Harker Horizon, the school’s work-in-progress science journal, plans to publish a first issue online and is currently calling for student researchers, especially Intel or Siemens competitors, to submit articles.

Founded by last year’s seniors, Horizon provides a way for students to publicize their research, put it through peer review and read about other students’ work through publication on their website, http://horizon.harker.org/.

“There’s a lot of great student research being done by students who are both part of Harker’s internship programs and outside of it,” Horizon Editor-in-Chief Sadhika Malladi (12) said. “I think it’s great to have a platform that showcases this work and allows students who are interested in joining research projects to understand what it takes and what kinds of results can be found.”

While Horizon is currently a fledgling group, sporting only four articles on its website, it hopes to gain traction and expand in the coming year. Horizon publishes technical articles that adhere to the academic style employed in professional journals such as “Nature” or “Science.”

“We want to see professional writing,” Horizon Articles Editor Arjun Subramaniam (11) said. “We’re looking for high-quality writing, good subject matter and students who’ve done meaningful research [that] we want to highlight in our journal.”

Horizon is unlike a research journal in some ways – for instance, it also publishes non-technical content in their briefs and perspectives sections.

“[Perspectives are] not very technical – not on the same level as articles or briefs,” Perspectives Editor Cynthia Hao (12) said. “Perspectives have to be accessible to general audiences, which in this case would be freshmen or sophomores without a lot of science knowledge.”

The editorial process of having an article published is meant to resemble that of real scientific journals.

“We have students peer reviewing each others’ work so they can get a taste of what [the publishing] process is like,” Horizon faculty sponsor Chris Spenner said.

While Horizon currently only publishes online, staff members are working to establish Horizon’s infrastructure for greater expansion next year. There are also plans of possibly creating a print issue.

“The goal for this year is to expand and really set up Horizon’s different branches, so that next year, they can be built on even further,” Executive Editor Jonathan Ma (12) said.
Those interested in submitting articles can contact Horizon at [email protected].