Factors promoting research activities among Japanese pharmacists: a questionnaire survey

Pharmacists are expected to demonstrate their expertise in clinical practice and conduct research activities to generate new evidence. However, the factors promoting research activities among pharmacists remain unclear. Therefore, we investigated the research activities of Japanese pharmacists through a questionnaire survey and examined the factors contributing to the promotion of research activities. A web-based questionnaire using Google Forms was disseminated across pharmacists working in community pharmacies, drugstores, hospitals, and clinics. The questionnaire included respondents' backgrounds, research activities, and research environments. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the factors promoting pharmacists' research activities, with experience in research paper acceptance as the objective variable. In total, 401 responses were included in the analysis. Of the respondents, 54.1% were hospital pharmacists, and 77.1% were pharmacists with > 5 years of pharmacist experience. Furthermore, 50.4% of the pharmacists had presented at conferences, and 22.2% had experience in research paper acceptance. The influential factors were "master's degree or higher," "number of affiliated academic societies," "acquisition of specialists/certified pharmacists," and "daily availability of a consultant for writing research papers." This study revealed the factors contributing to the promotion of research activities among pharmacists. We believe that our findings will help promote research among pharmacists.