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What Is the Theme of a Research Paper?

M.T. Wroblewski

How to Write a Motif Paper

The term "theme" is a small word, but it can intimidate students when they see it on an assignment or test. To overcome the fear and develop confidence, especially with regard to research papers, understand what the word means and see the parallels with any work, including poems, essays, plays, novels and movies.

“Theme” Defined

A theme is a major and sometimes recurring idea, subject or topic that appears in a written work. A dominant theme usually reveals what the work is really about and can be helpful in forming insights and analysis. A theme can consist of one word, two words or more. For example, your teacher might ask you to explore the straightforward ideas of “anger” or “selfishness” or more complex themes of “emotional intelligence” or “conflicted emotions.” Either way, careful reading of the work is vital so that you can marshal examples of where the theme was apparent.

Examples in Research

Themes in research papers might require a little digging, but they are there. Sometimes they are easier to spot when several research papers on the same subject are compared or contrasted, for this is when such subtext emerges. For example, three research papers on the subject of avid TV viewing by teenagers might contain different themes, such as simpler ideas including “passivity” or "grades" or a more complex theme, such as “effects on familial relationships.”

Seize the Opportunity

Once you've identified the theme of a research paper or papers, seize the opportunity and analyze it. Say that you like the idea of exploring how avid TV viewing -- more than four hours per day -- affects teens' grades. Further, suppose that researchers are in general agreement about the correlation but cast a wide net in terms of how they define “passivity.” You might set up a thematic segue for a research paper by saying, “Researchers continue to debate how to define passivity in teens and reach across the spectrum to include the number of hours per day they spend in solitude, the number of people they count as close friends and their lack of interest in hobbies and extracurricular activities.” Then you would take each of these ideas and expound in greater detail.

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With education, health care and small business marketing as her core interests, M.T. Wroblewski has penned pieces for Woman's Day, Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal and many newspapers and magazines. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Northern Illinois University.

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How to Write a Theme Essay

Last Updated: January 4, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. 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 204,382 times.

Jake Adams

Starting the Essay

Step 1 Read the essay prompt carefully.

  • For example, an essay prompt may ask you to reflect on the theme of good versus evil in John Steinbeck's East of Eden .

Step 2 Brainstorm ideas for the essay.

  • Make a list of everything you know about the topic. This can be information you learned in class, as well as information you found on your own.
  • Write down keywords or key scenes in the text that respond to the essay prompt. Think about what words or scenes from the text come to mind when you think of a specific theme.
  • For example, when you brainstorm ideas on East of Eden , you may write down any moments in the text that seem to speak to the theme of good and evil.

Step 3 Create a thesis...

  • Your thesis statement will need to address the theme, your primary example or examples, and the stance you will take on the topic.
  • For example, your thesis might be: "In East of Eden , John Steinbeck rejects the Biblical idea of good and evil and instead focuses on the contradictions and complications found in good and evil."

Step 4 Outline the essay.

  • Introduction: Discuss landscape as metaphor, include thesis statement.
  • Body: Describe mountains in opening scene, elaborate on how they symbolize good vs. evil, state how characters live between the mountains, showing how people are caught between good and evil.
  • Conclusion: Restate thesis statement, return to landscape as metaphor.

Writing Your Essay

Step 1 Start with a hook.

  • Questions can make fun hooks for the reader. Ask a rhetorical question that relates to the theme of the essay, such as "How does one decide what is good and what is evil?"
  • You can also use a quote from the text as the hook. Find a quote in the text that explores the themes and ideas you'll be discussing in your essay.

Step 2 Introduce your supporting ideas.

  • For example, you may introduce the role of nature plays in the text to discuss the theme of good and evil. The first sentence of your body paragraph should discuss the role of nature. This will set up the paragraph and let the reader know what the focus of the paragraph will be.

Step 3 Use examples from the text.

  • For example, you may discuss the use of nature in the text in one paragraph. The body of the paragraph should then use quotes and scenes in the text to support this idea.
  • You might write,"The descriptions of the Gabilan Mountains in the text symbolize good and evil. The characters in the story live in the Salinas Valley, trapped in a gray area between these two extremes."

Step 4 Create a strong conclusion.

