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How to write your first research paper.

Writing a research manuscript is an intimidating process for many novice writers in the sciences. One of the stumbling blocks is the beginning of the process and creating the first draft. This paper presents guidelines on how to initiate the writing process and draft each section of a research manuscript. The paper discusses seven rules that allow the writer to prepare a well-structured and comprehensive manuscript for a publication submission. In addition, the author lists different strategies for successful revision. Each of those strategies represents a step in the revision process and should help the writer improve the quality of the manuscript. The paper could be considered a brief manual for publication.

It is late at night. You have been struggling with your project for a year. You generated an enormous amount of interesting data. Your pipette feels like an extension of your hand, and running western blots has become part of your daily routine, similar to brushing your teeth. Your colleagues think you are ready to write a paper, and your lab mates tease you about your “slow” writing progress. Yet days pass, and you cannot force yourself to sit down to write. You have not written anything for a while (lab reports do not count), and you feel you have lost your stamina. How does the writing process work? How can you fit your writing into a daily schedule packed with experiments? What section should you start with? What distinguishes a good research paper from a bad one? How should you revise your paper? These and many other questions buzz in your head and keep you stressed. As a result, you procrastinate. In this paper, I will discuss the issues related to the writing process of a scientific paper. Specifically, I will focus on the best approaches to start a scientific paper, tips for writing each section, and the best revision strategies.

1. Schedule your writing time in Outlook

Whether you have written 100 papers or you are struggling with your first, starting the process is the most difficult part unless you have a rigid writing schedule. Writing is hard. It is a very difficult process of intense concentration and brain work. As stated in Hayes’ framework for the study of writing: “It is a generative activity requiring motivation, and it is an intellectual activity requiring cognitive processes and memory” [ 1 ]. In his book How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing , Paul Silvia says that for some, “it’s easier to embalm the dead than to write an article about it” [ 2 ]. Just as with any type of hard work, you will not succeed unless you practice regularly. If you have not done physical exercises for a year, only regular workouts can get you into good shape again. The same kind of regular exercises, or I call them “writing sessions,” are required to be a productive author. Choose from 1- to 2-hour blocks in your daily work schedule and consider them as non-cancellable appointments. When figuring out which blocks of time will be set for writing, you should select the time that works best for this type of work. For many people, mornings are more productive. One Yale University graduate student spent a semester writing from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. when her lab was empty. At the end of the semester, she was amazed at how much she accomplished without even interrupting her regular lab hours. In addition, doing the hardest task first thing in the morning contributes to the sense of accomplishment during the rest of the day. This positive feeling spills over into our work and life and has a very positive effect on our overall attitude.

Rule 1: Create regular time blocks for writing as appointments in your calendar and keep these appointments.

2. start with an outline.

Now that you have scheduled time, you need to decide how to start writing. The best strategy is to start with an outline. This will not be an outline that you are used to, with Roman numerals for each section and neat parallel listing of topic sentences and supporting points. This outline will be similar to a template for your paper. Initially, the outline will form a structure for your paper; it will help generate ideas and formulate hypotheses. Following the advice of George M. Whitesides, “. . . start with a blank piece of paper, and write down, in any order, all important ideas that occur to you concerning the paper” [ 3 ]. Use Table 1 as a starting point for your outline. Include your visuals (figures, tables, formulas, equations, and algorithms), and list your findings. These will constitute the first level of your outline, which will eventually expand as you elaborate.

The next stage is to add context and structure. Here you will group all your ideas into sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion/Conclusion ( Table 2 ). This step will help add coherence to your work and sift your ideas.

Now that you have expanded your outline, you are ready for the next step: discussing the ideas for your paper with your colleagues and mentor. Many universities have a writing center where graduate students can schedule individual consultations and receive assistance with their paper drafts. Getting feedback during early stages of your draft can save a lot of time. Talking through ideas allows people to conceptualize and organize thoughts to find their direction without wasting time on unnecessary writing. Outlining is the most effective way of communicating your ideas and exchanging thoughts. Moreover, it is also the best stage to decide to which publication you will submit the paper. Many people come up with three choices and discuss them with their mentors and colleagues. Having a list of journal priorities can help you quickly resubmit your paper if your paper is rejected.

Rule 2: Create a detailed outline and discuss it with your mentor and peers.

3. continue with drafts.

After you get enough feedback and decide on the journal you will submit to, the process of real writing begins. Copy your outline into a separate file and expand on each of the points, adding data and elaborating on the details. When you create the first draft, do not succumb to the temptation of editing. Do not slow down to choose a better word or better phrase; do not halt to improve your sentence structure. Pour your ideas into the paper and leave revision and editing for later. As Paul Silvia explains, “Revising while you generate text is like drinking decaffeinated coffee in the early morning: noble idea, wrong time” [ 2 ].

Many students complain that they are not productive writers because they experience writer’s block. Staring at an empty screen is frustrating, but your screen is not really empty: You have a template of your article, and all you need to do is fill in the blanks. Indeed, writer’s block is a logical fallacy for a scientist ― it is just an excuse to procrastinate. When scientists start writing a research paper, they already have their files with data, lab notes with materials and experimental designs, some visuals, and tables with results. All they need to do is scrutinize these pieces and put them together into a comprehensive paper.

3.1. Starting with Materials and Methods

If you still struggle with starting a paper, then write the Materials and Methods section first. Since you have all your notes, it should not be problematic for you to describe the experimental design and procedures. Your most important goal in this section is to be as explicit as possible by providing enough detail and references. In the end, the purpose of this section is to allow other researchers to evaluate and repeat your work. So do not run into the same problems as the writers of the sentences in (1):

1a. Bacteria were pelleted by centrifugation. 1b. To isolate T cells, lymph nodes were collected.

As you can see, crucial pieces of information are missing: the speed of centrifuging your bacteria, the time, and the temperature in (1a); the source of lymph nodes for collection in (b). The sentences can be improved when information is added, as in (2a) and (2b), respectfully:

2a. Bacteria were pelleted by centrifugation at 3000g for 15 min at 25°C. 2b. To isolate T cells, mediastinal and mesenteric lymph nodes from Balb/c mice were collected at day 7 after immunization with ovabumin.

If your method has previously been published and is well-known, then you should provide only the literature reference, as in (3a). If your method is unpublished, then you need to make sure you provide all essential details, as in (3b).

3a. Stem cells were isolated, according to Johnson [23]. 3b. Stem cells were isolated using biotinylated carbon nanotubes coated with anti-CD34 antibodies.

Furthermore, cohesion and fluency are crucial in this section. One of the malpractices resulting in disrupted fluency is switching from passive voice to active and vice versa within the same paragraph, as shown in (4). This switching misleads and distracts the reader.

4. Behavioral computer-based experiments of Study 1 were programmed by using E-Prime. We took ratings of enjoyment, mood, and arousal as the patients listened to preferred pleasant music and unpreferred music by using Visual Analogue Scales (SI Methods). The preferred and unpreferred status of the music was operationalized along a continuum of pleasantness [ 4 ].

The problem with (4) is that the reader has to switch from the point of view of the experiment (passive voice) to the point of view of the experimenter (active voice). This switch causes confusion about the performer of the actions in the first and the third sentences. To improve the coherence and fluency of the paragraph above, you should be consistent in choosing the point of view: first person “we” or passive voice [ 5 ]. Let’s consider two revised examples in (5).

5a. We programmed behavioral computer-based experiments of Study 1 by using E-Prime. We took ratings of enjoyment, mood, and arousal by using Visual Analogue Scales (SI Methods) as the patients listened to preferred pleasant music and unpreferred music. We operationalized the preferred and unpreferred status of the music along a continuum of pleasantness. 5b. Behavioral computer-based experiments of Study 1 were programmed by using E-Prime. Ratings of enjoyment, mood, and arousal were taken as the patients listened to preferred pleasant music and unpreferred music by using Visual Analogue Scales (SI Methods). The preferred and unpreferred status of the music was operationalized along a continuum of pleasantness.

If you choose the point of view of the experimenter, then you may end up with repetitive “we did this” sentences. For many readers, paragraphs with sentences all beginning with “we” may also sound disruptive. So if you choose active sentences, you need to keep the number of “we” subjects to a minimum and vary the beginnings of the sentences [ 6 ].

