Subsequent dental research output of South African division of the IADR Colgate Prize entrants

This study recorded the research output of all participants for the IADR (South African Division; SA) Colgate Prize for 1967-2004 to establish whether, in their later careers, prize winners had a greater research output than runners-up. Using a list of all entrants, each individual was classified as winner or runner-up and by gender, race, and research field of presentation. The publication output for each individual was obtained from PubMed. A Poisson regression set at P < 0.05 compared publication numbers between winners and runners-up. There were two groups of entrants: 101 participated once, and twenty-two participated twice or thrice. Winners had significantly more publications than runners-up, more so for the multiple entrants (winners 27.5+/-22.4; runners-up 16.5+/-25.5) than single entrants (winners 16.0+/-40.8; runners-up 12.0+/-27.7). The number of individuals participating in the Colgate Prize has declined, but representivity for race and gender is improving. This is the first study to establish that SA IADR Colgate Prize participants fulfil the long-term IADR ideal of research promotion among young investigators.