Find top journals in a research field: a step-by-step guide

top academic research papers

Joanna Wilkinson

This blog about how to find top journals is part of our Research Smarter series. Download our cheat sheet, which brings together top tips for finding relevant journals, papers, and authors in your field, sign up for our webinar on the same topic or read the related blog posts for each, here .

Finding relevant journals can be a challenging task for researchers both new and experienced. The myriad tools and technologies can be difficult to navigate. This is frustrating when many databases vary in the reliability, relevancy and organization of their data. Beyond that, the rise of open access, preprint repositories and transparent peer review (to name a few) have had a transformative impact on academic journals in recent years. It has reshaped the way journals are shared, used and valued by scholars across all disciplines.

Web of Science™ delivers unique journal insight at any given time. The comprehensive and complete citation network provides all the data you need to understand a journal’s value and impact. Web of Science Core Collection™ titles are all carefully selected for quality. Furthermore, the tools and features we outline in this guide help you quickly and accurately assess them for your own research.

Journal Citation Reports™: Discover quality research journals

Journal Citation Reports  (JCR) is the most powerful product for journal intelligence. It provides researchers with a definitive list and guide to discover and select the most appropriate journals to read and publish findings. JCR delivers a rich array of publisher-independent data, metrics and analysis throughout tens of thousands of journal profile pages. The research community powers these pages via meaningful citation connections.

Researchers and organizations use this comprehensive and trusted subscription-based product to confidently find and assess journals. Head over to JCR now or watch the video below to learn more.

top academic research papers

“Journal Citation Reports is the most powerful product for journal intelligence.”

Master Journal List: Quickly assess top journals

Master Journal List (MJL) is a free and trusted resource that supports researchers to find and compare reputable journals, books and conference proceedings indexed in Web of Science. MJL is not as comprehensive as Journal Citation Reports. However, its profile pages help researchers assess the quality of individual journals at a glance. Each journal page lists its publication details and Web of Science coverage and journal metrics. It also as lists open access and peer review characteristics. A range of filters are available to sort and group results, and you can also take advantage of EndNote’s free Manuscript Matcher tool to find the best match for your manuscript. Watch the video below to learn more.

top academic research papers

“Master Journal List profile pages help researchers assess the quality of individual journals at a glance.”

Web of Science: Explore influential and emerging journals

The Analyze Results feature in Web of Science identifies the journals publishing the greatest number of papers on any given topic. It helps you dig deep into your specific subject area and identify any trends. Furthermore, it reveals all the influential and emerging journals that can be further analyzed using the products above. The Analyze Results feature can also find trends among the top institutions, funding agencies and authors publishing research. Learn more about Analyze Results here,  in the video below, or visit  the Web of Science search page to try this out today.

top academic research papers

Stay connected

Interested in discovering more tips to really understand your research field? You can d ownload our cheat sheet , which brings together top tips for finding relevant journals, papers and authors in your field, or sign up for our webinar on the same topic. You can also read the related blog posts in our Research Smarter series, here .

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The top 10 journal articles of 2020

In 2020, APA’s 89 journals published more than 5,000 articles—the most ever and 25% more than in 2019. Here’s a quick look at the 10 most downloaded to date.

Vol. 52 No. 1 Print version: page 24

man watching television

1. Me, My Selfie, and I: The Relations Between Selfie Behaviors, Body Image, Self-Objectification, and Self-Esteem in Young Women

Veldhuis, j., et al..

Young women who appreciate their bodies and consider them physical objects are more likely to select, edit, and post selfies to social media, suggests this study in Psychology of Popular Media (Vol. 9, No. 1). Researchers surveyed 179 women, ages 18 to 25, on how often they took selfies, how they selected selfies to post, how often they used filters and editing techniques, and how carefully they planned their selfie postings. They also assessed participants’ levels of body appreciation and dissatisfaction, self-objectification, and self-esteem. Higher levels of self-objectification were linked to more time spent on all selfie behaviors, while body appreciation was related to more time spent selecting selfies to post, but not frequency of taking or editing selfies. Body dissatisfaction and self-esteem were not associated with selfie behaviors. DOI: 10.1037/ppm0000206

2. A Closer Look at Appearance and Social Media: Measuring Activity, Self-Presentation, and Social Comparison and Their Associations With Emotional Adjustment

Zimmer-gembeck, m. j., et al..

This Psychology of Popular Media (online first publication) article presents a tool to assess young people’s preoccupation with their physical appearance on social media. Researchers administered a 21-item survey about social media to 281 Australian high school students. They identified 18 items with strong inter-item correlation centered on three categories of social media behavior: online self-presentation, appearance-related online activity, and appearance comparison. In a second study with 327 Australian university students, scores on the 18-item survey were found to be associated with measures of social anxiety and depressive symptoms, appearance-related support from others, general interpersonal stress, coping flexibility, sexual harassment, disordered eating, and other factors. The researchers also found that young women engaged in more appearance-related social media activity and appearance comparison than did young men. DOI: 10.1037/ppm0000277

3. The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-2019) Outbreak: Amplification of Public Health Consequences by Media Exposure

Garfin, d. r., et al..

Repeated media exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic may be associated with psychological distress and other public health consequences, according to this commentary in Health Psychology (Vol. 39, No. 5). The authors reviewed research about trends in health behavior and psychological distress as a response to media coverage of crises, including terrorist attacks, school shootings, and disease outbreaks. They found that repeated media exposure to collective crises was associated with increased anxiety and heightened acute and post-traumatic stress, with downstream effects on health outcomes such as new incidence of cardiovascular disease. Moreover, misinformation can further amplify stress responses and lead to misplaced or misguided health-protective and help-seeking behaviors. The authors recommended public health agencies use social media strategically, such as with hashtags, to keep residents updated during the pandemic. They also urged the public to avoid sensationalism and repeated coverage of the same information. DOI: 10.1037/hea0000875

4. Barriers to Mental Health Treatment Among Individuals With Social Anxiety Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Goetter, e. m., et al..

This study in Psychological Services (Vol. 17, No. 1) indicates that 3 in 4 people who suffer from anxiety do not receive proper care. Researchers recruited 226 participants in the United States who were previously diagnosed with social anxiety disorder or generalized anxiety disorder and assessed their symptom severity and asked them to self-report any barriers to treatment. Shame and stigma were the highest cited barriers, followed by logistical and financial barriers and not knowing where to seek treatment. Participants with more severe symptoms reported more barriers to treatment than those with milder symptoms. Racial and ethnic minorities reported more barriers than racial and ethnic majorities even after controlling for symptom severity. The researchers called for increased patient education and more culturally sensitive outreach to reduce treatment barriers. DOI: 10.1037/ser0000254

5. The Construction of “Critical Thinking”: Between How We Think and What We Believe

This History of Psychology (Vol. 23, No. 3) article examines the emergence of “critical thinking” as a psychological concept. The author describes how, between World War I and World War II in the United States, the concept emerged out of growing concerns about how easily people’s beliefs could be changed and was constructed in a way that was independent of what people believed. The author delves into how original measurements of critical thinking avoided assumptions about the accuracy of specific real-world beliefs and details how subsequent critical thinking tests increasingly focused on logical abilities, often favoring outcome (what we believe) over process (how we think). DOI: 10.1037/hop0000145

6. Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder: Integration of Alcoholics Anonymous and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Breuninger, m. m., et al..

This article in Training and Education in Professional Psychology (Vol. 14, No. 1) details how to work with alcohol use disorder patients who are participating in both cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The authors point to distinctions between AA and CBT: The goal of AA is total abstinence and the primary therapeutic relationship is with a peer in recovery, while CBT takes a less absolute approach and the primary relationship is with a psychotherapist. The authors also point to commonalities: both approaches emphasize identifying and replacing dysfunctional beliefs and place value in social support. The authors recommend clinicians and trainees become more educated about AA and recommend a translation of the 12-step language into CBT terminology to bridge the gap. DOI: 10.1037/tep0000265

7. Positivity Pays Off: Clients’ Perspectives on Positive Compared With Traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression

Geschwind, n., et al..

Positive cognitive behavioral therapy, a version of CBT focused on exploring exceptions to the problem rather than the problem itself, personal strengths, and embracing positivity, works well to counter depressive symptoms and build well-being, according to this study in Psychotherapy (Vol. 57, No. 3). Participants received a block of eight sessions of traditional CBT and a block of eight sessions of positive CBT. Researchers held in-depth interviews with 12 of these participants. Despite initial skepticism, most participants reported preferring positive CBT but indicated experiencing a steeper learning curve than with traditional CBT. Researchers attributed positive CBT’s favorability to four factors: feeling empowered, benefiting from effects of positive emotions, learning to appreciate baby steps, and rediscovering optimism as a personal strength. DOI: 10.1037/pst0000288

8. Targeted Prescription of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Versus Person-Centered Counseling for Depression Using a Machine Learning Approach

Delgadillo, j., & gonzalez salas duhne, p..

Amachine learning algorithm can identify which patients would derive more benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) versus counseling for depression, suggests research in this Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (Vol. 88, No. 1) article. Researchers retrospectively explored data from 1,085 patients in the United Kingdom treated with either CBT or counseling for depression and discovered six patient characteristics—age, employment status, disability, and three diagnostic measures of major depression and social adjustment—relevant to developing an algorithm for prescribing the best approach. The researchers then used the algorithm to determine which therapy would work best for an additional 350 patients with depression. They found that patients receiving their optimal treatment type were twice as likely to improve significantly. DOI: 10.1037/ccp0000476

9. Traumatic Stress in the Age of COVID-19: A Call to Close Critical Gaps and Adapt to New Realities

Horesh, d., & brown, a. d..

This article in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy (Vol. 12, No. 4) argues that COVID-19 should be examined from a post-traumatic stress perspective. The authors call for mental health researchers and clinicians to develop better diagnoses and prevention strategies for COVID-related traumatic stress; create guidelines and talking points for the media and government officials to use when speaking to an anxious, and potentially traumatized, public; and provide mental health training to professionals in health care, education, childcare, and occupational support in order to reach more people. DOI: 10.1037/tra0000592

10. Emotional Intelligence Predicts Academic Performance: A Meta-Analysis

Maccann, c., et al..

