Frequently Asked Questions

A structured, 9-phase apprenticeship that takes a medical student from zero research experience to a submitted systematic review / meta-analysis and an international conference abstract — in about 100 focused hours. It combines a 16-hour video curriculum, execution playbooks and PRISMA templates for every phase, and senior-mentor intervention at exactly the points where students stall.

MBBS students in any year, interns, recent graduates, and IMGs building toward the Match, PLAB/AMC routes, or a stronger academic CV. No prior research experience is required — the protocol is designed from absolute zero: if you can read a paper, we can take you to writing one.

Because they're the one form of publishable, top-of-the-evidence-pyramid research a medical student can execute without a lab, patients, funding, or an institution's permission. Everything you need is a laptop, database access strategies (which we teach), and a rigorous method — which is exactly what the protocol installs.

Yes. Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses sit at the very top of the evidence pyramid and are highly valued by residency program directors on ERAS applications — they demonstrate methodology, statistics, and the ability to carry a project to publication.

Courses teach about research; the protocol makes you produce it. Every phase ends in a real deliverable (a validated question, a registered protocol, a completed extraction, a manuscript), and when you hit a wall a senior mentor looks at your specific problem — via Doubt Tokens and, on higher tiers, cohort deadlines and 1:1 calls. The output isn't a certificate; it's a submitted paper.

No. We teach exact search strategies for open-access databases (PubMed) and gated ones (Embase). We strictly do not provide institutional login credentials or software licences — everything the protocol requires can be done legitimately without them.

Plan for 4–5 focused hours a week. The protocol is built for a medical student's calendar — structured sessions you can schedule around rotations and classes, not an open-ended time sink. The 100 hours is the total engineered budget from zero to submission.

Two protections exist. Foundations is fully self-paced, so you simply pause and resume. And under the Clinical Grace Period, if board prep or rotations genuinely threaten your timeline, your access window is formally extended — your investment doesn't expire because medicine happened.

Cohorts open on fixed dates — the live countdown on the pricing page always shows the next intake. Foundations never waits: it's self-paced and starts the moment you enrol.

The Accelerator Carryover applies: you carry into the next cohort at no additional charge, and your remaining Doubt Tokens carry with you. The deadline is there to pull you forward, not to punish you.

No — and any program that promises publication is lying to you. Acceptance is decided by independent journal editors and peer reviewers. What we guarantee is the process: a rigorous, submission-ready manuscript built with methodology that survives review, mentor oversight at every friction point, and Phase 9 covering submission strategy and reviewer rebuttals. Conference abstracts, realistically, come faster than journal acceptance — most scholars present internationally first.

Scholars and mentors from our community have presented at international meetings including ACC, ASCO, DDW, ASBrS, NANS, and Spine Summit. The method is built to produce conference-grade abstracts on the way to the full manuscript.

Increasingly, yes. With Step 1 pass/fail, program directors lean harder on the rest of the application — and documented research output (publications, presentations) is one of the clearest differentiators, especially for IMGs competing without a home-institution network. A first-author systematic review plus an international presentation changes how your application reads.

Foundations ($600) — the full curriculum and templates, self-paced, with 3 Doubt Tokens. Accelerator ($1,600) — adds the 8-week synchronized cohort, external deadlines, and 8 Doubt Tokens. Fellowship ($6,000, by application) — weekly 1:1 senior-mentor calls, line-by-line editorial review, and a multi-publication trajectory. Full comparison on the pricing page.

Base pricing is USD. Students in India pay the INR equivalent through Razorpay (UPI, cards, netbanking) using the "Apply via INR" button on any tier — with EMI options, including No-Cost EMI on eligible credit cards. International students pay in USD by card.

All sales are final once program access begins — the entire methodology and every template is proprietary and downloadable, so a refund would mean handing the complete system over for free. That's why evaluation happens before payment: Phase 1 is free, and so is the 15-minute strategy call. Cancellations before access, duplicate charges, and failed transactions are refunded in full — details in the Refund Policy.

Start with Foundations without fear of choosing wrong. If you realize you need cohort structure, your full $600 applies toward an Accelerator upgrade within 4 months — you pay only the $1,000 difference (₹1,00,000), directly inside the platform, and receive the cohort, 8 fresh Doubt Tokens, and 12 months of access.

A Doubt Token is our expert-escalation protocol: when your search string breaks or your statistics fail in R, you submit the specific problem and get a personalized answer — usually within 24–48 hours. Every tier includes an allotment (3 / 8 / 32). If you run out, a 5-token pack is ₹9,500, purchasable instantly inside the platform.

Payments are processed by Razorpay under PCI-DSS compliance. Your card, UPI, and banking details go directly to the payment gateway — we never see or store them. Every checkout is bound to a server-created order, so amounts can't be tampered with.

Foundations includes 6 months of platform access; Accelerator includes 12. The templates and playbooks you download during your program are yours to keep — the system you install stays installed. (And the Clinical Grace Period protects the window if rotations intervene.)

Yes — genuinely free, no card required. Phase 1 (the expert-vs-beginner reader model and your first validated research question) opens July 15. Join the first-access list and you'll be notified the moment it's live.

Please do — that's what the free 15-minute Research Strategy Call is for: a doctor who has walked this route maps your specific timeline and next three steps, whether or not you join. Or just message us on WhatsApp.

Absolutely — every program is delivered fully online, and the method is built around international conference and journal targets. USD card checkout is rolling out; meanwhile international students can enrol by emailing billing@tausquareacademy.com and we'll invoice you directly.

Fellowship seats are limited by mentor bandwidth and granted by application, not checkout. Send a short note about your goals to admin@tausquareacademy.com — details on the application page.

Any time, two ways: in the mobile app via Account → Danger Zone → Delete My Account (immediate), or by emailing privacy@tausquareacademy.com from your account email (actioned within 7 days). Full details in the Privacy Policy.