Publishing in student journals

[Sonya]

Hi,

I have a question, how does an article look published in a student journal? It is reviewed, but probably not as critically as regular journal.

I have one article published in J. Neurosci, as second author.
I just found out about our school journal, Washington Univ Journal of Science, and well thought I could give them some of my term papers/research work.
Do papers published on technical stuff look different from those on medical/clinical stuff? Does review look different from actual scientific data.

Do they view articles published in student journal as "junk" sortof. Do they ignore it?

Basically, should I put the efforts to submit some of my research projects to the student journal?

I think i'm getting waaaay over myself .
I know it's great to have anything published as an undergrad.

Thanks,
Sonya

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[mdhopeful]

I'd speak with a faculty advisor to see if your work would merit publication in a peer-reviewed journal. If not, then a student journal is better than nothing. I think peer-reviewed journals definitely are a better way to validate your work. But, on the other hand, some people might not even be able to tell which journals were student journals. I definitely think it is worth the effort to get your work published in whatever scientific journal you can.

 

[doepug]

Hey Sonya -

I actually graduated from WU in 2000! It's great if you can publish in the student journal... by all means, submit your work. As you're aware though, this journal isn't quite the caliber of J. Neurosci or other professionally-reviewed medical journals. Nonetheless, by publishing in a student journal, you demonstrate significant scholarly interest in a given field. I'd certainly make note of these publications in your application or interviews.

Good luck,

doepug
MSII, Johns Hopkins