Influence of a Scientific Initiation Programme on scientific output of professors on a medical course in Brazil.

Background: Scientific Initiation Programmes (SIP) are now considered increasingly important in medical courses, and are now being introduced in many medical courses. The School of Medicine at Universidade Federal Fluminense pioneered on optional SIP in 1995. This study aims to compare scientific output of professors who engaged in SIP disciplines (SIP group) with that of professors who did not (non-SIP group).

Methods: Data on the scientific output of both groups was collected from a period that began 4 years before and ended 4 years after the SIP's inception. The average number of papers published or presented in me di cal meetings in both groups was compared.

Results: The scientific output of the SIP group was larger than that of the non SIP group (p = 0.0017), except for M.Sc. professors (p = 0.8362). This result did not change when the scientific production of Ph.D. professors was analysed according to the periods before (p = 0.0003) and after (p = 0.0001) SIP's inception. Scientific output of M.Sc. professors of both group were similar in both periods, i.e., before (p = 1.0) and after (p = 0.67) SIP's inception. When scientific output in the periods before and after SIP's inception is compared, it was found that it increased in both groups, SIP (p = 0.0001) and non SIP (p = 0.0086) alike.

Conclusions: After the inception of SIP, all professors had an increase in their scientific output; however, this occurred independently of their engagement in SIP disciplines.