Over 100 young people from around the world volunteer as part of the Young Scientists Journal Team. In celebration of Volunteers\’ Week 2019 (1st-7th June), Federico, a 17 year old based in USA/Italy, shared what it’s like to be part of the team…
My name is Federico Galbiati, and I am an Italian junior high school student attending the Maine School of Science and Mathematics. Since my childhood, I have been interested in science and technology, especially in the field of applied computer science and research.
How did you find out about YSJ?
During the summer before my junior year, I wanted to do some scientific research and then to write a paper to illustrate the findings of my work. When I was looking for a publisher that would accept a high school student paper, I found out about Young Scientist Journal. It was just a few months after my submission that YSJ offered me the opportunity to get involved in the organisation.
What does your role involve?
I am currently an Editor of computer science articles for the journal. Every day we receive several papers by students all around the world, and a significant portion of those are research in computer science. At YSJ, I manage the first main steps in the publication of the articles received. This includes everything from plagiarism checks to reading the article and analysing the structure, readability, and content. A marking grid is a great tool that allows the evaluation of every article objectively. The final decision based on my assessment is whether to accept an article.
How do the YSJ team work together?
Editing articles is mostly a one-person job that involves reading and analysing. However, there is always the opportunity to work with other people. Because there is no real office or workspace for our international team, a great solution is Slack. Through this online platform, editors can collaborate and ask questions. This is crucial and helped me significantly through my first few weeks at YSJ.
What is your favourite part of being an Editor?
Most of the research by the young scientists that share their work with us is innovative and brilliant. Reading these unique articles and research papers is an mind-opening experience. Although I nearly always have the technical background needed to understand a paper, the applications of consolidated technologies in new fields, often with some staggering results, seriously makes me enjoy the editing process at Young Scientists Journal.