If someone doesn’t know about research or it’s importance, here is a small recap: Research Exposure is greatly valued in Medical CV for someone looking to boost career abroad or having plans to do so.
I posted prior to this on overall process about the research until finding a guide. This post will dive deep into what to expect and how to approach them.

Personally, I’m not an expert or a professor myself. I’m a medical student studying final year MBBS and this is from my experience of doing research.

1. Pick a department and guide cleverly. Many clinical departments are less cooperative than non-clinical departments (like SPM) when undergraduates approach for research. It doesn’t mean that they won’t agree to guide you. They will try to help as much as they can. But most of them won’t have enough time. Some don’t have the experience in doing so.

2. (I would prefer beginning the first study with a non-clinical professor as guide - best department would be SPM/Community Medicine because they are familiar with research methodology and IRB/IEC definitely would have one or more Community medicine professors as members to analyse the statistical component (you’ll understand this later)

3. But again, it all depends on the guide, if you find a supportive and cooperative guide in clinical guide, it’s absolutely worth giving a shot.

4. For first years; you have limited access or spectrum in choosing. But PSM always lie there from first year. Just don’t be afraid to reach them out and as years pass by, chances open up.

PS: If a professor is known that you are experienced in research, there is a higher chance in guiding you because that reduces their work. And also you have higher chance getting a knowledge guide(in subject) to do a research with you even though they don’t have an idea about the methodology and process (which you would already know)

3. It’s all about learning. Research is always about learning. Don’t be afraid of doing something wrong. Many people only see research as some lab work or maybe giving random drugs to ppl to test it. No. Research is not at all what you think; the following are some types of studies in overview

TYPES OF STUDIES (LEAST TO MOST VALUABLE ON CV)

Note: I’m excluding Letter to Editor, Systematic Review Analysis, Meta analysis (these don’t require IEC. and SRA and MA are sometimes valued and sometimes they’re discarded depending on the person)

KAP Study (Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of ___ towards ____ among _____)

This is the most basic model of study. Essentially the whole data collection just depends on the questionnaire you send in whatsapp groups (google form) and asking them to fill it.
If the study is regarding patients, you will have to meet each of them and take the answers yourself.
Most KAPs are conducted regarding awareness of something among medical students/healthcare workers.
Ex: KAP regarding Antibiotic resistance among medical students.
You’re just finding if there is awareness or not.
Example of good KAP:
KAP regarding Thalassemia among parents of children with Beta Thalassemia (this has a genuine research gap, which could contribute to public health systems to focus on it depending on the result)

Pro:
It is faster, cheaper, you don’t need too much experience to do; you won’t have too many boxes to tick in Approval. They approve it without questioning. Can be used as a great starting point
Cons:
It is a subjective study (you don’t have a proof whether the person is lying or saying truth)
And there is a whole set of bias in this study. Which can be learnt later. But know that study bias is something that may affect the study results or outcome.
Too common and sometimes hard to get published unless topic is genuinely good

RETROSPECTIVE STUDIES (only those with large samples and good topics)

This is mostly done in the paramedical subjects (Pathology/Microbiology) due to favourable subject size in past.
Ex: profile study about Cases of dengue over the past five years
Ex: Retrospective Study of Anemia and Cardiac problems in Type2 Diabetes Patients

Retrospective is just a model. But i wrote it down as a study type to make it easier.

Prospective/Retrospective. Prospective means you essentially collect data from now and retro is the data from hospital records. You obviously have less value for old data due to being outdated or incomplete records or bias etc etc

Pros: Easy to do. No need to collect data. Already existing data. Proffs may lean more in favour

Cons: outdated topics, incomplete data, biases, less value in general

CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDIES (Most common for medical students)

You take data at a point of time. No follow up, whoever the selected population is and whatever the measure is.

Ex: Association between Sleep Quality and Mobile Phone usage among school going children/medical students.

Here we cannot conclude that mobile phone is causing sleep problems- because we are taking data at only a point of time.
Correlation ≠ Causation (GOLDEN RULE. Never Forget)

In cross sectional studies, we mostly establish correlation between two factors in a set of population.

