Evaluation of Research Projects Conducted by King Saud University Medical Students: Does Quality Impact Dissemination?

Introduction: Medical students at King Saud University (KSU) conduct research projects during their undergraduate study. However, only a minority of research projects reports are disseminated. This study aims to evaluate KSU medical students research projects conducted during 2011 and 2012, and to assess the association between research reports quality and publication propensity. Methods: This is a case-control study where cases were defined as published reports and controls were defined as unpublished reports. 25% of the research reports submitted in 2011 and 2012 were targeted for this study. The selected studies were critically and independently appraised by two reviewers. Results: Twenty-six research reports were included in this study, where nine reports were published in peer-reviewed journals. All of the included studies were observational, whereas most of the conducted studies were cross-sectional. Quality scores given by each reviewer for each evaluated study were highly correlated (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.897, p-value 0.01). The average quality score for published report is 39.3, which is similar to the average quality score of non-published reports (38.5). There is no statistically significant difference in the means of average quality scores of included studies, neither according to the publication status nor the study year. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the propensity of a student’s research report being accepted for publication does not necessarily rely on the quality of the project report, and that other factors are likely to impact the dissemination rate.