Publishing papers is something everybody can do if their science is adequately thought out and executed. I can recommend the advice given in http://svpow.com/2010/11/12/tutorial-10-how-to-become-a-palaeontologist/ -- relevant for every aspiring scientist, not just palaeontologists.

Experiments ought to be designed based on hypotheses which are relevant to ongoing debates in the scientific literature. Which journals to submit to depend on what you find out; I can't make any recommendations for behavioural science journals.

Thanks for your advice Gunnar! I haven't yet decided on whether I am going to do a behavioral study, or measure some physical trait. I am interested in heredity, so I might go down that path.

Jordan:

I'm sorry I don't have much specific information to help you since science is a mystery to me.  But I have publishing experience so I'll try.

The answer to your first question is yes, most major scientific journals would require the participation of a (published, probably) professor.

No. 2--No, I don't think you have to work with a group of people.

No. 3--bugs! Yuck!  Sorry, I'm in the humanities.

No. 4--Your professors should be able to give you info on the appropriate journals.  Would you consider other possibilities besides scholarly journals?  In the following case you wouldn't need the co-authorship of a professor.  Try science magazines, both print and online, that publish articles for a literate but not necessarily scholarly audience.  If you can find a few magazines like that and publish your current and future projects there it would get your foot in the door of academia.  Such publications won't be recognized as "scholarly" but they will help with name recognition.  I object to the distinction between scholarly articles and creatively written academic articles in magazines.  See my question "Should some creative writing be considered scholarly writing?"  Several people who commented say yes and write "deep stuff" in a creative way for popular rather than academic audiences.  In fact, check out where they published as possibilities for you--see Danielle Clode, Dawn Marney (?) for example.

None of the above helps you much, I fear, but the main reason I'm responding is to commend you for your interest, enthusiasm, and dedication.  I hope that your future plans include the master and doctorate degrees.  I'm sure that you will do very, very well.

Best regards and best of luck,

John 

1) Usually there is no formal credential for submitting and publishing a paper. I've never seen one. You might ask the editor (in your cover letter) to blind your identity to the reviewers, to make it more objective, or you could find a journal that blinds the submitter's identity to the reviewers.

I think it would be presumptuous to try to extend your skills from classwork directly into a journal submission, but hey, maybe you could pull it off. I do think you're tremendously improving your odds if you find an established collaborator for this kind of work.

2) No.

3) UPDATE: Thomas' answer here is excellent. Go there.

4) There are many starting points for good journals. I think you could benefit from starting with a professional society's journal, like the Entomological Society of America, which publishes a number of titles. Check out the link below; I think it would be an appropriate journal for a successful hobbiest.

http://www.entsoc.org/Pubs/Periodicals/AE

1) No, the participation of a professor is not required. As Ryan says above, however, it would make things much easier for you. Part of the issue will be that writing in journal style is so much different than the kind of writing that is done for classwork, and this actually takes quite a bit of practice. My recommendation to you would be to choose a journal of interest (a few examples would be Environmental Entomology, or Ecological Entomology) and start reading articles in those journals. I often emulate the tone , style, and experimental design of articles of interest. 

One of the other skills you are likely to need, which will be second-nature to a more experienced scientist, is statistical analysis. A clear and accurate statistical analysis is a requirement for virtually all peer-reviewed publications in life sciences. It is also easy to make a mistake in experimental design that could undermine the validity of your work, so be sure to have a very clear idea of your intended experimental and statistical designs prior to starting any actual work. 

2)  Nope. Requesting that your identity be blinded to reviewers is a great suggestion--even though we aren't supposed to do so, reviewers will often check the research profile of scientists whose work they are reviewing. If you are not established, your work will probably be more carefully criticized. 

3) You don't need much in the way of equipment, generally. I have published a number of articles that literally required no more than deli cups and a scale. If you are able to keep insects in colony and rear them from egg to adulthood, you are in a good place to do an easy experiment. Here is a list of a few questions that are always relevant in entomology: 

-How is the life table of insect species x affected by different temperatures, host plants, feeding substrate, (insert any environmental or biotic variable here)? If you arent familiar with life tables, do a little reading. This is simple but usually publishable information. 

-Can I develop an attractant (or repellent) for insect species x? You can just start with different food or plant materials and develop a 'bioassay' that systematically tests various behavioral responses to potential attractants. 

-Is morphological trait x heritable? Understanding the concept behind midparent-offspring regression will make this relatively easy, provided that the insects you are working with have a relatively short life cycle. 

-Does insect species x compete for resources with insect species y? If so, who wins? 

-Where do I find insect species x on the landscape, and how does its abundance vary from year to year in different locations? 

Theses are just a few simple questions that are commonly found in the literature. However, you must develop testable hypotheses from your questions, and then evaluate whether your hypotheses were supported or not supported using statistical analysis. 

