1

Introduction

Expansion of technological capabilities over the past two decades has increased our understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms responsible for voice and laryngeal-related disorders. Consequently, increased interest in a variety of neoplastic, functional, neurological, and age-related laryngeal disorders has contributed to the development of laryngology as an established subspecialty. Extramural funding support may play a critical role in facilitating scholarship within the field. Prior analyses in multiple specialties have noted an association between greater scholarly impact and receiving funding awards from several organizations, most importantly the National Institutes of Health (NIH) . Awards from the NIH are considered the “gold standard” in biomedical research, as this organization is the largest supporter of scientific inquiry in the world . Nonetheless, funding opportunities have declined in recent years , increasing the competition for these grants. In many cases, ability to procure external funding is necessary for the viability of a primary investigator (PI), as many institutions may be unable to provide significant funding via internal mechanisms.

The management of patients with voice disorders is an inherently interdisciplinary undertaking, with close cooperation between a variety of professionals including (but not limited to) otolaryngologists and speech and language pathologists (SLP) being integral for appropriate diagnosis and management of patients. These lessons may certainly be carried over to the discipline of research, as close cooperation may be crucial, particularly in the current funding environment. Our objectives were to evaluate who receives funding from the NIH for topics relevant to voice disorders, and further describe temporal trends in grants awarded.

2

Methods

The authors accessed the NIH RePORTER database and collected all data in October 2013. Using the advanced search function, the authors inputted the following phrase into the search text: “vocal cord” OR “vocal fold” OR “vocal cord polyp” OR “vocal cords” OR “vocal folds” OR “vocal cord polyps” OR “vocal cord nodule” OR “vocal cord paralysis” OR “vocal cord paresis” OR “reinke” OR “spasmodic dysphonia” OR “dysphonia” OR “laryngeal papillomatosis” OR “laryngitis”. The search was limited to project title and/or project abstract, and included all years from 1989 until the present. After the initial search yielded 878 hits, multiple authors looked over the data and removed 48 hits that were not relevant to the study of voice and voice disorders. We did include studies that focused on certain pathogens relevant to voice disorders including parmyxovirus and coronavirus, as long as the abstracts mentioned a connection to voice and/or voice disorders.

Ultimately, 830 out of 878 hits (94.53%) were included in the final data. The NIH RePORTER Website shows each funded year as a separate hit, so many of these results were simply different fiscal years of the same project. The authors used each entry’s project number and title to determine which entries were from the same project for multiyear projects (but represented different fiscal years of funding), and we aggregated these totals to come up with 232 different projects along with each project’s respective aggregated funding total. These 232 unique projects represented 830 fiscal years of funding.

The funding totals for each grant were available only after the year 2000. There was also a small subset of grants after the year 2000 that did not have funding data, and these were not included in monetary calculations. In total, 566 out of 830 (68.2%) funding years were included in the final data. These funding years corresponded to 167 of the initial 232 projects (72.0%) that were included in the final data set. All funding data were then adjusted for inflation using the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index Calculator based on the year the funding was received.

The NIH RePORTER Website provides the department and institution that most of the PIs were serving when they were awarded grants. For the PIs that did not have this information available on the NIH RePORTER database, the authors conducted an Internet search to find out in which department and institution they had conducted their research during the fiscal year a grant was awarded. Online faculty profiles and academic CVs were among the resources used to determine this information. For those PIs where no reliable information could be found, they were included in the “unknown/other” category throughout the data collection process.

An online search was conducted in the same fashion as above to determine the specialty and terminal degree of PIs listed in this database. Additionally, each PI’s scholarly impact, as measured by the h-index , was calculated using the Scopus database.

The h-index is an objective bibliometric that indicates the frequency at which an author is being cited on a consistent basis . In other words, it is an effective measure of the consistency with which an author is having impact upon scholarly discourse within a field. It’s strengths, limitations, and definition have been discussed extensively in the literature . Prior analyses have noted a strong association with research productivity, academic promotion, extramural funding, and even level of training among otolaryngologists .

2

Methods

The authors accessed the NIH RePORTER database and collected all data in October 2013. Using the advanced search function, the authors inputted the following phrase into the search text: “vocal cord” OR “vocal fold” OR “vocal cord polyp” OR “vocal cords” OR “vocal folds” OR “vocal cord polyps” OR “vocal cord nodule” OR “vocal cord paralysis” OR “vocal cord paresis” OR “reinke” OR “spasmodic dysphonia” OR “dysphonia” OR “laryngeal papillomatosis” OR “laryngitis”. The search was limited to project title and/or project abstract, and included all years from 1989 until the present. After the initial search yielded 878 hits, multiple authors looked over the data and removed 48 hits that were not relevant to the study of voice and voice disorders. We did include studies that focused on certain pathogens relevant to voice disorders including parmyxovirus and coronavirus, as long as the abstracts mentioned a connection to voice and/or voice disorders.

Ultimately, 830 out of 878 hits (94.53%) were included in the final data. The NIH RePORTER Website shows each funded year as a separate hit, so many of these results were simply different fiscal years of the same project. The authors used each entry’s project number and title to determine which entries were from the same project for multiyear projects (but represented different fiscal years of funding), and we aggregated these totals to come up with 232 different projects along with each project’s respective aggregated funding total. These 232 unique projects represented 830 fiscal years of funding.

The funding totals for each grant were available only after the year 2000. There was also a small subset of grants after the year 2000 that did not have funding data, and these were not included in monetary calculations. In total, 566 out of 830 (68.2%) funding years were included in the final data. These funding years corresponded to 167 of the initial 232 projects (72.0%) that were included in the final data set. All funding data were then adjusted for inflation using the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index Calculator based on the year the funding was received.

The NIH RePORTER Website provides the department and institution that most of the PIs were serving when they were awarded grants. For the PIs that did not have this information available on the NIH RePORTER database, the authors conducted an Internet search to find out in which department and institution they had conducted their research during the fiscal year a grant was awarded. Online faculty profiles and academic CVs were among the resources used to determine this information. For those PIs where no reliable information could be found, they were included in the “unknown/other” category throughout the data collection process.

An online search was conducted in the same fashion as above to determine the specialty and terminal degree of PIs listed in this database. Additionally, each PI’s scholarly impact, as measured by the h-index , was calculated using the Scopus database.

The h-index is an objective bibliometric that indicates the frequency at which an author is being cited on a consistent basis . In other words, it is an effective measure of the consistency with which an author is having impact upon scholarly discourse within a field. It’s strengths, limitations, and definition have been discussed extensively in the literature . Prior analyses have noted a strong association with research productivity, academic promotion, extramural funding, and even level of training among otolaryngologists .