Interestingly, recent studies have reported that the Materials and Methods section is the only section in research papers in which passive voice predominantly overrides the use of the active voice [ 5 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. For example, Martínez shows a significant drop in active voice use in the Methods sections based on the corpus of 1 million words of experimental full text research articles in the biological sciences [ 7 ]. According to the author, the active voice patterned with “we” is used only as a tool to reveal personal responsibility for the procedural decisions in designing and performing experimental work. This means that while all other sections of the research paper use active voice, passive voice is still the most predominant in Materials and Methods sections.

Writing Materials and Methods sections is a meticulous and time consuming task requiring extreme accuracy and clarity. This is why when you complete your draft, you should ask for as much feedback from your colleagues as possible. Numerous readers of this section will help you identify the missing links and improve the technical style of this section.

Rule 3: Be meticulous and accurate in describing the Materials and Methods. Do not change the point of view within one paragraph.

3.2. writing results section.

For many authors, writing the Results section is more intimidating than writing the Materials and Methods section . If people are interested in your paper, they are interested in your results. That is why it is vital to use all your writing skills to objectively present your key findings in an orderly and logical sequence using illustrative materials and text.

Your Results should be organized into different segments or subsections where each one presents the purpose of the experiment, your experimental approach, data including text and visuals (tables, figures, schematics, algorithms, and formulas), and data commentary. For most journals, your data commentary will include a meaningful summary of the data presented in the visuals and an explanation of the most significant findings. This data presentation should not repeat the data in the visuals, but rather highlight the most important points. In the “standard” research paper approach, your Results section should exclude data interpretation, leaving it for the Discussion section. However, interpretations gradually and secretly creep into research papers: “Reducing the data, generalizing from the data, and highlighting scientific cases are all highly interpretive processes. It should be clear by now that we do not let the data speak for themselves in research reports; in summarizing our results, we interpret them for the reader” [ 10 ]. As a result, many journals including the Journal of Experimental Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Investigation use joint Results/Discussion sections, where results are immediately followed by interpretations.

Another important aspect of this section is to create a comprehensive and supported argument or a well-researched case. This means that you should be selective in presenting data and choose only those experimental details that are essential for your reader to understand your findings. You might have conducted an experiment 20 times and collected numerous records, but this does not mean that you should present all those records in your paper. You need to distinguish your results from your data and be able to discard excessive experimental details that could distract and confuse the reader. However, creating a picture or an argument should not be confused with data manipulation or falsification, which is a willful distortion of data and results. If some of your findings contradict your ideas, you have to mention this and find a plausible explanation for the contradiction.

In addition, your text should not include irrelevant and peripheral information, including overview sentences, as in (6).

6. To show our results, we first introduce all components of experimental system and then describe the outcome of infections.

Indeed, wordiness convolutes your sentences and conceals your ideas from readers. One common source of wordiness is unnecessary intensifiers. Adverbial intensifiers such as “clearly,” “essential,” “quite,” “basically,” “rather,” “fairly,” “really,” and “virtually” not only add verbosity to your sentences, but also lower your results’ credibility. They appeal to the reader’s emotions but lower objectivity, as in the common examples in (7):

7a. Table 3 clearly shows that … 7b. It is obvious from figure 4 that …

Another source of wordiness is nominalizations, i.e., nouns derived from verbs and adjectives paired with weak verbs including “be,” “have,” “do,” “make,” “cause,” “provide,” and “get” and constructions such as “there is/are.”

8a. We tested the hypothesis that there is a disruption of membrane asymmetry. 8b. In this paper we provide an argument that stem cells repopulate injured organs.

In the sentences above, the abstract nominalizations “disruption” and “argument” do not contribute to the clarity of the sentences, but rather clutter them with useless vocabulary that distracts from the meaning. To improve your sentences, avoid unnecessary nominalizations and change passive verbs and constructions into active and direct sentences.

9a. We tested the hypothesis that the membrane asymmetry is disrupted. 9b. In this paper we argue that stem cells repopulate injured organs.

Your Results section is the heart of your paper, representing a year or more of your daily research. So lead your reader through your story by writing direct, concise, and clear sentences.

Rule 4: Be clear, concise, and objective in describing your Results.

3.3. now it is time for your introduction.

Now that you are almost half through drafting your research paper, it is time to update your outline. While describing your Methods and Results, many of you diverged from the original outline and re-focused your ideas. So before you move on to create your Introduction, re-read your Methods and Results sections and change your outline to match your research focus. The updated outline will help you review the general picture of your paper, the topic, the main idea, and the purpose, which are all important for writing your introduction.

The best way to structure your introduction is to follow the three-move approach shown in Table 3 .

Adapted from Swales and Feak [ 11 ].

The moves and information from your outline can help to create your Introduction efficiently and without missing steps. These moves are traffic signs that lead the reader through the road of your ideas. Each move plays an important role in your paper and should be presented with deep thought and care. When you establish the territory, you place your research in context and highlight the importance of your research topic. By finding the niche, you outline the scope of your research problem and enter the scientific dialogue. The final move, “occupying the niche,” is where you explain your research in a nutshell and highlight your paper’s significance. The three moves allow your readers to evaluate their interest in your paper and play a significant role in the paper review process, determining your paper reviewers.

Some academic writers assume that the reader “should follow the paper” to find the answers about your methodology and your findings. As a result, many novice writers do not present their experimental approach and the major findings, wrongly believing that the reader will locate the necessary information later while reading the subsequent sections [ 5 ]. However, this “suspense” approach is not appropriate for scientific writing. To interest the reader, scientific authors should be direct and straightforward and present informative one-sentence summaries of the results and the approach.

Another problem is that writers understate the significance of the Introduction. Many new researchers mistakenly think that all their readers understand the importance of the research question and omit this part. However, this assumption is faulty because the purpose of the section is not to evaluate the importance of the research question in general. The goal is to present the importance of your research contribution and your findings. Therefore, you should be explicit and clear in describing the benefit of the paper.

The Introduction should not be long. Indeed, for most journals, this is a very brief section of about 250 to 600 words, but it might be the most difficult section due to its importance.

Rule 5: Interest your reader in the Introduction section by signalling all its elements and stating the novelty of the work.

3.4. discussion of the results.

For many scientists, writing a Discussion section is as scary as starting a paper. Most of the fear comes from the variation in the section. Since every paper has its unique results and findings, the Discussion section differs in its length, shape, and structure. However, some general principles of writing this section still exist. Knowing these rules, or “moves,” can change your attitude about this section and help you create a comprehensive interpretation of your results.

The purpose of the Discussion section is to place your findings in the research context and “to explain the meaning of the findings and why they are important, without appearing arrogant, condescending, or patronizing” [ 11 ]. The structure of the first two moves is almost a mirror reflection of the one in the Introduction. In the Introduction, you zoom in from general to specific and from the background to your research question; in the Discussion section, you zoom out from the summary of your findings to the research context, as shown in Table 4 .

Adapted from Swales and Feak and Hess [ 11 , 12 ].

The biggest challenge for many writers is the opening paragraph of the Discussion section. Following the moves in Table 1 , the best choice is to start with the study’s major findings that provide the answer to the research question in your Introduction. The most common starting phrases are “Our findings demonstrate . . .,” or “In this study, we have shown that . . .,” or “Our results suggest . . .” In some cases, however, reminding the reader about the research question or even providing a brief context and then stating the answer would make more sense. This is important in those cases where the researcher presents a number of findings or where more than one research question was presented. Your summary of the study’s major findings should be followed by your presentation of the importance of these findings. One of the most frequent mistakes of the novice writer is to assume the importance of his findings. Even if the importance is clear to you, it may not be obvious to your reader. Digesting the findings and their importance to your reader is as crucial as stating your research question.

Another useful strategy is to be proactive in the first move by predicting and commenting on the alternative explanations of the results. Addressing potential doubts will save you from painful comments about the wrong interpretation of your results and will present you as a thoughtful and considerate researcher. Moreover, the evaluation of the alternative explanations might help you create a logical step to the next move of the discussion section: the research context.

