manuscript submission

[Svmophtho]

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Hi everyone,

I've taken a year off to do clinical ophtho research. The year has been pretty fruitful, and I'm in the middle of writing a manuscript that we're hoping to submit by mid-June. I guess I'm just a little scared of how this will coincide with residency applications. Most ophtho journals say they get back to you with a primary notification in 1 month. Is this true? What if I don't have an a preliminary answer by the time I submit my apps? Has anyone else had this issue and how have you maneuvered it with programs?

Aside from the manuscript, I've had a poster presentation at ARVO and a smaller case report published too. We've submitted to AAO as well this year. But the paper I'm writing is the bulk of what I've done during the year off, so I want to have something to show for it... Not sure what programs will think if I'm still waiting back to hear from a journal when I submit my app...

 

[DrZeke]

I've also taken time off for research and I've talked to MANY people about this. My impression is that if you took a year off it's definitely good to have a publication and have presented somewhere like ARVO. That being said, it's awesome to have something published OR "in submission" on your resume. It means you went through all the work to do a project and you have data to report. More importantly you will have awesome research to talk about at interviews and people understand that you are committed to ophthalmology. I personally think the discussions you will have about your research and the letter you get from your research are worth more than a publication, but I might be naive 🙂


Another reality is that research, especially basic science doesn't always work out so well and I think most academic ophtho people know that... In submission or under review are fine.

 

[doctortom]

Agree with the above. You can put the status of your paper as "Submitted" or "Accepted" based on the turn around time for the journal. I, like many others on the interview trail last year, had work that was not yet accepted or even submitted. If the status of your submission changes during the interview cycle, you can send program coordinators an updated CV to add to your file. It is also worth mentioning every project that you have had a significant role in, even if the work did not result in a publication. Just be ready to field questions on any project that you have mentioned.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Certainly would be nice to have an acceptance but I think programs understand it takes a while to get through the peer review process

 

[TheLesPaul]

I had a paper "under review" in July when I applied, and when it finally got accepted in November I just sent a quick email letting them know it had been accepted. Didn't seem to make much of a difference, anyhow.

 

[RestoreSight]

Basically agree with the posts above. It can take many weeks for top ophtho journals to decide on a manuscript. Realize that they may either outright reject you or ask for edits/changes which can delay the process of acceptance considerably. Typically when journals ask for edits or clarifications that is a good sign they will accept it, but not always.

If you submit by mid June you have about a 50/50 shot of having an acceptance by mid August IMO when you ophtho app is due. I doubt it would be published in that window.

Final thought. When you submit to journals it creates a PDF for you. Print the PDF and bring it with you on the interviews. You are the expert of your own research, but in the short window of time an interview occurs in (10 min?) it may be difficult to explain it to someone else and having a visual aid can help tremendously.

Good luck

 

[mudphudstud]

You should be ever so lucky to hear within a month. From my considerable experience, it takes 1-5 months for journals to get back to you with the vast majority being done by 2-3 months after submission. Some journals are notoriously slow (J Glaucoma) while others (Ophthalmology) are pretty swift. It is incredibly rare to get a paper accepted without required revisions, therefore, best case scenario you are looking at 3 months since submission, but more likely on the order of 5-6 months.

 

[Svmophtho]

Thanks for the advice everyone!