  • Ask yourself, "What do I want my readers to have learned through this essay?"
  • Remind readers about the essay's theme. Reference some of the arguments you made in the body of your essay, reinforcing how they support your original point.

Revising Your Essay

Step 1 Check the structure and flow of the essay.

  • Check that there are transitions between paragraphs. Look at the beginning of each paragraph to make sure they all flow well together.

Step 2 Look for any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.

  • Print out your paper and proofread it. Oftentimes, errors are easier to catch on paper. If you can't print out your paper, try changing the size or type of the font. Anything that alters how the work looked when you wrote it can help alert you to errors. [13] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source

Step 3 Show the essay to others for review.

  • Be open to constructive feedback from friends and peers. This will only improve the essay and ensure it is at its best when you turn it in.

Expert Q&A

Jake Adams

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Write an Essay

  • ↑ Jake Adams. Academic Tutor & Test Prep Specialist. Expert Interview. 20 May 2020.
  • ↑ https://penandthepad.com/write-essay-theme-book-2200.html
  • ↑ https://wts.indiana.edu/writing-guides/how-to-write-a-thesis-statement.html
  • ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/essay-outline/
  • ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-to-write-a-hook/
  • ↑ https://libguides.newcastle.edu.au/how-to-write-an-essay/conclusion
  • ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/proofreading/steps_for_revising.html
  • ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/proofreading/proofreading_suggestions.html
  • ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/

About This Article

Jake Adams

When writing a theme essay, you’ll need to explore a given theme in the text you’re studying. Before you start your essay, brainstorm some notes about your theme, which you can then build your essay from. For example, if you have the theme of good and evil, think about which characters are mostly good or evil, any good or evil actions they take, description that uses light and darkness, and any religious context. In your intro, state your thesis, which should summarize your essay’s main argument. Then, choose 4 or 5 examples of your theme and write a paragraph exploring each one. Make sure you support your points with quotes from the text. In your conclusion, link your ideas back to your thesis statement. For more tips from our English co-author, including how to revise your essay to polish it up, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Writing an Educational Research Paper

Research paper sections, customary parts of an education research paper.

There is no one right style or manner for writing an education paper. Content aside, the writing style and presentation of papers in different educational fields vary greatly. Nevertheless, certain parts are common to most papers, for example:

Title/Cover Page

Contains the paper's title, the author's name, address, phone number, e-mail, and the day's date.

Not every education paper requires an abstract. However, for longer, more complex papers abstracts are particularly useful. Often only 100 to 300 words, the abstract generally provides a broad overview and is never more than a page. It describes the essence, the main theme of the paper. It includes the research question posed, its significance, the methodology, and the main results or findings. Footnotes or cited works are never listed in an abstract. Remember to take great care in composing the abstract. It's the first part of the paper the instructor reads. It must impress with a strong content, good style, and general aesthetic appeal. Never write it hastily or carelessly.

Introduction and Statement of the Problem

A good introduction states the main research problem and thesis argument. What precisely are you studying and why is it important? How original is it? Will it fill a gap in other studies? Never provide a lengthy justification for your topic before it has been explicitly stated.

Limitations of Study

Indicate as soon as possible what you intend to do, and what you are not going to attempt. You may limit the scope of your paper by any number of factors, for example, time, personnel, gender, age, geographic location, nationality, and so on.

Methodology

Discuss your research methodology. Did you employ qualitative or quantitative research methods? Did you administer a questionnaire or interview people? Any field research conducted? How did you collect data? Did you utilize other libraries or archives? And so on.

Literature Review

The research process uncovers what other writers have written about your topic. Your education paper should include a discussion or review of what is known about the subject and how that knowledge was acquired. Once you provide the general and specific context of the existing knowledge, then you yourself can build on others' research. The guide Writing a Literature Review will be helpful here.

Main Body of Paper/Argument

This is generally the longest part of the paper. It's where the author supports the thesis and builds the argument. It contains most of the citations and analysis. This section should focus on a rational development of the thesis with clear reasoning and solid argumentation at all points. A clear focus, avoiding meaningless digressions, provides the essential unity that characterizes a strong education paper.

After spending a great deal of time and energy introducing and arguing the points in the main body of the paper, the conclusion brings everything together and underscores what it all means. A stimulating and informative conclusion leaves the reader informed and well-satisfied. A conclusion that makes sense, when read independently from the rest of the paper, will win praise.

