TL;DR

• JUNE publishes peer-reviewed neuroscience education research by undergraduates.

• Submissions must align with neuroscience education, not just neuroscience broadly.

• Manuscripts go through faculty sponsor review before editorial consideration.

• Formatting follows specific APA-adjacent guidelines outlined in JUNE's author guide.

• Rejection is common; targeted revision improves resubmission outcomes significantly.

You have finished a neuroscience project. You have data, a written paper, and a faculty advisor who thinks the work is solid. Now you want to publish it. The question is: where, and how?

The Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education (JUNE) is one of the few peer-reviewed journals built specifically for undergraduate-level neuroscience research and pedagogy. It does not require you to be a graduate student. It does not expect a decade of lab experience. What it does expect is rigorous, well-structured work that contributes something meaningful to how neuroscience is taught or understood at the undergraduate level.

Understanding what JUNE actually publishes, and what the submission process looks like from start to finish, is the difference between a paper that gets read and a paper that sits in a folder. This guide walks through every stage.

What the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education actually publishes

JUNE publishes research, review articles, and teaching resources that address neuroscience education at the undergraduate level. It is not a general neuroscience journal. Work must connect to how neuroscience is learned, taught, or experienced by undergraduates, whether that is a lab study on neural signaling, an analysis of a teaching method, or a structured literature review on a foundational concept.

JUNE is published by the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) and is indexed in PubMed Central, which gives accepted papers genuine discoverability within the scientific literature. That indexing matters. A paper in JUNE is not a student blog post or a conference abstract. It is a citable, archived scientific publication.

The journal accepts several article types. Research articles present original empirical findings. Review articles synthesize existing literature on a topic relevant to undergraduate neuroscience education. "Neuroscience Notes" are shorter pieces that introduce or clarify a concept for undergraduate audiences. "Laboratory Exercises" describe replicable teaching labs with enough detail for another institution to replicate them. Knowing which category your work fits before you submit saves significant time.

If you are still deciding whether JUNE is the right fit for your paper, it helps to read through a broader guide on best journals for undergraduate research before committing to a single outlet.

How to submit to the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education: the full process

Submitting to JUNE follows a structured sequence. Each step builds on the previous one, and skipping any of them typically results in a desk rejection before your paper reaches peer review.

1. Confirm scope fit. Read JUNE's published aims and scope carefully. Your paper must address neuroscience education at the undergraduate level. A study on synaptic plasticity alone is not sufficient unless it connects to how that topic is taught or learned in an undergraduate context.

2. Secure a faculty sponsor. JUNE requires undergraduate authors to have a faculty sponsor who reviews the manuscript before submission. This is not optional. The sponsor does not need to be a co-author, but they must confirm the work meets basic scholarly standards. Identify your sponsor early, ideally before you begin drafting.

3. Prepare your manuscript to JUNE's formatting requirements. JUNE uses its own style guide, which draws from APA conventions but includes journal-specific formatting for figures, references, and section headers. Download the current author guidelines from JUNE's website directly. Formatting errors are among the most common reasons manuscripts are returned before review.

4. Write a cover letter. The cover letter should state the article type, confirm the paper has not been submitted elsewhere simultaneously, identify your faculty sponsor, and briefly explain why the work is relevant to JUNE's readership. Keep it under one page.

5. Submit through the journal's online portal. JUNE uses an editorial management system. Create an account, select your article type, upload your manuscript and any supplementary files, and complete the required metadata fields. Double-check that all author information is accurate before you submit.

6. Wait for editorial screening. The editor will first screen your submission for scope and formatting compliance. If it passes, it moves to peer review. If it does not, you will receive a desk rejection with brief feedback. Desk rejections are not a judgment on the quality of your science; they are a signal to revise and resubmit or redirect to a more appropriate journal.

7. Respond to peer review. If your paper reaches peer review, you will receive comments from two or more reviewers. Read every comment carefully. Write a point-by-point response letter that addresses each one, whether you agree with the reviewer or respectfully disagree. Revise the manuscript accordingly and resubmit within the timeframe specified by the editor.

If you want a detailed walkthrough of the peer review and submission mechanics that apply across journals, the guide on how to submit a research paper to a peer-reviewed journal covers those steps in depth.

If you are preparing your first manuscript and want structured feedback before you submit, Publication Compass is currently accepting waitlist signups from student researchers who want AI-guided support through the drafting and submission process.

What JUNE reviewers look for in a manuscript

JUNE reviewers evaluate manuscripts on several criteria: clarity of research question, appropriateness of methodology, accuracy of data interpretation, and relevance to undergraduate neuroscience education. A paper does not need to present groundbreaking findings to be accepted. It needs to be honest, well-reasoned, and useful to the journal's audience, which is primarily educators and students in undergraduate neuroscience programs.

One of the most common weaknesses in first submissions is an underdeveloped connection between the findings and their educational implications. If you ran a behavioral experiment, the discussion section should explain what an undergraduate student or instructor could take away from your results. JUNE is not just interested in what you found. It is interested in what that finding means for how neuroscience is taught and learned.