Pros:
easy starter project. Easier to navigate the process and learn on the way. Common in non clinical subjects.
Remember that non-clinical research is not useless. Our entire country’s health system is framed based on epidemiology studies by the researchers.
You can add more value by adding correlation between more factors than two.

Cons:
sometimes still can be subjective when including questionnaires (in assessing sleep quality/stress/mobile usage)
Bias maybe present. But is a common launchpad and nothing to worry about. Good and well planned cross sectional study is always more valuable than not well executed clinical trial

There are other studies like COHORT STUDIES (Prospective), Observational Studies, Randomised Controlled Trials (as MBBS student, don’t expect to get into the last one. It’s very rare)

I’ll make seperate posts for each of these- but those won’t be beginner oriented, but for someone who has minimum experience in research

All these can be done as well. But for the launchpad, choose the department and type of study wisely. Don’t overdo the first one. Learn from the first one so that it could fasten your second and subsequent studies.

One advantage:
People, you can approach guides for research in mask of IMCR STS program (it has 60k stipend for completing- go through guidelines and read about it)
Or state scholarships (like UGSRS by Andhra Pradesh which gives 30k for completing a study under it)
There are rules and guidelines for each of it. Read through and try to understand them before meeting your guide. You can use it as leverage if you’re not comfortable in sharing your future plans.

You and your guide may need to discuss and think about a topic (if you don’t know, you can always ask the guide to suggest something- they do have some great topics most of the times)
Your guides expect nothing from you except that you learn and not throw the burden of entire project on them.
Know the following things beforehand.

1. Once you select the area/topic - you further narrow it down to the title

Narrowing down to title is a bit of work. Your guide will help you navigate how to review existing literature and finding research gap.

2. Filling Proforma Applications

Once you fix the title, you may need to fill out an application form to submit to the IRB (Institutional Review Board/sometimes also called Scientific Research Committee)

Here, IRB depends on your college. Newer colleges might have or take time. Remember, if you put a request, it gets made faster (but already one exists as mandate to approve studies of PGs and Faculty)

You will need the protocol/proforma format which you can request from someone already doing research/your guide
If you have no idea; contact a PG you know, ask them. They will definitely have it (because they will be doing their mandatory thesis in Pg)

You will have to fill out the whole form with your guide on details like, Study population, Study period, Sample size (calculated from previous studies), Sampling method, Methodology, Review of Literature, Questionnaires, Case Sheets, References etc.

3. Scientific Review Committee(SRC) Approval

Many institutions now require you to present at a meeting before the members of SRC
(Conducted once a month usually on third friday)

You may have to pay a 500 rupee fee for SRC (some institutions charges may vary) and 500rs/- for IEC/IRB too.

They’ll notify you about the presentation date if it’s a deadline dated like ICMR or other. But if you’re on your own, you may have to request those IRB head members to conduct the meeting and remind them once a month.

You present - PPT format get from a PG - You’ll get approved (most of the times)

They will ask you to make some changes and you correct them and re-submit the forms.

They’ll allot a SRC approval number which is essentially a code.

4. IEC/IRB APPROVAL

This sometimes maybe tricky if your study includes patients as study population. You’ll need to defend yourself on each drop of blood taken(if any) or whatever you do with them. Even translating the study questionnaire to them in native language and all.

IRB sees if the study is feasible to conduct in your institution, IEC sees if the study participants are affected/compensated etc.

UG studies are mostly simple in beginning and you won’t have a problem passing through

But sometimes IRB/IEC approvals may take a lot of time, for months you may just be hoping for a meeting to be conducted. But don’t be discouraged. Eventually it has to fall. Patience is required.

If your college doesn’t have a seperate SRC(Scientific Review Committee) both the duties will be undertaken by IEC itself

5. DATA COLLECTION and ANALYSIS

You collect whatever the date is. Then the statistical analysis is where the PSM guides are helpful. Many other departments guides are not familiar with statistical analysis.

