Student research - where to publish?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the challenges and options for publishing a senior thesis in supergravity that is deemed educational and original but potentially trivial in significance. Participants explore various journals suitable for such work, particularly in the context of undergraduate research.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested
  • Homework-related

Main Points Raised

  • One participant, an assistant professor, expresses uncertainty about the publication potential of a student thesis in supergravity, noting its educational purpose and trivial nature.
  • Another participant suggests the American Journal of Physics and European Journal of Physics as potential outlets for educational papers, mentioning the existence of lower-impact journals.
  • A different contributor points to the Journal of Undergraduate Research in Physics as a suitable option, emphasizing its decent papers and relevance to undergraduate work.
  • One participant shares a resource link for undergraduate journals, highlighting the Journal of Undergraduate Research in Physics as fitting the inquiry.
  • Another participant expresses skepticism about journal policies, sharing negative experiences with rejections based on author reputation and advocating for a preprint archive for undergraduate research.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants present various suggestions for publication venues, indicating a lack of consensus on the best option. There is also a divergence in views regarding the accessibility and fairness of journal publication processes.

Contextual Notes

Some participants note that the thesis's educational value may influence its suitability for publication, while others highlight the challenges faced by less well-known authors in the publication process.

M
Dear all

Hopefully this is an appropriate topic for this forum.
I am an assistant professor of physics in a liberal arts college. I
have had, and for the first time, supervised a senior thesis involving
a calculation in supergravity. Although the calculation was original,
in the sense that it was not previously published, my judgement is that
it is on the trivial side as far as actual publication is concerned,
and was primarily for educational purposes. The student has been
wondering if we can still publish in a journal that accepts work of
this type. As I have no experience in publishing outside of the
standard research journals (e.g Phys Rev), I thought of asking this
forum. Does anyone know of a such a place?

Thanks
 
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On Sun, 16 Apr 2006, M wrote:

> Hopefully this is an appropriate topic for this forum.
> I am an assistant professor of physics in a liberal arts college. I
> have had, and for the first time, supervised a senior thesis involving
> a calculation in supergravity. Although the calculation was original,
> in the sense that it was not previously published, my judgement is that
> it is on the trivial side as far as actual publication is concerned,
> and was primarily for educational purposes. The student has been
> wondering if we can still publish in a journal that accepts work of
> this type. As I have no experience in publishing outside of the
> standard research journals (e.g Phys Rev), I thought of asking this
> forum. Does anyone know of a such a place?[/color]

If it's educational for others as well as for your student, there're
American Journal of Physics and European Journal of Physics. There are
likely other, lower impact, journals that will publish education-oriented
papers (I think I've seen a Brazilian one, but forget the name).

--
Timo Nieminen - Home page: http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/people/nieminen/
E-prints: http://eprint.uq.edu.au/view/person/Nieminen,_Timo_A..html
Shrine to Spirits: http://www.users.bigpond.com/timo_nieminen/spirits.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
M <kotkot@yahoo.com> wrote:

[...]
> I am an assistant professor of physics in a liberal arts college. I
> have had, and for the first time, supervised a senior thesis involving
> a calculation in supergravity. Although the calculation was original,
> in the sense that it was not previously published, my judgement is that
> it is on the trivial side as far as actual publication is concerned,
> and was primarily for educational purposes. The student has been
> wondering if we can still publish in a journal that accepts work of
> this type. As I have no experience in publishing outside of the
> standard research journals (e.g Phys Rev), I thought of asking this
> forum. Does anyone know of a such a place?[/color]

Look at http://www.cur.org/ugjournal.html for some possibilities.
The only one I've actually seen is The Journal of Undergraduate
Research in Physics (http://www.jurp.org/) , published by the
Society of Physics Students, which has some decent papers.

Depending on how it's written up -- if it's pedagogical enough, and
useful for other students -- you might consider the American Journal
of Physics.

Steve Carlip
 
Last edited by a moderator:
M wrote:
> Hopefully this is an appropriate topic for this forum.
> I am an assistant professor of physics in a liberal arts college. I
> have had, and for the first time, supervised a senior thesis involving
> a calculation in supergravity. Although the calculation was original,
> in the sense that it was not previously published, my judgement is that
> it is on the trivial side as far as actual publication is concerned,
> and was primarily for educational purposes. The student has been
> wondering if we can still publish in a journal that accepts work of
> this type. As I have no experience in publishing outside of the
> standard research journals (e.g Phys Rev), I thought of asking this
> forum. Does anyone know of a such a place?[/color]

A Google search quickly turned up the following:

Journal of Undergraduate Research in Physics
(from the Society of Physics Students & Sigma Pi Sigma)
http://www.jurp.org/

Appears very much like what you are looking for.

Hope this helps.

Igor
 
I don,t believe in journals policy..i have bad experiences about beign rejected only because i,m not famous (does it sound familiar to you?..i,m sure that yes) :frown: :frown: and i have very bad luck i would be interested in a preprint archive for undergraduate students of any university of the world and that can be published or at least stored so they can be avaliable.
 

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