publication

[Petrichor1]

So what impact factor threshold number would you say one has to cross to seem as a valuable experience? I know publications are too far down the road for me but I have looked at my lab's publications and they are usually 9-14. On top of that if I am like a third author what does that do?

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[GrapesofRath]

Any publication in a journal regardless of impact factor is an accomplishment for an undergrad that will help an application. Obviously, a pub in Nature or Cell will do a little more in impressing an ADCOM but impact factor is not something to worry much about at an undergrad level.

 

[Doug Underhill]

So what impact factor threshold number would you say one has to cross to seem as a valuable experience?

This is an excellent example of a question that would only be asked on SDN pre-allo.

Just work on getting the data that could result in a publication: you can't really worry about impact factor at this point.

 

[Petrichor1]

This is an excellent example of a question that would only be asked on SDN pre-allo.

Just work on getting the data that could result in a publication: you can't really worry about impact factor at this point.

ha, far from it. I am a hard-core research person who is trying to make a publication finally after so many years. It's a practical question to ask especially when you do so much of free labor.

 

[Petrichor1]

To add further, very few undergrads are going to be a top author on some seminal work. Those students are usually the brilliant over achiever (aka like Big Bang's Sheldon) who get actively recruited for MD/PhD. For most medical school applicants. simply being part of a team that gets you an authorship is more than sufficient to be a notable EC.

eh not necessarily, I have friends that just get in the right department, they are not brilliant but they are hard-working and lucky.

 

[MSclerosis]

If you are applying for an MD/PhD at a top school, then impact factor might help you.

For MD programs, unless you have like a Nature Publication, I don't think the admissions committees will know the difference between Journal A and Journal B.

 

[steelersfan1243]

If you are applying for an MD/PhD at a top school, then impact factor might help you.

For MD programs, unless you have like a Nature Publication, I don't think the admissions committees will know the difference between Journal A and Journal B.

I believe most adcoms look up the impact factor. Maybe this is reserved for research heavy schools...

Can any adcoms weigh in their experience on this?

 

[LizzyM]

I believe most adcoms look up the impact factor. Maybe this is reserved for research heavy schools...

Can any adcoms weigh in their experience on this?

Never heard of anyone looking up or mentioning the impact factor of a journal in the context of med admissions and I've been doing this for >10 years.

 

[Law2Doc]

Never heard of anyone looking up or mentioning the impact factor of a journal in the context of med admissions and I've been doing this for >10 years.

They won't look up the impact factor but obviously a journal an adcom has heard of will have more cache than one he hasn't. I mean I don't have to look up the impact factor to know that Nature, NEJM, JAMA, Lancet etc is a very big deal, while the Journal of Dubious Achievements and Junk Science in Pop Psychology probably isn't.

 

[Goro]

Ditto.

Never heard of anyone looking up or mentioning the impact factor of a journal in the context of med admissions and I've been doing this for >10 years.

 

[Rucap09]

Ditto.

Even if it's a first author publication? For ex, IF of 20+ that's still field specific is no different than IF of 0-5 if an adcom hasn't heard of either? Seems like sheer curiosity would cause someone to look up the IF if first author papers are so rare.

 

[MSclerosis]

Even if it's a first author publication? For ex, IF of 20+ that's still field specific is no different than IF of 0-5 if an adcom hasn't heard of either? Seems like sheer curiosity would cause someone to look up the IF if first author papers are so rare.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

 

[Goro]

I just look in PubMed to see if it's a real journal. Other than that I don't care if it's the Journal of Physiology, or the Kansas J of Physiology.

Even if it's a first author publication? For ex, IF of 20+ that's still field specific is no different than IF of 0-5 if an adcom hasn't heard of either? Seems like sheer curiosity would cause someone to look up the IF if first author papers are so rare.