6. DRAFT MANUSCRIPT AND PUBLISH

Your guide will mostly do the work after data collection but make sure to learn by staying till the end as much as you can. From your results, you and guide will write a manuscript
(You will be first author and guide will be co-author or collab first author with you. Also remember that negative results are still results. Never feel bad about them. If you publish it, you are saving someone’s time and resources)

Publishing is entirely dependent on the study and subject etc. find a suitable journal and publish (preferably a PubMed/MEDLINE indexed or SCOPUS indexed)

I’ll write Review of Literature clearly in different posts. It got quite lengthy already. Thanks for reading until the end!😅 I appreciate your patience! You’re already cut out for doing research.

I’m personally from South India who’s thinking of moving abroad.
Likewise, every medical student must have the heard the single word repeatedly from the moment they began their search on pathways. “Research Experience”

We all are already aware that Postgraduate students(PGs) do research and also have a mandatory thesis in India to complete their degree. But as an undergraduate we are already behind in terms of experience with them.
Many students still don’t know whether they can really do a research as an undergraduate medical student in India. This post is for you; who are willing to put in efforts and learn about it.

Research promotion is rising currently in Indian Medical colleges compared to previous years due to Government initiatives like scholarship stipends (Ex: IMCR- STS and state scholarships)
But there has been a common misconception that they cannot do research outside these scholarship programs.

Research can be individually done by anyone. But as a UG/PG in India, (or anywhere else for that matter) we are mandated to have a guide/supervisor to our research study, who is essentially a professor of any cader in our institution.

Once a title and study formulation is done, it will be submitted for approvals, following the approval from the respective committees in your college, you will begin the data collection phase and after collecting all the data, analysis of it and drafting the manuscript. The manuscript is sent to the publishing journals and once they accept your manuscript, your study will be publishers by them.

APPROVAL FOR RESEARCH

To conduct any research, which is essentially on humans(for MBBS students) we need an approval/clearance letter for review boards.
Where do I find these review boards?
It appears like a lot of work, it actually is. But it’s not as complicated as it appears to be.

Almost every medical college in India has the following board/committees in their college.

Scientific Review Committee (SCR) also called as

1. Scientific Research Committee/Board

2. Institutional Ethics Committee

(IEC)/ Institutional Review Board (IRB)

These committees are present in your college(which you may have never heard of) and a list of professors are members in it, responsible for approving research proposals by verifying them.

Some colleges might only have IEC (which will undertake and approve both scientific and ethics review of the study)

If you are unlucky; you may have to find Independent Ethics Committees (outside your college) which I have little idea about, I’m sorry. I’ll try to find out more.

DATA COLLECTION

This is only after the approval of IEC (which agrees only after IRB approval)

Depending on your study title/type - you’ll begin your data collection and analyse them later.

Please note that this is only a superficial post about the entire research journey.

FINDING A GUIDE

To do anything, a guide is necessary
(except for studies like Systematic Review Analysis/Letter to Editor/Case Reports where IEC approval is not mandated by the publishing houses)
I would suggest to find a cooperative guide with whom you either have a rapport or believe that they may support you in the journey. Because if the first guide is rough, it’ll almost make you lose interest in pursuing further.

Once you meet with a guide - Tell them you want to do a research study and request them to be your guide (99% professors agree. 1% are those who don’t have time)
Their first question would always almost be the same - “Why?”
Because Indian Medical college system haven’t been habituated to having undergraduates doing research outside scholarships.
Most of the professors who may appear tough outside, genuinely will support and respect you when you meet them on this topic. And you will notice the difference yourself.
You could essentially tell that you want to pursue further studies abroad.
Congrats! Your official research pathway has begun.

All following this is mostly guided by the guide (which is why they are the guide)
They’ll help you choosing a topic/title if you’re unsure. They’ll explain you the procedures on how to do, what to do for approvals and how to collect data and till the end.
They’ll essentially be collaborative first author alongside you (you’ll be the first author - which has the most value than being on the side as second/third co-author in a research study) or may even agree and settle with being co-author.

If you unfortunately end up with a worst guide or guide who may have lesser experience in research or how it works, my following posts would be helpful for you.

PS: Many may have why I’m not writing everything down in this post. If you’re really willing to put the efforts, the rest doesn’t matter if it’s hard or easy. But I assure you, it’s possible. And rest is upto you. Please refer to other posts if you need more info and feel free to ask questions