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. 2022 Sep 11;5(5):e831.
doi: 10.1002/hsr2.831. eCollection 2022 Sep.

An assessment of publishing practices and barriers faced by medical students to conduct research: A cross-sectional study from Pakistan

Shoaib Ahmad  1 , Shkaib Ahmad  2 , Unaiza Ahmad  1 , Huzaifa Ahmad Cheema  3 , Nida Iqbal  4 , Abia Shahid  3 , Badar Malik  1 , Amna Siddique  5 , Huda Jaffar  6 , Usman Ghani  1 , Waqar Sarfraz  1 , Vrushali Shelar  7 , Ufaq Rahir  8 , Maryam Zubair  9 , Nazia Nikhat Ali  8 , Sifwa Safdar  10 , Mohammad Yasir Essar  11 , Zain Ul Abadeen  1
Affiliations

An assessment of publishing practices and barriers faced by medical students to conduct research: A cross-sectional study from Pakistan

Shoaib Ahmad et al. Health Sci Rep. .

Erratum in

  • Corrigendum.
    [No authors listed] [No authors listed] Health Sci Rep. 2022 Sep 26;5(5):e857. doi: 10.1002/hsr2.857. eCollection 2022 Sep. Health Sci Rep. 2022. PMID: 36189413 Free PMC article.

Abstract

Background: Pakistan being a low- and middle-income country, its institutes are substantially deficient in scientific and technological aspects and share limited research contributions to the world repositories. Therefore, there is a rising concern to reflect on the history and status of publishing attitudes among medical students in Pakistan and to highlight and address the barriers that they are facing.

Methods: A study was conducted aiming to determine the experience, motivation, and attitude of medical students in regarding publishing practices throughout Pakistan in several medical colleges. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to find the independent predictors of students publishing a research article. Forward selection was used to arrive at the final stepwise logistic regression. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. p < 0.05 was considered significant for all statistical tests.

Results: From a sample size of 1225 participants, only 6.6% of students had published an article in our study. Of these, 59% were males and 31.3% were in final year. Males were more likely to publish articles than females (OR = 2.69, 95% CI: 1.37-5.26) and final-year students were more likely to publish articles than first-year students (OR = 7.48, 95% CI: 1.34-41.81). Students that had the knowledge that performing research is the way through which they will be judged for jobs had significantly higher odds of getting an article published (OR = 16.21, 95% CI: 3.65-71.88). Additionally, students who had been taught how to write a paper and those who knew the process of submitting an article were more likely to get published than the others.

Conclusion: Our study has successfully highlighted the status of publishing among medical students in Pakistan. Our findings serve as an eye opener and call to action for authorities to address the grievances of students in terms of barriers, lack of mentorship, and lack of research teaching. We hope our findings can guide a strong policy change to facilitate the next generation of passionate researchers.

Keywords: Pakistan; medical students; publishing practices and barriers.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pie chart of what was the principal motivation to write a research paper
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pie chart of reasons for not getting an article published
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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