How to Publish a Research Paper in High School: The Best High School and Middle School Research Journals
Jun 03, 2026Andy Steinbach, PhD in physics · Founder, Bay AI Institute
This guide covers how to publish a research paper in high school (or middle school) and ranks the high school research journals worth your time: the research journals for high school students that genuinely accept and peer-review student work, ordered from the most selective and credible down to the most accessible. Publishing is a different lane from competing. A science fair or competition judges you against other students; a journal evaluates your methodology, data, and conclusions against a standard of scientific validity. A paper accepted after genuine peer review, even a student-focused one, shows your work held up to expert scrutiny. This is the companion to our guides on science research competitions for high school and middle school students and science and STEM competitions for high school and middle school students: together they cover competing, and this one covers publishing.
Two rules that apply universally. First: never submit the same paper to more than one journal simultaneously. This is a serious breach of publication ethics and can result in your work being blacklisted. If a journal rejects your paper, you are then free to submit elsewhere. Second: a wave of student journals now operate on a pay-to-publish model with minimal real review. College admissions offices have noticed. A 2024 ProPublica investigation found that selective college readers specifically flag these. Journals that charge a fee only upon acceptance, or that feature upsells for expedited processing, carry the most risk. The most credible journals on this list are free or charge a modest flat submission fee regardless of outcome.
Updated May 2026. Links verified.
High-Rigor Student Science Journals
The journals in this section use real peer review by graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, or faculty, not student editorial boards alone. They are the most admissions-credible options for a high school publication.
1. Journal of Emerging Investigators (JEI)
Grades 6–12 (middle and high school) · International · $49 submission fee (non-refundable; fee waivers available for financial need) · emerginginvestigators.org
Founded by graduate students at Harvard Medical School and operated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, JEI is the gold standard for high school science publication. Papers are reviewed by graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty at U.S. research institutions, rejected for lack of hypothesis or flawed methodology, not lack of sophistication. Accepts hypothesis-driven original experimental research only: no literature reviews, no computational-only papers, no theoretical-only work. Primary subject areas are life sciences, physics, chemistry, health, psychology, physiology, and engineering.
Authorship: An adult advisor (teacher, professor, or research mentor) must submit on the student's behalf. Students cannot self-submit. Solo or co-authored student submissions are both accepted. The adult advisor certifies the work but does not need to appear as a co-author.
Advice: The $49 fee is charged at submission, not on acceptance: the honest model. Plan for a 4–8 month full cycle including review and revision. A JEI acceptance is the single most meaningful student science publication credential available.
Deadline: Rolling.
2. Columbia Junior Science Journal (CJSJ)
Grades 9–12 · International · Free · cjsjournal.org
Run by Columbia University's undergraduate science journal editorial team, CJSJ has roughly a 3% acceptance rate, among the most selective high school science journals in existence. Peer review is conducted by Columbia undergraduates under faculty supervision. Accepts original research and strong literature reviews in natural sciences, physical sciences, engineering, and social sciences. Research must have been conducted while the student was enrolled in high school.
Authorship: Solo or co-authored student submissions. A signed mentor or principal investigator (PI) permission-to-publish form is required. Papers without it are desk-rejected. No faculty co-authorship of the paper is required.
Advice: Treat this as a reach. The Columbia affiliation makes it one of the most recognized high school science journals by college admissions readers.
Deadline: Fixed annual cycle. Submissions open July 6 and close September 30. Semifinalists notified November; finalists December; publication March of the following year.
3. Young Scientist Journal (Vanderbilt University)
High school students only · International · Free · wp0.vanderbilt.edu/youngscientistjournal
Managed by Vanderbilt University's Collaborative for Science Education and Outreach (CSEO) and distinct from the UK-based Young Scientists Journal (entry 14 below). Published approximately 60 articles in Volume 15 (2025). Peer-reviewed with faculty involvement. Accepts broad STEM: biology, chemistry, environmental science, medicine, engineering, machine learning, and developmental psychology among others.
Authorship: High school students only. All co-authors and the faculty or mentor PI must consent. Solo student submission is allowed.
Advice: Free, fast (decisions in approximately two weeks), and university-affiliated, one of the strongest risk-to-reward ratios on this list.
Deadline: Rolling.
