The Nature of Research

[Davjc2009]

High Powered Research at a Research Hospital with no chance of getting published (at best a poster at a conference)

vs.

Research with a professor, with a good chance of getting a 1st authorship in a minor paper?


Everything else equal (interests, expectations, etc.). Which is more preferable?

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[Pinkertinkle]

Authorship is what matters. If its not on pubmed, its practically worthless.

 

[premeddick]

Publish. Publish as a first author if you can but publish. It will help you now, it will help you later and it will help you even later to have literature with your name on it. It shows an original contribution to any, however small. Plus its cool to see your name in print (or maybe I just have to keep feeding my giant ego .

Make sure you know the expectations going in. How many hours a week? How much work will you be responsible for? How much leadership will you have to do? These are all important things to consider and remember.

 

[AnEyeLikeMars]

High Powered Research at a Research Hospital with no chance of getting published (at best a poster at a conference)

vs.

Research with a professor, with a good chance of getting a 1st authorship in a minor paper?


Everything else equal (interests, expectations, etc.). Which is more preferable?

I'd chose the second one. Not necessarily because of the pub potential that other posters mentioned, but because you'll probably learn more doing first-author type work than absolute bottom of the totem poll-work.

My only word of warning is that you shouldn't necessarily choose an experience based on publication potential. It's a long, difficult, and unpredictable process. Pick the project that you think interests you more and/or will be a better, more interesting experience day-to-day. Also take a look at who will be mentoring you (this will highly affect the quality of your experience). Good luck