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

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.