highlights research paper

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Highlights are three to five (three to four for Cell Press articles) bullet points that help increase the discoverability of your article via search engines. These bullet points should capture the novel results of your research as well as new methods that were used during the study (if any). Think of them as the "elevator pitch" of your article. Please include terms that you know your readers will be looking for online. Don't try to capture all ideas, concepts or conclusions as highlights are meant to be short: 85 characters or fewer, including spaces.

Highlights offer your paper a considerable advantage in the online world, as they ensure that search engines pick up your article and match it to the right audience. (Nowadays, machines read your work just as often as humans do!). Highlights have been proven to widen the reach of your work and help to ensure that your article is brought to the attention of interested colleagues, both inside and outside your usual research community. Apart from a wider distribution of your research, we hope that this will also lead to new collaborations and help accelerate the pace of science.

The small print

Not part of editorial consideration and aren't required until the final files stage

Only required for full research articles

Must be provided as a Word document— select "Highlights" from the drop-down list when uploading files

Each Highlight can be no more than 85 characters, including spaces

No jargon, acronyms, or abbreviations: aim for a general audience and use keywords

Consider the reader - Highlights are the first thing they'll see

From:   Cancer Cell, Volume 32, Issue 2, 14 August 2017, Pages 169-184.e7 opens in new tab/window

Metastases mostly disseminate late from primary breast tumors, keeping most drivers

Drivers at relapse sample from a wider range of cancer genes than in primary tumors

Mutations in SWI-SNF complex and inactivated JAK-STAT signaling enriched at relapse

Mutational processes similar in primary and relapse; radiotherapy can damage genome

From:  Learning and Instruction, Volume 21, Issue 6, December 2011, 746-756 opens in new tab/window

Fading of a script alone does not foster domain-general strategy knowledge

Performance of the strategy declines during the fading of a script

Monitoring by a peer keeps performance of the strategy up during script fading

Performance of a strategy after fading fosters domain-general strategy knowledge

Fading and monitoring by a peer combined foster domain-general strategy knowledge

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How to Write Highlights for a Paper

Last Updated: March 20, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was reviewed by Gerald Posner and by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 49,969 times.

The highlights for a scientific paper make it easier for people to find it using a search engine. Ideally, your highlights serve as a sort of "elevator pitch" for your paper, describing the results and any new methods you used. Although it depends on the publisher, the highlights for a paper will usually be no more than 3 or 4 bullet-point phrases. You typically don't need to worry about your highlights until the final editing stages before your paper is published. However, strong highlights can get your paper noticed online more quickly, which can give your research a tremendous advantage. [1] X Research source

Drafting the Highlights for Your Paper

• Conversely, good highlights also keep a potential reader from wasting their time. If your paper doesn't cover information that they need to know or are interested in, highlights let them know immediately so they don't have to read through half your paper before they find that out.

• For example, you would write "UV rays affect skin's overall health" rather than "skin's overall health is affected by sun exposure."
• Research papers often use passive voice, which is more wordy and difficult to understand. Because highlights have a strict length requirement, using active voice allows you to stay within the character limits while including the most important information from your article. For example, you might write: "Prolonged exposure to light damages skin cells."

• Use the simplest words possible, even if they aren't technically accurate. For example, instead of referring to "squamous cells," you could say "skin cells" or simply "skin." Your paper will get into the specific cells studied.

Tip: If you know a child or teenager, read your highlights to them and ask if they can understand what your paper is about. If they don't, ask them what they didn't understand and keep revising.

• One method of proofreading is to read your highlights backward, moving word by word. This encourages you to focus on each individual word rather than the phrase as a whole.
• It's also a good idea to let someone else give your highlights a read-through. Someone completely unfamiliar with your highlights or your paper might notice errors you've repeatedly overlooked because you know what you meant to say.

Using Proper Formatting for Your Highlights

• For example, the National Science Foundation wants each highlight on an individual Microsoft PowerPoint slide.
• Highlights were introduced by the publisher Elsevier and many journals and publishers use similar procedures. If the journal or publisher tells you to use Elsevier's requirements, you can get those at https://www.elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/highlights .

• If you're providing your highlights in bullet points, the bullet point itself typically isn't considered a character. However, all other spaces and punctuation are.
• Some journals or publishers may also have a minimum length. Even if a specific minimum length isn't given, having a highlight that's only 2 or 3 words typically doesn't provide enough information to a potential reader to be helpful.

Tip: You can typically adjust the settings of your word processing program to count characters rather than words. This will make it easier, as you're revising, to ensure your highlights stay within the length requirements.

• Double-check to make sure you've met all the publisher's requirements before you submit your highlights. Violations of the publisher's protocol could delay the publication of your paper.

Expert Q&A

You might also like.

