Pressure to Publish: a Student’s Perspective on the Role of Research in Residency Applications

Over the next several months, I designed a small survey study of mental health professionals, assessing their interest in alternative therapeutic interventions. When asked about the characteristics that are most important in selecting applicants to interview and how to rank them, psychiatry program directors consistently rate “involvement and interest in research” as a valuable factor on par with volunteer experiences and letters of recommendation [4]. Given these constraints, it is a tremendous task for students to produce multiple research products during their training.