publishing in high school?

Not sure how your research works, so I can't say for sure. When someone like a graduate student does research and use a PI's lab equipment, they list them as the last co-author. The PI doesn't necessarily have to ever touch the research, but they are listed from what I've seen. I would ask a professor how the publication process works to cover all your bases and get others opinions.

You should really be asking an established professor at that university to give you some pointers.

That said, way to go!

I some how doubt that this is a serious thread. No cell culture experiment from high school is going to make it in a national journal. Sorry to tell you

alejandra said:

i have had my experimental design looked over by a supervisor in the lab i am working at - she is not in my field exactly, but i think she would spot a gaping error.

that being said, there is always that possibility and i plan to send out my research plan to a scientist in my field before i begin running my tests.

Click to expand...

It's not just methodological or technical design that you have to worry about, but also relevance and uniqueness relative to the field, something that can only evaluated by those familiar with it. It's great to have a project that where you get statistically significant results but if it doesn't add anything to the knowledge that's already out there, it will be difficult to get it published. (there's "dump" journals in every field but you don't want to aim from those from the start)

It is difficult to say whether you have a chance at all as you are so vague. In the top national journals, you must have new, novel, groundbreaking research. It doesn't matter whether you do it in a "very prestigous university" or in a Podunk school. Unless you have really made a breakthrough, it is unlikely to garner attention. Also you're at a competitive disadvantage look at any decent journal and most people will have doctorates or professional degrees (i.e. MD, DO, DMD, DDS, PsyD, RN, DPM) you don't and people may look it over for that reason.

I don't see you being taken seriously if you don't have a doctorate-trained person attached to you.

alejandra said:

hello, i'm a high school student doing some research that i think has the potential to get published.
thing is, i'm doing it basically by myself (i'm using some lab equipment at a very prestigious university, but my cell culturing is at a lab which is for student science fair projects specifically)
1) is it possible to get published just by myself, or will editors/peer reviewers look down on that and reject me? 2) do i need a professor or scientist as a coauthor to get it published? (b/c i could ask someone i know to look it over for me and thus put him as a coauthor)
3) and also for my institution...should i put my school or what?
i'm thinking of submitting to the journal of neuroinflammation, journal of neuroscience, and journal of immunology

Click to expand...

I'll try to answer all your points with the knowledge I have. Take all information you receive on here with a grain of salt... It is the internetz.

First, you absolutely need a Primary Investigator that holds some position at an institution. while it used to be possible to publish in your basement (some famous people have done this... Check out the guy who first postulated the theory of chemosmosis and proton motive force.... He worked from his garage. What a bad ass.) There are reasons for this. Journals want to see there is some system in place in make sure there is a standard of research integrity. Thus, having a home institution does this.

Secondly, it doesn't matter who plans the experiments. For the most part in most labs that produce exceptional work the lead authors should and do plan out most of the details of the experiments. The P.I. serves as the person who pays the bills, gives the ok for spending cash on experiments, and makes sure the work that is being done is both hypothesis driven and meaningful to the field. No offense, seriously I think it is awesome a high schooler is involved in real basic science research, but someone without even a B.S. or B.A. does not have the training to set up these experiments to adhere to good scientific principles. More the most part, as it has been described to me, earning your PhD is not about doing mindless bench work (I think most grad students would laugh at that....) but is instead about learning HOW to set up experiments. In short, anyone can design an experiment. The real thing is doing it in a convincing manner that the scientific community would except and your results would add to the field.

Secondly, you will not get the peer editing stage without a P.I. The journal will not consider you. Don't think you will get to that stage.

Thirdly, who is paying for your lab equipment? Who is paying for the lab ware, the media, the upkeep of the hoods you use? That person is likely the person who MUST be the P.I. You need to talk to this person.

Fourth, and most importantly, people who actually care about their reputation do not just randomly throw their names on papers. I think some premeds have this false idea that if you do the work, sans P.I. and your stuff is good, then any P.I. will take your work no questions asked. This is totally untrue and for good reason. Putting your name on someone else's work puts your name and reputation on the line. If it turns out you fabricated your results (no one is saying you did this...) then the P.I. will be the one who takes the hit, not you. That is part of the whole integrity of science thing. There must be balances and 99% of P.I.'s are sharks about making sure the data cannot be construed at fabricated. A PI will likely not be willing to just throw his/her name on something they didn't help design.

