<p>Obviously, responses will be contingent upon the proposed program of study, so I'm going to boil this down as best I can: I'm applying primarily into sociology Ph.D. programs. I've done original research--I completed an Honors senior thesis, as well as conducting some short-term research during a summer abroad--but I've never had anything published. How many graduate applicants, on average, publish as undergrads? Do adcoms tend to view undergraduate publication as "icing on the cake," or is it more of an unspoken expectation?</p>
<p>I'm trying to decide whether it would be worth postponing my application for another year, in an effort to get something published. Any thoughts would be appreciated. :D</p>
<p>Having research experience is the important part, not whether you published or not. Publishing is a nice bonus, not an expectation. If you didn’t have any research experience, it would probably be worth it to take a year to get that. But it is definitely not worth waiting a year solely to get your research published.</p>
<p>Publishing something, start to finish, frequently takes longer than an academic year.</p>
<p>Most graduate applicants do not publish anything before coming into graduate programs. If you do, it’s nice and definitely looked upon favorably - but usually the undergraduate years are spent learning how to do research, and you often don’t know quite enough yet to make a contribution significant enough to get authorship on a paper. It’s definitely icing on the cake.</p>
<p>Apply this year, but continue to work on research projects and getting something toward publication. If you don’t get accepted anywhere, you can always have that extra icing for next year.</p>
<p>For masters application, it is not important (but good to have it in your application). </p>
<p>For phd application, it is very important (because of the amount of research and publishing you’ll do as phd student).</p>
<p>For humanities or social sciences, it is relatively difficult to get a paper published due to your lack of connection and skills within the field. I would suggest you focus more on your writing sample and start to visit the schools NOW. You should also talk to graduate students and email your potential advisors. Believe me, applying to graduate school is just like applying for job, they are looking for a viable candidate to prepare for a future professorship.
For STEM, however, getting a paper published is relatively easy since you can always co-author with a professor in a lab, or use the professor’s lab to conduct your own research.</p>
<p>wifey999999 - This is wrong. It is not very important to be published for PhD applications. It is important to have done research. There is a big difference between those two.</p>
<p>well, if you have published papers in major conference, that means you have done outstanding research. </p>
<p>and let’s face it, if you don’t publish any papers during your phd career, then you are not making good progress, and I am not sure your advisor would allow this. </p>
<p>And many phd students publish a lot of papers (in collaboration with fellow students and professors).</p>
<p>wifey9999 - This person is applying to PhD programs, meaning they are an undergrad. Yes, during your PhD career you will publish many papers, and that is very important to do. But publishing papers before even applying to PhD programs is not “very important.” Getting experience conducting research before applying to PhD programs is, however, very important.</p>