• ↑ https://www.elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/highlights
• ↑ https://author.miguelpanao.com/writing-meaningful-highlights-in-scientific-papers/
• ↑ https://www.nsf.gov/mps/che/nuggets/highlight-writing.pdf

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How do I include Highlights with my manuscript?

Highlights are a short collection of three to five bullet points that:

• Provide readers with a quick textual overview of the article.
• Convey the core findings.
• Describe the essence of the research (i.e. results or conclusion).
• Highlight what's distinctive about it.

Highlights will be displayed in online search result lists, the contents list and in the online article, but won't (yet) appear in the article PDF file or print.

Answer Highlights are mandatory for some journals and optional for others. You can check the requirements for the journal you're submitting to by reading the Guide for Authors. To find the Guide for Authors:

• Navigate to the journal's Homepage. To find the journal's Homepage search for the journal using the search box under 'Find by journal title' on the journal author's page .
• Click on 'Guide for Authors' in the left-hand menu.

Highlights should be submitted in the following way:

Unless otherwise instructed in the Guide for Authors, Highlights should be included as a separate source file (i.e. Microsoft Word not PDF).

• Select 'Highlights' from the drop-down file list when uploading files.
• Use 'Highlights' as the file name.

With these specifications:

• Include 3 to 5 highlights.
• Each individual Highlight should be a maximum of 85 characters long, including spaces.
• Only the core results of the paper should be covered.

Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA), Bioenergetics, Volume 1807, Issue 10, October 2011, 1364-1369  

• A conformational two-state mechanism for proton pumping complex I is proposed.
• The mechanism relies on stabilization changes of anionic ubiquinone intermediates.
• Electron-transfer and protonation should be strictly controlled during turnover.

Learning and Instruction, Volume 21, Issue 6, December 2011, 746-756  

• Fading of a script alone does not foster domain-general strategy knowledge.
• Performance of the strategy declines during the fading of a script.
• Monitoring by a peer keeps performance of the strategy up during script fading.
• Performance of a strategy after fading fosters domain-general strategy knowledge.
• Fading and monitoring by a peer combined foster domain-general strategy knowledge.  

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Writing meaningful Highlights in scientific papers

One novelty in scientific papers in the last decade was Elsevier’s introduction of highlights. Are authors paying sufficient attention to highlights writing?

Highlights are 3 to 5 short sentences containing core findings of the research described in the paper. Highlights are available only online with the purpose of driving a person’s attention toward reading the paper. Therefore, when we’re invited to review a paper, the core findings are one of the first things we need to review and … what a mess!

Instead of core findings we read a short version of the title, operating conditions, etc. It’s like we’re reading an abstract divided into short sentences. So I wondered, is it possible to find guidelines to write more meaningful highlights by ourselves, instead of paying someone else to do it for us?

I find highlights a very important step in scientific articles. Thus, these are my 6 “Highlights” for writing more meaningful highlights based on experience, Journals’ recommendations and the little advice we can find in the web.

1. Understand Highlights Meaning

When I read the highlights in a paper I review, my first question was –  “do authors understand what highlights mean?”

I think if authors realized how important highlights are, they would pay a lot more attention to them. Besides the title, highlights are the first thing a person reads while searching the web for any publications in a certain field. It’s my opportunity as an author, or co-author, to capture someone attention to read my research.

Things are changing in the scientific articles publishing industry, and there is a movement toward the relevance of having more “reads” of your paper, rather than publishing in high impact factor journals.

If you understand what highlights may represent in leading people to read your paper then you realize how important it is to know their meaning.

According to Elsevier, the publisher which introduced highlights, these convey the core findings and provide readers with a quick textual overview of the article . Highlights describe the essence of the research (e.g. Results, conclusions) and highlight what is distinctive about it.

Core Findings.

Quick overview.

The essence of research. 

These are the keywords to understand highlights meaning. The challenge is how to express them in sentences shorter than a tweet…

2. Clear view of the nature of your research

When details in our research work are challenging, we tend to focus our writing describing them. Details are important, especially if challenging, because someone else might want to reproduce your experience and needs those details. But the details of your thought process, or experiments are not the nature of your research. Therefore, they shouldn’t be highlights.

The nature of your research is your WHY .

What is the ultimate question your research is trying to answer?

Why are you researching on a certain topic in the first place?

What drives your research?

Some topics are easier than others, but having a clear view of the WHY in your research is essential for writing meaningful highlights.

3. Realize people know little about your topic

I remember speaking to a small audience and feel I’m not making myself understood. This is a common flaw. Even if you have one, two or more experts in your field in front of you, when presenting an article at a conference, you should always assume there’s someone in the audience who is not an expert in your field. And when you prepare your presentation, you are speaking to this person, not the experts.

Highlights audience is the world. Therefore, you are 100% sure people which know little about your topic will read your highlights. You must write to them. 

