Research

I have no idea who first invented the term research associate professor (RAP) for a clinical department. He must be the same genius who discovered opium and gave an apple to Adam in Eden. It follows the logic of Adam (what a name) Smith and is a nice division of labour. Clinical staff could direct their effort back to teaching and patient care, and research output of the medical school is guaranteed.

To go one step further, RAP in a clinical department is a positive-feedback system. Since most of them do basic science research, their papers have more citations. As a result, basic science journals generally have a high impact factor. Since only true scientists know what they themselves are talking about, they are the only one to publish papers in these high impact journals. In reality, they form a elite group that any chairman of a clinical department would like to employ when their research output is going to be audited.

So far, so good.

But, there are two problems that may skip your eyes.