RESEARCH ELECTIVES typically involve a student working with a faculty member. Students who want to receive credit for research electives must schedule research electives prior to the dates scheduled for the experience.
Obtain an M4 Research Elective Proposal form from the Office of Student Affairs’ M4 Advisor. The student should discuss the form with the sponsor of the research and then complete the research form. (See the M4 Research Elective Proposal form in the Office of Student Affairs for content guidelines.) Proposed research electives will be reviewed and must be approved by the Associate Dean for Curriculum.
Please note: Upon completion, a final project, academic paper, abstract or presentation must be submitted to the Associate Dean for Curriculum for review to receive a final grade.
Procedure for Scheduling Research Electives
1) Complete the M4 Research Elective Proposal form describing the proposed research the student’s role, specific activities and anticipated products of the research.
2) Obtain a letter of endorsement from the Research Advisor and a letter of recommendation from the faculty Academic Advisor.
3) Complete M4 Scheduling Form.
4) Submit the M4 Research Elective Proposal, letter of endorsement, letter of recommendation, and M4 Scheduling Form to the M4 Advisor who will submit the application for approval.
5) The M4 Advisor will contact you as to whether the research elective has been approved or not.
6) Register for the elective via UIC Express or via the UIC Student Access System.
FUNDAMENTAL REQUIREMENTS
Research electives in the M4 year at UIC COM can be designed to receive two, four, or eight weeks of credit. The work load demand in the designed rotation should be appropriate for the number of hours of credit proposed.
II. Research electives are available to well-qualified students who have established solid academic success as well as good clinical evaluations. Research electives should be complementary to the overall medical school experience and not to be used to supplant other clinical or educational experience.
III. Research electives are by definition self-designed because the demands necessary for any particular research project will be unique to the project. Nonetheless, fundamental concepts and basic medical research are universal and should be addressed through either educational experience, lecture, discussion with faculty advisor, or active participation by the student during their rotation. These fundamental processes of medical research include but are not limited to:
1. Developing a hypothesis
2. Literature review to evaluate uniqueness of proposed hypothesis or study
3. A priori statistical analysis or power analysis for clinical studies
4. Experimental design
5. Obtaining and collecting data and avoiding bias
6. Presenting raw data
7. Statistical analysis
8. Presentation or writing data in manuscript form
9. Preparing or submitting for publication
10. Ethics
While most of the student’s time will be spent on 2, 5, 7 and/or 8, all must be specifically addressed in the research proposal including the mechanism of how the student will be introduced to each facet of the research process unique to their project.
IV. To be awarded credit for a research elective, the proposal must be submitted and approved in
advance. Retrospective credit for work performed on an unapproved project will not be considered.
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