2 Design
We performed a PubMed literature review to better understand the design, setbacks, and effective use of h-index scores as well as the role it plays in academic medicine with emphasis on otolaryngology. The search was performed using key terms ‘h-index’, ‘academic medicine’, ‘research productivity,’ and ‘scholarly impact’. To target specific otolaryngology data, the additional terms ‘academic otolaryngology’ and ‘fellowship training’ were added to the search. Inclusion criteria were original articles in the English language. Articles were reviewed by multiple authors and relevant information was extracted to produce review of the subject. We present findings on the h-index score along with how it impacts academic medicine with emphasis on otolaryngology and fellowships within the field paired with guidelines in order to use h-index scoring effectively.