In the present study, alternative activities for diversifying medical, dentistry, and pharmacy student's thesis were extracted and categorized into five domains of individual development, research, education, healthcare, and social services.
Research is considered as one of the bases of science, and a great number of researchers publish numerous studies in the form of dissertations and papers to solve problems in different areas and develop science each year (16). Dissertations not only play a crucial role in the production of new knowledge, but they are also considered as research practice for students and a way of producing new knowledge (17). Basically, dissertations represent the quality and status of education and research in universities. In this regard, much attention must be paid to their role in universities of medical sciences because these universities have a significant position regarding society’s health status (18). It is expected that dissertations in medical sciences lead to the improvement and enhancement of public health (19).
Medical, dentistry, and pharmacy student's dissertations can be considered as useful research evidence in terms of their content as they try to identify problems and provide solutions. However, in many cases, these valuable research results find no practical use in society, and therefore, the mission of research, which is to utilize the findings, is not accomplished. As a result, trying to present practical dissertations for providing services to the society and meeting the needs of the public can have significant effects on increasing students’ scientific and practical capabilities and providing better services to the society; moreover, it can make students socially responsible.
Generally, previous studies on this issue analyzed the dissertation results published as scientific papers. Caan et al (2012) stated that the analysis of doctoral clinical research publications of 39 universities between 2000 and 2010 revealed that 47.6% of the dissertations had not led to any significant publication.
The results of the study conducted by Hayatbakhsh Abbasi et al (2019) indicated that despite the high number of medical and PhD students’ dissertations in Kerman University of Medical Sciences, few of them led to the production of scientific papers, and the number of articles indexed in international journals was insignificant. It was also mentioned that thesis writing is generally a unique opportunity for students to learn research skills and methods. In addition, publication of thesis findings in national and international databases can lead to scientific development (5).
However, we did not find any study analyzing the utilization of results of medical, dentistry, and pharmacy student's thesis in society and the practicality of these dissertations regarding social accountability. Kuhnigk et al (2010) investigated the reasons for discontinuing a medicine dissertation in five universities of medical sciences in Germany among 437 students. One of these reasons was the lack of association between the things students had studied in their thesis and the healthcare needs of the people (15).
In the present study, alternative activities for diversifying medical, dentistry, and pharmacy student's thesis were extracted and categorized into five domains of individual development, research, education, healthcare, and social services. Each category represents the effort to use students’ thesis in line with social accountability.
One limitation of this study was the unwillingness of faculty members to participate in the expert panel due to heavy workload and lack of time. To overcome this limitation, we tried to explain the significance of this research in improving the quality and social accountability in dissertations.