why research papers are important

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11.1 The Purpose of Research Writing

Learning objectives.

• Identify reasons to research writing projects.
• Outline the steps of the research writing process.

Why was the Great Wall of China built? What have scientists learned about the possibility of life on Mars? What roles did women play in the American Revolution? How does the human brain create, store, and retrieve memories? Who invented the game of football, and how has it changed over the years?

You may know the answers to these questions off the top of your head. If you are like most people, however, you find answers to tough questions like these by searching the Internet, visiting the library, or asking others for information. To put it simply, you perform research.

Whether you are a scientist, an artist, a paralegal, or a parent, you probably perform research in your everyday life. When your boss, your instructor, or a family member asks you a question that you do not know the answer to, you locate relevant information, analyze your findings, and share your results. Locating, analyzing, and sharing information are key steps in the research process, and in this chapter, you will learn more about each step. By developing your research writing skills, you will prepare yourself to answer any question no matter how challenging.

Reasons for Research

When you perform research, you are essentially trying to solve a mystery—you want to know how something works or why something happened. In other words, you want to answer a question that you (and other people) have about the world. This is one of the most basic reasons for performing research.

But the research process does not end when you have solved your mystery. Imagine what would happen if a detective collected enough evidence to solve a criminal case, but she never shared her solution with the authorities. Presenting what you have learned from research can be just as important as performing the research. Research results can be presented in a variety of ways, but one of the most popular—and effective—presentation forms is the research paper . A research paper presents an original thesis, or purpose statement, about a topic and develops that thesis with information gathered from a variety of sources.

If you are curious about the possibility of life on Mars, for example, you might choose to research the topic. What will you do, though, when your research is complete? You will need a way to put your thoughts together in a logical, coherent manner. You may want to use the facts you have learned to create a narrative or to support an argument. And you may want to show the results of your research to your friends, your teachers, or even the editors of magazines and journals. Writing a research paper is an ideal way to organize thoughts, craft narratives or make arguments based on research, and share your newfound knowledge with the world.

Write a paragraph about a time when you used research in your everyday life. Did you look for the cheapest way to travel from Houston to Denver? Did you search for a way to remove gum from the bottom of your shoe? In your paragraph, explain what you wanted to research, how you performed the research, and what you learned as a result.

Research Writing and the Academic Paper

No matter what field of study you are interested in, you will most likely be asked to write a research paper during your academic career. For example, a student in an art history course might write a research paper about an artist’s work. Similarly, a student in a psychology course might write a research paper about current findings in childhood development.

Having to write a research paper may feel intimidating at first. After all, researching and writing a long paper requires a lot of time, effort, and organization. However, writing a research paper can also be a great opportunity to explore a topic that is particularly interesting to you. The research process allows you to gain expertise on a topic of your choice, and the writing process helps you remember what you have learned and understand it on a deeper level.

Research Writing at Work

Knowing how to write a good research paper is a valuable skill that will serve you well throughout your career. Whether you are developing a new product, studying the best way to perform a procedure, or learning about challenges and opportunities in your field of employment, you will use research techniques to guide your exploration. You may even need to create a written report of your findings. And because effective communication is essential to any company, employers seek to hire people who can write clearly and professionally.

Writing at Work

Take a few minutes to think about each of the following careers. How might each of these professionals use researching and research writing skills on the job?

• Medical laboratory technician
• Small business owner
• Information technology professional
• Freelance magazine writer

A medical laboratory technician or information technology professional might do research to learn about the latest technological developments in either of these fields. A small business owner might conduct research to learn about the latest trends in his or her industry. A freelance magazine writer may need to research a given topic to write an informed, up-to-date article.

Think about the job of your dreams. How might you use research writing skills to perform that job? Create a list of ways in which strong researching, organizing, writing, and critical thinking skills could help you succeed at your dream job. How might these skills help you obtain that job?

Steps of the Research Writing Process

How does a research paper grow from a folder of brainstormed notes to a polished final draft? No two projects are identical, but most projects follow a series of six basic steps.

These are the steps in the research writing process:

• Choose a topic.
• Plan and schedule time to research and write.
• Conduct research.
• Organize research and ideas.
• Draft your paper.
• Revise and edit your paper.

Each of these steps will be discussed in more detail later in this chapter. For now, though, we will take a brief look at what each step involves.

Step 1: Choosing a Topic

As you may recall from Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” , to narrow the focus of your topic, you may try freewriting exercises, such as brainstorming. You may also need to ask a specific research question —a broad, open-ended question that will guide your research—as well as propose a possible answer, or a working thesis . You may use your research question and your working thesis to create a research proposal . In a research proposal, you present your main research question, any related subquestions you plan to explore, and your working thesis.

Step 2: Planning and Scheduling

Before you start researching your topic, take time to plan your researching and writing schedule. Research projects can take days, weeks, or even months to complete. Creating a schedule is a good way to ensure that you do not end up being overwhelmed by all the work you have to do as the deadline approaches.

During this step of the process, it is also a good idea to plan the resources and organizational tools you will use to keep yourself on track throughout the project. Flowcharts, calendars, and checklists can all help you stick to your schedule. See Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , Section 11.2 “Steps in Developing a Research Proposal” for an example of a research schedule.

Step 3: Conducting Research

When going about your research, you will likely use a variety of sources—anything from books and periodicals to video presentations and in-person interviews.

Your sources will include both primary sources and secondary sources . Primary sources provide firsthand information or raw data. For example, surveys, in-person interviews, and historical documents are primary sources. Secondary sources, such as biographies, literary reviews, or magazine articles, include some analysis or interpretation of the information presented. As you conduct research, you will take detailed, careful notes about your discoveries. You will also evaluate the reliability of each source you find.

Step 4: Organizing Research and the Writer’s Ideas

When your research is complete, you will organize your findings and decide which sources to cite in your paper. You will also have an opportunity to evaluate the evidence you have collected and determine whether it supports your thesis, or the focus of your paper. You may decide to adjust your thesis or conduct additional research to ensure that your thesis is well supported.

Remember, your working thesis is not set in stone. You can and should change your working thesis throughout the research writing process if the evidence you find does not support your original thesis. Never try to force evidence to fit your argument. For example, your working thesis is “Mars cannot support life-forms.” Yet, a week into researching your topic, you find an article in the New York Times detailing new findings of bacteria under the Martian surface. Instead of trying to argue that bacteria are not life forms, you might instead alter your thesis to “Mars cannot support complex life-forms.”

Step 5: Drafting Your Paper

Now you are ready to combine your research findings with your critical analysis of the results in a rough draft. You will incorporate source materials into your paper and discuss each source thoughtfully in relation to your thesis or purpose statement.

When you cite your reference sources, it is important to pay close attention to standard conventions for citing sources in order to avoid plagiarism , or the practice of using someone else’s words without acknowledging the source. Later in this chapter, you will learn how to incorporate sources in your paper and avoid some of the most common pitfalls of attributing information.

Step 6: Revising and Editing Your Paper

In the final step of the research writing process, you will revise and polish your paper. You might reorganize your paper’s structure or revise for unity and cohesion, ensuring that each element in your paper flows into the next logically and naturally. You will also make sure that your paper uses an appropriate and consistent tone.

Once you feel confident in the strength of your writing, you will edit your paper for proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, mechanics, and formatting. When you complete this final step, you will have transformed a simple idea or question into a thoroughly researched and well-written paper you can be proud of!

Review the steps of the research writing process. Then answer the questions on your own sheet of paper.

• In which steps of the research writing process are you allowed to change your thesis?
• In step 2, which types of information should you include in your project schedule?
• What might happen if you eliminated step 4 from the research writing process?

Key Takeaways

• People undertake research projects throughout their academic and professional careers in order to answer specific questions, share their findings with others, increase their understanding of challenging topics, and strengthen their researching, writing, and analytical skills.
• The research writing process generally comprises six steps: choosing a topic, scheduling and planning time for research and writing, conducting research, organizing research and ideas, drafting a paper, and revising and editing the paper.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

The Why: Explaining the significance of your research

In the first four articles of this series, we examined The What: Defining a research project , The Where: Constructing an effective writing environment , The When: Setting realistic timeframes for your research , and The Who: Finding key sources in the existing literature . In this article, we will explore the fifth, and final, W of academic writing, The Why: Explaining the significance of your research.

Q1: When considering the significance of your research, what is the general contribution you make?

According to the Unite for Sight online module titled “ The Importance of Research ”:

“The purpose of research is to inform action. Thus, your study should seek to contextualize its findings within the larger body of research. Research must always be of high quality in order to produce knowledge that is applicable outside of the research setting. Furthermore, the results of your study may have implications for policy and future project implementation.”

In response to this TweetChat question, Twitter user @aemidr shared that the “dissemination of the research outcomes” is their contribution. Petra Boynton expressed a contribution of “easy to follow resources other people can use to help improve their health/wellbeing”.

Eric Schmieder said, “In general, I try to expand the application of technology to improve the efficiency of business processes through my research and personal use and development of technology solutions.” While Janet Salmons offered the response, “ I am a metaresearcher , that is, I research emerging qualitative methods & write about them. I hope contribution helps student & experienced researchers try new approaches.”

Despite the different contributions each of these participants noted as the significance of their individual research efforts, there is a significance to each. In addition to the importance stated through the above examples, Leann Zarah offered 7 Reasons Why Research Is Important , as follows:

• A Tool for Building Knowledge and for Facilitating Learning
• Means to Understand Various Issues and Increase Public Awareness
• An Aid to Business Success
• A Way to Prove Lies and to Support Truths
• Means to Find, Gauge, and Seize Opportunities
• A Seed to Love Reading, Writing, Analyzing, and Sharing Valuable Information
• Nourishment and Exercise for the Mind

Q1a: What is the specific significance of your research to yourself or other individuals?

The first of “ 3 Important Things to Consider When Selecting Your Research Topic ”, as written by Stephen Fiedler is to “choose something that interests you”. By doing so, you are more likely to stay motivated and persevere through inevitable challenges.

As mentioned earlier, for Salmons her interests lie in emerging methods and new approaches to research. As Salmons pointed out in the TweetChat, “Conventional methods may not be adequate in a globally-connected world – using online methods expands potential participation.”

For @aemidr, “specific significance of my research is on health and safety from the environment and lifestyle”. In contrast, Schmieder said “my ongoing research allows me to be a better educator, to be more efficient in my own business practices, and to feel comfortable engaging with new technology”.

Regardless of discipline, a personal statement can help identify for yourself and others your suitability for specific research. Some things to include in the statement are:

• Your reasons for choosing your topic of research
• The aspects of your topic of research that interest you most
• Any work experience, placement or voluntary work you have undertaken, particularly if it is relevant to your subject. Include the skills and abilities you have gained from these activities
• How your choice of research fits in with your future career plans

Q2: Why is it important to communicate the value of your research?

According to Salmons, “If you research and no one knows about it or can use what you discover, it is just an intellectual exercise. If we want the public to support & fund research, we must show why it’s important!” She has written for the SAGE MethodSpace blog on the subject Write with Purpose, Publish for Impact building a collection of articles from both the MethodSpace blog and TAA’s blog, Abstract .

Peter J. Stogios shares with us benefits to both the scientist and the public in his article, “ Why Sharing Your Research with the Public is as Necessary as Doing the Research Itself ”. Unsure where to start? Stogios states, “There are many ways scientists can communicate more directly with the public. These include writing a personal blog, updating their lab’s or personal website to be less technical and more accessible to non-scientists, popular science forums and message boards, and engaging with your institution’s research communication office. Most organizations publish newsletters or create websites showcasing the work being done, and act as intermediaries between the researchers and the media. Scientists can and should interact more with these communicators.”

Schmieder stated during the TweetChat that the importance of communicating the value of your research is “primarily to help others understand why you do what you do, but also for funding purposes, application of your results by others, and increased personal value and validation”.

In her article, “ Explaining Your Research to the Public: Why It Matters, How to Do It! ”, Sharon Page-Medrich conveys the importance, stating “UC Berkeley’s 30,000+ undergraduate and 11,000+ graduate students generate or contribute to diverse research in the natural and physical sciences, social sciences and humanities, and many professional fields. Such research and its applications are fundamental to saving lives, restoring healthy environments, making art and preserving culture, and raising standards of living. Yet the average person-in-the-street may not see the connection between students’ investigations and these larger outcomes.”

Q2a: To whom is it most difficult to explain that value?

Although important, it’s not always easy to share our research efforts with others. Erin Bedford sets the scene as she tells us “ How to (Not) Talk about Your Research ”. “It’s happened to the best of us. First, the question: ‘so, what is your research on?’ Then, the blank stare as you try to explain. And finally, the uninterested but polite nod and smile.”

Schmieder acknowledges that these polite people who care enough to ask, but often are the hardest to explain things to are “family and friends who don’t share the same interests or understanding of the subject matter.” It’s not that they don’t care about the efforts, it’s that the level to which a researcher’s investment and understanding is different from those asking about their work.

When faced with less-than-supportive reactions from friends, Noelle Sterne shares some ways to retain your perspective and friendship in her TAA blog article, “ Friends – How to deal with their negative responses to your academic projects ”.

Q3: What methods have you used to explain your research to others (both inside and outside of your discipline)?

Schmieder stated, “I have done webinars, professional development seminars, blog articles, and online courses” in an effort to communicate research to others. The Edinburg Napier University LibGuides guide to Sharing Your Research includes some of these in their list of resources as well adding considerations of online presence, saving time / online efficiency, copyright, and compliance to the discussion.

Michaela Panter states in her article, “ Sharing Your Findings with a General Audience ”, that “tips and guidelines for conveying your research to a general audience are increasingly widespread, yet scientists remain wary of doing so.” She notes, however, that “effectively sharing your research with a general audience can positively affect funding for your work” and “engaging the general public can further the impact of your research”.

If these are affects you desire, consider CES’s “ Six ways to share your research findings ”, as follows:

• Know your audience and define your goal
• Collaborate with others
• Make a plan
• Embrace plain language writing
• Layer and link, and
• Evaluate your work

Q4: What are some places you can share your research and its significance beyond your writing?

