Publication- Journal Prestige

[CornellMANheh]

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I have a publication in the top journal in my subspecialty. The journal is extremely difficult to publish in and is the destination for many large clinical trials. The problem is, the journal isn’t particularly well-known outside of the field (IF ~4). Would it be ok to mention in my application the reputation of the journal within my field or would that come off as pretentious?

Something along the lines of: “Co-authored publication accepted to the Journal of …, which is considered to be the top journal in the field of …..”

 

[Dave1980]

pretentious...a pub is already very impressive at this stage of your career...no need to try and justify why it's in a journal no knows cares about/has heard of

 

[Catalystik]

I have a publication in the top journal in my subspecialty. The journal is extremely difficult to publish in and is the destination for many large clinical trials. The problem is, the journal isn’t particularly well-known outside of the field (IF ~4). Would it be ok to mention in my application the reputation of the journal within my field or would that come off as pretentious?

Something along the lines of: “Co-authored publication accepted to the Journal of …, which is considered to be the top journal in the field of …..”

I agree with Dave1980. Don't do it.

 

[deleted972488]

I don't think it's too bad as worded. Perhaps I am pretentious.

 

[CornellMANheh]

I agree with Dave1980. Don't do it.

pretentious...a pub is already very impressive at this stage of your career...no need to try and justify why it's in a journal no knows cares about/has heard of

That is already half a reason to reject you; smacks of arrogance

Appreciate the feedback!

Just discovered that the journal is under the umbrella of BMJ. Would any of the following descriptions be ok?

1. "Co-authored manuscript accepted by BMJ for publication in their specialty journal: Journal of ..."

2. "Co-authored publication accepted to BMJ subjournal: Journal of ...."

3. "Co-authored publication accepted to Journal of ..., which is a subjournal of BMJ."

Or would name-dropping BMJ be considered pretentious?

 

[deleted972488]

Appreciate the feedback!

Just discovered that the journal is under the umbrella of BMJ. Would any of the following descriptions be ok?

1. "Co-authored manuscript accepted for publication by BMJ in their subspecialty journal: Journal of ..."

2. "Co-authored publication accepted to BMJ subjournal: Journal of ...."

3. "Co-authored publication accepted to Journal of ..., which is a subjournal of BMJ."

Or would name-dropping BMJ be considered pretentious?

Just put the name of the journal. "Prestige" really doesn't matter for the purposes of medical school admissions.

 

[CornellMANheh]

Just put the name of the journal. "Prestige" really doesn't matter for the purposes of medical school admissions.

I agree. It's just that there are a lot of predatory journals in my field, and the journal I published in has sort of a weird name so I just want to make sure the admissions committee know that it was legit lol

 

[deleted972488]

I agree. It's just that there are a lot of predatory journals in my field, and the journal I published in has sort of a weird name so I just want to make sure the admissions committee know that it was legit lol

They can look it up if they're curious, but the way you talk about your research and the lessons you learned from it are more important than the publication.

 

[seeinghowitgoes]

Appreciate the feedback!

Just discovered that the journal is under the umbrella of BMJ. Would any of the following descriptions be ok?

1. "Co-authored manuscript accepted by BMJ for publication in their specialty journal: Journal of ..."

2. "Co-authored publication accepted to BMJ subjournal: Journal of ...."

3. "Co-authored publication accepted to Journal of ..., which is a subjournal of BMJ."

Or would name-dropping BMJ be considered pretentious?

100% do NOT mention it’s a “sub-journal” of BMJ. Anybody who knows anything about research would literally laugh at that - BMJ is BMJ, the umbrella journals are great but again anybody in the know would say it screams of overselling. As to people’s comments on proving it isn’t a predatory journal, if you want to prove it’s a somewhat legit journal then just include the pubmed ID at the end of the citation. That’ll do in most cases.

Overall, I’d just put the citation in your application (aka go look up AMA citation guidelines and just stick that in the application as a publication - if you have more than one you can put multiple citations into 1 publication activity). When I read applications if people tried to oversell a publication I took it as 1) pretentiousness and 2) not really understanding the research/publishing process and instead trying to game things to look good.

 

[CornellMANheh]

100% do NOT mention it’s a “sub-journal” of BMJ. Anybody who knows anything about research would literally laugh at that - BMJ is BMJ, the umbrella journals are great but again anybody in the know would say it screams of overselling.

Overall, I’d just put the citation in your application (aka go look up AMA citation guidelines and just stick that in the application as a publication - if you have more than one you can put multiple citations into 1 publication activity). When I read applications of people tried to oversell a publication I took it as 1) pretentiousness and 2) not really understanding the research/publishing process and instead trying to game things to look good.

Appreciate it! Yeah the term, "subjournal", does look a little snobby now that I think about it.

How about: "Co-authored manuscript accepted by BMJ for publication in the journal: "Journal of ...", is that ok? BMJ is the publisher after all.

Btw- I've already submitted my AMCAS, I'm sending this in as an update. So I can't really just list the citation by itself (gotta preface it with some text haha

 

[deleted972488]

Appreciate it! Yeah the term, "subjournal", does look a little snobby now that I think about it.

How about: "Co-authored manuscript accepted by BMJ for publication in the "Journal of ...", is that ok? BMJ is the publisher after all.

