Publishing a dissertation?

[Medstart108]

I will be doing a dissertation for about 4 months next year as part of my course. I have heard that some students end up publishing their dissertation. We are supposed to work with a professor at our school and either do a project they are doing or do your own but it must be feasible.

The broad topic areas available are

Molecular medicine (cellular signalling, immunology, genetics, and biology Lab and CR)
People and medicine (health psychology, child and adolescent mental health or community health sciences all CRs),
Medicine and therapeutics (pharmacology and pathology all CRs)
Surgery and injury (anatomy, orthopedics all Critical Reviews)

We are able to choose between a Critical Review (Literature Review), Data Handling and Lab Based Projects.

What would be a topic and format that would be more likely publishable in the period of time? I am more interested in pathology, and stem cell research and somewhat interested in pharmacology and anatomy

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

sorry, is this part of an md/phd program? most md/phd students spend 3+ years doing research that they eventually write up as a dissertation...

 

[Medstart108]

No its just a 4 month research project. It is similar to a dissertation that BSc students would do.

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

well, you might get a published paper out of a four-month project. congrats if you do!

even if your school calls this a dissertation, to avoid confusion i'd suggest not calling it a dissertation outside your school.

to answer your original question: i think that any of those topics are possibly amenable to a publication if you bust your butt and do a good review of the literature. however, you should have realistic expectations. there is a WIDE, WIIIIIIDE range of journal prestige out there, from Nature, Science, JAMA, etc., down to journals with very little prestige. If your research mentor is a true expert in his/her field then you could probably write a literature review article and publish it in a decent journal. But review articles written by someone who has not published on that topic are generally somewhat scorned. It's not fair, why shouldn't someone outside the field take a stab at summarizing it? But that's the way it is.

When you say "data handling" projects, could that take the form of a chart-review research project? Like where you query the EMR to look for all people admitted for diverticulitis in the last year, and see whether medical student involvement increased or decreased length of stay? collecting and analyzing new data is probably a longer project, but could have a higher chance of getting published.

good luck!

 

[Medstart108]

well, you might get a published paper out of a four-month project. congrats if you do!

even if your school calls this a dissertation, to avoid confusion i'd suggest not calling it a dissertation outside your school.

to answer your original question: i think that any of those topics are possibly amenable to a publication if you bust your butt and do a good review of the literature. however, you should have realistic expectations. there is a WIDE, WIIIIIIDE range of journal prestige out there, from Nature, Science, JAMA, etc., down to journals with very little prestige. If your research mentor is a true expert in his/her field then you could probably write a literature review article and publish it in a decent journal. But review articles written by someone who has not published on that topic are generally somewhat scorned. It's not fair, why shouldn't someone outside the field take a stab at summarizing it? But that's the way it is.

When you say "data handling" projects, could that take the form of a chart-review research project? Like where you query the EMR to look for all people admitted for diverticulitis in the last year, and see whether medical student involvement increased or decreased length of stay? collecting and analyzing new data is probably a longer project, but could have a higher chance of getting published.

good luck!

Thanks!

Regarding data handling projects, they are related to questions like: Are medical students who are more patient centered more empathetic towards themselves? Could you explain this project to me (A student would survey students and then analyse the results?). Would a project like this have a higher chance of getting published? Thanks

What do you think of lab based projects like those that involve work on signalling lipids, nanoparticles in drug delivery etc?