How do I get started? Find a mentor? Prepare my CV, cover letter, and personal statement?
Medical students must understand that they have a very important role as a research or scholarly activity trainee. Responsibilities associated with that role include:
- Identifying and clearly defining research or scholarly activity interests and goals
- Actively participating in the process of identifying a mentor
- Being an active research or scholarly activity trainee/mentee and contributing to the team as a whole
It is also important for medical students to seek meaningful research and scholarly activity experiences. Such experiences often result in some sort of publication, abstract, or poster presentation. Tips for finding research and scholarly activity opportunities include:
- Prepare your CV. Your CV should outline your education; honors/awards; work experience; prior research experience (including institution, department, PI, project title, description of your specific role, research skills, presentations, publications, etc.); leadership (e.g., student government); community service; and memberships.
Preparing Your CV, Cover Letter, and Personal Statement
- Invest time to determine what interests you. Are you interested in biomedical (bench) research? Human-based clinical research? Medical education research? Community-based investigation? Commercial clinical trials? What research topic interests you?
- Determine how much time you have available to commit to a project. Are you interested in a summer research project? Will this be a scheduled research rotation? How many weeks do you have to commit to the project? How many hours per week can you commit to the project?
- Determine if you can pursue a research project or scholarly activity if funding is not available.
- Determine your desired outcome of the project. Publication? Poster presentation?
After asking yourself these fundamental questions, steps you can take to identify research and scholarly activity opportunities include:
- Review the literature to determine who is conducting research in your geographic region that may be of interest to you.
- Talk to your classmates and residents about your interests and see if they can provide any recommendations of individuals who they know are conducting this type of research or scholarly activity.
- Review Heritage College or Ohio University faculty research and scholarly activity interests to determine if anyone within our school is conducting research or scholarly activity that matches your interests and reach out to them.
- Information regarding Heritage College faculty interests can be found in the Staff and Faculty Directory or by exploring Heritage College institutes and other health-related institutes within OHIO including:
- Diabetes Institute (DI): Research foci includes disease mechanisms (inflammation and metabolic dysfunction in obesity and diabetes), interprofessional healthcare teams (education, technology, and healthcare delivery systems to train and support the healthcare team), and Patient and Population Health (clinical and behavioral outcomes for the prevention and treatment of obesity and diabetes in underserved populations).
- Infectious and Tropical Disease Institute (ITDI): Research foci includes Tropical Disease Initiative (biology of Chagas disease; malaria research; medical entomology of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes), Healthy Living Initiative (social and economic development for long-term Chagas disease control in Ecuador), Reproductive/Sexual Health Initiative (public health and research in sexually transmitted diseases, and bacterial pathogenesis (molecular mechanisms underlying virulence gene expression, virulence-associated bacterial processes, host-pathogen interactions)
- Ohio Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute (OMNI): Research foci includes the Pain Disorders Research Division (musculoskeletal rehabilitation research program) and the Healthy Aging Research Division (frailty and fractures research program)
- Appalachian Institute to Advance Health Equity Science (ADVANCE): Promotes research that contributes to the developing science of health equity and population health improvement through the study of health outcomes and services, as well as social factors that impact health. ADVANCE fosters social science and health services research to reduce health disparities based on a wide range of social factors, and it supports research collaboration across Ohio University and with community-based research partners.
- Edison Biotechnology Institute (EBI): Research foci includes growth disorders, diabetes, obesity, autoimmune diseases, inflammation, aging, infectious diseases, and cancer. EBI fosters basic discovery research, the development of new technology, and the transfer of that technology to the private sector to create companies, jobs, and investments in Ohio.
- Ohio Center for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies (OCEES): The core philosophy of OCEES is that the frontiers of ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) are advanced by integrating diverse conceptual and methodological approaches from different academic disciplines.
- You can also search Heritage College and Ohio University faculty in the OHIO Experts Directory and the Research and Scholarly Opportunities with OHIO Faculty webpage.
- Information regarding Heritage College faculty interests can be found in the Staff and Faculty Directory or by exploring Heritage College institutes and other health-related institutes within OHIO including:
- Review clinical site research information pages (if available) for information on individuals who may be conducting research of interest to you. Examples include the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute and the OhioHealth Research Institute.
- Visit the Association of American Medical Colleges Research and Training Opportunities Database.
- Schedule a meeting with the Office of Research and Grants. Our staff is happy to meet with students to discuss their research and scholarly activity interests and provide resources that may help students find research opportunities. We hold weekly office hours via Microsoft Teams. Schedule office hours or contact traineeresearch@ohio.edu. If requesting a meeting outside of office hours, please include a meeting topic and a few dates and times that you may be available, and a staff member will be in touch as soon as possible.
It is imperative that students are proactive and reach out directly to potential mentors who are conducting research or scholarly activity of interest to them to inquire about the possibility of joining their team. Students can adapt the email below to assist them in reaching out to potential mentors.