<p>How does being published help you in admissions? I am really curious because I've always wondered about the hardness of actually getting published. Are there levels to this: eg) scientific journal, lab poster, book author..etc?
Does the difficulty of the research play any part? And if it does, would a person be degraded if it is elementary research?</p>
<p>Anyone out there who has EVER been published? Share your success in admissions? :)</p>
<p>Getting published helps because it shows that you are doing high quality research that generates successful results.</p>
<p>How admissions committees interpret this I don’t know because as you indicated, it is very nuanced. A peer reviewed journal is typically best but a poster at a high profile conference might be better than publishing in a low impact peer reviewed journal. In addition, where you are on the author list matters too. First author in a lesser journal is probably more impressive than 4th author in a big journal since the 1st author plays a much larger role in the process.</p>
<p>As an undergraduate, if you are getting into the research game just to get published you will not be happy. Those papers that you see often take years of full time work, and there are so many variables outside of your control. For example, I have first author and 2nd author papers that i finished 4 years ago and they have not been published because the data I used for my project came from a questionnaire in a clinical trial and there was an issue with one of the dozens of physicians involved in the trial so all papers from the study have been held.</p>
<p>A pub helps but it is certainly not necessary.</p>
<p>D1 has 2 pubs. Her first is in an open-access web-based professional journal with minimal peer-review. Her second is in a high quality, well-respected, peer-reviewed journal–however, the paper spent 2 years (!) in the review process and wasn’t accepted for final publication until after she’d been accepted to med school.</p>
<p>She felt that having a publication was nice, but not essential. Just like having a competitive school-wide achievement award for excellence in her field was nice, but not essential. Not a single interviewer asked her about her research, her publications or her award.</p>
<p>From what I have heard, it depends on the type of publication (review article vs. actual bench work research), the journal it is published in, and your level of authorship (1st author, 2nd author, 3rd author). </p>
<p>For example, I am doing research at a lab right now and I am also writing a review article that is going to be published with me as the 1st author. Even though I am getting published as a 1st author in a decent journal, this publication is not going to help my resume out much because it is just a review article and it is not an actual research project where I was published as 1st author. </p>
<p>The whole “how hard is it to get published” depends largely on the lab that you work in and your PI. My PI was really nice and told me to write an article that she will publish. She also said that all undergrads working in her lab with a grad student will get published if they are helping out on a project. This PI is really, really into publications since she expects frequent publications from ALL members of her lab. </p>
<p>Other PIs won’t help help undergrads get published. Even if an undergrad is helping out on someone’s project, and that person is published, the undergrad won’t be listed as an author (even if the undergrad has been helping out on the project for a long time).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It depends on the field of study. In some fields like math, it is pretty rare to have the ability to even be able to read and understand journal articles as an undergraduate. Having enough know-how and intuition about the subject to make a worthwhile contribution as an undergrad is pretty rare. In biology, it’s a lot easier to get your name on a paper because there isn’t much theory to learn and understand and a lot more grunt work to be done.</p>
<p>eh getting published is a nice feather in your cap and certainly adds to your application, but it is by no means required. Publications help you much more in the residency application game.</p>
<p>A formal pub is a paper in a peer reviewed journal. Things like posters are not considered publications, but they are valuable experience. I’d rather have a pub in a low impact versus a good poster, however. Most people take posters/abstracts with a grain of salt, because it is expected that they are rough drafts of the completed project. Lots of poster projects never get published due to inherent flaws in the project or data.</p>
<p>D. did not have anything published at all. She had nice percent rate of acceptance to Med. Schools by our standards (4 out of 8). She was not asked much about her research during her interviews either (kind of dissapontment, she was looking forward to discuss detail). Nope, most people were interested in her music minor, not research. Actually Music was also the biggest discussion in her interview for getting internship position at Med. Research lab. Do not get me wrong, having minor has no influence on Med. School acceptance. But publication seems to be also irrelevant at least based on D’s experience.</p>