alrightythen Posted December 20, 2021 Report Share Posted December 20, 2021 I essentially have the choice of either being 1st author on a research project (probably a literature review or a case series) or being 3rd author on a project that is probably more impactful in the field I'm interested in. Should I go for the 1st author publication? Really struggling with this decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pakoon Posted December 20, 2021 Report Share Posted December 20, 2021 If you're allowed to/ able to hand the workload, why not both? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alrightythen Posted December 20, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2021 9 minutes ago, Pakoon said: If you're allowed to/ able to hand the workload, why not both? I can't handle the workload of both... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogogo Posted December 20, 2021 Report Share Posted December 20, 2021 This is a tough decision. I’d say 1st author, but ultimately, go for whichever suits the culture of the specialty you intend to pursue. If the specialty you want likes research productivity, then I’d go for the 1st author pub. You will have gained more fundamental skills and thus a lot more to talk about as the lead on a project (reviewing the literature, leading a project, submitting, responding to reviewers, and possibly presenting the work at a conference) vs. doing what’ll probably be equivalent to scut work as a 3rd author. If the specialty you want doesn’t actually care much about research, but instead, research is more just used for networking, then it depends on which opportunity you think will get you more “face time” with bigger names in the field, who can then hopefully write you a strong letter. Even for this, my opinion is that 1st author will likely be better because it’ll give you more opportunity to show your skills, but I’m not sure if for the 3rd author you’ll be working with some really big names. If the latter, then if you have enough time in your training, you could always use the 3rd author opportunity as a springboard for something better with the big names in the future (having by then established those relationships). Edict and robclem21 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edict Posted December 23, 2021 Report Share Posted December 23, 2021 Are both of these projects relevant to the specialty you are applying for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alrightythen Posted December 23, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2021 4 hours ago, Edict said: Are both of these projects relevant to the specialty you are applying for? Yes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edict Posted December 23, 2021 Report Share Posted December 23, 2021 4 hours ago, alrightythen said: Yes whats the 3rd author paper about? Don't think you can go wrong with either to be honest, they are pretty much equivalent in my opinion, with 1st author being slightly better unless that 3rd author paper ends up in a big journal like IF 5+ LostLamb 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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