# A Teaching Reform Practice to Improve Research Literacy of Veterinary Postgraduate Students Based on Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine

## TL;DR

This study shows that teaching veterinary students evidence-based methods improves their research skills and leads to academic publications.

## Contribution

The study introduces an EBVM pathway that successfully links classroom learning to academic productivity through meta-analysis training.

## Key findings

- Students in the EBVM training group showed better skills in literature searching and methodological rigor.
- The training group produced nine peer-reviewed publications, while the comparison group produced none.
- Structured meta-analysis practice enhances the translation of learning into scholarly output.

## Abstract

Developing researcher literacy is fundamental to veterinary postgraduate education, yet traditional training often prioritizes laboratory-based research over evidence synthesis. This study evaluates an evidence-based veterinary medicine (EBVM) pathway integrating systematic review and meta-analysis practice. Compared to routine instruction, students in the training group showed superior gains in systematic literature searching, methodological rigor, and scientific writing. Crucially, the training group translated these skills into nine peer-reviewed publications—an output absent in the comparison group. These results indicate that embedding structured evidence synthesis into veterinary curricula may provide a practical approach for linking classroom learning and professional academic productivity.

Despite the importance of researcher literacy in veterinary postgraduate education, conventional training often overlooks the methodologies of evidence synthesis. This study assessed an evidence-based veterinary medicine (EBVM) pathway that integrates structured meta-analysis practice into the curriculum. Veterinary postgraduates were assigned to either an EBVM-intensive training group or a comparison group receiving routine instruction. Pre- and post-intervention assessments using a structured questionnaire revealed that the training group achieved superior proficiency in literature retrieval, critical appraisal, and methodological rigor. Notably, this pedagogical approach yielded nine peer-reviewed meta-analyses between 2021 and 2025, while no comparable output was observed in the comparison group. This evidence suggests that integrating hands-on meta-analysis into EBVM instruction serves as a catalyst, transforming theoretical learning into tangible, high-quality scholarly output.