Works Cited/Bibliography

See the Citation guide .

Education research papers often contain one or more appendices. An appendix contains material that is appropriate for enlarging the reader's understanding, but that does not fit very well into the main body of the paper. Such material might include tables, charts, summaries, questionnaires, interview questions, lengthy statistics, maps, pictures, photographs, lists of terms, glossaries, survey instruments, letters, copies of historical documents, and many other types of supplementary material. A paper may have several appendices. They are usually placed after the main body of the paper but before the bibliography or works cited section. They are usually designated by such headings as Appendix A, Appendix B, and so on.

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  • Tags: education , education_paper , education_research_paper

theme of a research paper

How to Write a Thematic Essay

theme of a research paper

Every piece of writing ever written has its agenda. Whether it’s to teach a lesson or show the impact of a particular emotion or action, a central theme can be developed. The goal for us as readers is to uncover what the author was trying to tell us between the lines in their literature. When we do finally discover it, we’ve accomplished the first step of thematic essay writing! Let’s see below how to write a thematic essay with our papers writing service .

What Is a Thematic Essay?

Let’s look at the thematic essay definition; a thematic essay is a piece of writing in which an author develops the central theme in some literature using literary devices like foreshadowing, imagery, personification, etc.

A professional essay writer will uncover the primary subject, elaborate upon the literary devices employed, and express the overall significance of the theme. The primary challenge comes from the fact that although there are various subjects, finding the most meaningful and impactful one can be challenging.

Naturally, each person has their own varied interpretation, making it hard to agree on a central theme wholesomely. In short, a well written thematic essay comes from a healthy central idea that is conclusively proven via literary devices and logical arguments.

If you're thinking " i need help with my homework " - contact us!

How to Pick a Thematic Topic?

A crucial aspect of writing a good thematic essay is choosing a theme. Follow the hints listed below to help you create a thematic topic:

How to Write a Thematic Essay

Brainstorm from your own experiences. Recall what you were talking about in class, with your mates or parents. Do some of these conversations remind you of some book, novel or another piece of literature?

Write down every idea that comes to mind. Sometimes, your most absurd ideas are the best way to go.

List your favourite literature pieces. Which literature piece was the most touching for you? Try to analyze its subject and problems the author built upon within the story; it might help you come up with your own ideas.

Look at the details of other literature pieces: You might find some interesting details within other literature that can help you come up with your theme.

Still have no idea what to write about? No worries, we have your back.

Thematic Essay Topics

  • What is George Orwell’s deliberation in portraying a “Perfect Utopia” in his book 1984?
  • What main idea is George Orwell painting about Communism in the book Animal Farm?
  • What is Harper Lee saying about innocence in her novel To Kill A Mockingbird?
  • What is John Steinbeck saying about loneliness and isolation in Of Mice and Men?
  • What is F. Scott Fitzgerald saying about the American Dream in The Great Gatsby?

Still Not in the Mood to Write Your thematic essay?

Send us your write my essays request.

How to Find and Explore the Central Theme

As stated before, uncovering the main subject and central theme respectively is the first significant step in a thematic paper. However, with so many things going on within the literature, it may be difficult to interpret the central theme accurately. To make sure you choose it correctly, follow these steps:

1. Summarize the literature: What main idea is the author trying to purvey? Usually, there will be many hints along the way, so choosing the right direction may not be so challenging.

2. Pick the most prevalent subject: One thing to note is the significant difference between a subject and a theme. A subject is the general topic of conversation—whether it be love, bravery, deception, etc. A theme is a specific point the author is making about said subject. So, find the talking point that is most commonly being brought up. This will be the focal point of the essay.

3. Read between the lines: After finding the most suitable subject, decipher what main point the author is trying to make. This will become clearer as you get deeper into the literature since clues and examples will appear frequently. After fully deciphering the central theme, there is one more significant step.

4. Overall significance: What is the overall significance that comes from the author’s point? What can be taken from this and applied to our personal lives? In other words, what is the lesson from all of this? What have we learned?

Feeling difficult to write thematic essay? Leave us a notice and our persuasive essay writer we'll help.

