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Re: Entries into the publication section-Please read

Dear applicants,

Following some “bad behaviour” during the last admissions cycle where some applicants were removed from consideration due to misrepresentation we will be very diligent in flagging individuals who may be misleading file reviewers or adding entries that don’t meet the criteria clearly outlined in our applicant manual section 4.10.

There are many questions coming in to ucmedapp@ucalgary.ca regarding publications.
For some of you, it may be that you feel obliged that something needs to go into this section. For others, it may be that you want to highlight that you have done some research. If research is important to you, then you may want to reflect it in your top 10 but please do not misrepresent it in this section.

I once again encourage you to read section 4.10 as this should offer some clarification.

What is meant by peer-reviewed?

This means external scholarly individuals have reviewed the work and deemed it acceptable for publication and or presentation (oral or poster). Non-peer reviewed usually refers to invited reviews, editorials, letters, book chapters. They may even be commissioned.

What is meant by sanctioned by a national or international scientific society?

Please only list those at recognized national or international conferences. These are usually run by or sanctioned by a major national or international scientific organizations. We should be able to easily find these with a simple internet search in the information you provide.

What about local presentations?

Oral or poster presentations at local meetings SHOULD NOT BE ENTERED. We give examples in the application manual but this includes inter or intra-university presentations. For example, at the University of Calgary we annually hold a one day conference in Gastroenterology called the Schaffer Awards where undergrad, grad students, and residents present their research as posters or oral presentations. This is considered a local meeting. Therefore, local research days, half-days and symposiums do not meet do not meet our criteria.

To qualify as a regional meeting it still needs to be sanctioned by a scientific body and this does not mean a university/universities. I will again give an example from Gastroenterology. We have an annual meeting called the Alberta Digestive Disease Summit. This is hosted by the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta under the umbrella of the Alberta Society of Gastroenterology. Students and residents may present their research but this is only found in the syllabus given to the attendees. It is not public and therefore we have no way of verifying the accuracy. Therefore, it should not be entered.

Do I need to be the first author?

No, you do not need to be the first author but you need to be listed in the author list. Contribution to a project that has been published without formally being listed as an author should not be entered.

Can I list submitted manuscripts/work, manuscripts in preparation, manuscripts in press or my thesis?

No. Submitted does not mean published. In preparation, does not mean it will be submitted and theses in local university vaults are not publications.
For manuscripts in press, they need to be searchable on the journal website as of October 4, 2022

How do I enter my publications?

1. You do not need to be the first author. If you are not the first author, please describe your role in the research. We do follow-up on roles.
2. For a publication, aside from listing the authors, you will need to list the title, journal, volume , date
3. For a published abstract, list as above, most should be associated with a journal or journal supplement. If they are not then you can enter the URL of the meeting, meeting report, or proceedings. We just need to be able to find it.
4. For presentations, please adhere to rules of number 3.
5. For non-peer reviewed, please enter the publisher/publishing house in the journal section and the year if it is a book chapter.

I’m still confused, how do you judge your criteria?

In the end the simplest rule to follow is –your name and the associated work you enter should be easily found in a journal, journal supplement, or published conference proceeding. If we can’t find it, it doesn’t exist.

If we can not find it or entries are outside of these parameters you are at risk of having your file flagged or closed.