The STEM Fellowship Journal (SFJ) is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal published by Canadian Science Publishing (CSP), Canada’s biggest journal publisher.  SFJ, which publishes articles by students in high school, college, and graduate school, is run by its editor in chief along with a student editorial board.  

Types of Research Accepted

SFJ’s accepts “original research submissions from any STEM-related field including but not limited to the natural sciences, medicine, engineering, as well as the related social sciences and humanities. ” They accept research that falls under what they consider to be the following categories: “primary research”, “qualitative research”, “viewpoints”, “review articles”, and “conference proceedings”. You can visit this page for more details on how SFJ defines these categories.. 

Length Requirements/Restrictions

For “Review Articles” and “Original Investigations” submissions,  there is a 3000 Word limit (excluding title page, abstract, tables, figures, references, and appendices). For “Viewpoints” submissions, there is a 1500 word limit (excluding title page, abstract, figures, tables, references, and appendices). 

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Submission Deadlines

Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis and you may submit your paper anytime you like - there are 2 issues published per year.

Requirements for Submission

General Requirements:

1. Students may submit to SFJ as either an individual author or as a group author.
2. Submissions must fall into one of the four categories that SFJ lays out on its website: original investigations, review articles, viewpoint articles, and conference proceedings. 
3. SFJ uses the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform for all submission, editing, and review of manuscripts. You must sign up for a (free) OJS account to submit your manuscript.   The OJS Guidelines For Authors is a step-by-step guide that outlines how to register for OJS and navigate the platform throughout the submission and review process. You will be able to submit your manuscript and any supplementary documents (e.g., tables, figures, competition certificates) as per the instructions on the guide. 
4. A list of suggested peer reviewers is also required with your submission. These are content experts in the area of your inquiry. Make sure to consult the SFJ Editorial Board for potential reviewers; it is recommended that authors suggest names from the editorial board as well as other external experts relevant to the research area.  You should not reach out to reviewers.
5. You are required to remove identifying information from your article, and have a separate title page, in order to ensure blind review.  

Formatting Structure and Requirements:

Each Journal has its own formatting structure and requirements regarding a variety of technical factors, such as font, citations, bibliography, file naming, spacing, endnotes, illustrations, etc. For SFJ, please be sure to consult the Submitting a Paper page, the Preparing your manuscript page (including the Title Page template and the Manuscript Body template), and the Article Formatting page before you begin working on your paper, to see the most up-to-date rules regarding formatting and structure and to make sure you are in line with all the listed requirements as you work on your paper. 

Advisor

An advisor is not required to submit to SFJ. 

IRB Approval or Exemption Required?

Yes. IRB approval is required for any research involving human subjects, including surveys. Before taking any additional steps, please talk to your mentor and program coach to determine if this is a consideration based on your dataset.

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Link for Submission

Visit the OJS Guidelines For Authors page for instructions and a link for submission

Cost

There is no fee to submit to SFJ, but if your manuscript is accepted for publication there is a fee of $400 CAD.

Assessment and Acceptance Process

After an editor of the SFJ’s student editorial board reviews your submission, the editor may decide to accept your manuscript as is, ask that you resubmit your manuscript with revisions, or reject your submission. 

If you advance to the next stage and your article is selected for publication, it will then undergo a peer review process, and the peer reviewers may then recommend your manuscript for publication, or suggest that you make further revisions, or reject your manuscript. You can find more details about the review process by visiting SFJ’s Policies page. You can also visit SFJ’s publication process flow chart.

Notification

There are multiple steps in the notification process. Your submission will first be reviewed by a member of SFJ’s student editorial board and you should hear back from the Journal within 2-6 weeks. 

Past Submissions/Examples

SFJ follows an open-access model, and links to a variety of issues can be found here.

Academic Integrity and Publication Protocol

Academic protocol for publication submission dictates that you are allowed to submit to only one journal at time. Please keep this in mind when choosing a journal for publication submission and make sure that if you are considering multiple journals, that you decide on your preferred order before making your first submission.

Additional Steps

If you are interested in submitting to SFJ this decision must be made as early as possible during your mentorship studies. Please speak to your Hugo mentor and Program Coach as soon as possible if you think you are interested in submitting to this journal.