research experience is invaluable to the physician 's evidence - based practice as it imparts skills such as literature search , collecting , and analyzing data and critical appraisal of evidence . training for research skills and experience of research early in career has been associated with continued professional academic work and may help inform residents ' career decisions . the medical education system in india there are a numbers of reasons , including lack of funding and manpower resources , responsible for the poor quality in research - oriented medical education . as per the medical council of india ( mci ) requirements , postgraduate students have to carry out a dissertation project as a part of their doctor of medicine / master of surgery ( md / ms ) curriculum . it is a common observation that a majority of postgraduate students conduct research projects during the 2 or 3 years of residency . in order to encourage research orientation in postgraduate students , currently mci has made it mandatory to not only attend one international / national conference , but also give an oral / poster presentation and send the article for publication . a review of literature showed that the data regarding knowledge , attitudes , and practices toward medical research among postgraduate students pursuing postgraduate studies in india is lacking . it is felt that the existing level of knowledge and awareness among the resident doctors who have already conducted / are conducting at least one research study for their dissertation should be evaluated . hence , the present study was carried out to assess the research - related knowledge , attitude , and practices of postgraduate students of a medical college affiliated to pravara institute of medical sciences university of central india . a cross - sectional study was carried out between august 2012 and october 2012 at rural medical college of pravara institute of medical sciences ( deemed university ) , loni , maharashtra , india . a total of 139 postgraduate students studying and working at rural medical college were asked to participate in the study . however , only 116 ( 83.5% ) postgraduate students consented to participate . a predesigned and pretested questionnaire was used in this study , based on the previous literature . the first part pertained to the demographic information of the postgraduate students like age , sex , marital status , year of postgraduation , and field of specialty . the second part had questions related to knowledge , attitude and practices about research methodology and it contained total 12 multiple choice and descriptive questions ; four questions each on knowledge , attitude and practice component . the last third part of the questionnaire was related to the difficulties faced by the residents in conducting medical research . all recorded data were entered in ms excel and analyzed in the form of percentage and proportions whenever necessary . it was observed from table 1 that among the study population , 59.5% respondents were males and 40.5% were females ; and 51.7% were in the age group 2628 years , followed by 29.4% in the age group > 29 years . majority ( 79.3% ) of postgraduate students belonged to clinical departments , while only 20.7% from pre- and para - clinical departments . among the study group , 31% students were in their 1 year of postgraduation , while 34.5% each were from 2 and 3 year . demographic characteristics of the study population proportion of subjects with correct answer for each question on knowledge , attitude and practices questionnaire was shown in table 2 . only 18.9% students knew the definition of research hypothesis , whereas 17.2 and 21.5% students knew the full form of medlars and medline respectively . majority ( 91.4% ) students believed that patient outcome improves with continued medical research and 79.3% needed separate time to be allotted for their thesis projects . sixty - one percent students had previous experience of research projects , whereas 31.1% had presented papers at the institute , national , or international levels ; and 70.7% are willing to participate in workshop on research methodology . assessment of knowledge , attitude and practices about medical research among study population as shown in table 3 , the major obstacles for pursuing research among postgraduate students were lack of time due to vast curriculum of postgraduate subjects ( 59.5% ) , lack of research curriculum ( 25% ) , and inadequate facilities ( 25.8% ) for research . in the present study , out of 116 postgraduate students , 61.2% students had previous experience of research projects , whereas 31.1% had presented papers at the institute , national , or international levels and 70.7% were willing to participate in workshop on research methodology . similar results were obtained in a study done in madison , usa ; in that study , out of 143 postgraduate students , 85% felt that research experience was desirable , 48% were interested in pursuing research during residency , and only 8% were active in research . however , two studies that were carried out in canada and pakistan reflected a contrasting attitude of postgraduate students that a majority of time in residency should be spent learning the clinical aspects of their specialty and they were unwilling to sacrifice personal time for research . a study done by sumi et al . , also revealed that most physicians ( 93.2% ) wanted to attend lectures or seminars on one or more topics related to clinical research . among respondents , 68% of physicians reported current participation in clinical research and postgraduate students reported significant barriers impeding research during residency , such as lack of time , inadequate guidance from teaching staff and financial support . similar obstacles for research among residents have been reported in a study done by khan et al . another study done by sumi et al . , also reported that too much of paperwork was the most frequently cited obstacle in conducting clinical research , followed by lack of time . postgraduate students were interested to learn statistics , good clinical practices , medical ethics , and protocol writing . hence , a research curriculum should be designed considering these aspects . in the present study , it was found that postgraduate students had unsatisfactory knowledge of health research . they had positive attitude towards research , but they failed to transform their knowledge and attitude in actual practices due to lack of time and lack of research curriculum . there is need to encourage postgraduate students to carry out research through provision of technical assistance and essential infrastructure during their postgraduate training program .
background : health research training is an essential component of medical education and a vital exercise to help develop physician research skills.objectives:this study was carried out to assess the knowledge , attitude , and practices towards health research amongst the postgraduate students of pravara institute of medical sciences university of central india.materials and methods : a cross - sectional study was carried out from august to october 2012 . 
 a total of 116 postgraduate students were interviewed . 
 knowledge , attitude , and practices related to health research were assessed using a predesigned , pretested and validated questionnaire . 
 results were analyzed in the form of percentage and proportions whenever appropriate.results:in present study , the concept of research hypothesis was known to only 18.9% of the postgraduate students , whereas 17.2 and 21.5% students knew the full form of medlars and medline respectively . 
 majority ( 91.4% ) students believed that patient outcome improves with continued medical research and 70.7% are willing to participate in workshop for research methodology . 
 lack of time due to vast curriculum of postgraduate subjects ( 59.5% ) , lack of research curriculum ( 25% ) , and inadequate facilities ( 25.8% ) were stated as major obstacles for pursuing research.conclusion:postgraduate students have inadequate knowledge , but have positive attitudes towards health research . 
 postgraduate training and research facilities at the institution need to undergo major transformation in order to encourage meaningful research by postgraduate trainees .