Publication of research projects for certification as medical specialists at a Peruvian university, 2007-2010

In order to determine the frequency of publication in a scientific journal of the research projects done for medical specialty certification, a search was conducted in Google Scholar, Pubmed, biomedical databases and Peruvian medical society journals. These publications were research projects carried out by medical residents graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, to obtain the certification of medical specialist. Of 351 medical residents graduated between the years 2007-2010, 199 (65.5%) completed their research project and 47 (23.6%) published it in a scientific journal. The "medicine" (non-surgical) specialty area had the highest frequency of publications. All publications were in Spanish journals, the majority in indexed journals in regional databases. We conclude that 23.6% of the research projects for certification as medical specialists are published, most often in low visibility journals.