publications in health science journals impact? Forum

[jayashae]

so I was a biology major that graduated college and decided to pursue law. currently working in a clinical research setting but will manage to have 7-9 publications by the time I apply this upcoming cycle. I will have worked exactly one year. How will I use these to my advantage when applying to law school? I have a n interest in patent law.

thanks in advance

[SFrost]

7-9 publications?

Just to be clear, there's a big difference in quality between publications. Author position, journal quality, peer review/editor review, etc.

If you can connect your published work to an interest in law, I think it would be a boost. Just be careful you don't oversell it if there isn't a lot of substance there.

[apples89]

I came from the same situation. It will help, but it won't make up for poor stats. PM me if you want details in my experience.

[jayashae]

I'll have 1-2 first authors, and the remainder are satellite. They're not like science or nature, they range from like 3-5 impact factors

[SFrost]

I'll have 1-2 first authors, and the remainder are satellite. They're not like science or nature, they range from like 3-5 impact factors

Well honestly that sounds like a lot for someone without a graduate degree. Adcomms might not know everything about judging publication records but they do see the occasional post graduate applicant. I think it will be a boost and if you can sell it right even more so.

uGPA/LSAT are still going to be the chief factors, though.

[jayashae]

yeah to be honest I didn't have intentions of being a lawyer, as can be told pretty easily by looking at my resume/transcript. But now I do and I'm just trying somehow to put everything together to make it look like at least it was partially for law school -_-

I am, however, very interested in patent.

[mx23250]

I think it can certainly help you. Use it as a way of highlighting your interest in working with scientific innovations and discoveries. I completed my PhD with 10 publications (mostly impact factor 5-10), but only 5 of which were first author, the rest are 2nd or 3rd author. I'm not sure how impact factor plays a role since adcoms likely don't know the difference between high and low impact journals, unless of course it's Science, Nature, NEJM. I think publications definitely helped my cycle. I tied my research (and highlighted my more impactful studies) into leading me toward a career in patent law and it got me into several schools where I was well below both medians and/or 25%.

By the way, that's an impressively large number of publications for no graduate experience and limited work experience. I know a lot of PhD grads with just 1-2 first author and only 3 or 4 total pubs.

[mx23250]

I think it's important to point something else out that you may want to keep in mind. I assume you want to go into patent prosecution? If so, you'll have a very tough time competing for jobs with just a bachelor's degree, even if you do have a year of clinical work experience. Most patent firms look to hire bio people with at least a masters, but preferably a PhD. This is both for the additional education and also the several years of work experience doing full-time research. A lot of firms won't even look at your resume/application unless you have an advanced degree, sometimes they even require a PhD. I just wanted to bring this to your attention so you know this ahead of time.