ArticleBMC medical education2021
Exploring factors associated with research involvement of undergraduate students at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Rwanda.
Article in BMC medical education, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Barriers and enablers of research participation among undergraduate health students in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.BMC medical education · 2026Pooled it
- Research involvement among undergraduate medical students in Bangladesh: a multicenter cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Relationship matters: a qualitative study of medical students' experiences in a learner-driven research program in South Korea.BMC medical education · 2023Article
- How Do Medical Students Perceive Their Research Experiences and Associated Challenges?Advances in medical education and practice · 2023Article
- Undergraduate students' involvement in research: Values, benefits, barriers and recommendations.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2022Article
- An assessment of publishing practices and barriers faced by medical students to conduct research: A cross-sectional study from Pakistan.Health science reports · 2022Article
- Perceptions and experiences of undergraduate pharmacy students and alumni toward research after exposure to undergraduate research courses.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
- Public Health Student's Attitudes Toward Research.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Knowledge, Attitudes, Experiences, and Perceived Barriers to Health Research Among Clinical-Year Medical Students at Addis Ababa University, College of Health Sciences: A Cross-Sectional Study: Exploring the perspectives of medical students towards research.Journal of medical education and curricular developmentArticle
- Knowledge, Attitude, and Perceived Barriers of Undergraduate Medical Students Towards Research. A Cross-Sectional Questionnaire-Based Study in Morocco.Journal of medical education and curricular developmentArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEarly involvement of students in research processes is an important step in professional development and can increase the academic output of the university. Previous studies indicate low research involvement amongst undergraduate students, however limited research has been done in sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed to describe the level of research involvement amongst undergraduate students at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS) at University of Rwanda (UR) and to assess factors associated with research involvement.
methodsThis cross-sectional study covered the three CMHS campuses. A survey was shared in class WhatsApp groups from July to September 2020. Data were analyzed using Stata IC 16.0 with descriptive statistics and Fisher's exact test. P-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
resultsIn total, 324 students participated with the mean age being 23.3 (standard deviation 2.27). Males constituted 65.1% of respondents vs. 33.3% females. The largest portion of respondents were from the School of Medicine and Pharmacy (46.6%), and Medicine was the most frequent department (33.3%). On a Likert scale from 1 to 10, 60.0% of the respondents thought that research was 10/10 important for undergraduate students, with the mean value being 8.8. Rating their interest in taking part in research during undergraduate studies, 48.2% scored it 10/10, with the mean value being 8.57. 80.3% of respondents had attended a research module, course, or workshop; however, only 48.8% had participated in a research project and 72.0% of them had been involved in data collection. Inadequate knowledge about research processes and lack of mentors were the main barriers to research participation in 48.0 and 40.2% of respondents respectively. Establishment of a UR-Undergraduate research support center (77.2%), and involving students in ongoing UR projects (69.4%) were the most frequent suggestions to improve students' research participation.
conclusionUndergraduate students at the CMHS in the UR have a large research interest, yet their involvement is currently low. Limited knowledge about research processes and shortage of mentors remains potent barriers to participation. Inviting undergraduate students to partake in ongoing projects and establishing a UR undergraduate research support center are recommended to strengthen undergraduate research experience at the UR-CMHS.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.