Clinical research in an academic psychiatry department: some general principles and case studies.

<bold>Objective: </bold>This paper gives guidance for developing collaborative clinical research within an academic psychiatry department.<bold>Methods: </bold>We describe the experience at the Australian National University Medical School, and present three case studies.<bold>Results: </bold>The results reveal that general principles include, but are not limited to, intellectual curiosity, mentorship, collaboration and protected time.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>We conclude that a particular strength of a new research department at a medical school may be close collaborative research within clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]