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premedstudentalive said:
My pre-med friend told me he's getting publication through translating in a lab he was in when he went to india. is this legal? when you apply to med school. does it count? Where can i get this kind of opportunity? Is publication still a publication in this case?
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To clarify, translating from indian to english for the professor
 
This is totally up to the PI.

As long as a pub is in Pubmed, it counts in my book.

premedstudentalive said:
My pre-med friend told me he's getting publication through translating in a lab he was in when he went to india. is this legal? when you apply to med school. does it count? Where can i get this kind of opportunity? Is publication still a publication in this case?
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premedstudentalive said:
translating from indian
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I feel obligated to point out that "Indian" is not a language. Hindi is a language, Bengali is a language, Tamil is a language... "Indian" is not a language. As a college student, I feel like you should know that lol

As for your question, I don't think it's "illegal" and would expect it's up to PI discretion. Would probably count as a publication if the PI is okay with it.
 
Goro said:
This is totally up to the PI.

As long as a pub is in Pubmed, it counts in my book.
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On a somewhat unrelated note, do you expect applicants to indicate whether a publication was a full paper or a communication, or is this not at all a concern?
 
It's not a concern for me. Letter, Brief Communication, Case Report, full Research Paper, it doesn't matter. It's not easy getting published!
blackroses said:
On a somewhat unrelated note, do you expect applicants to indicate whether a publication was a full paper or a communication, or is this not at all a concern?
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India is a proper noun.
Do you know what the word legal means?
While medical school admissions has a certain element of 'jumping through hoops', there is no 'counting'.
Why don't you ask your friend since they had this opportunity.
Publications are a single line on your CV. The reality is that your research experience is what schools are after. Being the 5th author and having virtually no actual accrual of skills means next to nothing. When someone asks you about your 'research', it is generally pretty transparent your level of involvement.
 
greenturtle22 said:
I feel obligated to point out that "Indian" is not a language. Hindi is a language, Bengali is a language, Tamil is a language... "Indian" is not a language. As a college student, I feel like you should know that lol

As for your question, I don't think it's "illegal" and would expect it's up to PI discretion. Would probably count as a publication if the PI is okay with it.
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Sorry about this!
 
LizzyM said:
Be careful what you put your name on as an "author". If it turns out that the data were fabricated or that other research misconduct took place, you will forever have a black mark on your CV.
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I'm not sure where you got the fabrication and misconduct part from?
 
premedstudentalive said:
I'm not sure where you got the fabrication and misconduct part from?
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The point was, once you are listed as an author, you own it and it can not be taken back. Publication standards are not uniformly high and overseas they can be extremely low. Getting involved in projects that you have minimal understanding/input is an easy way to end up on something that is complete and total crap or even possibly fabricated. The risk is extremely small that anything would ever come of it.

However, a very real consequence of putting something like this on an application is that you look like an idiot in an interview. At our rank meeting a couple of weeks ago (residency applications), more than once it was brought up that when asked about their research the students would have the most basic idea of what was going on and that their involvement was minimal at best. The expectations are lower for medical school, but it is still an important consideration.
 
premedstudentalive said:
I'm not sure where you got the fabrication and misconduct part from?
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I'll add to what has been stated above. A publication isn't just recognition of your work, its a responsibility as one of the "owners" of the data. Authorship is given to people who only intellectually provide to the paper. Part of this reason is to ensure the participant in the project understands what has been going on in all aspects of the paper. Thus if there was any forgery or gross negligence in the project, you are also deemed responsible for the mistake of your colleague. In other words, you should be at the level of being able to spot such mistakes in the paper, thus you cannot say "I didn't know anything." You may not get the brunt of the blame, but it will hurt your reputation in academia.

Back to point, your friends situation of authorship will depend on whether he understood the project. If he does understand the details of the project, then yes he should consider what he did authorship. If he doesn't, then no he shouldn't. This would be determined at his interview.
 
Just as an aside, I know plenty of researchers who will demand co-authorship for merely sharing published reagents like cDNAs. I guess times have changed; when I was younger, you were obligated to share stuff, in the collegial nature of Science. Journals used specify that you had to do so. I guess the world has moved on.
 
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