Worth Staying in Lab With Questionable Pubs?

[sahdagah]

Incoming MS1 here! I'm wondering if it's worth staying in the lab I've been in for 2 years now. We mainly do literature reviews and meta-analyses. My PI publishes about 1-2x every month, and if I really put in work, I could crank out at least 4 pubs per year (currently have 4 first-author pubs). I have some concerns, though:

• We publish in a very small journal that I guarantee nobody would recognize (it's a niche but definitely interesting field)
• None of our papers have any statistical analyses, including the meta-analyses
• A decent amount of his papers are poor quality (sometimes obviously written by AI, but I think my PI is too old to notice). This affects me when I have people in my group using AI, but has only happened twice.
• Our papers can only be found on our journal's website and Zenodo, so I'm not sure how credible that makes them look
• It usually takes about 3-6 weeks to publish after submitting papers to our PI, which feels short and makes me question how thorough the review process is

Honestly, I've learned a lot since starting (mostly how to navigate through the literature and find flaws in papers), but recently I've started thinking about how these papers will be perceived on my ERAS application. I don't want future faculty to read through my pubs and laugh.

Should I ditch this lab and join a new one once I'm in medical school? Or should I play the game of modern research and focus on cranking out as many pubs as possible. Also, should I not even bother listing these on my ERAS when the time comes? I am willing to PM the journal or example papers if it helps.

TLDR: In a lab that mostly does literature reviews and meta-analyses. Could probably get 4+ pubs a year, but the journal we publish in is super niche, papers don’t have any stats (even meta-analyses), and some have AI. Starting to worry that listing these on my ERAS might hurt more than help. Thinking about switching to a more reputable lab once I start med school and only listing the papers I’m proud of.

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[AJS59]

Incoming MS1 here! I'm wondering if it's worth staying in the lab I've been in for 2 years now. We mainly do literature reviews and meta-analyses. My PI publishes about 1-2x every month, and if I really put in work, I could crank out at least 4 pubs per year (currently have 4 first-author pubs). I have some concerns, though:

• We publish in a very small journal that I guarantee nobody would recognize (it's a niche but definitely interesting field)
• None of our papers have any statistical analyses, including the meta-analyses
• A decent amount of his papers are poor quality (sometimes obviously written by AI, but I think my PI is too old to notice). This affects me when I have people in my group using AI, but has only happened twice.
• Our papers can only be found on our journal's website and Zenodo, so I'm not sure how credible that makes them look
• It usually takes about 3-6 weeks to publish after submitting papers to our PI, which feels short and makes me question how thorough the review process is

Honestly, I've learned a lot since starting (mostly how to navigate through the literature and find flaws in papers), but recently I've started thinking about how these papers will be perceived on my ERAS application. I don't want future faculty to read through my pubs and laugh.

Should I ditch this lab and join a new one once I'm in medical school? Or should I play the game of modern research and focus on cranking out as many pubs as possible. Also, should I not even bother listing these on my ERAS when the time comes? I am willing to PM the journal or example papers if it helps.

TLDR: In a lab that mostly does literature reviews and meta-analyses. Could probably get 4+ pubs a year, but the journal we publish in is super niche, papers don’t have any stats (even meta-analyses), and some have AI. Starting to worry that listing these on my ERAS might hurt more than help. Thinking about switching to a more reputable lab once I start med school and only listing the papers I’m proud of.

I'd probably let it go. I don't think listing them will hurt you explicitly BUT a meta-analysis without stats....not a great look. You'll have plenty more opportunities in med school to engage in more meaningful work.