Fortunate Circumstances

[iggs99988]

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I've found myself in a great gig. I volunteer at my local hospital and i've been working with a resident research fellow in his office for going on 9 months. He is in the cardiothoracic surgery department and that's where we work. I help him compile statistics on his studies and plug in data through excel. He's a really nice and flexible guy who never has problems with my changing schedules. The other day I came in and he printed out an abstract he's submitted of the study we've been working on it--low and behold my name was on it, right next to the other authors! I didn't ask him to mention me, as I thought that would be rude and pretentious. Honestly, I wasn't even expecting any acknowledge because I was thinking "whatever, it's just volunteering." I thanked him pretty profusely. At the same time, should I feel guilty (as I kind of do) because I haven't done the work he assumedly has, or should I just run with it? I'm there an average of four hours a week having accumulated almost 100 hours so far.

1) Is this activity I've been engaged with considered volunteering, research, or both?
2) What is the likelihood someone will engage his abstract, and it will become published?
3) My name is listed right next to his and about 5 other M.D.s at the top the paper--what kind of publication would this be (1st author, 2nd...etc)
4) Might my name be moved down to, for example, the "acknowledgements" section in the final pub?
5) How long is the usual process for an abstract to become published? (generally)
6) Should I get the dude anything as a token of my appreciation?

 

[mmmcdowe]

I've found myself in a great gig. I volunteer at my local hospital and i've been working with a resident research fellow in his office for going on 9 months. He is in the cardiothoracic surgery department and that's where we work. I help him compile statistics on his studies and plug in data through excel. He's a really nice and flexible guy who never has problems with my changing schedules. The other day I came in and he printed out an abstract he's submitted of the study we've been working on it--low and behold my name was on it, right next to the other authors! I didn't ask him to mention me, as I thought that would be rude and pretentious. Honestly, I wasn't even expecting any acknowledge because I was thinking "whatever, it's just volunteering." I thanked him pretty profusely. At the same time, should I feel guilty (as I kind of do) because I haven't done the work he assumedly has, or should I just run with it? I'm there an average of four hours a week having accumulated almost 100 hours so far.

1) Is this activity I've been engaged with considered volunteering, research, or both?
2) What is the likelihood someone will engage his abstract, and it will become published?
3) My name is listed right next to his and about 5 other M.D.s at the top the paper--what kind of publication would this be (1st author, 2nd...etc)
4) Might my name be moved down to, for example, the "acknowledgements" section in the final pub?
5) How long is the usual process for an abstract to become published? (generally)
6) Should I get the dude anything as a token of my appreciation?

Technically, statistical work and other grunt work is not sufficient to warrant one's name on a research publication. The ethical powers that be have ruled that only those making "intellectual contributions" should be noted. However, in reality it is very common to be rewarded for your efforts by being included in the authorship. I wouldn't feel guilty, it is the primary author's prerogative to decide who has contributed intellectually enough to be listed. Often, when a large group of people work on a project, the "lesser" members are added to abstracts while the major contributors are on the final publication. This gives everyone some level of compensation for their efforts. Take it with gratitude, and if you are on the final paper be even more grateful.

1) Research, unless you were doing something involving patient care as well. Then it could possibly be both so long as the patient care wasn't directly for the research.
2) High, abstracts are a dime a dozen if one is aggressive about it.
3) Authorship number is determined by order of listed names, unless otherwise specified. The first spot is first author, second spot is second author, etc, with the order supposedly being reflective of one's contribution. However, paradoxically, the most senior/established investigator is often listed last.
4) Possibly
5) It depends in part on what the abstract is submitted for. If it is being submitted to a conference, then the date of the conference will be the date of "publication". However, be aware that an abstract publication is not considered to be what most people call a real publication. Those are full manuscripts that have been published in peer reviewed journals. Abstracts are typically thought of as "previews" of the finished product (or alternatively the last gasp of a failed project where the abstract is a means of getting something out of the failure).
6) Up to you. Technically, his inclusion of you is his form of gratitude. So you would be showing gratitude for gratitude 😉. The best thing you can do for him is to continue to produce publishable results for him.

 

[iggs99988]

Thanks for the response; I was more curious about the probability of the abstract piquing interest and being published as full publication on the study--I'm aware that at this juncture it's not considered a research publication in the traditional sense. Regarding the research or volunteering, I also attend the in-patient clinic with him for followups so I dunno if I can list the experience as both.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Thanks for the response; I was more curious about the probability of the abstract piquing interest and being published as full publication on the study--I'm aware that at this juncture it's not considered a research publication in the traditional sense. Regarding the research or volunteering, I also attend the in-patient clinic with him for followups so I dunno if I can list the experience as both.

What are you doing during clinic. Are you just watching? If you are just watching, it is shadowing not volunteering. If you are doing things, it is volunteering. However, if you are watching/doing things related to your research project exclusively to patients involved in your research study, then it probably is exclusively research. No one is going to come down on your throat about it, make your best judgment on the matter and reported as you see fit.

I'm not sure I understand you. An abstract is an abstract, a manuscript is a summary (also caused an abstract) with the full article attached. One doesn't typically submit an abstract alone to a journal if you are trying to be published, you submit the article as well. Now, there are certain journals that do only publish abstracts or a mixture of abstracts and manuscripts, but you submit the manuscript WITH the abstract if you want to be considered for the publication of both abstract and manuscript. It isn't, at least in my experience, a situation where you send in an abstract and they write you if they want your manuscript as well (because many people don't have a manuscript ready when they are submitting abstracts, as I said they are meant to be previews).

It is mostly up to the authors to determine whether or not to go ahead with writing a manuscript based on their opinion of the value of the work. If they decide to, they will then submit it to journals until one of the journals agrees to publish it. As far as the abstract goes, if it was readily accepted to a major abstract publishing journal or was accepted as an abstract/poster/presentation at a major conference (especially if it won an award), this might encourage the authors to be more interested in going through the effort of writing the manuscript, but it isn't so much a thing where editors will be calling you up asking to have it submitted (unless it is truly groundbreaking, or if you are a major PI that is well known to certain journals perhaps).

 

[iggs99988]

Got it. Yeah, I've gone through the full article, and I just assumed they(abstract, article) were submitted separately in a sequential-type manner based off of feedback. That makes sense-->manuscript = abstract [which is kind of more or less self-contained in the full article] + full article. Thanks a lot. And yeah, I observe PAs or physicians in the clinic for the patients' followups post-CABG surgery, unrelated directly to the study, so I guess it is shadowing then.

 

[johnisles2011]

Don't feel guilty! He did it without your asking.
This is one of the nice things you see in medicine sometimes. People helping each other. You may not have made a massive contribution, but you did help, and he is helping you back. It's just nice.

Congratz on some very fortunate circumstances.