How hard is it to write a paper and get published?

[medstudent87]

I did some research last summer for an MD/PhD at a school 4 hours away from my own. I did not finish the project within 2 months, but the PI's grad student at the time continued to collect data and eventually wrote her thesis on our project.

Thing is, during the whole summer, this guy kept telling me that we're going to make this little project into a paper. Furthermore, he told me to actually start writing it...but I didn't get very far without all the analyzed data. Half a year later (this spring) he gave me the rest of the data, along with a copy of his grad student's thesis which he told me to use as a backbone for my own paper.

I obviously can't work on it right now since I'm studying for Step 1, but I'm wondering if I'd be wasting my time trying to bang something together in the week following my exam? He said he does NOT write any of his student's papers for them, he only recommends minor changes. I'm just afraid that he might be BSing me when he says we can def. make a publishable paper out of this just so that he doesn't feel guilty about using me as slave labor.

Can anyone that knows a lot about publishing scientific articles enlighten me as to how difficult it is for your work to be accepted and published? My project was bench, not clinical. I wish I could say our data is rock-solid, but we had a lot of problems with our equipment so I don't how reliable any of it is...

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[cpants]

Short answer is it is very difficult. You need to write a high quality paper with plenty of background research. More importantly it needs to have high quality data. If your experiments didn't work or had methodological flaws, you can't really expect to get it published. You need to be able to draw some meaningful conclusion from your data. Some more information about the project would help to give further advice.

 

[PMPMD]

Short answer is it is very difficult. You need to write a high quality paper with plenty of background research. More importantly it needs to have high quality data. If your experiments didn't work or had methodological flaws, you can't really expect to get it published. You need to be able to draw some meaningful conclusion from your data. Some more information about the project would help to give further advice.

Agree. If you've never written a manuscript, you may want to get help from someone with experience.

 

[BBender716]

Short answer is it is very difficult. You need to write a high quality paper with plenty of background research. More importantly it needs to have high quality data. If your experiments didn't work or had methodological flaws, you can't really expect to get it published. You need to be able to draw some meaningful conclusion from your data. Some more information about the project would help to give further advice.

Cannot emphasize enough that the quality/quantity of data is extremely important.

 

[Kalyx]

Cannot emphasize enough that the quality/quantity of data is extremely important.

This is true, but perhaps even more so the appropriateness of the statistical analyses that you do. You may not even be able to characterize your data as "high" or "low quality" until you quantify variation, confidence intervals, etc. So in order to write this manuscript, you have to become familiar with the body of literature that encompasses your project (although it sounds like you might get help with references from this grad student's thesis), you have to do the correct statistical analyses and interpret them in the context of your experiment without making overzealous claims, and then comment on the clinical or biological relevance of your findings. Writing a manuscript is not easy! BUT, I can think of no better way to learn science than to do all that stuff *yourself*. You should probably talk to the PI and let him/her know that you're enthused about writing the manuscript (if you are), but may have a longer timeline given your Step 1 studying. Good luck!

~Kalyx

 

[235009]

Cannot emphasize enough that the quality/quantity of data is extremely important.

i hate u




(u got me with your signature)

 

[yamaraja808]

I did some research last summer for an MD/PhD at a school 4 hours away from my own. I did not finish the project within 2 months, but the PI's grad student at the time continued to collect data and eventually wrote her thesis on our project.

Thing is, during the whole summer, this guy kept telling me that we're going to make this little project into a paper. Furthermore, he told me to actually start writing it...but I didn't get very far without all the analyzed data. Half a year later (this spring) he gave me the rest of the data, along with a copy of his grad student's thesis which he told me to use as a backbone for my own paper.

I obviously can't work on it right now since I'm studying for Step 1, but I'm wondering if I'd be wasting my time trying to bang something together in the week following my exam? He said he does NOT write any of his student's papers for them, he only recommends minor changes. I'm just afraid that he might be BSing me when he says we can def. make a publishable paper out of this just so that he doesn't feel guilty about using me as slave labor.

Can anyone that knows a lot about publishing scientific articles enlighten me as to how difficult it is for your work to be accepted and published? My project was bench, not clinical. I wish I could say our data is rock-solid, but we had a lot of problems with our equipment so I don't how reliable any of it is...

As a masters student I can comment on this. It is tough to publish and some journals will only publish up to 10% of its entries. This is why it is always a trial and error process. You will be going from journal to journal trying to see which ones will publish you. Even when you turn in your article, you will still face a peer review committee and they ask you to revise your draft a few times. So don't think its over after you submit!

Since it is "your" research, you will be the one writing the paper not your PI. It was the same with my PI because I did a self project (so he is not being a jerk about this trust me). However, make it known to your PI that you want to be "first author" and as soon as possible. Since most of the data for this paper is yours and you are writing the paper, you are doing most of the work. This entitles you as first author.

 

[medstudent87]

Yea, he said I'd be first author. I obviously REALLY want this to happen...and I hope it does.

 

[sleepy425]

Yea, he said I'd be first author. I obviously REALLY want this to happen...and I hope it does.

Just write it! Even if what you write is bad, the only way to get better at scientific writing is to write more. Keep it logical and succinct, and keep it focused. One of the most important things is that your paper is trying to make a point. You need to identify that point in the introduction, and then everything you write after that needs to be written with a focus on that main point. So when you start writing up your methods, don't say "oh we did x and y and z using methods a and b and c." You need to say why you're doing something and how it fits in with the rest of the project.

Also, I don't know where you're planning on sending this, and I know a lot of people don't agree with me on this, but I happen to like having a single results and discussion section, as opposed to a separate results section and a separate discussion section. Ask your PI what he/she thinks, but, especially when you're starting out, it helps keep you organized.

But definitely write it. If you really have a full week off and you're willing to take the time, sit down and write it. It'll take a while, but you can definitely do it in a couple of days if you work really hard.

 

[yamaraja808]

Just write it! Even if what you write is bad, the only way to get better at scientific writing is to write more. Keep it logical and succinct, and keep it focused. One of the most important things is that your paper is trying to make a point. You need to identify that point in the introduction, and then everything you write after that needs to be written with a focus on that main point. So when you start writing up your methods, don't say "oh we did x and y and z using methods a and b and c." You need to say why you're doing something and how it fits in with the rest of the project.

Also, I don't know where you're planning on sending this, and I know a lot of people don't agree with me on this, but I happen to like having a single results and discussion section, as opposed to a separate results section and a separate discussion section. Ask your PI what he/she thinks, but, especially when you're starting out, it helps keep you organized.

But definitely write it. If you really have a full week off and you're willing to take the time, sit down and write it. It'll take a while, but you can definitely do it in a couple of days if you work really hard.

I definitely agree that you should just start writing it out. You will go through many drafts but don't feel bad about it because this happens to everyone.

As for the format of the paper, you will be doing a "primary research article" (articles which have done the original research) and it will have this format.

Title

Abstract

Introduction

Material and Methods

Results

Discussion

The abstract will be the punch of your paper, delivering the main message/summary of your paper in one paragraph. The introduction is an overview of the subject of your research. The materials and methods section is the place where you show how you set up your experiments and gathered the data. The results will show the data that you have collected. The discussion will be the interpretation of your results and further elaboration into possible future studies based on the research. I am more of a fan of keeping the results and discussion separate. These are usually kept separate in primary articles. Make sure to search for "primary articles" or "original articles" to get examples because those have the format you want to follow (not all completely the same but you will see a pattern).

Good luck to you MD/PhDs on the research. It is tough but you will be the top go to guys in the medical research world.