What is considered a publication?

[UCImed]

Okay I read on here about bunch of middle author, co-author publications.

But what is considered a publication?

Does it have to be an academic article published in a well known journal like, Journal of Autoimmunity? or Journal of American Medical Association, or Journal of Immunology?

Or can they be publications in smaller journals.

At my university they have a program called Excellence in Research where if you are awarded the "excellence in research" your article that is based on the project you work on is published in a journal called The Journal of Undergraduate Research in the Biological Sciences, Volume Blah Blah.

So does this count as a publication?

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[Naijaba]

Hi UCIMed,

I know that the UCI UROP Journal articles are *almost* peer-reviewed journal quality, that's why they only accept about 7/60 submissions each year. You can see example articles here:

http://www.urop.uci.edu/journal/previous.html

I don't know about the selectivity of the UCI Undergraduate Biology Journal, but if its localized to UCI, then it would not be as notable as a national peer-reviewed journal.

PM me if you would like more information (I went to UCI and had a peer-reviewed 3rd authorship as well as an article accepted to the 2008 UROP Journal).

 

[Pinkertinkle]

if its biological research I would say being able to find your article on pubmed is a good indicator

 

[NickNaylor]

A publication = your name in the author list of a paper in a peer-reviewed journal. Period.

Some people are of course going to bring up impact factor and a variety of other criteria to distinguish a "legitimate" publication from a "non-legitimate" publication, but they're all publications nonetheless. Papers that present new research are probably more highly valued than other forms of publications (i.e., reviews).

 

[BerlinDude]

if its biological research I would say being able to find your article on pubmed is a good indicator

I agree.

The Liberian Journal of Rodent Science and Goat Medicine doesn't count.

 

[armybound]

A publication = your name in the author list of a paper in a peer-reviewed journal. Period.

Some people are of course going to bring up impact factor and a variety of other criteria to distinguish a "legitimate" publication from a "non-legitimate" publication, but they're all publications nonetheless. Papers that present new research are probably more highly valued than other forms of publications (i.e., reviews).

impact factor doesn't matter. if it's been peer-reviewed and/or makes it on Pubmed, you're good to go.

 

[plsletmein]

impact factor doesn't matter. if it's been peer-reviewed and/or makes it on Pubmed, you're good to go.

Are there journals on pubmed that haven't been assessed an impact factor?

nevermind... read your post wrong

 

[armybound]

some publications may not meet these criteria, though, like an undergrad honors thesis that gets published in the school's thesis publication that is not indexed on pubmed or peer-reviewed. I would possibly still consider it a publication if it was original research with all of the effort of a publication and is compiled with other, similar works.

I dunno, in that case, actually, I may just list the research experience and also mention that you wrote a thesis on it.

 

[apumic]

I would agree that it needs to be a peer-reviewed journal of such quality that your article can be accessed through one of several major databases in your discipline. In medicine, these would include PubMed and MEDLINE. In psych, they would be PsychArticles and PsychInfo, for instance. If major databases that most academic libraries have access to don't index the journal in which you are published, it is likely to obscure a journal to be considered a "publication" for the purposes of an application. Generally, small individual institution honors journals would fall into this category of not peer-reviewed/insignificant. If presented at a small, local conference (i.e., on campus), however, you could certainly cite that presentation and mention it was invited to be in the school's honorary journal for the year.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

some publications may not meet these criteria, though, like an undergrad honors thesis that gets published in the school's thesis publication that is not indexed on pubmed or peer-reviewed. I would possibly still consider it a publication if it was original research with all of the effort of a publication and is compiled with other, similar works.

Yeah I wudnt include that under publications

 

[shiftingmirage]

A publication = your name in the author list of a paper in a peer-reviewed journal. Period.

Agreed. Pubmed is a good indicator, but not all inclusive. It's limited to bio/medical journals or those that cover all areas (science, nature). I think peer-reviewed is key.

 

[Naijaba]

Ahem...PubMed is NOT necessarily a good baseline to determine the quality of a publication. Having a publication in PubMed simply means you (or your PI's) work was funded by the NIH. Most major biology/health/etc. journals automatically submit papers to PubMed. If the journal where the article was published does not automatically submit manuscripts to Pubmed, and the PI was supported by NIH funds, then the PI must arrange to have the paper submitted to PubMed.

PubMed is a public (hence the name) service that makes journal abstracts available to everyone, it does not review the quality of work therein.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Ahem...PubMed is NOT necessarily a good baseline to determine the quality of a publication. Having a publication in PubMed simply means you (or your PI's) work was funded by the NIH. Most major biology/health/etc. journals automatically submit papers to PubMed. If the journal where the article was published does not automatically submit manuscripts to Pubmed, and the PI was supported by NIH funds, then the PI must arrange to have the paper submitted to PubMed.

PubMed is a public (hence the name) service that makes journal abstracts available to everyone, it does not review the quality of work therein.

ahem, you got any better ideas then?