Students with high emotional intelligence get better grades and score higher on standardized tests, according to the research presented in this article in Psychological Bulletin (Vol. 146, No. 2). Researchers analyzed data from 158 studies representing more than 42,529 students—ranging in age from elementary school to college—from 27 countries. The researchers found that students with higher emotional intelligence earned better grades and scored higher on achievement tests than those with lower emotional intelligence. This finding was true even when controlling for intelligence and personality factors, and the association held regardless of age. The researchers suggest that students with higher emotional intelligence succeed because they cope well with negative emotions that can harm academic performance; they form stronger relationships with teachers, peers, and family; and their knowledge of human motivations and socialinteractions helps them understand humanities subject matter. DOI: 10.1037/bul0000219

5 interviews to listen to now

Psychology’s most innovative thinkers are featured on APA’s Speaking of Psychology podcast , which highlights important research and helps listeners apply psychology to their lives. The most popular episodes of 2020, as measured by the number of downloads in the first 30 days, were: 

  • How to have meaningful dialogues despite political differences , with  Tania Israel, PhD
  • Canine cognition and the survival of the friendliest , with  Brian Hare, PhD  
  • The challenges faced by women in leadership , with  Alice Eagly, PhD
  • How to choose effective, science-based mental health apps , with  Stephen Schueller, PhD  
  • Psychedelic therapy , with Roland Griffiths, PhD  

Listen to all of the Speaking of Psychology episodes .

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The top list of academic research databases

best research databases

2. Web of Science

5. ieee xplore, 6. sciencedirect, 7. directory of open access journals (doaj), get the most out of your academic research database, frequently asked questions about academic research databases, related articles.

Whether you are writing a thesis , dissertation, or research paper it is a key task to survey prior literature and research findings. More likely than not, you will be looking for trusted resources, most likely peer-reviewed research articles.

Academic research databases make it easy to locate the literature you are looking for. We have compiled the top list of trusted academic resources to help you get started with your research:

Scopus is one of the two big commercial, bibliographic databases that cover scholarly literature from almost any discipline. Besides searching for research articles, Scopus also provides academic journal rankings, author profiles, and an h-index calculator .

  • Coverage: 90.6 million core records
  • References: N/A
  • Discipline: Multidisciplinary
  • Access options: Limited free preview, full access by institutional subscription only
  • Provider: Elsevier

Search interface of Scopus

Web of Science also known as Web of Knowledge is the second big bibliographic database. Usually, academic institutions provide either access to Web of Science or Scopus on their campus network for free.

  • Coverage: approx. 100 million items
  • References: 1.4 billion
  • Access options: institutional subscription only
  • Provider: Clarivate (formerly Thomson Reuters)

Web of Science landing page

PubMed is the number one resource for anyone looking for literature in medicine or biological sciences. PubMed stores abstracts and bibliographic details of more than 30 million papers and provides full text links to the publisher sites or links to the free PDF on PubMed Central (PMC) .

  • Coverage: approx. 35 million items
  • Discipline: Medicine and Biological Sciences
  • Access options: free
  • Provider: NIH

Search interface of PubMed

For education sciences, ERIC is the number one destination. ERIC stands for Education Resources Information Center, and is a database that specifically hosts education-related literature.

  • Coverage: approx. 1.6 million items
  • Discipline: Education
  • Provider: U.S. Department of Education

Search interface of ERIC academic database

IEEE Xplore is the leading academic database in the field of engineering and computer science. It's not only journal articles, but also conference papers, standards and books that can be search for.

  • Coverage: approx. 6 million items
  • Discipline: Engineering
  • Provider: IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

Search interface of IEEE Xplore

ScienceDirect is the gateway to the millions of academic articles published by Elsevier, 1.4 million of which are open access. Journals and books can be searched via a single interface.

  • Coverage: approx. 19.5 million items

Search interface of ScienceDirect

The DOAJ is an open-access academic database that can be accessed and searched for free.

  • Coverage: over 8 million records
  • Provider: DOAJ

Search interface of DOAJ database

JSTOR is another great resource to find research papers. Any article published before 1924 in the United States is available for free and JSTOR also offers scholarships for independent researchers.

  • Coverage: more than 12 million items
  • Provider: ITHAKA

Search interface of JSTOR

Start using a reference manager like Paperpile to save, organize, and cite your references. Paperpile integrates with PubMed and many popular databases, so you can save references and PDFs directly to your library using the Paperpile buttons:

top academic research papers

Scopus is one of the two big commercial, bibliographic databases that cover scholarly literature from almost any discipline. Beside searching for research articles, Scopus also provides academic journal rankings, author profiles, and an h-index calculator .

PubMed is the number one resource for anyone looking for literature in medicine or biological sciences. PubMed stores abstracts and bibliographic details of more than 30 million papers and provides full text links to the publisher sites or links to the free PDF on PubMed Central (PMC)

top academic research papers

28 Best Academic Search Engines That make your research easier

Academic Search Engines

If you’re a researcher or scholar, you know that conducting effective online research is a critical part of your job. And if you’re like most people, you’re always on the lookout for new and better ways to do it. 

This article aims to give you an edge over researchers that rely mainly on Google for their entire research process.

Table of Contents

#1. Google Scholar

Google Scholar is an academic search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines.

#2. ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) 

ERIC (short for educational resources information center) is a great academic search engine that focuses on education-related literature. It is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and produced by the Institute of Education Sciences. 

ERIC indexes over a million articles, reports, conference papers, and other resources on all aspects of education from early childhood to higher education. So, search results are more relevant to Education on ERIC. 

ERIC is a free online database of education-related literature. 

#3. Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha is a “computational knowledge engine” that can answer factual questions posed in natural language. It can be a useful search tool. 

Wolfram Alpha can also be used to find academic articles. Just type in your keywords and Wolfram Alpha will generate a list of academic articles that match your query.

#4. iSEEK Education 

iSEEK is a search engine targeting students, teachers, administrators, and caregiver. It’s designed to be safe with editor-reviewed content.

iSEEK Education is free to use.

#5. BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)

CORE is an academic search engine that focuses on open access research papers. A link to the full text PDF or complete text web page is supplied for each search result. It’s academic search engine dedicated to open access research papers.

You might also like:

#7. Science.gov

#8. semantic scholar, #9. refseek.

This is one of the free search engines that feels like Yahoo with a massive directory. It could be good when you are just looking for research ideas from unexpected angles. It could lead you to some other database that you might not know such as the CIA The World Factbook, which is a great reference tool.

#10. ResearchGate 

A mixture of social networking site + forum + content databases where researchers can build their profile, share research papers, and interact with one another.

#11. DataONE Search (formerly CiteULike) 

#12. dataelixir , #13. lazyscholar – browser extension, #14. citeseerx – digital library from penstate, #15. the lens – patents search , #16. fatcat – wiki for bibliographic catalog , #17. lexis web – legal database, #18. infotopia – part of the vlrc family, #19. virtual learning resources center, #21. worldwidescience.

Over 70 countries’ databases are used on the website. When a user enters a query, it contacts databases from all across the world and shows results in both English and translated journals and academic resources.

#22. Google Books

A user can browse thousands of books on Google Books, from popular titles to old titles, to find pages that include their search terms. You can look through pages, read online reviews, and find out where to buy a hard copy once you find the book you are interested in.

#23. DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)

#24. baidu scholar, #25. pubmed central, #26. medline®.

MEDLINE® is a paid subscription database for life sciences and biomedicine that includes more than 28 million citations to journal articles. For finding reliable, carefully chosen health information, Medline Plus provides a powerful search tool and even a dictionary.

Defunct Academic Search Engines 

#27. microsoft academic  .

Microsoft Academic

#28. Scizzle

Final thoughts.

There are many academic search engines that can help researchers and scholars find the information they need. This list provides a variety of options, starting with more familiar engines and moving on to less well-known ones. 

10 thoughts on “28 Best Academic Search Engines That make your research easier”

Thank you so much Joannah..I have found this information useful to me as librarian in an academic library

You are welcome! We are happy to hear that!

Thank You Team, for providing a comprehensive list of academic search engines that can help make research easier for students and scholars. The variety of search engines included offers a range of options for finding scholarly articles, journals, and other academic resources. The article also provides a brief summary of each search engine’s features, which helps in determining which one is the best fit for a specific research topic. Overall, this article is a valuable resource for anyone looking for a quick and easy way to access a wealth of academic information.

We appreciate your support and thank you for your kind words. We will continue to provide valuable resources for students and researchers in the future. Please let us know if you have any further questions or suggestions.

No more questions Thank You

I cannot thank you enough!!! thanks alot 🙂

Typography animation is a technique that combines text and motion to create visually engaging and dynamic animations. It involves animating individual letters, words, or phrases in various ways to convey a message, evoke emotions, or enhance the visual impact of a design or video. – Typography Animation Techniques Tools and Online Software {43}

Expontum – Helps researchers quickly find knowledge gaps and identify what research projects have been completed before. Expontum is free, open access, and available to all globally with no paid versions of the site. Automated processes scan research article information 24/7 so this website is constantly updating. By looking at over 35 million research publications (240 million by the end of 2023), the site has 146 million tagged research subjects and 122 million tagged research attributes. Learn more about methodology and sources on the Expontum About Page ( https://www.expontum.com/about.php )

Hey Ryan, I clicked and checked your site and thought it was very relevant to our reader. Thank you for sharing. And, we will be reviewing your site soon.

Sounds good! Thanks, Joannah!

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Within the academic world, research is fundamental to the progress of knowledge and scholarly achievements. Securing the appropriate academic resources can greatly facilitate your academic journey. From undergraduates beginning to explore a novel subject, to graduate students deeply engaged in writing their thesis , or seasoned researchers advancing the frontiers of their disciplines, the digital era presents an abundance of academic research tools readily accessible with just a few clicks.

Here, we delve into the top 10 academic research resources, highlighting their key features and how they can serve as indispensable tools for academic research.

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First, let’s begin by understanding what are considered as academic sources:

What are academic sources?

