Performance of Chinese medical postgraduate students in literature searching: a two-center survey and analysis

Zhi Mao; Ting Wu; Jiabing Zhang; Dan Feng; Jinsong Chen; Chao Liu; Shuang Qi; Qinglin Li; Hongjun Kang; Feihu Zhou

doi:10.21037/atm-20-6932

Performance of Chinese medical postgraduate students in literature searching: a two-center survey and analysis

Ann Transl Med. 2020 Nov;8(21):1453. doi: 10.21037/atm-20-6932.

Authors

Zhi Mao¹, Ting Wu², Jiabing Zhang³, Dan Feng⁴, Jinsong Chen⁵, Chao Liu⁶, Shuang Qi¹, Qinglin Li¹, Hongjun Kang¹, Feihu Zhou^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Critical Care Medicine, the first Medical Centre, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
² Department of Pain Treatment, Xiangyang No. 1 People's Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Xiangyang, China.
³ Graduate College, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
⁴ Institute of Hospital Management of Medical Innovation Research Department, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
⁵ Department of Gerontology, Zhangzhou Zhengxing Geriatric Hospital, Zhangzhou, China.
⁶ National Clinical Research Center for Kidney Diseases, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Background: To explore the performance status of Chinese postgraduate medical students in literature searching.

Methods: A self-designed online questionnaire was used to assess the literature search performance of postgraduate students (PGSs) from the classes of 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 from two medical colleges. The items of the questionnaire mainly included: the demographic characteristics of the PGSs, methods of literature review, literature reading habits, and use of literature. We also designed a self-assessed score that ranged from the lowest 1 point to the highest 5 points.

Results: A total of 902 PGSs (482 male, average age: 29.4±5.8 years old, working time range: 0-10 years, average 3.7±2.4 years) completed the questionnaire. Most PGSs investigated literature only at the work tasks (632, 70.1%) and writing papers (571, 63.3%) stages. Of the PGSs, 542 (60.1%) PGSs searched literature frequency (≥1 paper/week), and 114 (12.6%) did not perform advanced searches, and some had no knowledge of advanced search techniques at all. Most PGSs had not read more than 100 Chinese articles or English articles before. Most PGSs were used to read articles from the most authoritative journals (665, 73.7%) or high impact factor (IF) (540, 59.9%). PGSs (845, 93.7%) only read the full text of articles they deemed important. Of the PGSs, 441 (48.9%) did not use literature management tools. For self-assessed score of literature searching and reading skills, the mean was 2.1 (standard deviation, 0.8). Reading literature efficiently (710, 78.7%) and tracking recent literatures (615, 68.2%) were the two needed literature skills reported.

Conclusions: Chinese medical PGSs still have room for improvement in relation to literature investigation. Intensive training in literature searching should be given to improve their performance.

Keywords: Postgraduate students (PGSs); literature search; strategy.