Table 5A & 5B

Publications of Those in Training

New Table 5 changes are coming in 2025! Preview information is now available: https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2024/09/24/preview-of-forms-i-application-…

Overview

This table demonstrates that the selected mentors successfully nurture trainee productivity, as measured through publications. Factors to consider include the total number of publications for each trainee, first authorship, and publication in high-quality journals.

What kind of information would you like? 

Overall Instructions

Table 5A (Pre-Docs) & Table 5B (Post-Docs)

  • New applications: List publications from mentors’ pre-docs (Table 5A) / post-docs (Table 5B) who may have been appointed to this training program had it existed from the last 10 years AND all current pre-/post-docs. Only include trainees who would have been eligible for appointment.* Exclude short-term training experiences (12 week or less).
  • Renewal/revision applications: List publications of pre-docs (Table 5A) / post-docs (Table 5B) appointed to the training grant including all current trainees and those appointed to the grant for up to the past 10 years. Exclude short-term training experiences (12 week or less).
  • For students without publications list “No Publications” and provide one of the following allowable reasons:
    • New entrant (matriculated that year)
    • Leave of absence
    • Change of research supervisor
    • Left program
    • Other
  • Organize the data in this order: 
    • Sort mentors alphabetically
    • Group mentors' trainees by past and then current
    • Sort each past and current group chronologically by training period
    • List each trainees' publications and manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals (both published and accepted) in chronological order
  • Page Limit: None. For more information visit our FAQs.

*Eligibility: In most cases, eligible candidates are citizens or non-citizen nationals of the U.S. or permanent residents. They are required to pursue their research training full time and are normally assigned 12-month appointments, but no less than 9 months. Check the specific FOA for full details.

  • Pre-docs: Trainees must be enrolled in a program leading to a PhD or equivalent research doctoral degree program. Health-professional students who wish to interrupt their studies for a year or more to engage in full-time research training before completing their formal training programs are also eligible.
  • Post-docs: Trainees must have received a PhD, MD, DDS, or comparable doctoral degree at the time of their training grant appointment start date. Check the specific FOA for a list of comparable doctoral degrees. Individuals in postgraduate clinical training who wish to interrupt their studies for a year or more to engage in full-time research training before completing their formal training programs are also eligible.

Summarize Table 5 data in the Research Training Program Plan's narrative Program Faculty subsection, e.g. average number of publications, number of trainees published as first author, number of trainees who completed doctoral training without any first-author publication resulting from their graduate research.

Guidance by Column

  1. Faculty Member. Last Name, First Name and Middle Initial
  2. Trainee Name. Last Name, First Name and Middle Initial (only include trainees from the past 10 years)
  3. Past or Current Trainee. By faculty name, order their trainees by Past then Current students; sort each group by the first year of their training period
  4. Training Period. Enrollment period in the format YYYY-YYYY (use “YYYY-Present” for current trainees)
  5. Publication (Authors, Year, Title, Journal, Volume, Inclusive Pages). Only include publications directly associated with the training program, from the training program’s time period, and/or through the completion of their degree; DO NOT list publications from before or after the trainees’ time in the training program.
    1. Bold the trainee’s name
    2. Only include peer-reviewed publications
    3. Publications must have been published or “in press”; In progress manuscripts are not allowed.
    4. If a trainee has multiple publications, list in chronological order

Helpful Hints

Trainee's Publications Indicate Strong Mentorship

  • Mentors’ trainees should have successful publication records with a combination of first authorship and collaboration. Avoid having too many mentors with few or no trainee publications. Publications relate closely with trainee career outcomes (reported in Table 8), and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed mentorship team by these totals.
  • If you are uncertain whether a publication arose from the training grant or the faculty’s lab, check whether the publication is within three years preceding the trainee’s training timeframe and ask the faculty member to verify. PubMed also links training grants associated with each publication.
  • Example: Dr. Ombi’s trainee publication information shows that out of 5 former trainees, only one trainee published in the past seven years. The administrative team follows up with Dr. Ombi to request that he provides one of the allowable "no publication" reasons for each trainee.

Table 5 FAQs

There are two common approaches:

  1. Only trainees who were appointed to the training grant in the past 10 years (2 renewal cycles).
  2. Trainees who were appointed to the training grant in the past 10 years (2 renewal cycles) plus all current training grant eligible trainees who are in the mentors' labs.

Consult with the PD/PI(s) to determine which approach works best for the specific application.

  1. All current training grant eligible trainees whom mentors are currently training and
  2. Trainees who may have been appointed to this training program, had it existed. This is inherently speculative; PD/PIs must select a cohort of trainees who represent potential future appointees. Common options include:
    1. All past eligible trainees, if there is a good overall dataset to pull from. 
    2. Previous trainees of the mentor pool with a strong publication history using criteria that has been determined by the PI and described and justified in the Program Plan. 
    3. Those that belong to a specific group (i.e., an existing pipeline program). The PD/PI team should determine criteria and describe their grouping justification in the Program Plan. 

Mentors or programs that have a significant number of trainees with “no publication” entries may indicate that the training program and mentors do not adequately foster productive trainee research as measured by publications resulting from their work in their mentor’s lab. As such, consider: 

  • Reducing the number of mentors who do not have appropriate research experience or adjusting their role on the grant.
  • Adding a reason for trainees with no publications from the following allowable NIH options including: 
    • New entrant (matriculated that year)
    • Leave of absence
    • Change of research supervisor
    • Left program
    • Other

PMCID numbers are not required at the pre-award submission stage. However, they are required as part of the Just-In-Time (JIT) process. We recommend including them in Table 5 to ease that process, if possible. 

If the trainee was co-mentored during the same training period, up to 2 names may be listed in the “Faculty Member” column. If the trainee had different mentors over different timeframes, they may be listed twice. 

Eligible candidates are citizens or non-citizen nationals of the U.S. or permanent residents. They are required to pursue their research training full time and are normally assigned 12-month appointments, but no less than 9 months. Check the specific FOA for full details. Exceptions may apply; check the individual FOA for specific guidelines.

NIH Templates & Other Resources