ReviewJB & JS open access
Race- and Gender-Based Differences in Descriptions of Applicants in the Letters of Recommendation for Orthopaedic Surgery Residency.
Review in JB & JS open access. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- How Prominent Are Gender Bias, Racial Bias, and Score Inflation in Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Recommendation Letters? A Systematic Review.Clinical orthopaedics and related research · 2024Pooled it
- Evaluation of Gender Bias in Psychiatry Residency Letters of Recommendation.Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Differences in language used to describe racial groups in emergency medicine standardized letter of evaluation.AEM education and training · 2025Article
- Barriers and facilitators for female practitioners in orthopaedic training and practice: a scoping review.ANZ journal of surgery · 2025Article
- The Impact of Applicant Sex on Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Letters of Recommendation: A Multisite Study.ATS scholar · 2025Article
- Letters of Recommendation by High School Counselors in Selective College Admissions: Differences by Race and Socioeconomic Status in Letter Length and Topics Discussed.Research in higher education · 2025Article
- Characteristics Associated with Successful Residency Match in General Surgery.Annals of surgery open : perspectives of surgical history, education, and clinical approaches · 2024Article
- Selection and Recruitment Strategies among Competitive Pediatric Training Programs and the Impact of Diversity.Academic pediatrics · 2024Article
- Measuring and Predicting Faculty Consensus Rankings of Standardized Letters of Evaluation.Journal of graduate medical education · 2024Article
- A primer on writing a narrative letter of recommendation for medical students applying to residency.AEM education and training · 2023Article
- Barriers in Ophthalmology Residency Applications for Students Identifying as Underrepresented in Medicine: A San Francisco Match Analysis.Journal of surgical education · 2023Article
- Differences in international medical graduates' letters of recommendation by gender in pulmonary and critical care medicine: a cohort analysis.BMC medical education · 2023Article
- Racial and Ethnic Bias in Letters of Recommendation and Personal Statements for Application to Otolaryngology Residency.ORL; journal for oto-rhino-laryngology and its related specialties · 2023Article
- A Call to Action for Standardizing Letters of Recommendation.Journal of graduate medical education · 2022Article
- Linguistic Biases in Letters of Recommendation for Radiation Oncology Residency Applicants from 2015 to 2019.Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education · 2022Article
- Gender differences in emergency medicine standardized letters of evaluation.AEM education and training · 2022Article
- Deconstructing the roadmap to surgical residency: a national survey of residents illuminates factors associated with recruitment success as well as applicants' needs and beliefs.Global surgical education : journal of the Association for Surgical Education · 2022Article
- While You Don't See Color, I See Bias: Identifying Barriers in Access to Graduate Medical Education Training.ATS scholar · 2021Article
- The Time Is Now: Racism and the Responsibility of Emergency Medicine to Be Antiracist.Annals of emergency medicine · 2021Article
- Correlation of Ophthalmology Residency Application Characteristics with Subsequent Performance in Residency.Journal of academic ophthalmology (2017) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLetters of recommendation (LOR) are an important component of trainee advancement and assessment. Examination of word use in LOR has demonstrated significant differences in how letter writers describe female and male applicants. Given the emphasis on increasing both gender and racial diversity among orthopaedic surgeons, we aimed to study gender and racial differences in LOR for applicants to orthopaedic surgery residencies.
methodsAll applications submitted to a single, academic orthopaedic residency program in 2018 were included. Self-identified gender and race were recorded. The LOR were analyzed via a text analysis software program using previously described categories of communal, agentic, grindstone, ability, and standout words. We examined the relative frequency of word use in letters for (1) male and female applicants and (2) white and underrepresented in orthopaedics (UiO) applicants, with the subgroup analysis based on whether standardized (using the American Orthopaedic Association template) or traditional (narrative) LOR were used.
resultsTwo thousand six hundred twenty-five LOR were submitted for 730 applicants (79% men). Fifty-nine percent of applicants were self-identified as white, and 34% were self-identified as UiO. In traditional LOR, standout words (odds ratio [OR] 1.07; p = 0.01) were more likely to be used in letters for women compared with men, with no difference in any other word-use category. In standardized LOR, there were no gender-based differences in any word category. In traditional LOR, grindstone words (OR = 0.96; p = 0.02) were more likely to be used in letters for UiO than white applicants, whereas standout words (OR = 1.05; p = 0.04) were more likely to be used in letters for white candidates. In standardized LOR, there were no race-based differences in any word category use.
conclusionsSmall differences were found in the categories of words used to describe male and female candidates and white and UiO candidates. These differences were not present in the standardized LOR compared with traditional LOR. It is possible that the use of standardized LOR may reduce gender- and race-based bias in the narrative assessment of applicants.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.