This is a major challenge because, ideally, you should be able to express the complexity of your topic in simple, clear and concise words. A way to test these highlights is asking a friend from another field for an opinion.

4. Evidence your contribution in the field

I struggle when people literally waste their highlights with things that don’t provide the nature of their research or evidence their contribution. Let me give you an example. 

If I write 

“a hollow-cone spray is used in an impinging process occurring on a flat surface”

Why is this a highlight? Actually, this is close to what I read recently in a paper I reviewed. In all research about impinging sprays, isn’t it logical this impingement occurs in a surface? Why is this a highlight? The surface can be flat, curved, dried, wetted, structured or not, but this sentence does not explain the nature of research, nor expresses any contribution in the field. 

If we wanted to change this sentence to something more meaningful, it could be 

“Hollow-cone sprays in cooling processes address heterogeneities in temperature field.” 

The sentence is not perfect, but it has 85 characters (after 2 iterations) and contains the nature of research. It introduces the type of sprays; if they’re used in cooling processes, it means their impact on a surface is logical; and it states the purpose of that impact, which is cooling the surface and addressing heterogeneities in temperature fields, thus pointing to the challenge. Let me repeat, this is not a perfect example, but illustrates what I mean.

Another example where a small change can make a difference, at least from my viewpoint. Again, close to what I’ve read recently.

“The effect of drop dynamics, surface temperature and spray height on the liquid film formed after spray impact.”

First, it’s too long, so it needs to be shorten. But it contains what’s included in the paper’s scope, when the journal requires the core findings. Suppose the authors found these three parameters produced an effect on the outcome, a small change can resolve the issue,

“Drop dynamics, surface temperature and spray height affects liquid film formation.”

While the highlight in the first example contextualised the reader, spray cooling involves the formation of liquid films. And through this highlight, the reader knows which parameters affect the outcome and, if interested, he will read the paper to know how.

5. Be clear, concise, and go straight to the point

A non-negligible number of papers I reviewed doesn’t pay much attention to the 85 characters limitation. It forces us to seek clarity in our statements. Be concise in the words used to convey meaning. And go straight to the point because that’s what highlights are for, right? Lead the potential reader to make a quick assessment whether he should read the paper or not.

A good exercise is to distance yourself from your paper. Put yourself in the reader shoes and be critical. Would you read this paper about a topic in your field with these highlights?

6. Use simple terms

This is probably the greatest challenge. But it is important to understand what we mean by simple terms. Some research topics involve words which are not simple because their part of the lexical used in the field. Simple terms come naturally when we have a mature and clear view of our main breakthroughs.

Highlights help you refine the message in your research, evidencing only what really matters. And when we express what matters in simple terms, a reader should experience clarity and the desire to know more. 

These reflections are not exhaustive and I hope these “guidelines” motivated you to be more careful in writing meaningful highlights.

QUESTION: Are there any other suggestions, based on your experience, that would help authors write more meaningful Highlights?

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How To Write Highlights for an Academic or Scientific Paper

Posted by Rene Tetzner | Sep 7, 2021 | Paper Writing Advice | 0 |

How To Write Highlights for an Academic or Scientific Paper Although some academic and scientific journals have a long tradition of requesting summaries of key findings from the authors of articles accepted for publication, highlights are, for the most part, a relatively recent development in scholarly publishing. Elsevier first introduced highlights in some of its scholarly journals less than a decade ago, with its other journals and many produced by other publishers soon picking up this feature as well. The increasing popularity of highlights for research articles can be explained by their usefulness and appeal for both readers and authors in an online publishing environment. Readers are able to find and view in an extremely concise format the results presented in a published manuscript and thus determine very quickly whether they want to read the paper or not. With the Elsevier Research Highlights app, they can easily do this on their smartphones and even have the articles they wish to read sent to their inboxes. Authors benefit because their papers are given the advantage of greater visibility and discoverability, which can lead to more readers and higher citation counts. In addition, condensing the key elements of a research article into a few highlights can help an author focus more effectively on the primary contributions of his or her research.

The content, length and format of highlights for a research paper differ somewhat among academic and scientific journals, so one journal may simply want a bulleted list of keywords or key phrases, whereas another will require a thorough summary of the research results in the form of a brief paragraph. Elsevier journals ask for a list of bullet points that communicate the core findings of an article, conveying the essence of the research as well as its distinctiveness, but eliminating the background, methodology and other information that might appear in an abstract. Between three and five highlights are usually required, with each one not exceeding 85 characters, including spaces. The Elsevier model may be a good one to use if the journal to which you are submitting a paper indicates that highlights are desirable but provides no specific instructions or guidelines. Yet varying preferences mean that it is always wise to take a close look at the highlights in papers the journal has recently published, particularly any papers that are very similar to your own. In some cases, highlights will not be required until a paper is accepted for publication, so be sure to note when highlights should be submitted as well what form they should take.