Beyond traditional journal article publication efforts, there are many opportunities to share your research with a larger community. Schmieder listed several options during the TweetChat event, specifically, “conference presentations, social media, blogs, professional networks and organizations, podcasts, and online courses”.

Elsevier’s resource, “ Sharing and promoting your article ” provides advice on sharing your article in the following ten places:

• At a conference
• For classroom teaching purposes
• For grant applications
• With my colleagues
• On a preprint server
• On my personal blog or website
• On my institutional repository
• On a subject repository (or other non-commercial repository)
• On Scholarly Communication Network (SCN), such as Mendeley or Scholar Universe
• Social Media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

Nature Publishing Group’s “ tips for promoting your research ” include nine ways to get started:

• Share your work with your social networks
• Update your professional profile
• Utilize research-sharing platforms
• Create a Google Scholar profile – or review and enhance your existing one
• Highlight key and topical points in a blog post
• Make your research outputs shareable and discoverable
• Register for a unique ORCID author identifier
• Encourage readership within your institution

Finally, Sheffield Solutions produced a top ten list of actions you can take to help share and disseminate your work more widely online, as follows:

• Create an ORCID ID
• Upload to Sheffield’s MyPublications system
• Make your work Open Access
• Create a Google Scholar profile
• Join an academic social network
• Connect through Twitter
• Blog about your research
• Upload to Slideshare or ORDA
• Track your research

Q5: How is the significance of your study conveyed in your writing efforts?

Schmieder stated, “Significance is conveyed through the introduction, the structure of the study, and the implications for further research sections of articles”. According to The Writing Center at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “A thesis statement tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion”.

In their online Tips & Tools resource on Thesis Statements , they share the following six questions to ask to help determine if your thesis is strong:

• Do I answer the question?
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose?
• Is my thesis statement specific enough?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test?
• Does my essay support my thesis specifically and without wandering?
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test?

Some journals, such as Elsevier’s Acta Biomaterialia, now require a statement of significance with manuscript submissions. According to the announcement linked above, “these statements will address the novelty aspect and the significance of the work with respect to the existing literature and more generally to the society.” and “by highlighting the scientific merit of your research, these statements will help make your work more visible to our readership.”

Q5a: How does the significance influence the structure of your writing?

According to Jeff Hume-Pratuch in the Academic Coaching & Writing (ACW) article, “ Using APA Style in Academic Writing: Precision and Clarity ”, “The need for precision and clarity of expression is one of the distinguishing marks of academic writing.” As a result, Hume-Pratuch advises that you “choose your words wisely so that they do not come between your idea and the audience.” To do so, he suggests avoiding ambiguous expressions, approximate language, and euphemisms and jargon in your writing.

Schmieder shared in the TweetChat that “the impact of the writing is affected by the target audience for the research and can influence word choice, organization of ideas, and elements included in the narrative”.

Discussing the organization of ideas, Patrick A. Regoniel offers “ Two Tips in Writing the Significance of the Study ” claiming that by referring to the statement of the problem and writing from general to specific contribution, you can “prevent your mind from wandering wildly or aimlessly as you explore the significance of your study”.

Q6: What are some ways you can improve your ability to explain your research to others?

For both Schmieder and Salmons, practice is key. Schmieder suggested, “Practice simplifying the concepts. Focus on why rather than what. Share research in areas where they are active and comfortable”. Salmons added, “answer ‘so what’ and ‘who cares’ questions. Practice creating a sentence. For my study of the collaborative process: ‘Learning to collaborate is important for team success in professional life’ works better than ‘a phenomenological study of instructors’ perceptions’”.

In a guest blog post for Scientific American titled “ Effective Communication, Better Science ”, Mónica I. Feliú-Mójer claimed “to be a successful scientist, you must be an effective communicator.” In support of the goal of being an effective communicator, a list of training opportunities and other resources are included in the article.

Along the same lines, The University of Melbourne shared the following list of resources, workshops, and programs in their online resource on academic writing and communication skills :

• Speaking and Presenting : Resources for presenting your research, using PowerPoint to your advantage, presenting at conferences and helpful videos on presenting effectively
• Research Impact Library Advisory Service  (RILAS): Helps you to determine the impact of your publications and other research outputs for academic promotions and grant applications
• Three Minute Thesis Competition  (3MT): Research communication competition that requires you to deliver a compelling oration on your thesis topic and its significance in just three minutes or less.
• Visualise your Thesis Competition : A dynamic and engaging audio-visual “elevator pitch” (e-Poster) to communicate your research to a broad non-specialist audience in 60 seconds.

As we complete this series exploration of the five W’s of academic writing, we hope that you are adequately prepared to apply them to your own research efforts of defining a research project, constructing an effective writing environment, setting realistic timeframes for your research, finding key sources in the existing literature, and last, but not least, explaining the significance of your research.

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• Academic essay overview
• The writing process
• Structuring academic essays
• Types of academic essays
• Academic writing overview
• Sentence structure
• Academic writing process
• Improving your academic writing
• Titles and headings
• APA style overview
• APA citation & referencing
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• Citation & referencing
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• APA examples overview
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• College essay overview
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• Dissertation overview
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Relevance Of Research – Why Is It So Important?

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Research is a significant element in academia. It is a tool that helps us solve problems, make new discoveries, and understand the world better in general. During the research process , you can make a difference in people’s lives or in society. For this reason, students must complete research papers as part of any course in higher education. This article discusses the relevance of research in different fields of academic writing .

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• 1 In a nutshell: Relevance of research
• 2 Definition: Relevance of research
• 3 How to conduct research
• 4 Relevance of research in different courses
• 5 Types of relevance in research
• 6 Knowledge and learning
• 7 Issues and public awareness
• 8 A successful business
• 9 Lies and truths
• 10 Opportunities
• 11 Information
• 12 Relevance of research: Exercise for the mind

In a nutshell: Relevance of research

• Many academic fields require students to conduct academic research as part of their studies. Overall, research is also applied heavily by students in learning and the academic writing process.
• The key relevance of research in academia is that it allows students and researchers to find sources to make their arguments on a specific topic. Furthermore, most opinions are conceived through the research process.
• Besides students, trained professionals also recognize the relevance of research.

Definition: Relevance of research

Relevance of research refers to the importance of research in various fields. Here are a few reasons why research is relevant:

• It builds knowledge and promotes learning.
• It helps to increase public awareness.
• Research promotes success in business and other fields.
• It encourages the disapproval of lies and supports facts and truths.
• Research is a means for discovering opportunities and helps build credibility.
• It promotes confidence and passion in reading, sharing information, analyzing, and writing.
• Research nourishes and helps exercise the mind.

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How to conduct research

The relevance of research is not a topic of debate. Therefore, students must learn how to research, so they can enjoy the benefits. The following steps explain how to conduct research.

• Choosing a topic and identifying a problem: Firstly, you must come up with ideas and find a general area of interest. Once you are settled on a topic, you must determine an issue that needs to be addressed in the area and why it matters.
• Formulating research questions and creating a research design: Next, you must create one or more research questions that target what you want to find out through your research. Additionally, create a practical framework for answering your research questions (research design).
• Writing a research proposal: Finally, create a research proposal that outlines the relevance of the research, context, purpose, and your plan. From there, you can start searching for sources and gathering information for your research.

Relevance of research in different courses

The relevance of research stands out in different courses. For this reason, most courses encourage their students to apply research in their studies and academic writing. Universities encourage and engage in research as part of their mission to promote learning and discovery.

Let us look at the relevance of research in different courses:

Types of relevance in research

There are different forms of the relevance of research. Let us look at some of the key ones.

Academic relevance

Societal relevance, practical relevance, scientific relevance.

The academic relevance of research is perhaps the most critical. Research is critical in the promotion of academic knowledge of a subject. Moreover, research helps individuals meet their academic goals. Academic relevance comes from learned information, which is obtained through research.

The purpose of research extends beyond academia and has a significant impact on society. Research generates knowledge that aids in addressing real-world problems and making informed decisions. Research provides a more profound understanding of society and its functions.

The relevance of research is also important in everyday life. Research findings apply in real-life situations to various extents. For instance, research allows entrepreneurs to discover problems and wants in society, and the findings help resolve these problems. Researchers make recommendations for particular industries and promote improved processes in critical organizations.

Research allows practitioners in various fields of science to bridge the knowledge gap in various subjects. Research also helps scientists make new and significant discoveries that help advance different fields. Scientists need research to come up with life-changing inventions.

Knowledge and learning

Research helps facilitate knowledge acquisition and learning. Students, academics, professionals, and non-professionals depend on research as a tool for learning and understanding a subject better. Research also equips individuals with information about the world and skills for survival and life improvement.

Issues and public awareness

Research is a tool for understanding issues and raising public awareness. It helps people understand each other and their world. People use research to understand current issues.

A successful business

Research is critical for business success. Successful companies and individuals rely on market and client research. It helps them understand their clients, their needs, and how to provide them with what they need. Therefore, research helps with targeted marketing. It also helps businesses understand their competition and establish ways to stand out.

Lies and truths

Background research and private investigations are critical in debunking lies and promoting truths. Researchers apply field-testing and peer reviews to validate facts. Therefore, research builds integrity and competence in facts. Fact-checking helps discover research bias, fake news, and propaganda.

Opportunities

Research helps people find, gauge, and seize opportunities. Therefore, it helps individuals nurture their potential and achieve goals by taking advantage of opportunities. People can use research to maximize career options and investments.

Information

Research promotes a passion and love for reading, writing, analyzing, and sharing information. It is a tool for critical thinking and comprehension. Sharing research promotes a wider understanding of a subject.

Relevance of research: Exercise for the mind

Research nourishes and exercises the mind. Critical thinking is a tool for promoting mental health. Students earn critical reasoning skills from research, which helps with their learning. Various studies have proven that mentally stimulating activities like research can promote brain health.

What is the meaning of relevance in research?

The relevance of research is the understanding of how studying one thing can affect another. It is the extent to which a specific study or theory is significant.

What are the different types of relevance of research?

The various forms of the relevance of research are:

How does research promote mental health?

Research nourishes and exercises the mind. Critical thinking is a tool for promoting mental health. Students earn critical reasoning skills from research, which helps with their learning.

What is the scientific relevance of research?

Research allows practitioners in various fields of science to bridge the knowledge gap in various subjects. It helps scientists make new and significant discoveries that help advance different fields.

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Writing a Research Paper Introduction | Step-by-Step Guide

Published on September 24, 2022 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on March 27, 2023.

The introduction to a research paper is where you set up your topic and approach for the reader. It has several key goals:

• Present your topic and get the reader interested
• Provide background or summarize existing research
• Position your own approach
• Detail your specific research problem and problem statement
• Give an overview of the paper’s structure

The introduction looks slightly different depending on whether your paper presents the results of original empirical research or constructs an argument by engaging with a variety of sources.

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Table of contents

Step 1: introduce your topic, step 2: describe the background, step 3: establish your research problem, step 4: specify your objective(s), step 5: map out your paper, research paper introduction examples, frequently asked questions about the research paper introduction.

The first job of the introduction is to tell the reader what your topic is and why it’s interesting or important. This is generally accomplished with a strong opening hook.

The hook is a striking opening sentence that clearly conveys the relevance of your topic. Think of an interesting fact or statistic, a strong statement, a question, or a brief anecdote that will get the reader wondering about your topic.

For example, the following could be an effective hook for an argumentative paper about the environmental impact of cattle farming:

A more empirical paper investigating the relationship of Instagram use with body image issues in adolescent girls might use the following hook:

Don’t feel that your hook necessarily has to be deeply impressive or creative. Clarity and relevance are still more important than catchiness. The key thing is to guide the reader into your topic and situate your ideas.

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This part of the introduction differs depending on what approach your paper is taking.

In a more argumentative paper, you’ll explore some general background here. In a more empirical paper, this is the place to review previous research and establish how yours fits in.

Argumentative paper: Background information

After you’ve caught your reader’s attention, specify a bit more, providing context and narrowing down your topic.

Provide only the most relevant background information. The introduction isn’t the place to get too in-depth; if more background is essential to your paper, it can appear in the body .

Empirical paper: Describing previous research

For a paper describing original research, you’ll instead provide an overview of the most relevant research that has already been conducted. This is a sort of miniature literature review —a sketch of the current state of research into your topic, boiled down to a few sentences.

This should be informed by genuine engagement with the literature. Your search can be less extensive than in a full literature review, but a clear sense of the relevant research is crucial to inform your own work.

Begin by establishing the kinds of research that have been done, and end with limitations or gaps in the research that you intend to respond to.

The next step is to clarify how your own research fits in and what problem it addresses.

Argumentative paper: Emphasize importance

In an argumentative research paper, you can simply state the problem you intend to discuss, and what is original or important about your argument.

Empirical paper: Relate to the literature

In an empirical research paper, try to lead into the problem on the basis of your discussion of the literature. Think in terms of these questions:

• What research gap is your work intended to fill?
• What limitations in previous work does it address?
• What contribution to knowledge does it make?

You can make the connection between your problem and the existing research using phrases like the following.

Now you’ll get into the specifics of what you intend to find out or express in your research paper.

The way you frame your research objectives varies. An argumentative paper presents a thesis statement, while an empirical paper generally poses a research question (sometimes with a hypothesis as to the answer).

Argumentative paper: Thesis statement

The thesis statement expresses the position that the rest of the paper will present evidence and arguments for. It can be presented in one or two sentences, and should state your position clearly and directly, without providing specific arguments for it at this point.

Empirical paper: Research question and hypothesis

The research question is the question you want to answer in an empirical research paper.

Present your research question clearly and directly, with a minimum of discussion at this point. The rest of the paper will be taken up with discussing and investigating this question; here you just need to express it.

A research question can be framed either directly or indirectly.

• This study set out to answer the following question: What effects does daily use of Instagram have on the prevalence of body image issues among adolescent girls?
• We investigated the effects of daily Instagram use on the prevalence of body image issues among adolescent girls.

If your research involved testing hypotheses , these should be stated along with your research question. They are usually presented in the past tense, since the hypothesis will already have been tested by the time you are writing up your paper.

For example, the following hypothesis might respond to the research question above:

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The final part of the introduction is often dedicated to a brief overview of the rest of the paper.

