Journals to apply to for high school independent project?

Hello guys,

Over the past 6 months another high schooler and I have been working on an independent project with a Neuroscience PHD student as our mentor. Our project consists of a novel deep learning application to Alzheimer’s. We just finished writing our first draft, and of course there will be some revisions from our mentor and her Principal Investigator, but that being said, which journals would you suggest are realistic for a high schooler but also have some amount of credibility? I’ve heard that a lot of journals out there are garbage that publish anything as long as the fee is paid, so are there better ones to go to?

Thanks so much!

I’d recommend that you ask your mentor or your PI; they would know best for their specific field. That’s what I did when I was in your position, and everything turned out okay

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You were able to publish in actual university-tier journals as a high schooler?

Yes! Don’t underestimate the value of your work. When you submit your manuscript to journals, they will have no bias against you for being a high schooler (and they probably won’t even know). There are many great journals out there that would be happy to take your research.

I agree with the other poster to ask your PI for journal suggestions. That person will be your best resource. My child did independent research in a post-doc lab this summer and his PI had several journals in mind for publication. Additionally, your PI will be familiar with the types of journals in your field that are likely to accept your work. Congrats on your hard work and best of luck to you!

You have heard correctly.

That may or may not be the empty set.

You should be asking your mentor, who has seen the paper and is presumably familiar with the field and its literature.

They will know as soon as the student lists his or her affiliation. How many papers have you oublished?

Now, a question for the OP. What is your purpose in publishing? It may not be the boost you think it is.

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Pretty simple, I put a lot of effort and time into a project, I want to publish somewhere that’s not absolute garbage. Not looking to get into Nature or AJNR or anything, just something somewhat respectable.

Thanks! I’m going to at least make a preprint available for now

If your goal is to publish for the sake of publishing - great. If your goal is to impress an Admissions Department somewhere, there are probably better places to devote your effort.

The usual advice is “publish in the journals you are reading”. If you aren’t reading any, this is the equivalent of talking but not listening. Not a good look.

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Go with what the PI says. They will know best and will be paying the pages charges. If you want to see where that is likely to be, take a look at their past papers.

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I agree with you, I follow and read a few neuroscience journals, including AJNR and Alzheimer’s Association. However, it obviously isn’t worth it to try and publish there as a high schooler, as even senior academics are denied at those journals. Thats why I came here for advice.

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Thanks!

I would recommend then that you ask your mentor for a list of possible journals and start reading them. Scientific communication is a dialog, and in any event it will show you some examples of what a succesful submission looks like.

Sounds good

When I was publishing my paper, they only asked for the affiliation I had with the institution I was doing research with. Luckily, I was also taking courses there as DE and had an institutional email and login.

If your main goal is to improve your chances for top tier university admissions success, a more advantageous path lies in submitting the work to prestigious science fairs and/or (depending on your current year in HS) using it to hopefully boost your chances at programs like RSI.

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I’m also going to submit to my county science fair in hopes of qualifing to CSEF and then ISEF. However I would also like to publish the work.

Like others are saying, you MUST involve the PI in this.

Has the PhD student been helping you with this draft so far? What do they think about it? Does the Professor know about it?

It would be unethical for you to publish this, or even just post a pre-print without the full participation and consent of all your co-authors. It would also be unethical for you to publish this without the PhD student and Professor as co-authors. You are really at the mercy of the Professor for getting this published.

So that means you cannot advance this manuscript without the full knowledge and consent of the PI throughout the process. If you post a preprint or try to publish this without the Professor’s permission, that would be very bad.

So all you have to do is let the PhD student (depending on how experienced they are) and the PI guide the manuscript preparation and journal selection process for you. Has the PhD student already published any papers or are they pretty new?

Just want to make sure you know that this is how the process works, just in case you’re unaware! Source: I am a neuroscience professor.

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Yes the PhD student has been helping us throughout the project, obviously they will sound encouraging but they feel it is a very good piece of research. The professor knows about the project, as the PhD student confirmed with him earlier, however he hasn’t been involved throughout. The PhD student has submitted numerous papers in the past. I will wait until the prof reviews the manuscript, then.

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If you aren’t selected for ISEF, then you can apply for Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) as a rising senior. In my experience, kids who fall short of ISEF, neither being a finalist nor winning an award, can still do well at STS.

The STS application is rather involved and requires a research paper, short essays, and letters of recommendation. The application opens in mid-summer and closes in November so, if you’re interested, plan to start on it early.