Regardless of the exact format of the highlights required, they will almost certainly need to be concise in order to condense a great deal of complex information into a very little textual space. Shortening phrases, simplifying vocabulary, eliminating redundant words and using the active voice will help with observing word and character limits, and replacing long words with shorter synonyms will also help with the latter. These are good writing strategies when addressing a wide or general audience in any case, and this tends to be a desirable goal in highlights for a research paper, as does avoiding jargon and highly technical language. Do note, however, that a few journals will want authors to assume an audience of specialist readers for their highlights, in which case the guidelines will probably specify this. Keywords and key phrases are often encouraged in highlights, but nonstandard abbreviations are best avoided and must be spelled out when first used if they prove necessary. Highlights are usually written in full sentences even when they are presented as bullet points, and it is essential to write clearly and correctly if you wish to communicate effectively with potential readers and hold out the prospect of an excellent paper, so errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation and logic must be eliminated. A logical approach to highlights that begins with clarifying the nature of the research, proceeds with clear statements about the most important results and finishes with outlining the paper’s contribution to the field will generally prove successful.

Keeping both your readers and your research firmly in mind as you write your highlights is vital. Simplifying language and tucking everything you need to say into short and engaging highlights can lead to oversimplifying or exaggerating research findings, especially since the highlights must stand alone without any of the explanations, nuances and complications offered in the main paper. It is therefore imperative to give your highlights serious thought, ensuring that they accurately represent for readers the primary or most exciting results presented in your paper, and also that the paper itself lays emphasis on the findings prioritised in your highlights. For this reason, highlights are best drafted after the paper is written, and some authors will even go back after the highlights are written and revise their papers to achieve a clearer focus on the highlighted results. The process of writing appropriate highlights can therefore enable effective editing and help an author produce a better paper. However you choose to work at writing the highlights for your academic or scientific paper, remember that they will probably be the first thing after the title that a prospective reader encounters and they may even appear in the journal’s table of contents, so you want your highlights to make the best possible impression and lead readers to a paper that lives up to their claims.

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Value of the Influence of Research Highlights on Academic Papers

• Conference paper
• First Online: 04 July 2022
• Cite this conference paper

• Yue Liu 8 ,
• Dejun Zheng 8 ,
• Haichen Zhou 9 &
• Shaoxiong Fu 8  

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1593))

Included in the following conference series:

• International Conference on Knowledge Management in Organizations

568 Accesses

This study explores the differences between highlight papers and non-highlight papers from the perspective of academic influence as a crucial insight for evaluating scientific research. Three dimensions are considered: journals, papers, and research highlights. We selected 8 academic journals in the field of library and information science, which are published by Elsevier and indexed by SSCI, and analyzed 5,020 academic papers published therein from 2011 to 2020. The results of our empirical study demonstrate that all journals acknowledge the existence of research highlights, although not all online academic papers provide them. In recent years, the number of highlight papers has increased annually, and more importantly, the proportion has also grown steadily. The ETA square coefficient of citations is higher for highlight papers compared to non-highlight papers. Furthermore, in the training of the innovation recognition model, the effect of the training model that uses the research highlights of academic papers with high citation frequency is better, although the PRF value has a smaller difference.

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Liu, Y., Zheng, D., Zhou, H., Fu, S. (2022). Value of the Influence of Research Highlights on Academic Papers. In: Uden, L., Ting, IH., Feldmann, B. (eds) Knowledge Management in Organisations. KMO 2022. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1593. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07920-7_5

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• Published: 12 October 2023

Highlighting the highlights

Nature Aging volume  3 ,  page 1167 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Research Highlights, News & Views and Research Briefings are three article formats used in this journal to highlight primary research. We explain the shared and unique features of these formats and describe how we are starting to use artificial intelligence to help produce one of them.

The Research Highlights, News & Views and Research Briefings published in Nature Aging act as a summary layer on top of some of the primary research that is published in the journal and elsewhere. Although these short articles all help to promote a particular research study and offer a means to rapidly consume recent findings, each of them also serves a slightly different purpose. As some of our readers may not yet be familiar with these formats, we discuss below their aims and what they can offer. We also describe how we have recently started to use artificial intelligence (AI) to support the creation of some Research Highlights and introduce the first examples of such articles in the journal.

News & Views are short commentaries that are written by field experts on a research article that has recently been published in the journal. The authors of this type of highlight often take part in the peer review of the research being discussed and not only provide a summary of the study but also a critique, all in a way that is accessible to a broad audience. News & Views thus allow both specialists and researchers working in other fields to be rapidly informed about some of the latest research published in the journal.

Research Briefings are written by the authors of a research study that is published in Nature Aging . Similar to News & Views, they provide a summary of the findings, but they also open a window on what happened ‘behind the paper’: for instance, during the initial conceptualization of the study, when and how collaborations were started, or how funding was secured — information that is usually not shared in a research paper. They also include both an expert opinion and an editorial note that briefly explain why the study was found to be of importance.

