

Ask HN: As undergrad, would you write a research paper under these conditions? - NPnotCoNP

You are an undergraduate student. Your professor invites you to participate in a research project with the goal to publish a research paper. He does not offer you any compensation (neither money nor credit point for your studies). The only possible compensation you can get is some intellectual credit and another line on your CV. What would you do / answer him?
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jurassic
TLDR: Does publishing a paper help position yourself for future opportunities
you're interested in (grad school, academia)? If yes, definitely do it.

What is your role in the work, and how much has already been completed? Will
you positioned for first-authorship, or will you mostly be grunting out
somebody else's idea and you're looking at nth author? Is your goal to end up
in academia? If you're thinking about grad school and academia, I would say go
for the publication no question.

As an undergrad, you probably shouldn't expect monetary compensation unless 1)
you're being asked to forgo significant paying opportunities (e.g. summer
internship) to do this work, or 2) doing the work primarily serves the
interests of somebody other than yourself. Criteria 2 encompasses opportunity
cost, including time lost on non-academic sideprojects if you aren't that
interested in academia since the loss of those personal projects might
diminish your attractiveness to potential employers who don't care about
academic papers.

Also, I'd be pretty pretty surprised if you couldn't arrange to get some kind
of thesis credits or "advanced study" credits for extracurricular research
work you do without pay; double check with your registrar's office on that
one.

