Increasing Pubs

[justacigar]

Hi everyone! I received my first rejection this week but was fortunate enough to get some feedback from the POI I applied to. One piece of advice I was given was to increase my first author papers and presentations, as well as present at international/national conferences. 

The labs I'm in right now are in the middle of data collection, and I've already used some data to create posters for a regional conference. I'm not sure that the labs will be publishing any papers before the next cycle. I'm worried about how to generate research output before I have to reapply if needed. 

So my question is, for those of you who have insane CV's with multiple first author pubs, how did you do it? If your lab wasn't producing, how did you manage to write independent papers with existing data or conduct literature reviews? I'll also ask my research mentors but would love feedback from y'all as well!

Thanks. 

[Scared StringBean]

I don't have any publications yet, but I have one in review following revise and resubmit, and I'm working on a second one. These will also be presented at national conferences as posters, I found it easiest to just convert data analyses for papers into posters or vice versa. It sounds like you have data available (or almost available) to you, so that's great! I think it's unrealistic to expect a first author pub before next cycle. Rather, having one submitted and in review, and potentially, already revised, would help. That can also bolster your references, as I think my mentor admired the work I put into writing my manuscript. I think it's not just the fact that one can create published articles that is attractive to programs, but rather is the experience of receiving feedback from reviewers and responding to them, and writing multiple drafts as my writing improved so much through the process. It also made for a strong writing sample since I received feedback not only from my mentor but 3 scholars in the field (reviewers lol).  I wrote mine over the course of a semester then submitted it in July, heard back in September, then sent in the revision in November. I heard expecting/hoping for a paper to be accepted without major revision is unrealistic these days. I was accepted into two programs already, and was invited to interview at all my other programs. Of course, this was not clinical, which is inevitably more competitive. I might also add that for my manuscript in progress, I am using data collected by my prof years ago, and she wanted something more to come out of the dataset without having to write another paper herself. Perhaps you can talk to your mentors about possibilities like this, as generating new data now to have a pub by next cycle I think may just create a lot more stress than needed. If they care about you pursuing a PhD, they might help make it possible like that. Also, it helps if your mentor has connections or is affiliated with journals and conferences (e.g., a member of the Society for Research on Child Development if your interest is child psych). That's how I am able to present at larger conferences, and some journals only let you submit if one of the authors reviews manuscripts or does editing for the journal. I know this is hard and comparison is real, but I don't think all hope is gone if you don't have a first author pub by the time you apply, from my understanding not many people actually do, especially those who apply within a couple of years after finishing undergrad.

Wishing you all the best!

Edited January 4, 2020 by Scared StringBean
Clarification and my sentence structure was/is bad lol

[SocDevMum]

On 1/3/2020 at 10:25 PM, Scared StringBean said:

I might also add that for my manuscript in progress, I am using data collected by my prof years ago, and she wanted something more to come out of the dataset without having to write another paper herself.

This.  I don't have multiple pubs, but I do have one in review, and it's not from my own original research, it's from data collected for a different project that I mined out.  My PI added me to an older project through IRB, and then I could create what I wanted from it.  I would venture to guess most projects have enough data to support a side project or two, so definitely ask around. As for conferences, start searching now for larger conferences you could get to, and apply away. I was able to present at a huge national conference this fall, and it definitely boosted my CV, but it was not a conference that was on my radar, or that of my department, I heard about it through the grapevine and thought, "what the hell, why not apply?" By some miracle, I was accepted to present, and I ran with it.  

Also, don't forget the value of being a secondary or tertiary author. Any pubs is better than none   and being 2nd or 3rd shows you can work as part of a team successfully, which is a key grad school skill.

[amazingbutternutsquash]

Hello!  So I agree with what everything everyone else has said about analyzing existing data (I got 9 poster presentations that way, 7 of which were first author AND 3 under review pubs, 2 of which are first author). Even if you're not working with them, some faculty also welcome students contacting them with interesting research questions related to their existing datasets.

But I also want to add that completing a meta-analysis is fantastic if you don't have access to an existing dataset. Meta-analyses are more quantitatively rigorous than literature reviews, and consequently are more meaningful to publish and more highly cited. There are several excellent books out there on how to conduct one, and if you have a mentor who is well versed and/or interested in learning more about this technique it could be a good option. 

[PsycUndergrad]

Another option is to look into publicly available datasets. I don’t know what area you’re in so I don’t have any recommendations, but there are tons of datasets out there than you can access through university libraries, or by submitting an application. For example, I’m in Canada and many people use data from a population-based national survey (Canadian Community Health Survey) if they need to pump out some pubs quickly.

[Mickey26]

(Almost) every faculty member will have some sort of dataset lying around. Ask if you can write up a pub from that! I highly recommend skipping the data collection aspect and just work with data that is already around. You can churn out pubs quickly that way. Secondary data analysis saves time and can be easier to do given you don't have to sort out project logistics/submit to ethics/collect data. Good luck!