Hm. I did an exhaustive literary research and wrote a paper of results as a part of my Master's Biology independent studies course. I listed it as research. Did it on my own under the guidance of my PI.
This was all mainstream stuff. Basically, the independent studies course is supposed to introduce me to the subject, and I would eventually carry out laboratory research on my own. I wrote the paper for myself and future lab members which will be using it as a reference for their research, as well as proposing a novel hypothesis on why this and that occur. Basically, it is a review article in all forms except that it is not published and only used for our lab. Think of it as the gathering of preliminary information for a research topic.
I remember professors speaking to me that some research experience constitutes things outside of working in the lab too, such as literary searches of these purposes, and generally understanding what research is all about. Hope I did not list it incorrectly :x
But I did specifically write that those X amount of hours were for academic credit and it was all for writing a paper of that type, so that should be ok regardless if adcom reads it?
