OJSS takes high school and early undergraduate work in any discipline, accepts literature reviews as well as original research, wants 2,000–8,000 words, and lists nine named editorial board members mostly affiliated with Oxford. It holds ISSN 3070-3875 and displays a DOI prefix. It is registered in Delaware, states plainly that it is not connected to the University of Oxford, and its Article Processing Charges page would not load when we checked.
A disclosure before anything else: the Oxford Centre for Advanced Research submits student work to this journal. We are not a neutral party. What follows applies the same checks we have applied to every other venue, including the ones that do not flatter it.
What it publishes
High school and early undergraduate work, in any discipline, and — unusually — literature reviews as well as original research.
The submission guidelines state: "We welcome submissions from high school and early undergraduate students across all disciplines." The journal covers "research across STEM, humanities, and social sciences."
That breadth is its most useful feature. Most student research journals are science-only and original-research-only. If you have written a humanities paper, or a synthesis rather than a study, your options narrow sharply — Vanderbilt's Young Scientist Journal states "Original research only, no review articles will be accepted," and the Journal of Emerging Investigators wants a finding.
OJSS accepts Original Research Articles and Literature Reviews. Along with NHSJS and the Columbia Junior Science Journal, it is one of three venues we have found that will consider a review.
What it requires
Concrete and easy to check against your draft:
| Requirement | Specification |
|---|---|
| Abstract | 150–300 words, required |
| Length | Most papers 2,000–8,000 words; exceptions considered |
| Font | Times New Roman or Arial, 12pt, double spaced |
| Structure | Section headings; numbered pages encouraged |
| Figures and tables | Clearly labelled and referenced in the text |
| Title page | Title, author name, school and grade or year, contact email. Mentor and affiliation optional |
| Citations | "Any consistent academic citation style" |
| Submission format | Google Doc link with commenting access enabled |
Two notes. The 2,000–8,000 word range comfortably fits an Extended Essay, an EPQ dissertation or an Advanced Higher project without padding or cutting. And the journal states that papers containing plagiarism or AI-generated writing will not be considered.
The review process
Lightly described, which is common in this category and still a limitation.
The guidelines say "Submissions are reviewed by our editorial team prior to formal academic review," and that students may be asked to revise and resubmit before final acceptance. The about page adds that "Each manuscript is first checked for adherence to our guidelines before being evaluated by reviewers with expertise in the relevant field."
What is not stated: who conducts the formal academic review, how many reviewers see each paper, and how long it takes. There is a Review Timelines page in the navigation; it carried no figures when we loaded it.
That reviewer count is the question Think.Check.Submit. tells authors to establish before submitting, and the DOAJ sets at least two independent reviewers as its floor for inclusion. JEI is the category's outlier, stating more than eight individuals touch each paper. OJSS does not give a number, and nor do most of its peers.
What checks out
Three things, and the first is more than most student journals can show.
A named editorial board. Nine people are listed, with affiliations: Daniel Lane, Marah Chibwana, Pramit Saha, Valentina Antonaccio, Mirabai Venkatesh, Markus Markert and Lisa J. K. Zillig at the University of Oxford; Edward Jones at the Institute of Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London; and Aleksandra Ziolkowska at the University of St Andrews.
A named board with checkable affiliations is a meaningful signal. Several venues in this category name nobody.
A registered ISSN. The journal displays ISSN 3070-3875, and that number appears in the ISSN Portal's index under this title. We could not load the full record — the portal's bot protection refused our request — so we are reporting the index entry rather than a verified record.
An explicit non-affiliation statement. The journal states it "is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the University of Oxford" and is "an independent publication."
That last one deserves credit. A journal with "Oxford" in its name has every commercial incentive to leave the question ambiguous, and this one answers it unprompted. It is the same position Oxford Scholastica takes about summer schools, and the same separation a University of Oxford spokesperson described to Cherwell in August 2026.
What we could not establish
Four things, reported plainly because the alternative is implying we checked when we did not.
The fee. There is a page in the navigation labelled Article Processing Charges. It returned an error when we tried to load it, and no fee appears on the homepage, the about page or the author guidelines. We do not know whether OJSS charges, and neither will you until you ask. Given that the joint COPE, DOAJ, OASPA and WAME principles make fee structure central to assessing a venue, this is the thing to establish first.
Review timelines. The page exists and carried no figures.
