This cross-sectional study was conducted in the medical and dental college of Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha, Maharashtra. A questionnaire based survey was conducted after obtaining permission from the Institutional Ethical Committee. The study was carried out from February 2017 to April 2017. A questionnaire containing 12 objective questions was formulated to evaluate the current scenario of research amongst undergraduate students (ANNEXURE 1). This was validated by experts in educational research from SHPER of the university. The questionnaire was then applied on a pilot group of 25 students, following which necessary modifications were made to it. The students of first to final year of both the colleges who were present on the day of distribution of the questionnaire were included in the study. They were given a total of 15 minutes to answer the questions. Postgraduates and those who did not consent were excluded. A descriptive statistical analysis was done on the data collected.

Out of 900 students enrolled over the academic years of 2013 to 2016 into the medical and dental colleges of the university, 510 students responded. The baseline data is represented in [Table/Fig-1]. Undergraduate medical and dental students of the university who consented were included in the study. The questionnaire given to students contained multiple choice questions where multiple answers were permitted for some questions.

The initial question was framed to know how mindful the participants of the study were of ‘research in clinical medicine’ and it was seen that 82.35% of participants were aware of it.

Details about the reasons for participating and not participating in research activity is summarised in the [Table/Fig-2,3]. Four hundred and one students (78.62%) were aware of bodies that promote research in undergraduate level. Eighty five participants (16.66%) attempted to do a STS research. Four hundred thirty seven (85.68%) knew about the grant provided by the university but only 259 (50.78%) knew how to avail it. Four hundred and eight (80%) students knew about the research lab in the university.

When the students were asked if they considered research to be an important part of their curriculum, 21.97% of them said ‘no’ and 78.03% of them perceived it to be an essential part of the medical curriculum.

The participants of this study were asked about their involvement with bodies like ICMR that provide a national platform for undergraduate students to involve in research activity— and it was found that only 16.66% made use of ICMR STS. Apart from the problems discussed earlier, the procedure being cumbersome (11.35%) was an added issue that prevented students from taking up STS under ICMR. When the abstract was not accepted, 66.83% did not proceed with their research as most of them were not aware that they could continue the research after being rejected (50%) and many others (40%) were not interested to complete it without acceptance by ICMR.

When they were asked if the knowledge to carry out research was being imparted via the curriculum, 59.80% responded positively. Four hundred and thirty out of the 510 subjects think that research should be taught as a part of the curriculum in the form of workshops. The questionnaire was concluded by asking the subjects if they were drawn towards taking up clinical research as their career to which 49.60% answered ‘Yes’.

Data from Index Medicus indicates that, in 1998, globally 416,561 research articles were published of which India’s contribution was only 0.714% (2974 articles) [9]. A large number of medical colleges do not even publish a single paper in a year. Possible reasons for this baffling statistics may be;

Though, till date several committees have been appointed to advise the government on the formulation of a National Health Policy including manpower development, it’s ironic that no committee/commission has addressed the issues of the poor state of medical research in India [6,10]. Stalwarts who feel this gap as a major hindrance in cultivating research atmosphere are taking initiative privately to address these issues. One such initiative is the, Undergraduate Medical Students Research Conferences, under the banner of the Moving Academy of Medicine and Biomedicine which was held in October 2006 and February 2008 in Pune. The idea was to nurture exceptional students with research aptitude before it gets lost in the quagmire of commonality [6]. In this study, it was seen that despite having quite a positive attitude of students towards research (82.35%), the outputs i.e. percentage of research completed amongst participants, were low (17.64%). Our results coincide with a study conducted in Saudi Arabia, where 520 students from five medical colleges were included and the study concluded that only 43.9% of students had a positive attitude towards research [11]. On evaluation it was discovered that; this paucity of research aptitude was due to inadequate research resources, time constrains and lack of mentorship. These are the barriers that are seen most frequently, not just in this study but also in similar studies conducted by Osman T, Jeelani et al., and Mark A Dsouza et al., [12-14].

