Do Financial Incentives Increase Doctors’ Willingness to Publish Research? – A Pilot Study of 21 Junior Doctors

As part of strategic initiatives focusing on building a research oriented culture, some healthcare institutions offer clinical staff monetary rewards for doing research. The question is if the promise of extra pay is effective as a management tool when trying to increase clinical research activity: Although it is well-documented that academics respond to the prospect of long-term financial gains,1,2 it has not been previously studied if a moderate one-time financial incentive can increase research activity of clinical staff. A proof-of-concept study was carried out to study if it was possible to develop a “supply curve for research publications” that reflected the effects of monetary incentives combined with other initiatives for facilitating research.