In a paper structured using the standard scientific “introduction, methods, results, discussion” format, this isn’t always necessary. But if your paper is structured in a less predictable way, it’s important to describe the shape of it for the reader.

If included, the overview should be concise, direct, and written in the present tense.

• This paper will first discuss several examples of survey-based research into adolescent social media use, then will go on to …
• This paper first discusses several examples of survey-based research into adolescent social media use, then goes on to …

Full examples of research paper introductions are shown in the tabs below: one for an argumentative paper, the other for an empirical paper.

• Argumentative paper
• Empirical paper

Are cows responsible for climate change? A recent study (RIVM, 2019) shows that cattle farmers account for two thirds of agricultural nitrogen emissions in the Netherlands. These emissions result from nitrogen in manure, which can degrade into ammonia and enter the atmosphere. The study’s calculations show that agriculture is the main source of nitrogen pollution, accounting for 46% of the country’s total emissions. By comparison, road traffic and households are responsible for 6.1% each, the industrial sector for 1%. While efforts are being made to mitigate these emissions, policymakers are reluctant to reckon with the scale of the problem. The approach presented here is a radical one, but commensurate with the issue. This paper argues that the Dutch government must stimulate and subsidize livestock farmers, especially cattle farmers, to transition to sustainable vegetable farming. It first establishes the inadequacy of current mitigation measures, then discusses the various advantages of the results proposed, and finally addresses potential objections to the plan on economic grounds.

The rise of social media has been accompanied by a sharp increase in the prevalence of body image issues among women and girls. This correlation has received significant academic attention: Various empirical studies have been conducted into Facebook usage among adolescent girls (Tiggermann & Slater, 2013; Meier & Gray, 2014). These studies have consistently found that the visual and interactive aspects of the platform have the greatest influence on body image issues. Despite this, highly visual social media (HVSM) such as Instagram have yet to be robustly researched. This paper sets out to address this research gap. We investigated the effects of daily Instagram use on the prevalence of body image issues among adolescent girls. It was hypothesized that daily Instagram use would be associated with an increase in body image concerns and a decrease in self-esteem ratings.

The introduction of a research paper includes several key elements:

• A hook to catch the reader’s interest
• Relevant background on the topic
• Details of your research problem

and your problem statement

• A thesis statement or research question
• Sometimes an overview of the paper

Don’t feel that you have to write the introduction first. The introduction is often one of the last parts of the research paper you’ll write, along with the conclusion.

This is because it can be easier to introduce your paper once you’ve already written the body ; you may not have the clearest idea of your arguments until you’ve written them, and things can change during the writing process .

The way you present your research problem in your introduction varies depending on the nature of your research paper . A research paper that presents a sustained argument will usually encapsulate this argument in a thesis statement .

A research paper designed to present the results of empirical research tends to present a research question that it seeks to answer. It may also include a hypothesis —a prediction that will be confirmed or disproved by your research.

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Why Students Should Still Write Research Papers

8 Reasons Why Students Should Still Write Research Papers by Dorothy Mikuska There are plenty of reasons why the research paper is not assigned.  They pretty much boil down to: perceived irrelevance of the assignment in light of modern publishing and technology widespread plagiarism teachers buried alive grading 10-page papers from 150 students (that’s 1500 pages…

by  Dorothy Mikuska

There are plenty of reasons why the research paper is not assigned.  They pretty much boil down to:

• perceived irrelevance of the assignment in light of modern publishing and technology
• widespread plagiarism
• teachers buried alive grading 10-page papers from 150 students (that’s 1500 pages to grade, not just read).

Before the research paper is declared dead and deleted from the curriculum in pursuit of briefer and more tech-based learning, here are 8 important reasons why students should still write research papers.

8 Reasons Why Students Should Still Write Research Papers

1. Complex Reading Skills Are Applied to Multiple Sources

The research paper requires close reading of complex text from multiple sources, which students must comprehend, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate. These tasks, more sophisticated than merely summarizing an article for a report, reflect the complex work demands of college and career.

2. It Creates A Research Mind Set

Research is finding answers to questions: how many teeth does a killer whale have—Google will give the number 52.  Real research deals with deeper and broader issues than finding isolated facts. Students must learn to think of research as investigating profound and complex issues.

3. It Can Promote Curiosity

From early childhood, curiosity drives the search to understand increasingly complex questions, to constantly question information, and to explore more sources and experts. The research paper provides a structured, yet independent opportunity for students to pursue in depth some extended aspect of the course content.

4. The Librarian Can Be A Life-Long Resource

Students often see librarians merely at the check-out desk or collecting fines.  Librarians are specialists at both accessing extensive sources from a variety of media and reinforcing the teaching of responsible use of information and technology. Because they work with students every day and are the center of the school’s curriculum, they can direct students to appropriate sources.  As a researcher’s best buddy, librarians are gatekeepers and trackers of information and can turn every question into a teachable moment.

5. The Power of Attribution

Undocumented information that students encounter online—social media postings, tweets, blogs and popular media—artificially narrows their experience to opinions and anonymous writers.  Students never see citations on a tweet or a bibliographical reference in People magazine.  Research conducted in the career world requires not just expert information, but the attribution of sources through in-text citations and bibliographies. As students use sources that model research material with annotations and bibliography, they develop a questioning mindset: who said that, where did that come from, and where can I find more?

6. It Builds Related Skills

Unskilled researchers collect downloaded files and perhaps highlight passages, sometimes indiscriminately whole paragraphs or pages, without understanding the text. This method may work for a cursory summary of an article or for identifying key points, but not for synthesizing information from ten sources for an in-depth report.

File formats can make annotating text awkward. Even if notes can be easily added in the text, students will struggle scrolling through multiple files to synthesize scattered information, resulting in a collection of summaries from each source rather than an integrated understanding of the topic.

Formal note taking, necessary for extended and rigorous research papers, keeps track of information as quotations and paraphrases, identifies the unique content of each note, connects it to other notes with keywords, and identifies the source that can be cited in the paper and added to the bibliography.

An added value of note taking lies in the learning process.  By reviewing notes with the same keywords, students can synthesize the material into an organized plan for the paper.

7. Plagiarism and Intellectual Property Rights Matter

Because of plagiarism’s prevalence in student work, it may be easier not to assign research papers. However, plagiarism and intellectual property rights issues, whether related to research papers or music and video piracy, need to be a major conversation throughout the curriculum.

Students do not understand what plagiarism is, its consequences to their learning and character, why everyone makes a big deal over it, and how to avoid it. While direct instruction teaches what plagiarism is, students must put into practice ethical research writing. The research paper process provides students and teachers the opportunity to discuss intellectual property rights and ethics as part of the assignment.

8. Coaching The Writing Process Is Powerful

The research paper is not just an assignment, but a commitment to continual dialog between teachers and students. Teachers as research paper coaches can explore their students’ understanding, interpretation, and synthesis of their reading, discuss their choice of sources and note taking strategies, evaluate their work incrementally, and model ethical paraphrasing and summary skills.

The research paper can be frightening, even paralyzing for some students with little or disappointing previous experiences. Teachers as coaches can make students feel comfortable taking control of the conversation and believing their voice and work are important.

By personalizing instruction to ensure student success throughout the process, and by students taking control of their work because they have important information to report, students are eager to share what they have learned. Poorly researched papers with little to say are poorly written or plagiarized.  Coached students will write papers that their teachers will want to read.

The Research Paper in the Information Age

The research paper is about information found, understood, and explained to others, a way to authentically extend the course content and purpose.

The private and public sectors consume and create carefully written research. Feasibility studies, like the possibility of marketing sausage casings in India, laboratory or field research, inquiries to determine educational, political, or banking policies—all are formats of the research paper that organizations use to make critical decisions. Before reporting new information, published reports with requisite citations and bibliography begin with what experts have already contributed to the issue.

Since this is the intellectual milieu our students will enter after graduation, they should be prepared for the complex reading, research, thinking, and writing skills they will need.

Dorothy Mikuska taught high school English including the research paper for 37 years. After retirement she formed ePen&Inc and created  PaperToolsPro , software for students to employ the literacy skills of slow, reflective reading needed to write good research papers; 8 Reasons Why Students Should Still Write Research Papers; image attribution flickr user samladner

TeachThought is an organization dedicated to innovation in education through the growth of outstanding teachers.

What Is Research, and Why Do People Do It?

• Open Access
• First Online: 03 December 2022

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• James Hiebert 6 ,
• Jinfa Cai 7 ,
• Stephen Hwang 7 ,
• Anne K Morris 6 &
• Charles Hohensee 6  

Part of the book series: Research in Mathematics Education ((RME))

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Abstractspiepr Abs1

Every day people do research as they gather information to learn about something of interest. In the scientific world, however, research means something different than simply gathering information. Scientific research is characterized by its careful planning and observing, by its relentless efforts to understand and explain, and by its commitment to learn from everyone else seriously engaged in research. We call this kind of research scientific inquiry and define it as “formulating, testing, and revising hypotheses.” By “hypotheses” we do not mean the hypotheses you encounter in statistics courses. We mean predictions about what you expect to find and rationales for why you made these predictions. Throughout this and the remaining chapters we make clear that the process of scientific inquiry applies to all kinds of research studies and data, both qualitative and quantitative.

You have full access to this open access chapter,  Download chapter PDF

Part I. What Is Research?

Have you ever studied something carefully because you wanted to know more about it? Maybe you wanted to know more about your grandmother’s life when she was younger so you asked her to tell you stories from her childhood, or maybe you wanted to know more about a fertilizer you were about to use in your garden so you read the ingredients on the package and looked them up online. According to the dictionary definition, you were doing research.

Recall your high school assignments asking you to “research” a topic. The assignment likely included consulting a variety of sources that discussed the topic, perhaps including some “original” sources. Often, the teacher referred to your product as a “research paper.”

Were you conducting research when you interviewed your grandmother or wrote high school papers reviewing a particular topic? Our view is that you were engaged in part of the research process, but only a small part. In this book, we reserve the word “research” for what it means in the scientific world, that is, for scientific research or, more pointedly, for scientific inquiry .

Exercise 1.1

Before you read any further, write a definition of what you think scientific inquiry is. Keep it short—Two to three sentences. You will periodically update this definition as you read this chapter and the remainder of the book.

This book is about scientific inquiry—what it is and how to do it. For starters, scientific inquiry is a process, a particular way of finding out about something that involves a number of phases. Each phase of the process constitutes one aspect of scientific inquiry. You are doing scientific inquiry as you engage in each phase, but you have not done scientific inquiry until you complete the full process. Each phase is necessary but not sufficient.

In this chapter, we set the stage by defining scientific inquiry—describing what it is and what it is not—and by discussing what it is good for and why people do it. The remaining chapters build directly on the ideas presented in this chapter.

A first thing to know is that scientific inquiry is not all or nothing. “Scientificness” is a continuum. Inquiries can be more scientific or less scientific. What makes an inquiry more scientific? You might be surprised there is no universally agreed upon answer to this question. None of the descriptors we know of are sufficient by themselves to define scientific inquiry. But all of them give you a way of thinking about some aspects of the process of scientific inquiry. Each one gives you different insights.

Exercise 1.2

As you read about each descriptor below, think about what would make an inquiry more or less scientific. If you think a descriptor is important, use it to revise your definition of scientific inquiry.

Creating an Image of Scientific Inquiry

We will present three descriptors of scientific inquiry. Each provides a different perspective and emphasizes a different aspect of scientific inquiry. We will draw on all three descriptors to compose our definition of scientific inquiry.

Descriptor 1. Experience Carefully Planned in Advance

Sir Ronald Fisher, often called the father of modern statistical design, once referred to research as “experience carefully planned in advance” (1935, p. 8). He said that humans are always learning from experience, from interacting with the world around them. Usually, this learning is haphazard rather than the result of a deliberate process carried out over an extended period of time. Research, Fisher said, was learning from experience, but experience carefully planned in advance.

This phrase can be fully appreciated by looking at each word. The fact that scientific inquiry is based on experience means that it is based on interacting with the world. These interactions could be thought of as the stuff of scientific inquiry. In addition, it is not just any experience that counts. The experience must be carefully planned . The interactions with the world must be conducted with an explicit, describable purpose, and steps must be taken to make the intended learning as likely as possible. This planning is an integral part of scientific inquiry; it is not just a preparation phase. It is one of the things that distinguishes scientific inquiry from many everyday learning experiences. Finally, these steps must be taken beforehand and the purpose of the inquiry must be articulated in advance of the experience. Clearly, scientific inquiry does not happen by accident, by just stumbling into something. Stumbling into something unexpected and interesting can happen while engaged in scientific inquiry, but learning does not depend on it and serendipity does not make the inquiry scientific.

Descriptor 2. Observing Something and Trying to Explain Why It Is the Way It Is

When we were writing this chapter and googled “scientific inquiry,” the first entry was: “Scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their work.” The emphasis is on studying, or observing, and then explaining . This descriptor takes the image of scientific inquiry beyond carefully planned experience and includes explaining what was experienced.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “explain” means “(a) to make known, (b) to make plain or understandable, (c) to give the reason or cause of, and (d) to show the logical development or relations of” (Merriam-Webster, n.d. ). We will use all these definitions. Taken together, they suggest that to explain an observation means to understand it by finding reasons (or causes) for why it is as it is. In this sense of scientific inquiry, the following are synonyms: explaining why, understanding why, and reasoning about causes and effects. Our image of scientific inquiry now includes planning, observing, and explaining why.

We need to add a final note about this descriptor. We have phrased it in a way that suggests “observing something” means you are observing something in real time—observing the way things are or the way things are changing. This is often true. But, observing could mean observing data that already have been collected, maybe by someone else making the original observations (e.g., secondary analysis of NAEP data or analysis of existing video recordings of classroom instruction). We will address secondary analyses more fully in Chap. 4 . For now, what is important is that the process requires explaining why the data look like they do.

We must note that for us, the term “data” is not limited to numerical or quantitative data such as test scores. Data can also take many nonquantitative forms, including written survey responses, interview transcripts, journal entries, video recordings of students, teachers, and classrooms, text messages, and so forth.