Academic research resources are specialized tools and databases designed to support scholarly research and academic inquiry. These resources encompass a wide array of materials and platforms that provide access to peer-reviewed journal articles , books, thesis , research papers , and other scholarly content. 

The primary purpose of these resources is to facilitate the discovery and access to reliable, authoritative information that can be used for academic writing , research projects, and scholarly exploration.

Now, you must be wondering, how to find academic sources or where to find academic sources. Don’t worry, we have listed down the best academic research tools to make it easy for you!

10 Best tools for academic research

Listed below are some of the top examples of academic sources for students, teachers, scholars, and learners:

1. PubMed Central (PMC)

What are academic sources if not peer-reviewed articles and research findings? And PubMed Central gives you just that. PubMed Central stands out as a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine. 

PMC is an essential academic resource for students and researchers in the medical and health sciences, offering access to more than 6 million research articles . It’s a go-to for anyone looking for academic sources for research in these fields, providing a wealth of academic research tools to aid in your studies or investigations.

2. Library of Congress (LOC)

As the largest library in the world, it houses millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps, and manuscripts . Its extensive digital collections make it one of the best websites for academic research, especially for those in humanities and social sciences. 

The LOC’s online catalog and digital collections serve as excellent academic resource examples, enabling scholars to explore historical books, photographs, and documents from the comfort of their desks. It can be a useful resource for writing essays and assignments .

3. ResearchGate

ResearchGate is a social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. With millions of users, it stands out as one of the top online academic resources, fostering a community where peers can exchange knowledge. 

It’s an invaluable tool for finding academic source examples and collaborating on research projects, making it much easier to find academic sources relevant to your work.

4. Google Scholar

Google Scholar offers a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, dissertations , books, abstracts, and court opinions.

These academic sources are from academic publishers , professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other websites. This makes it one of the best online academic research platforms for finding free academic resources across a wide range of subjects.

JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students, providing access to thousands of journals , books, and primary sources on a wide variety of subjects. This platform is especially valuable for those in the humanities and social sciences.

It’s a prime example of where to find academic sources that are peer-reviewed and reliable, embodying what academic research resources should offer.

6. Google Books

Google Books is a vast database of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database. It is one of the best academic resources for college students.

Researchers and students can use Google Books to find examples of academic sources and previews or the full text of books across a myriad of subjects. This resource is particularly useful for finding and citing book sources in academic papers.

7. Science.gov

Science.gov serves as a powerful tool for academic writing resources, searching through over 60 databases and more than 2,200 scientific websites. 

It provides users with access to over 200 million pages of authoritative federal science information, including research and development results. It’s an example of academic sources websites that cater to those in the STEM fields, offering free academic resources.

8. BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)

BASE is one of the world’s most voluminous search engines, especially for academic web resources. BASE provides more than 240 million documents from more than 8,000 sources.

You can access the full texts of about 60% of the indexed documents for free. BASE is an excellent academic resource for finding scholarly internet resources.

9. Microsoft Academic

Microsoft Academic (now part of Microsoft Research) is a free public web search engine for academic publications and literature , developed by Microsoft Research. It offered a unique way to search academic resources, utilizing semantic search capabilities. 

This approach was considered a direct competitor to Google Scholar. Although it was discontinued in 2022, its database still serves as a valuable archive for historical academic research.

10. iSeek Education

iSeek Education is a targeted search engine for students, teachers, and administrators. It offers safe, smart, and reliable resources for your academic research. 

This engine filters out irrelevant content to give you trustworthy websites and credible articles, making it easier to find academic resources for college students and professionals alike.

Utilizing academic research resources

Navigating through these 10 academic resources provides a pathway to enriching your academic projects and research endeavors. From academic research websites like PubMed Central for life sciences literature to broad-based search engines like Google Scholar, each platform offers unique tools and databases to cater to the diverse needs of the academic community. 

Remember, the key to effective research is not just in knowing what academic resources are but also in understanding how to use them efficiently. Each platform offers examples of academic sources, from peer-reviewed journal articles, lab reports , and research papers to historical documents and books. 

By familiarizing yourself with these tools for academic research, you’ll be better equipped to navigate the vast ocean of knowledge and find those scholarly gems that can support your arguments and illuminate your path to discovery.

As experts in academic editing and proofreading services , PaperTrue is always happy to help students and scholars polish their academic work and underscore its uniqueness!

For more useful information, keep on reading:

  • Research Paper Outline: Templates & Examples
  • How to Carry Out Secondary Research 
  • APA Header, Cover Page & Body-Paper Format Guidelines

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes a resource qualify as an academic research resource, how can i access these top academic research resources for free, are there academic resources specific to certain fields of study, can i use google scholar for all my academic research needs, how do i know if the sources i find are reliable and academically credible.

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top academic research papers

The Top 100 Search Engines For Academic Research

100 Search Engines For Academic Research

What Are The Top 100 Search Engines For Academic Research?

by TeachThught Staff

Need to get started with a more broad search? These academic search engines are great resources.

See also 7 Pros And Cons Of Using Siri For Learning

ResearchGate

Access over 135 million publication pages and stay up to date with what’s happening in most professional fields.

With more than 1 billion documents, web pages, books, journals, newspapers, and more, RefSeek offers authoritative resources in just about any subject, without all of the mess of sponsored links and commercial results.

Digital Library of the Commons Repository

Check out the DLC to find international literature including free and open access full-text articles, papers, and dissertations.

Microsoft Academic Search

Microsoft’s academic search engine offers access to more than 38 million different publications, with features including maps, graphing, trends, and paths that show how authors are connected.

Google Trends

Google’s super cool search tool will allow you to find searches that correlate with real-world data.

WolframAlpha

Using expert-level knowledge, this search engine doesn’t just find links; it answers questions, does analysis, and generates reports.

BASE is one of the world’s most voluminous search engines, especially for academic web resources. BASE provides more than 200 million documents from more than 8,000 content providers. You can access the full texts of about 60% of the indexed documents for free (Open Access). BASE is operated by Bielefeld University Library.

Databases and Archives

Resources like the Library of Congress have considerable archives and documents available, and many of them have taken their collections online. Use these search tools to get access to these incredible resources.

Library of Congress

In this incredible library, you’ll get access to searchable source documents, historical photos, and amazing digital collections.

Archives Hub

Find the best of what Britain has to offer in the Archives Hub. You’ll be able to search archives from almost 200 institutions from England, Scotland, and Wales.

National Archives

Check out this resource for access to the National Archives. Find online, public access to find historic documents, research, government information, and more in a single search.

arXiv ePrint Archive

Cornell University’s arXiv.org offers open access to a wealth of e-prints in math, science, and related subjects. Search this resource to find what you need among 1,772,647 documents and counting.

National Agricultural Library

A service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, you can find global information for agriculture in the National Agricultural Library.

Smithsonian Institution Research Information System

Get access to the considerable resources of the Smithsonian Institution through the Research Information System, a great way to search more than 7.4 million records from the Smithsonian’s museums, archives, and libraries.

The British Library Catalogues & Collection

Explore the British Library catalogs, printed materials, digital collections, and even collection blogs for a wealth of resources.

CIA World Factbook

As the center of intelligence, the CIA has certainly done its job with The World Factbook, offering information on major reference information around the world. History, people, government, economy, and more are all covered in this online publication.

State Legislative Websites Directory

Use this database to find information from the legislatures of all 50 U.S. states, DC, and the Territories. You can look up bills, statutes, legislators, and more with this excellent tool.

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications

Search through the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications to find descriptive records for historical and current publications, with direct links where available.

iSEEK Education

iSeek is an excellent targeted search engine, designed especially for students, teachers, administrators, and caregivers. Find authoritative, intelligent, and time-saving resources in a safe, editor-reviewed environment with iSEEK.

Books & Journals

Instead of heading to the library to bury your face in the stacks, use these search engines to find out which libraries have the books you need, and maybe even find them available online.

Google Scholar

Check out Google Scholar to find only scholarly resources on Google. The search specializes in articles, patents, and legal documents, and even has a resource for gathering your citations.

Microsoft Academic

Microsoft Academic is a semantic academic search engine powered by Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG) data and Microsoft Academic Knowledge Exploration Service (MAKES) hosted API’s.

Find items from 10,000 libraries worldwide, with books, DVDs, CDs, and articles up for grabs. You can even find your closest library with WorldCat’s tools.

Google Books

Supercharge your research by searching this index of the world’s books. You’ll find millions for free and others you can preview to find out if they’re what you’re looking for.

Science Direct

For scientific information only, Scirus is a comprehensive research tool with more than 460 million scientific items including journal content, courseware, patents, educational websites, and more.

Open Library

Find the world’s classic literature, open e-books, and other excellent open and free resources in the Open Library. You can even contribute to the library with information, corrections to the catalog, and curated lists.

Bioline International

Search Bioline International to get connected with a variety of scientific journals. The search is managed by scientists and librarians as a collaborative initiative between Bioline Toronto and the Reference Center on Environmental Information.

Directory of Open Access Journals

When you need top-quality journal writings for free, the Directory of Open Access Journals is a great place to check out. You’ll get access to a searchable journal of full-text quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals.

In this curated academic search engine, you’ll get results from over 4,000 free scholarly e-journals in the arts and humanities.

With a focus on science, these academic search engines return all-science, all the time.

Science.gov

In this government science portal, you can search more than 60 databases and 2,200 selected websites across more than 200 million pages and 12 federal agencies. This is an incredible resource for millions of pages of U.S. government science information.

CERN Document Server

This organization for nuclear research serves up a great search and directory for experiments, archives, articles, books, presentations, and so much more within their documents.

WorldWideScience

Use WorldWideScience.org as a global science gateway, offering excellent search results in the sciences, and even the option to select specific databases and find resources in your own language.

Math & Technology

Keep your results limited to only the best math and technology resources by using these search engines.

ZMATH Online Database

Zentralblatt MATH’s online database has millions of entries from thousands of serials and journals dating back as far as 1826. Nearly 35,000 items were added in 2012 alone.

