Can you freely publish papers?

Hello!!!! I was wondering if you can submit papers to journals if you are a student at sixth form? I have a few ideas that I want to publish but I am not sure if you are allowed?

Reply 1

MAyman12

11

What do you mean by ideas? Give me an example.

You could try. But don't expect anyone to take it seriously or even read it.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 2

ManifoldManifest

13

Depends on the journal, they're all going to have different submission guidelines and requirements. I'd expect it to be difficult if not impossible to get anything published while at sixth form, for a whole host of reasons.

Reply 3

Hype en Ecosse

20

You can, but I doubt you could produce anything of publishable quality as a sixth former.

Reply 4

TheSmuggler

OP

Original post by MAyman12

What do you mean by ideas? Give me an example.

You could try. But don't expect anyone to take it seriously or even read it.

Like my theories in Chemistry, Psychology, Anthropology and Mathematics

Original post by ManifoldManifest

Depends on the journal, they're all going to have different submission guidelines and requirements. I'd expect it to be difficult if not impossible to get anything published while at sixth form, for a whole host of reasons.

Do they have to know I am at Sixth Form?

Original post by Hype en Ecosse

You can, but I doubt you could produce anything of publishable quality as a sixth former.

I am a very good write! I study English at A Level.

Reply 5

poohat

18

Anyone can submit a paper to a journal, and you dont need to have any qualifications. Some journals charge fees for publicatoin/submission, but most dont. However:

a) the probability of you having anything worth publishing is near zero. Unless you are very well acquainted with the fields you are working in, it is very likely that what you have done will have been done before, or would be classed as baseless speculation without hard evidence.

b) even if you did have something worth publishing (which again, is almost impossible) its unlikely that you would be able to write about it in a suitably academic style without any training.

Your best bet would be to actually find someone who knows about the fields you are interested in (eg a school teacher) and discuss your ideas with them for feedback. When you started university, you could get in contact with a genuine expert and try to work with them as a research assistant or suchlike.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 6

redferry

19

Original post by TheSmuggler

Hello!!!! I was wondering if you can submit papers to journals if you are a student at sixth form? I have a few ideas that I want to publish but I am not sure if you are allowed?

you have to pay a fee to get your paper published, but other than that anyone is free to submit.

It is unlikely that your ideas at this stage will be publishable however.
You need to have original research that follows current trends.

Reply 7

William Turtle

14

Original post by TheSmuggler

I am a very good write! I study English at A Level.

Sure you are..

The above poster wasn't talking about 'quality of written communication', rather the quality of your ideas and the extent of you knowledge.

Reply 8

poohat

18

Original post by redferry

you have to pay a fee to get your paper published, but other than that anyone is free to submit.

This is journal/field dependent, and not the case for most journals

Reply 9

TheSmuggler

OP

Original post by redferry

you have to pay a fee to get your paper published, but other than that anyone is free to submit.

It is unlikely that your ideas at this stage will be publishable however.
You need to have original research that follows current trends.

I am okay with the fee! I have very good ideas I have notebooks full of them!

Original post by William Turtle

Sure you are..

The above poster wasn't talking about 'quality of written communication', rather the quality of your ideas and the extent of you knowledge.

You spotted my joke! On a serious note I have knowledge of most of my area .

Reply 10

ManifoldManifest

13

Original post by TheSmuggler

Like my theories in Chemistry, Psychology, Anthropology and Mathematics

Do they have to know I am at Sixth Form?

The process usually involves listing one's academic/professional affiliation, so yes, most journals will want to know.

Also, you're going to find it hard to conduct any sort of meaningful trials or gather useful data with the resources of a sixth form. (I'm going out on a limb here and guessing you don't have access to a good lab, a research budget, teams of students to conduct trials, the spare time to write up your results, etc that are needed to produce a paper.)

On the off chance that you're asking a serious question, here's the author submission page for the JACS to give you an idea of the sort of standards needed. http://pubs.acs.org/page/jacsat/submission/authors.html

Expand a little more on some of your theories?

Reply 11

chazwomaq

18

Yes, journals generally consider all suitable submissions. You occasionally see papers published by "independent researchers". I have also seen papers published by high school students. Make sure your paper is suitable for the journal and go for it. It should be judged on its merits, not by the age or qualifications of its author(s). It might be a good idea to coauthor with a teacher or published researcher as having someone who knows the process makes it easier.

Someone at my school published a paper about measuring ancient traffic flow in Pompeii by measuring dents in pavements, so it does happen sometimes. But if a you find that journals won't publish your idea (which is pretty likely tbh), why not just write it up on a blog?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 12

redferry

19

Original post by poohat

This is journal/field dependent, and not the case for most journals

both papers I published in had a fee.

Reply 13

redferry

19

Original post by TheSmuggler

I am okay with the fee! I have very good ideas I have notebooks full of them!

you need more than ideas you need data and statistical tests that prove your hypothesis.

Reply 14

Hype en Ecosse

20

Original post by TheSmuggler

Like my theories in Chemistry, Psychology, Anthropology and Mathematics

Journals aren't going to publish "hypotheses" until you have some solid, citable experimental data to back it up - or even compiled other people's research into a systematic review, and have a broad enough knowledge of the literature to ensure there isn't reliable data blatantly contradicting your hypotheses.

Do they have to know I am at Sixth Form?

They'll need to know an institutional affiliation, most likely. Don't think you have to declare "I'm a sixth form student lol".

Reply 15

TheSmuggler

OP

Original post by ManifoldManifest

The process usually involves listing one's academic/professional affiliation, so yes, most journals will want to know.

Also, you're going to find it hard to conduct any sort of meaningful trials or gather useful data with the resources of a sixth form. (I'm going out on a limb here and guessing you don't have access to a good lab, a research budget, teams of students to conduct trials, the spare time to write up your results, etc that are needed to produce a paper.)

On the off chance that you're asking a serious question, here's the author submission page for the JACS to give you an idea of the sort of standards needed. http://pubs.acs.org/page/jacsat/submission/authors.html

Expand a little more on some of your theories?

Cultural Linguistics is one of my current studies. I am looking at the relationship between language and culture done by a teenager who has the trust and knowledge of the people and understands what he is talking about.

Reply 16

nexttime

22

You can't just publish 'ideas'. You publish experiments, data analysis, mathematical proofs, reviews of existing evidence etc. Unless you're talking the arts in which case your credentials probably mean more than what you write tbh.

Why don't you look into essay competitions and the like, if you're *so* ahead of your time those should be no problem for you.