International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology | June 2020 | Vol 9 | Issue 6 Page 966 International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology Narasimhaiah MG et al. Int J Basic Clin Pharmacol. 2020 Jun;9(6):966-970 http://www.ijbcp.com pISSN 2319-2003 | eISSN 2279-0780 Original Research Article Attitudes and barriers of medical students towards conducting research in a medical college Manjunath G. Narasimhaiah 1 *, Swamy R. Mallikarjuna 1 , Riyaj A. Kalaburgi 2 INTRODUCTION Scientific research is a systematic study aiming to solve a problem and is the main stimulus in a society to guarantee its development and is considered a key growth indicator. The difference between the developed and developing countries lies in the research facilities, conditions, and domains. 1 The concern toward scientific research has increased in both developing and developed countries because biomedical research can improve medical care. 2 In fact, developing countries do not use research instruments to recognize and solve problems and that is why they are incapable of meeting their needs scientifically. Therefore, developing countries are mainly consumers of the scientific findings of the developed countries, mostly published in the academic journals of the same countries. As universities are the main scientific core of the societies, it is the duty of the universities to perform a great portion of the research works. 1 The medical students should be aware of the methods in carrying out research as they will be future doctors who will have to practice evidence-based medicine in patient care. 2 Research in medicine has an impact on prevention, diagnosis, and newer treatment for the medical ailments. It has brought reforms in policies for health-care programs. 2 All undergraduate students in all higher education institutions should experience learning through, and about, research and inquiry. For this to be possible it DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20202191 1 Department of Pharmacology, Sri Siddhartha Medical College, Tumkur, Karnataka, India 2 Department of Community Medicine, Sri Siddhartha Medical College, Tumkur, Karnataka, India Received: 15 April 2020 Revised: 11 May 2020 Accepted: 12 May 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Manjunath G. Narasimhaiah, Email: manjunathpharmacology@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Background: It is well known that evidence-based medicine is the rule for clinical practice. This can be enhanced by conducting good research. Medical students being the future doctors should contribute significantly. But the research among the medical students is very poor with respect to presentations and publications. In view of this data the study was done to know their perception, attitude and barriers for conducting research. Methods: This was a cross sectional observational study involving three different batches of medical students by giving a semi-structured questionnaire. Results: The response among the participants to involve in research was only 30%. Among them the overall attitude and barrier score were 3.69±0.29 and 3.63±0.42 respectively with statistical significance shown between genders and not between batches. The biggest barrier was lack of previous research experience (91.67%). The most common motivational factor was self-interest (90.7%). Conclusions: If given sufficient training and facilities provided, we should be able to get more research among the medical students. Keywords: Attitudes, Barriers, Motivational factors, Student research