This database was made for scientists and engineers by the Institution of Engineering and Technology. You’ll find nearly 13 million abstracts and research literature, primarily in the fields of physics and engineering.

The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies

Find more than 3 million references to journal articles, conference papers, and technical reports in computer science with this bibliography collection.

Social Science

Researchers working in the fields of psychology, anthropology, and related subjects will find great results using these search engines.

Behavioral Brain Science Archive

Check out this searchable archive to find extensive psychology and brain science articles.

Social Science Research Network

In this research network, you can find a wide variety of social science research from a number of specialized networks including cognitive science, leadership, management, and social insurance.

Social Sciences Citation Index

The Thomson Reuters Social Sciences Citation Index is a paid tool, but well worth its cost for the wealth of relevant articles, search tools, and thorough resources available.

Search the languages of the world with Ethnologue, offering an encyclopedic reference of all the world’s known living languages. You’ll also be able to find more than 28,000 citations in the Ethnologue’s language research bibliography.

Find awesome resources for history through these search engines that index original documents, sources, and archives.

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

Use the LUNA Browser to check out David Rumsey’s Map Collection with more than 30,000 images, searchable by keyword.

Find excellent sources for women’s history with the Genesis dataset and extensive list of web resources.

Get access to historical military records through Fold3, the web’s premier collection of original military records and memorials.

Internet Modern History Sourcebook

Use the Internet Modern History Sourcebook to find thousands of sources in modern history. Browse and search to find full texts, multimedia, and more.

Library of Anglo-American Culture and History

Use the history guide from the Library of Anglo-American Culture and History for a subject catalog of recommended websites for historians, with about 11,000 to choose from.

Internet Ancient History Sourcebook

The Internet Ancient History Sourcebook is a great place to study human origins, with full text and search on topics including Mesopotamia, Rome, the Hellenistic world, Late Antiquity, and Christian origins.

History Engine

In this tool for collaborative education and research, students can learn history by researching, writing, and publishing, creating a collection of historical articles in U.S. history that can be searched for here by scholars, teachers, and the general public.

Business and Economics

Using these search engines, you’ll get access to business publications, journal articles, and more.

Virtual Library Labour History

Maintained by the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, this library offers historians excellent content for learning about economics, business, and more.

Visit EconLit to access more than 120 years of economics literature from around the world in an easily searchable format. Find journal articles, books, book reviews, articles, working papers, and dissertations, as well as historic journal articles from 1886 to 1968.

National Bureau of Economic Research

On this site, you can learn about and find access to great resources in economic research.

Research Papers in Economics

Find research in economics and related sciences through the RePEc, a volunteer-maintained bibliographic database of working papers, articles, books, and even software components with more than 1.2 million research pieces.

Corporate Information

Perfect for researching companies, Corporate Information offers an easy way to find corporate financial records.

Economists will enjoy this excellent site for finding economics resources, including jobs, courses, and even conferences.

Google Finance

Easily look up stocks with this search engine to monitor the stock market and your portfolio.

EDGAR Search

The SEC requires certain disclosures that can be helpful to investors, and you can find them all here in this helpful, next-generation system for searching electronic investment documents.

Other Niches

Find even more specialized information in these niche search engines.

From the U.S. National Library of Medicine, PubMed is a great place to find full-text medical journal articles, with more than 19 million available.

Find reliable, authoritative information for legal search with the Lexis site.

Circumpolar Health Bibliographic Database

Visit this database to find more than 6,300 records relating to human health in the circumpolar region.

Education Resources Information Center

In the ERIC Collection, you’ll find bibliographic records of education literature, as well as a growing collection of full-text resources.

MedlinePlus

A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, Medline Plus offers a powerful search tool and even a dictionary for finding trusted, carefully chosen health information.

Semantic Scholar

A free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature.

Artcyclopedia

Search Artcyclopedia to find everything there is to know about fine art, with 160,000 links, 9,000 artists listed, and 2,900 art sites indexed.

Get connected with great reference material through these search tools.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus

Use this online dictionary and thesaurus to quickly find definitions and synonyms.

References.net

Through References.net, you can get connected with just about every reference tool available, from patents to almanacs.

Need the right thing to say? Check out Quotes.net to reference famous words from famous people.

The Literary Encyclopedia

A library and search database for literature and literary books and documents.

CORE’s mission is to aggregate all open access research outputs from repositories and journals worldwide and make them available to the public. In this way, CORE facilitates free unrestricted access to research for all.

More Academic Search Engines

Africa Journals Online

United States Department of Agriculture: National Agricultural Library

Anthropological Index Online

Analytical Sciences Digital Library

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  • Research paper

How to Write a Research Paper | A Beginner's Guide

A research paper is a piece of academic writing that provides analysis, interpretation, and argument based on in-depth independent research.

Research papers are similar to academic essays , but they are usually longer and more detailed assignments, designed to assess not only your writing skills but also your skills in scholarly research. Writing a research paper requires you to demonstrate a strong knowledge of your topic, engage with a variety of sources, and make an original contribution to the debate.

This step-by-step guide takes you through the entire writing process, from understanding your assignment to proofreading your final draft.

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Table of contents

Understand the assignment, choose a research paper topic, conduct preliminary research, develop a thesis statement, create a research paper outline, write a first draft of the research paper, write the introduction, write a compelling body of text, write the conclusion, the second draft, the revision process, research paper checklist, free lecture slides.

Completing a research paper successfully means accomplishing the specific tasks set out for you. Before you start, make sure you thoroughly understanding the assignment task sheet:

  • Read it carefully, looking for anything confusing you might need to clarify with your professor.
  • Identify the assignment goal, deadline, length specifications, formatting, and submission method.
  • Make a bulleted list of the key points, then go back and cross completed items off as you’re writing.

Carefully consider your timeframe and word limit: be realistic, and plan enough time to research, write, and edit.

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There are many ways to generate an idea for a research paper, from brainstorming with pen and paper to talking it through with a fellow student or professor.

You can try free writing, which involves taking a broad topic and writing continuously for two or three minutes to identify absolutely anything relevant that could be interesting.

You can also gain inspiration from other research. The discussion or recommendations sections of research papers often include ideas for other specific topics that require further examination.

Once you have a broad subject area, narrow it down to choose a topic that interests you, m eets the criteria of your assignment, and i s possible to research. Aim for ideas that are both original and specific:

  • A paper following the chronology of World War II would not be original or specific enough.
  • A paper on the experience of Danish citizens living close to the German border during World War II would be specific and could be original enough.

Note any discussions that seem important to the topic, and try to find an issue that you can focus your paper around. Use a variety of sources , including journals, books, and reliable websites, to ensure you do not miss anything glaring.

Do not only verify the ideas you have in mind, but look for sources that contradict your point of view.

  • Is there anything people seem to overlook in the sources you research?
  • Are there any heated debates you can address?
  • Do you have a unique take on your topic?
  • Have there been some recent developments that build on the extant research?

In this stage, you might find it helpful to formulate some research questions to help guide you. To write research questions, try to finish the following sentence: “I want to know how/what/why…”

A thesis statement is a statement of your central argument — it establishes the purpose and position of your paper. If you started with a research question, the thesis statement should answer it. It should also show what evidence and reasoning you’ll use to support that answer.

The thesis statement should be concise, contentious, and coherent. That means it should briefly summarize your argument in a sentence or two, make a claim that requires further evidence or analysis, and make a coherent point that relates to every part of the paper.

You will probably revise and refine the thesis statement as you do more research, but it can serve as a guide throughout the writing process. Every paragraph should aim to support and develop this central claim.

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A research paper outline is essentially a list of the key topics, arguments, and evidence you want to include, divided into sections with headings so that you know roughly what the paper will look like before you start writing.

A structure outline can help make the writing process much more efficient, so it’s worth dedicating some time to create one.

Your first draft won’t be perfect — you can polish later on. Your priorities at this stage are as follows:

  • Maintaining forward momentum — write now, perfect later.
  • Paying attention to clear organization and logical ordering of paragraphs and sentences, which will help when you come to the second draft.
  • Expressing your ideas as clearly as possible, so you know what you were trying to say when you come back to the text.

You do not need to start by writing the introduction. Begin where it feels most natural for you — some prefer to finish the most difficult sections first, while others choose to start with the easiest part. If you created an outline, use it as a map while you work.

Do not delete large sections of text. If you begin to dislike something you have written or find it doesn’t quite fit, move it to a different document, but don’t lose it completely — you never know if it might come in useful later.

Paragraph structure

Paragraphs are the basic building blocks of research papers. Each one should focus on a single claim or idea that helps to establish the overall argument or purpose of the paper.

Example paragraph

George Orwell’s 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language” has had an enduring impact on thought about the relationship between politics and language. This impact is particularly obvious in light of the various critical review articles that have recently referenced the essay. For example, consider Mark Falcoff’s 2009 article in The National Review Online, “The Perversion of Language; or, Orwell Revisited,” in which he analyzes several common words (“activist,” “civil-rights leader,” “diversity,” and more). Falcoff’s close analysis of the ambiguity built into political language intentionally mirrors Orwell’s own point-by-point analysis of the political language of his day. Even 63 years after its publication, Orwell’s essay is emulated by contemporary thinkers.

Citing sources

It’s also important to keep track of citations at this stage to avoid accidental plagiarism . Each time you use a source, make sure to take note of where the information came from.

You can use our free citation generators to automatically create citations and save your reference list as you go.

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The research paper introduction should address three questions: What, why, and how? After finishing the introduction, the reader should know what the paper is about, why it is worth reading, and how you’ll build your arguments.

What? Be specific about the topic of the paper, introduce the background, and define key terms or concepts.

Why? This is the most important, but also the most difficult, part of the introduction. Try to provide brief answers to the following questions: What new material or insight are you offering? What important issues does your essay help define or answer?

How? To let the reader know what to expect from the rest of the paper, the introduction should include a “map” of what will be discussed, briefly presenting the key elements of the paper in chronological order.

The major struggle faced by most writers is how to organize the information presented in the paper, which is one reason an outline is so useful. However, remember that the outline is only a guide and, when writing, you can be flexible with the order in which the information and arguments are presented.

