ArticleBMC medical education2025
The impostor phenomenon among surgeons and surgeons in training: a scoping review.
Article in BMC medical education, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Global prevalence of impostor phenomenon in medical students: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2026Pooled it
- Imposter Phenomenon or Perfectionism? Imposter Syndrome and Perfectionism in Plastic Surgery Training and Practice.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe impostor phenomenon (IP), is a condition in which people think they are incapable of success and tend to attribute their success to external causes such as luck, error, or knowing the appropriate individuals. It has been confirmed as a contributor to burnout for practicing physicians, residents, and medical students. The purpose of this scoping review is to describe the prevalence and scope of IP among surgeons and surgeons in training, in order to determine gaps that can be addressed in future research.
methodsSearches were conducted in the following databases: Embase, PubMed, Medline, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), Cochrane Library, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, and ProQuest from inception to 30 June 2024. Two investigators independently assessed the articles based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. All titles and abstracts meeting the inclusion criteria were carefully reviewed for the full text. The individual screening results were compared, and any discrepancies were discussed with a third investigator and a final consensus for further analysis.
resultsThe Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS) was used to assess the prevalence in the included studies. The prevalence of IP among surgeons and surgeons in training ranged from 27.5 to 100%. Women were more prone to suffer from IP when compared to their male counterparts. Most literature also showed that female surgeons reported statistically higher in IP scores than males. Level of education and academic achievements were also associated with IP.
conclusionsThis scoping review identified the published literature on IP among surgeons and surgeons in training and focused on the existing research objects to discover the gaps in the current research. Future directions may focus on early interventions aimed at identifying and managing IP.
Indexed as
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.