Subsequent Research Output of Colgate Prize Entrants

The Colgate Prize (CP) was introduced by the SA IADR to foster an interest in dental research amongst younger members. Objectives: This study examines subsequent published research output of all CP entrants to determine whether CP winners were more likely to engage in active research as opposed to a control group made up of CP runners up. Methods: Names of all CP competition entrants were extracted from past SA IADR Conference programmes (1967-2003) and a list of winners obtained from SA IADR records. Entrants were grouped according to dental school, gender, race and research field. A PubMed search of dental journals was used to obtain the publication output of each entrant and thereby a measure of research activity. Publication output was totalled for each entrant. Results: There were 138 entrants into the Colgate competition, of which 36 were winners. Entrants were Male=76%. Race: White=87%; Indian=10%; Coloured=2%; Black=1%. University: Wits=61%, Pretoria=16%; Stellenbosch=9%; Western Cape=6%; Medunsa=4%; other=4%. Overall, winners were Male=75%; White=84% and from Wits=55%, since 1983 the trend show winners to be Male=52%; White=66%; Wits=40%. Total publications for all entrants was 2291: average number of publications per winner and loser was 19.3 and 17.3 respectively. Percentage non-publishers in each group was 14% of winners and 10% of runners up. 10% of both winners and runners up were responsible for 50% of publications. Conclusion: The data shows that there is little difference between the research output of Colgate Prize winners and losers. Participation in the Colgate competition appears to be an incentive for future research activity, whether the entrant wins or not.