How Important is it to be Published?

[EyelandPychePhD]

How important is it to have a publication (accepted manuscript, published, etc.) on your CV prior to applying to a Clinical or Counseling PhD program. I've heard tons of conflicting information, and obviously there's no exact science to and we're basically all just speculating and going off of the luck of the draw... Clearly it's ideal to have a paper published, but how truly important is it.... I've worked in a schizophrenia research lab for the past year, and from that Lab, I was on a paper but my name is far down the list among 20 authors. The journal it was published in was the Journal of Psychiatry and Brain Science, which is a high-impact journal. Other than that, I do not have any papers or posters published. I am half-thinking about fixing up one of my papers from school and submitting it to an open-access journal (even though for open access journals you have to pay $2000-$4000 to be published!) just so that I have something else to put on my CV. Don't get me wrong, I love writing (why else would I want to go for a PhD) but I am currently working two jobs, trying to study for the GRE, manage all of these applications and learn about programs and POI's..... I am already busy and beyond stressed out. Wondering if spending a ton of time and effort trying to get a paper out in the next few weeks is worth it (it would be a literature review). You'll see below that my GRE scores need work... Lets say hypothetically I bring those scores up to 165 V 160 Q.... 

My research interests are schizophrenia (particularly newly emerging medications with, non-D2 receptor chemical mechanisms), and, separately, positive psychology interventions and the science of positive emotions. I am also interested in biomarkers of social anxiety disorder vs. paranoia in schizophrenia. It would be easiest to write the Literature Review for the open access journal on "positive psychology" since I already have good baseline of background research done on it that I could potentially make a paper with (in the 2-3 week timeframe that I would have if I started writing now). But at the same time, then it makes my research interest less clear. Is it positive psychology, or schizophrenia? On the other hand, is anything published a good thing, even if it makes your research interest seem less focused?

 

 This will be my first year applying because I just finished a Masters in Clinical Psychology in May 2020. I have also heard that due to budget cuts there will be fewer spots. That is definitely nerve-wracking, but also just something we all have to accept... If I don't get in this round, I definitely intend to apply again. 

Undergrad: I didn't major in Psyche as an undergrad (I studies Literary Arts [writing] and Modern Culture & Media [digital writing])—but also attended college from age 16-age 20 so I simply had no idea what I wanted to do as a career.... Once I decided on psychology 2 years post-undergrad, I applied and enrolled in a Masters degree program in Clinical Psychology.

M.A.: I took all the prerequisites for PhD programs during my Masters program

GPA: and finished my M.A. with a 3.9 GPA.

Research Experience: I have 2 years of research experience: 2018-2019, asthma education intervention research (I took the position because I didn't have a lot of options but needed the research experience); 2019-present: The past year I have been working in schizophrenia research... From that Lab, I was on a paper but my name is far down the list among 20 authors. The journal it was published in was the Journal of Psychiatry and Brain Science, which is a high-impact journal. However, I don't have any other publications other than that and I don't have any poster presentations.

Volunteer hours: I have 120 hours of volunteer experience in a psychiatric ER and hospital setting.

Letter of Recommendation: My letters of recommendation will come from the PI at the schizophrenia lab, another administrator, associated with the lab, and 1 or 2 professors.

GRE: I took the GRE completely blindly last weekend (meaning Zero studying or looking into the structure of the test, I just wanted to get a baseline)— and I got 155 V, 149 Q, 4.5 AW. I plan on bringing those scores up quite a bit in the next 3 months and am going to take the GRE 4 more times.

Random other writing: In addition I'm almost done writing a book (it's structured more like a glossary)— of 700+ terms from the fields of "psychology and spirituality". Several sections in it function like a Lit Review. While it does contain strong writing samples, it won't be published in a peer-reviewed journal article obviously.

I would feel a lot better if I had a few more papers out, but would my application be considered competitive in spite of this? I'm so stressed out about it that part of me wants to skip this cycle so I can actually enjoy writing papers in the meantime, while waiting for the next cycle. But then I feel like I mind as well try to apply this year regardless. Another option is that I could (instead of trying to publish a lit review) take and study for the psychology GRE instead. 

Edited August 23, 2020 by EyelandPychePhD

[bubble_psych]

Do you have any poster presentations? 1 pub should be ok, I don't think you should focus on getting another one (esp since app deadlines are around November/December and the publishing process can take a lot of time), and def don't use your money to publish in an open access journal. I've only seen PI's do that if they had grant money put aside for that expense.

