Hopefully this is in the right forum. If not, my apologies.

I’m an MS1 considering neurosurgery, and I was wondering what impact research and publications have on residency decisions. I am particularly curious about how much the research subject matters (i.e. is it essential to do neurosurgical research or is it ok to do research in other fields?) and whether the research subject or number of publications is more important. I ask because after looking around for work this summer it seems my best options are to:

1. work in the Chief or neurosurgery’s lab on a new project (seems interesting, but somewhat diffuse, so I don’t really know if it will succeed or if I will get a pub out of it by the time I graduate)

2. work with a transplant surgeon on a couple impressive clinical projects that will almost definitely be published within 2 years (he estimates 3 pubs).

The way I see it is that working with the Chief of neurosurgery will get me some experience in a field I’m more likely to go in to and perhaps more importantly, develop of relationship with someone important in the field (although I could probably do this without necessarily working in his lab), while working on the second project is more of a guarantee that I will have something to show for the work I put in. If it matters, I do have previous publications (1 nephrology paper and 1 chapter on animal models of neurological disease in a book on brain repair).

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Why not do both?? Your an MS1...you will have LOTS of time.

If you really want to do neurosurgery—then working in a neurosurgical lab is important.

While getting “published” on a clinical paper is impressive, it is not as impressive when this is transplant papers in a neurosurgical applicant.  Of course, it is better than nothing—but doing neurosurgical research is certainly more beneficial for you in the long run.

Not only that—but you will cultivate a relationship with a neurosurgeon who will (hopefully) write you an outstanding letter when it comes time to applying.

As I have recommended to others on this forum, you should choose the project that you are most likely to be passionate about. While it is good to think about # of pubs and future letters, the ultimate goals of research should be to learn how to perform research and think critically. Research is nearly always terrible for everyone if you don’t like what you’re doing. Ultimately, when you interview for residency, you want to be able to speak compellingly about how you have spent your time. Also, I would argue that many academic neurosurgeons will be more impressed by a basic science project--1 serious scientific paper is worth a handful of clinical papers. Good luck…