Proceedings of SoTS
Peer-Reviewed Journal for Teen Scientists
Original Research, Open Access, Transparent Review
The Proceedings publishes original research by middle school, high school, and homeschool students, reviewed by teen scientists working alongside our editors. Each article appears together with its reviews, so reviewing counts too: every published review is a record of a SoTS member's part in real peer review.
Articles are open access: anyone can read them, cite them, and build on them. You keep the copyright, and your article gets a DOI, a permanent address that always leads to it.
Why Publish With Us
Students have several journals to choose from. The Proceedings is built around three things we believe teen research needs, all at once: curiosity setting the question, review done in the open, and teen scientists on both sides of it.
Questions worth asking
Follow a question because it fascinates you, free of publication counts and grant deadlines. We publish science driven by innate curiosity and high-quality execution.
Every honest result counts
A well-designed experiment that did not turn out as expected is still real science. Negative results and replications are welcome.
Every article comes with its reviews
Readers see the scientific conversation behind each paper: what the reviewers questioned and what they valued. Reviewers sign with their name or SoTS member ID.
A real contribution to science
Reviewers evaluate the value of the contribution to scientific knowledge and how well the work is executed. The contribution can be your own data, experiment, model, method, or interpretation.
Written by teens
You submit your own paper, and membership is not required. If you are under the age of digital consent where you live, a parent's confirmation is required before review.
Reviewed by teens
SoTS members review alongside our editors. A good review is as demanding, and as important, as writing a paper. Published with the article, it records your part in the community.
Publication Fees
Two fees are the whole cost of publishing: $160, or $85 for SoTS members.
Review fee
$10
Paid when you submit, and it covers peer review whatever the outcome. The checkout is also where you send your paper, so read the steps first.
Publication fee
$150$75members · 50% less
Due only if your paper is accepted. SoTS members pay the lower rate and receive priority review.
How to Submit
Middle school, high school, and homeschool students in eligible regions may submit, and SoTS membership is not required. Submitting takes two steps:
- Upload your manuscript (PDF, Word, or LaTeX) to Google Drive and set the link so anyone with it can view.
- Pay the $10 review fee. At checkout, fill in all three fields; we need each of them to review your paper:
- Your location (country, state, town)
- Your age
- The Google Drive link to your manuscript
Our editorial team responds within 5 to 7 business days. If your paper is accepted, the publication fee is $150, or $75 for members (see Publication Fees).
Submission guidelines
Who can submit
Middle school, high school, and homeschool students, with manuscripts written in English. We accept submissions from authors in North and South America, Europe, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.
If you are under the age of digital consent where you live, we ask a parent or guardian to confirm your submission before it is sent to reviewers. Our Terms of Service set out how consent works in each region.
What your manuscript needs
Any structure that fits your work is welcome: IMRaD, a replication or methods report, a review, a dataset or code paper, or something else. Whatever the format, include:
- A short abstract or summary
- All co-authors with their affiliations
- Citations in a consistent style (APA works well)
- Data and code available on reasonable request; put large files, such as datasets, code, or video, in the same Google Drive folder
Published articles carry a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0), and you keep the copyright.
Made by Innovators in Scientific Publishing
Back in 2021, Dr. Sergey Samsonau, now the Society's Academic Director, co-founded Seeds of Science as an experiment in scientific publishing. It was an open-access journal for speculative and exploratory research, in whatever format suited the work, reviewed by its community, with the reviewers' comments published alongside the articles. One question its manifesto set out to test was whether people outside traditional academic science can make valuable contributions when given the right platform and support.
Over the next few years it published about 30 articles by more than 30 authors in six countries, on subjects from neuroscience and medicine to economics and AI. Its authors included researchers at McGill, Emory, Stony Brook, and Leeds, at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research and Intel Labs, and independent scholars.
In 2025 Seeds of Science moved from journal to Substack. Today it has over 7,000 subscribers, and it publishes independent research and curates science writing from across the web.
The Proceedings grew out of that experiment, and carries its open review into a journal built for teen scientists.