Promoting medical student research productivity: the student perspective.

One-third of medical students complete medical school without significant exposure to research. This gap in their medical education is significant: research not only exposes medical students to scientific methodology and academic writing, but also encourages them to multi-task, communicate, and critically analyze the scientific literature - valuable skills that will serve them well in their future medical careers. We report herein the proceedings from a student-led symposium that aimed to promote student involvement in research at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University by providing practical information on how to successfully complete a research project.