The goal of the research context move is to show how your findings fit into the general picture of the current research and how you contribute to the existing knowledge on the topic. This is also the place to discuss any discrepancies and unexpected findings that may otherwise distort the general picture of your paper. Moreover, outlining the scope of your research by showing the limitations, weaknesses, and assumptions is essential and adds modesty to your image as a scientist. However, make sure that you do not end your paper with the problems that override your findings. Try to suggest feasible explanations and solutions.

If your submission does not require a separate Conclusion section, then adding another paragraph about the “take-home message” is a must. This should be a general statement reiterating your answer to the research question and adding its scientific implications, practical application, or advice.

Just as in all other sections of your paper, the clear and precise language and concise comprehensive sentences are vital. However, in addition to that, your writing should convey confidence and authority. The easiest way to illustrate your tone is to use the active voice and the first person pronouns. Accompanied by clarity and succinctness, these tools are the best to convince your readers of your point and your ideas.

Rule 6: Present the principles, relationships, and generalizations in a concise and convincing tone.

4. choosing the best working revision strategies.

Now that you have created the first draft, your attitude toward your writing should have improved. Moreover, you should feel more confident that you are able to accomplish your project and submit your paper within a reasonable timeframe. You also have worked out your writing schedule and followed it precisely. Do not stop ― you are only at the midpoint from your destination. Just as the best and most precious diamond is no more than an unattractive stone recognized only by trained professionals, your ideas and your results may go unnoticed if they are not polished and brushed. Despite your attempts to present your ideas in a logical and comprehensive way, first drafts are frequently a mess. Use the advice of Paul Silvia: “Your first drafts should sound like they were hastily translated from Icelandic by a non-native speaker” [ 2 ]. The degree of your success will depend on how you are able to revise and edit your paper.

The revision can be done at the macrostructure and the microstructure levels [ 13 ]. The macrostructure revision includes the revision of the organization, content, and flow. The microstructure level includes individual words, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

The best way to approach the macrostructure revision is through the outline of the ideas in your paper. The last time you updated your outline was before writing the Introduction and the Discussion. Now that you have the beginning and the conclusion, you can take a bird’s-eye view of the whole paper. The outline will allow you to see if the ideas of your paper are coherently structured, if your results are logically built, and if the discussion is linked to the research question in the Introduction. You will be able to see if something is missing in any of the sections or if you need to rearrange your information to make your point.

The next step is to revise each of the sections starting from the beginning. Ideally, you should limit yourself to working on small sections of about five pages at a time [ 14 ]. After these short sections, your eyes get used to your writing and your efficiency in spotting problems decreases. When reading for content and organization, you should control your urge to edit your paper for sentence structure and grammar and focus only on the flow of your ideas and logic of your presentation. Experienced researchers tend to make almost three times the number of changes to meaning than novice writers [ 15 , 16 ]. Revising is a difficult but useful skill, which academic writers obtain with years of practice.

In contrast to the macrostructure revision, which is a linear process and is done usually through a detailed outline and by sections, microstructure revision is a non-linear process. While the goal of the macrostructure revision is to analyze your ideas and their logic, the goal of the microstructure editing is to scrutinize the form of your ideas: your paragraphs, sentences, and words. You do not need and are not recommended to follow the order of the paper to perform this type of revision. You can start from the end or from different sections. You can even revise by reading sentences backward, sentence by sentence and word by word.

One of the microstructure revision strategies frequently used during writing center consultations is to read the paper aloud [ 17 ]. You may read aloud to yourself, to a tape recorder, or to a colleague or friend. When reading and listening to your paper, you are more likely to notice the places where the fluency is disrupted and where you stumble because of a very long and unclear sentence or a wrong connector.

Another revision strategy is to learn your common errors and to do a targeted search for them [ 13 ]. All writers have a set of problems that are specific to them, i.e., their writing idiosyncrasies. Remembering these problems is as important for an academic writer as remembering your friends’ birthdays. Create a list of these idiosyncrasies and run a search for these problems using your word processor. If your problem is demonstrative pronouns without summary words, then search for “this/these/those” in your text and check if you used the word appropriately. If you have a problem with intensifiers, then search for “really” or “very” and delete them from the text. The same targeted search can be done to eliminate wordiness. Searching for “there is/are” or “and” can help you avoid the bulky sentences.

The final strategy is working with a hard copy and a pencil. Print a double space copy with font size 14 and re-read your paper in several steps. Try reading your paper line by line with the rest of the text covered with a piece of paper. When you are forced to see only a small portion of your writing, you are less likely to get distracted and are more likely to notice problems. You will end up spotting more unnecessary words, wrongly worded phrases, or unparallel constructions.

After you apply all these strategies, you are ready to share your writing with your friends, colleagues, and a writing advisor in the writing center. Get as much feedback as you can, especially from non-specialists in your field. Patiently listen to what others say to you ― you are not expected to defend your writing or explain what you wanted to say. You may decide what you want to change and how after you receive the feedback and sort it in your head. Even though some researchers make the revision an endless process and can hardly stop after a 14th draft; having from five to seven drafts of your paper is a norm in the sciences. If you can’t stop revising, then set a deadline for yourself and stick to it. Deadlines always help.

Rule 7: Revise your paper at the macrostructure and the microstructure level using different strategies and techniques. Receive feedback and revise again.

5. it is time to submit.

It is late at night again. You are still in your lab finishing revisions and getting ready to submit your paper. You feel happy ― you have finally finished a year’s worth of work. You will submit your paper tomorrow, and regardless of the outcome, you know that you can do it. If one journal does not take your paper, you will take advantage of the feedback and resubmit again. You will have a publication, and this is the most important achievement.

What is even more important is that you have your scheduled writing time that you are going to keep for your future publications, for reading and taking notes, for writing grants, and for reviewing papers. You are not going to lose stamina this time, and you will become a productive scientist. But for now, let’s celebrate the end of the paper.

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Home » How to Publish a Research Paper – Step by Step Guide

How to Publish a Research Paper – Step by Step Guide

Table of Contents

Publishing a research paper is an important step for researchers to disseminate their findings to a wider audience and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in their field. Whether you are a graduate student, a postdoctoral fellow, or an established researcher, publishing a paper requires careful planning, rigorous research, and clear writing. In this process, you will need to identify a research question , conduct a thorough literature review , design a methodology, analyze data, and draw conclusions. Additionally, you will need to consider the appropriate journals or conferences to submit your work to and adhere to their guidelines for formatting and submission. In this article, we will discuss some ways to publish your Research Paper.

How to Publish a Research Paper

To Publish a Research Paper follow the guide below:

• Conduct original research : Conduct thorough research on a specific topic or problem. Collect data, analyze it, and draw conclusions based on your findings.
• Write the paper : Write a detailed paper describing your research. It should include an abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion.
• Choose a suitable journal or conference : Look for a journal or conference that specializes in your research area. You can check their submission guidelines to ensure your paper meets their requirements.
• Prepare your submission: Follow the guidelines and prepare your submission, including the paper, abstract, cover letter, and any other required documents.
• Submit the paper: Submit your paper online through the journal or conference website. Make sure you meet the submission deadline.
• Peer-review process : Your paper will be reviewed by experts in the field who will provide feedback on the quality of your research, methodology, and conclusions.
• Revisions : Based on the feedback you receive, revise your paper and resubmit it.
• Acceptance : Once your paper is accepted, you will receive a notification from the journal or conference. You may need to make final revisions before the paper is published.
• Publication : Your paper will be published online or in print. You can also promote your work through social media or other channels to increase its visibility.

How to Choose Journal for Research Paper Publication

Here are some steps to follow to help you select an appropriate journal:

• Identify your research topic and audience : Your research topic and intended audience should guide your choice of journal. Identify the key journals in your field of research and read the scope and aim of the journal to determine if your paper is a good fit.
• Analyze the journal’s impact and reputation : Check the impact factor and ranking of the journal, as well as its acceptance rate and citation frequency. A high-impact journal can give your paper more visibility and credibility.
• Consider the journal’s publication policies : Look for the journal’s publication policies such as the word count limit, formatting requirements, open access options, and submission fees. Make sure that you can comply with the requirements and that the journal is in line with your publication goals.
• Look at recent publications : Review recent issues of the journal to evaluate whether your paper would fit in with the journal’s current content and style.
• Seek advice from colleagues and mentors: Ask for recommendations and suggestions from your colleagues and mentors in your field, especially those who have experience publishing in the same or similar journals.
• Be prepared to make changes : Be prepared to revise your paper according to the requirements and guidelines of the chosen journal. It is also important to be open to feedback from the editor and reviewers.

