A publication is a publication. You'd better believe I still have my middle author publication from a project I worked on in during the summer between my junior and senior years of high school on my CV 😵
It depends. Probably not as much as a science publication, but if there's some amount of peer-review that went into your publication and there is clear academic rigor in what you did, there's probably some weight to that.
okay thank you so much. I want to move into clinical but have not had the opportunity as an incoming M1. And im a nontrad of many years so its good to know the work iv done/am doing will be worthwhile.
I was actually just talking about this with my school's med humanities prof (so obviously n=1 and a bit biased), but he felt they could be very useful. They set you apart in some potentially good ways - lots of med students can do papers on, say, the 'rona, but not many publish full-length manuscripts on Aristotle's Poetics and narrative medicine (random example).
As others have said, it all has to do with the quality of the work (ie where you published) and where you are in the author list. Anyone can get a paper accepted to a predatory journal, but if you publish in a legit journal (impact factor 2.5-6, doesn't need to be Cell or Science Translational Medicine or anything) that says a lot about your commitment.
This is true. You really can't get anything meaningful done in basic science in <1 year, and 1 year is on the very short end of it. It's hard to appreciate this, but every figure that goes into a basic science journal is almost always 3-4 months of work, MINIMUM, so just multiply that by 5-10 figures and it quickly becomes apparent why things take so long in basic science. And why, if you can successfully publish a first-author basic science paper, it's seen as extremely impressive. I've been in a basic science lab during my fellowship, and only now after 3 years are we finally getting ready to submit my paper.
"Top" IM residencies are generally heavily academic ones in research-intensive institutions. So they are looking for candidates who are likely to pursue a career in research and become PIs. This is the reason why MD-PhD students have a relative advantage in matching to those institutions, as well as MD students with a demonstrated interest in academia. Basic science is basically the purest form of academic research so it shouldn't surprise you the students that have experience in it and say in their applications "I want to pursue this in my career" will have a big advantage in matching to academic residency spots. I should also add that some fields like IM, peds, pathology are pretty big on basic science experience, while it could actually hurt you for other fields that don't care for it.
Again, unless you're MSTP or doing one of those one year "research tracks," or maybe you're continuing research that you did as an undergrad, you probably don't have enough time. Unless one is willing to commit that amount of time or comes in with significant basic science background (in which case, if you have that background and care enough to do some research on the side, why AREN'T you considering MSTP or research track), I don't think it makes a ton of sense to try and "dabble" in a basic science lab. You're not going to have enough time to get even a poster out of it, let alone a publication.
Though its anecdotal, I'd just like to confirm this. I was able to carry on an extensive basic science project (first author in journal with IF > 10) because I continued a project from undergrad → gap year → med school (all at the same institution). I have a friend who came to the institution for med school and decided to dabble in basic science for the summer. He was able to get a poster at a conference, and is maybe hoping to be middle author in a later publication. It is possible to be involved in basic science as a med student, but you have to keep your expectations realistic if you are starting from scratch at a new place.
Good for you! I suspect the lion’s share of the work was done before you matriculated? In that case it makes perfect sense why you had significant motivations to see what you had already started through.