Exercise 1.3

What are the implications of the statement that just “observing” is not enough to count as scientific inquiry? Does this mean that a detailed description of a phenomenon is not scientific inquiry?

Find sources that define research in education that differ with our position, that say description alone, without explanation, counts as scientific research. Identify the precise points where the opinions differ. What are the best arguments for each of the positions? Which do you prefer? Why?

Descriptor 3. Updating Everyone’s Thinking in Response to More and Better Information

This descriptor focuses on a third aspect of scientific inquiry: updating and advancing the field’s understanding of phenomena that are investigated. This descriptor foregrounds a powerful characteristic of scientific inquiry: the reliability (or trustworthiness) of what is learned and the ultimate inevitability of this learning to advance human understanding of phenomena. Humans might choose not to learn from scientific inquiry, but history suggests that scientific inquiry always has the potential to advance understanding and that, eventually, humans take advantage of these new understandings.

Before exploring these bold claims a bit further, note that this descriptor uses “information” in the same way the previous two descriptors used “experience” and “observations.” These are the stuff of scientific inquiry and we will use them often, sometimes interchangeably. Frequently, we will use the term “data” to stand for all these terms.

An overriding goal of scientific inquiry is for everyone to learn from what one scientist does. Much of this book is about the methods you need to use so others have faith in what you report and can learn the same things you learned. This aspect of scientific inquiry has many implications.

One implication is that scientific inquiry is not a private practice. It is a public practice available for others to see and learn from. Notice how different this is from everyday learning. When you happen to learn something from your everyday experience, often only you gain from the experience. The fact that research is a public practice means it is also a social one. It is best conducted by interacting with others along the way: soliciting feedback at each phase, taking opportunities to present work-in-progress, and benefitting from the advice of others.

A second implication is that you, as the researcher, must be committed to sharing what you are doing and what you are learning in an open and transparent way. This allows all phases of your work to be scrutinized and critiqued. This is what gives your work credibility. The reliability or trustworthiness of your findings depends on your colleagues recognizing that you have used all appropriate methods to maximize the chances that your claims are justified by the data.

A third implication of viewing scientific inquiry as a collective enterprise is the reverse of the second—you must be committed to receiving comments from others. You must treat your colleagues as fair and honest critics even though it might sometimes feel otherwise. You must appreciate their job, which is to remain skeptical while scrutinizing what you have done in considerable detail. To provide the best help to you, they must remain skeptical about your conclusions (when, for example, the data are difficult for them to interpret) until you offer a convincing logical argument based on the information you share. A rather harsh but good-to-remember statement of the role of your friendly critics was voiced by Karl Popper, a well-known twentieth century philosopher of science: “. . . if you are interested in the problem which I tried to solve by my tentative assertion, you may help me by criticizing it as severely as you can” (Popper, 1968, p. 27).

A final implication of this third descriptor is that, as someone engaged in scientific inquiry, you have no choice but to update your thinking when the data support a different conclusion. This applies to your own data as well as to those of others. When data clearly point to a specific claim, even one that is quite different than you expected, you must reconsider your position. If the outcome is replicated multiple times, you need to adjust your thinking accordingly. Scientific inquiry does not let you pick and choose which data to believe; it mandates that everyone update their thinking when the data warrant an update.

Doing Scientific Inquiry

We define scientific inquiry in an operational sense—what does it mean to do scientific inquiry? What kind of process would satisfy all three descriptors: carefully planning an experience in advance; observing and trying to explain what you see; and, contributing to updating everyone’s thinking about an important phenomenon?

We define scientific inquiry as formulating , testing , and revising hypotheses about phenomena of interest.

Of course, we are not the only ones who define it in this way. The definition for the scientific method posted by the editors of Britannica is: “a researcher develops a hypothesis, tests it through various means, and then modifies the hypothesis on the basis of the outcome of the tests and experiments” (Britannica, n.d. ).

Notice how defining scientific inquiry this way satisfies each of the descriptors. “Carefully planning an experience in advance” is exactly what happens when formulating a hypothesis about a phenomenon of interest and thinking about how to test it. “ Observing a phenomenon” occurs when testing a hypothesis, and “ explaining ” what is found is required when revising a hypothesis based on the data. Finally, “updating everyone’s thinking” comes from comparing publicly the original with the revised hypothesis.

Doing scientific inquiry, as we have defined it, underscores the value of accumulating knowledge rather than generating random bits of knowledge. Formulating, testing, and revising hypotheses is an ongoing process, with each revised hypothesis begging for another test, whether by the same researcher or by new researchers. The editors of Britannica signaled this cyclic process by adding the following phrase to their definition of the scientific method: “The modified hypothesis is then retested, further modified, and tested again.” Scientific inquiry creates a process that encourages each study to build on the studies that have gone before. Through collective engagement in this process of building study on top of study, the scientific community works together to update its thinking.

Before exploring more fully the meaning of “formulating, testing, and revising hypotheses,” we need to acknowledge that this is not the only way researchers define research. Some researchers prefer a less formal definition, one that includes more serendipity, less planning, less explanation. You might have come across more open definitions such as “research is finding out about something.” We prefer the tighter hypothesis formulation, testing, and revision definition because we believe it provides a single, coherent map for conducting research that addresses many of the thorny problems educational researchers encounter. We believe it is the most useful orientation toward research and the most helpful to learn as a beginning researcher.

A final clarification of our definition is that it applies equally to qualitative and quantitative research. This is a familiar distinction in education that has generated much discussion. You might think our definition favors quantitative methods over qualitative methods because the language of hypothesis formulation and testing is often associated with quantitative methods. In fact, we do not favor one method over another. In Chap. 4 , we will illustrate how our definition fits research using a range of quantitative and qualitative methods.

Exercise 1.4

Look for ways to extend what the field knows in an area that has already received attention by other researchers. Specifically, you can search for a program of research carried out by more experienced researchers that has some revised hypotheses that remain untested. Identify a revised hypothesis that you might like to test.

Unpacking the Terms Formulating, Testing, and Revising Hypotheses

To get a full sense of the definition of scientific inquiry we will use throughout this book, it is helpful to spend a little time with each of the key terms.

We first want to make clear that we use the term “hypothesis” as it is defined in most dictionaries and as it used in many scientific fields rather than as it is usually defined in educational statistics courses. By “hypothesis,” we do not mean a null hypothesis that is accepted or rejected by statistical analysis. Rather, we use “hypothesis” in the sense conveyed by the following definitions: “An idea or explanation for something that is based on known facts but has not yet been proved” (Cambridge University Press, n.d. ), and “An unproved theory, proposition, or supposition, tentatively accepted to explain certain facts and to provide a basis for further investigation or argument” (Agnes & Guralnik, 2008 ).

We distinguish two parts to “hypotheses.” Hypotheses consist of predictions and rationales . Predictions are statements about what you expect to find when you inquire about something. Rationales are explanations for why you made the predictions you did, why you believe your predictions are correct. So, for us “formulating hypotheses” means making explicit predictions and developing rationales for the predictions.

“Testing hypotheses” means making observations that allow you to assess in what ways your predictions were correct and in what ways they were incorrect. In education research, it is rarely useful to think of your predictions as either right or wrong. Because of the complexity of most issues you will investigate, most predictions will be right in some ways and wrong in others.

By studying the observations you make (data you collect) to test your hypotheses, you can revise your hypotheses to better align with the observations. This means revising your predictions plus revising your rationales to justify your adjusted predictions. Even though you might not run another test, formulating revised hypotheses is an essential part of conducting a research study. Comparing your original and revised hypotheses informs everyone of what you learned by conducting your study. In addition, a revised hypothesis sets the stage for you or someone else to extend your study and accumulate more knowledge of the phenomenon.

We should note that not everyone makes a clear distinction between predictions and rationales as two aspects of hypotheses. In fact, common, non-scientific uses of the word “hypothesis” may limit it to only a prediction or only an explanation (or rationale). We choose to explicitly include both prediction and rationale in our definition of hypothesis, not because we assert this should be the universal definition, but because we want to foreground the importance of both parts acting in concert. Using “hypothesis” to represent both prediction and rationale could hide the two aspects, but we make them explicit because they provide different kinds of information. It is usually easier to make predictions than develop rationales because predictions can be guesses, hunches, or gut feelings about which you have little confidence. Developing a compelling rationale requires careful thought plus reading what other researchers have found plus talking with your colleagues. Often, while you are developing your rationale you will find good reasons to change your predictions. Developing good rationales is the engine that drives scientific inquiry. Rationales are essentially descriptions of how much you know about the phenomenon you are studying. Throughout this guide, we will elaborate on how developing good rationales drives scientific inquiry. For now, we simply note that it can sharpen your predictions and help you to interpret your data as you test your hypotheses.

Hypotheses in education research take a variety of forms or types. This is because there are a variety of phenomena that can be investigated. Investigating educational phenomena is sometimes best done using qualitative methods, sometimes using quantitative methods, and most often using mixed methods (e.g., Hay, 2016 ; Weis et al. 2019a ; Weisner, 2005 ). This means that, given our definition, hypotheses are equally applicable to qualitative and quantitative investigations.

Hypotheses take different forms when they are used to investigate different kinds of phenomena. Two very different activities in education could be labeled conducting experiments and descriptions. In an experiment, a hypothesis makes a prediction about anticipated changes, say the changes that occur when a treatment or intervention is applied. You might investigate how students’ thinking changes during a particular kind of instruction.

A second type of hypothesis, relevant for descriptive research, makes a prediction about what you will find when you investigate and describe the nature of a situation. The goal is to understand a situation as it exists rather than to understand a change from one situation to another. In this case, your prediction is what you expect to observe. Your rationale is the set of reasons for making this prediction; it is your current explanation for why the situation will look like it does.

You will probably read, if you have not already, that some researchers say you do not need a prediction to conduct a descriptive study. We will discuss this point of view in Chap. 2 . For now, we simply claim that scientific inquiry, as we have defined it, applies to all kinds of research studies. Descriptive studies, like others, not only benefit from formulating, testing, and revising hypotheses, but also need hypothesis formulating, testing, and revising.

One reason we define research as formulating, testing, and revising hypotheses is that if you think of research in this way you are less likely to go wrong. It is a useful guide for the entire process, as we will describe in detail in the chapters ahead. For example, as you build the rationale for your predictions, you are constructing the theoretical framework for your study (Chap. 3 ). As you work out the methods you will use to test your hypothesis, every decision you make will be based on asking, “Will this help me formulate or test or revise my hypothesis?” (Chap. 4 ). As you interpret the results of testing your predictions, you will compare them to what you predicted and examine the differences, focusing on how you must revise your hypotheses (Chap. 5 ). By anchoring the process to formulating, testing, and revising hypotheses, you will make smart decisions that yield a coherent and well-designed study.

Exercise 1.5

Compare the concept of formulating, testing, and revising hypotheses with the descriptions of scientific inquiry contained in Scientific Research in Education (NRC, 2002 ). How are they similar or different?

Exercise 1.6

Provide an example to illustrate and emphasize the differences between everyday learning/thinking and scientific inquiry.

Learning from Doing Scientific Inquiry

We noted earlier that a measure of what you have learned by conducting a research study is found in the differences between your original hypothesis and your revised hypothesis based on the data you collected to test your hypothesis. We will elaborate this statement in later chapters, but we preview our argument here.

Even before collecting data, scientific inquiry requires cycles of making a prediction, developing a rationale, refining your predictions, reading and studying more to strengthen your rationale, refining your predictions again, and so forth. And, even if you have run through several such cycles, you still will likely find that when you test your prediction you will be partly right and partly wrong. The results will support some parts of your predictions but not others, or the results will “kind of” support your predictions. A critical part of scientific inquiry is making sense of your results by interpreting them against your predictions. Carefully describing what aspects of your data supported your predictions, what aspects did not, and what data fell outside of any predictions is not an easy task, but you cannot learn from your study without doing this analysis.

Analyzing the matches and mismatches between your predictions and your data allows you to formulate different rationales that would have accounted for more of the data. The best revised rationale is the one that accounts for the most data. Once you have revised your rationales, you can think about the predictions they best justify or explain. It is by comparing your original rationales to your new rationales that you can sort out what you learned from your study.

Suppose your study was an experiment. Maybe you were investigating the effects of a new instructional intervention on students’ learning. Your original rationale was your explanation for why the intervention would change the learning outcomes in a particular way. Your revised rationale explained why the changes that you observed occurred like they did and why your revised predictions are better. Maybe your original rationale focused on the potential of the activities if they were implemented in ideal ways and your revised rationale included the factors that are likely to affect how teachers implement them. By comparing the before and after rationales, you are describing what you learned—what you can explain now that you could not before. Another way of saying this is that you are describing how much more you understand now than before you conducted your study.

Revised predictions based on carefully planned and collected data usually exhibit some of the following features compared with the originals: more precision, more completeness, and broader scope. Revised rationales have more explanatory power and become more complete, more aligned with the new predictions, sharper, and overall more convincing.

Part II. Why Do Educators Do Research?

Doing scientific inquiry is a lot of work. Each phase of the process takes time, and you will often cycle back to improve earlier phases as you engage in later phases. Because of the significant effort required, you should make sure your study is worth it. So, from the beginning, you should think about the purpose of your study. Why do you want to do it? And, because research is a social practice, you should also think about whether the results of your study are likely to be important and significant to the education community.

If you are doing research in the way we have described—as scientific inquiry—then one purpose of your study is to understand , not just to describe or evaluate or report. As we noted earlier, when you formulate hypotheses, you are developing rationales that explain why things might be like they are. In our view, trying to understand and explain is what separates research from other kinds of activities, like evaluating or describing.

One reason understanding is so important is that it allows researchers to see how or why something works like it does. When you see how something works, you are better able to predict how it might work in other contexts, under other conditions. And, because conditions, or contextual factors, matter a lot in education, gaining insights into applying your findings to other contexts increases the contributions of your work and its importance to the broader education community.

