<p>i happen to be in an interesting situation. </p>
<p>i have finished writing a paper (i am the first author) ready for submission to a decent computational biology journal, nature msb. this paper has the potential to be rather high impact but the thing that is holding it back from publication in a higher journal is the lack of experimental data. everything is done in silico.</p>
<p>i recently found an experimental dataset publicly available that can be used for analysis and inclusion in my paper. this would raise its impact and i could potentially think about publishing in a journal of at least the caliber of pnas. i would still be first author.</p>
<p>the thing is, the analysis of the data takes time...about a week or two. i am applying to graduate school in the fall. if the paper with experimental data happens to be submitted to pnas, i'm sure it won't be published before i apply. a journal like nature msb has a high turnover rate and i am certain it would be published before i apply to graduate school.</p>
<p>what do i do? should i cut my losses and talk to my advisor about publishing in the lower journal or should i go for the higher journal in light of my time constraint? obviously this depends on what my advisor thinks, but from my standpoint, does merely saying i have a publication submitted to pnas as opposed to published in nature msb look the same to graduate schools?</p>
<p>atypical question, but input would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Take your time and make a good article. On your graduate applications, you can list articles as “in submission” or “in preparation”. These terms are acceptable on cv’s, grant applications and graduate school applications. Congrats on the publication.</p>
<p>I think “in preparation” probably doesn’t, but in my experience, submitted work seemed to be just as helpful for me as it would have had the work been published.</p>
<p>You can, of course, note when/if the paper has passed initial editorial review, is in revision, in press, etc. You don’t have to stick to narrow categories.</p>
<p>thanks for the input, all. i have the green light to try out this data and if it works i’m going to be busting my behind to get everything revised and submitted by mid-july. after that, everything is out of my hands!</p>
<p>so i’m going to be presenting this work at a pretty big systems biology conference. can i put this kind of stuff on my resume, or is it extraneous detail? what exactly should i do at a conference…network? or does that not really have a big impact on graduate admissions?</p>
what exactly should i do at a conference…network? or does that not really have a big impact on graduate admissions?
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<p>It can’t hurt. If you know some people you’d like to work with during grad school are going to be there, it’s probably worth your time to try to talk to them about their research or something.</p>
<p>FYI: submitted and in prep have similar weight since in practice these types of citations have a habit of not converting to actual publications on many individuals CVs! </p>
<p>That said, I would recommend putting together the best study possible, even if it takes time. if you really do have a publication in submission, but not yet accepted-sending a copy of the ms (with permission of senior author) demonstrates that you have an actual and not virtual study!!</p>
<p>I would definitely go for the higher-ranked journal, primarily because that would be a great achievement by itself, regardless of graduate school.</p>