Clinical or Basic Science Research

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Phrasing

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Hey all, I am wondering, do PD's for neurosurgery prefer basic science or clinical research or does it not really matter as long as it is neurosurgery related? What defines "neurosurgery research" rather than neurology? It seems like in the basic sciences there is a lot of overlap; is it really just which department is it in and the connections you make rather than the actual work? I did a search but most of the information was not NSG specific or was pretty old.

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basic science tends to be neurological or oncologic rather than specifically neurosurgical and thats fine. Id say that paper for paper basic science is preferred. The grey area is I may be able to produce 10 clinical papers in the same time period.
 
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I'll second @mmmcdowe and say basic science tends to carry a higher value. Likewise, as stated, you can easily be much more productive with clinical research.
 
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I'll second @mmmcdowe and say basic science tends to carry a higher value. Likewise, as stated, you can easily be much more productive with clinical research.
@neusu So if given the chance, is it better to have lets say 3 clinical pubs versus 1 basic science pub? Obviously there is no exact ratio but I am wondering if significant production in clinical research could make up for the lesser value? I do not like basic science research so for me I think I would be much happier and probably more productive doing clinical research.
 
@neusu So if given the chance, is it better to have lets say 3 clinical pubs versus 1 basic science pub? Obviously there is no exact ratio but I am wondering if significant production in clinical research could make up for the lesser value? I do not like basic science research so for me I think I would be much happier and probably more productive doing clinical research.

There is no real formula, and a lot of it depends on the quality of the article and impact factor of the journal. There is plenty of garbage published in both basic science and clinical medicine. Just do what you enjoy the most, be productive, and get published. At the end of the day, if it isn't published, it didn't happen.
 
I have a question about this as well, which field will offer the most flexibility and growth in your opinion? I know that the job is what you make of it and highly dependent on the lab and PI, but I've worked in basic science and it was a lot of grunt work and I rather not go through that again.

Also, for getting a job in either of these fields, if you don't have 3+ years of experience is "research assistant" the only position we could be qualified for? And if so what do these assistants really do? I was an assistant but it was not a salary position so I basically just did whatever the post-doc I was working with told me to do w/ no independence, projects of my own, or potential for publication.
 
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