Quick publication question regarding residency application

[UncleMinnie]

So in the match outcomes published on ENT, the average matched applicant has 8 abstracts/presentations/publications. Are these usually 8 first author, or 8 of any author publications? If an applicant has 3 first author publications in good journals with a couple associated conference presentations, can that look as good as someone with 8-10 of those that aren’t first author?


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[operaman]

Generally speaking, people are more impressed by lead authorship (senior authorship too, but obviously that isn't happening as a student/trainee). There is certainly something to be said for sheer number of items as far as your initial impression looking at an application, but seeing multiple first author papers would ultimately carry more weight. It shows you can get a project from A to Z and that's important. You will also be asked about your research at every interview day; if you're the lead author, you will know that paper inside and out and be able to talk intelligently about it.

There's definitely some relativity to it as well. If you're coming from a research powerhouse and did a PhD or took a research year and your PS said you wanted to do ENT since you were a MS2, I would expect to see that reflected in your CV. If you've been productive with the time and resources you have, that will come through.