One way to stay on track is to use your thesis statement and topic sentences . Check:

  • topic sentences against the thesis statement;
  • topic sentences against each other, for similarities and logical ordering;
  • and each sentence against the topic sentence of that paragraph.

Be aware of paragraphs that seem to cover the same things. If two paragraphs discuss something similar, they must approach that topic in different ways. Aim to create smooth transitions between sentences, paragraphs, and sections.

The research paper conclusion is designed to help your reader out of the paper’s argument, giving them a sense of finality.

Trace the course of the paper, emphasizing how it all comes together to prove your thesis statement. Give the paper a sense of finality by making sure the reader understands how you’ve settled the issues raised in the introduction.

You might also discuss the more general consequences of the argument, outline what the paper offers to future students of the topic, and suggest any questions the paper’s argument raises but cannot or does not try to answer.

You should not :

  • Offer new arguments or essential information
  • Take up any more space than necessary
  • Begin with stock phrases that signal you are ending the paper (e.g. “In conclusion”)

There are four main considerations when it comes to the second draft.

  • Check how your vision of the paper lines up with the first draft and, more importantly, that your paper still answers the assignment.
  • Identify any assumptions that might require (more substantial) justification, keeping your reader’s perspective foremost in mind. Remove these points if you cannot substantiate them further.
  • Be open to rearranging your ideas. Check whether any sections feel out of place and whether your ideas could be better organized.
  • If you find that old ideas do not fit as well as you anticipated, you should cut them out or condense them. You might also find that new and well-suited ideas occurred to you during the writing of the first draft — now is the time to make them part of the paper.

The goal during the revision and proofreading process is to ensure you have completed all the necessary tasks and that the paper is as well-articulated as possible. You can speed up the proofreading process by using the AI proofreader .

Global concerns

  • Confirm that your paper completes every task specified in your assignment sheet.
  • Check for logical organization and flow of paragraphs.
  • Check paragraphs against the introduction and thesis statement.

Fine-grained details

Check the content of each paragraph, making sure that:

  • each sentence helps support the topic sentence.
  • no unnecessary or irrelevant information is present.
  • all technical terms your audience might not know are identified.

Next, think about sentence structure , grammatical errors, and formatting . Check that you have correctly used transition words and phrases to show the connections between your ideas. Look for typos, cut unnecessary words, and check for consistency in aspects such as heading formatting and spellings .

Finally, you need to make sure your paper is correctly formatted according to the rules of the citation style you are using. For example, you might need to include an MLA heading  or create an APA title page .

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Checklist: Research paper

I have followed all instructions in the assignment sheet.

My introduction presents my topic in an engaging way and provides necessary background information.

My introduction presents a clear, focused research problem and/or thesis statement .

My paper is logically organized using paragraphs and (if relevant) section headings .

Each paragraph is clearly focused on one central idea, expressed in a clear topic sentence .

Each paragraph is relevant to my research problem or thesis statement.

I have used appropriate transitions  to clarify the connections between sections, paragraphs, and sentences.

My conclusion provides a concise answer to the research question or emphasizes how the thesis has been supported.

My conclusion shows how my research has contributed to knowledge or understanding of my topic.

My conclusion does not present any new points or information essential to my argument.

I have provided an in-text citation every time I refer to ideas or information from a source.

I have included a reference list at the end of my paper, consistently formatted according to a specific citation style .

I have thoroughly revised my paper and addressed any feedback from my professor or supervisor.

I have followed all formatting guidelines (page numbers, headers, spacing, etc.).

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 113 great research paper topics.

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One of the hardest parts of writing a research paper can be just finding a good topic to write about. Fortunately we've done the hard work for you and have compiled a list of 113 interesting research paper topics. They've been organized into ten categories and cover a wide range of subjects so you can easily find the best topic for you.

In addition to the list of good research topics, we've included advice on what makes a good research paper topic and how you can use your topic to start writing a great paper.

What Makes a Good Research Paper Topic?

Not all research paper topics are created equal, and you want to make sure you choose a great topic before you start writing. Below are the three most important factors to consider to make sure you choose the best research paper topics.

#1: It's Something You're Interested In

A paper is always easier to write if you're interested in the topic, and you'll be more motivated to do in-depth research and write a paper that really covers the entire subject. Even if a certain research paper topic is getting a lot of buzz right now or other people seem interested in writing about it, don't feel tempted to make it your topic unless you genuinely have some sort of interest in it as well.

#2: There's Enough Information to Write a Paper

Even if you come up with the absolute best research paper topic and you're so excited to write about it, you won't be able to produce a good paper if there isn't enough research about the topic. This can happen for very specific or specialized topics, as well as topics that are too new to have enough research done on them at the moment. Easy research paper topics will always be topics with enough information to write a full-length paper.

Trying to write a research paper on a topic that doesn't have much research on it is incredibly hard, so before you decide on a topic, do a bit of preliminary searching and make sure you'll have all the information you need to write your paper.

#3: It Fits Your Teacher's Guidelines

Don't get so carried away looking at lists of research paper topics that you forget any requirements or restrictions your teacher may have put on research topic ideas. If you're writing a research paper on a health-related topic, deciding to write about the impact of rap on the music scene probably won't be allowed, but there may be some sort of leeway. For example, if you're really interested in current events but your teacher wants you to write a research paper on a history topic, you may be able to choose a topic that fits both categories, like exploring the relationship between the US and North Korea. No matter what, always get your research paper topic approved by your teacher first before you begin writing.

113 Good Research Paper Topics

Below are 113 good research topics to help you get you started on your paper. We've organized them into ten categories to make it easier to find the type of research paper topics you're looking for.

Arts/Culture

  • Discuss the main differences in art from the Italian Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance .
  • Analyze the impact a famous artist had on the world.
  • How is sexism portrayed in different types of media (music, film, video games, etc.)? Has the amount/type of sexism changed over the years?
  • How has the music of slaves brought over from Africa shaped modern American music?
  • How has rap music evolved in the past decade?
  • How has the portrayal of minorities in the media changed?

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Current Events

  • What have been the impacts of China's one child policy?
  • How have the goals of feminists changed over the decades?
  • How has the Trump presidency changed international relations?
  • Analyze the history of the relationship between the United States and North Korea.
  • What factors contributed to the current decline in the rate of unemployment?
  • What have been the impacts of states which have increased their minimum wage?
  • How do US immigration laws compare to immigration laws of other countries?
  • How have the US's immigration laws changed in the past few years/decades?
  • How has the Black Lives Matter movement affected discussions and view about racism in the US?
  • What impact has the Affordable Care Act had on healthcare in the US?
  • What factors contributed to the UK deciding to leave the EU (Brexit)?
  • What factors contributed to China becoming an economic power?
  • Discuss the history of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies  (some of which tokenize the S&P 500 Index on the blockchain) .
  • Do students in schools that eliminate grades do better in college and their careers?
  • Do students from wealthier backgrounds score higher on standardized tests?
  • Do students who receive free meals at school get higher grades compared to when they weren't receiving a free meal?
  • Do students who attend charter schools score higher on standardized tests than students in public schools?
  • Do students learn better in same-sex classrooms?
  • How does giving each student access to an iPad or laptop affect their studies?
  • What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Montessori Method ?
  • Do children who attend preschool do better in school later on?
  • What was the impact of the No Child Left Behind act?
  • How does the US education system compare to education systems in other countries?
  • What impact does mandatory physical education classes have on students' health?
  • Which methods are most effective at reducing bullying in schools?
  • Do homeschoolers who attend college do as well as students who attended traditional schools?
  • Does offering tenure increase or decrease quality of teaching?
  • How does college debt affect future life choices of students?
  • Should graduate students be able to form unions?

body_highschoolsc

  • What are different ways to lower gun-related deaths in the US?
  • How and why have divorce rates changed over time?
  • Is affirmative action still necessary in education and/or the workplace?
  • Should physician-assisted suicide be legal?
  • How has stem cell research impacted the medical field?
  • How can human trafficking be reduced in the United States/world?
  • Should people be able to donate organs in exchange for money?
  • Which types of juvenile punishment have proven most effective at preventing future crimes?
  • Has the increase in US airport security made passengers safer?
  • Analyze the immigration policies of certain countries and how they are similar and different from one another.
  • Several states have legalized recreational marijuana. What positive and negative impacts have they experienced as a result?
  • Do tariffs increase the number of domestic jobs?
  • Which prison reforms have proven most effective?
  • Should governments be able to censor certain information on the internet?
  • Which methods/programs have been most effective at reducing teen pregnancy?
  • What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Keto diet?
  • How effective are different exercise regimes for losing weight and maintaining weight loss?
  • How do the healthcare plans of various countries differ from each other?
  • What are the most effective ways to treat depression ?
  • What are the pros and cons of genetically modified foods?
  • Which methods are most effective for improving memory?
  • What can be done to lower healthcare costs in the US?
  • What factors contributed to the current opioid crisis?
  • Analyze the history and impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic .
  • Are low-carbohydrate or low-fat diets more effective for weight loss?
  • How much exercise should the average adult be getting each week?
  • Which methods are most effective to get parents to vaccinate their children?
  • What are the pros and cons of clean needle programs?
  • How does stress affect the body?
  • Discuss the history of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
  • What were the causes and effects of the Salem Witch Trials?
  • Who was responsible for the Iran-Contra situation?
  • How has New Orleans and the government's response to natural disasters changed since Hurricane Katrina?
  • What events led to the fall of the Roman Empire?
  • What were the impacts of British rule in India ?
  • Was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary?
  • What were the successes and failures of the women's suffrage movement in the United States?
  • What were the causes of the Civil War?
  • How did Abraham Lincoln's assassination impact the country and reconstruction after the Civil War?
  • Which factors contributed to the colonies winning the American Revolution?
  • What caused Hitler's rise to power?
  • Discuss how a specific invention impacted history.
  • What led to Cleopatra's fall as ruler of Egypt?
  • How has Japan changed and evolved over the centuries?
  • What were the causes of the Rwandan genocide ?

main_lincoln

  • Why did Martin Luther decide to split with the Catholic Church?
  • Analyze the history and impact of a well-known cult (Jonestown, Manson family, etc.)
  • How did the sexual abuse scandal impact how people view the Catholic Church?
  • How has the Catholic church's power changed over the past decades/centuries?
  • What are the causes behind the rise in atheism/ agnosticism in the United States?
  • What were the influences in Siddhartha's life resulted in him becoming the Buddha?
  • How has media portrayal of Islam/Muslims changed since September 11th?