Consequently, the purposes of research studies in education often include the more specific aim of identifying and understanding the conditions under which the phenomena being studied work like the observations suggest. A classic example of this kind of study in mathematics education was reported by William Brownell and Harold Moser in 1949 . They were trying to establish which method of subtracting whole numbers could be taught most effectively—the regrouping method or the equal additions method. However, they realized that effectiveness might depend on the conditions under which the methods were taught—“meaningfully” versus “mechanically.” So, they designed a study that crossed the two instructional approaches with the two different methods (regrouping and equal additions). Among other results, they found that these conditions did matter. The regrouping method was more effective under the meaningful condition than the mechanical condition, but the same was not true for the equal additions algorithm.

What do education researchers want to understand? In our view, the ultimate goal of education is to offer all students the best possible learning opportunities. So, we believe the ultimate purpose of scientific inquiry in education is to develop understanding that supports the improvement of learning opportunities for all students. We say “ultimate” because there are lots of issues that must be understood to improve learning opportunities for all students. Hypotheses about many aspects of education are connected, ultimately, to students’ learning. For example, formulating and testing a hypothesis that preservice teachers need to engage in particular kinds of activities in their coursework in order to teach particular topics well is, ultimately, connected to improving students’ learning opportunities. So is hypothesizing that school districts often devote relatively few resources to instructional leadership training or hypothesizing that positioning mathematics as a tool students can use to combat social injustice can help students see the relevance of mathematics to their lives.

We do not exclude the importance of research on educational issues more removed from improving students’ learning opportunities, but we do think the argument for their importance will be more difficult to make. If there is no way to imagine a connection between your hypothesis and improving learning opportunities for students, even a distant connection, we recommend you reconsider whether it is an important hypothesis within the education community.

Notice that we said the ultimate goal of education is to offer all students the best possible learning opportunities. For too long, educators have been satisfied with a goal of offering rich learning opportunities for lots of students, sometimes even for just the majority of students, but not necessarily for all students. Evaluations of success often are based on outcomes that show high averages. In other words, if many students have learned something, or even a smaller number have learned a lot, educators may have been satisfied. The problem is that there is usually a pattern in the groups of students who receive lower quality opportunities—students of color and students who live in poor areas, urban and rural. This is not acceptable. Consequently, we emphasize the premise that the purpose of education research is to offer rich learning opportunities to all students.

One way to make sure you will be able to convince others of the importance of your study is to consider investigating some aspect of teachers’ shared instructional problems. Historically, researchers in education have set their own research agendas, regardless of the problems teachers are facing in schools. It is increasingly recognized that teachers have had trouble applying to their own classrooms what researchers find. To address this problem, a researcher could partner with a teacher—better yet, a small group of teachers—and talk with them about instructional problems they all share. These discussions can create a rich pool of problems researchers can consider. If researchers pursued one of these problems (preferably alongside teachers), the connection to improving learning opportunities for all students could be direct and immediate. “Grounding a research question in instructional problems that are experienced across multiple teachers’ classrooms helps to ensure that the answer to the question will be of sufficient scope to be relevant and significant beyond the local context” (Cai et al., 2019b , p. 115).

As a beginning researcher, determining the relevance and importance of a research problem is especially challenging. We recommend talking with advisors, other experienced researchers, and peers to test the educational importance of possible research problems and topics of study. You will also learn much more about the issue of research importance when you read Chap. 5 .

Exercise 1.7

Identify a problem in education that is closely connected to improving learning opportunities and a problem that has a less close connection. For each problem, write a brief argument (like a logical sequence of if-then statements) that connects the problem to all students’ learning opportunities.

Part III. Conducting Research as a Practice of Failing Productively

Scientific inquiry involves formulating hypotheses about phenomena that are not fully understood—by you or anyone else. Even if you are able to inform your hypotheses with lots of knowledge that has already been accumulated, you are likely to find that your prediction is not entirely accurate. This is normal. Remember, scientific inquiry is a process of constantly updating your thinking. More and better information means revising your thinking, again, and again, and again. Because you never fully understand a complicated phenomenon and your hypotheses never produce completely accurate predictions, it is easy to believe you are somehow failing.

The trick is to fail upward, to fail to predict accurately in ways that inform your next hypothesis so you can make a better prediction. Some of the best-known researchers in education have been open and honest about the many times their predictions were wrong and, based on the results of their studies and those of others, they continuously updated their thinking and changed their hypotheses.

A striking example of publicly revising (actually reversing) hypotheses due to incorrect predictions is found in the work of Lee J. Cronbach, one of the most distinguished educational psychologists of the twentieth century. In 1955, Cronbach delivered his presidential address to the American Psychological Association. Titling it “Two Disciplines of Scientific Psychology,” Cronbach proposed a rapprochement between two research approaches—correlational studies that focused on individual differences and experimental studies that focused on instructional treatments controlling for individual differences. (We will examine different research approaches in Chap. 4 ). If these approaches could be brought together, reasoned Cronbach ( 1957 ), researchers could find interactions between individual characteristics and treatments (aptitude-treatment interactions or ATIs), fitting the best treatments to different individuals.

In 1975, after years of research by many researchers looking for ATIs, Cronbach acknowledged the evidence for simple, useful ATIs had not been found. Even when trying to find interactions between a few variables that could provide instructional guidance, the analysis, said Cronbach, creates “a hall of mirrors that extends to infinity, tormenting even the boldest investigators and defeating even ambitious designs” (Cronbach, 1975 , p. 119).

As he was reflecting back on his work, Cronbach ( 1986 ) recommended moving away from documenting instructional effects through statistical inference (an approach he had championed for much of his career) and toward approaches that probe the reasons for these effects, approaches that provide a “full account of events in a time, place, and context” (Cronbach, 1986 , p. 104). This is a remarkable change in hypotheses, a change based on data and made fully transparent. Cronbach understood the value of failing productively.

Closer to home, in a less dramatic example, one of us began a line of scientific inquiry into how to prepare elementary preservice teachers to teach early algebra. Teaching early algebra meant engaging elementary students in early forms of algebraic reasoning. Such reasoning should help them transition from arithmetic to algebra. To begin this line of inquiry, a set of activities for preservice teachers were developed. Even though the activities were based on well-supported hypotheses, they largely failed to engage preservice teachers as predicted because of unanticipated challenges the preservice teachers faced. To capitalize on this failure, follow-up studies were conducted, first to better understand elementary preservice teachers’ challenges with preparing to teach early algebra, and then to better support preservice teachers in navigating these challenges. In this example, the initial failure was a necessary step in the researchers’ scientific inquiry and furthered the researchers’ understanding of this issue.

We present another example of failing productively in Chap. 2 . That example emerges from recounting the history of a well-known research program in mathematics education.

Making mistakes is an inherent part of doing scientific research. Conducting a study is rarely a smooth path from beginning to end. We recommend that you keep the following things in mind as you begin a career of conducting research in education.

First, do not get discouraged when you make mistakes; do not fall into the trap of feeling like you are not capable of doing research because you make too many errors.

Second, learn from your mistakes. Do not ignore your mistakes or treat them as errors that you simply need to forget and move past. Mistakes are rich sites for learning—in research just as in other fields of study.

Third, by reflecting on your mistakes, you can learn to make better mistakes, mistakes that inform you about a productive next step. You will not be able to eliminate your mistakes, but you can set a goal of making better and better mistakes.

Exercise 1.8

How does scientific inquiry differ from everyday learning in giving you the tools to fail upward? You may find helpful perspectives on this question in other resources on science and scientific inquiry (e.g., Failure: Why Science is So Successful by Firestein, 2015).

Exercise 1.9

Use what you have learned in this chapter to write a new definition of scientific inquiry. Compare this definition with the one you wrote before reading this chapter. If you are reading this book as part of a course, compare your definition with your colleagues’ definitions. Develop a consensus definition with everyone in the course.

Part IV. Preview of Chap. 2

Now that you have a good idea of what research is, at least of what we believe research is, the next step is to think about how to actually begin doing research. This means how to begin formulating, testing, and revising hypotheses. As for all phases of scientific inquiry, there are lots of things to think about. Because it is critical to start well, we devote Chap. 2 to getting started with formulating hypotheses.

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Hiebert, J., Cai, J., Hwang, S., Morris, A.K., Hohensee, C. (2023). What Is Research, and Why Do People Do It?. In: Doing Research: A New Researcher’s Guide. Research in Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19078-0_1

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National Research Council (US) Committee on Responsibilities of Authorship in the Biological Sciences. Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2003.

Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences.

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2 The Purpose of Publication and Responsibilities for Sharing

• THE TRADITION OF SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION

The roots of scholarly scientific publishing can be traced to 1665, when Henry Oldenburg of the British Royal Society established the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society . Oldenburg was motivated, in part, by a desire to remove himself as diplomatic interlocutor between the dispersed, independent scientists of the time with whom he communicated individually. The aim of the new publication was to create a public record of original contributions to knowledge and to encourage scientists to “speak” directly to one another. By providing intellectual credit publicly for innovative claims in natural philosophy, the journal encouraged scientists to disclose knowledge that they might otherwise have kept secret.

The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society created a sense of competition among scientists to be the first to publish a new scientific finding, an incentive that is continued in modern scientific journals. If the journal is a prominent one, publication endows the author with an extra measure of prestige. In addition, as Cell editor Vivian Siegel and other workshop participants noted, publications also yield indirect rewards. For example, they affect a researcher's job prospects and ability to be promoted or gain tenure. Publishing a scientific paper can result in fruitful new scientific collaborations, including financially profitable arrangements for authors in academe, as a result of commercial overtures for collaboration or consultancy.

Publishing also holds some risks for an author. Competitors might use results presented in a paper to advance their own research and “scoop” the original author in future publications. The careers of young scientists might be particularly vulnerable to having prospective research “picked off” by others. (However, if a researcher chooses not to publish his or her results or chooses to delay publication, someone else might publish the same findings first and receive the credit.) Another risk associated with publishing is that other researchers will use information presented in a paper to invalidate or question the author's own findings, and publish conflicting results.

Are the benefits and risks of publishing any different for companies whose investigators publish than those for academic scientists? It was pointed out at the workshop that companies whose scientists publish their findings typically receive the intellectual credit, recognition, and prestige that come with such disclosure to the entire scientific community. Such nonfinancial benefits can translate into increased publicity and increased perceived value of a company to potential investors and business partners. They also strengthen the scientific reputation of companies in the eyes of potential collaborators. By encouraging others to use their methods and materials, companies can develop a net of researchers who are extolling and extending the value of the technology that the company has published. Moreover, companies that encourage their investigators to publish are attractive to employees or potential employees who wish to build and maintain their publication record, either in anticipation of someday returning to academe, as a vehicle for facilitating their participation in and recognition by their peer scientific community, or in buttressing their own career prospects within the company.

For a for-profit research entity, publication also carries financial risks. By revealing proprietary data or other trade secrets, publishing may harm a company's competitiveness in the marketplace and thus endanger the return to investors. A competitor might use information disclosed in a scientific paper to develop a competing product or otherwise gain commercial advantage or to discredit the product claims of the company making the disclosure.

While companies whose scientists publish may worry about their competitive edge in the commercial market, researchers in academe worry about gaining a competitive edge in the rewards process and about getting their research grants renewed. Where academics are rewarded by priority, “fame,” and career advancement, companies whose investigators publish receive benefits in terms of visibility, public relations, and validation. Although there are different tradeoffs involved in publishing, in practice, researchers from these two worlds often have similar goals and are motivated by common incentives. Their common interests converge in the forum of scientific publication.

• PUBLISHING AND COMMUNITY STANDARDS

By facilitating communication between individuals who had worked in isolation from one another, the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society also contributed to the development of a scientific community. As a result, modern journals do more than simply register the intellectual accomplishments of individual scientists; they record a collective body of knowledge. Journals are a centerpiece of the scientific enterprise and serve as a focal point for the description of scientific results. Journal articles supply information that helps scientists to develop new hypotheses, and they provide a foundation on which new scientific discoveries and inventions are built. As Eric Lander noted at the workshop, “science is fundamentally a cumulative enterprise. Each new discovery plays the role of one more brick in an edifice.” Authors cite previously published papers to make a case for their conclusions that is based on a combination of previously documented scientific evidence and the new information they have gathered. Scientific journals, many established by learned societies, provide a forum for a continuing dialogue of sorts, as authors discuss findings that add new pieces to others' previously published results or announce alternative conclusions to those made by other authors or contradict them. Science moves forward in this way.

Because publication is central to the activity of the scientific community, and consequently, to scientific progress, principles and standards that govern an author's responsibilities related to publication have always been paramount. As the 1992 National Research Council report Responsible Science observed, “For centuries scientists have relied on each other, on the self correcting mechanisms intrinsic to the nature of science, and on the traditions of their community to safeguard the integrity of the research process. This approach has been successful largely because of the widespread acknowledgement that science cannot work otherwise, and also because high standards and reputation are important to scientists” ( NRC, 1992 ).

Because standards related to publication are so important to the functioning of the community, calls for the publication system to adapt to the different risks of publication to scientists working in different circumstances are not easily implemented. Chapter 5 addresses specific arguments related to exceptions, but in general, applying a standard to some authors and not others weakens the incentive of distinction that has attracted scientists since Oldenburg's day to publish publicly in a journal. When exceptions to the community standard are sought and granted, there is a danger that the value of publishing is diminished, not only for the author who requests an exception, but for the entire community. Moreover, if the same standard does not apply to all authors, then the community cannot assume that the quality of scientific papers and the information they purport to represent is reliable. That jeopardizes the integrity of the publication system.

That is not to say that publication-related community standards are insensitive to other important societal interests, such as protecting the identities of research subjects. Measures to protect that information do affect how data are reported and made available to other investigators; nevertheless, the community has striven to find ways to maximize the availability of relevant data without compromising privacy.

A current topic of discussion in the scientific community is the possibility that published information in the life sciences will be exploited by bioterrorists. It is too early to say where those discussions will lead, but current community standards abide by regulations on access to some research materials (for example, radioisotopes, explosives, controlled substances, and pathogens) for good reason. If additional safeguards are found to be necessary in providing access to research data and materials, the community must make accommodations for them.

