How can master students prepare for publications?

[Adobel0937]

Hi everyone! I will study as a master student for the next 2 years and I plan to apply for a Ph.D program in the future.  One thing that I'm very concerned about is that I don't have any publications in my field. In fact, I really love participating in research and I have joined in several projects before. Unfortunately, I encountered some lazy or incapable partners who always threw their work on me even after the work had been clearly assigned to everyone. At that time I was too naive and just angrily abandoned those projects and let them fail...After that, the partners even didn't care about the projects!  Also  My undergraduate advisor never cared about what I had done until I finished my graduate thesis with an A+ grade. So I just benefited and learned little from him.  Now I am working for a large part of a multidisciplinary project. when I see my partners' response, I have a feeling that this project may also fail . I'm not sure how much publications would matter on my Ph.D application but  I really want to change this poor situation in my later graduate study. I am afraid that only two years won't be long enough for me to get some publications. Could anyone give me some suggestions or share some plans with me? Thanks!!  I have a nearly 4.0 GPA and several matched research experience & research skills but I have already lost confidence in later Ph.D application. What kind of work should I focus on during my graduate study? Or how can I quickly join in an efficient or passionate research group to restart?

[juilletmercredi]

Getting on publications when you're on a project for 2 years or less is very much a matter of luck: you have to enter a project at the exact right time that the research is close to publication BUT is not so close that you don't have time to contribute meaningfully in a way that earns you an authorship. While publications can help you get into PhD programs, they aren't strictly necessary, so I'd focus most of your energy on trying to get into a lab where you can get meaningful research experience.

Getting publications usually happens in one of three rough ways: you work on existing project that a professor, postdoc, or other graduate student is leading and gain authorship by helping conduct the research and/or write the resulting paper; you take a "chunk" of existing research that your PI has lying around and spearhead writing a paper on it, often with other students or postdocs; or you start your own project from scratch and write on it. As a master's student option 3 is usually not easily possible. Option 1 is where the luck really comes in. Option 2 is something you can actually talk to some PIs about when you start working in their lab - whether there are cool semi-independent projects they need someone to finish up or restart. Whether or not they can be finished in time to get a publication submitted by the time you apply to doctoral programs depends a lot on the project itself, but you have better chances of it than with option 3.

One thing I'll note from your post is you seem to have a trend of putting blame on other folks. You maybe are just that unfortunate in that you had a string of "lazy" partners that offloaded their work onto you, an uninterested adviser, and now the trend is just starting up again. But if this is happening to you multiple times across 3+ projects, I'd start to wonder about your own place in all this, and whether there are habits or skills or practices you can engage in to increase the likelihood that you'll finish projects or get a publication.