Getting Published in a Science Journal

[Anonymous]

op, are you looking for a pay-to-publish service?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP ... Sorry she's a high school student rising junior. I should have said that. Is it even realistic? Thanks for your guidance.

It is is realistic if she gets into a project that is already ongoing and she is assigned and succeeds at a task significant enough that the team would put her on the paper an an author. this would likley not happen until after she has graduated form high school but it would still be a very nice achievement.

I would not count on in but the goal in high school should just be starting to learn about science research. Getting published would just be secondary bonus.

Correct. I'm not sure what her motivation is, but this is the way to go. And it's very rare that a high school student would get to this point. The work should be authentic, not a resume-polisher.

[Anonymous]

OP, chances are she's been reading on line that this is the only way she can get into her dream school. It just isn't true. It's a nice goal to have, but super rare and probably not realistic.

[Anonymous]

She needs to be working on the sort of research (with the right sort of mentor in academic science) that could possibly lead to her becoming a Regeneron finalist. Those are the kids who publish in scientific journals before graduating from high school. Some high schools specialize in preparing students for this and have formal programs to help them find mentors, etc.

I also know some students who "published" in academic journals before graduating from high school because they have parents or other relatives who research and publish regularly, and they added their kid as an "author". One would hope that college admissions officers could see right through, say, the dermatologist's child publishing an article in a dermatology journal. But unfortunately, the last kid I know who did this got into Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP ... Sorry she's a high school student rising junior. I should have said that. Is it even realistic? Thanks for your guidance.

It is is realistic if she gets into a project that is already ongoing and she is assigned and succeeds at a task significant enough that the team would put her on the paper an an author. this would likley not happen until after she has graduated form high school but it would still be a very nice achievement.

I would not count on in but the goal in high school should just be starting to learn about science research. Getting published would just be secondary bonus.

Correct. I'm not sure what her motivation is, but this is the way to go. And it's very rare that a high school student would get to this point. The work should be authentic, not a resume-polisher.

Scientist here.

I tell high school and college students that the standard to be included as the author on a scientific paper is to contribute new data or results, significant enough to be at least a part of a figure.
It is possible to publish papers with just new math or theory, or reviews of other work, but these require serious intellectual contributions that typically require at last: a college degree, a 4-7 year PhD and at least 1 year of postdoctoral training, and maybe more. This is all to get to the level of knowledge that one could make an intellectual contribution that does not derive only from new data. For younger students, producing data is the way to go.

[Anonymous]

The best advice you could give your daughter is that her mindset is wrong.

She should be thinking about how to contribute new knowledge to the world. New scientific results, generally derived from data she collected.
If she does that, she can publish a paper.

The point is the new knowledge, and the paper follows.

[Anonymous]

She would need to do research with her science professors, and be listed on their article.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP ... Sorry she's a high school student rising junior. I should have said that. Is it even realistic? Thanks for your guidance.

No. Peer-reviewed publications start in graduate school, after several years of closely-supervised research effort.

[Anonymous]

Our private school has a peer-reviewed journal in organic biochemistry. They analyze data produced by other researchers to author articles on topics of their choosing. The teacher selects the best articles for the journal each year. Cool opportunity for kids to learn a little about the process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The best advice you could give your daughter is that her mindset is wrong.

She should be thinking about how to contribute new knowledge to the world. New scientific results, generally derived from data she collected.
If she does that, she can publish a paper.

The point is the new knowledge, and the paper follows.

It is also possible to contribute by analyzing existing data sets. There are vast amounts of data available. Analyze it in a new or unique way or work with data that is fairly untouched. Some High school students took this route during the pandemic when getting into a lab to collect data in person was off limits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is interested in trying to publish an article in a Science Journal. She has no idea where to start. Does anyone have any experience with this and wouldn't mind sharing. Her father and I are not Stem savvy and have no knowledge in this area. Thanks for your help.

I knew people who did real research while they were in high school. I don’t know for sure if they got published while they were in high school. My impression. Is think this is how a high school kid makes that happen:

1. The kid is genuinely reads-dictionaries-and-almanacs-for-fun smart, and reads research papers in a chosen field online for fun. You’re not managing the kid’s education; the kid is a 40-year-old researchers in a kid’s body and already knows everything about college admissions. Given that this is the age of the Internet, kid is roughly as well-read, in terms of non-paywalled papers, as a burned-out professor in that field, and already corresponds with researchers on whatever forum the researchers use in place of Reddit. Or, through Reddit.

2. The kid goes to a college-level class or research program aimed at very bright high school students and ends up being a star worker in a great lab. Example: the University of Iowa used to have a program like that.

3. The professor in charge of the lab, who’s a big deal him or herself, notices the kid is very smart, is supportive, and helps the kid figure out the process of getting a paper published in a minor peer-reviewed journal.

I think the way to start is to look to see whether your daughter is reading research papers in a specific field for fun. If so, does she see any papers that were done by researchers at universities with summer research programs for high school students? If so, maybe she could see if any of those programs would be willing to try to place her in the lab of a researcher who’s doing papers she already reads for fun.

Or, maybe she could post queries on the research forums she’s on and see if anyone there can help. If she already looks like a grad student online, maybe someone she knows from a web forum will help her out.

If she’s a regular smart kid and doesn’t look like a grad student online, maybe she’s better off just going with the high school student summer research workshop flow.

For that, here’s a guide to start with:

https://www.thoughtco.com/summer-science-programs-high-school-students-788422

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you!! I appreciate the feedback! I honestly didn't know.

A junior being interested in getting published in a science journal is like a junior being interested in doing surgery. 🧐

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our private school has a peer-reviewed journal in organic biochemistry. They analyze data produced by other researchers to write articles on topics of their choosing. The teacher selects the best articles for the journal each year. Cool opportunity for kids to learn a little about the process.

I don't know what this is -- the bolded terms have meanings that aren't about high school students working with other high school students -- but it's not what any of us are talking about when we talk about publication in scientific journals.

Glad your kid is having fun, though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you!! I appreciate the feedback! I honestly didn't know.

A junior being interested in getting published in a science journal is like a junior being interested in doing surgery. 🧐

incorrect. young researchers do occasionally get credit in published work if their work was included in the article. OP - try to get you young scientist involved in a research program at her school or in a summer program. Getting published is not the goal - that just comes later if the project has results that are of any significance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you!! I appreciate the feedback! I honestly didn't know.

A junior being interested in getting published in a science journal is like a junior being interested in doing surgery. 🧐

Autopsies maybe. I mean, she’s not gonna endanger anyone else by trying. And, in my HS at least, they did hand us scalpels and we did dissections of various critters (worm-frog-fetal pig-cat).