List of Journals for Research Paper Publications

There are thousands of academic journals covering various fields of research. Here are some of the most popular ones, categorized by field:

General/Multidisciplinary

• Nature: https://www.nature.com/
• Science: https://www.sciencemag.org/
• PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS): https://www.pnas.org/
• The Lancet: https://www.thelancet.com/
• JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama

Social Sciences/Humanities

• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/psp
• Journal of Consumer Research: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/jcr
• Journal of Educational Psychology: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/edu
• Journal of Applied Psychology: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/apl
• Journal of Communication: https://academic.oup.com/joc
• American Journal of Political Science: https://ajps.org/
• Journal of International Business Studies: https://www.jibs.net/
• Journal of Marketing Research: https://www.ama.org/journal-of-marketing-research/

Natural Sciences

• Journal of Biological Chemistry: https://www.jbc.org/
• Cell: https://www.cell.com/
• Science Advances: https://advances.sciencemag.org/
• Chemical Reviews: https://pubs.acs.org/journal/chreay
• Angewandte Chemie: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15213765
• Physical Review Letters: https://journals.aps.org/prl/
• Journal of Geophysical Research: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/2156531X
• Journal of High Energy Physics: https://link.springer.com/journal/13130

Engineering/Technology

• IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=5962385
• IEEE Transactions on Power Systems: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=59
• IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=42
• IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=87
• Journal of Engineering Mechanics: https://ascelibrary.org/journal/jenmdt
• Journal of Materials Science: https://www.springer.com/journal/10853
• Journal of Chemical Engineering of Japan: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/jcej
• Journal of Mechanical Design: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/mechanicaldesign

Medical/Health Sciences

• New England Journal of Medicine: https://www.nejm.org/
• The BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal): https://www.bmj.com/
• Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama
• Annals of Internal Medicine: https://www.acpjournals.org/journal/aim
• American Journal of Epidemiology: https://academic.oup.com/aje
• Journal of Clinical Oncology: https://ascopubs.org/journal/jco
• Journal of Infectious Diseases: https://academic.oup.com/jid

List of Conferences for Research Paper Publications

There are many conferences that accept research papers for publication. The specific conferences you should consider will depend on your field of research. Here are some suggestions for conferences in a few different fields:

Computer Science and Information Technology:

• IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM): https://www.ieee-infocom.org/
• ACM SIGCOMM Conference on Data Communication: https://conferences.sigcomm.org/sigcomm/
• IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP): https://www.ieee-security.org/TC/SP/
• ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS): https://www.sigsac.org/ccs/
• ACM Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (CHI): https://chi2022.acm.org/

Engineering:

• IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA): https://www.ieee-icra.org/
• International Conference on Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (ICMAE): http://www.icmae.org/
• International Conference on Civil and Environmental Engineering (ICCEE): http://www.iccee.org/
• International Conference on Materials Science and Engineering (ICMSE): http://www.icmse.org/
• International Conference on Energy and Power Engineering (ICEPE): http://www.icepe.org/

Natural Sciences:

• American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/meetings/national-meeting.html
• American Physical Society March Meeting: https://www.aps.org/meetings/march/
• International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology (ICEST): http://www.icest.org/
• International Conference on Natural Science and Environment (ICNSE): http://www.icnse.org/
• International Conference on Life Science and Biological Engineering (LSBE): http://www.lsbe.org/

Social Sciences:

• Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA): https://www.asanet.org/annual-meeting-2022
• International Conference on Social Science and Humanities (ICSSH): http://www.icssh.org/
• International Conference on Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (ICPBS): http://www.icpbs.org/
• International Conference on Education and Social Science (ICESS): http://www.icess.org/
• International Conference on Management and Information Science (ICMIS): http://www.icmis.org/

How to Publish a Research Paper in Journal

Publishing a research paper in a journal is a crucial step in disseminating scientific knowledge and contributing to the field. Here are the general steps to follow:

• Choose a research topic : Select a topic of your interest and identify a research question or problem that you want to investigate. Conduct a literature review to identify the gaps in the existing knowledge that your research will address.
• Conduct research : Develop a research plan and methodology to collect data and conduct experiments. Collect and analyze data to draw conclusions that address the research question.
• Write a paper: Organize your findings into a well-structured paper with clear and concise language. Your paper should include an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion. Use academic language and provide references for your sources.
• Choose a journal: Choose a journal that is relevant to your research topic and audience. Consider factors such as impact factor, acceptance rate, and the reputation of the journal.
• Follow journal guidelines : Review the submission guidelines and formatting requirements of the journal. Follow the guidelines carefully to ensure that your paper meets the journal’s requirements.
• Submit your paper : Submit your paper to the journal through the online submission system or by email. Include a cover letter that briefly explains the significance of your research and why it is suitable for the journal.
• Wait for reviews: Your paper will be reviewed by experts in the field. Be prepared to address their comments and make revisions to your paper.
• Revise and resubmit: Make revisions to your paper based on the reviewers’ comments and resubmit it to the journal. If your paper is accepted, congratulations! If not, consider revising and submitting it to another journal.
• Address reviewer comments : Reviewers may provide comments and suggestions for revisions to your paper. Address these comments carefully and thoughtfully to improve the quality of your paper.
• Submit the final version: Once your revisions are complete, submit the final version of your paper to the journal. Be sure to follow any additional formatting guidelines and requirements provided by the journal.
• Publication : If your paper is accepted, it will be published in the journal. Some journals provide online publication while others may publish a print version. Be sure to cite your published paper in future research and communicate your findings to the scientific community.

How to Publish a Research Paper for Students

Here are some steps you can follow to publish a research paper as an Under Graduate or a High School Student:

• Select a topic: Choose a topic that is relevant and interesting to you, and that you have a good understanding of.
• Conduct research : Gather information and data on your chosen topic through research, experiments, surveys, or other means.
• Write the paper : Start with an outline, then write the introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion sections of the paper. Be sure to follow any guidelines provided by your instructor or the journal you plan to submit to.
• Edit and revise: Review your paper for errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Ask a peer or mentor to review your paper and provide feedback for improvement.
• Choose a journal : Look for journals that publish papers in your field of study and that are appropriate for your level of research. Some popular journals for students include PLOS ONE, Nature, and Science.
• Submit the paper: Follow the submission guidelines for the journal you choose, which typically include a cover letter, abstract, and formatting requirements. Be prepared to wait several weeks to months for a response.
• Address feedback : If your paper is accepted with revisions, address the feedback from the reviewers and resubmit your paper. If your paper is rejected, review the feedback and consider revising and resubmitting to a different journal.

How to Publish a Research Paper for Free

Publishing a research paper for free can be challenging, but it is possible. Here are some steps you can take to publish your research paper for free:

• Choose a suitable open-access journal: Look for open-access journals that are relevant to your research area. Open-access journals allow readers to access your paper without charge, so your work will be more widely available.
• Check the journal’s reputation : Before submitting your paper, ensure that the journal is reputable by checking its impact factor, publication history, and editorial board.
• Follow the submission guidelines : Every journal has specific guidelines for submitting papers. Make sure to follow these guidelines carefully to increase the chances of acceptance.
• Submit your paper : Once you have completed your research paper, submit it to the journal following their submission guidelines.
• Wait for the review process: Your paper will undergo a peer-review process, where experts in your field will evaluate your work. Be patient during this process, as it can take several weeks or even months.
• Revise your paper : If your paper is rejected, don’t be discouraged. Revise your paper based on the feedback you receive from the reviewers and submit it to another open-access journal.
• Promote your research: Once your paper is published, promote it on social media and other online platforms. This will increase the visibility of your work and help it reach a wider audience.

