The Journal of Student Research charges $50 at submission and $299 on acceptance, with a $300 fast track cutting review from 12–24 weeks to 5–6. It assigns real DOIs through Crossref. A 2023 ProPublica investigation quoted a paid programme describing it as a venue that 'nearly never gives edits'.
This is the most widely used venue for secondary-school research and the most criticised. Both facts are relevant, and the criticism is more specific than most summaries suggest.
What does it cost?
More than most guides say, because the price went up.
| Charge | Amount | When |
|---|---|---|
| Submission fee | $50 | On submission |
| Publication fee | $299 | On decision |
| Additional authors | $25 each beyond five | On decision |
| Fast Track | $300 + service fee | Optional |
All of it is described as strictly non-refundable. The acceptance fee was $200 and is now $299, so any article quoting the lower figure predates the change.
A student submitting a single-authored paper and paying for the fast track is therefore looking at roughly $650 before the service fee. That is more than the Oxford Scholar Programme costs per contact hour, which is a strange comparison to be able to make.
What is the Fast Track, and why does it matter?
It cuts review from 12–24 weeks to 5–6 weeks for $300 plus a service fee.
This is the feature that determines how a knowledgeable reader interprets a JSR publication, so it is worth setting against the relevant standard. The joint principles of COPE, the Directory of Open Access Journals, OASPA and WAME state at Principle 13:
"Author fees or waiver status should not influence editorial decision making."
A paid option that changes how quickly — and, unavoidably, by whom and how thoroughly — a paper is assessed sits uncomfortably beside that. JSR is not alone: Curieux charges $250 for its fast track. But it is a meaningful difference from the Journal of Emerging Investigators, which states it will not expedite submissions "for any reason."
For a student, the practical consequence is this. An admissions officer or interviewer who knows this sector knows which journals sell speed. Buying it saves you three months and costs you the thing you were buying.
What did the ProPublica investigation actually say?
Less than the internet claims, and what it did say was damaging enough.
ProPublica and the Chronicle of Higher Education published Daniel Golden and Kunal Purohit's investigation in May 2023. The line that concerns JSR is a quotation from a staff member at a paid research programme:
"In our experience, we have noticed that [the Journal of Student Research] nearly never gives edits, and students always just advance straight to being accepted."
— quoted in ProPublica / Chronicle of Higher Education, May 2023
One widely-repeated figure needs correcting. You will see "JSR accepts 65% of submissions" quoted across this industry, including in our own earlier writing on paid programmes. That number came from one paid programme's internal guide, describing acceptance of its own clients' papers, and that guide called JSR a "safety" journal. It is not JSR's published acceptance rate. JSR does not publish one, and neither does any comparable student journal. Anyone quoting 65% as the journal's rate is passing on a misreading.
The investigation is three years old. Its specific figures should be treated as dated. The structural point — that the value of a publication depends entirely on the selectivity of the venue — has not been answered by anyone.
Is JSR a real journal?
By the mechanics, largely yes. By the signal it sends, it is complicated.
What checks out. DOIs are assigned through Crossref under prefix 10.47611, verified on a live article. That is real infrastructure and means papers are permanently citable. Review is described as double-blind, with reviewers recruited from teachers and faculty by open call.
What does not. JSR claims presence in Google Scholar, OpenAIRE, Scinapse and Altmetric. Those are harvesters — they index broad swathes of the open web and inclusion implies no quality screening. Presenting them alongside real indexes overstates the position. As far as we could determine it is not listed in the DOAJ, which requires "at least two independent reviewers," five qualified editors and full fee disclosure.
What is missing. The number of reviewers per paper. Think.Check.Submit. tells authors to ask specifically how many reviewers see a submission, and JSR does not say.
So should you submit there?
It depends which of two things you want, and they pull in opposite directions.
Submit if you want a citable record. A DOI on a piece of genuine work, permanently retrievable, is worth having. If you have real data and $350 is affordable, JSR will publish it and the record will exist.
Do not submit if you want a selectivity signal. A publication in a venue that sells a fast track does not demonstrate that your work passed a bar. Anyone who knows the field reads it accordingly, and the students most likely to be interviewed by such a person are exactly the ones aiming highest.
Better first choice for original science: the Journal of Emerging Investigators — $49 at submission, nothing on acceptance, expediting refused outright, DOIs assigned, and honest about not being indexed.
And do not pay for the fast track. If your deadline is in five weeks, the answer is to submit next cycle, not to buy the queue.
How we handle this
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.
We submit to the Oxford Journal of Student Scholarship, the Journal of Research High School and Vanderbilt's Young Scientist Journal, through their standard review processes. All three reject student work, ours included. We do not use paid fast tracks and we do not promise publication, because acceptance is not ours to give.
We also cited the 65% figure incorrectly in earlier articles on this site and have corrected it here: it described one programme's own clients, not the journal. If you read it here as JSR's acceptance rate, that was our error.
The one question to ask any journal
Ask when they last rejected a paper like yours.
A journal that can answer specifically is reviewing. A journal that cannot is processing. Every other consideration — fees, speed, indexing claims — follows from that answer.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the Journal of Student Research cost?
$50 on submission plus $299 when a decision is reached, $25 for each author beyond five, and $300 plus a service fee for the Fast Track. All fees are described as strictly non-refundable. The acceptance fee rose from $200 to $299 in recent years, so older guides understate the total.
What is the Fast Track?
A paid option reducing review from 12–24 weeks to 5–6 weeks, for $300 plus a service fee. It is the feature that gives most pause. Industry standards from COPE, DOAJ, OASPA and WAME state that author fees should not influence editorial decision making, and a paid queue-jump sits close to that line.
What did ProPublica find?
Its May 2023 investigation with the Chronicle of Higher Education quoted a staff member at a paid research programme saying that JSR 'nearly never gives edits, and students always just advance straight to being accepted.' A widely-repeated 65% figure came from that programme's internal guide about its own clients' submissions — not JSR's overall acceptance rate.
Does JSR assign DOIs?
Yes, through Crossref under prefix 10.47611, which we verified on a live article. That means papers are permanently citable, which is genuinely useful. It claims presence in Google Scholar, OpenAIRE, Scinapse and Altmetric — those are harvesters that pick up most of the open web, not selective indexes.
Is review actually double-blind?
JSR states it is, with reviewers recruited from teachers and faculty by open call. It does not state how many reviewers see each paper, which is the figure Think.Check.Submit. tells authors to look for. Double-blind with an undisclosed reviewer count is a partial answer.
Should you submit there?
It depends on why. If you want a permanent DOI for real work and the fees are affordable, it is a functioning venue. If you want a publication that signals selectivity to an admissions officer who knows this field, the fast track and the ProPublica coverage work against you.