Similarly, the community complies with prohibitions imposed by some nations on the distribution of biological materials and organisms collected in those countries. Biological materials that are paleontological, archeological, or anthropological in nature, and sometimes samples of organisms, may by national law be required to be deposited in the country of origin, and even when material is allowed to be exported, there are often legal restrictions on its subsequent distribution and use. For example, the commercial use of such samples may be prohibited or restricted. Nonetheless, all such material is made fully available for study at the repository, and not normally under the control of the authors who published results derived from studying it. The details of the results of the original study, and images, DNA sequences, and other information derived from the specimens, are also made available.

The principles and standards of scientific publication are also consistent with society's interest in the applications of scientific knowledge and their economic and other benefits. An author who publishes a paper is expected to share materials related to that publication to other scientists for research purposes, but that does not prevent an author from seeking intellectual property rights protection in order to realize the commercial value of those materials. To encourage the disclosure of scientific information, the patent system bestows inventors of a novel, nonobvious, and useful innovation with the right, for a limited time, to prevent others from making or using that innovation, unless licensed to do so. Scientific publication provides no such incentive, but to the contrary, encourages other scientists to use and integrate into new research those things described in a scientific publication. An author who publishes a scientific paper describing a patented process, for example, may have a legal right to prevent others from using it, but the scientific community holds the expectation that an author will make available a license to use that process for research. From a social perspective, the two systems are complementary: patenting fosters the commercialization of ideas; scientific publication communicates the ideas that build the edifice of science. Scientific publications also influence the issuance of patent rights by defining the landscape of the “prior art” and “obviousness” criteria used in assessing the novelty of putative patent claims.

• JOURNAL POLICIES AND COMMUNITY STANDARDS

Journals have their own policies that describe an author's responsibilities related to publication and sharing publication-related data and materials. Publishers of journals include for-profit companies and not-for-profit enterprises, such as university presses, scientific societies, and associations, and each publisher is motivated by the intellectual objectives and fiduciary responsibilities of its own constituencies. Journal editors often compete for papers that increase the impact and standing of their journals in the scientific community and their mass media coverage. On occasion, journal editors have been willing to make exceptions to their usual policies on data sharing in return for the opportunity to publish a paper they believe will be of high impact in the scientific community and, increasingly, in the general public.

The extent to which journals state their policies for the sharing of materials and data is highly variable ( Table 2-1 ). That variability and the diverse nature of journals might suggest that common principles and standards do not exist. But even the stated policies of journals do not capture what are generally recognized as accepted practices and expectations of the community. For example, most journals today explicitly require that authors provide enough detail about their materials and methods to allow a qualified reader to replicate all experimental procedures. A logical, often implicit, extension of that requirement is that authors must make available the data and materials needed for others to verify or refute the findings reported in a paper. Thus, for example, in a paper citing genetic results from one or a series of organisms, voucher specimens should be cited and deposited in an appropriate public repository where the identity of the organisms can be checked by subsequent workers (with the obvious exception of well-known and easily-available strains). Insofar that scientific publication is central to the forward progress of the scientific community, it is presumed that an author must provide data and materials in a way that others can build on them. These widely held expectations are not necessarily incorporated in current journal policies.

Policies of 56 Most Frequently Cited Life-Science and Medical Journals.

• THE PRINCIPLES OF PUBLICATION

At the workshop and in its deliberations, the committee attempted to distill the community's most basic interests in the process of publication. It found that a majority of the scientific community held common ideas and values about publication and the role it plays in science, and that those ideas have guided the development of community standards that facilitate the use of scientific information and ensure its quality. Central to those ideas is a concept the committee called “the uniform principle for sharing integral data and materials expeditiously (UPSIDE),” as follows:

Community standards for sharing publication-related data and materials should flow from the general principle that the fundamental purpose of publication of scientific information is to move science forward. More specifically, the act of publishing is a quid pro quo in which authors receive credit and acknowledgment in exchange for disclosure of their scientific findings. An author's obligation is not only to release data and materials to enable others to verify or replicate published findings (as journals already implicitly or explicitly require) but also to provide them in a form on which other scientists can build with further research. All members of the scientific community—whether working in academia, government, or commercial enterprise—share responsibility for upholding community standards as equal participants in the publication system, and all should be equally able to derive benefits from it.

Along with UPSIDE, five additional principles guide the development and implementation of community standards. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss those principles and the nuances of how they are embodied in examples of community standards for sharing data, software, and materials. New community standards are likely to evolve as science itself changes, but the principles remain a fundamental underpinning of the their development. The principles motivate the creation of standards that maximize the value of scientific findings to the community, because this has proved to be the way that science progresses most rapidly. In addition to the principles of publication, Chapters 3 and 4 include the Committee's recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of community standards for sharing data and materials.

• Cite this Page National Research Council (US) Committee on Responsibilities of Authorship in the Biological Sciences. Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2003. 2, The Purpose of Publication and Responsibilities for Sharing.
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How to effectively explain why my research is important?

I gave a presentation on my PhD research at university last week, and it was criticised for lacking practical significance. A different comment suggested the presentation was not placed in context. Could somebody provide some advice on how to place research in context and convey its practical significance? How can I effectively assess who/what/where/when will see the benefits of my research?

• 8 <rant>It is annoying that (in general in academia) you are forced to say that your research is significant. So it is... (which is hard to tell before) or you make it up.</rant> –  Piotr Migdal Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 7:17
• 1 @Piotr Migdal: I disagree with you. What I find annoying is two things: that there seems to be little place for fondamental research, and that in response fondamental researchers lie about their motivations to make it look more applied than it is. But one should be able to explain at least why she is interested in the question she worked out for years, and this has to be related to some sort of significance. –  Benoît Kloeckner Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 7:45
• 9 @BenoîtKloeckner Actually, I agree with you. The question "Why do you consider this topic worth investigating?" is crucial (and when it is a PhD student is is usually not yet possible to judge significance, without story-telling). But when it comes to "practical significance"... well, for fundamental research (as opposed to applied, or - engineering) it almost certainly not cure cancer, solve environmental problems and create a quantum computer (and again, Roentgen didn't work on "saving millions of lives with better diagnostics" - he was just working on a potentially fruitful thing). –  Piotr Migdal Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 12:17
• I have similar issue but with my advisor. He always asks me for applications (applied scenarios) for my research ideas. I believe its out there but I do not know what's the name of it. I either come up with application from my little head or the whole paper will be screwed. –  seteropere Commented Jul 5, 2013 at 4:34

3 Answers 3

Ask yourself a number of questions:

• Why am I doing the research?
• What problem am I solving?
• Why should anyone else by interested in this research?
• How can my results help solve someone else's problem?

The first two questions will help you understand what you are doing from your own personal perspective, as well as establishing the context of the work. The latter two will help you establish why someone else would be interested in your work.

In short, ask What? and So what? about your work.

• 3 I think that for many PhD students the answer to the first question is "because my supervisor picked this project for me"... Of course, the real reason is never stated publicly... –  Nick S Commented Oct 20, 2016 at 0:49

Definitely, your advisor is the person who should help you most with this question, so make sure you talk to her.

With this disclaimer, I would like to distinguish two things: the good and the bad way to justify the significance of your research. To be clear, good and bad are personal (but motivated) judgments and are not related with what will please people asking you that question, but with what is sane argument.

Let's start with the bad way:

this is the most important thing and most others are specialization of it: giving false but vaguely plausible reasons to study what you studied, hopping to reach other's expectations,

claiming applications that are often claimed in the area, or vaguely related but at best very long term applications (e.g. "my study of cell migration is crucial for understanding metastases, so it will help cure Cancer"; this works with any fondamental research in cell biology),

name-dropping (e.g. "Nobel Prize Trucmuche has studied this 20 years ago, so surely that must be interesting"),

generalization for the sake of generalization -applies maybe mostly to maths, but applies a lot there- (e.g. "Finsler geometry is a generalization of Riemannian geometry, so surely it is interesting").

lacking any clue (e.g. "My advisor told me to do it, so I did"). If you don't know why you are doing what you do, at some point you should find out or change subject.

Note that 1. is very, very often seen in grant application, and it might be impossible in some cases to apply successfully without resorting to this kind of argument. This does not make it a good argument; we should be as thorough in assessing the relevance of our research than we are in assessing our research result.

Now the good way:

this is the most important thing and all others are specialization of it: explaining the reasons why you where interested in the project, why you find it fascinating or interesting,

giving perspective applications that sincerely did motivate your work , either from start or that you realized during the research process. This may not exist, which is not (rather, should not be) an issue, at least in fondamental research,

placing your research in context: how it relates to what has been done before, to which previously raised question it answers, which previously held beliefs it contradicts,

explaining how it generalizes previous work to meaningful, existing examples (e.g. "My theorem on Finsler geometry explains such and such features of Hilbert geometry"),

explain the perspectives opened by your work (e.g. "if we believe this principle applies even more generally, then we can hope to use my methods to understand such and such important phenomenons"),

explain why it is fun (e.g. "look at this dancing corn starch: weird, huh?")

Without knowing your actual field of research, here are some general pointers (by no means, is this an exhaustive list):

Research and find other papers based on or is similar to your work, this will give a bit of a basis for the practical context.

From reading of papers, try and define a gap where your research may help with.

Ask your supervisor/advisor for advice in this, employ their help in defining the context.

• 1 "From reading of papers, try and define a gap where your research may help with." This seems to go backward: you do research because you noticed a gap in what we know, not the other way round. –  Benoît Kloeckner Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 7:46
• Doesn't hurt to find further evidence for this, particularly in a practical sense. –  user7130 Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 7:59
• 3 @Benoit: Maybe in an ideal sense, but I think many PhD students start marching down their research path because their advisor has noticed that gap; I don't know how many students find that gap on their own. That's why I like the third suggestion here the most. –  J.R. Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 10:37
• 1 @J.R.: sure, but then the advisor can point out the gap, and at some point the graduate student must understand the motivation by herself. –  Benoît Kloeckner Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 14:23

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Research Voyage

Research Tips and Infromation

10 Key Steps for Effectively Reading Research Papers

Imagine entering a world where knowledge grows through discoveries and fresh ideas. This world is built upon research papers, which are like puzzle pieces that fit together to show us new things. But these papers can also be a bit tricky to understand, especially if you’re just starting out, just like I did.

I know what it’s like. I’ve been there, too. Back when I was beginning my journey as a researcher, research papers seemed like a puzzle with missing pieces. The words were complex, and the ideas often felt like they were written in another language. It was a challenge that felt overwhelming.

But, I didn’t give up. With each paper I tackled, and with each moment of confusion, I learned and grew. I sought guidance from my research supervisor and shared thoughts with my peers. Slowly but surely, I began to see a pattern emerge. The more I practised, the more I understood. The more I discussed, the more my perspective expanded.

And you know what? With time, reading research papers became second nature. What once took me hours to grasp, now only took minutes. The complex language transformed into meaningful insights, and the overwhelming feeling turned into excitement. It was a journey of transformation—from a struggling beginner to a confident researcher.

That’s why I’m here now, to guide you through this journey. Together, we’ll discover how to make reading research papers less scary and more enjoyable. Just like how I turned those initial struggles into a success story, you too can learn to conquer the challenge.

In the coming sections, we’ll break down the process into simple steps. We’ll learn how to pick the right papers for you, figure out what they’re saying, and make sense of the tricky parts. We’ll also explore how to understand why the research is important, have good conversations about it, and develop skills that make reading these papers feel easier.

Get ready to step into a world where research papers aren’t obstacles, but pathways to exciting knowledge. No matter if you’re new to this or already have some experience, these tips, combined with my personal experience, will give you the power to read, understand, and engage with research papers in a way that makes you excited to learn.

So, let’s start this journey together—a journey that will change how you see research papers and make your learning more exciting, one step at a time.

Statistics Related to Reading Research Papers

I. choosing the right papers, ii. skimming for structure and main points, iii. understanding the context, iv. breaking down the paper, v. analyzing visual aids, vi. tackling technical jargon, vii. taking notes and summarizing.

• VIII. Reflecting on the Paper's Significance

IX. Ethical Considerations while Reading Research Papers

X. additional resources.

• Before You Close.....

Introduction

Research papers are like treasure maps in the world of knowledge. They hold the keys to new discoveries, innovative ideas, and insights that can change the way we understand the world. In the world of academia and research, these papers are the building blocks that help us explore uncharted territories and expand the boundaries of human understanding.

Imagine you’re a student embarking on a journey to explore a new topic, a researcher aiming to solve a complex problem, or an aspiring academic trying to contribute to your field. In each of these scenarios, research papers become your compass, guiding you through the vast sea of information. Whether they’re given to you by your mentors, discovered through your own curiosity, or sought out during your own research, research papers become your companions on this intellectual journey.

However, for many, the prospect of delving into a research paper can be overwhelming. Beginners often find themselves facing a maze of complex language, intricate ideas, and technical terms that might seem like a language of its own. The fear of not understanding everything, the uncertainty of where to start, and the sheer volume of information can create a sense of hesitation and apprehension.

Example: Imagine Sarah, a student who has just started her graduate studies. Her research advisor hands her a research paper related to her field and asks her to read and understand it. Sarah feels excited about the opportunity but also nervous because the paper seems full of unfamiliar terms and concepts.

In this scenario, Sarah’s experience is quite common. Many students and researchers, especially those new to a specific field, face similar challenges when approaching research papers. The paper might seem like a puzzle with missing pieces, and the academic language used can feel like a barrier to entry.

Knowing how to read a research paper is essential for anyone who wants to stay informed about the latest developments in their field of interest. Research papers are a primary source of information in academia and other professional settings, and they provide readers with insights into the latest research findings, theories, and ideas.

Being able to read and understand research papers allows individuals to stay up-to-date with current knowledge in their field, make informed decisions, and contribute to the advancement of their field.

Knowing how to read research papers is important for students and researchers, as it enables them to conduct research thoroughly and effectively. By learning how to read research papers critically, individuals can evaluate the quality and relevance of research studies and use this knowledge to inform their research projects.

A research paper is a document that presents the results of an original study or investigation. It is typically written by researchers or scholars in a specific field and is published in academic journals, conference proceedings, or other scholarly publications.

Research papers typically follow a specific format, including an introduction that outlines the research question, a methodology section that describes the study’s design and data collection methods, a results section that presents the findings, a discussion section that interprets the results and discusses their implications, and a conclusion that summarizes the main points of the study.

