At this point, you're stuck with the research position you're in, but the reality is there's a lot of "luck" involved in getting a pub out of a single year. I put luck in quotes, because there are ways to shave the dice, e.g. take a look at the papers published by the lab, and see where students appear, if at all. There are some profs who don't even put their post-docs in the author list (you find them in the acknowledgements!). If you're in it for a publication, that's not where to go.
All that said, maybe you're in a lab where the PI isn't totally against it, and where there are appropriate projects for someone at your level, with a single year to commit (it's not very long, actually). So, here is some advice
1. Your PI probably won't get that much out of you as far as real scientific thought; therefore, you need to be a good technician, first and foremost. DO YOUR SCUT! Your PI will be far more responsive to you telling him/her that you'd like to stay late or come in early to do your own project, then to pay you for bumbling around the lab for a year doing 'research'.
2. Keep your head down and feel out the lab for a few weeks before you ask whether you can get a publication. Some PIs get deeply offended by a pre-med who is just there to fill up their AMCAS, ERAS, etc.
2. a. If the lab publishes three papers a year total, and has only three grad students, you're unlikely to have a first authored paper.
2. b. If experiments involve a large number of people and/or collaborators, you're unlikely to wind up in the author list.
2. c. If papers have a long turn-around (i.e., work done in the lab doesn't get finalized and published until a couple of years after the project starts), you're liable to fall off the author list during the revision process.
2. d. Physician-scientists are far more understanding of the desire for publications by a pre-med than are pure scientists.
Good luck with your glide year. Be a good team player, whatever happens.
Anka