Journals and Conferences for Free Research Paper publications

Here are the websites of the open-access journals and conferences mentioned:

Open-Access Journals:

• PLOS ONE – https://journals.plos.org/plosone/
• BMC Research Notes – https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/
• Frontiers in… – https://www.frontiersin.org/
• Journal of Open Research Software – https://openresearchsoftware.metajnl.com/
• PeerJ – https://peerj.com/

Conferences:

• IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) – https://globecom2022.ieee-globecom.org/
• IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM) – https://infocom2022.ieee-infocom.org/
• IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM) – https://www.ieee-icdm.org/
• ACM SIGCOMM Conference on Data Communication (SIGCOMM) – https://conferences.sigcomm.org/sigcomm/
• ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) – https://www.sigsac.org/ccs/CCS2022/

Importance of Research Paper Publication

Research paper publication is important for several reasons, both for individual researchers and for the scientific community as a whole. Here are some reasons why:

• Advancing scientific knowledge : Research papers provide a platform for researchers to present their findings and contribute to the body of knowledge in their field. These papers often contain novel ideas, experimental data, and analyses that can help to advance scientific understanding.
• Building a research career : Publishing research papers is an essential component of building a successful research career. Researchers are often evaluated based on the number and quality of their publications, and having a strong publication record can increase one’s chances of securing funding, tenure, or a promotion.
• Peer review and quality control: Publication in a peer-reviewed journal means that the research has been scrutinized by other experts in the field. This peer review process helps to ensure the quality and validity of the research findings.
• Recognition and visibility : Publishing a research paper can bring recognition and visibility to the researchers and their work. It can lead to invitations to speak at conferences, collaborations with other researchers, and media coverage.
• Impact on society : Research papers can have a significant impact on society by informing policy decisions, guiding clinical practice, and advancing technological innovation.

Advantages of Research Paper Publication

There are several advantages to publishing a research paper, including:

• Recognition: Publishing a research paper allows researchers to gain recognition for their work, both within their field and in the academic community as a whole. This can lead to new collaborations, invitations to conferences, and other opportunities to share their research with a wider audience.
• Career advancement : A strong publication record can be an important factor in career advancement, particularly in academia. Publishing research papers can help researchers secure funding, grants, and promotions.
• Dissemination of knowledge : Research papers are an important way to share new findings and ideas with the broader scientific community. By publishing their research, scientists can contribute to the collective body of knowledge in their field and help advance scientific understanding.
• Feedback and peer review : Publishing a research paper allows other experts in the field to provide feedback on the research, which can help improve the quality of the work and identify potential flaws or limitations. Peer review also helps ensure that research is accurate and reliable.
• Citation and impact : Published research papers can be cited by other researchers, which can help increase the impact and visibility of the research. High citation rates can also help establish a researcher’s reputation and credibility within their field.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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SCIENCE & ENGINEERING INDICATORS

Publications output: u.s. trends and international comparisons.

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Publication Output by Country, Region, or Economy and Scientific Field

Publication output reached 2.9 million articles in 2020 with over 90% of the total from countries with high-income and upper middle-income economies ( Figure PBS-1 ). predatory journals (NSB Indicators 2018 : Bibliometric Data Filters sidebar )." data-bs-content="Publication output only includes those indexed in the Scopus database. The publication output discussion uses fractional counting, which credits coauthored publications according to the collaborating institutions or countries based on the proportion of their participating authors. Country assignments refer to the institutional address of authors, with partial credit given for each international coauthorship. As part of our data analysis, we employ filters on the raw Scopus S&E publication data to remove publications with questionable quality, which appear in what are sometimes called predatory journals (NSB Indicators 2018 : Bibliometric Data Filters sidebar )." data-endnote-uuid="2ca4e1b6-71b9-46cd-95e8-d823ad890cb3">​ Publication output only includes those indexed in the Scopus database. The publication output discussion uses fractional counting, which credits coauthored publications according to the collaborating institutions or countries based on the proportion of their participating authors. Country assignments refer to the institutional address of authors, with partial credit given for each international coauthorship. As part of our data analysis, we employ filters on the raw Scopus S&E publication data to remove publications with questionable quality, which appear in what are sometimes called predatory journals (NSB Indicators 2018 : Bibliometric Data Filters sidebar ). Since 1996, output has consistently grown for countries with high-income economies, such as the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom (UK), expanding from a large base number of publications ( Table SPBS-2 ). https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups ." data-bs-content="This report uses the World Bank (2021) country income classifications accessed in March 2021. The World Bank updates the classifications each year on 1 July. The World Bank income classifications are assigned using the gross national income per capita as measured in current U.S. dollars. This report uses the rankings. More information is available at https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups ." data-endnote-uuid="aba70396-9a04-4a9b-a470-d2458891074f">​ This report uses the World Bank (2021) country income classifications accessed in March 2021. The World Bank updates the classifications each year on 1 July. The World Bank income classifications are assigned using the gross national income per capita as measured in current U.S. dollars. This report uses the rankings. More information is available at https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups . Countries with upper-middle-income economies, such as China, Iran, Russia, and Brazil, have had a more rapid pace of growth since 1996, expanding from a relatively smaller base number of publications. Overall, the publication compound annual growth rates of countries with upper middle-income and high-income economies have been 10% and 3%, respectively, for the 25-year period covering 1996–2020 ( Figure PBS-1 ).

• For grouped bar charts, Tab to the first data element (bar/line data point) which will bring up a pop-up with the data details
• To read the data in all groups Arrow-Down will go back and forth
• For bar/line chart data points are linear and not grouped, Arrow-Down will read each bar/line data points in order
• For line charts, Arrow-Left and Arrow-Right will move to the next set of data points after Tabbing to the first data point
• For stacked bars use the Arrow-Down key again after Tabbing to the first data bar
• Then use Arrow-Right and Arrow-Left to navigate the stacked bars within that stack
• Arrow-Down to advance to the next stack. Arrow-Up reverses

S&E articles, by income group: 1996–2020

Article counts refer to publications from a selection of conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journals in S&E fields from Scopus. Articles are classified by their year of publication and are assigned to a region, country, or economy on the basis of the institutional address(es) of the author(s) listed in the article. Articles are credited on a fractional count basis (i.e., for articles produced by authors from different countries, each country receives fractional credit on the basis of the proportion of its participating authors). Data are not directly comparable to Science and Engineering Indicators 2020 ; see the Technical Appendix for information on data filters. Low-income economies are not included in this figure because of their low publication output. Data by country and income groups are available in Table SPBS-2 .

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; Science-Metrix; Elsevier, Scopus abstract and citation database, accessed May 2021; World Bank Country and Lending Groups, accessed March 2021.

Science and Engineering Indicators

More recently, the compound annual growth in publication output for the world was 4% from 2010 to 2020 ( Table PBS-1 ). Country-specific growth rates vary widely by country. Among the 15 largest publication producers, countries with compound annual growth rates above the world average were Russia (10%), Iran (9%), India (9%), China (8%), and Brazil (5%); those with the lower growth rates were Japan (-1%), France (-0.3%), the United States (1%), the UK (1%), and Germany (1%). Table SPBS-17 ." data-bs-content="It is possible that the growth rates could be influenced by fractional counting. For example, the compound annual growth rate for France using whole counting is 1%. Publication output using whole counting is available in Table SPBS-17 ." data-endnote-uuid="0e263707-7950-46cf-831d-cf85eab318f1">​ It is possible that the growth rates could be influenced by fractional counting. For example, the compound annual growth rate for France using whole counting is 1%. Publication output using whole counting is available in Table SPBS-17 . The countries with low growth rates are those that built their scientific capacity decades ago and continue to maintain their scientific research. The worldwide growth of publication output, from 1.9 million in 2010 to 2.9 million in 2020, was led by four geographically large countries. China (36%), India (9%), Russia (6%), and the United States (5%) together accounted for about half the increase in publications over this time period.

S&E articles in all fields for 15 largest producing regions, countries, or economies: 2010 and 2020

na = not applicable.

The countries or economies are ranked based on the 2020 total. Article counts refer to publications from conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journal articles in S&E and indexed in Scopus (see Technical Appendix for more details). Articles are classified by their year of publication and are assigned to a region, country, or economy on the basis of the institutional address(es) of the author(s) listed in the article. Articles are credited on a fractional count basis (i.e., for articles from multiple countries or economies, each country or economy receives fractional credit on the basis of the proportion of its participating authors). Detail may not add to total because of countries or economies that are not shown. Proportions are based on the world total excluding unclassified addresses (data not presented). Details and other countries are available in Table SPBS-2 .

