This article has been corrected (see footnote).

Mandatory research projects in specialist training programs may waste registrars’ time and add to the global pit of junk research, says GP and evidence-based medicine expert Professor Paul Glasziou.

In paper published in The Medical Journal of Australia last week, researchers surveyed around 350 anonymous doctors and found that registrars often spent their private time completing their research projects, yet most of what was published had a high risk of bias and poor reporting of results or methods.

“The current approach assumes that all medical trainees aspire to be research leaders; our findings indicate otherwise,” the research team, led by Dr Paulina Stehlik, senior lecturer at Griffith University in Queensland, wrote.