Article-level DOIs. The site displays a DOI prefix, 10.65161. We did not verify a resolving DOI on a published article, so treat it as claimed rather than confirmed. For comparison, we verified the Journal of Student Research's Crossref prefix on a live article.
Indexing. No claim is made. That is better than a false one — Iowa State's guidance lists false indexing claims among the warning signs — but it means do not assume discoverability.
Two things worth noticing
Neither is disqualifying. Both are the kind of detail we would raise about any other venue, so we raise them here.
The journal is registered in Delaware. The about page gives a Wilmington, Delaware address. That is a perfectly ordinary place to incorporate and it sits oddly beside the name, particularly for a journal that has gone to the trouble of stating it has no Oxford connection. It is consistent with that statement rather than contradicting it.
The volume of issues. The site's navigation lists several issues all dated October 2026 — Volume 12, issues 2 through 6. Publishing five or more issues inside a single month is a high cadence for a journal with an undisclosed reviewer count, and it is a reasonable thing to ask about: how many papers appear in a typical issue, and how many reviewers read each one?
We would ask the same question of any venue publishing at that rate.
How it compares
| Journal | Takes reviews? | Humanities? | Fee | Reviewers stated | ISSN/DOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OJSS | Yes | Yes | Not established | No | ISSN shown, DOI prefix shown |
| NHSJS | Yes | Sciences only | Free (+$280 fast track) | One or two + board | No claim |
| Columbia Junior Science Journal | Yes | Sciences only | None advertised | No | No claim |
| Young Scientist Journal | No | Sciences only | Not mentioned | No | No claim |
| Journal of Emerging Investigators | No | Sciences only | $49 | 8+ | DOIs assigned |
OJSS's distinctive position is the top-right corner of that table: reviews accepted, humanities accepted. If that is what you need, the field is small.
Our comparison of every student research venue sets the whole category side by side.
How to submit
- Check your paper is 2,000–8,000 words with a 150–300 word abstract.
- Format to 12pt Times New Roman or Arial, double spaced, headings and numbered pages.
- Build a title page: title, your name, school and year, contact email. Mentor optional.
- Email editor@oxfordjss.org and ask what the article processing charge is, before you submit.
- Put the paper in a Google Doc, enable commenting access, and submit the link.
Step four is the one we would not skip. Our complete guide to publishing covers the wider route, and what happens after you submit covers the months after.
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 OJSS, the Journal of Research High School and Vanderbilt's Young Scientist Journal, through standard review. All three reject student work, ours included. We are not affiliated with the University of Oxford, and neither is this journal — the shared word in our names is a coincidence of nomenclature in a sector full of them.
Because we submit here, read this page accordingly. Everything above is sourced to the journal's own pages, including the fee we could not find and the issue cadence we think is worth a question.
The question to ask before submitting
What is the article processing charge, and how many independent reviewers read each paper?
Both are one sentence to answer. Neither is currently on the website, and a venue confident in its answers will give you both by email.
Frequently asked questions
Who can submit to OJSS?
Its submission guidelines say: 'We welcome submissions from high school and early undergraduate students across all disciplines.' No ages or geographic restrictions are stated, and it covers STEM, humanities and social sciences rather than sciences only.
Does it accept literature reviews?
Yes. It accepts Original Research Articles and Literature Reviews, which puts it in a minority — Vanderbilt's Young Scientist Journal and the Journal of Emerging Investigators both take original research only. If your project is a synthesis, this is one of only three venues we have found that will consider it.
What are the formatting requirements?
An abstract of 150–300 words, most papers between 2,000 and 8,000 words, 12-point Times New Roman or Arial, double spaced, with numbered pages and labelled figures. Any consistent citation style is acceptable. Submission is by Google Doc link with commenting access enabled.
Does it cost anything?
We could not establish this. The site has a page in its navigation labelled Article Processing Charges, and that page returned an error when we tried to load it. No fee is stated on the homepage, the about page or the author guidelines. Ask before submitting.
Is it connected to the University of Oxford?
No, and it says so itself: the journal 'is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the University of Oxford' and is 'an independent publication'. Its editorial board members are mostly Oxford-affiliated as individuals, which is a different thing from an institutional relationship.
Does it have an ISSN or assign DOIs?
It displays ISSN 3070-3875, which also appears in the ISSN Portal's index, though we could not load the full record. It displays a DOI prefix of 10.65161. We did not verify an article-level DOI, so treat the DOI claim as unconfirmed rather than established.