Academic Integrity & Editorial Practices

This guide exists to help students and families understand the International Science and Engineering Fair honestly and accurately. We hold both our own content and the advice we give students to clear standards, set out below.

Our editorial principles

• Accuracy. We aim to get the facts right and to correct mistakes quickly.
• Independence. No one pays us to change what we say about ISEF, and we keep guidance separate from any services we offer.
• Transparency. We tell you where our information comes from and when figures can change.
• Student-first. Our goal is to help students understand the competition and do their own best work — never to cut corners.

How we source information

We base our content on the official materials published by Society for Science, the organizer of ISEF, together with other reputable, primary sources. We attribute facts, figures, and photographs to their sources. Where numbers — such as award amounts, category counts, or finalist totals — can vary from year to year, we say so and point you to the official source to confirm the current figures.

Fact-checking and updates

ISEF evolves between seasons: rules are revised, categories are occasionally restructured, and deadlines move. We review our content periodically and show a “last updated” date on key pages. Even so, the official rules are the final word, and we always encourage you to verify time-sensitive details on the Society for Science website.

Corrections

If you find something on this site that is out of date or incorrect, we want to fix it. Please tell us through our contact page, noting the page and the detail in question, and we will review and update it.

Our commitment to students’ integrity

ISEF rewards genuine, original research, and the science-fair community depends on trust. This guide will never encourage shortcuts, fabricated data, plagiarism, or any conduct that violates ISEF’s official rules. We encourage every student to:

• Do their own original work and document it honestly in a logbook or research record;
• Follow the official ISEF rules, including all required forms, approvals, and review before experimentation begins;
• Cite sources and give proper credit to collaborators, mentors, and prior work;
• Report results truthfully — including results that did not turn out as hoped;
• Respect the rules on research involving human participants, vertebrate animals, hazardous materials, and regulated substances.

A note on ISEF’s ethics and review process

Official ISEF participation involves an ethics and safety review. Students prepare a research plan, obtain the required approvals (such as review by a Scientific Review Committee or an Institutional Review Board where applicable), and complete the official forms before starting regulated work. We summarize these expectations to help you plan — but we do not administer them. Always follow the official forms and rules published by Society for Science and your affiliated fair.

Using this guide responsibly

Our content is here to help you understand ISEF, plan your timeline, and prepare with confidence. It is not a service that does your project for you. We will not write your research paper, design your experiment to order, analyze data dishonestly, or produce work for you to submit as your own. Mentors, teachers, and advisors — including us, if you reach out — should guide and support a student’s work, never replace it.

A note on AI tools

If you use AI tools in your research or writing, use them honestly: disclose their use where the rules require it, never present AI-generated text or data as your own original work, and verify any facts an AI tool produces against reliable sources. The thinking, the experiments, and the conclusions should be genuinely yours.

Independence and disclosure

We may offer advising or answer questions directly — for example, over WhatsApp. Any such relationship does not change the facts we publish: we do not accept payment to misrepresent ISEF, to guarantee results, or to alter our editorial content. If we ever publish sponsored or commercial material, we will label it clearly.

Not an official body

We are an independent educational guide. We do not run the competition, accept entries, review projects, or award prizes. For official rules, registration, forms, and results, always rely on Society for Science.