Think you should also take the time to narrow your research interests a little bit and consider your research goals as they relate to the research of the POI's you are considering. I.e. see what the researchers you are interested in working with are working on. Often your focus may change a bit if you are not able to get a 100% fit with what the POI is researching. 

Also maybe plan to retake the GRE once more and see where you end up. I think 4 times may be a bit excessive and you might not see much incremental gain.

Personal note: when I was applying I had 8 presentations and only a pub under review and still got in. I would suggest focusing on retaking the GRE and figuring out how to "market" yourself and your research interests in your SOP

[EyelandPychePhD]

2 hours ago, dr. bubbles said:

Do you have any poster presentations? 

Personal note: when I was applying I had 8 presentations and only a pub under review and still got in. I would suggest focusing on retaking the GRE and figuring out how to "market" yourself and your research interests in your SOP

I don’t have any poster presentations, unfortunately. Honestly, I’ve worked 40 hours or more per week throughout my academic career due to having to support myself financially while living in NYC where the cost of living is crazy expensive. So it’s made it hard to go above and beyond in terms of publications and poster presentations. I’m lucky to have what I have on my resume and CV as is...

Its challenging to try to sound like a good fit for a POI without publications, no? Because in lieu of more papers, isn’t my only chance to really make a case for myself in my SOP and possibly interview?

thanks!

Edited August 23, 2020 by EyelandPychePhD

[EyelandPychePhD]

I found this journal, the Journal of Wellness, which is a free (no fees!), open-access, peer-reviewed journal accepting submissions. They advertise a quick turn-around from submission to publication. 

https://journalofwellness.com/

https://journalofwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/JWellness_Handout.pdf

"JWellness will publish research and editorials to enhance resilience, physical strength, nutritional completeness, disease prevention, and mental health. The Journal of Wellness is indexed with Google Scholar and is pursuing indexing in the Directory of Open Access Journals, we will apply for indexing in PubMed after 50 publications".

It is unclear whether or not they have reached their goal of being indexed on PubMed. I reached out to them by e-mail to inquire if articles submitted before the journals are featured through PubMed will be available there after they get approval. Anyhow, I think I will submit my manuscript here. Does this interest anyone else?

[PsycUndergrad]

I probably wouldn’t rush to submit a paper before applications are due. Having a bad pub or submitting to a poor journal could hurt you more than it helps you. Do you have advisors or co-authors you’ve discussed this paper with? If yes, I would ask what they think.  If no, then it’s going to look odd on your application to have a single-author pub as an undergrad. I would maybe consider submitting some abstracts to conferences instead. 

[PokePsych]

59 minutes ago, PsycUndergrad said:

I probably wouldn’t rush to submit a paper before applications are due. Having a bad pub or submitting to a poor journal could hurt you more than it helps you. Do you have advisors or co-authors you’ve discussed this paper with? If yes, I would ask what they think.  If no, then it’s going to look odd on your application to have a single-author pub as an undergrad. I would maybe consider submitting some abstracts to conferences instead. 

This.

[bubble_psych]

On 8/23/2020 at 11:10 AM, EyelandPychePhD said:

I don’t have any poster presentations, unfortunately. Honestly, I’ve worked 40 hours or more per week throughout my academic career due to having to support myself financially while living in NYC where the cost of living is crazy expensive. So it’s made it hard to go above and beyond in terms of publications and poster presentations. I’m lucky to have what I have on my resume and CV as is...

Its challenging to try to sound like a good fit for a POI without publications, no? Because in lieu of more papers, isn’t my only chance to really make a case for myself in my SOP and possibly interview?

thanks!

It could be worth it, if you have some research project you are working on, to try to present a poster at a conference. Its getting easier to do this now that almost all the conferences are virtual. You could present a poster on a literature review you are doing, i've seen posters like that at conferences I've been to. It may be easier than trying to publish a paper. As the other posters said though, even for a poster presentation would be good to get some supervision from a grad student/post-doc/PI in your lab to make sure the abstract is accepted.

There are a lot of other skills that go into being a good researcher than writing publications. Be sure to mention other experiences like running participants, doing data analysis, contributing to the design or planning of experiments, literature reviews, etc. It is great that you already have a publication so be sure to talk about how you contributed to that too.