How to find a lab that publishes undergrads?

[sharklog71]

I'm going to UT Austin next fall, and I've looked at over 30 labs already and not found a single one that has high publication volume and publishes undergrads in the papers, based on their list of publications on the website. Is is just really rare to find such a lab, or should I just keep searching and hoping? I want to conduct research no matter what but I don't want to slave away without benefit either

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[toastedbutter]

Pubs aren't that important - better to find a research group that does work that you enjoy, and where you can see yourself taking on a more involved role in the future. Writing about having an active role (hypothesis generation, data analysis) in the research you do >> pubs imo. Of course, not mutually exclusive but still.

 

[Goro]

I'm going to UT Austin next fall, and I've looked at over 30 labs already and not found a single one that has high publication volume and publishes undergrads in the papers, based on their list of publications on the website. Is is just really rare to find such a lab, or should I just keep searching and hoping? I want to conduct research no matter what but I don't want to slave away without benefit either

Pubs by UG students are RARE.

 

[sharklog71]

yeah i totally understand not to expect a pub, but I've seen a lot of posts around this forum talking about how one should aim to get into a lab that has a record of publishing undergrads so I'm trying to at least get into a lab that has the opportunity open if I can make significant enough contributions. I've also heard not so great stories of people who did research throughout ug just to get nothing out of it, and i know just having the opportunity to research and gain experience is great, but I still want to aim for a publication if there's a chance

 

[GoSpursGo]

yeah i totally understand not to expect a pub, but I've seen a lot of posts around this forum talking about how one should aim to get into a lab that has a record of publishing undergrads so I'm trying to at least get into a lab that has the opportunity open if I can make significant enough contributions. I've also heard not so great stories of people who did research throughout ug just to get nothing out of it, and i know just having the opportunity to research and gain experience is great, but I still want to aim for a publication if there's a chance

Define "nothing." If by that you mean nothing tangible on your CV other than a bunch of "research" hours, then the vast majority of undergrad researchers get nothing out of research. Otherwise, you get out what you put into undergrad research.

Obviously a pub is great if you can get it, but you need to DO a lot to justify it. If that is a goal of yours, you should discuss this with your PI very early on so that they can assign you tasks that could potentially lead to authorship, and then you actually have to follow through. However, sometimes it doesn't work out through nobody's fault. Either the experiment doesn't work, or the lab moves in a different direction, or it its a big project that is going to take longer than your time in the lab to answer, or any number of other reasons. In that case if you have 500 hours of research + are able to clearly describe the laboratory techniques you learned, the hypothesis you were testing, and the basics of your results, that will look plenty good to schools that value research.

 

[chilly_md]

It is also a 2-way street. You can spend all this time looking for a lab where an undergrad happened to make it on a recent publication, but they may end up saying they don't have a spot for you.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Do you have any research experience in HS?

 

[sharklog71]

Define "nothing." If by that you mean nothing tangible on your CV other than a bunch of "research" hours, then the vast majority of undergrad researchers get nothing out of research. Otherwise, you get out what you put into undergrad research.

Obviously a pub is great if you can get it, but you need to DO a lot to justify it. If that is a goal of yours, you should discuss this with your PI very early on so that they can assign you tasks that could potentially lead to authorship, and then you actually have to follow through. However, sometimes it doesn't work out through nobody's fault. Either the experiment doesn't work, or the lab moves in a different direction, or it its a big project that is going to take longer than your time in the lab to answer, or any number of other reasons. In that case if you have 500 hours of research + are able to clearly describe the laboratory techniques you learned, the hypothesis you were testing, and the basics of your results, that will look plenty good to schools that value research.

I see yeah, I'll try to focus on finding a research topic I enjoy first and putting in as much effort as I can. Do you think the idea of a publication should be something I talk about to the PI before entering the lab, just to see if its feasible or not?

 

[sharklog71]

Do you have any research experience in HS?

I interned for a summer at a wet lab that researchers cancer formation in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School, I'm currently interning for a lab at UTSW which is doing computational work on proteins in neurodegeneration, I'm also going to begin doing clinical remote research for a lab/initiative under Harvard Med & MGH this summer, and I'm interviewing a vascular surgeon in my area to conduct research under him, not sure of the nature yet. I do some humanitarian research on governmental policy for an organization I'm in, but that mostly falls into another range of policy and advocacy work not related to research which I do a lot of and I'm gonna continue into college, and I interned remotely for a summer at a pharmaceutical startup as well. A lot of these are remote clinical/computational work because I'm not in the country for the summer, or else I would have maybe tried to get into a wet lab again like I did before

I also did some basic literature review style work under a internal medicine specialist but its high school level writing, and I did some research on socioeconomics in India & scientific literacy for a high school level organization but both of those probably won't stay on my resume once I step foot into university.

