Research & publication at Nishan
Research, Review & Publication
Nishan offers three distinct pathways for sharing research — a preprint, the Research Archive, and formal publication in the Journal of Youth in Medical Science. Each leads to a permanent, citable record; they differ in how the work is reviewed and what publication means. Here is how every pathway works, end to end.
Three ways to share your research
Choose the pathway that fits your work. Posting a preprint or archiving research is distinct from formal journal publication — and each record states plainly what it is, so its standing is never in doubt. Not sure which fits? Read the full policies or browse published research.
Preprint
Not peer reviewedShare a completed manuscript publicly as a citable preprint — before, or instead of, formal journal review.
- Publicly accessible the moment it is posted
- Screened for completeness, scope, and ethics — not peer reviewed
- Version history: every revision is preserved as its own record
- Receives a DOI once registration is enabled
- You remain free to submit the same work to an external journal
Research Archive
Not peer reviewedPreserve and share student research as a permanent record — distinct from journal publication.
- For work produced inside or outside Nishan
- May include previously published work where rights permit
- Original publication details are always retained
- Inclusion is not publication, peer review, or endorsement
- A citable landing page, with a DOI when available
Nishan Research Journal
Peer reviewedSubmit for formal, double-blind peer review and publication in the Journal of Youth in Medical Science.
- Editorial screening, then double-blind peer review
- At least two independent reviewers with relevant expertise
- A formal decision: accept, revise, or reject
- Open access under CC BY 4.0; authors keep copyright
- Journal DOI on acceptance (a single US $4 fee applies)
The journal: from application to publication
The Journal is our formal pathway. Every manuscript follows the same path — from the first application, through mentorship and double-blind review, to a permanent, open-access record. Here is each step of the way.
Application & Admission
Admission to a research project is by application. Prospective researchers submit our application, describing their academic background and the kind of project they wish to undertake. Each application is reviewed individually, and admission is selective — not every applicant is accepted. Candidates are assessed on their preparation and their fit with the projects currently open, rather than on prior publication or formal credentials. Every applicant receives a written decision following review.
Research Workspaces
Admitted researchers are assigned to a dedicated workspace for their project. Each project runs in its own workspace, kept separate from others, where the team keeps its drafts, data, correspondence, and supporting materials for the life of the project.
Mentorship
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, and matched to the subject of the project. The mentor advises on the design of the study and the preparation of the manuscript, holding the work to a standard suitable for publication. Authorship always remains with the researcher.
Manuscript Submission
On completion, the manuscript is submitted to the journal. Before anything is sent for review, editorial staff confirm that it is complete, correctly formatted, within the journal's scope, and free of ethical concerns such as plagiarism. Submissions that fall short are returned to the author with instructions for correction and resubmission.
Peer Review
Submissions that pass screening undergo double-blind peer review — the standard applied by established academic journals. Author names, affiliations, and identifying details are removed before circulation, so the identity of the author is withheld from the reviewers and the reviewers from the author. This directs evaluation toward the substance of the work rather than the author's age, institution, or standing — a consideration of particular importance given that much of our published research is produced by students. Each manuscript is examined by no fewer than two independent reviewers with relevant expertise, who weigh its originality, methodology, the support for its conclusions, its clarity, and its treatment of prior scholarship. Each returns one recommendation: accept, accept with minor revision, return for major revision, or reject.
Editorial Assessment & Revision
An editor oversees each manuscript through review, reconciling any divergence among the reports into a single, consolidated set of revisions. The author revises and returns the manuscript with a statement of the changes made. Where revisions are substantial, the editor may send it back to the reviewers for a further round. This continues until the work meets the journal's standard, or until it is determined unsuitable for publication.
Final Approval & Publication
When the editor and editorial team are satisfied, the manuscript is presented to the Head of the Editorial Team and the Executive Director, who hold final authority over publication — no manuscript is published without their approval. This is a final review of quality and adherence to our standards, not a repeat of the peer-review assessment. Following approval, the work is published in the Journal of Youth in Medical Science and made openly available on our website as a permanent, citable record.
