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An audit of the students' corner of Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association.

OBJECTIVE
To analyze the pattern of the first author's institutional affiliation and the distribution of different article types published in the students' corner of the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association.


METHODS
This cross-sectional study was carried out in July 2005 and analyzed the students' corner (whenever present) of the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association from January 1998 to June 2005.


RESULTS
For the 90 issues of the journal in the stipulated period, 96 articles were published in the students' corner. Original studies 46 (47.9%) were the most commonly published article category followed by personal opinion/review category (43.8%) and case-reports 8 (8.3%). The number of personal opinion/review articles has been steadily decreasing. Students from Aga Khan University contributed 74 (77.1%) articles followed by students from Ziauddin Medical University 10 (10.4%). Almost 95% of the authors were from private medical colleges. Sindh was the location of the first authors institution in 90 (93.8%) cases.


CONCLUSION
A major chunk of all articles published in the students' corner of the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association originates from two private medical colleges in Sindh. Efforts must be made to increase student participation across the country. This may be done by asking students to begin scientific writing by submitting personal opinion articles. Further research is needed to assess the status of student research in terms of published output in Pakistan.