<p>I've read in many threads about how it is important to try to publish one's own research, but I'm wondering what this means. Does this mean publishing your own research in an independent science journal? Or submitting your own research in local/state science fairs and potentially ISEF? Or entering your research in Intel STS/Siemens? Or co-authoring papers with your research mentor? Currently, I'm working with my mentor at a university lab on an independent project, though I'm not sure what publishing the research means. Please clarify, and thanks!</p>
<p>What it means is you do original research, write up the results, and submit them to a journal for publication. If it’s a peer-review journal (which is what you want), the editor sends two or three copies to other scientists working in the field to read and review. Their comments will determine whether nor not the editor agrees to publish the paper, publish it after revisions, or reject it. In any case you do not get paid anything for your work.</p>
<p>If you’re working with a professor, his or her name would also go on the paper, along with anyone else who contributed significantly to either the work or the writing. Papers with only one author are rare, and those with two or three authors are common. The order the names are listed in depends on your professor; some list their name first for consistency sake (because papers are usually referenced by the first author’s name) and some list their name last in order to help promote their students’ professional reputations (because the papers are then referenced using the student’s name).</p>
<p>You can also “present a paper” (as opposed to “publish a paper”) by giving a talk at a conference. These are usually Power Point presentations explaining what you did and what results you got. Deadline for submitting talks to conferences are usually six months or more in advance of the conference.</p>
<p>Undergraduate research usually does not get published, but is often presented at a poster session. This is when you have your results printed up on a poster (usually a more high-tech version of the old three-fold cardboard science fair display) and join any number of others in a big room, standing near your poster to explain the work and answer any questions. A poster session at a conference is an inferior version of a publication, because it hasn’t been peer-reviewed. Some universities have poster sessions on campus where students doing undergraduate research can present it to professors and grad students as practice for attending a conference. You’ll often see these posters later hanging in hallways.</p>
<p>Whether you get a publication, do a presentation, or do a poster session, it should go on your resume.</p>
<p>Are there any that may be easier than others? Likewise, are there any that are more prestigious than others, or is getting a publication in any peer-reviewed journal at all as a high school student already very prestigious. Thanks!</p>
<p>There are hundreds of peer-reviewed journals out there, and they run the full spectrum of prestige and circulation. Your professor will already know which journals are most appropriate for the work you’re doing, and he will decide where to submit based on that criteria, not on prestige. It’s largely a question of where do people go to find the information you’re providing. Also, online journals are becoming more and more accepted, so don’t discount that as an “inferior” choice to a traditional print journal. Having a publication in any peer-reviewed journal is rare for either a high school student or an undergrad.</p>