About Us

Acton Scholars
Acton Scholars is the first and, currently, only high school open-access academic library of journals. All research papers published with Acton Scholars are rigorously reviewed by a panel of professional academics <hyperlink below to Professional academics> and published openly for maximum accessibility. We hope to further the pursuit of academic excellence in high school students while providing a platform to showcase the very best work from high school scholars.

 

The Journals
Acton Scholars accepts research papers related, but not limited, to topics such as computer science, political science, economics, math, art, and history.

We are dedicated to covering the many facets of Computer Science & Engineering, and encouraging the study of this dynamic concept. As well as all the relevant disciplines, we are particularly interested in Complexity Theory which is a revolutionary, multidisciplinary perspective in the sciences that seeking to understand how order emerges in complex, non-linear systems.

The journal hopes to promote an interest in research and to encourage a cross-disciplinary approach to problem solving at an earlier age. The journal also strives to motivate secondary school instructors and students to collaborate on research projects and to learn about proper research methods.

Professional academics
Devon Varoz is a freelance writer, published author, and content consultant in Tucson, Arizona. Previously, he served as Student Editor of WRITlarge and as Editorial Assistant to The Denver Quarterly at the University of Denver. In all his work, he collaborates with professionals and students using a non-judgmental, Socratic approach to invention and revision. Devon hopes to welcome and celebrate the emerging voices of thoughtful secondary students.

KB Gardner studied mathematics at East Tennessee State University. Her research experience includes graph theory, combinatorics, and applications, and her work history is in mathematics education. She works as an instructor, tutor, and curriculum developer for mathematics courses ranging from probability and statistics to geometry to calculus to discrete mathematics. She has worked with educational companies such as Penn Foster in developing their mathematics curricula.

KB has published “Universal Cycles of Restricted Words,” which involves research on combinatorial graph theory, for the Midwestern Conference on Combinatorics and Combinatorial Computing (MCCCC) 30.  Other pieces of research include Initial Effects of Turn Order in “Settlers of Catan,” a computational study on the ramifications of early choices in a board game, performed in 2014.

Publishing Information
Acton Scholars seeks to provide a platform for academic high school excellence. Thus, we welcome submissions of original scholar work in the form of research papers from all fields, including computer science, computer engineering, math, chemistry, biology, physics as well as art, history, philosophy and the social sciences (economics, policy studies, sociology, political science).

Please see the Submissions page for information on the submission and review procedure.

Publication Fees
All journals, including open-access journals, receive publication fees once papers have been accepted for publication. They can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. For example, The Concord Review, arguably the most prestigious academic journal for high school students require a journal membership ranging from $70 to $150 to submit a paper.

Most “closed” journals also sell their journals to readers. Open-access journals do not receive payment from readers, just from authors. In order to support the costs of operations, Acton Scholars normally asks for a $100 publication fee from the author once accepted for publication. Because it is open-access, Acton Scholars does not require payment from its readership.

*To celebrate its relaunch in 2020, Acton Scholars will be waiving all publication fees for the duration of the year. 

We thank the Dennett Foundation for making this possible.

Contact
For any additional inquiries, please email us at info@actonscholars.org