There are many, many threads on this site touching upon this exact same question. The general consensus seems to be that ortho research is one piece of the puzzle. It is important, but not imperative. Some non-ortho research is better than no research. Ortho research is better than non-ortho research.

Research has become the baseline, so not having any may serve as a negative on your application (likely means more at more academic programs). More and better research can certainly strengthen a weak or average application to make it a strong one. That being said, every year there are applicants that match at great programs with no research in ortho at all.

Also refer to the now famous JBJS article on the factors important to residency directors. Then, look through the dozens of old posts as well.

Any thoughts on how to deal with strong research that hasn't yielded a paper yet? I have been involved with a research project where I have done all the work, but there's just so much to be done that I haven't published. Is there anything I can do with that? It should be a big plus, but will it turn into a negative when people ask me why it hasn't been finished?

If I can submit a paper before applying, I assume I can say "submitted for pub" on my CV ... is that really any good?

The worst thing is, this project has required me to learn and figure out a lot of complex things in math, physics, and electrical engineering ... pretty difficult and very high-level work. Unfortunately, someone not in those fields probably can't comprehend how difficult it was. Is there any way I can demonstrate that in my application or interview?

Thanks,
b

Sometimes, small parts of a big project can be submitted as an abstract for a research meeting. Otherwise, on your apps, you can put "in progress" to indicate that there is an ongoing project. It's better than nothing.

Most people can appreciate that research can get complicated at times. Make sure on your interviews that you relate that you are very involved in a complicated project, rather than just trying to pad your resume with meaningless and fruitless projects.

Regarding the content of the project, orthopaedics has become very engineering-oriented, and those types of projects (while rarely understood) are very well-received. Though, purely theoretical papers will get cut down to size -- if doing one, just admit that such a paper is theoretical and would need to be followed up with further studies.

Yeah, this was a tough one for me, too. I am not the kind of guy that wants to/likes to do research at all. My advisor told me that I should definitely get something going, so I started a little project during 3rd year and listed it as "in progress" on my apps. It came up on almost all of my interviews, and some places have designated research faculty interview you, and if you don't have anything it will be a tough interview. I think I was a pretty strong applicant aside from minimal research, and I think it cost me a lot of interviews- but mostly at places I wouldn't want to go to anyway. I would definitely recommend doing some ortho project- whether you can present/publish it or not. That's just one less thing that can get you screened out of a program.