I'm not doubting your ability, I don't know you to be honest. I'm just saying you need to talk to you P.I. before you go any further. Good luck.

alejandra said:

fahimaz -i am completely, 100% serious. and it involves a lot more than just cell culture.
ah, i understand that it's unlikely - they would probably question the veracity of my results, considering that i came up with the experimental design by myself... however, i have worked very hard on this and have managed to get funding for dna microarrays (this is the first study to apply it to my field). i'd be really disappointed if the reason it's not recognized is because of my lack of an institution. does it really matter that much? i mean, i used lab equipment at a university, it's just that i wasn't actually mentored by someone.

Click to expand...

lol. Can we ban this troll? High school student doing successful microarray work... Lol... What next, rtPCR? Give me a break. I spent 3 years in a PHD program before I had my first publication..

fahimaz7 said:

lol. Can we ban this troll? High school student doing successful microarray work... Lol... What next, rtPCR? Give me a break. I spent 3 years in a PHD program before I had my first publication..

Click to expand...

I guess he's just smarter lol.

I doubt anyone in high school has gotten any significant medical research published in a major journal.

OP is seriously a major keener and way too overconfident or this is just another troll.

seriously people, DON'T FEED THE TROLL.

Deezed said:

seriously people, DON'T FEED THE TROLL.

Click to expand...

I think the OP could be very serious. I have no idea who the OP nor have I checked his/her post history but I personally know two people who did signifigant research in high school and got 4th and 5th authorships in low papers.

You have to consider some things here:
1. The OP could know the PI through connections (like a parent is a coworker. This is how the people I know got involved.)
2. PI's involving undergrads/high schoolers really depends on the PI. While most PI's hate to even bother with undergrads, some feel some altrustic need to help high school students and they do.
3. It seems from the way the OP talks that no experiments have been done yet. If this is the case then this whole thread is a non-issue. Science never evolves from goal A->B. There will be a **** ton of time/work involved in between.


So, again, we shouldn't jump to judge if this is a troll. I'm not saying the OP isn't a troll, just the situation is possible.

He's claimed to not be really operating under a PI, that this is his own novel work.

fahimaz7 said:

I some how doubt that this is a serious thread. No cell culture experiment from high school is going to make it in a national journal. Sorry to tell you

Click to expand...

this may be true, BUT I am sure your school library would let you record your findings in a book and have it cataloged into their library. My English teacher did this for me and a couple other select students. It is still in the library and she has her students in other classes read it (and she said she would have future students read it as well). It may not be much, but you can still use it as extra neat stuff for a college or med school application.

alejandra said:

wow, i come back on here a month later and look at all the beautiful comments!
1) don't hate on high schoolers. i've know of a kid who had a first author paper in nature as a senior in high school. ever heard of intel STS? take a look at philip streich, his work was in science. plus he founded his own company. and there are actually quite a few high schoolers just like him.
2) i don't actually know anyone through connections - my parents are in computer science.
3) i'm not a troll. i'm not really sure how to prove this without giving away serious personal info.
4) i do apologize for listing those extremely competitive journals - just goes to show that i am rather ignorant about the publishing process. i had looked at papers from those journals as part of my research, and the names just came to mind.
5) i'm a girl. i post as "alejandra" and people still think i am a boy! sexism in science...sheesh.
6) i'm currently doing my work, so it's not like this is some pipe dream.
7) i'm not really sure if i have a PI. i do have some people at core labs who are helping me out - does that count?

so thank you all for your kind comments. i'm not really sure why you all are treating my work like it's something extremely out of the ordinary - if you look at competitions like ISEF, siemens, STS, there are lots of people who are doing scientific work in high school.

Click to expand...

The reason that these high schoolers ended up competing in Intel STS or getting published was because of a dedicated and helpful PI. Philip Streich still did his research under a PI and co-founded his company with him. Science is a field heavily dependent on connections, especially when you're just starting out-- you would probably need a researcher with a respected reputation to throw their name behind your research for a journal to take it seriously.