An increasing number of high school students are seeking opportunities to conduct academic research, hoping to add “published author” to their list of accomplishments when applying to college.
Just look at the popular articles Facebook Groups and Reddit Look through any thread looking for tips on getting into a selective college, and you’ll find posts encouraging students to take part in intensive research programs or enter science competitions as a way to stand out on their college applications. Many prospective students and their parents seem to cling to the idea that publishing a research paper in an academic journal while in high school has emerged as the new trophy to strive for in the increasingly competitive world of applicant standing, especially since selective colleges have dropped SAT and other admissions test requirements.
But experts say that while the trend toward high school research is well-intentioned, it is fraught with pitfalls: After all, academic research often requires deeper subject matter knowledge than students learn in high school, and it also requires careful adherence to ethical guidelines to protect research subjects from potential harms that students might not be aware of without expert guidance.
“Research, even basic research, can take years to produce results,” says Bob Malkin, executive director of the North Carolina Institute for International Studies. “High school students have classes. They may be playing sports. They may be pursuing other hobbies and interests. So mixing this with everything else they have to do is definitely a bad idea, just because it takes time.”
Forcing students to get involved in research early could also exacerbate inequities among students who don’t have access to expensive research programs or opportunities at top institutions. That’s because many students can’t afford summer programs to hone their research skills or aren’t taught important research skills in high school, says Bethany Usher, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Radford University. As a result, they don’t have the experiences that would help them land lab jobs or pursue their own projects as freshmen, she says.
But that’s not to say that teaching research skills in high school is a bad thing. In fact, Malkin recently wrote a “Academic research guide for high school students.”
Experts say they would like to see research skills teaching become more mainstream and seep into high school and undergraduate programs outside of elite private schools, so students could gain foundational skills without the pressure to publish at such a young age.
Building skills
Bonnie Hale, an independent counselor who advises high school students on college applications, said for some students, doing research to beef up their resumes can do more harm than good.
For example, one student asked Hale for help sending out a survey to parents across California, a task that required institutional review board oversight.
Some students also try to submit papers without the necessary elements of an academic paper, such as a background literature review or a methodology section. One student tried to submit a paper without even a research question, Hale said. The paper would not be published in a peer-reviewed journal, she added.
Hale says that there are journals that accept high school students’ research papers, but they tend to be expensive, run by other high school or college students, or have poor reputations. What’s more, submitting a paper to one of these journals is unlikely to impress college admissions officers, she adds. Malkin encourages students who want to publish research papers to collaborate with university faculty, but this can be difficult to achieve.
Publishing research without proper guidance and oversight can have serious consequences for students, says Hale, who co-authored a book on student research with Malkin. She’s worked with students who claimed to have participated in research, only to find that they’d exaggerated their role in their papers. If a student is found to have conducted unethical research or lied on their application, she says, universities can revoke their admission or suspend them.
“Students don’t understand that,” Hale said. “The pressures are making them go in directions they shouldn’t go.”
For Hale and Malkin, improving the environment starts with changing parents’ attitudes. Parents need to ease the pressure and understand that their children can study in college and be happy even if they don’t get into their dream university, Malkin says. Encourage them if they’re interested in studying, but don’t force them if they’re not, he says. “Somehow, someone has to convince parents that their child will be OK,” he adds.
Radford’s Usher says more high schools across the country should also help teach research skills, but without pushing it too hard or too early. High school teachers can encourage students to get involved in community-based projects, for example local research and other outreach activities, she says. The skills, like critical thinking, that young students learn through research are often more useful later in life than the research itself, she says.
“If we want to reach more students, it’s essential that we equip teachers with the capacity to take advantage of research opportunities available to them in their communities and make them meaningful to their students,” Asher says.
She adds that early exposure to core research skills can also help with college preparation and retention: “Students may not have thought they were interested in that sort of thing, but if they’re introduced to inquiry and research opportunities in high school, college doesn’t have to be close by,” she says.
Some universities are beginning to incorporate research skills into their courses, which students can continue to build throughout their time at university and use when they move on to the workforce or graduate school, says Lindsay Currie, executive director of the Council on Undergraduate Research.
Malkin says most graduate programs now require some level of research, and students need to start doing it as soon as possible. Incorporating research into classwork also encourages students to participate in additional opportunities outside of the classroom once they feel more confident in the subject, Curry adds.
“If you just have a flyer that says, ‘Join my lab,’ a first-year college student might not really understand what that means if they don’t have the background knowledge,” she says. These courses “allow students to see the value and try it out to see if it’s right for them.”
In a biology class at Radford University, students studied a certain fungus that lives on honeybees. After a semester of capturing bees and testing them in various ways, the students presented their findings at a research fair. Projects like this could be done in any course, says Asher, a past president of the Undergraduate Research Council. She suggests that in a dance class, rather than everyone learning the same steps, students create their own choreography.
“Students don’t have to step out of their comfort zone. Everyone attends class, so there’s no ‘I’m going to be picked for something,'” Asher says. “Sometimes students are doing research and they don’t even know they’re doing it,” she adds. “They have to be like, ‘Oh, this is something I thought was really cool and exciting, and it was research.'”
