Sustained research without publishing - black mark?

[BronxBomber]

Hey all,

I am currently halfway through a year-long research fellowship and the reality is dawning that there's no way I'll have a manuscript by the end. Its basic science, so that's more the rule than the exception.

The issue is that now I've been doing bench research for about 6 years and I have no authorships. I've been acknowledged on a couple papers and I have a ton of abstracts/posters but I've never been named as an author. I've also never been in the sort of lab that throws the pre-med/med student's name on all the papers to improve their placement.

A program director at my home institution for a competitive program told me that if I don't get a manuscript out this year, it'll be a black mark on my application. Is this true?

Is it worth pulling back from research so I don't call attention to how much time I've spent without publishing?

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[SurfingDoctor]

Well, you can always write in the "Research Experience" portion of the ERAS application what you did for projects. You should write something there because it helps your application and opposed to putting nothing and seemingly like you weren't really involved in any project (which by the way, is never helpful on an application).

Though I have to ask, how can you have been doing research for 6 years and not have your name on anything? Not even a co-authorship? Were the projects that bad? Were the mentors/PI that bad? It certainly would be strange to have an applicant be in a year long research fellowship and have nothing to show for it. While it could easily be the project and/or mentor was bad, it could also be interpreted that the student didn't put in the effort, which would be a "black mark" so to speak. Someone is definitely going to ask about it on your application.