During the training period, the students were over burdened with the work load of exams, practicals, ward duties and tutorials. In such a situation, grades are seen to become the top priority and very few of them think about research. This argument is reinforced by Henzi D et al., [15]. This study showed that lack of interest (18.98%) and research not being a compulsory part of the curriculum (8.51%) are also reasons for reduced participation. A study conducted in Shiraz University, Iran shows that appreciation in terms of certificates, marks or scholarships can go a long way in encouraging students to pursue research [16]. Time constraints to perform research in medical colleges seem to be an universal issue, so this problem should be categorically tackled by incorporating research in the curriculum semester wise, so that each student can at least be oriented with the nuances of medical research without getting burdened, because once in curriculum, it becomes a felt need to learn about research. Then, definitely, interested students will come forward and grab opportunities to do research. There have been several studies indicating that including research in the curriculum, whether short-term or a standardised, makes the medical student more confident about a research carrier [17,18]. At Stanford and Duke, research is an integral part of their curriculum where students can either conduct research during a dedicated year or during longitudinal experience spanning several years [19]. Similar programs were conducted at University of Reading and University of Auckland [20,21]. These programs solve the issue of time constraints and adds credit. This study shows that 84.65% of the subjects consider that workshops or more hands-on methods must be implemented in place of the theoretic methods used to teach them about research methodologies. A Compulsory Practical Training Research Workshop (CPTRW) in every specialty could be implemented by the government [22]. A study in Albert Einstein Medical College revealed how medical research increases a student’s ability to critically evaluate literature, work independently, improve their ability to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and improve data skills [23]. A study conducted in Germany evaluated the contribution of medical students in research publications in medline indexed journals. It showed that, 28% of the papers were authored by medical students. For 66% of medical students their research resulted in a Medline indexed publication, suggesting that; medical student research activity can significantly influence the published output of a medical faculty [24]. Such positive benefits of research must be advertised, so that the desire to do research is ingrained into the young minds.

It is mandatory to organize more number of regional level conferences, where every student with research aptitude will get an opportunity to present and discuss his/her work at a common forum. Medical universities, colleges, health authorities of states should come forward to take up such initiatives. Best performers should be encouraged to present their work in larger platforms both nationally and internationally and all necessary funding should be provided to the student. By voluntarily joining such programs, these students will show a special aptitude for research replacing the age old negative idea that young medical undergraduates are not interested in research. Student’s performance will get enriched considerably, if they undergo short-term training in basic research methodologies. In USA, NIH has two major training programs for medical students. Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), that offers the combined MD-PhD degree, was launched in a few medical schools in the mid sixties with the basic objective to train the medical graduates in both biomedical sciences and clinical research. The program is now successfully running in more than 100 medical schools. Some 600 MDs (4%) enrollees opt for MD-PhD program and this number has remained more or less steady for the last 20 years. Similar programmes should be initiated for undergraduates in our country [25]. To improve the performance of the STS researches, it is necessary to conduct short duration two to three days workshops on research methodology including biostatistics and ethics. Depending on the project undertaken the recipient should also be exposed to techniques that would be used in the investigation.

History of medical research boasts landmark contributions from medical students like the names of; 22 year old German medical student, Paul Langerhans, in 1869 for his work on Islets of Langerhans, Charles H. Best for his pivotal role in the discovery of insulin when he was a student which fetched the 1923 Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine to his mentor Dr. Banting. To make the landmark discovery more dramatic, Banting shared, publicly, 50% of the prize money with his student [6].

Medical students are time and again, made to realize the importance they have in the society as ‘life-savers’. This picture is usually restricted to responsible decisions made in bustling hospitals. The impact that researchers have on millions of lives spanning over generations is often disregarded as the effect is not immediate in nature. A substantial difference can only be brought about by altering the mindset at the grass-root level by giving paramount importance to clinical research. Obviously, given the proper environment [Table/Fig-4] students could contribute in a major way to scientific research.

The limitation of our study is that it includes students of one university only, the result might vary when applied to a larger sample size.

After conducting the study we come to the conclusion that though a large number of students were aware of research, only a few of them have been successful in actually conducting a research study. The lack of participation may be attributed to the hectic schedules of medical students, inadequate support from the faculty and an overall attitude of unimportance towards research. In a nutshell, if we want to reap authentic results, as far as research in medical science is concerned, it is high time we consciously ‘sow’ the seeds of discipline, interest, positive aptitude, good mentorship and ultimately awaken the research culture by changing the curricular system. These changes must be brought about effectively so that in the long run, India yields a rich harvest in the field of research for as we sow, so we reap!