4. PennScience High School Journal (PSHSJ)
High school students only · International · Free · pshsj.org
Established 2024 and run by University of Pennsylvania students and faculty. Accepts 3–5 page manuscripts (including references) in social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. The Penn affiliation gives it credibility despite being newly established, newer than ideal for an admissions credential, but legitimate and improving.
Authorship: High school students only. Solo or team submissions.
Deadline: Fixed annual cycle. Submission form opens in May, closes November 1. Results by mid-February; publication by mid-April.
5. National High School Journal of Science (NHSJS)
High school students · International · Free · nhsjs.com
Student-run, peer-reviewed, open-access journal covering biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental science, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, and science policy. Three-step peer review process with a scientific advisory board that includes professional researchers. Acceptance rate is approximately 70%, more accessible than JEI or CJSJ, and the right target for solid research that doesn't yet clear the bar of the most selective journals. Median review time 8 weeks; 95% of papers receive a decision within 14 weeks.
Authorship: High school students. Solo submission allowed. No faculty co-author required.
Advice: Free and fast. The high acceptance rate means this carries less admissions weight than JEI or CJSJ, but the peer review is real and a first publication here is a legitimate credential.
Deadline: Rolling.
Broad Multidisciplinary Student Journals
6. IYRC Journal (International Young Researchers' Conference Journal)
High school students only · International · Free · journal.the-iyrc.org
The publication arm of the International Young Researchers' Conference, which has hosted 12+ conferences including events at Columbia University since its founding in 2017. Papers go through a 4–6 week peer review process and receive a DOI upon acceptance. Covers medicine, biology, chemistry, computer science, social science, environmental science, and community research projects. Conference presentation and journal publication are separate pathways. A strong conference paper can be developed for journal submission.
Authorship: First author must be a high school student. University students and professionals are explicitly ineligible as first authors. Solo submission allowed.
Deadline: Rolling; Winter 2025 and Summer 2026 conference-linked submission cycles active.
7. International Journal of High School Research (IJHSR)
High school students · International · Free to submit; $250 publication fee upon acceptance · ijhsr.terrajournals.org
Run by Terra Science and Education, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. One of the few student journals indexed by EBSCO, which gives publications here a measure of academic discoverability beyond the journal's own website. Accepts original research and literature reviews across all STEM fields including behavioral and social sciences. The $250 fee applies only upon acceptance.
Authorship: High school students. Solo or team. Must provide a list of at least 3 suggested peer reviewers at submission, a professional-journal practice uncommon in student publications.
Deadline: Rolling.
8. Journal of Student Research (JSR)
High school, undergraduate, and graduate students · International · $50 submission fee + $200 publication fee if accepted · jsr.org
One of the older and more widely known student journals, with over 2,000 published articles from 46 states and 41 countries. Faculty-reviewed (not peer-reviewed in the traditional sense). Multidisciplinary (sciences, humanities, engineering, social sciences, business), but leans STEM. Strong option for research that doesn't fit a narrowly science-focused journal. A separate high school edition track is available at jsr.org/hs.
Authorship: Solo or team. Any grade level. No faculty co-authorship of the paper required, though a faculty advisor is encouraged. Quarterly submission deadlines, not rolling.
Deadline: End of February, May, August, and November.
9. Curieux Academic Journal
High school and middle school students · International · Free to submit; $185 (Seasonal Review) or $215 (Fast-Track Review) publication fee upon acceptance · curieuxacademicjournal.com
Youth-led nonprofit founded in 2017. Among the fastest response times of any journal on this list: 2–5 weeks for a decision, 2–3 months to publication upon acceptance. Accepts research papers, review articles, and humanities and social science writing. MLA formatting required.
Authorship: Solo or team. Middle school and high school students. No faculty co-author required.
Deadline: Rolling.
10. Journal of High School Science (JHSS)
High school students · International · $25 submission fee · jhss.scholasticahq.com
Peer-reviewed, open-access journal covering science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Accepts original research, review articles, and technical notes. Notable: some published articles list student co-authorship alongside PhD researchers, a signal that the review process has real standards.
Authorship: Solo or team. No faculty co-author required, though co-authorship with a researcher is common in published work.
Deadline: Rolling.