Research papers are used to communicate new knowledge and insights to other researchers, scholars, and professionals in a specific field. They are also used to advance knowledge and understanding in a given area, as well as to inform policy and decision-making.

• According to a survey of more than 4,000 researchers conducted by Nature in 2016, the average researcher reads about 22 papers per month or roughly 264 papers per year.
• Another survey of researchers published in PLOS ONE in 2018 found that respondents spent an average of 50 hours per week working on research-related tasks, with 11.1 hours per week dedicated specifically to reading and keeping up with the literature.
• A study published in the journal Research Policy in 2019 found that researchers in the social sciences and humanities tend to read more widely and less deeply than their peers in the natural sciences, likely due to differences in the types of research questions being addressed.
• A survey of graduate students conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that the most common challenges students face when reading research papers include difficulty understanding technical jargon, managing time effectively, and staying motivated.

Throughout this article, we will explore how to transform this initial uncertainty into confidence and joy. We’ll learn how to break down research papers, make sense of complex terms, and find the golden nuggets of knowledge hidden within. By the end, readers like Sarah will not only have a clearer understanding of how to approach research papers but will also feel empowered to navigate the academic landscape with enthusiasm.

So, let’s begin our journey of unravelling the mysteries of research papers and discovering how to read them with confidence and enjoyment.

Steps to Read the Research Paper

Imagine you’re in a library filled with books on various topics. Some of these books are exactly what you’re looking for, while others might not be as helpful. Just like in that library, when it comes to research papers, choosing the right ones can make a big difference in your journey of exploration and learning.

Example: Let’s meet Alex, a researcher passionate about environmental issues. He’s been assigned a project on sustainable energy solutions. Alex’s research supervisor hands him a stack of research papers related to renewable energy technologies. At first, Alex feels overwhelmed by the number of papers and isn’t sure where to begin.

In this scenario, Alex’s situation is quite common. The research supervisor has already put effort into collecting papers that are relevant to the project’s goals. These papers serve as a starting point, like a roadmap that guides Alex in the right direction.

Choosing the right research papers is crucial because it helps you focus your efforts on the information that matters most to you. Whether you’re assigned a set of papers or have the freedom to choose, opting for those that match your interests or project goals will keep you engaged and motivated. Just like Alex, who cares about sustainable energy, you’ll find that reading papers aligned with your passions makes the process more exciting and meaningful.

When faced with a pile of papers, it’s important to sort out the ones that will provide the most valuable insights. Start by reading the titles, abstracts, and keywords. These give you an idea of what the paper is about. Look for keywords that match your topic of interest. Additionally, consider the reputation of the journals or conferences where the papers were published. Papers from well-respected sources often carry more credibility.

Example: Going back to Alex, he starts by looking at the titles and abstracts of the research papers his supervisor provided. He identifies keywords like “renewable energy,” “solar panels,” and “wind turbines,” which are directly related to his project on sustainable energy solutions. He also notices that many of these papers were published in reputable journals known for their expertise in the field.

By selecting papers that resonate with his interests and project goals, and by using strategies like scanning titles and assessing credibility, Alex can narrow down his choices to the most relevant and reliable sources. This not only saves him time but also sets him up for a more productive and focused reading experience.

Imagine you’re exploring a new place. You start by looking at a map to get a sense of where things are located and what’s interesting to see. Similarly, when you approach a research paper, skimming through key sections is like looking at a map that helps you understand the paper’s structure and main ideas without diving into every detail.

Example: Meet Mia, a student assigned a research paper on the effects of climate change on marine life. She’s new to the topic and feels a bit overwhelmed by the paper’s length and technical terms.

Mia starts by reading the abstract, which is a summary of the paper’s main points. She also looks at the introduction to understand the context and the problem the paper addresses. Next, she jumps to the conclusion to see what the researchers have found. She pays attention to headings and subheadings, which give her a roadmap of the paper’s organization. Skimming helps her get a quick overview before she dives into the details.

Just like Mia, when you skim through a research paper’s key sections, you’re getting a sneak peek into its structure. The abstract gives you a concise summary of what the paper is about, the introduction sets the stage, and the conclusion tells you what the researchers discovered. Headings and subheadings guide you through the paper’s flow.

By skimming, you’re not reading every word but getting a feel for the paper’s main ideas and where they’re located. This approach lays the foundation for a better understanding when you start reading more carefully. It’s like looking at the map before you explore a new place—skimming gives you a sense of direction and helps you navigate the paper more effectively.

Mia’s skimming process has allowed her to gather essential keywords and main points without diving into the details. This approach provides her with a roadmap for deeper exploration and helps her understand the paper’s main ideas.

Imagine you’re reading a novel, and you come across a reference to an event that happened earlier in the story. To fully understand the significance of that reference, you need to know what happened before. Similarly, when reading a research paper, understanding the context is like unlocking the backstory—it helps you grasp the bigger picture and appreciate the paper’s contributions.

Example: Let’s meet Jake, a student researching the effects of technology on human communication. He’s reading a research paper titled “Social Media’s Impact on Interpersonal Relationships.” The paper cites several other studies and references related to technology and communication.

Jake realizes that to fully comprehend the paper’s arguments and findings, he must dig deeper into the references mentioned. These references provide the foundation on which the current paper is built. By investigating the cited studies, Jake can explore how other researchers have contributed to the field, gaining insight into the ongoing conversation about technology’s influence on human relationships.

As Jake delves into the cited references and related works, he begins to see the broader landscape in which this paper fits. Understanding the context allows him to appreciate the paper’s significance—how it builds upon existing knowledge, addresses gaps, or presents new insights. It’s like putting together puzzle pieces; each reference contributes to a clearer understanding of the whole picture. This awareness enhances Jake’s ability to evaluate the paper critically and engage in meaningful discussions about its findings.

Imagine you’re hiking up a mountain. You wouldn’t try to reach the summit in one go; you’d take it step by step, pausing to catch your breath and take in the view. Similarly, breaking down a research paper into manageable sections is the key to a successful climb toward understanding. It’s a journey of discovery that requires pacing and reflection.

Example: Let’s follow Emily, a student tackling a paper on “The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare.” The paper is lengthy and full of technical jargon.

Emily decides to divide the paper into sections for more focused reading. She starts with the introduction to understand the paper’s purpose and scope. Then, she moves to the methodology to grasp how the research was conducted. Next, she explores the results to see what was found. Finally, she reads the discussion to understand the implications and interpretations.

• Introduction: Emily begins by reading the introduction. Here, she expects to find the research question or hypothesis, the significance of the study, and the broader context of the topic. Understanding the introduction sets the foundation for comprehending the paper’s goals and scope.
• Methodology: Moving on to the methodology section, Emily looks for information on how the research was conducted. This includes details about the study design, data collection methods, and any tools or techniques used. Understanding the methodology helps Emily assess the study’s reliability and validity.
• Results: Emily then delves into the results section. Here, she expects to find the findings of the research presented in a structured manner—often through tables, graphs, or statistical analyses. This section allows Emily to understand the outcomes of the study.
• Discussion: Lastly, Emily explores the discussion section. In this part of the paper, the researchers interpret the results, relate them to existing literature, and discuss the implications of their findings. Emily gains insight into the broader context of the study and how it contributes to the field.

Throughout this step-by-step approach, Emily methodically breaks down each section of the paper, extracting valuable information and insights. This process enables her to comprehend the paper’s content deeply and connect the dots between its different components.

Emily recognizes the importance of taking breaks between each section. After reading the introduction, she takes a moment to think about the main points and how they connect. During her break, she might jot down any questions that arise or thoughts about the paper’s direction. This reflective pause helps Emily process the information and prepare her mind for the next section.

By adopting this approach, Emily doesn’t rush through the paper. She takes her time to break it down into manageable pieces, allowing her to understand each part thoroughly before moving on. Taking breaks between sections ensures that Emily retains valuable information and maintains a clear perspective as she progresses through the paper.

Visual aids—such as figures, graphs, and tables—are like guideposts on a journey through a research paper. They help navigate complex information, making it more accessible and understandable. Just as a map illustrates the terrain of a new place, visual aids illustrate the landscape of data and findings in a research paper. Learning how to interpret and analyze these visual aids is an essential skill for unravelling intricate details.

Example: Meet Alex, a student delving into a paper titled “Climate Change Trends: A Comparative Analysis.” This paper contains multiple graphs and tables depicting temperature changes over time.

Alex recognizes that visual aids play a crucial role in making complex information comprehensible. Graphs and tables visually represent data trends, making patterns and relationships evident at a glance. These aids condense vast amounts of information into easily digestible formats, allowing readers like Alex to grasp the paper’s key findings quickly.

• Read the labels and captions: Alex starts by carefully reading the labels and captions of the visual aids. He pays attention to the title, axis labels, and any additional notes. These labels provide context and guide his understanding of what the visual aid is illustrating.
• Analyze trends and patterns: Alex examines the visual aids for trends and patterns. For example, if he’s looking at a line graph depicting temperature changes over decades, he observes whether the lines are ascending, descending, or fluctuating. Identifying trends helps him connect the visual representation to the paper’s textual content.
• Compare and contrast: In a comparative analysis like Alex’s paper, he compares different graphs or tables to identify similarities and differences. This comparison aids in understanding the variations in temperature trends across different regions or time periods.
• Look for outliers or anomalies: Alex scans for any outliers or anomalies that deviate from the general pattern. These data points might hold crucial information and could be highlighted in the paper’s analysis.
• Consider scales and units: Alex pays attention to the scales and units used in the visual aids. Misinterpreting scales can lead to inaccurate conclusions. He ensures that he understands whether the scale is linear, logarithmic, or another type.
• Refer back to the text: Visual aids should complement the text. Alex frequently refers back to the relevant sections of the paper to cross-reference the visual data with the paper’s explanations.

By carefully analyzing the visual aids, Alex gains a deeper understanding of the paper’s data-driven insights. These aids serve as powerful tools for conveying complex information concisely and effectively.

Using these methods and analysis, Alex gains a comprehensive understanding of the visual aids within the research paper. This approach helps him interpret complex information effectively and make meaningful connections between the visual aids and the paper’s content.

Navigating a research paper can sometimes feel like deciphering a foreign language, especially when it’s laden with technical terms and jargon. However, just as you’d use a language dictionary to understand unfamiliar words, tackling technical jargon involves utilizing tools to enhance your comprehension and make sense of the intricate terminology.

Example: Let’s join Maya, a student exploring a paper titled “Quantum Computing’s Implications for Cryptography.” The paper is filled with terms like “qubits,” “superposition,” and “entanglement.”

Maya acknowledges the initial challenge of facing unfamiliar technical terms and jargon in the paper. She understands that these terms are specific to the field and may be difficult to grasp without proper context and explanation.

• Identify unfamiliar terms: As Maya reads the paper, she highlights technical terms she doesn’t understand. These terms act as roadblocks to her comprehension.
• Utilize resources: Maya turns to online dictionaries, academic resources, or textbooks to look up the meanings and explanations of unfamiliar terms. She searches for definitions that are relevant to the context of the paper.
• Make connections: After finding definitions, Maya relates them to the paper’s content. For instance, if the paper discusses “qubits,” she understands that they are the basic units of quantum information.
• Revisit the text: As Maya encounters the terms multiple times, she revisits their definitions to reinforce her understanding. Over time, these terms become less daunting.

Maya faces the challenge of encountering terms like “qubits,” “superposition,” and “entanglement” while reading her paper on quantum computing’s impact on cryptography. At first, these terms seem perplexing, but she realizes that tackling technical jargon is crucial for grasping the paper’s core concepts.

Maya turns to various online resources and academic materials to look up the definitions of these terms. For example, she learns that “qubits” are the fundamental building blocks of quantum computers, and “superposition” refers to a qubit’s ability to exist in multiple states simultaneously. Similarly, “entanglement” denotes the quantum phenomenon where qubits become intertwined regardless of their physical distance.

By understanding these definitions, Maya starts making connections between the technical terms and the paper’s explanations. She comprehends how concepts like superposition and entanglement play a role in quantum cryptography’s potential.

Maya doesn’t stop at looking up these terms just once. As she continues reading the paper, she revisits their definitions and reinforces her understanding. Over time, the jargon becomes less intimidating, and she gains confidence in discussing these concepts.

Through proactive efforts to understand technical jargon, Maya transforms the initial challenge into an opportunity for enhanced comprehension. By leveraging resources and making connections, she gains confidence in navigating the paper’s intricacies.

Engaging with research papers goes beyond passive reading—it involves active participation. Taking notes and summarizing key points not only aids comprehension but also enhances retention and critical thinking. Let’s explore how to craft effective summaries for each section, ensuring that the material becomes a coherent and meaningful resource.

Example: Consider Daniel, a student who is reading a paper on “Renewable Energy Integration in Smart Grids.” This paper delves into various aspects of integrating renewable energy sources into existing power grids.

Daniel understands that taking notes is a valuable tool for retaining information and capturing essential concepts. He realizes that summarizing sections helps him consolidate his understanding and facilitates quick reference.

• Introduction: Daniel starts by noting down the main research question, the significance of the study, and any hypotheses presented. He highlights the context and rationale behind investigating renewable energy integration in smart grids.
• Methodology: When summarizing the methodology section, Daniel focuses on the research design, data collection methods, and any experimental setups. He jots down key terms like “simulation models” and “load forecasting techniques.”
• Results: In this section, Daniel creates a summary that includes key findings, numerical data, and trends. He notes down specific figures or graphs that illustrate the outcomes of renewable energy integration on grid stability and energy distribution.
• Discussion: Daniel’s summary of the discussion section highlights the researchers’ interpretation of results, connections to existing literature, and potential implications. He captures debates and any unanswered questions raised by the paper.

Daniel’s approach to taking notes and summarizing helps him engage deeply with the paper. For instance, when summarizing the methodology, he notes the usage of simulation models to assess grid performance under different renewable energy scenarios. This understanding becomes a reference point for comprehending the paper’s technical details.

