Contact & questions

Nishan is a global, student-led nonprofit that helps pre-college and early-career students do real scientific research, pairs them with mentors, and publishes their work open-access in the Journal of Youth in Medical Science (JYMS). Our aim is to make original research accessible to students regardless of institutional privilege.

Motivated students across every STEM discipline — biology and medicine, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science, data science, and engineering — who want to produce knowledge rather than only learn about it. You don't need to attend a particular school or have prior publications.

Nishan is a mission-driven nonprofit run by a distributed team of students, educators, researchers, and operators. It was founded at Don Bosco Preparatory in Ramsey, New Jersey, and operates globally.

We were founded in Ramsey, New Jersey, and work as a distributed, global team. Most collaboration happens online, with occasional coordination across time zones.

Nishan is free to apply, join a research project, and be mentored — always. The only charge is a single US $4 article-processing fee if your manuscript is accepted for publication (covering DOI registration and processing). We keep everything else free so access to real research doesn't depend on funding.

Submission and peer review are free. If a manuscript is accepted following double-blind peer review, a single US $4 article-processing charge applies — it covers DOI registration and publication processing, and is the responsibility of the corresponding author (the group's project lead). Manuscripts that are not accepted are never charged.

Yes. The Journal of Youth in Medical Science is fully open access. Everything we publish is free to read and download, with no subscription or paywall, under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0).

Admission to a research project is by application. You submit our application describing your academic background and the kind of project you'd like to undertake, and each application is reviewed individually. Create an account to get started.

Admission is selective and based on your preparation and your fit with the projects currently open — not on prior publication or formal credentials. You do not need previous research experience.

No. Admission is selective, and not every applicant is accepted. Every applicant receives a written decision of admission or rejection following review.

No. We assess your preparation and fit, and your mentor guides you through the design of the study and the preparation of your manuscript.

Yes. Nishan is a global, distributed organization, and students from anywhere are welcome to apply.

Yes. Every project is directed by a project lead, and each researcher is paired with a mentor — drawn from undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty — matched to the subject of your project.

Your mentor advises on the design of the study and the preparation of the manuscript, and holds the work to a standard suitable for publication. Authorship of the manuscript always remains with you.

Each project runs in its own private online workspace where your research team keeps its drafts, data, correspondence, tasks, meetings, and discussion for the life of the project.

Any STEM discipline — life sciences and medicine, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computational systems, data science, and engineering. Our current open projects are listed under Research Teams.

When your manuscript is complete it's submitted to the journal, screened by editorial staff, sent for double-blind peer review, revised with an editor, and finally approved before publication. You can read the full step-by-step on the Research & Publication page.

We use double-blind peer review: your identity is hidden from the reviewers and theirs from you. Each manuscript is examined by no fewer than two independent reviewers with relevant expertise, who weigh originality, methodology, evidence, clarity, and treatment of prior work.

Yes. Authors retain copyright. Publishing with Nishan does not transfer ownership — you grant us the right of first publication and to distribute under CC BY 4.0, and all other rights remain yours.

Yes. Because you keep copyright and the work is openly licensed, you may present or republish it in other journals, competitions, and conferences, subject to each venue's rules. Just acknowledge and cite the original publication in JYMS.

JYMS is the Journal of Youth in Medical Science — Nishan's open-access, peer-reviewed journal where student research is published as a permanent, citable record.

Your unpublished work, data, and original ideas remain entirely your property, and you're free to submit the manuscript elsewhere.

The Lab (Helix) is Nishan's AI research assistant, tuned for STEM. It helps you think through problems, methods, and writing across biology, chemistry, physics, math, computer science, and more.

Our outreach programs bring science beyond the classroom — hands-on initiatives that broaden participation in research and STEM education.

Yes — we host seminars and workshops. You can browse and register for upcoming events on the Events page.

Yes. Accepted researchers collaborate in group workspaces, and the wider community connects on our Discord. Links are in the footer.

Head to the sign-in page and create an account with your email or with Google. Once you're signed in you can apply to projects, submit manuscripts, and track your work from your dashboard.

Use the “Forgot your password?” link on the sign-in page to receive a reset link by email.

Send us a message using the form on this page, or email hello@nishaninstitute.com. Whether it's a question, a partnership, or press, a member of our team will get back to you.