Write & Publish Your Own Studies Before Junior Year
I had the luxury of being able to complete 5 independent studies in a years time, and push two of them out for publication. One is currently under review and the other under revisions. Here, I will delve into what I learned about how to get an independent study, where to get it, who to get it with, and what you should think of before thinking about attempting (no guarantees) a publication.
Originally, I went to a university which had opportunities to do research, however presenting an independent study proved difficult. Origionally, I was so naive that I thought I could do a review article with one about a topic of my choice, but I quickly learned (and what most students don’t know) is that you need a principal investigator (PI) who is experienced in that field to write any sort of perspective on it.
Now I’m going to delve into, a better route to achieve a review article, then return back to the independent studies. A better route is to work at least part time at a lab of some significance in the field. Do not expect to be paid for your work in doing so, it is your own investment into the research field and understanding of the process. I joined an immunology lab working under someone who had 30 years experience in the field. He appreciated the enthusiasm I showed (as you will show too) and accepted the idea of a review article (I asked after about 1 week).
I read at the time that a review article could be accomplished in big labs in 3-6 months, so this was my intention... Ha that became a joke soon enough. I spent a week thinking of the topic, and what perspective I could then bring to the field. A review article (something that is more-or-less an easier way to get a first author publication for pre-meds) should bring something new to the field, not a synopsis of what experienced scientists already know.
After discovering my topic, and drawing a small outline, I presented it to the boss (PI) who gave the go-ahead. I have a practical and fast method to writing research papers, but everyone has their preference. First, I recommend accumulating all the research you can, naming the references ####<letter>. <last name of first author>, <article name> (ex: 24i. Sukal, The Independent T Cell Phenotype. could be a reference) to distinguish it from the numbers you will eventually put into your paper (just numbers). OneNote can be helpful too as a program, but not for accumulating mass amounts of sources, only for writing the paper. You need to become an expert in your niche before you write the paper (and your outline will likely change too).
While accumulating a wealth of papers, it may help to have specific topics with the corresponding ##<letter> of sources that are related initially. At the end of my initial data collection, I had ~300 sources. At the end of the paper being published, I had ~500.
Before writing your paper, make sure you have a solid argument and outline with nuances. Make sure you plan to explain background physiology of topics, and DO NOT try to explain every litter interesting study and detail on your topic, you will find yourself deleting it for its irrelevance. After it’s all said and done, you will likely rewrite your paper in a major way 3 times if you’re reasonably competent in writing.
Focus on reviewing the paper critically, what are the counter arguments? You need to address them (no one will look past it). And explain anything which needs explaining. The nice thing is when writing the paper, you can use your ##<letter> nomenclature to identify the sources until later when you put the actual numbers and sources in via OneNote or the like.
Overall, the paper I wrote took 8 months, when I was only expecting 3 months considering I thought my work ethic was relatively high. It was an awakening, but not everything goes as planned in research (which you will learn if you haven’t already). So there you go, a process to get a review article published, but back into the independent studies.
Realizing that an independent study would have been difficult in university, I choose to look at opportunities at community college. I found out that since community colleges tend not to have many people doing research, they openly accept the idea, and actually 3 of them I got funded through a grant which was offered. The downside was that the facilities were limited even for smaller studies.
You have three main opportunities to do individualistic studies as I see it. If you’re at university, you could go through the formal process of doing an independent study; although this looks great on an application, I believe it will be much more bureaucratic and difficult to obtain compared to the other option. The other option I’m referring to is to find a lab which is doing something of interest to you, and walk in with the intention of doing an independent study-type work (for free, but could be paid with less flexibility). This would be easier to obtain from what I’ve seen from students. The last option, which I preferred, is going to a community college for independent studies having it be: easier to obtain, cheaper to do, and with teachers that generally care a bit more since they have few opportunities to do so.
Speaking on the last option, see if your local (or semi-local because the bigger facilities the better) community college has any independent study options stated on their class list. If not, I recommend doing a quick search on the teachers, and walking into their offices and asking if they would be willing to do such a thing (most are). Have an idea of a topic beforehand, but doesn’t have to be too in depth. Just state that you wanted to see if they would be willing. Also, if you don’t have much lab experience, do state some reasons they should trust you because you will need to be completely independent for this independent study (surprising right?).
At that point, if you would like to get this published (an ideal goal) you’ll later put together a list of potential journals (student journals are great, or low impact. If you have a connected PI, you could do it in a higher level one). Do not be surprised if your research doesn’t go as planned and the publication opportunity is lost. Only 2 of the 3 options I choose gave data sufficient for publication.
Your topic that you choose should be simple with a powerful concept that hasn’t had much research. For example, in psychology I did relationship of Irritable Bowel Syndrome to anxiety and stress in community college students. The method was a short survey based off of prior completed studies. The second was enzyme activity in biofilm versus suspension environments. And the third (which failed to leave significant results due to compound instability) was steric hindrance as a potential method of increasing reversibility of serine protease inhibitors. They are basic, semi-interesting, and are easy to visualize how the studies should be carried out.
Set out a study schedule, but expect that you will not adhere to it; things tend to take much longer than you expect, it’s just part of the research process. And if you plan on publishing your work, expect it to take a year or more because of
In all, this should give you an idea of the time frames expected and what to look out for when you begin your journey. Good luck and happy researching!