What does it take to publish in undergraduate journals?

[tim_lou]

Hello, I'm an undergraduate student who has finished an REU program over the summer.

the project involved using a program (written by some other physicist) to model a vacuum system of a small accelerator.

my mentor mentioned the possibility of publishing a report to a undergraduate journal. However, I'm a bit skeptical as to whether not this is possible.

My project wasn't anything groundbreaking, nor was there any dramatic discovery.
So, my question here is:

What does it take to publish in an undergraduate journals?

 

[imabug]

if groundbreaking or dramatic discoveries or revolutionary results were the only things that could be published, most journals would be very thin indeed.

Go ahead and work with your mentor on a paper to submit. Best case, you learn a little about how to write a paper, it gets published and you get a notch for your CV's publication list. Worst case, you learn a little about how to write a paper and what it takes to get it published (reviewer comments can be very valuable and instructive) and can apply it to your next paper.

 

[robphy]

Read some articles from the journals you wish to publish in:

Journal of Undergraduate Research in Physics
http://www.jurp.org/

some others in
http://www.cur.org/ugjournal.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=undergraduate+research+journal

 

[tim_lou]

if groundbreaking or dramatic discoveries or revolutionary results were the only things that could be published, most journals would be very thin indeed.

Go ahead and work with your mentor on a paper to submit. Best case, you learn a little about how to write a paper, it gets published and you get a notch for your CV's publication list. Worst case, you learn a little about how to write a paper and what it takes to get it published (reviewer comments can be very valuable and instructive) and can apply it to your next paper.

I suppose you are right... but is there any good sample undergraduate paper that I can take a look at... so to at least take a glimpse of the level of complication of what "my paper" is supposed to me... (preferably online link), if I ever write one?