Writing clarity matters as much as scientific accuracy. Reviewers flag papers that use unnecessary jargon, bury the main finding, or present methods in a way that cannot be replicated. Read your methods section as if you are a student at a different institution trying to repeat your experiment. If anything is ambiguous, rewrite it.

Statistical reporting should follow the conventions outlined in JUNE's author guidelines. Report effect sizes where relevant, not just p-values. If your study is qualitative, explain your analytical framework explicitly. Reviewers in education research are familiar with both quantitative and qualitative methods, but they expect you to justify your approach.

Common reasons JUNE submissions are rejected

Most rejections from JUNE fall into a small number of categories. Understanding them before you submit reduces the risk of avoidable rejection.

Scope mismatch is the most frequent reason for desk rejection. A paper about neuroscience that does not engage with undergraduate education as a theme will not pass editorial screening. This is not a flaw in the paper itself; it is a targeting problem. If your work is more broadly scientific, journals like the Journal of Neuroscience or discipline-specific outlets may be a better fit.

Formatting non-compliance is the second most common issue. JUNE's guidelines are specific about reference formatting, figure labeling, and section structure. A manuscript that ignores these signals to reviewers that the authors did not read the submission requirements carefully, which raises questions about attention to detail in the research itself.

Weak discussion sections account for a significant portion of revise-and-resubmit decisions. If your discussion does not engage critically with your results, acknowledge limitations honestly, or connect findings to the existing literature, reviewers will ask you to revise before they can recommend acceptance.

Simultaneous submission to another journal is a violation of publication ethics. JUNE, like most peer-reviewed journals, requires exclusive submission. If you are weighing which journal to target first, read through the guidance on whether you can submit the same paper to two journals before making that decision.

How to write a strong cover letter for JUNE

A cover letter for JUNE should be direct and informative. It is not a persuasive essay. It is a professional communication that gives the editor the information needed to route your manuscript efficiently.

Open with the article title, article type, and a one-sentence statement of the paper's central contribution. Name your faculty sponsor and confirm their role. State that the manuscript is not under review elsewhere. If your paper involves human subjects research, confirm that appropriate ethical approval was obtained and name the approving body. Close with your contact information and a brief note of thanks.

Do not use the cover letter to summarize your abstract. The editor will read your abstract. Use the cover letter to provide context that is not in the manuscript itself, such as why this topic is particularly timely for undergraduate neuroscience education, or how this paper builds on a gap in the teaching literature.

What happens after acceptance

If JUNE accepts your paper, the editorial team will send it to production. You will receive a proof, which is a formatted version of your article that you must review carefully before publication. Check every figure, every reference, and every equation. Errors that survive the proof stage appear in the published version and require a formal correction to fix.

JUNE is an open-access journal, meaning your paper will be freely available to anyone online after publication. This is a significant advantage for undergraduate authors. Your work reaches educators, students, and researchers without a paywall. It also means your paper is more likely to be cited, which matters if you plan to continue in academic research.

Once published, your paper receives a permanent URL and a PubMed Central record. You can list it on your CV, link to it in graduate school applications, and share it directly with anyone interested in your research area. For many undergraduate researchers, a JUNE publication is their first entry in the academic literature, and that record follows them throughout their career.

Frequently asked questions about submitting to JUNE

Can high school students submit to the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education?

JUNE is designed for undergraduate researchers. High school students are not the primary audience, and submissions without a university affiliation are unlikely to pass editorial screening. High school students interested in neuroscience publication should consider journals specifically built for pre-college researchers. A full list is available in the undergraduate research journals complete list.

How long does the JUNE peer review process take?

Peer review timelines vary, but most journals in this category complete initial review within eight to twelve weeks of submission. JUNE does not publicly guarantee a specific turnaround, so plan for a three-month window from submission to first decision. If you have not received a response after twelve weeks, it is appropriate to send a polite follow-up email to the editorial office.

Does JUNE charge submission or publication fees?

JUNE does not charge article processing fees for standard submissions. It is funded through the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience and operates as a free-to-submit, open-access journal. Always verify current fee policies on the journal's official website before submitting, as policies can change.

What is the acceptance rate for JUNE?

JUNE does not publish an official acceptance rate. Acceptance rates at peer-reviewed undergraduate journals vary widely depending on submission volume and editorial standards. Submitting a well-scoped, carefully formatted manuscript with a strong discussion section gives you the best chance of moving past desk rejection into peer review.

Can I submit a paper I wrote for a class?

A class paper can form the foundation of a JUNE submission, but it almost certainly needs significant revision first. Course papers are written for an instructor audience. Journal articles are written for a research community. The scope, depth of literature review, methods section, and discussion will all need to be expanded and reformatted to meet JUNE's standards before submission.

Submitting your neuroscience research

The Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education is a genuine, indexed, peer-reviewed outlet for undergraduate researchers who have done careful work in neuroscience education. The submission process is structured, but it is navigable. Confirm your scope fit, secure your faculty sponsor, format your manuscript correctly, and write a clear cover letter. Those four steps alone put your submission ahead of a significant portion of what journals receive.

If you are preparing your first academic paper and want guidance on how to structure your research before you submit anywhere, explore the full range of resources on the how to publish your first paper as an undergraduate guide, or return to the Publication Compass homepage to learn how the platform supports student researchers through every stage of the publication process.