I’m just starting to learn the ins and outs of research, so I know my question will appear juvenile to many of you seasoned researchers. Nevertheless, I’m trying to gather some information, so any help would be appreciated.
An MS4 suggested to me that while I’m waiting for IRB approval of my summer medical student research project, I should write a literature review to get published (he did this b/w 1st and 2nd year). I have a topic that I’m very interested in and that I already researched extensively during my final semester of undergrad (2012), but the topic is completely different from my summer project. My question is: How does this work? Do I need to find an adviser in that subject area to endorse me and my work? to look over my review? to do other necessary things of which I’m not aware? How do I know if my topic is publishable? (I’m guessing the answer to that last one is “if someone agrees to publish it,” but any other insight would be great)
‘I don’t know what I don’t know,’ so I’ll take any help I can get. Thanks!
- Switzerland Said:
An MS4 suggested to me that while I'm waiting for IRB approval of my summer medical student research project, I should write a literature review to get published (he did this b/w 1st and 2nd year). I have a topic that I'm very interested in and that I already researched extensively during my final semester of undergrad (2012), but the topic is completely different from my summer project. My question is: How does this work? Do I need to find an adviser in that subject area to endorse me and my work? to look over my review? to do other necessary things of which I'm not aware? How do I know if my topic is publishable? (I'm guessing the answer to that last one is "if someone agrees to publish it," but any other insight would be great)
'I don't know what I don't know,' so I'll take any help I can get. Thanks!
Hello,
I would suggest you check with your school first. Yes, it would be great if you can find an advisor with expertise in the subject area. This can help tremendously with guiding a successful lit review, as well as aid in the lit review getting published.
As far as publication, you need to research journals which have published articles in your chosen subject area. If your lit review is scholarly and you can show how it contributes to scientific inquiry, you should have no problem getting it published.
Let me know if you have any other questions. Glad to help.
Blessings,
Kitty
Kitty Taylor PhD, RN, CNS
Switz
literature reviews are often invited. In other words journal commission experts and ask them to write a review.
Now, you can still submit your own review but it is important that a co-author of yours is an expert in whatever field you review. You can’t review a topic if you don’t what you are talking about. Names on a review are almost as important (if not more) than the content itself.
If anything attempting to write a review is an excellent exercise if you contemplate research because performing a review (even if not writing one) is the first step of any research project.
What many students do in preparation for research is a meta-analysis. The meta-analysis allows you to objectively combine the results of multiple studies on a topic to identify any patterns. It doesn’t require being an expert in the field because of the objectivity. It does involve statistics. Here is a link to an article for students doing meta-analysis:
Meta-analysis