Publications in progress vs. submitted

[smmmu]

Hi all,

I'm planning to apply to a couple of PhD programmes in CS for next fall and I was wondering if I could ask your opinions on something. In particular, I have a few publications "in the pipeline", but none of them submitted or published yet. For a few of them matters are out of my hands (big collaborations with things being held up elsewhere), but for two potential first-author publications it's in principle up to me to write up and submit. For at least one of the two I might be able to do so before most of my deadlines in mid-december, but barely and it would mean I'd have less time to spend e.g. on my statement of purpose. And in any case I'd only be able to have them submitted by then, certainly not accepted or published obviously.

So my question is: Do any of you have a rough feeling for how much difference a publication "submitted" makes compared to one "in progress" on a PhD application?

Many thanks for your help!

[Snoq]

I don't know anything to tell you about (because I am not a graduate student yet) but if I were you I would write and submit only one, an this way you will have more time to spend on your Statement of Purpose. You should write and submit the one that you feel that is a better research outcome or the one you would like the most (choice is your and take other advises as well). But in your SOP mention that you have one submitted and one in progress.

[Mecasickle]

Hey! I'm also applying this fall for CS and Neuroscience.

From what I've heard you can put your paper as "in progress", but it won't have almost any value if its not finished, because they will probably ask for a preprint, or you woould have to provide one if you want to make your application strong. Remember people in grad school want students that can deliver results, and now have things "planned". Additionally, my best suggestion would be for you to include it (put something like "in preparation"), and basically make your references talk about the work you're doing on your letters.

Best of luck!