Publishing a research paper is one of the milestones of someone’s academic excellence, but validating the skills of a researcher requires one to have expertise in writing a research paper that contributes to their educational domain. Here is a guide to how to write a good research paper that is suitable for publishing.
How to Write a Research Paper?
Writing a research paper is a step-by-step process and requires effective time management to ensure a comprehensive research outcome. Completing a research paper takes time, hence, one must write on a regular basis to avoid delay and successful completion of the paper. Here are a few steps to write a research paper effectively-
1) Research Planning and Structuring
Having a research plan is a must before writing a research paper. Writing a research paper is more like telling a story about how you started your research, how you drew the results, and finally, how you came to a conclusion. Structuring the research is the very first stage of writing a paper. A research paper is generally structured using the IMRaD approach, i.e., Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. However, conducting research takes some other steps as well. It involves doing a comprehensive literature review and writing an abstract, keywords, references, and acknowledgments. These steps help in writing a research paper in a structured manner. Research planning also helps in determining the research topic on which you wish to carry out your research.
2) Conceptualizing Research Title
Determining a suitable title for your research is extremely important. The title should reflect all the variables and what results you intend to draw by evaluating the variables. The title page includes- the title of the paper, author’s name, affiliations, and date of submission. A good research title can also have the topic and method details. For example – How workplace health and safety influence employee productivity and engagement? A Qualitative Study.
3) How to Carry Out a Literature Review
Before delving into writing a research paper, you must conduct a comprehensive literature review. A literature review is the process of reviewing existing literature, i.e., research papers, journals, books, and articles concerning your chosen research topic.
You can start by crafting a research question that narrows down the scope of the literature review. Following that, you can search for papers relating to the topic by using keywords. Preparing a list of databases can help you conduct the literature review in an organized manner.
A critical analysis of the reviewed literature is the next step of this process. A critically evaluated literature sets a background for your research and identifies any literature gap that your research intends to address. While writing a literature review, follow a contradictory approach to determine which paper talks about what and what is left to identify. This section of the research ends with writing a literature gap to identify any flaws in the reviewed papers or what these papers failed to evaluate and finally ends with stating how your research is going to address those gaps. A conceptual framework must be included in this part that conceptualizes your variables and the relationship between them, leading to the solution you intend to propose.
4) Writing an Eye-grabbing Introduction
This is the part that introduces your research in your selected domain. Hence, it needs to be extremely compelling. You should start by introducing the topic and the issue you are addressing. Your introduction must clearly state the need to address the issue and the knowledge gap. Moving forward, you must narrow down the introduction to your aim, objectives, research questions, and hypotheses (only in terms of quantitative study).
A broad background in an introduction sheds light on the issue and any solution that has been proposed in the available literature to address it. A solution must be proposed in his section that the research intends to justify in the research context.
5) Writing Methodology
This section of the research paper deals with the methods and instruments that you have used to collect and analyze data. Research methodology involves – research onion, philosophy, approach, design, strategy, sampling (if human participants are involved), data collection, and analysis technique. The methodology section must provide enough details about the methods you have used and a comprehensive justification for selecting the methods in relation to your research topic. Details of ethical guidelines that you have followed should also be present in the section. It should be written in the past tense as you have already conducted the research using the methods.
6) Writing the Results Section
Many journals consider writing the result and the discussion section together, and many present them separately. This section should be written in a logical manner, establishing a connection between the findings of the research. If more than one type of data is gathered, you must show a logical connection between the findings to justify your research outcomes. You must properly show the statistical calculations leading to your result, if the research is following quantitative data. A qualitative study must clearly evaluate the themes through thematic analysis. Research following both methods must be directed toward an outcome that is the same for both the findings.
However, there are certain things that you should not include in the results section of your research paper. Firstly, no references are to be used as you are stating your own findings, no commentary about the results should be included, and there should not be any data repetition.
7) Writing a Discussion
Writing the discussion section may seem easy, but it has many layers. It should answer several questions regarding the research, such as – did my research achieve the objectives? How did the results compare to other studies?
You must discuss your findings in detail using a comparative approach. Each paragraph of this section should reveal some exciting factors about your findings. Firstly, start with an introductory paragraph by stating your key findings. A comparative analysis of your findings with other studies should be included in the next paragraph, and the last paragraph must deal with major outcomes. You should not introduce any new results in this section that you have not talked about in the results section.
8) Crafting a Comprehensive Conclusion
The conclusion of your research paper must provide a summary of the research by restating your findings. By restating the objectives you intended to achieve at the outset, you must align the research findings while writing this section. The conclusion must also state how your study has contributed to the respective field and the limitations it possesses. It should end with some recommendations for future research.
9) Referencing
Referencing is one of the crucial aspects of writing a research paper. If you are to learn how to write a research paper, you must have knowledge of all types of referencing styles and follow the one your university adopts. Referencing can be of many types, such as APA 7th, Harvard, Chicago, MLA, IEEE, and more. Each referencing follows its own unique style, and while writing your paper, you must use the required referencing style with consistency while citing your work, as wrong referencing can cause your research paper to be rejected.
10) Formatting
You should format your research paper as per the requirements of your referencing style. There should be a title page, a content page, an abstract, keywords, acknowledgments, a list of figures and tables, the main content of the paper, and a reference list and appendices (if any) at the end.
11) Writing an Abstract
The abstract of your research paper is a quick guide to your research and its outcomes. By reading your abstract, readers will develop a fair understanding of what your research is all about. Hence, this section should be written in a logical way. A research abstract includes writing background, methods, results, and conclusion.
12) Acknowledging the Contributors
Your research paper should have an acknowledgment. In this section, you must show gratitude to the people who contributed to your research directly or indirectly. You must acknowledge the contribution of your professors, peers, family, and friends for the support they provided in completing the paper successfully.
13) Proof-reading and Peer-Reviewing
Now that you are finished writing your research paper, you must recheck it all to ensure it is clearly written, follows the academic language, is properly cited, and includes no grammatical, spelling, or consistency errors in your writing. You must call for constructive feedback from your supervisor or authority before the final submission to improve it.
With this guide in mind, you must have found all the answers regarding how to write a research paper. By following these steps and writing suggestions, you can craft an almost perfect research paper to get it published and mark your research excellence in your field of study.
