Hey Everyone, I have been accepted to medical school and already thinking about getting into residencies 😂 . I know research is important and I was wondering how students get involved in research, how do they choose the topic of their research if they have no background info, and how do so many students get 7-8 first author publications?
How and what research experiences do you have in medical school?
- Thread starter ahk7
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really field dependent. You probably need hella research for nsgy but something like anesthesia... not so much
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Most of those first author publications are rubbish... BUT they are first author publications. Realizing that most faculty publish rubbish.
So find the faculty who publishes rubbish in your residency of interest and contact them...
In like Flynn....
So find the faculty who publishes rubbish in your residency of interest and contact them...
In like Flynn....
Don’t worry about it, take it a step at a time. Your priority now is relaxing until you start the school year, then to worry about acclimating to medical school. Around winter time you could start poking around for faculty conducting research to see if they’d take you for either the 1) spring semester if you’re super duper great at balancing your work or 2) the summer for a quick summer position.
Personally, I wanted one of those rubbish first author pubs so I sought out someone that already had a boat load of data and just wanted their data analyzed + transcript written. This summer I’m doing exactly that - no lab time which is great for me, full remote, just analyzing this dude’s data with hopes on writing majority of the paper + quick first co-author.
if you want lab experience or something more longitudinal, I’d look for someone who wants that kind of work done, then you could drag it out into your 2nd year and you’re in like Flinn.
Personally, I wanted one of those rubbish first author pubs so I sought out someone that already had a boat load of data and just wanted their data analyzed + transcript written. This summer I’m doing exactly that - no lab time which is great for me, full remote, just analyzing this dude’s data with hopes on writing majority of the paper + quick first co-author.
if you want lab experience or something more longitudinal, I’d look for someone who wants that kind of work done, then you could drag it out into your 2nd year and you’re in like Flinn.
Tnx for the reply. How did you find someone with loads of data? Did you just go up to different researchers and told them that you could write a paper if they had any data?
I wouldn't say that that many med students have 8 first author publications. If they do, it's more likely than not to be not as substantial and/or published in journals that are not high impact. Obviously quantity matters but quality does too. You should focus on doing well in med school classes and once you have that figured out, then do the research. It's more about the relationships you build with mentors in fields you want to go into that matters and you don't know which field you're going into right now with a high degree of certainty. Better to take some time, figure that out, then full steam ahead. Too many students end up switching fields and having to switch their research entirely or build new relationships. It's good to get it right the first time.
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Are first author pubs more common in M3/M4? I know it's person dependent but feels like we're usually drowning in classes in M1/M2 and have no time to do substantial research. Just wondering if more time is available to do research later
No haha that's a bit of an aggressive approach. I just reached out to different faculty that were looking for students to help out with research, had chats about what kind of projects they had open, and narrowed it down to the faculty that had remote/data analysis options. This is more common than you might think - supporting a student in wet bench work I think is more nuanced than simple clinical correlations or data analyses; especially with MD faculty.
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your best bet will be reaching out to the student interest group for whatever specialty youre interested in to find out which of the residents are the most productive. you could also do this by looking them up and searching on pubmed to see how much they produce. I think going through the interest group is better so you can get firsthand info on who's approachable and willing to mentor you properly. all of this is with the caveat that you should really wait until you've adjusted to med school for a month or two. you don't wanna start projects and then be too overwhelmed and not follow through or even worse, fail a class because you were too focused on research. I started November of M1 (interested in neurosurgery) and its worked out well so far
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Yeah I don’t know anyone in my class with 8 first author pubs.
I have 5 experimental research pub's but i'm not first author, I just asked basically. "Hi do you or any of your colleagues have any research going on? I'm very interested in X and would like to get a head start on an academic career"
Remember the worst thing they can say is no.
Remember the worst thing they can say is no.
