Scientific production of research fellows at the Zagreb University School of Medicine, Croatia

Aim

To evaluate scientific production among research fellows employed at the Zagreb University School of Medicine and identify factors associated with their scientific output.

Method

We conducted a survey among research fellows and their mentors during June 2005. The main outcome measure was publication success, defined for each fellow as publishing at least 0.5 articles per employment year in journals indexed in the Current Contents bibliographic database. Bivariate methods and binary logistic regression were used in data analysis.

Results

A total of 117 fellows (response rate 95%) and 83 mentors (100%) were surveyed. The highest scientific production was recorded among research fellows employed in public health departments (median 3.0 articles, interquartile range 4.0), compared with those from pre-clinical (median 0.0, interquartile range 2.0) and clinical departments (median 1.0, interquartile range 2.0) (Kruskal-Wallis, P = 0.003). A total of 36 (29%) research fellows published at least 0.5 articles per employment year and were considered successful. Three variables were associated with fellows’ publication success: mentor’s scientific production (odds ratio [OR], 3.14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.31-7.53), positive mentor’s assessment (OR, 3.15; 95% CI, 1.10-9.05), and fellows’ undergraduate publication in journals indexed in the Current Contents bibliographic database (OR, 4.05; 95% CI, 1.07-15.34).

Conclusion

Undergraduate publication could be used as one of the main criteria in selecting research fellows. One of the crucial factors in a fellow’s scientific production and career advancement is mentor’s input, which is why research fellows would benefit most from working with scientifically productive mentors.Decreasing interest in scientific involvement among young graduate physicians has been identified in a number of studies (1-6). Various solutions for reversing this trend have been proposed in an attempt to increase the interest in scientific research among physicians. What was most commonly reported as having a positive effect on physicians’ research interest was undergraduate involvement in scientific work and subsequent publication of a research article (7-9). Other studies demonstrated that program characteristics and faculty size had an effect on publication output (10,11). The role of a supportive mentor (10,12), or a Resident Research Director (13) were also positively associated with scientific production. An additional year devoted to clinical research among surgical residents increased their scientific output (14). However, a recent study failed to confirm undergraduate scientific involvement as the predictor of productive scientific career in radiology (15). Only critical attitude, independence, inventiveness, and curiosity were correlated with research activity (16). Other undergraduate indicators, including grade point average, did not contribute to increased scientific production later in career (16). The situation is becoming even more worrying knowing that high initial interest in scientific research among recently graduated physicians decreased as their residency progressed (17). The reasons for a decreased publication output might include a lack of time, low interest in research, and insufficient mentor support (18). Inadequate senior staff and statistical or secretarial support were identified as major barriers to research activity (19). The same study identified high demand for clinical productivity, lack of protected research time, and a lack of research funding as additional obstacles (19).In 1991, Ministry of Science, Education, and Sports of the Republic of Croatia established a program for research fellows, with an aim to attract the best graduate students to the positions at academic and research institutions. The number of research fellows gradually increased from 995 in 1991 to 2510 at the end of 2005 (20). Career advancement criteria for research fellows are strict, and defined by the Law on Scientific Work and Higher Education (21). Research fellows employed by the Zagreb University School of Medicine represented a total of 5% of all research fellows in Croatia in 2004 and 26% of all fellows employed in the biomedical field (20). The aim of this study was to evaluate the scientific production among research fellows from Zagreb University School of Medicine. We also aimed to identify the factors associated with a successful scientific output, which is the main career advancement requirement for research fellows.     

Curricular and extracurricular activities of medical students during war, Zagreb University School of Medicine, 1991-1995.

War, as a major human disaster, affects many aspects of life, including medical education. This report describes curricular and extracurricular activities of the students at the Zagreb University School of Medicine during the wars in Croatia and neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although condensed versions of the curricula were prepared in case of a major breakdown in civilian life, the school maintained the continuity and quality of its curriculum throughout the war. Students engaged in extracurricular activities related to medical aspects of the war, including organization of resuscitation and first aid courses, collecting medical documentation on war victims, humanitarian help to refugees, and peace-promoting activities. Some students joined mobile surgical teams on the battlefronts. After army service, most of them returned to the school and successfully continued with their studies. The school also accepted guest-students from other new states emerged from former Yugoslavia. The authors found that the students' engagement in extracurricular activities related to medicine was enormously beneficial both to the psychological well-being of the students and to the region's peace-building efforts.     

BMC Medicine: a decade of open access medical research

On 24 November 2003, BMC Medicine published its first article. Ten years and over 900 articles later we look back at some of the most notable milestones for the journal and discuss advances and innovations in medicine over the last decade. Our editorial board members, Leslie Biesecker, Thomas Powles, Chris Del Mar, Robert Snow and David Moher, also comment on the changes they expect to see in their fields over the coming years.     

ExaCT: automatic extraction of clinical trial characteristics from journal publications

Background  

Clinical trials are one of the most important sources of evidence for guiding evidence-based practice and the design of new trials. However, most of this information is available only in free text - e.g., in journal publications - which is labour intensive to process for systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and other evidence synthesis studies. This paper presents an automatic information extraction system, called ExaCT, that assists users with locating and extracting key trial characteristics (e.g., eligibility criteria, sample size, drug dosage, primary outcomes) from full-text journal articles reporting on randomized controlled trials (RCTs).