<p>MIT seems to be a good place to ask this.
I have a couple of papers I have written, my teachers think it is good, so how do I make it official? Is 16 or 17too young, do I have to patent it, where do I even send it.</p>
<p>Hi 
,
I guess I can be of some help , I just need some information about the topics of the papers (Abstracts) , and I can give more information .
- best :D</p>
<p>I’m currently publishing a statistics article. You’re never too young to publish it… if you think you got it, don’t worry about your age.</p>
<p>Just a caution though. As good as your teacher might say your paper is… it’s very different for publishing. What might be a “good” material for project at school may not fit so well into the real world. To really make your paper shine, you should think about how it fits into the grand scheme of things. How does your paper improve the current knowledge? What can it potentially be used for? You’re paper should reveal something new about the topic you’re writing about. It doesn’t matter now ‘small’ of a step it is, but just that it has to be new and never been done before.
Also, I suggest contacting a few professors in the field who has published similar material (maybe from local colleges, or any connections that you might find.) Politely explain your situation and see if they can give you’re paper quick review. Beware: don’t give up if they don’t answer your email or agree to review it. I had to go through many just to get one person to look at it… and now I’m finalizing it for a journal.</p>
<p>After you’re paper has been given a preliminary review, be sure to take up their suggestions. Make regular contacts with those who are willing to help, and be sure to ask questions and for suggestions if you’re stuck somewhere (make sure your questions are not easily found online).
Try to read as many journal articles about your field as possible… 1 for citation purposes, 2 for seeing how your paper fits into the grand scheme of things, 3 for general knowledge , 4 to see if anyone else has already done what you are done.
As for the format of the paper, I hope you’re familiar with how they should be (abstracts, intro… citation formats and stuff).</p>
<p>It takes A LOT of work to move from the paper you’ve written from school to a scholarly article. But after you think you have finalized it, you can submit it to a journal. Which journal depends on the topic you’re writing about. Most well-known physics journals require ‘submission fee’, and are very difficult for a newcomer to publish in. For lesser-known ones, sometimes you can submit journals for free. After you submit them, it’ll get sent to three anonymous and independent reviewers in that field to see if it has good quality. It usually takes a month or two for the reviews to come back. This is why getting preliminary reviews on them are so important! Articles with poor qualities will be ‘rejected’, hence wasting your time. So make sure it’s throughly reviewed before you submit them.</p>
<p>Having said all that, I hope you realize what tremendous work you need to go through before submitting. **BUT… I congratulate you on taking your first step! Please do not give up if you think you have something interesting and new to say in your paper. ** I remember I went through tremendous efforts preparing my statistics journal, exchanging many emails with experts… and many times felt discouraged and wanted to throw away all those cr*p and leave it. But in the end… I thought my contents were so interesting that I just couldn’t give it all up</p>
<p>Be prepared to do a lot of work and have a lot of fun!</p>
<p>If you have any more questions, feel free to ask
Best of luck!</p>
<p>Hi, First of all you need to know you cant patent a theory unless it is an invention, and there are few criteria.However you can publish it to leading science magazines & journals who would be of more help to you in this.</p>
<p>P.S if you have a design, or prototype, or something you could manufacture , then you can patent, 
Btwn I am just 15, and I have my own invention which would be patented this month .So Never have to bother about age factor. I would like to in which branch of physics your theory belongs to, i could be of more help :)</p>
<p>Best of luck in your research!</p>
<p>I believe journals are good place to publish research papers. I published few papers in IEEE confereences & one international journal.
IEEE
[IEEE</a> - Conferences & Events](<a href=“IEEE - Conferences”>IEEE - Conferences)</p>
<p>IJSER ( Journal )
[Publications</a> & Indexing - International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research](<a href=“http://www.ijser.org/indexing.aspx]Publications”>http://www.ijser.org/indexing.aspx)</p>
<p>All the Best !</p>