I started pursuing research quite late into high school, so I was never able to procure an opportunity like a long-term position at a nearby lab to pursue my own project or independent paper like those kids who are in science fairs and such do and in hindsight I wish I began trying earlier. Even in the time I started in around junior year to now graduating I feel like I've gotten an okay amount of experience going into college albeit not ISEF or published author level genius, but a lot of what I did was all very scattered and not really worth putting down on any resume after high school ends, and its not until around 2023 and this spring going into summer where I've been concentrating in finding opportunities in medical stuff that interests me rather than the varied topics I did prior to college applications.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I see yeah, I'll try to focus on finding a research topic I enjoy first and putting in as much effort as I can. Do you think the idea of a publication should be something I talk about to the PI before entering the lab, just to see if its feasible or not?

Would it be a dealbreaker if it is not?

If it is important to you, then yes you need to let the PI know this. Most undergrads are not aiming for a pub, so it won't enter our thought process to even consider you for one if you don't bring it up

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

I interned for a summer at a wet lab that researchers cancer formation in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School, I'm currently interning for a lab at UTSW which is doing computational work on proteins in neurodegeneration, I'm also going to begin doing clinical remote research for a lab/initiative under Harvard Med & MGH this summer, and I'm interviewing a vascular surgeon in my area to conduct research under him, not sure of the nature yet. I do some humanitarian research on governmental policy for an organization I'm in, but that mostly falls into another range of policy and advocacy work not related to research which I do a lot of and I'm gonna continue into college, and I interned remotely for a summer at a pharmaceutical startup as well. A lot of these are remote clinical/computational work because I'm not in the country for the summer, or else I would have maybe tried to get into a wet lab again like I did before

I also did some basic literature review style work under a internal medicine specialist but its high school level writing, and I did some research on socioeconomics in India & scientific literacy for a high school level organization but both of those probably won't stay on my resume once I step foot into university.

I started pursuing research quite late into high school, so I was never able to procure an opportunity like a long-term position at a nearby lab to pursue my own project or independent paper like those kids who are in science fairs and such do and in hindsight I wish I began trying earlier. Even in the time I started in around junior year to now graduating I feel like I've gotten an okay amount of experience going into college albeit not ISEF or published author level genius, but a lot of what I did was all very scattered and not really worth putting down on any resume after high school ends, and its not until around 2023 and this spring going into summer where I've been concentrating in finding opportunities in medical stuff that interests me rather than the varied topics I did prior to college applications.

Given all the experience you have, look for the labs that align with your interests and ask the PIs if they can give a project and ask for timelines for a paper. My kid actually lined up research during admitted students day and started research in first semester itself. He was supposed to get a first author paper in two years but with Covid and other unexpected delays his paper was published in spring of senior year. So pub by app time but still got T5 As. So focus on the research work and don’t worry too much about paper timelines.

 

[eigen]

Would it be a dealbreaker if it is not?

If it is important to you, then yes you need to let the PI know this. Most undergrads are not aiming for a pub, so it won't enter our thought process to even consider you for one if you don't bring it up

I will add that bringing up "needing to get a pub" is usually something that comes across poorly to me when I'm interviewing potential students. In my experience, students that are ultra-focused on "box checking" with respect to research (i.e., I need to get a pub here) end up not being the most productive UG researchers and cause a lot of lab stress/strife because of it. It also, in my experience, makes students a lot more likely to bail / jump to another lab / want to jump to another project during slow or difficult parts, which is the opposite of what I'm looking for in a research student.

It's not to say it would make me not take a student in-and-of itself, but it would be a red flag, and when I usually have 2-3x as many UG applicants as spots in my lab....

IMO the "arms race" of research experience in HS / pubs in UG serves no one well, and I don't see it having any significant impact on students chances post-grad. My students that were in the lab during a time we had a pub going out vs. those that were just super solid researchers who developed ownership of projects both seem to have equal success going on.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Agree, doesn’t look good to ask for paper timelines. My kid didn’t tell PI that he is looking for a paper but PI gave an independent project and said if he performs as expected he may be able to get a paper in 2 years.

 

[reinventing]

I'm going to UT Austin next fall, and I've looked at over 30 labs already and not found a single one that has high publication volume and publishes undergrads in the papers, based on their list of publications on the website. Is is just really rare to find such a lab, or should I just keep searching and hoping? I want to conduct research no matter what but I don't want to slave away without benefit either

From my limited experience aka 1 year as UG Researcher with a possible pub. I would say that the benefit to being part of a lab is not the pub but the possible connections that you will get. Also, you can have a poster with your research findings and submit to conferences to have further connections. Overall the quality of the skills that you get is over what a pub will get you.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Read these articles:

You searched for undergraduate research - SDN

www.studentdoctor.net