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; Science-Metrix; Elsevier, Scopus abstract and citation database, accessed May 2021.

Collectively, the top 15 countries produced 76% of the world’s publication output of 2.9 million articles in 2020 ( Table PBS-1 ). Figure PBS-2 and Table PBS-1 , or whole counting, as in Table SPBS-17 . There is a slight difference between the United States and China when looking at the whole counting total production numbers. Using whole counting for 2020, the United States had 600,053 articles, while China had 742,431. A whole counting measure allocates one full count to each country with an author contributing to the article; in fractional counting, each country receives a proportion of the count based on the number of authors from that country. For example, if an article had four authors—with two from the United States, one from China, and one from Brazil—the fractional scores would be 2/4 for the United States, 1/4 for China, and 1/4 for Brazil. In this example, the difference between whole and fractional counting indicates that the United States had more authors on the example paper, compared to the number of authors in China or Brazil." data-bs-content="The proportion of output attributable to the large producers is consistent whether using fractional counting, as in Figure PBS-2 and Table PBS-1 , or whole counting, as in Table SPBS-17 . There is a slight difference between the United States and China when looking at the whole counting total production numbers. Using whole counting for 2020, the United States had 600,053 articles, while China had 742,431. A whole counting measure allocates one full count to each country with an author contributing to the article; in fractional counting, each country receives a proportion of the count based on the number of authors from that country. For example, if an article had four authors—with two from the United States, one from China, and one from Brazil—the fractional scores would be 2/4 for the United States, 1/4 for China, and 1/4 for Brazil. In this example, the difference between whole and fractional counting indicates that the United States had more authors on the example paper, compared to the number of authors in China or Brazil." data-endnote-uuid="795522b2-013c-415e-8335-55e7fc42059c">​ The proportion of output attributable to the large producers is consistent whether using fractional counting, as in Figure PBS-2 and Table PBS-1 , or whole counting, as in Table SPBS-17 . There is a slight difference between the United States and China when looking at the whole counting total production numbers. Using whole counting for 2020, the United States had 600,053 articles, while China had 742,431. A whole counting measure allocates one full count to each country with an author contributing to the article; in fractional counting, each country receives a proportion of the count based on the number of authors from that country. For example, if an article had four authors—with two from the United States, one from China, and one from Brazil—the fractional scores would be 2/4 for the United States, 1/4 for China, and 1/4 for Brazil. In this example, the difference between whole and fractional counting indicates that the United States had more authors on the example paper, compared to the number of authors in China or Brazil. The two countries producing the most S&E publications in 2020 were China (669,744, or 23%) and the United States (455,856, or 16%) ( Figure PBS-2 ). With the exception of Iran replacing Taiwan beginning in 2014, the top 15 producers of S&E articles have been the same over the last 10 years (NSB 2016).

S&E articles, by selected region, country, or economy and rest of world: 1996–2020

Article counts refer to publications from a selection of conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journals in S&E fields from Scopus. Articles are classified by their year of publication and are assigned to a region, country, or economy on the basis of the institutional address(es) of the author(s) listed in the article. Articles are credited on a fractional count basis (i.e., for articles produced by authors from different countries, each country receives fractional credit on the basis of the proportion of its participating authors). Data for all regions, countries, and economies are available in Table SPBS-2 .

The U.S. trend of moderate but increasing publication output varies by state. The National Science Board’s (NSB’s) State Indicators data tool provides state-level data based on each state’s doctorate population and R&D funding, including academic S&E article output per 1,000 science, engineering, and health doctorate holders in academia (NSB 2021a) and academic S&E article output per $1 million of academic S&E R&D (NSB 2021b).

The U.S. trend of publication output varies across race or ethnicity and sex, which impacts R&D careers (see sidebar Publication Output by Underrepresented Groups and Impact on R&D Careers and Indicators 2022 report “ The STEM Labor Force of Today: Scientists, Engineers, and Skilled Technical Workers ”).

Publication Output by Underrepresented Groups and Impact on R&D Careers

The National Science Board stated in its Vision 2030 report that “women and underrepresented minorities remain inadequately represented in S&E relative to their proportions in the U.S. population” (NSB 2020). These disparities have also been found in the publication of peer-reviewed articles (Hopkins et al. 2013). The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) has undertaken research to examine linkages between publication output and careers in research (Chang, White, and Sugimoto forthcoming).

Matching publication output data to demographic survey data provides a key to understanding publication output in conjunction with authors’ demographic, training, and career information. Prior researchers have attempted to add author demographics using various methods, such as sex and race disambiguation algorithms (e.g., NamSor, Ginni, Ethnicolr, OriginsInfo), that estimate the probability of race or sex from given names (or, in the case of Face ++ , from images). The accuracy of these matches varies dramatically by country and field; sex disambiguation algorithms perform better for western countries and poorly for other countries, specifically in Asia and South America (Karimi et al. 2016). In addition, some scientific fields, such as astronomy and astrophysics, generally use initials rather than given names. Despite these limitations, researchers have observed sex and race disparities in publication output (Hopkins et al. 2013; Larivière et al. 2013; Marschke et al. 2018; and NSB Indicators 2018 : S&E Publication Patterns, by Gender ).

The limitations associated with the earlier approaches can be overcome using data directly collected from the authors. One such source is the NCSES Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR), * which provides demographic, education, and career history information from a sample of individuals with a U.S. research doctoral degree in a science, engineering, or health field (NCSES 2021). Clarivate, the architect of Web of Science (WoS), † matched SDR respondents to publication records in the WoS publication output database. The results provide demographic information, such as sex and race or ethnicity of publication authors.

These data shed light on publication output differences between groups defined by race or ethnicity and sex, by discipline, and by impacts to R&D career paths (Chang, White, and Sugimoto forthcoming). ‡ The point estimates in Figure PBS-A show the odds of pre-doctorate student publishing by ethnic group or sex relative to White students (or men, for the sex comparison) while the error bars show the confidence around that point estimate (95% confidence interval). The confidence interval is closely linked to the size of the sample. In the SDR-WoS data, the number of minorities and women receiving degrees in the population influences the sample size—and, consequently, the ability to measure odds ratios. For example, there are 3,750 women who received mathematics or statistics PhDs compared to 10,450 men ( Table SPBS-32 ). A similar issue arises for mathematics or statistics PhDs by race or ethnicity ( Table SPBS-33 ). Overall, compared to White graduates, Asian, Black, or Hispanic graduates are less likely to publish before their doctorate in biological, agricultural, and other life sciences; engineering; health sciences; and social sciences.

S&E pre-doctorate publishing odds ratio, by sex and selected race or ethnicity: 1995–2006

S&E doctorates include science, engineering, and health PhD candidates at U.S. research doctorate institutions. Computer sciences is not included in the figure because the odds ratio and confidence interval show no conclusive results for any demographic group or sex. Table shows the estimated odds ratios of publishing at least one article or conference proceeding during the five years before receiving a doctorate in the combined Web of Science and Survey of Doctorate Recipients database. For more detail, see Table SPBS-32 and Table SPBS-33 .

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Survey of Doctorate Recipients; Clarivate, Web of Science.

Compared to men, women are less likely to publish before graduation in the biological sciences, agriculture, engineering, health sciences, physics, and social sciences. Pre-doctorate publications appear to factor into obtaining a job in which research is the primary activity. § For those with at least one pre-PhD publication, 56% reported that their first job has research as its primary activity compared to 37% of those without a publication (Chang, White, and Sugimoto forthcoming).

* A machine learning approach matches the SDR respondents to the authors of publications indexed by the Web of Science (WoS). The matching algorithm incorporates name commonality, research field, education, employment affiliations, coauthorship network, and self-citations to predict matches from the SDR respondents to the WoS.

† WoS is a bibliometric database of conference proceedings and peer-reviewed literature with English-language titles and abstracts.

