I am currently a 3rd year student at a decent private
med school known for primary care. I am interested
in doing an IM residency, perhaps followed by a fellowship.
Although I have some some research assistant
jobs on resume, I do not have any publications
at all. I would like to get an IM residency
at a decent hospital/university-based program.
(ie. non-ghetto but at the same time I'm not
looking for Hopkins or Yale or Mass General,etc).
My question is, how important is it to have
research in the form of publications on the resume
when trying to obtain an IM residency like the
one I am talking about? Thanx.

You probably don't need any publications. If you come from a decent school, have average scores, and average grades, you'll get a couple of interviews from decent programs. If you have good-very good scores or grades, and/or publications, you'll get a couple of interviews from top-notch programs.

I forgot to include in my original post, my grades
and scores are average, or perhaps just slightly
better than average.