IJHSR publishes no acceptance rate, and nor does any comparable student journal. What it does publish is more useful: two or more outside reviewers per paper, which meets the DOAJ's independence floor, no submission fee, and a $350 publication fee charged only after acceptance — the one fee structure the industry standards bodies are most concerned about.
Students search for this journal's acceptance rate. It does not publish one, and nor does any comparable venue — but the things it does publish answer the underlying question better.
Why no acceptance rate exists
Not evasion, mostly. No student research journal we have checked publishes one.
The Journal of Emerging Investigators, the Journal of Student Research, NHSJS, the Columbia Junior Science Journal, Vanderbilt's Young Scientist Journal and the Oxford Journal of Student Scholarship all publish none.
The nearest IJHSR comes is for review articles, where its submissions page says only "two or three review articles per issue" are accepted and calls the selection "extremely competitive." That is a real constraint and worth knowing before you plan a review submission around it.
So ask the answerable questions instead: who reviews, how many, and what does it cost.
Who reviews, and how many
This is where IJHSR does better than its reputation suggests.
The process: the Editor-in-Chief first checks format, plagiarism, AI use and citations. The editor then decides whether the paper is scientifically sound and sends it to "two or more outside reviewers," who may request revisions or reject it.
Two independent reviewers is the floor the DOAJ sets for inclusion in its directory, and Think.Check.Submit. tells authors to establish "independent/external reviewers, how many reviewers per paper" before submitting.
On that specific measure, IJHSR clears a bar several better-known venues do not:
| Journal | Reviewers stated | Meets the two-independent floor? |
|---|---|---|
| IJHSR | "two or more outside reviewers" | Yes |
| Journal of Emerging Investigators | 8+ touch each paper | Yes |
| NHSJS | "one or two" plus a board member | Only sometimes |
| Journal of Student Research | Not stated | Unknown |
| Columbia Junior Science Journal | Not stated | Unknown |
| Young Scientist Journal | Not stated | Unknown |
| Oxford Journal of Student Scholarship | Not stated | Unknown |
The word doing the work is outside. Reviewers external to the journal's own editorial team are what distinguishes peer review from editorial checking — the distinction that mattered at Curieux, which used two of its own editors and has since closed.
The $350 question
No submission fee, then $350 once you are accepted — and the timing is the issue, not the amount.
The journal is explicit: "There are no fees to submit an article," followed by "a $350 publication fee" charged only after acceptance. Scholarships are available for students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, with school documentation, and the journal says a full publication scholarship is possible.
Set the structure against the standard. The joint COPE, DOAJ, OASPA and WAME principles state at Principle 13:
"Author fees or waiver status should not influence editorial decision making."
A fee charged at submission is a screening cost: the journal earns the same whether it accepts or rejects you. A fee charged on acceptance means the journal earns nothing when it says no. That is not an accusation about any particular decision — it is a description of the incentive, and it is the arrangement the standards bodies are most concerned about.
Compare across the category:
| Journal | At submission | On acceptance | What the structure rewards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Journal of Emerging Investigators | $49 | — | Screening out unserious submissions |
| NHSJS | Free | — | Neither (but sells a $280 fast track) |
| IJHSR | Free | $350 | Saying yes |
| Journal of Student Research | $50 | $299 | Both |
The mitigation is real: a scholarship route exists, and it is documented rather than discretionary-sounding. But a student who cannot pay $350 and does not qualify for free or reduced-price lunch is in an awkward position after acceptance, and it is worth knowing that before submitting rather than after.
There is no paid fast track, which is a point in its favour — IJHSR cannot be hurried with money, unlike NHSJS at $280 or JSR at $300.
