<p>Are there highly-esteemed undergraduate research journals? I want to start reading them to get an idea of how to write a potential publication. Any help in the topic would be appreciated.</p>
<p>I thought about this for a minute and could not think of anything like this. Typically undergraduate research may end up being a conference presentation or in some cases a regular journal article. I've never heard of a journal for undergraduate research.</p>
<p>MIT's journal of undergraduate research is [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/murj%5Dhere%5B/url">http://web.mit.edu/murj]here[/url</a>], but I honestly have no idea about its quality or anything like that.</p>
<p>It would make sense that MIT would have one.</p>
<p>An article in an undergraduate research journal will look pretty good on a resume, especially for medical school. However, undergraduate journals aren't peer reviewed - so, like other non-reviewed journals, an article in there will only take you so far (being middle author on a peer-reviewed paper in a 2nd-tier journal looks better to most med schools and all PhD programs than an article in an undergraduate journal). </p>
<p>I'd be willing to bet that any MIT undergrad that has an article in the undergrad journal will get some of that work published in another journal.</p>
<p>Probably the most useful aspect of undergraduate research journals is that they can help you see what other people on campus are doing (and if there are any professors in particular who recruit a lot of undergrads in their laboratories) and , as you say, get an idea of how to start writing a publication.</p>
<p>How can you tell what a 1st teir and 2nd tier journal is? I'm new to this, a freshman in college, and have started my plunge into the realm of research.</p>
<p>Well... it's slightly subjective, which are 1st and which are 2nd tier... The better research journals are published by organizations and universities that are top-tier. Anything peer-reviewed is probably going to be legitimate. It also depends upon what field you're in... Best way to find out which are the best journals is to talk to reputable professors in the field you're interested in and see which ones are the big ones in your research area.</p>