 

[Naijaba]

For a research career I assume citation count is the best indicator of the validity of one's research, but as far as medical school admission goes...PubMed is *probably* the best. Adcomms would probably look there first to learn about an applicant's paper.

 

[plsletmein]

some publications may not meet these criteria, though, like an undergrad honors thesis that gets published in the school's thesis publication that is not indexed on pubmed or peer-reviewed. I would possibly still consider it a publication if it was original research with all of the effort of a publication and is compiled with other, similar works.

I dunno, in that case, actually, I may just list the research experience and also mention that you wrote a thesis on it.

I wouldn't consider that a publication

For the OP, I think listing a publication in an undergraduate journal is also pushing it. I think when people talk about the rarity of having a publication, they mean stuff like a chapter in a book or some nationally recognized peer reviewed journal that researchers from all over can submit articles that are then screened.

It's kind of like how med school adcoms won't discern between different levels of course difficulties because there's too many colleges to individually research if a college had a more difficult track for the lower division chem series. Different colleges may have undergraduate journals that will publish anything and others that will screen but adcoms do not have the time or resource to research each obscure journal

 

[orrghead16]

Ahem...PubMed is NOT necessarily a good baseline to determine the quality of a publication. Having a publication in PubMed simply means you (or your PI's) work was funded by the NIH. Most major biology/health/etc. journals automatically submit papers to PubMed. If the journal where the article was published does not automatically submit manuscripts to Pubmed, and the PI was supported by NIH funds, then the PI must arrange to have the paper submitted to PubMed.

PubMed is a public (hence the name) service that makes journal abstracts available to everyone, it does not review the quality of work therein.

I will guarantee you that IF an MD or biomedical PhD is going to look up your article, they will go to pubmed 99.8% of the time. If it doesn't pop up, they probably won't look much farther

Your right that pubmed does not measure "quality" per se, but all the journals pubmed takes are very reputable, peer-reviewed, and must be held up to the editorial standards that pubmed requires. Further pubmed lists a HUGE number of life science journals, which the majority of biomedical PIs publish all of their work in (if not, you are shooting yourself in the foot). NIH funded PIs are required to put there stuff in PMC, but that is certainly not (even close to) the limiting scope of medline.

There are certainly exceptions where other journals, especially outside of biomedical are not covered. But, as a future doctor, I can also guarantee that there are 2 ways for someone to count your publications: either your CV or pubmed. There is a reason they put the #s beside each of the articles that pops up after a search.

Bottom line is that you can put anything you want or deem as a publication down on AMCAS. Spin it however you want. But if it doesn't pop up in pubmed and isn't outside pubmed's life science scope, you going into grey. Big research guys can sniff out BS quick.

 

[Doodledog]

Having a publication in PubMed simply means you (or your PI's) work was funded by the NIH.

I will guarantee you that IF an MD or biomedical PhD is going to look up your article, they will go to pubmed 99.8% of the time. If it doesn't pop up, they probably won't look much farther

Your right that pubmed does not measure "quality" per se, but all the journals pubmed takes are very reputable, peer-reviewed, and must be held up to the editorial standards that pubmed requires.

A couple of minor clarifications:

1. Listing of a publication in Pubmed does not in any way mean that the research was funded by the NIH. The overwhelming majority of biomedical research around the globe is not NIH funded but can be found on Pubmed.

2. It would be, in my personal opinion, very uncommon for someone to look up a med school applicant's research on Pubmed. This is not so easy to do. Many folks have names that are not very distinguishable, there are problems with the listing using first initials or first two initials, etc. There are other services that help resolve this, but it is time consuming and difficult. It is not something that I believe would be commonly done.

3. Although a journal may be peer-reviewed, that does NOT mean that everything in it has undergone a formal peer-review or that everything listed in Pubmed has been peer-reviewed. In particular, Pubmed will list letters to the editor which, in SOME journals, are only reviewed by the editor and do not have a formal peer-review process.

4. In general, I agree that having a research paper one was a listed co-author on appear on Pubmed is nice, but it is not critical at the pre-med phase and would not define the quality of the work. It would make it easier for someone who really cared to look it up, but that would be very uncommon, in my view.

 

[plsletmein]

2. But you could also just search the article title which should only bring up one result, or multiple last names since it should be properly cited, or throw in the journal name and year of publication with the last name of the author. It should be relatively easy and quick to pull up if the publication if it is listed on pubmed since the article should be properly cited unless the applicant has something to hide and does not disclose anything about the publication other than their name and that a publication exists somewhere. It's not out of the picture for some interviewers to pull up a publication to question the interviewee about

3. True but I doubt med school applicants would list a letter to the editor as a publication

 

[shiftingmirage]

Ahem...PubMed is NOT necessarily a good baseline to determine the quality of a publication.
PubMed is a public (hence the name) service that makes journal abstracts available to everyone, it does not review the quality of work therein.

