<p>What does it mean when high school students get published? They obviously aren't contributing a to academia in the way that a PhD publishing a paper would. Do op-ed articles in relatively well known newspapers count as publications? I've been thinking of writing some on general politics and economics just because I enjoy the topics.</p>
<p>It typically means being accepted by some peer-reviewed journal, following the same process any Ph. D. would. These journals do not lower their standards for high school students, but in many cases either the high school student is coauthoring with a university professor, or submitted to a less prestigious publication.</p>