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+
+# publishing research
+
+you can publish real research as a teenager. not "student research" in scare quotes — actual papers in actual journals that actual researchers read. the barrier is lower than you think, and the process teaches you more than any class.
+
+## how to find a research mentor
+
+the hardest part isn't doing the research — it's finding someone willing to work with you. here are the paths that actually work:
+
+### cold email a PI
+
+this is the most direct route. find a professor or researcher whose work interests you, read their recent papers, and send them a specific email about their work. not "I'm a high school student interested in your field" — that's what everyone sends. instead: "I read your 2025 paper on X, tried to reproduce your results, and had a question about Y."
+
+the response rate is low (~5-10%), so send volume. 30-50 thoughtful, customized emails is reasonable. see [[mentorship-networking]] for the full cold email playbook.
+
+### through a program or internship
+
+research programs like RSI, SSP, Garcia, and Simons pair you with PIs. but you don't need a formal program. I found Elie Adam at Massachusetts General Hospital through my Orbit internship — visited him, discussed category theory, then we collaborated on a CNN binary classifier for anesthetic depth from EEG signals (<400 parameters). the internship opened the door, but the collaboration happened because I showed genuine interest and technical capability.
+
+see [[summer-programs]] for research-oriented programs.
+
+### through existing connections
+
+teachers, parents' colleagues, [[communities|community]] members — anyone in academia can introduce you. one warm intro is worth 20 cold emails.
+
+## the process
+
+research isn't magic. it's a learnable process:
+
+1. **read papers.** pick a field. read 10-20 papers. use Google Scholar, arXiv, PubMed. you'll be confused at first — that's normal. by paper 10 you'll start seeing the landscape.
+2. **find a gap.** what hasn't been done? what could be done better? what could be applied to a new domain?
+3. **reach out to someone working in that area.** propose a specific collaboration. "I noticed no one has tried approach X on dataset Y — I'd like to try it and I think your lab's expertise in Z would be valuable."
+4. **do the work.** build the model, run the experiments, collect the data. this is the part most people skip — they want the publication without the months of grinding.
+5. **write it up.** follow the structure of papers in your target journal. abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion.
+6. **submit.** get rejected. revise. resubmit. this is normal.
+
+## my research
+
+### EEG anesthetic depth classifier
+- collaborated with Elie Adam (MGH) on a CNN binary classifier for anesthetic depth from EEG signals
+- the model had fewer than 400 parameters — intentionally small to be interpretable
+- submitted to Davidson Fellows (paper #0352, Feb 2026) and targeting IEEE TBME
+- this came from genuine curiosity about consciousness and brain signals, not from wanting a publication
+
+### phase change materials (PCMs)
+- paper on PCMs for Microsoft AI data center cooling
+- applied materials science to a real engineering problem
+
+### AI bias
+- offense detection across datasets
+- examining how bias manifests differently depending on training data
+
+## where to publish
+
+### journals that accept high school research
+- **International Journal of High School Research (IJHSR)** — dedicated to high school student research, multiple issues per year
+- **Journal of Student Research (JSR)** — multidisciplinary, faculty-reviewed, accepts high school through grad students
+- **The Concord Review** — specifically for history research essays (5,000-9,000 words)
+- **PRESS Journals** — high-quality research and review articles across scientific disciplines
+- **Journal of Emerging Investigators (JEI)** — peer-reviewed, specifically for middle and high school students
+- **Curieux Academic Journal** — student-run, publishes across disciplines
+
+### real journals (not student-specific)
+- **arXiv** — preprint server, no peer review but gets your work out fast and cited. CS, physics, math, bio.
+- **IEEE student papers** — IEEE conferences often have student paper tracks
+- **field-specific journals** — many journals don't care about your age, only your work. if the research is good enough, submit to the real venues.
+
+### conferences and fairs
+- **JSHS (Junior Science and Humanities Symposium)** — present original STEM research, regional → national pipeline, fully funded
+- **Golden Gate STEM Fair / regional science fairs** — the ISEF pathway starts here
+- **ISEF** — the pinnacle of high school science fairs. $9M+ in prizes.
+- **NeurIPS High School Projects Track** — yes, NeurIPS has accepted high school submissions. 330+ submissions in their inaugural track.
+- **Davidson Fellows** — $10k, $25k, or $50k for significant research. not a journal, but a serious award that validates your work.
+
+see [[competitions-hackathons]] for Davidson Fellows and science fair details.
+
+## the Davidson Fellows path
+
+Davidson Fellows is worth special mention. it's a $10,000-$50,000 scholarship for students 18 or under who have completed a "significant piece of work." the bar is high — they want genuine contribution to a field, not a school project with a fancy title.
+
+the application is essentially: describe your work, its significance, and your process. research you publish can become a [[competitions-hackathons|Davidson Fellows submission]]. I submitted my EEG paper (paper #0352, Feb 2026).
+
+## practical tips
+
+- **start reading papers now.** even if you don't understand everything. you'll learn the vocabulary, the structure, and what "good research" looks like in your field.
+- **use Semantic Scholar and Connected Papers** to find related work and understand the citation graph.
+- **learn LaTeX.** every serious paper is written in LaTeX. overleaf.com makes this easy.
+- **keep a research notebook.** document everything — your hypotheses, experiments, failures, insights. you'll thank yourself when writing the paper.
+- **research is slow.** my EEG paper took months. don't expect to go from "I want to do research" to "published paper" in a few weeks.
+
+the products you [[shipping-products|ship]] and the research you publish are the two strongest things you can put in a [[mentorship-networking|cold email]] or a [[funding-grants|grant application]].
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