Patterns and trends of medical student research.

Background: Our study describes the change in the research output, trends and content of published research involving medical students over the last century.

Methods: Pubmed® and Scopus® were searched for keywords 'Medical Student' in the affiliation field. The search results were combined in Endnote® and duplicate entries removed and the multiple variables described below were assessed.

Results: The combined searches after excluding duplicates yielded 416 results and 66 articles were excluded. There was an exponential increase in medical student research from 1980-2010. Medical student was the first author in 170 (48.6%) studies and 55 studies were authored by a single medical student. The 3 most common areas of research in descending order were Psychiatry (n = 26, 7.4%), General Medicine (n = 24, 6.9%) and Medical Education (n = 21, 6%). The commonest type of articles, in descending order were review articles (n = 48, 13.7%), Cross sectional studies (n = 47, 13.4%) and Case reports (n = 43, 12.3. The majority of these articles (n = 207, 59.1%) have never been cited subsequently. The trend of increasing number of articles was seen equally among all article types, fields and countries.

Conclusions: There is an exponential increase in articles by medical students but the majority of articles have not been cited. The numbers of medical student authors per publication have remained static while the total numbers of authors have increased. The proportions in the type of articles, fields of study and country of origin have largely remained static. Publishers and authors should strive to enhance the quality and quantity of data available in indexing services.