Medical research: Practices and barriers

Osadolor OO1*
1Department of Child Dental Health, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu State, Nigeria.
*Correspondence: Dr. Osadolor OO; +234 705 902 1875; osadolorobehi@yahoo.com

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Keywords: Barriers, Medical research, Practices, Research.
Yen Med J. 2020;2(4):1 – 2.

Cite this article: Osadolor OO. Medical research: Practices and barriers. Yen Med J. 2020;2(4):1 – 2.

Dear Editor,

Research involves systematic investigation or experimentation to discover new knowledge and revision of current knowledge.1 It is the systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of data to answer research questions. Clinical research is an integral part of the practice of medicine and dentistry, it has increased in many developing countries for over a decade, motivated by the need to improve health care and service delivery in these countries. Medical and dental research for health practitioners helps promote evidence-based medicine and dentistry, quality patient care, provide skills for lifelong learning, enhance health practitioner’s analytic skills and develop critical thinking.2

Misconducts in medical research include plagiarism, data fabrication, and falsifications. Unethical publication practices include gift and ghost authorship. Gift authorship is the listing of a person who does not merit to be listed on the authors’ by-line. Ghost authorship is the omission of the name of a person who qualifies to be an author from the by-line.3 To qualify as an author in a peer-reviewed journal, all the following criteria must be met: substantial contributions to conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, final approval of the version of the manuscript to be published and lastly, agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Acquisition of funding or the collection of data, do not justify authorship.3

The rapidly evolving medical science of today necessitates that physicians, dentists and surgeons keep abreast with the latest developments.2 Doctor/Dentist should strive to contribute to the generation of evidence by conducting research. For carrying out a research study, adequate knowledge, practical skills and development of right attitude are crucial.

Possible barriers to medical research4,5 by some health practitioners include  lack of research exposure and poor research training,6 insufficient health practitioner interest,7 limited support time, paucity of mentors,8-12 lack of individual research skills, lack of resources to start with, inadequate facilities for medical research, poor motivation, difficulty in recruiting participants or collecting data, and performing statistical analysis,13,14 poor response and interest from recruited research participants, inadequate funding15 and attitude of  some health practitioners that a majority of time in practice/service should be spent offering clinical services and they are unwilling to sacrifice personal time for research.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Authors have none to declare.

FUNDING

This study was self-funded.

REFERENCES

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