Evaluation of medical alumni dissertations of one of the medical sciences universities in principles of writing

Document Type : Review

Authors

Abstract

  Aims: One of the main research references in universities is thesis. Conducting the research in different majors of medicine promote the medical sciences and better conducting of student thesises according to the given standards is of considerable importance. The aim of the study was to assess students' theses and medical assisstance in terms of the observing the manuscriptical principles.   Methods: Through a cross-sectional analytical study from 2000 to 2006, 318 theses were selected and examined using census method. At first a data collection containing required variables for scoring (0-100) was prepared. Different parts of all theses including the title, introduction, material and method, result, conclusion, discussion, index, writing principles, Persian & English abstract and references, were analyzed and scored. All checklists were filled by researcher qualitatively.   Results: The highest score was for the section of result with the mean of 97.4 and the lowest score was for English abstracts with the mean of 74.1. 106 theses had published articles. The highest rate of coversion of thesis to article was related to neurosurgery department (66.7%). The difference of the coversion of thesis to article was significant in both basic science and clinical group (p=0.03). The theses which had higher mean scores were more resulted in published articles (p=0.02). Gyneacology–Obstetric department with the mean of 96.2±2.9 had the highest score and the microbiology department had the lowest score 81±5.3. Conclusion: The major problem of theses is the abstract and methodology sections. It seems necessary to check the theses constantly and to hold regular research and article workshops also the regular evaluation of theses and improvement of thesis preparing process are essential.  

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