‡ To predict pre-doctorate publishing propensity, separate models were fitted for each doctoral field, and the following factors from the NCSES’s Survey of Earned Doctorates were controlled: doctorate award year, type of PhD-awarding institution, source of primary support, community college experience, U.S. citizenship status at the time of degree award, level of parental education, marital status, dependents under 18 years old, disability, graduate debt, and name commonality.

§ The model controls for critical factors, such as the PhD institutions ranking as a high research institution, year of graduation, citizenship, parental degree, and student debt. The model does not measure article submissions or rejections.

Distribution of publications by field of science and region, country, or economy can indicate research priorities and capabilities. Health sciences is the largest field of science globally (25% of publications in 2020) ( Table SPBS-2 and Table SPBS-10 ). Likely due to COVID-19, health sciences publications grew 16%, and biological and biomedical sciences publications grew 15% from 2019 to 2020, far surpassing their previous 2009–19 compound annual growth rates of 3% for each ( Table SPBS-5 and Table SPBS-10 ). In the United States, the European Union (EU-27), the UK, and Japan, health sciences publication output far exceeds that of any other field ( Figure PBS-3 ). Table SPBS-17 through Table SPBS-31 )." data-bs-content="There is little difference between whole or fractional counting of publications for the large producing countries. Whole counting shows a difference for small countries with high collaboration rates because they only receive a fraction of a point for each article, while whole counting awards them a full point ( Table SPBS-17 through Table SPBS-31 )." data-endnote-uuid="f8a4e196-8e1b-4fb8-8538-837999b38d46">​ There is little difference between whole or fractional counting of publications for the large producing countries. Whole counting shows a difference for small countries with high collaboration rates because they only receive a fraction of a point for each article, while whole counting awards them a full point ( Table SPBS-17 through Table SPBS-31 ). The United States, the UK, and the EU-27 have the highest proportions of articles in the social sciences of the six countries and regions shown. In China, the largest research area is engineering (24%), followed by health sciences (15%) and computer and information sciences (12%). The largest scientific field for publication output in India is computer sciences (18%). Japan has a portfolio with health sciences (32%) at the top, followed by biological and biomedical sciences (13%) and engineering (13%).

S&E research portfolios, by eight largest fields of science and by selected region, country, or economy: 2020

EU = European Union.

Articles refer to publications from a selection of conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journals in S&E fields from Scopus. Articles are classified by their year of publication and are assigned to a region, country, or economy on the basis of the institutional address(es) of the author(s) listed in the article. Articles are credited on a fractional count basis (i.e., for articles from multiple countries, each country receives fractional credit on the basis of the proportion of its participating authors). See Table SPBS-1 for countries included in the EU; beginning in 2020, the United Kingdom was no longer a member of the EU. See Table SPBS-2 for all fields of science. See Table SPBS-2 through Table SPBS-16 for data on all regions, countries, and economies and all fields of science.

There is increasing interest in measuring publication output that crosses or combines the standard scientific fields for solving boundary-defying issues, such as climate change or poverty reduction (NRC 2014, NASEM 2021). While publication output provides a potential avenue for measuring cross-disciplinary research output, there are challenges for national-level measures. (See sidebar Measuring Cross-Disciplinarity Using Publication Output .)

Measuring Cross-Disciplinarity Using Publication Output

This sidebar uses cross-disciplinarity as an envelope term that includes convergent, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary research because the measurement techniques for examining publication output are similar. Cross-disciplinary research includes the following:

• Convergent research that is driven by a specific and compelling problem requiring deep integration across disciplines (NSF 2019). Convergent science is a team-based approach to problem solving cutting across fields of inquiry and institutional frontiers to integrate areas of knowledge from multiple fields to address specific scientific and societal challenges.
• Multidisciplinary research (MDR) that “juxtaposes two or more disciplines focused on a question … [where] the existing structure of knowledge is not questioned” (NRC 2014:44).
• Interdisciplinary research (IDR) that “integrates information, data, methods, tools, concepts, and/or theories from two or more disciplines focused on a complex question, problem, topic, or theme” (NRC 2014:44).

Efforts using publication output to measure cross-disciplinary research yields results that are not suitable for comparing at the country level (Wagner et al. 2011; Wang and Schneider 2020). This finding is similar to sidebars in previous Indicators reports (NSB 2010; NSB 2016; Wagner et al. 2009). This sidebar explains the ongoing methodological issues with measuring convergence, MDR, and IDR at the country level and provides potential directions for future research.

For measurement at the country level, researchers have analyzed cross-disciplinary research using various bibliometric measures. Some have used article citations (Campbell et al. 2015; Porter and Chubin 1985), coauthor fields of specialization (Porter et al. 2007), text mining of abstracts or keywords listed on each article (Del Rio et al. 2001), or network analysis (Leydesdorff and Rafols 2011). An analysis of various approaches for measuring interdisciplinarity revealed a lack of consistent measurement outcomes across scientific fields, over time, and for countries or economies (Digital Science 2016).

Measuring cross-disciplinarity is challenging because indicators that are valid by one measure (e.g., citation counts), are not stable in another scientific area. For example, looking within the broad field of health sciences, health economics uses fewer citations, while biomedicine uses many more. When attempting to measure cross-disciplinarity for health sciences, the differences between health economics and biomedicine are, at least in part, related to different citation habits and not necessarily to differences in the cross-disciplinarity of the research.

Although research has not uncovered robust cross-disciplinary measures for countries, there are insights into the growth and influence of convergence, IDR, and MDR. Measured broadly, researchers find growth in cross-disciplinarity: “from about the mid-1980s, both natural sciences and engineering (NSE) and medical fields (MED) raised their level of interdisciplinarity at the expense of a focus on specialties” (Larivière and Gingras 2014:197). The team also found that the social sciences, as well as the arts and humanities, were the most open to collaborating with other disciplines. While cross-disciplinarity has grown, citation lags are associated with cross-disciplinary research papers. Specifically, they garner fewer than the normal number of citations for the first 3 years but pick up more citations than normal over 13 years (Wang, Thijs, and Glänzel 2015).

Recently, Digital Science prepared a report for the Research Councils of the United Kingdom (RCUK) that scanned the current literature and measurement approaches (Digital Science 2016). RCUK concluded that “no single indicator of interdisciplinarity (either MDR or IDR) analysed here should, used alone, satisfy any stakeholder. They show diverse inconsistency—in terms of change over time, difference between disciplines and trajectory for countries—that raises doubts as to their specific relevance” (Digital Science 2016:8). The RCUK report suggested that combining bibliometric IDR measures with other data, such as award information, could create a framework for expert analysis of IDR. Among the recommendations were continued exploration of text analysis and the inclusion of departmental affiliations in award information.

Similarly, the 2021 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine workshop on Measuring Convergence in Science and Engineering found that “using a single or even a few atomistic indicators to measure complex research activities capable of addressing societal problems is misguided” (NASEM 2021:49). Workshop participant Ismael Rafols suggested shifting from an atomistic to a portfolio approach, investigating the entire landscape that makes convergence possible.

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• 15 April 2024

Revealed: the ten research papers that policy documents cite most

• Dalmeet Singh Chawla 0

Dalmeet Singh Chawla is a freelance science journalist based in London.

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Policymakers often work behind closed doors — but the documents they produce offer clues about the research that influences them. Credit: Stefan Rousseau/Getty

When David Autor co-wrote a paper on how computerization affects job skill demands more than 20 years ago, a journal took 18 months to consider it — only to reject it after review. He went on to submit it to The Quarterly Journal of Economics , which eventually published the work 1 in November 2003.

Autor’s paper is now the third most cited in policy documents worldwide, according to an analysis of data provided exclusively to Nature . It has accumulated around 1,100 citations in policy documents, show figures from the London-based firm Overton (see ‘The most-cited papers in policy’), which maintains a database of more than 12 million policy documents, think-tank papers, white papers and guidelines.

“I thought it was destined to be quite an obscure paper,” recalls Autor, a public-policy scholar and economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “I’m excited that a lot of people are citing it.”

The most-cited papers in policy

Economics papers dominate the top ten papers that policy documents reference most.