Similarly, in the discussion section, Daniel’s summary captures the researchers’ insights on the practical challenges of implementing renewable energy integration. He notes their suggestions for policy changes to promote a sustainable energy mix.

By actively creating summaries for each section, Daniel internalizes the paper’s content and forms a comprehensive overview. This method equips him to engage in discussions, write essays, and apply the paper’s insights in his own work.

VIII. Reflecting on the Paper’s Significance

Reflecting on a research paper’s broader implications is a valuable practice in any field. Let’s consider an example from computer science involving a paper titled “Deep Learning Approaches for Image Recognition in Autonomous Vehicles.”

Example: Meet Alex, a computer science graduate student focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems. He comes across the paper “Deep Learning Approaches for Image Recognition in Autonomous Vehicles.”

Alex understands that while understanding the technical details is crucial, it’s equally important to reflect on how the paper’s findings could influence his field and his own research interests.

• Identify relevancy: Alex recognizes the paper’s direct relevance to his studies. His own research involves developing AI algorithms for object detection in autonomous vehicles, making the paper’s findings highly pertinent.
• Inspiration for improvements: The paper’s deep learning approaches and their success in image recognition spark ideas in Alex’s mind. He reflects on how he can refine his existing algorithms by incorporating some of the techniques mentioned in the paper.
• Broader impact: Beyond his specific research, Alex considers how the paper’s advancements in image recognition could influence the entire field of autonomous vehicles. He envisions more accurate and reliable self-driving cars, which could revolutionize transportation.

After carefully reading the paper, Alex takes a moment to reflect on its significance. He realizes that the paper’s deep learning approaches align perfectly with his own focus on AI algorithms for autonomous vehicles. This alignment prompts him to think beyond the immediate findings of the paper and consider how they might enhance his own research.

As he reflects, Alex is inspired to iterate on his current algorithms. He contemplates integrating the deep learning techniques mentioned in the paper to improve the accuracy and efficiency of object detection in autonomous vehicles. The paper serves as a catalyst for innovation within his own work.

Alex also considers the broader implications of the paper’s findings. He envisions a future where self-driving cars equipped with advanced image recognition capabilities can navigate complex urban environments with heightened safety. This reflection underscores the transformative potential of research in the field of autonomous systems.

By reflecting on the paper, Alex not only gains a deeper understanding of its content but also identifies actionable steps to enhance his own research endeavors. This practice of reflection and connection-building is essential for researchers aiming to contribute meaningfully to their field.

When reading research papers, there are several common ethical considerations to keep in mind. Here are a few potential biases or conflicts of interest to watch out for:

• Funding bias: Research that is funded by a particular organization or industry may be biased in favour of the funder’s interests. A study on the security of a particular software product that is funded by the company that produces that product may be biased in favour of the company’s interests.
• Publication bias: Journals may be more likely to publish research that confirms existing theories or that has statistically significant results, leading to a skewed representation of the research in the field.
• Conflicts of interest: Authors may have conflicts of interest, such as financial or personal connections to companies or products discussed in the research. An author who works for a company that develops facial recognition technology may have financial connections to that company that could influence their research or conclusions.
• Researcher bias: Researchers may have their own biases or assumptions that influence their research questions, methods, and conclusions. A researcher who believes that a certain programming language is superior may unintentionally select methods or interpret data in a way that confirms their pre-existing beliefs.
• Sampling bias: Researchers may inadvertently or intentionally select a non-representative sample for their study, leading to skewed results. A study on using a particular technology may only include participants from a certain demographic group, such as those with access to high-speed internet, and may not be representative of the broader population.
• Plagiarism: It’s important to ensure that the research paper you’re reading is original and not plagiarized from other sources. A researcher may copy code or sections of another author’s work into their paper without proper attribution, violating academic standards for originality. You can visit my blog post on The Consequences of Plagiarism: What You Need to Know? for the implications of plagiarism.
• Ethical considerations for research participants: If the research involves human or animal participants, it’s important to ensure that ethical standards were followed, such as obtaining informed consent and minimizing harm to participants. A study on the effects of a particular technology may have ethical concerns if participants were not fully informed about the potential risks and benefits of the technology or if their privacy and data security were not adequately protected.

By being aware of these potential biases and ethical considerations, readers can critically evaluate research papers and make informed decisions about the reliability and relevance of the research.

A List of additional resources for learning how to read research papers effectively

• “How to Read a Paper: The Basics of Evidence-Based Medicine” by Trisha Greenhalgh : This book provides a practical guide to reading research papers in medicine and healthcare. It covers topics such as understanding study designs, critically appraising research papers, and applying evidence to clinical practice.
• “The Craft of Research” by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams: This book offers practical advice on how to conduct research and write research papers. It covers topics such as how to evaluate sources, how to organize and structure research papers, and how to write clearly and effectively.
• Online courses: Several universities and organizations offer online courses on how to read research papers effectively. For example, the UDEMY offers a course called “How to Read and Interpret a Scientific Paper, “.
• Research journals and articles: Reading research journals and articles in your field can be a great way to learn how to read research papers effectively. By reading papers in your field, you can become familiar with the language, structure, and methodology used in research papers.
• Workshops and conferences: Attending workshops and conferences in your field can also be a great way to learn how to read research papers effectively. These events often offer training sessions and presentations on topics such as how to critically appraise research papers, how to evaluate sources, and how to write research papers.

By exploring these additional resources, you can develop the skills and knowledge needed to read research papers effectively and stay up-to-date with developments in your field.

Before You Close…..

After reading the research paper, you may be inspired to write a survey paper or a working paper. In such a scenario, I have written the following papers, which will guide you through the research paper writing journey.

• How to Write Better Survey Paper in 06 Easy Steps
• Writing an Effective Research Paper with 11 Major Sections

Reading research papers is not just a task; it’s a transformative journey that leads to knowledge expansion, critical thinking enhancement, and the cultivation of a growth mindset. As you’ve learned, approaching research papers strategically can turn a seemingly daunting task into an opportunity for personal and professional growth. Each step, from choosing the right papers to engaging in discussions, contributes to your evolving expertise.

Remember, research papers are the bridges connecting you to the vast realm of human knowledge. They provide insights, spark ideas, and challenge your intellect. Through skimming, analyzing visual aids, reflecting on significance, and engaging in discussions, you’re equipped with an arsenal of techniques to decode even the most complex papers.

Your journey doesn’t stop here. As you continue to read research papers, you’ll find yourself becoming more adept at deciphering intricate concepts, extracting essential information, and applying newfound insights to your work. The practice of critically evaluating research papers empowers you to differentiate between credible and dubious sources, contributing to the integrity of your research pursuits.

Every research paper you engage with is an opportunity for intellectual growth, a stepping stone toward mastering the art of academic exploration. So, embrace the challenge, dive into the content, and emerge with a deeper understanding of the world’s evolving knowledge landscape. As you uncover the treasures hidden within the pages of research papers, you’re not just a reader—you’re a knowledge explorer, shaping the future of your field.

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fa3d988da6f218669ec27d6b6019a0cd

A publication of the harvard college writing program.

Harvard Guide to Using Sources 

• The Honor Code

Why Use Sources?

College writing assignments generally ask you to respond in some way to sources. Some assignments will require you to consult only sources assigned in class, while others will require you to locate your own sources relevant to a specific research topic. In many of your courses, your research will focus primarily on written texts such as books and scholarly articles, but you may also be asked to consult a variety of other sources, including letters, diaries, films, works of art, data from experiments, numerical data, surveys, and transcripts of interviews.

What constitutes a useful and reliable source will vary according to both your assignment and the methods used in a particular field of study. As you approach a paper in an unfamiliar field, it will be important to remember that within each field of study, scholars distinguish between primary sources, or the raw material that they analyze as they attempt to answer a question, and secondary sources, or the analyses of that raw material done by other scholars in the field. For example, for literary scholars, primary sources include fiction and poetry, while secondary sources include criticism written by other scholars about those literary texts. Historians, on the other hand, grapple with primary sources such as letters, diaries, and eyewitness accounts produced at the time of an event, as well as with secondary sources such as arguments presented by other historians. Sociologists tend to rely for raw material on quantitative data, such as surveys, censuses, and other statistics, or qualitative data, such as observation and interviews.

Social scientists in some fields, such as psychology and economics, also consider empirical journal articles (articles that describe the results of original research) published in peer-reviewed journals to be primary sources. These articles provide raw material for other scholars, who may then raise questions about the published results or develop new research based on these results. Social scientists in other fields, such as anthropology and history, however, do not consider research articles primary sources because articles in these fields do not typically present raw data. For these social scientists, journal articles would be secondary sources. For all social scientists, literature reviews and published books are considered secondary sources.

Natural scientists consider empirical articles published in peer-reviewed journals to be primary sources. These published results of experiments and analyses of data provide the raw material for other scientists to consider as they pursue their own research. Secondary sources in the natural sciences include literature reviews and books.

As a college student taking courses in many different fields, you will need to ask questions about what is considered a reliable source in each new field, and about how sources can be used appropriately in that field. At the same time, there are many common principles for using sources effectively that you will be able to carry with you from course to course. For more information on using sources in different disciplines, you can consult the Harvard Writing Project series of writing guides for specific courses and concentrations. If you are writing a paper for a course in the Government department, you should consult GovWrites for guidance. If you are writing for an anthropology course, you should consult AnthroWrites . If you are writing for a course in one of the Life Sciences fields, you should consult ScienceWrites .

When in doubt, of course, you should always consult your instructor.

• What Are You Supposed to Do with Sources?
• Writing "Original" Papers
• Using Sources Beyond Harvard

PDFs for this Section

• Why Use Sources

Educational resources and simple solutions for your research journey

7 Benefits of Reading Research Papers Regularly

Understanding the benefits of reading research papers and developing a regular reading habit is an advantage, irrespective of the profession you’re in, but especially so if you’re an academic. However, this is often easier said than done given the many tasks and professional commitments researchers need to juggle every day. The constant rush to meet deadlines while balancing personal responsibilities often means researchers deprioritize research reading. Additionally, many researchers, regardless of where they are in their career, find it challenging to keep up with the overwhelming volume of literature being produced; consequently they end up reading selective journals or giving articles a cursory run through. This can prove counterproductive.  

Table of Contents

Key benefits of reading research papers  

It is critical for researchers to develop a habit of reading research papers from the very beginning of their careers. Take a look at the benefits of reading research articles regularly.  

1. Enhances knowledge and fuels scientific curiosity

Research reading is an integral part of research. By embracing a rigorous approach to reading research papers, academics can add to their existing knowledge and improve their overall understanding of a subject. Research reading also helps scholars understand previous studies on their subject and identify questions that remain unanswered. It also fuels a sense of scientific curiosity, encouraging researchers to delve into or even question ideas that contradict your line of thought. This can prove useful for researchers trying to identify an interesting and novel research topic.  

2.Encourages inter-disciplinary opportunities

By cultivating an active research reading habit, researchers can also gain insights into the latest scientific tools and techniques being used in their own and related fields. One of the other major benefits of reading research papers is that it exposes academics to potential opportunities and developments across disciplines, which could spark ideas for their own research and open the door for multiple fruitful inter-disciplinary collaborations.  

3. Builds on scientific innovations

Scientific knowledge is constantly evolving and growing. There is a constant cycle of learning and unlearning that takes place based on emerging technologies and new processes. In fact, a study of scholarly literature over time forms an archive of scientific innovations, including developing methodologies, evolving processes, and cutting-edge technologies. A sustained habit of reading scientific literature helps researchers learn from and build on past work.  

4. Creates a rich repository of relevant references

Research reading is imperative for researchers, and one of the key benefits of research reading is being able to create a library of data. Using keywords to find relevant research papers, critically reading and analyzing the data, and saving the most useful articles to your reference library can prove invaluable for researchers. Instead of starting from scratch, having a rich library of potential references gives those conducting research or writing a manuscript a head-start – one of the benefits of reading scholarly articles and papers that usually goes unrecognized .

5. Develops critical thinking

Another key benefit of reading research papers is that it helps you develop critical thinking abilities by creating and strengthening synaptic connections between your brain’s nerve cells and strengthening neural pathways that already exist. 1 This significantly enhances your ability to retain and use important information and helps you in your own research.

6.Teaches you how to identify credible information

Given the sheer quantum of information available in the public domain, it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish information that comes from reliable and credible sources. An important benefit of reading research papers is that you will, over time, be able to discern between what is reliable and what is not. This ensures you read and engage with trusted scientific articles, which can then form the basis of your own work and further strengthen your profile as a researcher.  

7. Builds professional relationships and stronger networks

The last but one of the most important benefits of reading research papers is that it allows you to build professional connections with like-minded peers and colleagues. Connect with and actively discuss ideas with authors of ground-breaking research, which will help you enrich the existing knowledge but also allow for an exchange of new ideas and opportunities in the field.  

We hope the points above reiterate the importance and benefits of reading research paper s as a habit. Reading research papers on different scientific topics gives you a deeper appreciation of the work of peers, helps build wider perspectives, allows you to see things in new light, and gives you the confidence to think outside the box. So while research reading may seem daunting, it’s an integral part of the research process and cannot be ignored. Happy reading!  

• Fernyhough E. How reading changes your brain. The Brave Writer, Medium, January 8, 2021. [Accessed on November 12, 2022] Available on https://medium.com/the-brave-writer/how-reading-changes-your-brain-b00cc7f8eb2c#:~:text=When%20you%20read%2C%20your%20brain,neural%20pathways%20that%20already%20exist

R Discovery is a literature search and research reading platform that accelerates your research discovery journey by keeping you updated on the latest, most relevant scholarly content. With 250M+ research articles sourced from trusted aggregators like CrossRef, Unpaywall, PubMed, PubMed Central, Open Alex and top publishing houses like Springer Nature, JAMA, IOP, Taylor & Francis, NEJM, BMJ, Karger, SAGE, Emerald Publishing and more, R Discovery puts a world of research at your fingertips.  

Try R Discovery Prime FREE for 1 week or upgrade at just US$72 a year to access premium features that let you listen to research on the go, read in your language, collaborate with peers, auto sync with reference managers, and much more. Choose a simpler, smarter way to find and read research – Download the app and start your free 7-day trial today !  

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