Getting published looks good on your medical school application and indicates that you can dig deep into research and follow through. It can also boost your residency and fellowship applications later on.
“Being published shows the admissions committee that the student has a track record of success,” says Dr. Aanika Warner, an internal medicine physician and med school admissions expert at Inspira Advantage.
Having a published article under your name can demonstrate long-term research potential and that a student has “an ability to not only ask and answer scientific questions, but drive a project to completion and effectively communicate complex results to a wide audience,” Warner says.
Here are four common ways to get published to give your med school application a serious edge.
Hypothesis-Based Research Papers
These are research papers that begin with a specific question or idea that is tested through experiments or collected clinical data.
“This is your classic publication and considered the gold standard of academic contribution,” Warner says. “These papers may be written about projects that are lab- or clinic-based and are the culmination of often years-long data collection and interpretation.”
An example of a hypothesis-based research paper, Warner says, is a clinical trial that poses the question: “Is drug A better than drug B, the standard of care therapy?” To answer that question, patients would need to be recruited, enrolled and followed over time to document treatment-related side effects and responses, she says.
“Some of the challenges of this type of work include time, effort and complexity of the question asked and require close guidance from a mentor.”
[Read: Why Mentors Are Important for Premedical Students]
Premed students can find opportunities to work on research papers by joining a research lab or research program, such as at their university. They can start by connecting with professors whose courses they took, taking part in formal research programs, “cold emailing and meeting professors on campus, and finding off-campus opportunities such as internships with pharmaceutical companies,” Warner says.
Being an author or co-author in a peer-reviewed publication “is a significant accomplishment viewed favorably by graduate programs, scholarship committees, etc.,” says Amy Keirstead, associate professor of chemistry and associate dean of student academic affairs at the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of New England in Maine.
She says the advantages include prestige and the development of hands-on skills and techniques that could be applicable to clinical skills or future research in the medical field.
Review Papers
A review paper summarizes and organizes existing research on a topic, rather than doing new experiments, to determine what is known so far and where there might be gaps. That involves combing through literature and choosing appropriate articles that have a mix of hypothesis-driven work and other reviews. The writer then has to “synthesize and accurately summarize the work to place it into context,” Warner says.
Writing a review paper requires “a high level of understanding of the review topic and an ability to digest and succinctly summarize a great deal of dense material,” she says. Review articles are typically invited pieces, she adds, where journals contact experts to compose a review on a focused topic, so “students will need to find and work with a mentor to find these opportunities.”
Keirstead says an advantage of a review article is that you can work on it anywhere and any time, assuming you have remote access to databases and articles, “rather than needing to be in a research lab or field site.” This can yield more opportunities for students, particularly those at institutions “where hands-on research is not an option.”
[Read: 7 Skills to Develop Before Medical School]
Case Reports
A case report is a detailed write-up of an interesting or rare patient case that highlights and shares important findings with the medical community. “These papers describe a patient’s clinical course and then place the patient case in context of current understanding of the underlying disease,” Warner says.
A case report can be difficult to come by, as it would require a student to spend enough time in a hospital to find a rare case to present prior to medical school, she says. The complexity of the case can also prove difficult for a premed to understand or know how it differs from routine presentations of disease, or whether a novel treatment approach was used and how it differs from standard practice, she says.
“Additionally, case reports are considered lower-impact pieces, meaning that while they contribute to the literature and body of science at large, they are unlikely to be paradigm-shifting work,” she says.
Premeds can find different opportunities to get published by shadowing doctors and being a scribe, for example. Another way is through clinical volunteering, where students spend time in the clinic or hospital and have exposure to patient care and encounter different patients and pathologies, Warner says.
[12 Reasons to Become a Medical Scribe Before Med School]
“This could lead to a collaboration to work on clinical-based research with the physician or if the student comes across a rare case, he or she could write it up as a case report,” Warner says.
For students who contribute to a case report, Keirstead says, it could be “a real boon to their application for medical school and afford the opportunity to communicate directly to the community of practitioners that they wish to join.”
Conference Abstracts
Conference abstracts are short research summaries for presentation, as a poster or spoken presentation, at an event such as a national conference.
“Conferences are a particularly valuable experience for undergraduates to attend and participate in since they afford the opportunity to network, engage with other researchers and learn about related research in the field that can inform their future work, all in a professional setting,” Keirstead says.
Abstracts are typically shorter and less time-intensive to compose, Warner says, and if med students are part of a research group, they will have published an abstract or two prior to medical school.
Abstracts are easier to write and publish, but they carry less weight than peer-reviewed work and often stem from ongoing projects that may take years to complete, Warner says. Those published for university conferences tend to reach a more limited audience, she adds.
Students can find opportunities by joining a clinical research group, which is typically based out of a medical school or health facility and may have outreach programs that premeds can apply to, Warner says. Students often take a gap year or two before med school to take part in clinical research full time, she says.
“Another opportunity may be found through working with professors in schools of public health who have connections to medical professionals through collaborative projects,” Warner says.
Other ways premed students can get published include commentaries on prior work, letters to the editor of journals to express opinions on recently published work, database analyses and book chapters, Warner says.
“Being published prior to medical school is not a requirement,” she says. “However, it will open many doors for academically bound future physicians.”
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4 Types of Research Publications Premeds Can Work On originally appeared on usnews.com
