Information for Mentoring Students in Research

How to become a mentor

MSU-CHM medical students have proven to be productive researchers.  Please take a look at a list of recent publications with CHM medical student authors and co-authors:

https://research.chm.msu.edu/8-main/293-chm-student-publications-2022-2023

https://research.chm.msu.edu/12-students-residents/285-chm-student-publications-2021-2022

The Early Mentors for Research Program (EMR-P), offered by the College of Human Medicine in the Fall of each year, is designed to match 1st and 2nd year medical students to reseach mentors. The program is recruiting research mentors right now.  EMR-P offers various benefits for registered mentors, including incentives of up to $500 for research expenses OR up to 10 teaching hours for mentoring a medical student researchers.  

To sign up for EMR-P as a research mentor, please complete this form: Link to EMR-P Mentor Intake form

If you are not interested in being part of the EMR-P program, but would still like to be a mentor for our students please complete this form instead - Research Mentor Registration Form .

For questions, please contact Mark Trottier, PhD, Student Research Director: trottie1@msu.edu, or Angie Zell, MPH, Project Coordinator: zell@msu.edu 

What are my options for mentoring students?

There are a variety of ways in which faculty, staff, fellows, and residents can be involved in mentoring students. Some of the options are below.

  1. Traditional research mentor. In this option, a research mentor would include a medical student(s) in their existing, ongoing research. This could be research in clinical areas, basic sciences, epidemiology, and public health, among other areas.
  2. ASK-Rationality ASK-Rationality is a longitudinal research activity that is required of all 3rd year medical students. The objective of this course is for students to gain experience in developing a study from the ground up.   A mentor for this course, therefore, would be willing to engage students in the very early stages of project development.  A study idea would be the ideal starting place for such a study. This could be the mentor’s idea or a student’s idea. Studies in early stages of development may still qualify.  

           See details of the ASK-Rationality Scholarly Project requirements here: https://www.justintimemedicine.com/CurriculumContent/p/6560

  1. Research Advisor/Consultant. In this role, mentors would serve as advisors or consultants to provide their subject matter expertise on a topic. An example of this type of study would be a student with an idea for a clinical research study who needs a clinical expert (i.e. physician) to assist with subject matter content. In such a study, the student and a member of the CHM Office of Research, or a local instructor for ASK-Rationality, would guide the student on research related tasks such as literature searching, study design, IRB applications, etc..  The Research Advisor would be involved mostly in subject matter-related discussions related to study design, data analysis, or data interpretation and therefore would not be required to be listed on the IRB and go through IRB trainings.
  2. New Researcher Pathway. If you are interested in participating in research, but don’t have a lot of experience in research methods, mentoring, and other areas, you may still serve as a mentor. In this role, you will learn the research process along with the students, thereby offering a form of faculty development to you.  

What resources do you have to support student research?

The CHM Office of Research and MSU offer a variety of services to help students in their research pursuits.  Some of these options are:

  1. Project development. Can support students in various project tasks, including literature searching, developing a research question, protocol writing, IRB applications, etc.
  2. FUNDING. See this page for more info: https://research.chm.msu.edu/students-residents/chm-msu-funding-request-procedures
    1. Travel Funding. Students may be awarded up to $2000 for travel to present their research.
    2. Research Enhancement Funding. Students may be awarded up to $2000 for research expenses.
    3. Poster printing. Students may receive up to $75 toward the cost of printing a research poster. See this page for more info: https://research.chm.msu.edu/students-residents/chm-msu-funding-request-procedures
  3. Statistical Assistance. The Office of Research is partnered with the MSU Center for Statistical Training & Consulting (CSTAT) to offer free statistical support for qualified projects. See this page for more info:  https://research.chm.msu.edu/students-residents/statistical-help
  4. Publication funding assistance. The MSU Library has entered into agreements to offer free or discounted publishing in several Open Access journals. See this page for more info: https://lib.msu.edu/about/collections/scholcomm/support/.   MSU also has an institutional fellowship with BMJ Case Reports for publication for free: https://lib.msu.edu/medicalwriting_publishing/
  5. MSU Librarian. The MSU-CHM librarian is Iris Kovar-Gough and she can support you in various ways, including help with literature searching and use of library resources. See here for more info:  https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/prf.php?account_id=26294
  6. Citation Management Software. The MSU Library offers several citation management software options, including EndNote Web, Mendeley, and Zotero. https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/health-sci-research-skills/write-and-cite
  7. Covidence for Systematic Reviews - Free Covidence account through MSU Libraries. https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/covidence