One of the things I didn’t know as a medical student, but wish I did earlier was how your research experience is displayed on your residency application. At the end of the day, this is the big goal we’re working on. So much of what we do in medical school is focused on boosting our residency application. Therefore, I wanted to share with you what you need to know about research on your residency application!
In its simplest form, research can be included on your application as:
- A research experience
- A research publication/presentation
The Research Experience
For each lab or PI, you will describe your research, your roles and the statuses of your projects. I’ve provided an example below. It’s up to you whether you want to write it in bullet points or paragraph form.
The Research Publication
In citation format, you will list your publications and poster/oral presentations. The format is predetermined and all you need to do is provide the publication information (e.g. authors, title, journal, page numbers).
Publication Section
Types of publications you can choose from:
- Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles/Abstracts
- Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles/Abstracts (Other than Published = Submitted/Accepted)
- Peer-Reviewed Book Chapter
- Scientific Monograph
- Poster Presentation
- Oral Presentation
- Peer-Reviewed Online Publication
- Non-Peer-Reviewed Online Publication
The most common ones you’ll use are bolded. In trying to maximize the number of publication, some students will include blog articles or podcasts as “Non-Peer-Reviewed Online Publication.” While I think it’s okay to do that, I would recommend filling up your application that way as it may come off as if you’re trying to fluff up your application.
Pro tips
- For those applying to competitive fields, try to maximize the number of publications (love it or hate it, it is a numbers game).
- Include all published research papers plus any submitted or accepted manuscripts.
- A few months before ERAS, tie up loose ends on projects and get them submitted so you can include it on your application.
- Don’t double dip. If you listed your poster presentation as a presentation, don’t also list it as a published abstract.
- If you have a project you’re working on that is not submitted, mention it in your research experience section.
- Be able to intelligently speak about any research project listed with your interviewers.
Want more in-depth information? Check out this forum on SDN.