The practical details
| IJHSR | |
|---|---|
| Who may submit | "High school students and their mentors from any country" |
| Article types | Research Articles and Review Articles |
| Review articles per issue | Only two or three |
| Deadlines | None — rolling submissions |
| Time to acceptance | Approximately one to three months |
| Total to publication | Three to six months |
| Publisher | Terra Science and Education, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Syracuse NY |
| Indexing claimed | EBSCO and Google Scholar |
| DOIs | Not mentioned |
Two things stand out.
Rolling submissions. "There is no deadline for submission for any issue." That is a genuine advantage over venues with fixed windows — Vanderbilt's Young Scientist Journal runs 1 November to 1 December, and the Columbia Junior Science Journal roughly June to September.
The EBSCO claim. Most indexing claims in this category name harvesters — Google Scholar, OpenAIRE, Scinapse — which index broad swathes of the open web and imply no quality screening. EBSCO is a genuine database aggregator, which makes the claim more substantive than most. We could not independently verify it, so treat it as claimed rather than established. Iowa State's guidance on predatory publishing lists false indexing claims among the warning signs, which is why the distinction is worth making.
Should you submit?
Yes, if you have original science, you can pay $350 or qualify for the scholarship, and you want two genuinely independent reviewers reading your work. The rolling deadline also means it fits around your own timeline rather than the other way round.
Think harder if your project is a literature review. Two or three per issue is a very narrow gate, and NHSJS, CJSJ and OJSS all take reviews with less competition for the slot.
Look elsewhere if the acceptance fee is a problem and you do not qualify for the scholarship. Vanderbilt's Young Scientist Journal mentions no fee at all, NHSJS is free to submit, and the Columbia Junior Science Journal advertises none — our comparison of every student research venue sets them side by side.
Where we fit
The Oxford Centre for Advanced Research runs 1:1 mentorships with PhD candidates and early-career researchers at Oxford, Cambridge, other leading UK universities and Ivy League institutions. The Oxford Publication Fellowship is £3,400, roughly $4,400, and is built around getting a project to submission standard.
We submit to the Oxford Journal of Student Scholarship, the Journal of Research High School and Vanderbilt's Young Scientist Journal, through standard review. All three reject student work, ours included. We do not use paid expediting anywhere.
A student with a finished paper and no budget should submit to a free venue before paying us or anyone — and should know that two of the venues we use are free to submit to.
The question to ask instead
Stop asking for the acceptance rate. Ask how many independent reviewers read each paper, and when the journal last rejected one like yours.
IJHSR answers the first question in writing, which is more than most of its competitors manage.
Frequently asked questions
What is the IJHSR acceptance rate?
Not published, and no comparable student research journal publishes one either. The only numbers in the category come from free university-run summer programmes, not journals. For review articles IJHSR says only 'two or three' are accepted per issue and calls the selection 'extremely competitive', which is the closest thing to a rate it gives.
Does IJHSR charge a fee?
No submission fee — 'There are no fees to submit an article.' Then a $350 publication fee once accepted. Scholarships are available for students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, with school documentation, and the journal says a full publication scholarship is possible.
How many reviewers see a paper?
The Editor-in-Chief screens for format, plagiarism, AI use and citations, then sends papers judged scientifically sound to 'two or more outside reviewers'. Two independent reviewers is the floor the DOAJ sets for inclusion, which puts IJHSR ahead of several better-known student journals on this specific measure.
How long does it take?
The journal states roughly one to three months to acceptance, with a further two to three months to publication, and gives a total of three to six months. Submissions are rolling — 'There is no deadline for submission for any issue' — which makes it one of the more flexible options.
Does it accept literature reviews?
Yes, but very few. It accepts both Research Articles and Review Articles, while stating that only 'two or three review articles per issue' are published and that the selection is extremely competitive. If you have a review, apply by all means, but have a second venue in mind.
Is it indexed?
It claims indexing by EBSCO and Google Scholar. EBSCO is a genuine database aggregator rather than a web harvester, which makes that claim more substantive than most in this category — though we could not independently verify it, and Google Scholar indexes most of the open web regardless of quality.