Hey guys. So I've noticed that a lot of people have done poster presentations, publication, or going to conferences. It seems it's pretty important to experience any of those. I am just curious how do you guys usually start off?
Do you actually come up with your own question and idea and research by yourself or you collaborate with a graduate student?
Also, how do I find those conferences and poster presentation opportunities? Just complete your research ahead and find a place to present?
I greatly appreciate if anyone could answer my questions. I just need more advice on this so I can prepare for my graduate school in future.
Here are several things to know for the good 'ole CV:
- Poster or Paper presentations are shared at organization conferences or university conferences.
- Publications can be published abstracts in peer-reviewed journals, usually issued as supplemental (so either list your presentation or publication for one accepted submission but not both)
- Publications are usually manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals or other print materials (like Psychology Today...but I'd be embarrassed to list it b/c it's a crappy magazine IMO)
- Publications can also be book chapters or books (which are EXCELLENT!).
My research experience is uncommon, but you might find utility in the info:
I have 3 publications in peer-reviewed journals (not first or second author but included in the "et al"). I have over 25 presentations or published abstracts (but I'm also about 10 years older than the average doctoral student). About 7 are first-authored (so I came up with the idea) and found conferences to submit to or ones were suggested to me by my Principal Investigators. About 8 are second-authored (so I worked very closely on the submission, but the idea was not my own) and the conferences were chosen by my PIs. For the remainer, my authorship is third author or beyond, and I would be included in the "et al" because I worked on collaborative research teams and always read and signed off on the final product. I amassed this lovely experience because I thought I wanted to go into academic behavioral medicine as a clinical psychologist. I'm not so sure now because I love being a psychotherapist, opposed to doing mainly research. But, we'll see.
Most of my publications and presentations were through direct employment as a clinical research coordinator which I did prior to doctoral training but during my Masters program. During my masters degree (prior to entering doctoral program), I teamed up with a group of students (go get 'ers) and an excellent professor who helped us get our independent research presentations as first-authors to one or two organization conferences. She suggested some organizations (like APA) and I choose one I was interested in and just joined (like Society of Behavioral Medicine). My other first-authored presentations or publications (not manuscripts, but published abstracts) were always ideas that I came up with my PIs' help or within the context of my own independent research in graduate school (I sometimes used archival date to cut to the chase and move on to the statistical analyses), which helped me have several more concurrent presentations in one year. I had several
first-authored manuscripts in preparation (which have my PIs as second-authors), but recently removed them from my CV because I'm not getting to them anytime soon and it would be a misrepresentation to act like I'm working on them. (Who has time to analyze data in their spare time?).
Hope this helps and is not too confusing. There are others who just focus on publishing and presenting their own and/or their research advisors' ideas and data. Those folks will have more first and second authored works, which is what you want. When it comes time for applications you'll want quality and depth of work, not so much quantity and breadth (like mine). One caveat: Despite the quality and depth of research experience, you'll still want to be somewhat broad in your research interests to span the interests of faculty in a desired program.