If one wants to know impact factor, that is probably most measurable by the journal the article was published in. The top journals in the country: Nature, Science, PNAS. Ya get something in one of those, it looks impressive, especially as a UG.

 

[DrJosephKim]

Perhaps writing blog posts on established medical blogs should also be considered a publication. It's essentially a digital form of an editorial. It may get peer-reviewed on the spot as comments come in.

 

[TopSecret]

It could also be a NYTimes bestseller.

 

[DaTruMD]

Okay I read on here about bunch of middle author, co-author publications.

But what is considered a publication?

Does it have to be an academic article published in a well known journal like, Journal of Autoimmunity? or Journal of American Medical Association, or Journal of Immunology?

Or can they be publications in smaller journals.

At my university they have a program called Excellence in Research where if you are awarded the "excellence in research" your article that is based on the project you work on is published in a journal called The Journal of Undergraduate Research in the Biological Sciences, Volume Blah Blah.

So does this count as a publication?

Undergrad research journals are redic. easy to get publish in, IMO.

 

[UCImed]

Thanks for all the responses!

My question now is...is there a section in the AMCAS application that lists publications? I'm assuming not right?

But if there is a section, what is the description they provide for what is considered a publication?



And finally a publication is a publication. Now like a previous poster said the "Liberian Journal of Mouse and Goat medicine" doesn't count but this is from a University of California Journal that is not reviewed by my peers, but from many other instructors and professors around the country.

 

[plsletmein]

Thanks for all the responses!

My question now is...is there a section in the AMCAS application that lists publications? I'm assuming not right?

But if there is a section, what is the description they provide for what is considered a publication?



And finally a publication is a publication. Now like a previous poster said the "Liberian Journal of Mouse and Goat medicine" doesn't count but this is from a University of California Journal that is not reviewed by my peers, but from many other instructors and professors around the country.

I don't think AMCAS put out a description. Maybe LizzyM will chime in with her adcom perspective, but I doubt when she is talking about her assessment of research from 1-4 that a publication in an undergraduate journal would constitute the highest rating

IMO, at this stage, a publication is a publication if it is in some journal (assuming you're only talking about journals) that has an impact factor (meaning it is a journal that has articles being cited by other journals). What that number is isn't as important as the fact that it exists for that journal.

For your situation, it just feels like when there is a business man in the street wanting to find out the news and looking for a copy of the NY Times but being handed a high school newspaper publication by the person behind the news stand.

You have nothing to lose so list it as you see fit and let the adcoms do whatever they do

 

[RogueUnicorn]

Thanks for all the responses!

My question now is...is there a section in the AMCAS application that lists publications? I'm assuming not right?

But if there is a section, what is the description they provide for what is considered a publication?



And finally a publication is a publication. Now like a previous poster said the "Liberian Journal of Mouse and Goat medicine" doesn't count but this is from a University of California Journal that is not reviewed by my peers, but from many other instructors and professors around the country.

if it is a publication. if it's not, it's not. i don't think anybody counts an undergrad institution mag to be a "publication"

 

[plsletmein]

And finally a publication is a publication. Now like a previous poster said the "Liberian Journal of Mouse and Goat medicine" doesn't count but this is from a University of California Journal that is not reviewed by my peers, but from many other instructors and professors around the country.

and if I did not have time to look up journals and went solely by the journal's name, something with the title "Liberian Journal of Mouse and Goat Medicine" would sound a whole lot more legitimate than something like "blah blah Undergraduate Research blah blah"

 

[medbunny56]

does a paper published in a student-run academic journal count as a publication?

 

[DameJulie]

My $0.02: If the paper is searchable on PubMed or Google Scholar, and/or it's peer-reviewed, it counts as a publication.

 

[Lawpy]

does a paper published in a student-run academic journal count as a publication?

I believe @gonnif has recently pointed out that an undergrad journal publication can be listed as a publication on AMCAS. But it definitely doesn't hold the same weight as a typical publication because it isn't peer reviewed by fellow scientists.

 

[medbunny56]

I believe @gonnif has recently pointed out that an undergrad journal publication can be listed as a publication on AMCAS. But it definitely doesn't hold the same weight as a typical publication because it isn't peer reviewed by fellow scientists.

What if it's just an abstract in the undergraduate science journal which was a supplement to an undergrad poster day?

 

[Lawpy]

What if it's just an abstract in the undergraduate science journal which was a supplement to an undergrad poster day?

I think that's part of the Posters and Presentations section. But you would only include the poster and not the supplement to avoid double counting

 

[medbunny56]

and counting something weak twice is worse than simple fluff. It starts to look like you are trying to cover other weaknesses

I've already applied and just included a sentence in my research experience description that I presented my findings at X science poster day since I was initially told the posters/preferences were meant for national conferences not university held undergrad conferences