30.8 vs NA: 24.3, p = 0.120), and increased presence of additional educational degrees (A: 51% vs NA: 18.2%, p = 0.005) within the academic cohort. Multivariable linear and logistic regression analysis revealed a positive correlation between ARCS score, increasing probability of academic career status (p = 0.0005), high-ranking academic institutions (p = 0.036), and increasing TPDR (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the ARCS is a promising metric that can effectively quantify neurosurgical resident academic activity. This study is the first to correlate the ARCS score with academic productivity during residency and find strong correlations between an increase in in-residency research productivity and post-residency academic career status. Future studies should further elucidate trends and utilize the ARCS for evaluating incoming residency applicants and their longitudinal activity during residency in larger multi-institutional studies.