Should I let adcomms know about my publication currently being submitted?

[Daredevil]

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After a few months of hard work, I now have a publication being submitted to some of the major scientific journals like Nature and Neuroscience, with me being the first author.

Should I try to tell the schools that I'm applying to about this even though there isn't any info as to which journal it is being accepted? Should I send them a copy of the paper (~20pages long)?

😕 😕 😕

 

[imtiaz]

i'm doing it. it can't hurt. 🙂 how come you dont know which journal? did you submit the same article to more than one? thats strange. anyhow, send a nice cover letter telling them what it is that youre sending and ship it on out.

 

[Retro]

Not only should you let the adcoms know about this submission, you should in fact FedEx a copy of the manuscript to the med schools you have interviewed with and are currently waiting to hear from them. I did this with several schools... Are you a grad student? It is seemingly unlikely that an undergrad will be the first author of a major publication such as Journal of Neuroscience, although I doubt it will in fact be a Cell paper, unless of course if your PI is very political.

 

[sundevil1]

definitely let them know about what is going on and that you are still unsure where it will be accepted. you may not get a chance to wait until you know exactly where the paper will be published since usually papers must undergo some revision and sometimes they ask for a few more experiments to be done before they publish. by this time some decisions regarding your app may have been made so definitely send the info. now, before any decision is made. sometimes PI's like to keep their work somewhat secretive until it has been officially published, so definitely check with your PI before you decide to send any manuscripts out. a Nature or Neuroscience paper for just a few months of hard work, man you kick @ss, definitely show that off.

 

[JJ4]

Not to be a stickler but how the heck did you get a first author Nature or J.Neurosci paper after a FEW MONTHS of work?? Dude I've been in lab a long time and just got my first author J.Neurobiology paper accepted. Secondly..Nature and Journal of Neuroscience while both are great are on completely OPPOSITE ends of the spectrum. Nature is very difficult while J.Neurosci is no where near the difficulty of Nature. I was just curious dude -- not bashing...

 

[Daredevil]

Obviously, this paper is the culmination of things that the previous technicians and I have worked on. My PI felt that I had played large enough of a role in the project to deserve to be first author.

Like applying to medical schools, we have to send the paper to a range of journals and hope for the best. After that, we probably have to edit the paper and perform more experiments, if necessary. So, it is not by any means ready to go.

Thanks for the advice, folks.

 

[JJ4]

That's nice of your PI. Typically the first author usually pulls the weight of a lot of the writing...at least in my case it did.

 

[kutastha]

I'm curious too. Usually it's difficult for anyone to first-author a Nature paper even after years of work.

But two things you should be aware of (and what your PI should have already told you):

1) Submitting the same paper to more than one journal at the same time is a big no-no.

2) Since you're most likely submitting a letter to Nature, you're about 10 pages in excess. They'll send it back if it's that long.

Personally, I wouldn't send a submitted article to the adcoms, but the choice is yours. You say you don't know where it will be accepted, but if fact, you don't even know if it will be accepted.

 

[Legend]

In my opinion, submitting a paper doesn't mean much because it can get easily rejected. Actually, most of the papers do not get accepted at once. The editor may require more experiments, etc or just reject the paper immediately.
However, if your paper gets ACCEPTED, then it is a good thing and you should definitely let ADCOMS know.
I haven't heard any undergrad being a first author in Nature. If your paper gets accepted by Nature, can I have your autograph? 🙂

 

[mdhopeful]

That's great daredevil! My advice is to send a short letter describing the work and its citation. I would not send the manuscript, as it will likely be tossed out and not read. Although the paper is not yet accepted, just say that it was submitted to such and such journal and list the title and the order of the authors. I've sent a few update letters when my papers have either appeared in print or have been submitted and accepted, so if you have others coming in the pipeline, I definitely would say only use the letter and not the manuscript otherwise your file will get too big and they won't be able to sort out what is important. Also, know that some schools will absolutely not add anything to your file and so whatever you send will be thrown out. So, it would be wise to call and check first.

 

[Daredevil]

Legi, I actually graduated from college this past May and have devoted most of my time (~45-60 hrs/week) at lab, so it really isn't all that impressive. I'm lucky, perhaps.
But of course, there is a good chance it will get rejected by Nature, so that is why we are hoping for an acceptance by a "lesser" journal.

When I say it is about 20 pages, only about half of it are text, while the rest are figures and references.

Thanks for the advice, mdhopeful, I will probably end up following what you have done and update the schools about the status of my paper.

 

[Legend]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Daredevil:
•Legi, I actually graduated from college this past May and have devoted most of my time (~45-60 hrs/week) at lab, so it really isn't all that impressive. I'm lucky, perhaps.
But of course, there is a good chance it will get rejected by Nature, so that is why we are hoping for an acceptance by a "lesser" journal.

When I say it is about 20 pages, only about half of it are text, while the rest are figures and references.

Thanks for the advice, mdhopeful, I will probably end up following what you have done and update the schools about the status of my paper.•••••I submitted my manuscript to Science last year, but it got rejected immediately, but got accepted by a lesser journal, 'Blood'. In any case, I was happy. 🙂
I wish you the best luck and if your paper gets accepted by Nature, you should post it here !

 

[sandflea]

i have to agree here with those who pointed out that you never submit a manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. it's very bad practice and it's just not done. what are you doing to do in the off-chance that it's accepted to both journals? withdraw from one? yes, when you submit a manuscript you're taking a chance that it may not be accepted, but that's just the way the game works. if you're worried about your work getting scooped before being published or it probably being rejected, then you can submit to a less prestigious journal. you can also try submitting it to a top journal (like nature) and then sending it elsewhere if it's rejected, but you don't send it to more than one place at the same time. getting your work published matters a lot more than risking not getting it out there at all.

also, i would NEVER send an unpublished manuscript to ANYONE. you don't know that your manuscript will be accepted on the first try, or even the second try. it could be months, even years, before you get that work published, and you wouldn't want to risk someone else seeing your work and you getting scooped. it certainly happens. you don't know who's on the adcoms at the schools you're applying and who they might know. this is something you really shouldn't risk.

 

[JJ4]

Hmm...rejected by SCIENCE and accepted by Blood. Wow...you guys were really shooting high the first time huh...

The good thing about Science, Cell, and Nature is that they'll read the abstract and reject it IMMEDIATELY if they don't like it. Usually they won't even review it. You'll know if your stuff is CNS Cell/Nature/Science (CNS)worthy before you even submit it. If you don't hear from them within 3 weeks it's a good thing (they might actually review it) if not -- they'll just send it back.

BUT DO NOT SUBMIT TO MORE THAN ONE JOURNAL. In my experience if the item is not very revolutionary or interesting to the GENERAL scientific community it's not worth sending it to CNS. Because once it gets rejected from there and you start to tread down the lane of journal hierarchy it's gonna be years before that thing gets in and it's very likely that you'll get scooped by another group and then it's never going to get published.

Good luck to you though -- I hope things work out.