Waiting on a Publication. What do I do?

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johnwandering

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I am currently working as a research specialist, and our work was recently submitted to Nature.

Unfortunately, I have no idea when it will end up being published.


I was wondering if there was a way to (or if I should even think about) noting this future publication on my AMCAS?
Or should I just update the schools after I receive the publication?

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Have you submitted your primary app? If yes, then I guess wait for the publication is accepted to update the schools. If not, then you can always put: Name of article, 1st/2nd/etc. author, Nature (submitted for review)
 
I swear I posted a reply to this.

Activity: Researching
Description: I did x, y, and z. Three submissions, two publications, and one pending.
 
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If it hasn't been accepted yet, then it isn't a publication and shouldn't be entered on AMCAS.

It's probably going to take forever so I'd submit and hope you can talk about it in an update letter if it gets published
 
Thanks,

So i should note under my research that I have a publication pending?
 
Thanks,

So i should note under my research that I have a publication pending?

I was in a similar situation when I applied. I left it off my AMCAS, and my PI wrote about it in my LOR. You might consider doing that if you haven't already submitted.
 
In your Research entry, I suggest you say instead that you have submitted a manuscript for consideration.

Yes, submitted does not equal pending. It is pending when it has been accepted with revisions, revised and accepted again and is awaiting placement in the journal.
 
In your Research entry, I suggest you say instead that you have submitted a manuscript for consideration.

This. Do not put a prospective paper as its own publication. If it's been accepted it will look great, but Nature is incredibly selective and a "prospective publication" does not at all equal an accepted one. It's still good to put, however, just to show you had good results/contributed well to an impressive study.
 
It's entirely acceptable and normal, for CV's, applications, resumes, etc, to list something that has been submitted for review but not yet published as "Manuscript submitted, publication, date" or some such format that fits the particulars of your particular application. It's not a proper "publication" yet, but the research is largely-to-completely complete, and everyone that has ever published in a journal like Nature, Science, or any of the other top-tier guys, knows that it can take the better part of a year to get the thing ultimately finalized and put in print. I know many of the scientists in my group, as well as others, that even list "manuscript in preparation" with anticipated dates of submission. The idea isn't that it's a reference that you or anyone else is going to cite in an academic paper, it's an itemized listing of projects that have come to stages of completion, and that you can talk to an interviewer about in detail. I wouldn't go that far personally ('in preparation'), not with a med school app, but if a manuscript has legitimately been submitted, then I would absolutely list it as a pending publication.

And best of luck getting your paper accepted! No small feat, and would definitely be noticed by the adcoms.
 
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