Scholarly Project Curriculum

Every student at the College of Medicine – Phoenix designs and successfully completes a hypothesis-driven research Scholarly Project (SP). Students work closely with mentors and the Scholarly Project office throughout the four years of their project. Through this process students learn about medical information literacy, life-long learning, teamwork, effective communication, research methods, evidence-based medicine approaches and ethics related to scholarly inquiry.

If you are interested in becoming a Scholarly Project mentor, please complete our mentor availability form.

Scholarly Project Timeline

Year 1: Students pair with a faculty mentor with similar interests and goals. The student and mentor complete a research question and a project prospectus. Once institutional review board compliance is fulfilled the student begins the research project.
Year 2: The student and mentor meet regularly to carry out the research project. The student provides an oral presentation of their progress to a panel of faculty.
Year 3 (the clerkship year): The student and mentor continue to meet regularly; however, the student's time to work on the project may be limited due to clerkship activities.
Year 4: The students submit a final poster and thesis summarizing their entire scholarly project. Each student presents the poster at the annual Student Research Symposium, where selected students also provide oral slide presentations.

Scholarly Project Notables

During Year 1, students receive training in literature searches, evidence-based medicine, research design, statistical approaches, research compliance, and prospectus construction.
There are 10 one-week content-free blocks distributed throughout Years 1 and 2. Students can devote part of these one-week blocks to scholarly project work.
Students have a 6-week Personalized Active Learning block between Years 1 and 2. Students can devote all or part of this block to scholarly project work.
Prior to entering Year 3, students have a 5-week Transitions block with 12-14 half days reserved specifically for work on their scholarly project.
Scholarly project productivity is limited during Year 3, but most students identify pockets of time to maintain productivity.
A rough draft of the scholarly project thesis should be completed by November of Year 4.
Students are able to pursue a 4-week research elective in Year 4. Students can use the elective for follow up projects, writing manuscripts, or other scholarly project-related activities.
Students are able to apply for travel funds to present their scholarly project work at a national conference.
Our statistician, Paul Kang (paulk@email.arizona.edu), is available for students who need advice about experimental design and data analysis.
Students are able to consult with our research specialist, Kelley Howard (kelleyhoward@email.arizona.edu), for advice about research compliance and IRB.

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