Where and how can I submit my first paper? (Not an Expert)

[QassimQQ]

Hello everyone,I have been working on a project for the last two and half years-maybe three (irregularly), since I was an undergraduate. I nearly finished the project, and I am not sure if it is worth publishing or not.

It is a correction to a space flight using one specific phenomena. As far as I know, no one published something similar. Of course, the project is based on other papers, but they did not include the correction in their articles explicitly.

I think the correction is actually easy and not very hard. I am not sure if it is actually publishable. I am currently writing the paper and making a computational comparison.

You might ask why I took two and half years.
1- I was not rushing.
2- I am not expert in the field, so I had to read a lot of papers, wiki's and book pages. I needed time to understand what I am doing and crystallize the idea.
3- I had my BSc to finish ^^".
4- It is my first ever experience reading articles and developing my own ideas.

All in all, my project is not a breakthrough or anything its just a semi-empirical correction using a well known phenomena.

How to know whether my work is publishable or not? I thought about at least uploading it to Arxiv, but it seems that I need an endorsement from an expert or something like that.

 

[DrClaude]

The best would be for you to find someone at your university to look at it.

 

[QassimQQ]

The best would be for you to find someone at your university to look at it.

No one is working on this specific type of problems in my university. There are professors in astrophysics and space science, but they do not work on this type of problems.

I approached one of the professors when I first started and he was not very enthusiastic about it. That's why I am working alone without a mentor in the first place.

Saying that, I think the project has changed a lot in these two years, I will try to approach him again. Thank you for your reply.

 

[DrClaude]

No one is working on this specific type of problems in my university. There are professors in astrophysics and space science, but they do not work on this type of problems.

I approached one of the professors when I first started and he was not very enthusiastic about it. That's why I am working alone without a mentor in the first place.

Saying that, I think the project has changed a lot in these two years, I will try to approach him again. Thank you for your reply.

I don't think that the professor has to be an expert in the field. What you mostly need is feedback on the form and style of the paper. When it is up to the level of a publishable paper, you can submit it to a journal in the field, and then you can get some feedback about its content.

 

[QassimQQ]

I don't think that the professor has to be an expert in the field. What you mostly need is feedback on the form and style of the paper. When it is up to the level of a publishable paper, you can submit it to a journal in the field, and then you can get some feedback about its content.

That is reasonable.
If I am completely finished writing the paper/project and I am about to submit it to a journal, should I publish it on Arxiv giving that it is my first paper, which might turn out badly (rejected)?

 

[DrClaude]

That is reasonable.
If I am completely finished writing the paper/project and I am about to submit it to a journal, should I publish it on Arxiv giving that it is my first paper, which might turn out badly (rejected)?

The arXiv is basically for fast dissemination of papers or to allow those without a subscription to the journal to still have access to your work. I would wait for some feedback from the journal before putting your article on the arXiv.