Thematic Essay Outline

The thematic essay has several key components. First of all, it should be five paragraphs or more, depending on the depth of the theme. Next, it should have a concrete thesis statement, which, in other words, is the thematic statement that comes from the main subject. The introduction presents the reader with the subject and the thesis statement. The body paragraphs each discuss one literary element or more to defend the validity of your thesis, all the while providing many supporting details from the text itself. Lastly, the thematic essay conclusion summarizes the main points presented and finishes off with a statement of significance.

Follow the link to learn more about HOW TO CREATE A WINNING OUTLINE

The thematic essay introduction presents the main subject of discussion in a captivating way. The first sentence of the intro should be a hook statement that makes some intriguing claim about the subject of discussion. If done correctly, this will grab your reader's attention. Afterwards, provide any necessary background information from the literature that will help the audience understand your claims later on. Lastly, put together a well thought out thesis statement that reflects the central theme of the novel.

The body paragraphs follow a thematic essay format. Since each body paragraph’s purpose should be to present a literary device as evidence, the topic sentence should introduce the claim and gateway into the evidence. Every topic sentence must mention a literary device and its relationship to the literature.

Afterwards, to validate your claim, use examples from the book that strengthen the reasoning of your statement. These can be actions from the plot or quotations that are parallel with the central theme. It’s imperative to explain how the action/quote links back to your thesis statement, as it shows that you can support your logic.

Remember: each claim must use a literary device. It can not just be a random moment or inference. Thematic essays are all about proving thesis statements through the use of critical literary devices.

The thematic essay conclusion has three main objectives to complete before wrapping up the entire paper. It should not present any new information or facts, but should summarize the information already given. First of all, restate your thesis statement in a new way. Then, summarize the central claims you made within the body of your paper and their influence on the thesis statement. To finish off the entire work, present an overall concluding statement with a global analysis of the subject. Leave your reader with another hook, making him/her interested in digging deeper into the topic.

Try also read an article on poetry analysis essay , it could be useful and can give you new insights.

Thematic Essay Example

The best way to familiarise yourself with this type of writing is to learn from an example. ‍

Even though the ancient Greek cities of Athens and Sparta were geographically close to each other, they had very distinct cultures, lifestyles, values, and political systems that defined them. The following paper compares and contrasts the cultural impacts of the two cities by examining some of the duties and responsibilities of the citizenry as well as the different values that were deemed important. The paper further evaluates the impact of accomplishments that would have been left by both city-states on the history of western civilization.

Wrap Things Up

Before submitting your thematic essay, make sure to check a couple of things to correct any possible errors.

How to Write a Thematic Essay

  • Double-check and confirm that the central theme you have decided is the one that the author likely meant to focus on. Unless you can provide a secondary issue and present it strongly enough as a primary, validate the primary subject.
  • Go through and proofread your entire paper. Nothing makes reading more irritating than grammatical mistakes, clean that stuff up as much as possible.
  • Get a second pair of eyes to read through your paper. It’s best to ask a classmate for help, as they most likely have or had a similar assignment. Another great way to polish things up is to ask one of our writers to give you some helpful advice.

We also recommend reading about Jem Finch character traits , our readers find it very interesting.

Having a Trouble with Your Thematic Essay?

Having a hard time thinking up a proper topic to write about? Or, do you have one but are having a hard time deciphering the theme? Let our custom essay writing service do all the work for you. Check out our price calculator to estimate the cost of your assignment.

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Toolkit: How to write a great paper

A clear format will ensure that your research paper is understood by your readers. Follow:

1. Context — your introduction

2. Content — your results

3. Conclusion — your discussion

Plan your paper carefully and decide where each point will sit within the framework before you begin writing.

theme of a research paper

Collection: Careers toolkit

Straightforward writing

Scientific writing should always aim to be A, B and C: Accurate, Brief, and Clear. Never choose a long word when a short one will do. Use simple language to communicate your results. Always aim to distill your message down into the simplest sentence possible.

Choose a title

A carefully conceived title will communicate the single core message of your research paper. It should be D, E, F: Declarative, Engaging and Focused.

Conclusions

Add a sentence or two at the end of your concluding statement that sets out your plans for further research. What is next for you or others working in your field?

Find out more

See additional information .