Research Highlights are produced by editors; they cover research that is published in other journals that the editorial team thinks will appeal to the broad community of researchers who are working on aging and age-related diseases. Perhaps most interestingly, they almost always feature quotes from authors of the original study, which reveal some of the context and motivations for the research and often offer a glimpse of what is to come next from this research team. Their topics are diverse, reflecting our broad scope, and usually align with the primary research that is most often handled by the editor at the journal who wrote the highlight. This can be a useful source of information for prospective authors to know who to engage with at the journal to discuss their research when at a conference, by email or with a video-conference call (see our About the Editors page ). When submitting pre-submission inquiries 1 or manuscripts on a theme covered in a highlight, authors can also mention this in their cover letter and/or address their work to the editor who authored the highlight.

In the October 2023 issue of Nature Aging , you will find three Research Highlights on studies published by Springer Nature (publisher of Nature Aging ) journals. The first one covers a report that describes how some of the unique aging and longevity traits of the naked mole-rat can be exported to mice by overexpressing a single gene from the long-lived species. The second one highlights a recent study on how various biological, lifestyle and social factors may influence healthy aging in Latin American populations. And the third one features an article that analyzes the evolution of racial and ethnic disparities in the burden of cardiovascular mortality linked to particulate air pollution in the USA.

Although these three recent examples of the format appear to be similar to all other Research Highlights previously published in the journal, this trio — unlike all of the others — was drafted with the help of AI. After carefully selecting the research articles to be highlighted, the editorial team used an internal Springer Nature AI tool based on a large language model (LLM) to help to produce a first draft of each summary. Each draft was then substantially revised by one of our editors for style and content, including the selection and integration of quotes from the authors of the original study, and checked for accuracy. In alignment with our own recommendations to research authors 2 , we disclose the assistance of AI at the end of these articles.

This is the first time that the journal has formally used such AI assistance in an editorial output. The motivation for this ongoing experiment is to explore how AI can potentially help our relatively small team of editors to better serve our community, by allowing us to highlight more research studies. Although an experiment, it is a well-controlled one, in which our editors continue to ensure the high quality of the content that our readers are used to. The format continues to offer unique contextual quotes obtained through interactions that sometimes initiate a broader conversation about the research between our editors and the authors of these studies. Using AI in some of our work is also an opportunity for us to learn how to use these new tools, and to develop an awareness and understanding of both their strengths and limitations. In the future, we anticipate that LLMs and similar tools will assist us in several other routine and complex editorial tasks, and therefore also see this first experiment as useful preparation for future use cases.

Many researchers are experimenting with generative AI tools — notably for the preparation of manuscripts, but also for assistance with coding and literature searches or even to explore new ideas 3 . In this context, it is important to note that LLMs do not currently satisfy authorship criteria and that their use must be reported somewhere in the manuscripts submitted to journals from the Nature Portfolio 2 , as outlined on our policy page .

We are interested to see how our experiment with AI in a small corner of the journal evolves and, more broadly, we are keen to follow how the further development of such tools will shape not only the dissemination of research but also the research itself.

Nat. Aging 2 , 181 (2022).

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

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

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

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

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

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Table of contents

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Argumentative paper: Background information

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

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

Empirical paper: Describing previous research

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

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

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

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

Argumentative paper: Emphasize importance

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

Empirical paper: Relate to the literature

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

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

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

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

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

Argumentative paper: Thesis statement

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

Empirical paper: Research question and hypothesis

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

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

A research question can be framed either directly or indirectly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Argumentative paper
• Empirical paper

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

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

The introduction of a research paper includes several key elements:

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

and your problem statement

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

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

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

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

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

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• Effective Teaching Strategies

How Highlighters Can Help Students Write Better Research Papers

• June 22, 2022
• Susan M. Plachta, MA, MS

For decades, students have used highlighters to color-code notes and to indicate key passages of research sources, but there is another, less common but equally important, use for highlighters in the research writing process: highlighting research essay drafts.

As a composition professor, each semester I teach students the art of writing a research paper, but no matter how much I stress to students the importance of balancing cited information with their own writing, many drafts either contain far too few citations or are overpowered with paragraphs composed almost entirely of cited content. Even after further lectures and feedback on drafts, it still doesn’t always click with students. Over the years, I’ve tried a number of different strategies, all with varying degrees of success. Frustrated with the results, I knew there must be another way to help students write a better research paper.

Enter the humble highlighter.

The process

Highlighting drafts in a face-to-face class

In addition to a hard copy of their draft, I ask students to bring a highlighter with them on peer review day. I never tell them why, as we make it a lighthearted guessing game of what we will be doing with highlighters. (Two of my favorite student guesses: using highlighters to create visuals for their research paper and using highlighters to create tattoo designs.)

