Getting letters published in journals is good aim for medical students

EDITOR—The increasing emphasis on evidence based medicine in the NHS means that skills in critical appraisal will soon be as important for doctors as clinical competence. Many habits are established at medical school, so encouragement for students to review and publish work should start there. It is our impression that such motivation and support are patchy. To investigate this, we examined letters to the BMJ over three years and quantified the extent of medical student authorship. Authors often begin their careers by writing …