Dashboard | Youth Research Project

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Everything you need to run a real research project, in the order you'll need it. Pick up wherever you left off.

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Start here

If you've never done research before, read The 6 steps of research end to end once — it's about a ten-minute read — then come back and work through it one step at a time. Most first projects stall at step 2, so give the literature review more time than feels necessary.

Open the 6 steps

Your last sign-in

We keep this so you can spot a sign-in that wasn't you. If something here looks wrong, change your password from Profile & settings.

Ways to do citations

A citation does two jobs: it gives credit to the person who did the work, and it lets a reader find the exact source you used. Pick one style, use it everywhere, and stay consistent.

Which style should you use?

Style	Used in	In-text looks like	Reference list
APA 7	Psychology, education, social sciences, health	`(Okafor & Lin, 2021)`	Alphabetical, headed References
MLA 9	English, literature, languages, some arts	`(Okafor 47)`	Alphabetical, headed Works Cited
Chicago	History, art history, some humanities	Footnote marker`¹`	Footnotes plus a Bibliography
IEEE	Engineering, computer science	`[3]`	Numbered in order of first use
AMA	Medicine, clinical research	Superscript`³`	Numbered in order of first use

If a teacher, journal, or competition tells you which style to use, that instruction wins. If nobody says, use the style your subject uses — that's the middle column.

The same journal article in four styles

Article: Maya Okafor and Daniel Lin, "Screen time and sleep onset in adolescents," Journal of Adolescent Health, volume 68, issue 4, 2021, pages 512–519.

APA 7

Okafor, M., & Lin, D. (2021). Screen time and sleep onset in adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 68(4), 512–519. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxxx

MLA 9

Okafor, Maya, and Daniel Lin. "Screen Time and Sleep Onset in Adolescents." Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 68, no. 4, 2021, pp. 512–19.

Chicago (notes-bibliography)

Okafor, Maya, and Daniel Lin. "Screen Time and Sleep Onset in Adolescents." Journal of Adolescent Health 68, no. 4 (2021): 512–19.

IEEE

[1] M. Okafor and D. Lin, "Screen time and sleep onset in adolescents," J. Adolesc. Health, vol. 68, no. 4, pp. 512–519, 2021.

When do you have to cite?

Any direct quote, no matter how short.
Any fact, number, or finding that isn't common knowledge.
Any idea, framework, or argument you got from someone else, even fully reworded.
Any image, chart, dataset, map, or piece of code you didn't make.
Anything an AI tool helped you draft — say which tool and what you used it for.

You don't need to cite genuinely common knowledge, like the year the Second World War ended. When you can't tell, cite it. Nobody has ever been penalized for one citation too many.

Tools that save hours

Zotero — free, works in your browser, saves a source in one click and drops formatted citations into your document. Worth the twenty minutes to set up.
Google Scholar — the quote icon under a result gives you a ready-made citation in most styles.
Your library's databases — nearly every article page has a "Cite" or "Export" button.

Generators get details wrong — a missing issue number, a mangled author list, the wrong capitalization. Always read the output against the style rules before you submit.

My project

A home for the working details of whatever you're building. This saves to your account, so it's here on any device you sign in from.

Working title

Type of research

Subject area

Mentor or teacher

Research question, in one sentence

Notes, sources, next steps

Templates & tools

The documents and services that do the most work for the least setup.

Finding sources

Google Scholar — start here for anything
PubMed — medicine and biology
arXiv — physics, math, CS preprints
ERIC — education research
DOAJ — open access journals

Getting past paywalls, legally

Your school or public library card — most give database access from home
OpenAlex and CORE for free full text
Email the author. Researchers send PDFs to students who ask politely.

Managing citations

Zotero — free, and the one we recommend
Zotero Connector browser extension
Google Docs citation tool, for short papers

Data & analysis

Google Sheets or Excel — enough for most first projects
jamovi — free stats with a real interface
Google Colab — Python in the browser, nothing to install
Google Forms for surveys

Writing structure

Abstract, 200 words: question, method, finding, significance
IMRaD: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion
Write methods first — it's the easiest section and it unblocks the rest

Where to publish

The YRP Journal — see submissions
School symposium or science fair
Regional and state competitions
A talk to the class that gave you the question

Submit to the journal

The YRP Journal publishes work by high-school researchers. Every submission gets written feedback, whether or not it's accepted.

Before you submit

Your paper has an abstract, a clear question, and a methods section someone could follow.
Every claim that isn't yours is cited, in one consistent style.
Names and identifying details are removed from any human data.
A teacher or mentor has read a full draft.

Read the full submission guidelines →

Profile & settings

Keep this current so guides and journal feedback match your level.

Your details

First name

Last name

Date of birth

Grade level

School

Email

What are you hoping to research?

Password

We'll email you a link to set a new one. Accounts created with Google, Apple, or Microsoft manage passwords there instead.

What we store

Your name, email, grade, school, date of birth, what you type into My project, and — for each sign-in — the date, the approximate city from your network address, and the browser and device you used. The sign-in details exist so you and the team can spot access that wasn't you.

To have your account and everything in it deleted, email youthresearchproject26@gmail.com and we'll remove it.

Help & contact

Stuck on a step, or something on the site isn't working? Tell us.

Reach the team

Email youthresearchproject26@gmail.com. Include your question, what you've already tried, and your subject area — you'll get a much more useful answer.

Instagram: @youthresearchproject

Common questions

Do I need a mentor to do research?

No, but it helps enormously. Start with a teacher in the subject. If you're emailing a professor, keep it to five sentences: who you are, what you want to study, why their work is relevant, what you're asking for, and when you're free.

How long should a first project take?

A literature review, about 6–8 weeks of steady work. An original study with data collection, closer to 4–6 months. Budget more time than you think for step 2.

Can I use AI tools?

For brainstorming, explaining a paper you're stuck on, or checking your writing, yes. Never for inventing sources or writing your findings. Say in your paper which tools you used and for what.

Everyone's accounts

Everyone with a Youth Research Project account. Click any row to see full sign-in history.

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Journal submissions

Manuscripts submitted through the journal portal. Files are never public -- opening a submission generates a fresh, admin-only download link.

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The 60 most recent sign-ins across all accounts, newest first.

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Admin reference

A short reference for whoever runs the site next.

Who can see this page

Only accounts whose record has role: "admin", plus the seed address , which is always an admin. Everyone else is sent back to their dashboard.

Hiding the page is only half of it. The real protection is in firestore.rules, which blocks non-admins from reading other people's records even if they call the database directly. Deploy those rules or this panel is decorative.

What the actions do

Make admin / Remove admin — flips role on that person's record. Takes effect the next time they load a page.
Suspend — sets disabled: true. They're signed out immediately on their next page load and can't get back in.
Delete — removes the person's record, their project, and their sign-in history. Their login credential is queued for removal in deletionQueue; deploy the Cloud Function in functions/index.js to erase it for good. Until you do, a deleted person could sign in again and get a fresh, empty account.

Delete can't be undone. Suspend is the reversible option.

Sign-in emails

Each sign-in sends a note to with the person's name, email, method, approximate city, and device. Change the recipient or turn it down to new accounts only in the CONFIG block at the top of this page's script.

A note on holding student data

Most people here are minors, and this panel holds their names, birthdates, schools, and network locations. Keep the admin list short, use a strong password with two-factor on the Gmail account, delete accounts when someone asks, and publish a plain-language privacy notice saying what you collect and why. If you take on students in the EU or UK, or under-13s anywhere, look up GDPR and COPPA before you go further — both have real requirements about parental consent.