About 40% of my "research" hours are working in a core facility at my university that makes proteins for other labs. While this doesn't lead to any publications for me or my mentor, it still involves reading the latest in protein synthesis research, developing methods, learning lab techniques, etc. How do y'all think adcoms would view this? I ask in part because when I apply, including this I will have 1000+ research hours but I don't see any of it being published yet, and I don't want lots of hours with no pubs to be seen as a red flag. Thanks!
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Research involves the development of a hypothesis and a method for affirming or denying it.
That said, nobody expects a regular pre-med (not MSTP) to be published.
That said, nobody expects a regular pre-med (not MSTP) to be published.
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You are part of the research enterprise, and as such, I think you can technically call the activity "research." There is problem-solving/trouble-shooting in making sure that you consistently produce quality results for other labs. Make it clear from your description because you can demonstrate your academic competencies in this capacity, similar to how clinical lab scientists do the same when it comes to processing results for physicians/healthcare professionals.
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Over a decade ago, I wrote a series of articles (here is Part 1) that heralded the growing importance of understanding “competency.” Over the last decade,
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I don't think that anyone is going to see it as a negative that you aren't published.
As @gyngyn alluded to, this is not hypothesis-driven research, so that is really the greater reason you won't get as much "credit" for this. While you're technically involved in the research enterprise, you are doing so under the auspices of providing a service for payment. So while you aren't going to be "wrong" to list this as research, personally I don't find this as interesting as if you had your own projects testing your own hypotheses.
As @gyngyn alluded to, this is not hypothesis-driven research, so that is really the greater reason you won't get as much "credit" for this. While you're technically involved in the research enterprise, you are doing so under the auspices of providing a service for payment. So while you aren't going to be "wrong" to list this as research, personally I don't find this as interesting as if you had your own projects testing your own hypotheses.
That makes sense. Should I list it separately on AMCAS from my standard research then? They're technically in the same lab (the core is within a lab) so I was going to lump it all together.
Gotcha. I do have that kind of research as well, it just looks like it won't be finished by the time I graduate and apply. Thanks for the help!
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They seem to be two different enterprises (though in the same lab).