Btw- I've already submitted my AMCAS, I'm sending this in as an update. So I can't really just list the citation by itself (gotta preface it with some text haha

No. Just put the citation in your update. You can preface it with "A manuscript for which I was a co-author has now been accepted. The citation is as follows."

 

[seeinghowitgoes]

Appreciate it! Yeah the term, "subjournal", does look a little snobby now that I think about it.

How about: "Co-authored manuscript accepted by BMJ for publication in the "Journal of ...", is that ok? BMJ is the publisher after all.

Btw- I've already submitted my AMCAS, I'm sending this in as an update. So I can't really just list the citation by itself (gotta preface it with some text haha

Sorry missed that this was an update.

I second @EmbryonalCarcinoma and the above advice

PS sorry in my advice-giving I forgot to say congrats. It’s a big deal to publish before med school even begins, I’m glad your work paid off

 

[Goro]

Appreciate the feedback!

Just discovered that the journal is under the umbrella of BMJ. Would any of the following descriptions be ok?

1. "Co-authored manuscript accepted by BMJ for publication in their specialty journal: Journal of ..."

2. "Co-authored publication accepted to BMJ subjournal: Journal of ...."

3. "Co-authored publication accepted to Journal of ..., which is a subjournal of BMJ."

Or would name-dropping BMJ be considered pretentious?

Just stop already

 

[CornellMANheh]

Sorry missed that this was an update.

I second @EmbryonalCarcinoma and the above advice

PS sorry in my advice-giving I forgot to say congrats. It’s a big deal to publish before med school even begins, I’m glad your work paid off

Got it! Thanks for the input.

 

[sargon2123]

I’m gonna go against the grain here. You don’t really know who is gonna read your app, and based on what you’re saying, it’ll probably not be a well-known journal. If it’s a top journal in whatever subfield, I don’t see anything wrong with simply noting that. If your PS doesn’t reek of pretentiousness, that notation would not give that vibe either.

We often forget how much of a seller’s market this process is. IF of 4 is respectable at this stage and age. Note it somehow, but maybe don’t say IF of 4 because IFs vary with the source

 

[aldol16]

Honestly, for med school they don't really care. What's more important is that you were able to carry out a project through to completion, learn about the research process, and have something to show for it. The people reading your application first may not be MDs. So the risk of it seeming pretentious far outweighs any potential benefit from it.

Give yourself a pat on the back and if you want to go into this specialty in the future, it'll be a great addition to your resume (and PDs will definitely know that journal).

 

[Moko]

Humility is a trait looked for in applicants. No one that I know of is basing their admissions opinion on whether the journal is IF 8 vs 4 vs 2. Being a co-first author as a premedical student is a major accomplishment. You have very little to gain by trying to sell the prestige of your journal and potentially a lot to lose if your description rubs someone the wrong way. I'd recommend remaining humble and letting your work speak for itself. Just my thoughts.

 

[deleted972488]

No one that I know of is basing their admissions opinion on whether the journal is IF 8 vs 4 vs 2.

I agree with Moko. Even for academic jobs, the quality of your work itself is much more important than the journal in which it is published. I'm surprised to see so many undergraduates concerned with impact factor.

 

[deleted939001]

Just stop already

Hero

 

[Robin-jay]

I always assumed ADCOMs had an "ok" knowledge base on publication journals.

Mine were looked upon just fine without saying "in this prestigious journal".

 

[Dwan]

Appreciate the feedback!

Just discovered that the journal is under the umbrella of BMJ. Would any of the following descriptions be ok?

1. "Co-authored manuscript accepted by BMJ for publication in their specialty journal: Journal of ..."

2. "Co-authored publication accepted to BMJ subjournal: Journal of ...."

3. "Co-authored publication accepted to Journal of ..., which is a subjournal of BMJ."

Or would name-dropping BMJ be considered pretentious?

It's not BMJ, so don't put BMJ, put the name of the journal. Even journals with the name in it like BMJ case reports/BMJ open etc are nowhere the same as BMJ. Even though there is a way you can spin it to use the name, we all know the "prestige" of BMJ comes from the main journal. It's like saying you trained at Harvard for residency when you went to Mt. Auburn.

 

[Engrailed]

Is co-first viewed in a similar way as regular first author? Just curious

 

[Moko]

Is co-first viewed in a similar way as regular first author? Just curious

Yes in theory. In practice though, it can be difficult to tell especially if the citation format only shows a leading name (e.g "Smith JW, et al.").

When citing it on AMCAS, include a "*" to signify co first authorship, and state after the citation that you were co-first authors. Alternatively, change your last name to start with "Aa" so you never have this problem.

 

[Engrailed]

Yup! Thats what I did. I cited them as
-Smith et al,.
-NotMe, Smith (co-first) et al,
-Not Me, et al

 

[aldol16]

When citing on your CV as co-first, put asterisks after your names and note that at the bottom. It's becoming more common nowadays so you may have multiple co-firsts. You also can list "(co-first author)" after your name in the actual citation too.

In terms of how it's viewed, think of authorship as a marker for how committed you were to the project and how much work you put forth. Co-first author put forth a lot of work. That reflects well on you. There's no conversion factor to convert from co-first to first author. It's not like co-first = 0.8*first authorship.