Length of time for bench research publication

[chillinillinkillin007]

How long does it take to get a bench research publication on average (i know it's depends on lab and blah blah blah). But when people on SDN and in general say they have a publication, does that mean a case report, clinical, or bench (PCR, etc.)? It seems as if a bench publication should be a holy grail

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[MaxPlancker]

Took me about 1.75 years for a first author bench research paper in a mid-impact journal. This is with 20-25 hours a week on the project through school year, finals, break, etc (all year round except ~40 hrs/wk summer). I know people that are just given low authorships by generous PI's but more substantial authorships take quite a while unless the project just works perfectly which it never does.

 

[GomersGoToGround]

Publication can be any of those.

Length of time to publish?

Depends on your:
PI
Lab mates
Project (complexity, how far along it is when you join, number of people working, etc.)
Time commitment & level of involvement
Resources and funding available
Personal/technical skills
Team skills, if applicable
Team chemistry, if applicable (yes, this does matter; I've seen acts of sabotage, and I've also seen data theft. These certainly have an impact, regardless of how common/uncommon)
Phase of the moon
Luck
Error (could somewhat relate to luck, sure)

Publications are great. But you can also do poster presentations, submit abstracts, attend national conventions, and do outstanding research, all without publishing (as an undergrad, of course. As a PI or grad student, it's kind of in the job description).

 

[TheLionheart]

Bench research takes forever. I might have a second author pub (which I think is nonsense.. I'm responsible for about half the figures in the paper, but whatever) by the time I graduate in the Spring. At that point, I'll have been working on this particular project for about 1.5 years, 40 hrs/week over the summer and ~20 during the semesters.

One of my co-undergrads in the lab already has a second author pub and she started the same time as me. She was fortunate enough to hop on to a project that was near completion, and my PI decided she should be 2nd on it.

It's all about timing, luck, and how tolerant you are of failing over and over.

 

[Doug Underhill]

On average, it takes a biology Ph.D student 4-5 years to complete two first-author publications for their dissertation.

A minor author- you can get that in about three weeks of work if you're skilled at performing an assay. If you have zero experience at following protocols and doing lab work, it could take a year to get up to speed.

 

[notbobtrustme]

2 weeks to forever

somewhere in between

 

[karayaa]

Publication can be any of those.

Length of time to publish?

Depends on your:
PI
Lab mates
Project (complexity, how far along it is when you join, number of people working, etc.)
Time commitment & level of involvement
Resources and funding available
Personal/technical skills
Team skills, if applicable
Team chemistry, if applicable (yes, this does matter; I've seen acts of sabotage, and I've also seen data theft. These certainly have an impact, regardless of how common/uncommon)
Phase of the moon
Luck
Error (could somewhat relate to luck, sure)

Publications are great. But you can also do poster presentations, submit abstracts, attend national conventions, and do outstanding research, all without publishing (as an undergrad, of course. As a PI or grad student, it's kind of in the job description).

Also depends on:
the discipline - some fields generate publishable data faster, depending on the penetrance of technology and the rate of expansion of the field (often technology-dependent).
the methods/assays - eg animal models often require more time than say pure molecular biology. High throughput assays are obvi faster than traditional assays.

 

[Goro]

It takes me two years to get an acceptance from start of start of project. Most publications are "full communications". "Brief Communications", "Letters", or "Short Reports" are less common for research journals. Even in clinical journals, case reports are not as common.

At the level of a UG student, ANY publication is an accomplishment, even if you're 12th author.

How long does it take to get a bench research publication on average (i know it's depends on lab and blah blah blah). But when people on SDN and in general say they have a publication, does that mean a case report, clinical, or bench (PCR, etc.)? It seems as if a bench publication should be a holy grail

 

[journalistdoingscience]

It takes me two years to get an acceptance from start of start of project. Most publications are "full communications". "Brief Communications", "Letters", or "Short Reports" are less common for research journals. Even in clinical journals, case reports are not as common.

At the level of a UG student, ANY publication is an accomplishment, even if you're 12th author.

That's really good to hear! I have two publications but I'm fourth author on both so it's nice to know that it still matters. What do you think about poster presentation credits? I'm assuming they aren't as impressive as papers but is it still helpful to have a few?

Regarding the length of time question posed by OP - it really depends on so many things but mostly your PI and where the project is in terms of completion. I was really lucky for my first paper in that I was hired at a microbio lab at a top 10 school right as they were starting to write it and because I contributed a ton to the data and editing process they gave me the opportunity to be an author on the paper which ended up getting published at one of the major science journals. I've worked with other people who have been in labs for years with no publications because they were working on very long term studies so they just weren't at the paper-writing stage yet.

 

[journalistdoingscience]

How long does it take to get a bench research publication on average (i know it's depends on lab and blah blah blah). But when people on SDN and in general say they have a publication, does that mean a case report, clinical, or bench (PCR, etc.)? It seems as if a bench publication should be a holy grail

Also this was a bench publication so it's possible for it to not take forever (as in over a year) but again, it depends on so many factors.

 

[Goro]

Poster presentations at scientific meetings are good too. At your school's Science Day? Not so impressive.

What do you think about poster presentation credits? I'm assuming they aren't as impressive as papers but is it still helpful to have a few?

 

[journalistdoingscience]

Poster presentations at scientific meetings are good too. At your school's Science Day? Not so impressive.

What do you think about poster presentation credits? I'm assuming they aren't as impressive as papers but is it still helpful to have a few?

I was referring to poster presentations at large, international seminars and hospital-wide poster sessions (ex. clinical innovation day at a Boston area hospital)

 

[Goro]

Very good!
poster presentations at large, international seminars


Minor, if at all.
and hospital-wide poster sessions (ex. clinical innovation day at a Boston area hospital)