When embarking on a career in academic research, the question often arises: Do you need a formal research degree to succeed? Balancing valuable time for education vs. doing the work to get to your immediate research goals can be a challenging decision.

Let’s break down the pros and cons to help you make an informed decision based on your unique situation.

Is a Formal Research Degree Worth it?

Pros:

1. Enhanced Expertise: A degree program provides structured learning and a comprehensive understanding of your field. This can be invaluable in establishing a solid foundation in essential areas, such as epidemiology, biostatistics, and biomedical informatics.
2. Grant Application Advantage: Having a formal degree, such as a Master’s or PhD, can boost your profile when applying for research grants. My personal experience supports this—my MS was viewed positively, and I scored high on the candidate evaluation portion of my grant applications.
3. Networking Opportunities: Degree programs often provide access to a network of professors, researchers, and peers. You get to know them personally and going through the course successfully can help prove your credibility for collaboration. This network can be crucial for research collaborations and job opportunities.

Cons:

1. Time and Financial Investment: Pursuing a degree can be costly and time-consuming. Balancing coursework, research, and personal life can be challenging.
2. Opportunity Cost: Time spent pursuing a degree could be time spent conducting research, publishing papers, or gaining practical experience. While the skills learned could pay off in the long run, the balance is something that should be well thought out. When I sought formal training in musculoskeletal ultrasound shortly after my Master’s, my mentor and I discussed the cost—It could have been precious grant writing time and gathering preliminary data crucial for my grant success.
3. Real-World Experience vs. Academic Credentials: Hands-on experience in a lab or clinical setting can sometimes outweigh academic credentials. Engaging in research projects, internships, or working under a mentor can provide practical skills and insights that are not always covered in formal education. This practical experience can make a significant difference when applying for jobs or grants.
4. Overqualification Concerns: Yes, you heard it right. There is something like overqualification. In some cases, having an advanced degree might make it harder to justify the need for additional training in career development grants. This was a big concern for me as I had already done my master’s when I applied for my first career development grant. While it wasn’t an issue for the grant reviewers in my case (luckily), I have seen this happen more than once.

The Counterintuitive Truth About Formal Education

Some of the most influential researchers in history, like Thomas Edison and Leonardo da Vinci, were largely self-taught. Today, the availability of online resources, open courses, and collaborative platforms allows for unprecedented access to knowledge without a formal degree. Researchers can leverage platforms like Coursera, edX, and Khan Academy to gain expertise in their chosen fields.

Moreover, a formal degree often focuses on a specific discipline, but real-world problems are complex and interdisciplinary. Researchers who bring diverse skills from various fields often contribute innovative solutions.

Consider the paradox: while formal education aims to prepare you for the unknown, it can sometimes constrain your thinking within established paradigms. This is where the autodidacts—self-taught individuals—often shine. They approach problems without the bias of formal training, leading to breakthroughs that might elude traditionally educated peers.

Where Formal Education Shines

For the vast majority of us mortals, however, formal education in research has its benefits. When you are starting out, you may not have fully etched your path and not be sure where you are going. Also, for people who haven’t had much experience with research, it is sometimes hard to know how much they need to know and more importantly what they don’t know.

When I decided to pursue a career as a physician-scientist, I didn’t have a clear understanding of my knowledge gaps—those “unknown unknowns.” And this is despite the fact that I had written over 65 manuscripts (including systematic reviews-metaanalysis and original research) before I had any formal education in research. Enrolling in a degree program (master’s in clinical and translational science at the Mayo Clinic) helped me identify and fill my gaps in understanding. However, not all courses were equally beneficial. Some were mere credit requirements, adding little value to my research skills.

Despite this, I believe basic training in epidemiology and statistics is crucial. You can then tailor additional courses to your specific interests and research needs. Don’t be afraid to explore beyond your comfort zone. For example, I took a pharmacogenetics course because my wife was taking it, and it ended up being a pivotal moment in my career. It introduced me to machine learning and AI, leading me to pursue further studies in this area, which significantly shaped my research trajectory. Moreover, the focus of my NIH career grant is pharmacogenomics. Sometimes, it pays to listen to your spouse!

The Art of Continuous Learning

No matter what path you choose, continuous learning is crucial, especially in the medical field where things are constantly changing. I am still a student: at any quarter, I might be taking a mix of formal course degrees and informal ones. This quarter I am taking a course on online teaching and large language models. Last quarter, I took a formal course from our university in genetics.

If you are just starting out in research, you will first need to build a good foundation of basic concepts in epidemiology and statistics. Regardless of what kind of research you do, these are the foundations upon which you can build over time.

Here are some FREE resources that I have used over the years (and continue to use) that you may find helpful:

Biostatistics Free Resources

• Coursera: This is a free course on Introduction to Statistics from Stanford, which gives a fantastic overview and introduction to statistical concepts. It is a good starting point and you could use the below resources to delve into the concepts or topics you are interested in.
• STatQuest YouTube channel: Josh Starmer, a statistician at UNC-Chapel Hill, has some great videos for intuitive understanding of statistical and machine learning concepts. I used this channel a lot during my master’s in clinical research training for understanding difficult concepts in statistics.
• StatisticsbyJim.com: This is a blog site by Jim Frost, who is an academic statistician and has 3 books on statistics (I all 3 books: very accessible and easy to understand). See this post accompanied by video for an explanation of regression co-efficients and p-values for example.

Epidemiology Free Resources

• Coursera: Coursera offers some great courses on epidemiology. You can start with this free basic epidemiology course from UNC. This is great for beginners with introduction to topics from types of epidemiological studies, risks and ratios, calculation of CI and p-values.
• Epidemiology Stuff YouTube Channel: This a great channel by Will McFarlane, PhD student in Epidemiology at Queen’s University, Canada, that explains basic epidemiologic concepts.
• PublishedMD YouTube channel by Dr. Jia Ng. Dr. Ng is a NIH-funded researcher and her videos are about academia in general. I found this tutorial extremely helpful: Confusing Epidemiological Terms. (Also check out this video on Statistics Basics)

In summary, while a formal research degree can offer significant advantages, it is not an absolute necessity for a successful career in academic research. The key is to seek out fundamental training in critical areas and remain open to new learning opportunities that align with your interests and career goals. The landscape of academic research is evolving, and non-traditional paths are becoming increasingly viable.

This Week’s Action Step: Assess your current skill set and identify gaps in your knowledge. Look into some of the resources I shared along with resources at your own institution. Most importantly, consider gaining practical experience through internships or research projects. Remember, continuous learning and adaptability are the cornerstones of a successful research career (or any career).

That’s it for today. See you next week as we continue to explore ways to enhance your academic journey.