Time for Research?

[CaptainSSO]

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Hey guys, I only recently learned that there are a few competitive residencies (particularly radiation oncology, which I think I may be interested in) with an average of 8 abstracts, publications, etc. for matched seniors. I was just wondering how it is feasible to get this much work done? Do these students just do research in the summers, or during the year as well? Do you have to pick projects that will be conducive to actually getting publishable results?

Does research need to be related to the specialty you're applying to? In that case, if you're wanting to do rad onc, for instance, it seems to me that you have to know within your first two years of medical school that you want to do that specialty. That number, 8, just seems incredibly daunting to me, and I guess I'm just looking for some general information/tips regarding getting enough research done.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I did research throughout medical school. Numerous publications are possible. A friend of mine had over 20 during his 4 years of medical school. Obviously it is best to do them in your chosen field, but any pubs are beneficial toward your application.

 

[Hemichordate]

I did research throughout medical school. Numerous publications are possible. A friend of mine had over 20 during his 4 years of medical school. Obviously it is best to do them in your chosen field, but any pubs are beneficial toward your application.

That must have been mostly clinical research, right?

 

[Lokhtar]

Yea, you're only going to have 20 basic science pubs in four years if you're working full time and then only if it's in fields that are infamous for research vomit.

Could also be counting it twice - like presenting something at multiple places, plus stuff like case studies that is pretty rapid to put out comparatively.

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

Hey guys, I only recently learned that there are a few competitive residencies (particularly radiation oncology, which I think I may be interested in) with an average of 8 abstracts, publications, etc. for matched seniors. I was just wondering how it is feasible to get this much work done? Do these students just do research in the summers, or during the year as well? Do you have to pick projects that will be conducive to actually getting publishable results?

Does research need to be related to the specialty you're applying to? In that case, if you're wanting to do rad onc, for instance, it seems to me that you have to know within your first two years of medical school that you want to do that specialty. That number, 8, just seems incredibly daunting to me, and I guess I'm just looking for some general information/tips regarding getting enough research done.

Also keep in mind that ~22% (or something like that) of those who match into radonc are MD/PhDs. They likely have at least one publication (and a few posters) from their PhD years.

From what I've been told by quite a few med students, it's entirely possible to do retrospective research during the school year (as long as you're semi-decent at time management). So I can definitely see med students accumulating multiple papers (especially if they contribute enough to be middle authors) and abstracts during the course of med school.

 

[TexasPhysician]

That must have been mostly clinical research, right?

ALL clinical

 

[dienekes88]

Hey guys, I only recently learned that there are a few competitive residencies (particularly radiation oncology, which I think I may be interested in) with an average of 8 abstracts, publications, etc. for matched seniors. I was just wondering how it is feasible to get this much work done? Do these students just do research in the summers, or during the year as well? Do you have to pick projects that will be conducive to actually getting publishable results?

Does research need to be related to the specialty you're applying to? In that case, if you're wanting to do rad onc, for instance, it seems to me that you have to know within your first two years of medical school that you want to do that specialty. That number, 8, just seems incredibly daunting to me, and I guess I'm just looking for some general information/tips regarding getting enough research done.

1. Work hard.
2. Strong/involved mentor.
3. Try to jump in as a second or third author on a resident's paper.
4. Abstracts and posters are pretty easy to get as long as you know a little bit about statistics, i.e. don't have to wait for a resident to do it for you.
5. Work HARD.
6. Do everything yourself. If you have to rely on someone else to do it, then it'll never get done.
7. Vacations, weekends, times when your friends are out drinking/having fun... these are a great time to get work done.

Get ready for a constant headache.

 

[Lokhtar]

As I said, research vomit. So much of it is out there unfortunately due to the publish or perish mentality in academia that rewards quantity over quality in so many cases. So you have to play the game - most people not directly in your field have a hard time judging quality (and sometimes even then) so they rely on quantity.

You know what they say (and this is not my quote but it's so awesome): the speed at which journals fill the library shelves exceeds the speed of light, but they violate no laws of physics since no information is being transmitted.

 

[shadowfox87]

It's not really about the # of publications, but what you published. If it's related to the field/specialty you're applying in, obviously that's better. Though, if it's not, then it's not the end of the world. There are students with 1 amazing publication who get picked over students with 5+. Only you would know if you're publication stands out or not in the specialty that you're interested in.