11. STEM Fellowship Journal (SFJ)
High school and undergraduate students · Canada-based; international submissions accepted · Free to submit; $400 CAD publication fee upon acceptance · journal.stemfellowship.org
Peer-reviewed, open-access STEM journal publishing twice a year. Accepts original research, review articles, viewpoints, and conference proceedings. Each category has distinct formatting and length requirements. Submitting researchers must provide a list of suggested peer reviewers, a professional-journal practice that reflects the journal's serious approach to the review process.
Authorship: Solo or team. No faculty co-author required.
Deadline: Rolling.
12. Journal of Research High School (JRHS)
High school students · International · $150 submission fee · journalresearchhs.org
Peer-reviewed, open-access journal accepting roughly 30% of submissions, moderate selectivity. Covers engineering, humanities, natural science, mathematics, and social science. No specific formatting requirements are stated on the site, which is unusual and worth clarifying with the editors before submission.
Authorship: Solo or team. No faculty co-author required.
Deadline: Rolling.
13. The Scholarly Review
High school students · International · Free · scholarlyreview.org
Reviewed by an academic editorial board covering natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Accepts original research and "student showcase" articles including reviews and non-research writing. APA formatting preferred.
Authorship: Solo or team. No faculty co-author required.
Deadline: Fixed. Fall Issue closes August 31; Winter Issue closes October 31.
Specialized Focus Journals
14. Young Scientists Journal (YSJ), UK/International
Ages 12–20 (middle school and high school explicitly eligible) · International · Free · youngscientistsjournal.com
One of the oldest student science journals, founded in 2006 in the UK and endorsed by the Association for Science Education. Accepts original research, review articles, and science communication pieces across 11 subject categories spanning all sciences. Review is student-led with validation by an academic advisor, less rigorous than faculty peer review but an accessible and legitimate first publication for younger students.
Authorship: Solo or team. No grade requirement: ages 12–20. Middle school students are explicitly eligible.
Deadline: Rolling.
15. Youth STEM Matters
Ages 22 and under (middle and high school explicitly included) · International · $30 submission fee (bursary/free places available) · youthstem2030.org/youth-stem-matters
UK-registered nonprofit journal with a distinctive editorial lens: all accepted research must connect to at least one UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Covers astronomy, zoology, psychology, geography, chemistry, engineering, and more. Youth-led peer review. For students age 12 and under, a parent or guardian must submit on the student's behalf.
Authorship: Solo or team. Ages 22 and under: middle school students explicitly eligible.
Deadline: Rolling.
16. Youth Medical Journal (YMJ)
High school and undergraduate students · International · Free · youthmedicaljournal.com
Student-led nonprofit covering medicine and health sciences. Sub-journals include biomedical research, neuroscience, and public health. Accepts original research and review articles. Review is conducted by a student editorial team rather than faculty or professional researchers, a meaningful distinction in terms of rigor compared to JEI or Cureus.
Authorship: Solo or team. No faculty co-author required.
Deadline: Rolling.
17. Cureus Journal of Medical Science
No minimum age · International · Free (open access, backed by Springer Nature) · cureus.com
A legitimate professional medical journal indexed in PubMed, not a student journal, but one of the most accessible professional venues for students with genuine clinical exposure. Accepts case reports, literature reviews, and clinical research. Average time from submission to first decision is approximately 39 days.
Authorship: Requires a faculty member, attending physician, or credentialed clinician as co-author and corresponding author. Solo student submission is not possible. A credentialed clinician must lead the submission. A high school student who contributed meaningfully to a clinical case or research study can be listed as a named co-author.
Advice: The realistic pathway is working alongside a physician on an unusual case who is willing to include you in authorship. More achievable than it sounds for students with hospital research placements or clinical shadowing. PubMed indexing gives this genuine professional weight.
Deadline: Rolling.
18. PRESS Journals
High school students only · International · Fee upon acceptance (amount not publicly listed; financial aid available) · press-journals.org
Six STEM sub-journals; established in 2025 with an ISSN and CrossRef DOI affiliation. Founded by PhD editors from Columbia and Stanford. Review involves two topic experts plus at minimum two student authors; provisional acceptance notification within two weeks, a timeline designed for students with college application deadlines.
Authorship: High school students only. Solo or team.
