Academic programs generally encourage research. My home program certainly likes to take a few residents in the lab, and provide support for those that do through the NIH.
It depends on what you want to do. If you are interested in a fellowship like vascular, CT, Oncology, Peds, Plastics etc, research in encouraged big time. I have been told by several faculty members at my program that research is the way to build a fellowship application.
It depends on what you want to do. Minnesota, Duke, Penn, harvard strongly encourage research if not require.
I think wanting a fellowship in an area like I mentioned is tough to do without research. If you want to be a private practice general surgeon, then non academic programs are solid too.
Academic places offer you the most options, and a research year isnt necessarily a bad thing. its the programs out there that take residents with the thought of putting them in the lab nstead of advancing clinically is where you may find trouble. I have heard Penn and Duke are like that.
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