Publishing Work in Journals: Pre-Med to Engineering

[ChiralWaltz]

I'm in an undergraduate pre-med program then switching over to engineering (my school doesn't offer biomedical plan). I'd like to start working in an area that would lead to me being able to publish work in journals. My experience includes chemistry lab tech and medical lab tech.

How do I start thinking about where I want to be in regards to publication? What are some keywords businesses use for these types of activities? What are some indicators of businesses that produce good work? My apologies that this is a super broad question. At this point, I'm trying to create a general awareness of where I will be going.

 

[Norfonz]

Do you mean you'll be doing your undergrad in biomedical engineering? Plenty of novel research goes on in biomedical engineering. You'll have many opportunities to write and publish papers if you find work with a well-funded professor. All you need to publish a paper is a hypothesis and relevant data. Being a good writer is helpful, as well.

A helpful tip: Find as much knowledge as you can that might be relevant to the project you're working on (papers, theories, etc.): this may help guide you in seeking out and answering questions. A good paper is clear and concise. You can read papers published in journals with a higher impact factor to get a good feel for how well-written scientific papers are structured (Nature, Physical Review Letters, etc.).

 

[ZapperZ]

I'm in an undergraduate pre-med program then switching over to engineering (my school doesn't offer biomedical plan). I'd like to start working in an area that would lead to me being able to publish work in journals. My experience includes chemistry lab tech and medical lab tech.

How do I start thinking about where I want to be in regards to publication? What are some keywords businesses use for these types of activities? What are some indicators of businesses that produce good work? My apologies that this is a super broad question. At this point, I'm trying to create a general awareness of where I will be going.

There's something not quite right about this. What exactly is this "business" that you kept referring to?

Secondly, your priorities are all messed up. Rather than trying to find an important and original research work, you are starting with a goal to publish first and foremost. I would never hire such a person in my research group.

Zz.

 

[ChiralWaltz]

The businesses are a few private companies have landed on my radar this summer, biotech types. Being prior military, I don't have the foundation to gauge the reputation of a private company. How would I go about looking into these companies? What are good indicators I should be looking for in good companies?

I don't understand the process of publishing work. From what I understand there are academic sectors and industry (business). I'm not "prioritizing" publishing but rather trying to understand how the system works before I become a part of it. I haven't even taken a physics course yet, so publication is a ways down the road. I enjoy taking my time to think about things.

Thanks for the advice ZapperZ and Norfonz. I will start cultivating knowledge relevant to my project area (still working on what that is) and thinking about important and original research topics. The reason I'm asking these questions is to keep me focused.

ZapperZ- What would make you want to hire a person onto your research group?

 

[chiro]

ChiralWaltz: One important thing about evaluating businesses relates to evaluating the people who are the significant ones in the business.

Evaluate the people, their reputation, their past, what they have worked on, who they have been involved with, and also how all of this translates directly or indirectly into what they are doing right now.

Knowing this kind of thing is critical to assessing a business of any kind: it's not always about the idea and the product itself, but about the people that are behind it. Good people are going to get a better result at taking something that might be considered average and seeing it through, selling it, using their networks/contacts and past experience in comparison to a group of people that have a great idea and product but can't go that extra mile.

That is one thing I would look at first and then think about how that ties to everything else.