Medical Student Research Policy

Student Integrity in Scholarly Activity

The top priority for Boonshoft School of Medicine (BSOM) medical students is to do well with the core curriculum. For those progressing well in the curriculum, involvement in research and scholarly activity can be an important part of education in the field of medicine. Research activity should be understood as complementary to the curriculum, helping students gain knowledge and experience with scientific methods and becoming better consumers of scientific literature. It is important for students to understand that having a research portfolio on a residency application will not offset any apparent deficits in curricular or USMLE performance. 

When applying for residency, programs desire to see high-quality research experiences and activities. Institutional support and approval for scholarly projects is the pathway to formal presentations and publications that appeal to residency programs.

Quality in scholarly activity is more important than quantity and is an aspect of respect for faculty time and resources along with one's own well-being. Students involved in dual degree programs have opportunities for high-quality scholarship in these programs without it being necessary for them to engage in projects in other departments that require additional faculty time and resources. A student's involvement in more than several research studies simultaneously is highly discouraged.

Medical students are expected to adhere to all components of this policy regardless of how much research experience they may have prior to their matriculation in the BSOM.  Students must abide by and adhere to ALL laws, statutes, and regulations regarding research and dissemination of research findings. All personnel involved in research activity, including faculty, students, and those with responsibility in a research protocol, must complete and maintain certification with the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Program (http://citiprogram.org), and must complete any other training requirements of the university prior to beginning research activities.  

All research proposals, presentations, and publications in which a medical student participates while enrolled at BSOM must be supervised by a faculty member. Integrity in scholarly activity is considered an essential aspect of professionalism.

Scholarly activities that require full supervision and approval of a faculty mentor/advisor include, but are not limited to:

• The preparation of research proposals.
• Applications for Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), prior to submission.
  • Review and approval by the IRB of any work that involves human materials/subjects.
  • Review and approval by the IACUC and any other relevant safety committee as appropriate to the study.
  • Note: If the student is the Primary Investigator (PI), Wright State University (WSU) requires that all IRB/IACUC applications have a WSU-affiliated faculty member as an advisor.
  • The faculty mentor must be involved in the determination of whether or not a protocol is appropriate to include under an existing umbrella IRB protocol.
  • The IRB, not the student investigator or faculty mentor, determines whether or not the protocol can be approved as "exempt," "expedited," or "full review."
• The initiation of data collection.
• Any and all proposals for presentations (both oral and poster) at professional meetings.
• Any and all manuscripts to be submitted for publication.

In addition, research mentors and medical students are expected to:

• Adhere to all requirements, regulations, and policies of any hospitals, health systems, or agencies whose patients or personnel are involved as subjects or collaborators in research studies.
• Adhere to the BSOM policy regarding the use of medical students as research participants.
• Adhere to all principles with respect to authorship.
• .Acknowledge all funding sources and all relevant partners/participants
  • Note: Studies that utilize data from the Department of Medical Education or obtain data from or about medical students in the form of surveys, direct observation, focus group discussion, audio or visual recording, etc., must be approved by the Associate Dean of Medical Education. Presentations at specialty-specific professional meetings must involve a BSOM faculty member from that specialty.
• Adhere to guidelines and expectations of data integrity and retention.
• Adhere to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule as it applies to Personal Health Information used in research.

Representation of Professional Affiliation

All students who engage in scholarly research both at the BSOM and with a non-BSOM mentor during their time enrolled at BSOM must cite the Boonshoft School of Medicine as their academic affiliation in all publications and presentations. This is the case even if the mentor/preceptor and/or site of work are not at BSOM. Research publications include books, book chapters, journal articles and/or conference publications, which qualify as original research, as well as poster and platform presentations. In the event the supervisor/main author denies that opportunity to the student, it is the student's responsibility to bring this to the attention of the Associate Deans of Research Affairs, Student Affairs, and Medical Education. Failure to do so would be considered a breach of expected professionalism.

Approved by the BSOM Executive Committee, April 4, 2023