Advice: The two-week provisional acceptance is appealing for application timelines. However, post-acceptance fees of unlisted amount and an expedited-processing upsell are yellow flags. Free alternatives at similar or better rigor (NHSJS, Vanderbilt YSJ) are preferable unless PRESS specifically fits your subject area and timeline.
Deadline: Fixed issue cycles. Summer 2026 issue currently open.
19. American Journal of Student Research (AJSR)
High school and undergraduate students · International · $496 Article Processing Charge upon acceptance (optional $286 fast-track add-on) · ajosr.org
Peer-reviewed by PhD-level reviewers with DOI assignment. Covers biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, computer science, engineering, business, and social sciences. The $496 post-acceptance fee is the highest on this list and is a significant concern in the context of the ProPublica pay-to-publish investigation. Include this only if the research was accepted on merit and alternatives were exhausted.
Authorship: Solo or team. High school and undergraduate students. No faculty co-author required.
Deadline: Rolling.
Undergraduate Journals with Provisional High School Access
The journal below is formally an undergraduate journal but explicitly allows high school students to submit under specific conditions.
20. American Journal of Undergraduate Research (AJUR)
Primarily undergraduate; high school students explicitly permitted under specific conditions · International · Free · ajuronline.org
AJUR's own published Q&A states: "very few [high school submissions] to date have made it through the review process." But the door is explicitly open. Double-blind, faculty-level peer review across all STEM and social sciences disciplines. No submission or publication fee.
Authorship: A professional in the student's field (typically a university faculty member) must complete a separate endorsement form using an institutional (.edu) email address. Solo student submission without this endorsement will not be processed. The faculty endorser must vouch that the work is worthy of faculty-level national peer review. Faculty co-authorship on the paper itself is not required.
Advice: The realistic path is a student who has completed university lab research and whose faculty mentor is willing to provide a formal institutional endorsement. This is not a starting point. It is a stretch option for exceptional independent work with an established research relationship.
Deadline: Rolling.
Professional Journal Co-authorship Pathways
The venues below are professional peer-reviewed scientific publications. High school student authorship is rare but documented and legitimate. The only realistic pathway is substantive research conducted in a university or government lab under a faculty principal investigator (PI) who sponsors the submission. In all cases, the PI serves as corresponding author and the institution typically covers any publication fees. The realistic way to land in such a lab is covered in our guide to summer research programs for high school and middle school students.
21. PLOS ONE
No age restriction · International · ~$1,931 Article Processing Charge (paid by the institution) · journals.plos.org/plosone
One of the world's largest peer-reviewed open-access journals, covering all scientific disciplines. Authorship criteria are purely contribution-based. There is no age, grade, or student status requirement. Several ISEF finalists have been listed as co-authors on PLOS ONE papers after doing substantive work in university labs.
Authorship: Contribution-based only. The student must have made a genuine intellectual contribution to the research design, execution, analysis, or writing. The faculty PI is the corresponding author and pays the APC from research funds. Solo student submission is not realistic. This is a co-authorship pathway exclusively.
Advice: The path is to secure a research placement at a university lab (through a summer program, formal internship, or cold-email outreach), do real work, and ask whether co-authorship is appropriate at the end. The PI handles everything from submission to payment.
22. Nature and Nature Family Journals
No age restriction · International · APC varies by journal (typically $5,000–$12,000, paid by institution) · nature.com
High school student authorship in Nature-family journals is documented but exceptionally rare. The most notable example: a Taiwanese high school student was listed as second co-author on a 2015 Nature paper on protein crystallization after conducting research at Columbia University. Authorship is entirely contribution-based with no age restriction.
Authorship: Contribution-based only. A faculty PI leads and submits the paper. This is not a target to plan around. It is context for understanding that the professional publishing system has no intrinsic age barrier.
23. IEEE Conferences and IEEE Access
No age restriction · International · IEEE Access APC ~$1,750; conference paper fees vary · ieeeaccess.ieee.org
IEEE peer-reviewed conferences and journals cover electrical engineering, computer science, robotics, and data science. High school students have appeared as co-authors on IEEE conference papers when working under university mentors. IEEE conference papers are peer-reviewed and indexed. They carry real academic weight in CS and engineering fields.
Authorship: Contribution-based. A university faculty advisor or research mentor must lead the submission. If you are doing CS or robotics research with a university mentor, conference co-authorship is worth raising explicitly at the end of your project.
