Our goal is to facilitate student engagement in research and other scholarly activity in both the preclinical and clinical years.
What is scholarly activity? Boyer identifies 4 components of scholarly activity: Discovery, Integration, Application, and Teaching. (Boyer EL. Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professorate. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1990). Some examples of activities that fall in each of these categories are below. If you want to engage in scholarly activity, please complete the appropriate form and return to the ORSP prior to engaging in the project. This will make you eligible for funding. Note that scholarly activity are activities that are generally intended to be presented or disseminated to external audiences.
Some journals allow for medical students to engage in peer review. Peer review of journal articles is the foundation of journal article publication. Known opportunities are listed below, as well as some resources for what makes a good review(er). The latter may help with understanding what makes a rigorous manuscript, and what reviewers are looking for.
Students who would like to participate in research or other scholarly activity are encouraged to contact us for help getting started on the process of gaining approval. Additional information can also be found at the links below.
For more information regarding student funding, see "Does 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ have funding for me to present my work...?" Please be sure to ask for reimbursement procedures from the ORSP, and review these procedures for funding, prior to submitting an abstract, so you know what to expect. Funding for conferences is through reimbursement.
As far as the scholarly activity projects available, students are responsible for contacting faculty to see about joining a research or scholarly activity project. The best way to do this is to reach out to faculty with similar interests. You may access the faculty research webpages as the link to the right, or you may simply email a faculty who lectured on a topic of interest.
A 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ affiliated research project means a project, for which 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ resources are being utilized. This could mean personnel time, funding, space, etc. 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ affiliated projects must be approved in advance of starting the project. These 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ affiliated research projects may include work at another institution, for which 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ is providing personnel time or funds.
All full-time 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ employees working with other institutions on research projects are generally considered to be engaged in 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ affiliated projects. There are some exceptions (e.g. conducted during vacation time, leave without pay, etc.). You MUST talk with your supervisor and get approval about these exceptions in advance.
Students are not always considered engaged in 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ affiliated projects when doing work on their own time with a different institution or non-91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ faculty or employee. See below for more information.
Yes, 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ has (limited) funding to support student travel to present at a conference and to have posters printed? To be eligible to request funding, you must:
Possibly. The answer depends on whether you are a student or an employee.
Student feedback indicates that the cons of being involved in 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ affiliated research are 3-fold:
Student feedback indicates that the benefits of being involved in 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ affiliated research are as follows:
The process is the same as the research project initiation process. Briefly, complete a 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ ORSP-1 form and return it to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and define your role on the project.
As a 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ student research mentor, your responsibilities are to help guide the student through the approval process and ensure that the required permissions are in place. The 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ mentor may also help the student access 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ resources (e.g. statistics consultation, travel/poster funding) or provide professionalism mentoring. The 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ mentor may also be monitoring educational aspects of the program (e.g. a research rotation).
For clarity, the 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ mentor is not research personnel on the project and the 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ mentor should not be funding the research. The student should not be sharing data or specific information regarding the project with the 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ mentor, nor should the 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ mentor ask for any of those things related to the research project (without permission of the PI).
Research projects working with these types of subjects or data require additional approvals. There are two types of approvals that must be in place for this type of work:
The first bullet point is generally pretty quick. The second bullet point can take several months to ensure appropriate approvals or agreements are in place. Remember that all approvals for such projects must be in place prior to the individual undertaking the work in order for it to be recognized as a 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ affiliated research project.
The short answer, YES, but see below.91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ does not consider students as 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ personnel for research purposes during your summer off from academics (unless you are on campus working with 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ personnel), or when you are not on rotations (e.g. evenings or weekends). If you choose to forego the process of having 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ recognize and oversee a research project as 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ affiliated that is fine. Understand that you will not be able to have it discussed in your Dean’s letter, be able to request 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ funds to present the work, or have access to other 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ support. The PI at the other institution, however, may have funds and resources they may devote to the project. The PI at the other institution is responsible for your conduct and ensuring you are undertaking the work ethically and responsibly (as are you).
As with other, 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ or non-91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ related activities, you are expected to act professionally and ethically as a student physician. If the work is presented, you should indicate your primary affiliation as with the institution, at which you undertook the work. You may also indicate your current affiliation is with 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, but the distinction that the work was done and overseen at/by the other institution should be clear. Here is an example of how to indicate this information:
Doe, Jane1,2, Other, Author1, Additional, Author11[Other Institution Name]; 2Current Affiliation-91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ
Literature reviews are the first step in any scholarly activity project. Literature reviews allow you to gain a solid foundation on what has already been done on the topic, what gaps there are in the literature (which help you develop your specific question), and permit you to place the project and question in context.
Case report are a common mechanism for a brief scholarly activity project. Case reports still require a literature review, so see the above accordion for guidance. Below are some videos and documents for writing case reports. Many of the links focus on requirements for publication in a journal, however, the points and steps are universal for case reports, even if you do not plan on submitting to a journal for publication. Read some published case reports for examples.
The WVCTSI provides resources for students to develop their research and scholarly activity skills. There are a variety of regarding research and scholarly activity.
supports student research. For more information, go to their website. There are also some video resources regarding research and how to get started.
The American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) provides a host of scholarly activity resources and webinars regarding research and writing. Check out the Scholarly Activity Series available on the .
Available on demand webinars topics include:
These elective rotations have various deadlines and many are accepted on an ongoing basis. Most require application almost a year in advance, so plan accordingly. Check out the information page at the links below. Elective rotations for credit through 91Ï㽶ÊÓƵ must be approved by your StateWide Campus Regional Assistant Dean. Refer to the Clinical Education Manual for more information.
Likely require a leave of absence or other arrangement.