ABSTRACT
Part of developing a research culture may include promoting medical student research within the department. As important as developing research skills among individual faculty may be, the research director's primary responsibility is to the scholarly productivity of the department or residency program as a whole. The recommendations were supported by A. J. Kuzel who found that program policy and faculty research activity predicted resident research, and that lack of resident and faculty research time were strong inhibitory factors. Research needs to be an equal partner if the environment is to be truly supportive and ultimately productive. Faculty must feel that they play a role in the governance and decision making in the department. Productive research departments are not top-down organizations; they recognize the decision-making abilities of its division directors and individual faculty members. Leaders without research experience lack a true understanding of the demands of conducting research and the resources required.
