Having a publication under your belt is a powerful tool in your medical school application arsenal. It is tangible evidence of your contribution to furthering scientific progress and your ability to take on and complete difficult tasks.
After getting into medical school, you will be able to include your publications on your residency applications and fellowship applications. Therefore, a published article is a lifelong achievement that you can be proud of.
[Read: Premeds: Maximize Your Research Publication Chances.]
However, not all academic publications are equal. There are many types of publications in science and in medicine. In this article, we describe three types of academic publications, outline the pros and cons of each and discuss how to find opportunities to work on these papers.
Hypothesis-based research papers. An original research paper is the holy grail of research. It typically involves a hypothesis, experimentation, analysis of results and a discussion of what the researchers found and how the finding fits into the existing trove of knowledge in the field.
In biology and the medical sciences, there are many types of research papers, including basic sciences, translational sciences and clinical trials, to name a few. To work on a research paper, you will need to join a laboratory or a research group.
[Read: 4 Ways to Make Premedical Research Experience Count.]
However, the disadvantage of working on a hypothesis-driven research project is that a research project faces many hurdles, including whether the experiments work, whether valid conclusions can be drawn, and whether other scientists accept the resulting manuscript for publication. There is never a guarantee that a science research project will come to fruition in the form of a research paper.
Review Paper. A review paper is an in-depth summary of the existing publications in the field. It provides a detailed overview of the essential concepts and findings in a given research specialty. Working on a review paper requires working under an expert on a topic — typically your research advisor — and sorting, annotating and analyzing many different articles to reach a conclusion.
Based on her personal experience, Maria Filsinger Interrante, a third-year M.D.-Ph.D. student at Stanford University, says, “Writing an excellent review article requires that you sift through hundreds of papers, and from that enormous collection curate the most novel and significant. Having the confidence to read a paper and try to make a determination of ‘this really matters for the field’ versus ‘I don’t think I need to include this one’ as an undergraduate doesn’t come naturally, and that’s where it’s essential to get feedback and revisions from your (principal investigator), who is an expert in the field.”
[Read: How to Find Balance as a Premed Student.]
“While I was by no means already a topic expert, I understood that writing a review would be an excellent way to greatly expand my knowledge in that area while having a tangible product to show for it,” she says. “I would encourage undergraduates to have the confidence to seek those opportunities, knowing that they can count on guidance and feedback from their (principal investigator) and ultimately deliver a strong, well-crafted review that they can take pride in.”
Case report. A case report is a type of publication that is unique to the field of medicine. It is an article that describes one or a few patients with unusual medical symptoms, signs, diagnosis and treatment. The purpose of a case report is to explain very rare medical cases in detail so that other physicians can refer to it if they end up encountering a similar incident in their practice.
Case reports are straightforward to write, given their limited scope. Moreover, you will be able to expose yourself to clinical language and interesting presentations of human diseases. However, finding physicians who have seen novel patients and are interested in co-authoring a case report can be a challenge. Additionally, admission committee members and physicians are typically aware of the fact that case reports are much easier to write than a hypothesis-based research paper or a review paper.
Research doesn’t just stop as a pre-med. After school, medical students work on publication manuscripts for residency, and residents conduct research to be competitive for fellowship positions and many physicians share their knowledge and findings with others through research publications. Regardless of whether your project ends up being published, working toward a scientific goal is an invaluable investment for your future career in medicine.
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3 Types of Research Publications Premeds Can Work On originally appeared on usnews.com