Students don’t draw any images on peer-review day but instead use highlighters in a much more traditional sense; they highlight any information that they learned through reading a source. In other words, they highlight any information that requires citation.

After they’ve finished highlighting, I remind my students of two points:

• If they haven’t highlighted anything (or have highlighted very little), the draft doesn’t contain enough cited evidence.
• If highlighting has changed the color of their paper, the draft includes too many citations.

Highlighting drafts in an online class

Adapting draft highlighting in the virtual classroom can take different forms. In a synchronous class, a live video conference can replicate highlighting just as it would in a face-to-face course. If teaching asynchronously, some of the immediacy of the interaction is lost, but the experience can be replicated by walking students through the process with a short video. Though many online students may prefer to simply highlight their drafts on the screen, I encourage them to print whenever possible, as seeing the printed page provides a visual of an entire document at once.

The follow-up

After students highlight their drafts, we again discuss the importance of balancing arguments and cited evidence. I ask for volunteers to share their drafts to provide a visual of what too little or too much citation may look like. I also share a sample student paper with an appropriate amount of citation.   

Even though students have practiced citation and examined student samples before writing their drafts, when they directly apply the concept to their own writing, they develop a better understanding of how to effectively incorporate evidence and are less-likely to submit a paper composed almost entirely of quotes from research sources.

How highlighting benefits students and helps them write better research papers

Highlighting builds community

Research has shown that creating a sense of community within the classroom benefits students emotionally, academically, and socially. Students who feel a sense of community are also better at managing stress and are less likely to drop out (Berry, 2019).  I teach at a community college, and my courses may have dual-enrolled high school students as well as older, returning students. A larger disparity in age can sometimes make it more difficult for students to connect with each other, but this low-stakes activity is easily completed by everyone. The shared learning experience means that students are more likely (and more willing) to share their writing with classmates and form connections with each other as they navigate the research essay assignment.

Highlighting engages students of various learning styles

As teachers, we often teach in ways that match our own learning styles; however, by including classroom activities that engage varied learning styles, the academic achievement of those students who have learning styles that differ from our own will likely increase (Ovez and Uyangor, 2016). Highlighting drafts engages the four learning styles of the VARK model (visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic). Highlighting engages visual learners by creating a visible representation of how much information they have cited. Auditory learners benefit from highlighting by listening to directions and then discussing results with classmates. Reading/writing learners become further engaged with their own writing as they develop their arguments through highlighting, revising, and editing. Highlighting helps kinesthetic learners, as they feel connected by physically working with their drafts.

This exercise also benefits students with learning styles in the expanded model. It engages logical learners by providing another way to organize their thoughts and practice the detailed procedures of citation. It can also engage both social (extroverted) and solitary (introverted) learners, as the exercise may be set up to allow students to work in groups or work individually.

Highlighting helps prevent accidental plagiarism

Students who are new to research writing sometimes mistakenly believe that a paraphrase or statistic from a source doesn’t need to be cited. During this exercise, I remind them that if they’re highlighting any part of their drafts, they learned the information from a source, and thus it must be followed by an in-text citation. While students in upper division courses might not need this reminder, highlighting can still be a useful tool to double-check correct citation.

Highlighting provides a quick way to create a reverse outline

A reverse outline allows writers to examine the focus, content, and organization of their drafts. By highlighting cited evidence in each paragraph, students strip away supporting details and can easily identify the topic sentence in each paragraph (or note where topic sentences may be missing).

More experienced writers may simply need to quickly review each paragraph to double-check the focus; however, less-experienced writers may wish to develop their reverse outline more completely by choosing another color highlighter to mark the thesis statement and topic sentences or even use a separate document to complete a reverse outline.

The takeaway

Don’t rule out the simplicity or effectiveness of low-tech options. In a world where seemingly almost every aspect of our lives is immersed in technology, one where online learning platforms and digital solutions can feel like the only solution, using a low-tech or traditional teaching strategy can often result in not only building community in the classroom but also creating a positive learning environment for all students.

Susan M. Plachta, MA and MS, is an English professor at St. Clair County Community College with 20+ years teaching experience.

Berry, Sharla (2019). “Teaching to Connect: Community-Building Strategies for the Virtual Classroom.” Online Learning. 23, no. 1: 164-183. doi:10.24059/olj.v23i1.1425.

Övez, Filiz T.D. and Sevinc M. Uyangör (2016). “The effect of the match between the learning and teaching styles of secondary school mathematics teachers on students’ achievement,” Journal of Education and Practice . 7 no. 29: 125-132. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1118892.pdf

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Title: generation of highlights from research papers using pointer-generator networks and scibert embeddings.

