Research, but no publications.

[nilu889]

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I have been working in a nutritional science/molecular biology research lab for 2.5+ years, but have not gotten anything published. Will this be a big problem? I have done/learned a lot of different things and can talk about what I have done in the lab, I just haven't published anything.

 

[ReptileDisfunction]

No

 

[aznriptide859]

Publications are a huge plus, but they are not seen as a necessity if you've done research. I tend to think adcoms like seeing involvement in research mainly as your desire to learn more and use the scientific process.

 

[deleted659902]

I have been working in a nutritional science/molecular biology research lab for 2.5+ years, but have not gotten anything published. Will this be a big problem? I have done/learned a lot of different things and can talk about what I have done in the lab, I just haven't published anything.

Short answer: No, it won't be a problem at all as far as dental school admission is concerned.

Long answer: It really depends on whether you were working as a full-time research assistant/lab tech or as a lowly undergrad student part-time. If it was the former, then 2.5 yrs should have been enough time for you to publish at least one non-first author paper. If it was the latter, then, well, publication isn't even expected from you.

 

[darknightzzz]

Short answer: No, it won't be a problem at all as far as dental school admission is concerned.

Long answer: It really depends on whether you were working as a full-time research assistant/lab tech or as a lowly undergrad student part-time. If it was the former, then 2.5 yrs should have been enough time for you to publish at least one non-first author paper. If it was the latter, then, well, publication isn't even expected from you.

undergrads working part time in the lab I was in were very respected (not lowly) sorry LOL just that word stands out so I just like to mention.



anyways, I worked part time for credit as a "lowly" undergrad student for 3 years, a lot of hours, got a 4th authored publication on PNAS. no interviewer asked about it and I had to bring it up. however, they asked about my work in that lab.

 

[Accordion]

As an undergrad, its all about the experiences. There is a lot of luck involved, at the undergrad level, in getting published.

 

[A Pre-dent]

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[SXCoronado]

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[Rambunctious]

Some people have amazing research experiences and never publish anything. Other people spend a summer pipetting liquids into other liquids and get published. Whether you are published does not speak to the quality of your research experiences. Dental schools know this.

Amazing research is rare and definitely publishable. No research is perfect and to get published without push back is ridiculously hard. So getting your work published is actually a difficult and rewarding process. Dental schools know this and like it.

 

[A Pre-dent]

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[Rambunctious]

I'm not talking about the research itself; I'm talking about the experience, which is what actually counts. For example, I happened to make a significant discovery in my lab, but it will take years before it is published because it is only one part of a big international project. However, I can still talk about it in my application. Publication is about the results of the research and the politics of the journals, not about the skills of the lab workers. Great research doesn't always produce great results and bad research sometimes produces good results. That's the very nature of empirical science.

If you don't have good "lab skills" then you wouldn't be producing good research results and ultimately wouldn't publish. Also, I'm pretty sure great research translates into great results. I'm not trying to argue semantics with you, but you're not making sense. Bad research never produces good results. At least here on planet Earth it doesn't.

 

[shulk]

It's definitely possible to be a poor researcher, come up with bad results, and still be published, because there is unfortunately more to publishing than the quality of your research. Just a few years ago some people wrote a program that would auto-generate gibberish papers, and they were able to publish some of them! It is also possible for 'bad' research to produce good or useful results, as many discoveries were the result of accidents and even more came about from unethical or downright immoral research.

 

[A Pre-dent]

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[MRZ8]

Some people have amazing research experiences and never publish anything. Other people spend a summer pipetting liquids into other liquids and get published. Whether you are published does not speak to the quality of your research experiences. Dental schools know this.

What you say is comforting. I spent 3 years in honeybee research but have not published. I'm vacationing in my gap year and hate to do literature searches/citations for the manuscript. BUT, I did have one hell of an experience...getting stung 39 times.

 

[darknightzzz]

yea getting published is 90% luck and 10% hard work................especially for benchwork/basic science research

however, a publication also depends on the journal type, type of publication (basic vs clinical), how far the current research progresses when you join so after u spend 2 years you can be published. publishing a paper itself can take 1 year (from the point the paper is completed, submitted, editted, suggestions for revisions, multiple rounds of revisions, and finally published on the journal.

I got published one article on a very popular journal that is about a good topic. my interviewers never asked me what the paper is about but asked about my experience.

however, getting published after u slaved away in lab after 2-3 years is definitely rewarding and have smth to show for it but definitely not expected by dental school.

 

[gsquared]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I had a couple of publications as an undergraduate, but interviewers didn't seem to think it was much more than an indication of hard work/dedication. They were far more interested in my clinical experiences and work helping others.