The median number of total articles and their citations for awarded and rejected applicants before (2003–2007 years) and after (2008–2012 years) competitions.

Note: Count data and values of delta (Δ) were presented as median (25th and 75th percentiles).*the p values were calculated based on the results of the comparison of independent groups (awarded and rejected applicants) using the Manne-Whitney U test;**the p values were calculated based on the results of pair comparisons (before and after the competition) using the Wilcoxon test.