Mentoring psychiatric trainees' first paper for publication

The authors describe their experience supervising and collaborating on projects that led to the first publications of several medical students and psychiatric residents. Rather than mandating a research project of all the residents, the faculty focus effort on the trainees with a sincere interest in writing a scholarly paper for publication. The authors break down the procedure of developing a published project into manageable steps that reflect and teach the scientific process. The mentoring required for these trainee-faculty publications is involved and time consuming, but the process is extremely rewarding. Four successful projects illustrate different levels of publication possibilities for trainees and demonstrate the positive effects the experiences had on their academic aspirations.