Author reply Re: Patil AB. Attitude of undergraduate medical students towards medical research: A cross-sectional study

I thank the author for the interest in my article, and appreciate the comments and the opportunity to clarify the scope and purpose of the present study.

I wish to emphasize that the study was cross-sectional and descriptive, designed to assess attitudes of undergraduate medical students towards medical research through a structured, pretested questionnaire. The discussion section, while assessing the attitude of undergraduates towards medical research, pointed out that the need for structural interventions, such as integrating research methodology training into the undergraduate MBBS curriculum, was merely a recommendation derived from the findings, and not a part of the study design.

The other query raised was regarding the low percentage of student participants (8.3%) in research activities. This finding, though apparently low, was consistent with previously published literature from India and other developing countries, where undergraduate participation in research remains limited due to factors such as lack of mentorship, time constraints, and absence of structured research training programmes.^1–3 The present study’s finding thus demonstrates the existing research engagement gap among Indian medical undergraduates, highlighting the urgent need for regular curricular initiatives and an institutional support system to improve participation. The present study was intended to document this baseline situation rather than to evaluate the outcome of any intervention. It assessed only the attitude level of the medical undergraduates and did not attempt to change their minds.

The solutions suggested by the correspondents are the same kind of solutions that we have mentioned in the discussion, with evidence from national and international literature regarding the efforts and practices of research training in medical schools.^2,4–7

I thank the correspondents for referring to recent literature that reinforces the purpose and relevance of the present study. The appreciation and acknowledgement of this work as an empirical foundation are deeply valued, as this was the overall objective of the present study.

The author is also grateful for the constructive comments, which provided an opportunity to reaffirm the scope and implications of the present study.