Science/Environment

  • How has the earth's climate changed in the past few decades?
  • How has the use and elimination of DDT affected bird populations in the US?
  • Analyze how the number and severity of natural disasters have increased in the past few decades.
  • Analyze deforestation rates in a certain area or globally over a period of time.
  • How have past oil spills changed regulations and cleanup methods?
  • How has the Flint water crisis changed water regulation safety?
  • What are the pros and cons of fracking?
  • What impact has the Paris Climate Agreement had so far?
  • What have NASA's biggest successes and failures been?
  • How can we improve access to clean water around the world?
  • Does ecotourism actually have a positive impact on the environment?
  • Should the US rely on nuclear energy more?
  • What can be done to save amphibian species currently at risk of extinction?
  • What impact has climate change had on coral reefs?
  • How are black holes created?
  • Are teens who spend more time on social media more likely to suffer anxiety and/or depression?
  • How will the loss of net neutrality affect internet users?
  • Analyze the history and progress of self-driving vehicles.
  • How has the use of drones changed surveillance and warfare methods?
  • Has social media made people more or less connected?
  • What progress has currently been made with artificial intelligence ?
  • Do smartphones increase or decrease workplace productivity?
  • What are the most effective ways to use technology in the classroom?
  • How is Google search affecting our intelligence?
  • When is the best age for a child to begin owning a smartphone?
  • Has frequent texting reduced teen literacy rates?

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How to Write a Great Research Paper

Even great research paper topics won't give you a great research paper if you don't hone your topic before and during the writing process. Follow these three tips to turn good research paper topics into great papers.

#1: Figure Out Your Thesis Early

Before you start writing a single word of your paper, you first need to know what your thesis will be. Your thesis is a statement that explains what you intend to prove/show in your paper. Every sentence in your research paper will relate back to your thesis, so you don't want to start writing without it!

As some examples, if you're writing a research paper on if students learn better in same-sex classrooms, your thesis might be "Research has shown that elementary-age students in same-sex classrooms score higher on standardized tests and report feeling more comfortable in the classroom."

If you're writing a paper on the causes of the Civil War, your thesis might be "While the dispute between the North and South over slavery is the most well-known cause of the Civil War, other key causes include differences in the economies of the North and South, states' rights, and territorial expansion."

#2: Back Every Statement Up With Research

Remember, this is a research paper you're writing, so you'll need to use lots of research to make your points. Every statement you give must be backed up with research, properly cited the way your teacher requested. You're allowed to include opinions of your own, but they must also be supported by the research you give.

#3: Do Your Research Before You Begin Writing

You don't want to start writing your research paper and then learn that there isn't enough research to back up the points you're making, or, even worse, that the research contradicts the points you're trying to make!

Get most of your research on your good research topics done before you begin writing. Then use the research you've collected to create a rough outline of what your paper will cover and the key points you're going to make. This will help keep your paper clear and organized, and it'll ensure you have enough research to produce a strong paper.

What's Next?

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Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

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These 10 institutions published the most papers in Nature and Science in 2018

From CRISPR to CLARITY, here are some of the most high-profile studies.

Gemma Conroy, Bec Crew

top academic research papers

Gene-editing tech, CRISPR-Cas9, featured in one of Harvard's most widely discussed Nature papers in 2017. Credit: Meletios Verras/Getty Images

3 September 2019

top academic research papers

Meletios Verras/Getty Images

Gene-editing tech, CRISPR-Cas9, featured in one of Harvard's most widely discussed Nature papers in 2017.

The journals Nature and Science are where some of the highest quality research is showcased to the world.

The institutions listed below were the largest contributors to papers published in Nature and Science in 2018, as tracked by the Nature Index.

View the Nature Index 2019 Annual Tables for Nature and Science .

1. Harvard University

Fractional count: 70.67 (-15.3%), Article count: 210

No research institute beats Harvard University for papers published in Nature and Science .

As one of the oldest universities in the United States , and one of the world’s leading higher education institutions, Harvard has a storied history of revolutionary discoveries, including the smallpox vaccine, anaesthesia, and oral contraception.

More recently, widely discussed studies by Harvard scientists include a 2017 Nature paper that described a method for storing digital data in bacterial genomes using CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology, and a Science paper this year , in which researchers from Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science analyzed the effect of fake news on Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election.

2. Stanford University

Fractional Count: 39.85 (-24.3%); Article Count: 100

Stanford University appears in the upper echelons of many of the Nature Index Annual Tables rankings, including chemistry, life sciences, the physical sciences, and academic institutions. It’s also the second most prolific publisher in Nature and Science .

Top authors at Stanford include bioengineer and neuroscientist, Karl Deisseroth , whose 2013 Nature paper on a new technology named CLARITY describes how mammalian brains can be rendered “clear as Jell-O” for access by molecular probes, as The New York Times put it .

Computer scientist, Fei-Fei Li, co-director of Stanford's Human-Centered AI Institute and Vision and Learning Lab, is one of the most prolific researchers in the field of AI, and has published on machine learning, deep learning, computer vision and cognitive neuroscience.

3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Fractional count: 37.69 (13.3%), Article count: 130

As one of the world’s most prestigious higher education institutions, MIT has been at the frontier of research for more than 150 years, its close ties with industry fostering an emphasis on entrepreneurship and applied science.

With 12,707 faculty and staff on campus and an annual budget of more than US$3.5 billion (2018), almost 85% of MIT’s undergraduates engage in frontline, faculty-led research.

One of MIT’s most talked-about studies in 2018 was a Science paper that analysed the spread of true and false news. Garnering an Altmetrics score of more than 9,600, which includes more than 8,000 tweets and 360 news stories, it lent support to the adage: lies spread faster than the truth.

A 2018 Nature paper by MIT researchers on the ‘Moral Machine experiment’ also drew significant attention from the wider public, posing complex questions about how AI in future will make moral decisions.

4. Max Planck Society

Fractional Count: 32.35 (-15%) Article count: 139

From nuclear fission to the theory of relativity, Germany's Max Planck Society has been the birthplace of some of the most important discoveries in science.

Among Max Planck’s Nature and Science findings published last year were a new antiretroviral treatment for HIV , graphene nanoribbons , and a new method for capturing changes in RNA .

One of Max Planck’s most highly cited Nature papers of 2018 presented the most precise measurements of the electron ever made. The findings support the standard model of particle physics, which proposes that electrons maintain a near perfect spherical shape.

Along with an international team, Max Planck researchers published a paper in Science last year that revealed the source of cosmic neutrinos, a type of high-energy particle that travels over vast distances. The study found that neutrinos originate from blazars, a type of galaxy powered by supermassive black holes.

5. University of California, Berkeley

Fractional count: 24.30 (39.4%), Article count: 78

Credited for the discovery or co-discovery of 16 elements — more than any other university — the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) has a well-established history of scientific advances. You can see its fingerprints on 97 berkelium (Bk), 98 californium (Cf) and 95 americium (Am).

Among its most highly-cited Nature and Science papers of last year were reports on the genetic basis of psychiatric disorders ; a possible cause of fast radio bursts ; and cobalt-free batteries .

In February 2018 , UC Berkeley researchers were involved in the development of genome-editing tool that can detect human papillomavirus with great sensitivity. The study was the institution’s most highly-cited Science paper of that year.

A paper published in Nature also attracted a lot of attention in 2018, when UC Berkeley researchers, along with an international team, described a microchip that uses light to transmit data. The new device is faster and more efficient than conventional silicon chip technologies.

6. University of California, Los Angeles

Fractional Count: 21.11 (82.1%), Article count: 67

Having just celebrated its 100th birthday, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is one of the youngest universities in Nature Index’s top 10 tables, and yet it receives the most student applications of any university in the US.

Key papers published in Science last year include a study that revealed how certain psychiatric disorders share global gene expression patterns, and one describing how UCLA engineers 3D-printed an AI device that identifies objects at the speed of light, a promising development for medicine, robotics and security .

As vice-chancellor for research, Roger Wakimoto, says, UCLA’s growth and achievements mirror the trajectory of the city it calls home.

“I believe the institution’s success is based on its strong commitment to teaching, recruiting and retaining some of the most talented researchers in the world, and having a close and synergistic relationship with the city of Los Angeles.”

7. Yale University

Fractional count: 19.75 (36.8%), Article count: 57

From finding evidence of time crystals to discovering how gut bacteria cause autoimmune disease, Yale University’s research consistently breaks ground. As one of the oldest universities in the US, it’s also built a strong record of highly-cited papers published in the world’s leading scientific journals.

Last year, Yale astronomers made headlines when they discovered that the galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 contained almost no dark matter, challenging the assumption that it’s essential for the formation of galaxies. The study was one of Yale’s most talked-about Nature papers of 2018.

A Science study involving Yale researchers on how household products contribute to air pollution also sparked conversation last year. The team found that cleaning products, perfumes and shampoos rival transport as major emissions sources.

8. Columbia University in the City of New York

Fractional count: 19.67 (-4.3%), Article count: 65

Established 265 years ago by royal charter of King George II of England, Columbia University is the oldest institution of higher learning in New York City and the fifth oldest in the US.

With more than 200 research centres and institutes, 350 new inventions each year and 84 Nobel laureates, Columbia is at the forefront of scientific discovery.

In 2018, Columbia University produced 65 papers in Nature and Science , placing it in eighth place in this ranking. The institution’s research performance is particularly strong in the life sciences, which accounts for around half of its overall output.

Last year, researchers from Columbia co-authored a study suggesting that 60% of people with European descent living in the US can be genetically identified using available genetic information, even if they have not undergone genetic testing.

Published in Science , the findings highlight the need for strategies that safeguard genetic privacy.

