Resume Fraud: Unverifiable Publications of Urology Training Program Applicants

Purpose: We examined the incidence of resume fraud among urology residency applicants by determining the rate of misrepresented publications listed in applications to a urology residency program. Materials and Methods: Applications from all 147 urology residency applicants to a program from the 2007 application cycle were analyzed. Verification of listed publications was attempted by querying PubMed®, Google™ Scholar and MEDLINE®. Univariate analysis was conducted to assess associations between unverifiable publications and applicant demographics. Results: Of the applicants who submitted publications 19% (14 of 71) had at least 1 unverifiable publication, which represented 9% (14 of 147) of the entire applicant pool. There were no statistically significant associations between misrepresented publications and applicant demographics. Conclusions: Applicants had a low but still unacceptable rate of misrepresented publications and this trend in academic medicine is of great concern.