My name potentially left off of publication, do I have any recourse?

[Gavanshir]

I was a M1 working on a research project two summers ago at a top 10 ivy league research institution. I started the project from the ground up including project design, data collection, trouble shooting, creating weekly progress powerpoints for the residents, etc. All in all I spent from June to August working on the project on a more than full-time basis. I had 2 residents who guided me during this process and the PI usually gave his input at the weekly lab meetings.

After the summer, I continued data analysis/collection entirely on my own through my school year and I was in touch with the residents during this time. I finally hit a wall when it came to some statistical analysis and it coincided with my Step studying and I did not follow up with the residents for about 6 months.

I have now come to find out through Google that another medstudent at the lab has presented a poster of my project and has been analyzing my data. My name was not included on the poster and I fear that he is now writing the paper and my name may be left out although I have done close to 80% of the administrative as well as the intellectual work on the project even though technically it "belonged" to the residents. I have zero publications and I'm at a point where anything would help. Do I have any recourse if my name is left off of the publication, or was I just a slave worker who missed the boat because I wasn't aggressively following up with the project? Thanks for any advice.

P.S. I have already emailed the medstudent to ask about the project but have not received any reply.

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[TriagePreMed]

Why haven't you spoken directly to the PI? This is not an issue you should be discussing with the med student. There's a good chance that they assigned it on him and doesn't even know you exist.

 

[Leforte]

Email the PI - note that you had recently seen the abstract for the presentation, that it included a lot of your work and what do you need to do to get authorship on the manuscript. Do it respectfully and I am sure things will work out. The senior author (PI) generally decides authorship and order.

 

[FluffyRabbit]

You absolutely deserve authorship on the manuscript, and based on your account, really not lower than second author. I would definitely email the PI. No one else has the authority or objectiveness to actually make this decision. Don't depend on the med student - he has no incentive to respond to you or give you any credit.

 

[Gavanshir]

Thank you for your replies. I've gotten back in touch with the resident and we're now working together again to finalize a manuscript. This lab has so much turnover with new students coming in and out every summer that everyone is easily forgettable and the medstudents who receive the annual research scholarship can end up taking much of the credit for other part-time students' work. I think this case will work out.