Research: paid or volunteer?

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stat3113

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So I want to do some research this fall, probably in neuroscience, on a part-time basis. There are two types of opportunities I'm seeing.

1) Unpaid (volunteer-basis): Undergrad research assistant
Pretty much informal, I work in a lab with prof, post-docs, and grad students, etc. I think this is traditionally what is meant by 'research'

2) Paid, 'technician'
I am also seeing these in the school's job listings. All they require is a BS degree and a basic understanding of the field.

It seems like in both 1 and 2, I would be doing similar types of work. Is one preferable to the other? What do most pre-med students do when they talk of 'research'?

Do 'technicians' ever get published in articles? Or is it implied that their job is just to assist the researchers?

My goal with the experience is to try to get published, and get a worthwhile academic experience out of it. Thanks for your advice.

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Generally whether you're published or not depends more on your contributions rather that your job title or rank. It also will vary depending on who you're working for, some researchers will publish you on their paper more freely than others. I think your best bet is to talk to who you will be working for and ask them if it's likely you'll be published or not. It shouldn't be looked down upon as being one of your goals. Otherwise if the work is the same, and one job is paid, take the money! Good luck :)
 
Well, if you are still in undergrad, you can't do the second one since you don't have the BS degree yet, and I'm guessing that if you have the degree you can't do the first one since it calls for an "undergrad."
 
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Generally whether you're published or not depends more on your contributions rather that your job title or rank. It also will vary depending on who you're working for, some researchers will publish you on their paper more freely than others. I think your best bet is to talk to who you will be working for and ask them if it's likely you'll be published or not. It shouldn't be looked down upon as being one of your goals. Otherwise if the work is the same, and one job is paid, take the money! Good luck :)

Agreed. But sometimes unpaid research is actually more rewarding. You might find yourself just doing the paid research to get the money after you're into it a lot. If the research interest is essentially the same, I'd obviously take the paid one. :)
 
I joined a neuro lab right at its startup, and my PI was really frank and said that he couldn't afford to pay me at that time, but that if I did reasonably good work then he would when he got funds. I worked there for a little more than a semester unpaid, and now I'm making $10 an hour, which isn't riches but it will do (I have a full scholarship plus personal stipend, so money was always more of a "its nice if I have it" as opposed to "I need it").

Maybe see if you can try out in someone's lab for a while and then get paid once you finish all your tech training and stuff.
 
If you want publications, it's on a case-by-case basis. Judge each lab independently regardless of whether or not they pay you or not. Look at the PI's recent publications and see how many papers he averages a year. This could be done with a simple search on PubMed.

During the interview, make it CLEAR that you want to do actual research and hope to have an independent project within a few months after you start working. Don't take the beaker-washing jobs or the "make everyone's solutions" technician jobs.
 
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