Preprints & the Research Archive
Both pathways share a lighter, faster route — editorial screening rather than peer review — so completed work can reach a public, citable record quickly, without claiming a status it hasn't earned.
Submission & metadata
Choose your pathway and provide the manuscript together with its full metadata — authors and their roles, abstract, keywords, research field, funding, ethics and data-availability statements, and a license. Archive submissions also record where the work was previously published or hosted, when that applies.
Editorial screening
Editorial staff confirm the submission is complete, correctly formatted, within scope, and free of ethical concerns, and that you hold the rights to post the specific version supplied. This is a completeness and integrity check — not peer review, and not an endorsement of the findings.
Posting & the public record
Once cleared, the work is posted as a preprint or added to the Research Archive with a permanent, citable landing page carrying its authors, abstract, and license. A DOI is registered when registration is available; until then the record shows “DOI registration pending” — we never display a DOI before it is registered.
Versioning & later publication
Preprints support version history: each revision is preserved as its own record and earlier versions are never overwritten. If a preprint is later published in an external journal, the Version of Record is linked from the Nishan record, which remains online as part of the scholarly record.
Publishing standards & your rights
Open access & licensing
Research published at Nishan is fully open access — free to read and download, with no subscription and no paywall. You choose the license for your work, from Creative Commons options such as CC BY 4.0 and CC BY-NC 4.0 to all-rights-reserved, and the license you select is shown on the record. Under CC BY 4.0, the work may be shared and adapted, including for teaching and research, provided the original authors are credited.
Peer review
Only manuscripts published in the Journal of Youth in Medical Science undergo Nishan's double-blind peer review. Preprints and Research Archive items are screened for completeness, scope, and ethics, but are not peer reviewed by Nishan and are never described as peer reviewed. This distinction is stated plainly on every record so readers always know what they are looking at.
DOIs & persistent identifiers
Records receive a persistent Digital Object Identifier (DOI) when DOI registration is available. Until then, a record displays “DOI registration pending” — we never show a DOI before it has actually been registered. Each preprint version is designed to receive its own identifier, so a specific version can always be cited unambiguously.
Versioning
Preprints support version history. Every version is preserved; earlier versions are never overwritten or deleted, so the full development of a work — and each stage a reader may have cited — remains part of the permanent record.
Author rights & copyright
Authors retain copyright across every pathway. Publishing with Nishan does not transfer ownership — you grant the right of first publication and the right to distribute under the license you choose; all other rights remain yours. Before acceptance, your unpublished work, data, and original ideas remain entirely your property, and if a manuscript is not accepted you are free to submit it elsewhere.
Publication fee
There is no charge to submit to any pathway or to undergo peer review. A single article-processing charge of US $4 applies only to manuscripts accepted for publication in the Journal, and covers Digital Object Identifier registration and the editorial and technical processing required to publish and permanently archive the article. It is levied solely upon acceptance and is the responsibility of the corresponding author — ordinarily the project lead. Preprints, archive items, and manuscripts that are not accepted incur no such fee.
External publication & disclosure
A preprint may later be published in an external journal; when that happens, the external Version of Record is linked from the Nishan record and the preprint remains online. Because you keep copyright and the work is openly licensed, you may also present or republish elsewhere, subject to each venue's rules on prior publication, concurrent submission, and originality, which vary — you are responsible for checking them. When you receive acceptance or permission to reuse an article elsewhere, disclose it in writing to editorial@nishaninstitute.com so our records stay accurate; where a venue needs written confirmation of your right to reuse the work, we will provide it on request.
Withdrawal & corrections
Removing a posted record does not delete its bibliographic metadata. A removed record's page is retained with its title, authors, and an explanation of the removal, for scholarly recordkeeping. Corrections to published records are made transparently and recorded in the record's editorial history.
Have research worth sharing?
Post a preprint, add work to the Research Archive, or submit to the journal — every pathway leads to the same rigorous, open-access record.