title: Where is students' research in evidence-informed decision-making in health? Assessing productivity and use of postgraduate students' research in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Investing in research that is not accessible or used is a waste of resources and an injustice to human subject participants. Post-graduate students' research in institutions of higher learning involves considerable time, effort and money, warranting evaluation of the return on investment. Although individual studies addressing research productivity of post-graduate students are available, a synthesis of these results in low-income settings has not been undertaken. Our first aim is to identify the types of approaches that increase productivity and those that increase the application of medical post-graduate students' research and to assess their effectiveness. Our second aim is to assess the determinants of post-graduate students' research productivity.
  
  
  METHODS
  We propose a two-stage systematic review. We will electronically search for published and grey literature in PubMed/MEDLINE and the ERIC databases, as well as contact authors, research administration units of universities, and other key informants as appropriate. In stage one, we will map the nature of the evidence available using a knowledge translation framework adapted from existing literature. We will perform duplicate screening and selection of articles, data abstraction, and risk of bias assessments for included primary studies as described in the Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews. Our primary outcome is publication output as a measure of research productivity, whilst we defined research use as citations in peer-reviewed journals or policy-related documents as our secondary outcome. In stage two, we will perform a structured narrative synthesis of the findings and advance to quantitative meta-analysis if the number of studies are adequate and their heterogeneity is low. Adapting the Grading, Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach, we will assess the overall quality of evidence for effects, and report our results in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We will share our findings with universities, other training institutions, civil society, funders as well as government departments in charge of education and health particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7072, Kampala, Uganda. eobuku@chs.mak.ac.ug.|Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom. eobuku@chs.mak.ac.ug.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Obuku
authors.affiliation: McMaster Health Forum, Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Department of Political Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.|Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: J N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Lavis
authors.affiliation: Sir Albert Cook Library, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kinengyere
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Work and Social Administration, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.|Center for Social Science Research on AIDS, Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, United States of America.
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Mafigiri
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Planning, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sengooba
authors.affiliation: Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7072, Kampala, Uganda.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Karamagi
authors.affiliation: Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7072, Kampala, Uganda.
authors.forename: N K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Sewankambo
mesh_terms: D015706:Bibliometrics; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000066491:Clinical Decision-Making; D019049:Developed Countries; D003906:Developing Countries; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D004526:Efficiency; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011642:Publications / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical
keywords: Bibliometrics; Citation; Knowledge translation; Productivity; Publication; Student