9. University of Oxford

Fractional count: 19.56 (73.6%), Article count: 73

The University of Oxford is the oldest in the English-speaking world, with teaching dating back as far as 1096. Today, it maintains its prestigious reputation with eighth place among the leading academic institutions in the Nature Index.

The largest share of Oxford’s scientific output is in the life sciences, with papers in the discipline contributing around one-third of its output.

Research funding provided by councils, trusts and industry is Oxford’s largest source of income, accounting for 26% of its funds — the highest research income of all the United Kingdom's universities.

Oxford is also home to the Beecroft Building, a new US$64-million facility dedicated to experimental and theoretical physics with laboratories designed for making precise measurements at the atomic level.

In 2018, Oxford researchers co-authored an influential analysis of how to reduce the environmental impacts of food. The paper, published in Science , triggered widespread debate about food choices, such as avoiding dairy and meat.

10. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich

Fractional count: 19.23 (29.1%), Article count: 55

Boasting 21 Nobel Prize winners, two Fields medallists and a Turing Award recipient, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) has built a reputation for trailblazing research over the past 160 years.

The technical and scientific university is also renowned for its ability to produce highly-cited research, taking tenth place among the top institutions in Nature and Science papers.

Among the most talked-about papers from the university are predictions of increased marine heatwaves under climate change; a technique for transmitting quantum information ; and detailed images of proteins involved in opioid signalling.

In January 2018 , researchers at ETH Zurich discovered how a particular group of nanocrystals are able to emit a bright light. The study, which was the most highly-cited Nature article from the institution that year, could have a range of applications in materials science, from data transmission to supercomputers.

The top 10 academic institutions in 2018: normalized

The top 10 academic institutions in 2018

The top 10 countries for scientific research in 2018

Correction: Text amended to remove "in the 21 century" from the opening sentence of the Max Planck Society's profile.

  • Student Success
  • Academic Life

Program Innovations: Promoting Success in Student Research

To enhance the student experience and increase access to experiential learning, colleges and universities have gotten creative with undergraduate research experiences.

By  Ashley Mowreader

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A group of students and a professor meet in a research laboratory. All are wearing lab coats.

Undergraduate research can provide students with hands-on experience in a lab environment, as well as help them determine career opportunities they might not otherwise consider.

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Undergraduate research opportunities are one way to provide experiential learning in many disciplines, introducing learners to research methods under the supervision of a faculty member and providing experience for a résumé.

A 2021 study from the University of Central Florida found student researchers are more likely to have higher grade point averages and graduation rates, and higher matriculation into graduate school, as well as life skills such as analyzing literature critically, observing and collecting data and communication.

However, not every student has equal access to undergraduate research opportunities. The study found non-STEM students, transfer students and part-time students are less likely to participate in research compared to their peers.

To increase student participation in undergraduate research and boost skill development among student researchers, institutions have created innovative models of work. Here are seven examples.

Survey Says

Around three in 10 students say they are required to participate in undergraduate research, according to a winter 2023 Student Voice survey from Inside Higher Ed , and a slightly smaller number (27 percent) believe that undergraduate research should be required in their program.

Four-year students are more likely to say undergraduate research is required in their program (32 percent) compared to their two-year peers (15 percent).

First-year research opportunities—University of Missouri

Career exposure in the first year can help students feel confident about their paths throughout college and provide a head start in building their résumés.

Mizzou is known for its Interdisciplinary Plant Group that hosts research scholars exploring innovations in plant biology and a first-year program that provides young researchers a leg up in their work, giving them research time with more experienced researchers and mentorship.

FRIPS, short for Freshman Research in Plants , supports 10 to 15 students annually, who work alongside a faculty member and their research group on plant biology. Students also meet regularly with their FRIPS scholars cohort and gain professional development training.

Each student’s work is funded by grant dollars from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Graduates of FRIPS often go on to become Goldwater Scholars and NSF graduate research fellows. The program also creates a place of belonging and community for new students to the university.

Underrepresented minority students—Davidson College

Some students face systemic disadvantages in participating in co-curricular experiences because they may lack the social capital or be unfamiliar with the norms of higher ed to identify and participate in a faculty-led research experience.

At Davidson College in North Carolina, rising sophomores can participate in a four- to six-week summer intensive research fellowship program called RISE (Research in Science Experience) . This program is designed for students from historically marginalized groups including low-income and first-generation students.

The goal of RISE is to equip students to take on larger, more intensive academic-year and summer experiences for later in their college career. Each student receives $2,500 in scholarships and funds to cover on-campus housing, which the college arranges for all participants.

Jacquelline Nyakunu , a rising junior at Davidson, spent the summer with chemistry professor Cindy Hauser researching hookah, studying the smoking of shisha and the chemical composition of the tobacco. Nyakunu wrote in a blog post that the experience taught her about her passion for chemistry, built her research skills and solidified her career path as a pre-medicine student.

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Transfer students—University of California, Los Angeles

Transferring into a new institution can be a challenge for many students, and finding ways to get plugged in and connected to one’s field of interest can be just as hard.

UCLA offers an initiative exclusively for transfer students to both promote their academic success at the university and expose them to undergraduate research opportunities, the Transfer Research Entry Program (TREP).

To participate, each student must be an incoming transfer student with at least two years remaining at UCLA and be considering a career in research. Participants attend a one-week virtual bootcamp about research, which covers careers in research and how to write a cover letter and curriculum vitae. The program also provides networking opportunities for transfer students and academic survival skills for the transition to UCLA.

There’s no obligation to take a research role after the bootcamp, but students are encouraged to do so and given guidance on how to find their areas of interest, the application and interview process as well.

Financial support—University of Texas at El Paso

Financial need can be a barrier to participation for some students. The University of Texas at El Paso is a Hispanic Serving Institution (84 percent Hispanic), commuter school with a large population of Pell-eligible students (60 percent) and first-generation learners. Many students are working to support themselves and their families, explains Lourdes E. Echegoyen, director of the Campus Office of Undergraduate Research Initiatives.

As a result, UTEP staff realized a need to provide financial assistance through employment to give students high-impact activities.

University staff have identified grant funding from federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Education, and private foundations.

Students can receive financial support through stipends or tuition scholarships. The university’s student employment program also provides employment positions for undergraduate researchers across disciplines.

“Generally, full time students are supported to conduct research during the academic year from 10 to 19 hours per week—depending on the program—thus allowing students to remain on campus and be mentored as research trainees,” Echegoyen says.

UTEP leaders have seen the benefits of undergraduate research on retention and persistence among students, with one program focused on biomedical research having a 98 percent retention rate among students across four years, compared to a 37 percent retention rate among their peers who did not participate.&

Community partnerships—Roosevelt University

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Roosevelt University in Chicago partnered with The Field Museum to digitize and analyze data collected at the museum. Visitors had measured specimens of liverworts, but the data needed to be sorted and inaccurate measurements eliminated from the set to be most useful to scientists.

Students wrote code to screen and clean the data, helping set the researchers up for success and teaching students firsthand about research processes in a remote setting.

Career development—Elon University

At Elon in North Carolina, returning students can participate in undergraduate research over the summer in between academic terms, funded by the university. While career readiness is a natural component of research experiences, leaders at the university wanted to bolster student skills beyond the laboratory, says Eric Hall, professor of exercise and director of undergraduate research at Elon.

Now, student researchers attend regular professional-development workshops that inform and establish career competencies. The workshops are co-led by other campus partners, including the writing center, career services, the fellowships office and librarians, Hall says.

For the 2024 session, workshops include a session on LinkedIn on how the fellowships office can support student goals, professional writing for graduate school and industry, and navigating academic publishing.

The new initiative is still being evaluated, with formal data collection underway, but anecdotal evidence from post-assessments shows students enjoy and learn from the experiences.

Research in the classroom—California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Cal Poly Pomona leaders wanted to expose more learners to undergraduate research, understanding that first-generation, Pell-eligible or historically underserved students have lower access to research opportunities, says Winny Dong, faculty director for the office of undergraduate research.

Rather than asking students to squeeze an additional responsibility into their schedules, faculty members brought research to the classroom, embedding experiences into required general education courses.

The initiative makes it so all students are exposed to research and required to participate in some capacity, helping build their skills and pique interest for those who may consider a career in research.

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Avoiding the ‘Curse of Knowledge’ in Your Writing

When seeking an academic editor, you may want to consider a generalist, writes Natalie Schriefer, who suggests how to

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2024 Environmental Performance Index: A Surprise Top Ranking, Global Biodiversity Commitment Tested

The Baltic nation of Estonia is No. 1 in the 2024 rankings, while Denmark, one of the top ranked countries in the 2022 EPI dropped to 10 th place, highlighting the challenges of reducing emissions in hard-to-decarbonize industries. Meanwhile, “paper parks” are proving a global challenge to international biodiversity commitments.

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In 2022, at the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP 15, in Montreal over 190 countries made what has been called “the biggest conservation commitment the world has ever seen.”  The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework called for the effective protection and management of 30% of the world’s terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas by the year 2030 — commonly known as the 30x30 target. While there has been progress toward reaching this ambitious goal of protecting 30% of land and seas on paper, just ahead of World Environment Day, the 2024 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) , an analysis by Yale researchers that provides a data-driven summary of the state of sustainability around the world, shows that in many cases such protections have failed to halt ecosystem loss or curtail environmentally destructive practices.

A new metric that assesses how well countries are protecting important ecosystems indicated that while nations have made progress in protecting land and seas, many of these areas are “paper parks” where commercial activities such as mining and trawling continue to occur — sometimes at a higher rate than in non-protected areas. The EPI analyses show that in 23 countries, more than 10% of the land protected is covered by croplands and buildings, and in 35 countries there is more fishing activity inside marine protected areas than outside. 

“Protected areas are failing to achieve their goals in different ways,” said Sebastián Block Munguía, a postdoctoral associate with the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP) and the lead author of the report. “In Europe, destructive fishing is allowed inside marine protected areas, and a large fraction of the area protected in land is covered by croplands, not natural ecosystems. In many developing countries, even when destructive activities are not allowed in protected areas, shortages of funding and personnel make it difficult to enforce rules.”