Data from Sage Policy Profiles as of 15 April 2024

The top ten most cited papers in policy documents are dominated by economics research. When economics studies are excluded, a 1997 Nature paper 2 about Earth’s ecosystem services and natural capital is second on the list, with more than 900 policy citations. The paper has also garnered more than 32,000 references from other studies, according to Google Scholar. Other highly cited non-economics studies include works on planetary boundaries, sustainable foods and the future of employment (see ‘Most-cited papers — excluding economics research’).

These lists provide insight into the types of research that politicians pay attention to, but policy citations don’t necessarily imply impact or influence, and Overton’s database has a bias towards documents published in English.

Interdisciplinary impact

Overton usually charges a licence fee to access its citation data. But last year, the firm worked with the London-based publisher Sage to release a free web-based tool that allows any researcher to find out how many times policy documents have cited their papers or mention their names. Overton and Sage said they created the tool, called Sage Policy Profiles, to help researchers to demonstrate the impact or influence their work might be having on policy. This can be useful for researchers during promotion or tenure interviews and in grant applications.

Autor thinks his study stands out because his paper was different from what other economists were writing at the time. It suggested that ‘middle-skill’ work, typically done in offices or factories by people who haven’t attended university, was going to be largely automated, leaving workers with either highly skilled jobs or manual work. “It has stood the test of time,” he says, “and it got people to focus on what I think is the right problem.” That topic is just as relevant today, Autor says, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence.

Most-cited papers — excluding economics research

When economics studies are excluded, the research papers that policy documents most commonly reference cover topics including climate change and nutrition.

Walter Willett, an epidemiologist and food scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, thinks that interdisciplinary teams are most likely to gain a lot of policy citations. He co-authored a paper on the list of most cited non-economics studies: a 2019 work 3 that was part of a Lancet commission to investigate how to feed the global population a healthy and environmentally sustainable diet by 2050 and has accumulated more than 600 policy citations.

“I think it had an impact because it was clearly a multidisciplinary effort,” says Willett. The work was co-authored by 37 scientists from 17 countries. The team included researchers from disciplines including food science, health metrics, climate change, ecology and evolution and bioethics. “None of us could have done this on our own. It really did require working with people outside our fields.”

Sverker Sörlin, an environmental historian at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, agrees that papers with a diverse set of authors often attract more policy citations. “It’s the combined effect that is often the key to getting more influence,” he says.

Has your research influenced policy? Use this free tool to check

Sörlin co-authored two papers in the list of top ten non-economics papers. One of those is a 2015 Science paper 4 on planetary boundaries — a concept defining the environmental limits in which humanity can develop and thrive — which has attracted more than 750 policy citations. Sörlin thinks one reason it has been popular is that it’s a sequel to a 2009 Nature paper 5 he co-authored on the same topic, which has been cited by policy documents 575 times.

Although policy citations don’t necessarily imply influence, Willett has seen evidence that his paper is prompting changes in policy. He points to Denmark as an example, noting that the nation is reformatting its dietary guidelines in line with the study’s recommendations. “I certainly can’t say that this document is the only thing that’s changing their guidelines,” he says. But “this gave it the support and credibility that allowed them to go forward”.

Broad brush

Peter Gluckman, who was the chief science adviser to the prime minister of New Zealand between 2009 and 2018, is not surprised by the lists. He expects policymakers to refer to broad-brush papers rather than those reporting on incremental advances in a field.

Gluckman, a paediatrician and biomedical scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, notes that it’s important to consider the context in which papers are being cited, because studies reporting controversial findings sometimes attract many citations. He also warns that the list is probably not comprehensive: many policy papers are not easily accessible to tools such as Overton, which uses text mining to compile data, and so will not be included in the database.

The top 100 papers

“The thing that worries me most is the age of the papers that are involved,” Gluckman says. “Does that tell us something about just the way the analysis is done or that relatively few papers get heavily used in policymaking?”

Gluckman says it’s strange that some recent work on climate change, food security, social cohesion and similar areas hasn’t made it to the non-economics list. “Maybe it’s just because they’re not being referred to,” he says, or perhaps that work is cited, in turn, in the broad-scope papers that are most heavily referenced in policy documents.

As for Sage Policy Profiles, Gluckman says it’s always useful to get an idea of which studies are attracting attention from policymakers, but he notes that studies often take years to influence policy. “Yet the average academic is trying to make a claim here and now that their current work is having an impact,” he adds. “So there’s a disconnect there.”

Willett thinks policy citations are probably more important than scholarly citations in other papers. “In the end, we don’t want this to just sit on an academic shelf.”

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00660-1

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We examine banking regulation in a macroeconomic model of bank runs. We construct a general equilibrium model where banks may default because of fundamental or self-fulfilling runs. With only fundamental defaults, we show that the competitive equilibrium is constrained efficient. However, when banks are vulnerable to runs, banks’ leverage decisions are not ex-ante optimal: individual banks do not internalize that higher leverage makes other banks more vulnerable. The theory calls for introducing minimum capital requirements, even in the absence of bailouts.

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Published on 17.4.2024 in Vol 26 (2024)

Correction: Application of AI in Multilevel Pain Assessment Using Facial Images: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Authors of this article:

Corrigenda and Addenda

• Jian Huo 1 * , MSc   ; 
• Yan Yu 2 * , MMS   ; 
• Wei Lin 3 , MMS   ; 
• Anmin Hu 2, 3, 4 , MMS   ; 
• Chaoran Wu 2 , MD, PhD  

1 Boston Intelligent Medical Research Center, Shenzhen United Scheme Technology Company Limited, Boston, MA, United States

2 Department of Anesthesia, Shenzhen People's Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen Key Medical Discipline, Shenzhen, China

3 Shenzhen United Scheme Technology Company Limited, Shenzhen, China

4 The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University, Shenzhen, China

*these authors contributed equally

Corresponding Author:

Chaoran Wu, MD, PhD

Department of Anesthesia

Shenzhen People's Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology

Shenzhen Key Medical Discipline

No 1017, Dongmen North Road

Shenzhen, 518020

Phone: 86 18100282848

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Related Article Correction of: https://www.jmir.org/2024/1/e51250 J Med Internet Res 2024;26:e59628 doi:10.2196/59628

In “Application of AI in Multilevel Pain Assessment Using Facial Images: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” (J Med Internet Res 2024;26:e51250) a redundant repetition was found.

The title was originally published as:

Application of AI in in Multilevel Pain Assessment Using Facial Images: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

It will now be changed to:

Application of AI in Multilevel Pain Assessment Using Facial Images: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The correction will appear in the online version of the paper on the JMIR Publications website on April 17, 2024, together with the publication of this correction notice. Because this correction was made after submission to PubMed, PubMed Central, and other full-text repositories, the corrected article has also been resubmitted to those repositories.

This is a non–peer-reviewed article. submitted 17.04.24; accepted 17.04.24; published 17.04.24.

©Jian Huo, Yan Yu, Wei Lin, Anmin Hu, Chaoran Wu. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 17.04.2024.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.

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National Journal for Legal Research and Innovative Ideas [NJLRII] is a peer-reviewed online journal on law and multidisciplinary issues published quarterly. The aim is to promote research work, enhance legal academics, legal awareness in the society and to promote original legal writing among law students and young academics. Also, to focus on bridging the gap between research and practice and Implementation of new and varied techniques of learning.

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Farmers national bank donates to american heart association.

CANFIELD — As part of a community-wide effort, Farmers National Bank is working to prevent the No. 1 killer of women: Heart Disease.

Together alongside customers, the bank donated more than $8,000 to the local American Heart Association (AHA). That money will fund lifesaving cardiovascular research, advocate for heart-healthier communities, and spread awareness of heart attack/stroke.

The director of marketing at Farmers, Julianna Begalla, was a 2024 AHA Woman of Impact nominee. She spearheaded the bank’s fundraising efforts.

“Every dollar we raised in this campaign will go right back into our community to save our neighbors and help them live a longer, healthier life,” Begalla said. “I am beyond grateful to Farmers and to our customers for supporting my Woman of Impact campaign. This is truly community banking at its best and I am proud to be even just a small part of that.”

In addition to providing a corporate sponsorship, the bank raised more than $5,500 in February through staff donations and by selling paper hearts to customers in branches. To learn more about Farmers, visit farmersbankgroup.com.

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