Publishing

Why publish? Even if you are not planning to perform research in your career, you will always need to stay updated by reading the latest research in your field, and previous research experience can help you better understand and critically assess current research articles.

Medical students can publish articles to add to their residency application and become more competitive applicants. Residents can publish articles to meet the training requirements of their program and to bolster their fellowship applications, particularly when preparing for academic positions.

Publishing Articles Can Strengthen Applications

Performing research and earning publications has become an important priority for medical students, especially students interested in competitive residency positions. Standardized testing provides a limited measure of a student’s achievements, and so students can perform research to strengthen their application.

Publishing Articles Can Satisfy Residency Program Requirements

Residents are often required to complete some form of scholarly work during their residency. This is in accordance with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s stance in its Common Program Requirements for residency that a physician “requires the ability to think critically, evaluate the literature, appropriately assimilate new knowledge, and practice lifelong learning." (1)

Publishing Articles Can Increase Personal Medical Knowledge

Students can gain valuable skills and knowledge when performing medical research and earning publications. In the age of “big data,” much research revolves around analyzing large databases to examine patient characteristics and response to treatments. By working on a project in data analysis, students will experience firsthand how to collect data, analyze it, and communicate results. This provides a tremendous advantage, as students can use what they learned to interpret other research studies which employ similar methodologies. Interpreting data is also an important component of boards exams, and students will be more comfortable with these topics after performing research and contributing to the writing of a manuscript.

Publishing Articles Can Provide Easier Access to Future Research Opportunities

Having a track record of performing research can help students to become involved in future research opportunities. Through performing research, students develop skills that may be desirable to researchers in various fields.

Vest, L., Vest, B., Lentine, K. (2021, 04, 29) Does publishing articles help you match? StatPearls.  https://www.statpearls.com/ExamPrep/medical-student-resources/does-publishing-articles-help-you-match

(1) https://www.acgme.org/programs-and-institutions/programs/common-program-requirements/