Medical student research is low quality but spreads nonetheless, study finds– www.thecollegefix.com

Researcher warns of health consequences of doctors using shoddy studies

Published research by medical students continues to proliferate despite concerns about the quality of the work, according to a new report.

“Why Johnny Can’t Stop Writing: The Boom in Low-Impact, Politicized Medical Student Research,” authored by Do No Harm’s Jay Greene, highlights the proliferation of low-quality medical student research in the past 20 years. The researcher offered potential solutions in original comments sent to The College Fix.

Greene found that in the early 2000s, fewer than 12 publications listed students as authors or co-authors, but in the 2020s, more than 700 publications could claim medical student authorship.

Additionally, between 2000 and 2006 no more than 17 publications listed a student author per year, but by 2022, 932 publications listed authors as such.

Much of this research is low-quality and focuses on identity politics.

Greene found between 2000 and 2013, six percent of medical student publications contained at least one of nine preselected “woke terms” in the title or abstract. These terms are: “equity,” “disparities,” “social,” “justice,” “race,” “racist,” “racism,” “diversity,” or “inclusion.”