Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p> <bold>Background</bold> Scientific engagement during residency can strengthen critical appraisal, data analysis, academic writing, and context-relevant knowledge generation. However, evidence from sub-Saharan Africa suggests that research expectations during training are often undermined by limited infrastructure, mentorship, and protected time. This study aimed to describe the research profile of resident physicians in Angola, identify perceived barriers to research productivity, characterize the incentives considered most useful, and explore signals of association between individual and institutional characteristics, current project participation, intention to submit a manuscript, and previous publication. <bold>Methods</bold> We conducted an exploratory cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire administered in July 2026 to resident physicians in active specialty training in Angola. Data were collected on sociodemographic characteristics, training in research methodology and biostatistics, analytic autonomy, previous research experience, mentorship, institutional support, 15 Likert-scale barrier items, perceived publication incentives, and open-ended responses. The analysis included descriptive statistics and exploratory bivariate analysis using odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. The 15 barrier items showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.859). <bold>Results</bold> Eighty-five responses were received, of which 84 were analyzed after exclusion of one ineligible or non-consenting record. Mean age was 33.19 years (SD 5.60); 52.4% of participants were female, 51.2% were in medical specialties, 64.2% were in year 3 or above, and 64.2% reported six or more additional duty shifts per month. Although 54.8% reported formal methodological training and 82.1% intended to submit at least one scientific paper within the following 12 months, only 11.9% had a previous publication and 33.3% were currently involved in a research project. The most prominent barriers were the perception that participation would increase with protected time and mentorship (69.0%), difficulty with biostatistics and data analysis (60.7%), and difficulty with scientific writing (57.1%), alongside institutional support and research-culture constraints. The most highly valued incentives were methodological training (82.1%), mentorship (66.7%), and statistical support (61.9%). In exploratory analyses, current project participation was associated with receiving feedback, high research interest, previous project participation, and conference presentation; previous publication was associated with previous project participation; and intention to submit within 12 months was associated with residency year 3 or higher. Age was not significantly associated with the exploratory outcomes. <bold>Conclusions</bold> Among resident physicians in Angola, there is a clear dissociation between research interest or intention and actual scholarly productivity. Improving output is likely to depend less on general appeals to individual motivation and more on building an institutional environment that provides mentorship, applied methodological training, statistical support, protected time, and consistent incentives. </p>