The 2024 EPI, published by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network ranks 180 countries based on 58 performance indicators to track progress on mitigating climate change, promoting environmental health, and safeguarding ecosystem vitality. The data evaluates efforts by the nations to reach U.N. sustainability goals, the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, as well as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The data for the index underlying different indicators come from a variety of academic institutions and international organizations and cover different periods. Protected area coverage indicators are based on data from March 2024, while greenhouse emissions data are from 2022.

Estonia has decreased its GHG emissions by 59% compared to 1990. The energy sector will be the biggest contributor in reducing emissions in the coming years as we have an aim to produce 100% of our electricity consumption from renewables by 2030.”

The index found that many countries that were leading in sustainability goals have fallen behind or stalled, illustrating the challenges of reducing emissions in hard-to-decarbonize industries and resistant sectors such as agriculture. In several countries, recent drops in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) have been the result of external circumstances, not policy. For example, in Albania, supply chain disruptions led to more expensive animal feed that resulted in a sharp reduction in cows and, consequentially, nitrous oxide and methane emissions.

Estonia leads this year’s rankings with a 40% drop in GHG emissions over the last decade, largely attributed to replacing dirty oil shale power plants with cleaner energy sources. The country is drafting a proposal to achieve by 2040 a CO2 neutral energy sector and a CO2 neutral public transport network in bigger cities.

“Estonia has decreased its GHG emissions by 59% compared to 1990. The energy sector will be the biggest contributor in reducing emissions in the coming years as we have an aim to produce 100% of our electricity consumption from renewables by 2030,” said Kristi Klaas, Estonia’s vice-minister for Green Transition. Klaas discussed some of the policies that led to the country's success as well as ongoing challenges, such as reducing emissions in the agriculture sector, at a webinar hosted by YCELP on June 3.  Dr. Abdullah Ali Abdullah Al-Amri, chairman of the Environment Authority of Oman, also joined the webinar to discuss efforts aimed at protecting the county's multiple ecosystems with rare biodiversity and endangered species, such as the Arabian oryx, and subspecies, such as the Arabian leopard. 

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 Denmark, the top ranked country in the 2022 EPI dropped to 10th place, as its pace of decarbonization slowed, highlighting that those early gains from implementing “low-hanging-fruit policies, such as switching to electricity generation from coal to natural gas and expanding renewable power generation are themselves insufficient,” the index notes. Emissions in the world’s largest economies such as the U.S. (which is ranked 34th) are falling too slowly or still rising — such as in China, Russia, and India, which is ranked 176th.

Over the last decade only five countries — Estonia, Finland, Greece, Timor-Leste, and the United Kingdom — have cut their GHG emissions over the last decade at the rate needed to reach net zero by 2050. Vietnam and other developing countries in Southeast and Southern Asia — such as Pakistan, Laos, Myanmar, and Bangladesh — are ranked the lowest, indicating the urgency of international cooperation to help provide a path for struggling nations to achieve sustainability.

“The 2024 Environmental Performance Index highlights a range of critical sustainability challenges from climate change to biodiversity loss and beyond — and reveals trends suggesting that countries across the world need to redouble their efforts to protect critical ecosystems and the vitality of our planet,” said Daniel Esty, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy and director of YCELP.

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The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

White   House Shares Government, Private Sector, Academic, and Non-Profit Actions to Accelerate Progress on Mental Health   Research

The United States is facing an unprecedented mental health crisis impacting Americans of all ages. To tackle this crisis, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken bold steps to transform how mental health is understood, accessed, and treated. Under President Biden’s Unity Agenda, the Biden-Harris Administration released a comprehensive mental health strategy and mental health research priorities . These steps aim to make mental health care more affordable and accessible and improve health outcomes for all Americans.  

As a part of Mental Health Awareness Month, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy called on government agencies, the private sector, nonprofit organizations, and academia to share the actions they are taking to expand and improve mental health research in the United States. These actions address key research priorities and move us closer to a future where every American has access to the best available care when and where they need it.

Government Actions

  • The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund’s Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS) Program announced 25 community-led research awards. The ComPASS program provides an unprecedented opportunity for communities to lead innovative intervention projects that study ways to address the underlying structural factors that affect health and health equity. Awards include research focused on addressing stigmatization of behavioral health and services and improving access to behavioral health services in Hispanic, low-income, rural, and LGBTQ+ communities.
  • Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Program for Schizophrenia (AMP SCZ) released its first research data set — AMP SCZ 1.0 —through a collaboration of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Foundation for NIH, the Food and Drug Administration, and multiple public and private partners. To improve the understanding of schizophrenia and to identify new and better targets for treatment, AMP SCZ established a research network that examines trajectories for people who are at clinical high risk for psychosis. The network also develops psychosis prediction algorithms using biomarkers, clinical data, and existing clinical high risk-related datasets.
  • NIMH’s Individually Measured Phenotypes to Advance Computational Translation in Mental Health program is a new initiative focused on using behavioral measures and computational methods to define novel clinical signatures that can be used for individual-level prediction and clinical decision making in treating mental disorders . As one example of research supported through this initiative, researchers at the University of Washington are applying computational modeling strategies to behavioral data collected through a smartphone app, with the goal of predicting and preventing serious negative outcomes for people who experience hallucinations.
  • NIMH awarded research grants to develop and test innovative psychosocial interventions to prevent suicide. Researchers at San Diego State, one of the grant recipients, are combining an existing intervention—the Safety Planning Intervention—with patient navigator services, and testing the effectiveness of this novel combined intervention in reducing suicide risk among sexual and gender minority youth and young adults.
  • NIMH and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development funded 11 new studies focused on understanding bidirectional relationships between social media use and adolescent mental illness, psychiatric symptoms, and risk or resilience for psychopathology . Collectively, this research aims to address important questions about the short-term and long-term interactions between social media behavior and youth mental health, as well as the mechanisms contributing to risk and resilience.

Private Sector, Academic, and Non-Profit Actions

  • The University of California, Somos Esenciales, and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital are conducting the Supporting Peer Interactions to Expand Access study, which examines digital mental health solutions in resource-limited settings, emphasizing cultural and linguistic inclusivity. This study examines a cognitive-behavioral therapy intervention for depression or anxiety for Latino patients with limited-English proficiency and tests implementation strategies, including support from community peers, to integrate this intervention into primary care.
  • Headspace is launching a participatory research approach to better understand mental health needs. Headspace is partnering with the city of Hartford, Connecticut to provide mental health resources to all Hartford residents including free access to the Headspace app. This public-private partnership is the first of its kind to improve community-wide mental wellness while researching engagement with the Headspace app and the associated mental health outcomes.
  • The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) established a Mental and Behavioral Health Awards Program to champion integrated behavioral health (IBH) patient care models. The inaugural funding was awarded to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Georgetown University Medical Center, Texas A&M School of Medicine, and the University of California Davis School of Medicine for their innovative approaches to IBH team training and patient care, as well as their commitment to accessible and equitable whole person care. AAMC will summarize and disseminate lessons learned from these institutions to advance IBH across the health care delivery system.
  • Unity Health Care established the $2.3 million J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation’s Behavioral Health Development Fund to train the next generation of IBH fellows. This program allows Unity to recruit and train the next generation of mental health providers, with a focus on models of care that expand access, improve outcomes, and drive health equity through IBH. The behavioral health providers work seamlessly with primary care providers to address unmet critical and looming mental health challenges with a culturally congruent approach.
  • The American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists is providing up to $500,000 to study the impact of integrating Board-Certified Psychiatric Pharmacists (BCPPs) into health care teams. BCPPs are advanced practice clinical pharmacists who provide Comprehensive Medication Management within team-based care focusing on medication optimization, evidence-based practices, and patient-centered goals. These research grants fund multiple sites and expand the number and quality of studies involving BCPPs.
  • The Healthy Brains Global Initiative (HBGI), the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, and initially three counties in California, are implementing performance-based pilot programs to improve outcomes for people living with serious mental illnesses. These pilots are testing reimbursement for achieving health, housing, and wellbeing outcomes while strengthening the performance management of existing Full Service Partnership (FSP) services. FSP programs intend to be comprehensive services for individuals who are unhoused and who are experiencing severe mental illness.
  • The NIH-funded RAND-USC Schaeffer Opioid Policy Tools and Information Center (OPTIC) is building evidence to guide policy responses to the opioid crisis. RAND and the University of Southern California lead OPTIC, a collaboration of eight research institutions, to create national resources to guide policy responses to the opioid crisis. OPTIC develops and disseminates information on policy effectiveness overall and in diverse, structurally disadvantaged communities, improved tools and methods for assessing policy effects, and strategies for addressing the opioid crisis.
  • Insight is opening a new medical-psychiatric hospital to serve the community disproportionately burdened by the Flint Water Crisis with a $2.5 million grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The hospital and services are being designed to transform how behavioral health is understood, accessed, treated, and integrated with medical and community services. Research at the hospital will focus on advancing equity in access to behavioral health services, developing treatments for serious illnesses, and supporting youth mental health.
  • RAND and Active Minds are evaluating how Send Silence Packing®, the country’s largest traveling campus-based mental health literacy and suicide prevention exhibit, affects college students’ knowledge, behaviors, and stigma around mental health. Findings will guide scalability, resource allocation and decision-making on college campuses and efforts to optimize peer-informed actions to support student mental health and well-being.
  • The Child Mind Institute (CMI) is leveraging over $150M from partnerships with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the State of California to expand mental health care access for youth in marginalized communities worldwide. CMI utilizes evidence-based, culturally adapted educational resources, provider training, and scalable, innovative, open-source digital technologies for mental health assessment and intervention. The Youth Mental Health Academy recruits a diverse workforce by providing educational and internship experiences to 2,500 high school students from under-represented communities. The Healthy Brain Network openly shares diverse brain and behavior data from >7,000 participants for pediatric mental health and learning research.

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  27. These 10 institutions published the most papers in Nature and Science

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  30. White House Shares Government, Private Sector, Academic, and Non-Profit

    Research at the hospital will focus on advancing equity in access to behavioral health services, developing treatments for serious illnesses, and supporting youth mental health.