Should I defer?

[KitKat30]

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[CowboyNiceguy]

By deferring, you're ultimately giving up a year of an attending's salary. Not worth it IMO.

 

[aldol16]

Unless you intend to go on to academia or academic medicine, publications don't really matter. You can always continue research in medical school as well.

 

[osckey]

I wouldn't defer.

 

[KitKat30]

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[aldol16]

I do, and I meant that I would like to continue with my current project a little longer. It's hard to get much out of a research project when you can only spend a few months on it, which is why I'm not sure if now would be a better time than when I'm in med school.

It is and I understand that. But the chances are, unless you're very close to a publication, another few months - even a year - won't make much difference. It all depends on what sort of data you have now and how much more you have to do before publication-quality work. So for medical school, I would definitely say try to be more involved than just a few months on a project although in some biological disciplines, you can design quick experiments such that either positive or negative results would be publishable. It depends on the specific subfield.

 

[Dr Tony T. Chopper]

missing the forest for the trees imo