Abstract: Nowadays many research articles are prefaced with research highlights to summarize the main findings of the paper. Highlights not only help researchers precisely and quickly identify the contributions of a paper, they also enhance the discoverability of the article via search engines. We aim to automatically construct research highlights given certain segments of a research paper. We use a pointer-generator network with coverage mechanism and a contextual embedding layer at the input that encodes the input tokens into SciBERT embeddings. We test our model on a benchmark dataset, CSPubSum, and also present MixSub, a new multi-disciplinary corpus of papers for automatic research highlight generation. For both CSPubSum and MixSub, we have observed that the proposed model achieves the best performance compared to related variants and other models proposed in the literature. On the CSPubSum dataset, our model achieves the best performance when the input is only the abstract of a paper as opposed to other segments of the paper. It produces ROUGE-1, ROUGE-2 and ROUGE-L F1-scores of 38.26, 14.26 and 35.51, respectively, METEOR score of 32.62, and BERTScore F1 of 86.65 which outperform all other baselines. On the new MixSub dataset, where only the abstract is the input, our proposed model (when trained on the whole training corpus without distinguishing between the subject categories) achieves ROUGE-1, ROUGE-2 and ROUGE-L F1-scores of 31.78, 9.76 and 29.3, respectively, METEOR score of 24.00, and BERTScore F1 of 85.25.

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Localized Merkel cell carcinoma treatment considerations: a response to the forty-year experience at the Peter MacCallum cancer centre

• James Leigh 1 &
• Kurt Gebauer 2 , 3  

BMC Cancer volume  24 , Article number:  675 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

140 Accesses

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The Original Article was published on 07 January 2023

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare but aggressive neuroendocrine tumour of the skin with poor prognosis and rising global incidence. A recently published article in BMC Cancer, titled “Merkel cell carcinoma: a forty-year experience at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre” (Wang et al.), provides a contemporary analysis of locoregional disease outcomes in Australia which highlights the comparative effectiveness of radiotherapy for excisions with involved margins versus wide local excision. There is a persistent lack of clear, well-defined guidelines to manage MCC in Australia despite experiencing the highest rates globally. The advanced age at onset also provides inherent challenges for optimal management and often, a case-by-case approach is necessary based on patient preferences, baseline function and fitness for surgery. This paper responds to the recently published article by Wang et al. and will expand the discourse regarding management of localized MCC. Specifically, we will discuss the surgical excision approaches; alternative treatment options for MCC including radiotherapy, Mohs micrographic surgery and novel immunotherapy agents being investigated through several clinical trials.

Peer Review reports

This journal recently published an article by Wang et al., which describes a forty-year experience at Australia’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre managing Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), a highly aggressive cutaneous neuroendocrine tumor [ 1 ]. There is ongoing debate regarding management of localized MCC which we will expand upon in this article, including surgical margin considerations, immunotherapy and lessons learned from melanoma treatments.

1. Surgical margin considerations for localized MCC

Surgical margins are an important consideration in MCC management, particularly among elderly patients or those undergoing adjuvant radiotherapy (RT). Wang et al. conclude that “if treated with adjuvant radiotherapy, there is no difference in overall survival or disease-free survival with positive surgical margins” [ 1 ]. WLE has traditionally been recommended as a primary treatment modality with sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) [ 2 ]; however, the findings by Wang et al. challenge this paradigm and aligns with the clinical outcomes which we have observed in our high-volume community dermatology clinic. Globally, guidelines are recognizing alternative first-line treatment modalities for localized MCC including RT, Mohs micrographic surgery and immunotherapy.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has developed revised guidelines for the management of MCC [ 3 ]. Wang et al. reference the 2021 NCCN guidelines, which recommend 1–2 cm margins as definitive treatment for localized MCC in low-risk cases with absent risk factors (larger primary tumor (> 1 cm); chronic T-cell immunosuppression, HIV, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), solid organ transplant; head/neck primary site; lymphovascular invasion (LVI) present) [ 3 ]. However, an updated version of the NCCN guidelines now exists and instead recommends that “surgical margins should be balanced with morbidity of surgery, with surgical goal of primary tissue closure to avoid undue delay to adjuvant RT” [ 4 ]. Their updated terminology signals a preference for adjuvant RT over clear surgical margins, in the event of delayed RT due to wound healing for WLE. These guidelines also include Mohs micrographic surgery as an option for primary excision, which has recently been recognized as a comparable treatment for localized MCC [ 5 ] but was not acknowledged in Wang et al.’s article. Further research is needed to identify the most effective excision technique which considers the importance of time-sensitive adjuvant radiotherapy, particularly in comorbid or surgically unfit patients more common among the elderly.

