ORCID

0009-0000-1503-4383 (Li, Danxun), 0000-0002-5938-0699 (Ikonne)

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

DOI

10.1007/s40670-025-02508-3

Publication Title

Medical Science Educator

Volume

Advance online publication

Pages

8 pp.

Abstract

Background

The recent transition of scoring for the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 exam from a numerical grading system to pass/fail system has significant implications for residency applicants. It is anticipated that research productivity will gain greater importance in the evaluation process. To understand how medical institutions can best support students, we seek to understand medical students' motivations and experience conducting research in medical school after the USMLE Step 1 scoring change.

Methods

This is a mixed-methods, cross-sectional study that examines the motivations and barriers that medical students face in conducting academic or clinical research. A survey study based on a modified questionnaire for medical students was distributed to second-year medical students at a single institution. Mann-Whitney tests were used to analyze differences attitudes across various subgroups and Pearson correlations quantified the strength of relationships. A thematic analysis was used to examine the qualitative data set.

Results

68 students completed the survey, 35 male and 32 female, and one failed to select an option. 39 students (57.3%) indicated that the USMLE Step 1 transition to pass/fail has influenced their attitudes and beliefs about conducting research in medical school. The most frequently endorsed motivation for medical student research participation was to be more competitive for residency applications [(65/68), 95.6%]. The most frequently endorsed barrier was lack of time [(59/68), 86.8%]. Research participation is correlated with research output (r = 0.49, p < 0.001). Competitiveness of specialty of interest was correlated with research participation (r = 0.36, p < 0.01) but not research output (p > 0.05). There is no difference in research output, participation, or attitudes between genders (p > 0.05).

Conclusions

Medical students perceive research participation and productivity as an increasingly important differentiating factor in competitive residency applications as USMLE Step 1 transitions to pass/fail. However, lack of time to engage research poses a barrier for many students. Efforts that support student endeavors in academic or clinical research are a crucial aspect of the medical school curriculum and should focus on streamlining student research participation as the preclinical curriculum shortens across medical schools.

Rights

© 2025 The Authors.

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Data Availability

Article states: "The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request."

Original Publication Citation

Li, D. X., Li, N. N., Bay, C., & Ikonne, U. (2025). Medical students' attitudes towards research participation after the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 scoring change. Medical Science Educator. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-025-02508-3

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