24. Journal of Chemical Education (ACS)
No age restriction · International · No APC for traditional subscription-model submission · pubs.acs.org/journal/jceda8
Important caveat: this journal publishes papers about chemistry education (teaching methods, lab design, curriculum), not chemistry research papers. A high school student could co-author a paper describing an educational lab activity or a study of learning outcomes conducted with a teacher. Not a venue for original chemistry research.
Authorship: Contribution-based. A teacher or faculty co-author would typically lead the submission.
Preprint Platforms
Preprints are not peer-reviewed but are citable, permanently timestamped, and taken seriously in several fields, particularly mathematics, computer science, and physics.
25. arXiv
No age restriction · International · Free · arxiv.org
The dominant preprint server for mathematics, computer science, physics, quantitative biology, statistics, and economics. Papers are posted publicly within hours of submission after a basic moderation check for scholarly relevance, not scientific peer review. An arXiv identifier is a citable, permanent record and is indexed by Google Scholar.
Authorship: No age or grade requirement. First-time submitters require endorsement from an established arXiv author, someone who has previously posted in the same subject area. A faculty mentor, teacher, or professor with prior arXiv submissions can provide this. Solo student posting is possible with endorsement.
Advice: The standard use case is a student with an original mathematical or computational result who posts to arXiv with a mentor's endorsement and then submits the same paper for peer review at a journal. Olympiad-level math students and competitive programmers with novel results do this regularly. It does not substitute for peer review but establishes priority and signals research-community engagement.
Humanities Journals
The following are outside the STEM scope of most students in this community but are the most credible options in their categories.
26. The Concord Review
High school students · U.S. and international · $70 submission fee (includes 4-issue subscription); $200 publication fee if accepted · tcr.org
The most selective high school humanities journal: it accepts approximately 5% of submissions. History only, released quarterly. Requires UChicago/Turabian citation style; MLA submissions are not accepted. Authorship: solo only. In publication since 1987.
Deadline: August 1 (Winter), November 1 (Spring), February 1 (Summer), May 1 (Fall).
27. The Scholarly Review
(See entry 13 above, included in the Multidisciplinary section as it covers natural sciences alongside humanities.) · scholarlyreview.org
28. The Schola
High school students · International · $180 submission fee · theschola.org
Covers philosophy, history, art history, literature, politics, public policy, and sociology. Original research only. Solo authors only. Co-authored papers are not accepted.
Deadline: Rolling.
Can You Publish Research in Middle School?
Most journals on this list are high-school-only, but publishing is genuinely open to middle schoolers at a handful of credible venues, and the best of them is also the most rigorous. A strong 7th or 8th grade project can be published if the research is real and the writing holds up. The bar is the science, not the age. Two honest caveats: younger students almost always need an adult advisor or mentor to submit on their behalf (a rule at the strongest journals, not a formality), and the review standard does not drop for a younger author, so the work still has to clear genuine peer review.
The venues that explicitly accept middle school students:
- Journal of Emerging Investigators (JEI) (grades 6 to 12): the single best target for a serious middle schooler. Real peer review by graduate students and faculty, and the most credible student-science credential there is. An adult advisor submits. If a 7th or 8th grader has a genuine hypothesis-driven experiment, this is the one to aim for.
- Young Scientists Journal (ages 12 to 20): free, UK-based, explicitly open to middle schoolers. Student-led review with academic validation, a good accessible first publication for younger students.
- Curieux Academic Journal (middle and high school): fast (2 to 5 weeks to a decision); accepts research and review articles. Fee on acceptance.
- Youth STEM Matters (ages 22 and under, middle school included): free or bursary-supported; every paper must connect to a UN Sustainable Development Goal. Students 12 and under submit through a parent or guardian.
One step up in difficulty: preprint servers like arXiv and professional venues have no age floor at all, but they require a mentor's endorsement or a credentialed co-author, so they are realistic only for exceptional cases (for instance, an olympiad-level math student posting an original result to arXiv with a mentor's endorsement).
The takeaway for a middle schooler: aim for JEI if the work is strong, and treat Young Scientists Journal or Youth STEM Matters as accessible, no-cost first publications while you build toward it.
Links verified May 2026.