2. The role of immunotherapy in localized MCC

Immunotherapy has significantly changed the landscape of systemic treatments for metastatic cancer. Its role in localized cutaneous malignancy is also being increasingly recognized, particularly among melanoma and MCC. Since the publication of the Peter MacCallum forty-year experience managing MCC [ 1 ], the NCCN has updated their guidelines to include immunotherapy for locally recurrent N0 (local) disease if surgery and radiotherapy are not viable treatment options [ 4 ]. The specific immunotherapies include pembrolizumab and retifanlimab-dlwr which are approved for use in America, while avelumab is the approved agent in Australia. Of note, avelumab is only indicated in metastatic disease (stage IV) in Australia at the time of writing; however, the I-MAT study is investigating the efficacy of avelumab for stage I-III MCC [ 2 ]. Existing immunotherapy trials include the ADMEC-O trial (NCT02196961) which is investigating the efficacy of adjuvant nivolumab monotherapy in patients with completely resected MCC [ 6 ]. Other trials include America’s ADAM trial which investigates the efficacy of avelumab for regional disease that has spread to the lymph nodes [ 7 ], and the STAMP clinical trial which investigates the efficacy of adjuvant pembrolizumab after surgery for stage I-III disease [ 8 ].

Adjuvant immunotherapy presents a viable alternative treatment in patients who are unfit for major surgery and with logistical barriers to RT, often delivered over 20–30 separate sessions. In our experience, a sizeable cohort of MCC patients are considered unfit for major surgery due to their advanced age at diagnosis, poor mobility and comorbidities. Furthermore, several of our patients declined RT due to difficulty with transportation particularly among elderly patients with mobility difficulties. Although immunotherapy can be very costly and cause unwanted side effects, it may be an appropriate treatment option in patients with MCC who are not amenable to WLE or RT, given the rarity of this cancer and demonstrated benefit in systemic disease. Effective patient selection for immunotherapy is important to maximize benefit considering both high costs and toxicity profiles associated with treatment. This is evident in countries such as Norway where immunotherapy is not considered cost-effective [ 9 ]. Furthermore, immunotherapy may provide benefit in non-surgical patients where sentinel lymph node biopsy is not possible.

3. Lessons learned from melanoma

Melanoma treatments have rapidly advanced in the past decade, and several findings may be translatable to the management of MCC from a surgical and medical perspective. Immunotherapy provides significant patient benefits, including improved disease-free survival and overall survival. Given the high metastatic potential among patients with invasive melanoma, patients are now being considered for immunotherapy even in localized disease. Indeed, a recent study by Eggermont et al. (KEYNOTE-716) demonstrated the benefits of adjuvant pembrolizumab for preventing disease recurrence or death in stage IIa and IIb melanoma after excision [ 10 ]. As we have described, there is comparable MCC research relating to adjuvant immunotherapy through the STAMP trial which is due for completion in 2025 [ 8 ].

On a surgical front, the MelMarT-II trial is investigating the clinical outcomes of 1 cm vs. 2 cm margins for patients with localized melanoma [ 11 ]. Wide local excision has long been considered the gold-standard surgical treatment for melanoma and Merkel cell carcinoma; however, this surgical approach is being reconsidered to minimize unnecessarily wide margins and associated complications. Conducting an equivalent randomized controlled trial for the surgical management of MCC presents a challenge due to its relative rarity. However, the outcomes of MelMarT-II should be contextualized to MCC including the cost-effectiveness of WLE and patient quality of life implications after surgery.

Merkel cell carcinoma is a highly aggressive cutaneous neuroendocrine tumor. Although rare, it most commonly affects elderly patients, many of whom have comorbidities that may limit treatment options including WLE or RT. Wang et al. provide an important and contemporary description of their forty-year experience in managing MCC in Australia, a country with the highest incidence of MCC globally. WLE may not be the best treatment option for all patients, and clinicians should be aware of the various treatment options which exist for localized MCC. These include WLE and sentinel lymph node biopsy with or without adjuvant RT; Mohs surgery; isolated RT; and more recently, immunotherapy. Less invasive treatments for MCC do exist and may be favorable among patients with poor functional status or contraindications to surgery. Further prospective research which acknowledges the clinical challenges of advanced age at diagnosis, for example a randomized controlled trial, may augment the evidence for the management of localized MCC among elderly patients.

Data availability

Not Applicable.

Wang AJ, McCann B, Soon WCL, et al. Merkel cell carcinoma: a forty-year experience at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. BMC Cancer. 2023;23:30. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-022-10349-1 .

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to Associate Professor David Kok and his research team for their valuable paper titled “Merkel cell carcinoma: a forty-year experience at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre”. A/Prof Kok has endorsed our development and submission of this article in response to his paper.

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Fremantle Dermatology, Fremantle, Australia

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Leigh, J., Gebauer, K. Localized Merkel cell carcinoma treatment considerations: a response to the forty-year experience at the Peter MacCallum cancer centre. BMC Cancer 24 , 675 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-024-12443-y

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