Research in physical medicine and rehabilitation. VII. The role of the principal investigator.

The roles and responsibilities of the principal investigator of a research project are described to allow the young researcher to make an intelligent decision regarding which role to take in a research project. Guidelines are given about which tasks may be delegated and how to do this. These tasks include formulation of the question, project design, obtaining funding, project startup and ongoing management, data analysis and publication. Particular attention is paid to design/analysis and publication, since these determine authorship on biomedical research articles.