A Survey on the Status of Article Publication from Defended Medical Theses in Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, School of Medicine During 1993-2007 Print

Thesis as a research activity and also the final part of the curriculum of medical students may be a vital source for the production of science and technology. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the percentage of student's theses approved for the MD degree in Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences (RUMS) that published in the peer-reviewed Journals between 1993-2007. In this Follow up study, all 502 defended theses in Rafsanjan School of Medicine were investigated. The data were firstly collected in the designed checklists. The Iranian and international databases were then searched to determine how many of these theses had been published. Data were analyed by descriptive statistics and analytical (χ2, t student and correlation) methods. Out of 502 theses, 106 cases (21.1%) had been published in peer-reviewed journals and indexed in the searchable databases. In all 13 departments of basic and clinical sciences, 111 (22.1%) and 391 theses (77.9%) were fulfilled, respectively. Three hundred and fifty nine theses (71.5%) had obtained a score between 19 and 20 (out of 20). Theses performed in the recent years had obtained higher scored than the older ones. The mean time between the defense time of the theses and their publications was 2.9 ± 2.31 years. The results of this study showed that the proportion of published articles extracted from theses was relatively satisfactory but far from the ideal condition. Resolving research problems of clinical academic members as well as for clinical theses, receiving professional supervision or consultation from professors of departments of basic sciences is suggested to improve the publication rates.