4) Take a look at Environmental Entomology, Ecological Entomology, or Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. These journals will publish articles based on some of the questions listed above, provided they are technically sound. Another option is PLOS ONE, which is an open-access journal that does not make judgments about the 'novelty' of research questions, so it is a common place for researchers to publish 'negative' findings. 

I would be happy to offer any more help, I think it's great that you are interested in getting an article published. It can easily take a year or more to go through the process of designing, performing, analyzing, and reporting a single, relatively minor experiment--so don't be discouraged if it is harder than you expect! My first article was rejected a number of times before I was able to get it accepted--one thing I can tell you for sure is that if your are determined, you can get it published!

Why was my answer above voted down?  I was merely trying to be helpful and I don't see anything in my answer that would warrant a down vote.  Don't be a coward, show yourself and explain why.  If you have a valid reason I'll amend or delete my response. 

To John: I wasn't the one to vote your answer down, but I understand why. A full half of your points are unhelfpul, of which half is actually wrong. You really don't necessarily need an established co-author to get your research published, at least not in science (not sure about humanities), and Jordan specifically said she is aiming for an "obscure journal".

Jordan: to the useful advice already posted above, I would add two things.

1) defining the question you're interested in is really the first step to focus on, no sense in thinking about the rest until you have it. There are lots of behavioural experiments that you can do without fancy equipment, just a DIY arena and a notebook will suffice. Reading a few journal papers will help you assess whether your question is interesting and meaningful enough.

2) When choosing a journal to send your work to, be careful about the so-called predatory publishers who will charge you for publishing open access, but won't provide any academic services (such as a real peer review). There's a useful list of those online. They are obscure alright, but publishing with them won't benefit neither your experience with academic publishing nor your reputation.

Thanks Jernej.  Half my responses were unhelpful?  Wouldn't that be in your opinion?  Shouldn't it be up to the questioner to determine whether an answer is helpful or not?  And half are wrong?  The only one of four questions where I differ with others is on No. 1 regarding a professor co-author.  I was going by numerous questions/answers on several different threads written by colleagues in the sciences who asserted that to be the case.  The question on science I didn't attempt to answer at all.  And I prefaced my remarks by pointing out my limitations in expertise.  Once I or any other commenter has done that, down votes and negative comments that my answers are unhelpful and wrong should be negated--that is, they are not necessary since I've already admitted my deficiencies.  

Jordan:

Regarding the idea of going for the master and doctoral degrees, on second thought you may want to think long and hard about that.  If you are interested in the perspective of 40 years in academia message me and I'll try to help you consider the pros and cons.

Regards,

John

John: just to clarify, one answer is just unhelpful (I don't think anyone would consider "bugs! Yuck! Sorry, I'm in the humanities." helpful), another is unhelpful because it is wrong - and I'm speaking from my own experience, having published a paper in a local scholarly journal as an undergrad, with only my friend (also an undergrad) as a co-author. That makes two - or half - unhelpful if #3 is counted as an answer, and #4 leading away from the topic for the wrong reason, by extension. I don't wish to argue, I just answered your question as to why you might have gotten downvoted.

Another advice to Jordan that I forgot before: not having an experienced researcher at hand, it could help you to get in touch with a local society in your area - judging by your location, the Pacific Coast Entomological Society might be a good place to start (don't know it, I just googled randomly). They can help you improve your question, advise how to plan your experiments, and point you to relevant literature. My undergrad publishing experience wouldn't have been possible without the editor who saw that we were both quite inexperienced, so he encouraged us and made suggestions that improved the result. I sincerely hope you find a person like that, tackling academic publishing on your own would be extremely difficult.

Just add an opinion:

Some universities offer specific Research Programs especially for Undergraduate students. You can take 2-3 units/credits for participating in such programs. You usually go to a lab and participate in some research projects. The benefits of participating in such programs are (1) you will have experienced mentor/researchers (such as post-doc) guide you and teach you. In case of some emergencies happen, you can be assisted. (2) by participating in these research projects, if you contribute substantially , you may become one of the co-authors of the paper. I have seen this happens. You said you have helped a few grad students and professors with their experiments. Were these from such programs? 

Sorry for the late response! Thanks you for all your advice everyone, I really appreciate it. Unfortunately one obstacle I forgot to mention is that I am currently in treatment for late-stage Lyme disease, and barely have enough energy to leave the house. So I've been trying to find a way to apply my current scientific knowledge and get important experience while at home, since I've got free time now because I'm on medical leave from school and had to quit my job. John W.- I would love to pick your brain about that. I will send you a message right now!

A "cockroach friend" of mine gave me an idea that I am very interested in pursuing. You folks have been so kind and helpful to me, I would love if you could read my questions about this project. It is a little technical and very specific to insect identification, but any and all help is greatly appreciated. I have attached the link to the question I asked about it.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Blaberidae_sp_Kenya_Little_Kenyan_Roach_identification