Table 3.

Common themes from global perspectives on research during medical education derived from content analysis of the abstracts/full-text articles.

Theme	Perspectives
Research interest	-Medical students express very high interest in research while in training. -Majority have positive attitude toward research.
Physician-scientist career (decline and shortage)	-Universal consensus on the reality of a decreasing numbers of physician-scientists that should not be ignored.
Response to physician-scientist shortage – MD/PhD and other combined programs, Specialized programs, NGOs, Curriculum	-Dual degrees MD/DO/PhD. -Curriculum changes reflecting research and academic medicine tracks. -Intercalated programs (Equivalence of dual degrees). -Research courses or fairs featuring keynote speakers, presentations, etc. (Germany). -Development of national research programs (Norway). -Voluntary immersion at individual institutions (Lebanon). -Workshops (Saudi Arabia).
Curriculum	-Curriculum often did not incorporate research across the board. -Curriculum not adequate in focusing on research in medical education. -No curriculum at all in some other situations. -Research was buried in the curriculum and not obvious. -Curriculum efforts varied greatly across institutions.
Skills – Motivation, Self-efficacy	-Willing to do research but lack the necessary skills and self-efficacy. -Well motivated but constrained by barriers. -Lack the necessary skills by little exposure to research earlier. -Highly motivated but not self-efficacious.
Needs – Training, Curriculum, Infrastructure, Competitiveness for residency/fellowships for residents	-Curriculum-based training in research necessary to provide the basic skills in research. -Training in clinical research. -Availability of research infrastructure. -Research itself needed for competitiveness for fellowships and residencies for students. -Needs research to improve CV. -For getting into academic medicine or becoming a physician-scientist.
Socio-Economic and Cultural – Organization, Gender	-Males rather than females would want to go into academic medicine or physician-scientists than females. -Cultural issues in some countries where the two genders do not mix. -Males more likely to engage in research than females.
Barriers – Institutional, Non-institutional	-Institutional barriers such as time unavailability, lack of mentors, inadequate support for research, lack of access to electronic resources, lack of mentors, and prolongation of the process of buying equipment, and lack of infrastructure. -Non-institutional: Lack of time, inadequate scientific writing skills, lack of early exposure to research and lack of access to assistance.