The Utrecht University Honours Program review project: example based scientific publishing training aimed at bachelor medical students

Medical undergraduate students receive limited education on scholarly publishing. However, publishing experiences during this phase are known to influence study and career paths. The medical bachelor Honours Program (HP) at Utrecht University initiated a hands-on writing and publishing course, which resulted in nine reviews published in internationally peer reviewed academic journals. We wanted to share the project set-up, explore the academic development of the participating students and determine the impact of the reviews on the scientific community. Thirty-one out of 50 alumni completed a digital retrospective questionnaire on for example, development of skills and benefit for their studies and career. Publication metrics of the HP review papers were retrieved from Web of Science. This hands-on project provides a clear teaching method on academic writing and scholarly publishing in the bachelor medical curriculum. Participants were able to obtain and improve writing and publishing skills. The output yielded well-recognized scientific papers and valuable learning experiences. 71% of the participating students published at least one additional paper following this project, and 55% of the students indicated the project influenced their academic study and/or career path. Nine manuscripts were published in journals with an average impact factor of 3.56 and cited on average 3.73 times per year. This course might inspire other medical educators to incorporate similar projects successfully into their curriculum. To this end, a number of recommendations with regard to supervision, time investment and group size are given.