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01362-9

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at Mills College

Take print out

Develop a Research Theme

Access the teaching-learning plan, choose a topic.

10-30 minutes

  • Develop or revisit your your long-term goals for student development
  • Develop a draft of your “theory of action”—the approaches you will explore to build your long-term goals

Seven teachers sit around table in discussion

Identify Your Long-Term Goals

The building blocks of your theme.

A research theme expresses the long-term goals of your work. If your team or school has already developed a research theme, revisit it now to refresh your memory about your long-term goals and ideas about how to get there.

Begin by having team members individually jot down qualities in response to the following prompt:

  • Ideally, what qualities do we hope students will have when they graduate from our school? ( If we bumped into our students in 5-10 years, what qualities do we hope they would have?)

Now, again working individually, spend a few minutes jotting down a list of qualities in response to a second prompt:

  • What are the current qualities of our students? (For example, what qualities of our students inspire us? Anything that concerns us?)

Again, share your individual lists and write all the qualities on a second list labeled “Current.”

Compare the two lists–ideal and current–and notice gaps that really speak to you as educators. Find one or two gaps where you would like to invest your time and energy.

Your research theme positively states the qualities you will work toward. Some examples follow.

  • “For students to value friendship, develop their own perspectives and ways of thinking, and enjoy science.”
  • “Develop social-emotional skills and…a deeper understanding of mathematics”
  • “Across both math and language arts, develop our students’ abilities to use evidence and reasoning to support and critique arguments.”
  • “…to take responsibility and initiative as learners.”
A lot of [U.S.] schools develop mission statements, but we don’t do anything with them. The mission statements get put in a drawer and then teachers become cynical…Lesson Study gives guts to a mission statement, makes it real, and brings it to life.

Develop a Theory of Action

Moving from the what to the how.

The second part of your research theme is a “theory of action”—how you will work toward your long-term goals and the specific research questions you will examine. What experiences in school help students move toward a goal such as “students have their own thoughts and can explain them logically?” Teachers addressing this research theme focused their initial theory of action on two classroom routines: students’ presentation of ideas at the board and their use of reflective journals. They actively tested strategies to improve these two classroom routines and posed questions about them. For example, they asked what the features are of effective student presentations and how teachers help students see the power of these strategies (such as using visual models). In order to strengthen the impact of reflective mathematics journals, teachers strategically selected several student journals from the prior day to be read aloud at the beginning of each mathematics lesson, which built students’ interest in each other’s ideas and helped them see the impact of well-explained ideas. The first part of your research theme—your overarching goal—is likely to stay the same for several years. The second part of your research theme—your theory of action—is likely to change as you incorporate effective ideas into your practice and go on to experiment with additional changes designed to achieve your long-term goals. For example, the group that experimented with changes to student presentations and reflective journals went on to experiment with routines for discussion and lesson summarization that further built students’ capacity “to have their own thoughts and explain them logically.”

Developing a Research Theme Presentation

theme of a research paper

Examples of Research Themes

theme of a research paper

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Writing the title and abstract for a research paper: Being concise, precise, and meticulous is the key

Milind s. tullu.

Department of Pediatrics, Seth G.S. Medical College and KEM Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

This article deals with formulating a suitable title and an appropriate abstract for an original research paper. The “title” and the “abstract” are the “initial impressions” of a research article, and hence they need to be drafted correctly, accurately, carefully, and meticulously. Often both of these are drafted after the full manuscript is ready. Most readers read only the title and the abstract of a research paper and very few will go on to read the full paper. The title and the abstract are the most important parts of a research paper and should be pleasant to read. The “title” should be descriptive, direct, accurate, appropriate, interesting, concise, precise, unique, and should not be misleading. The “abstract” needs to be simple, specific, clear, unbiased, honest, concise, precise, stand-alone, complete, scholarly, (preferably) structured, and should not be misrepresentative. The abstract should be consistent with the main text of the paper, especially after a revision is made to the paper and should include the key message prominently. It is very important to include the most important words and terms (the “keywords”) in the title and the abstract for appropriate indexing purpose and for retrieval from the search engines and scientific databases. Such keywords should be listed after the abstract. One must adhere to the instructions laid down by the target journal with regard to the style and number of words permitted for the title and the abstract.

Introduction

This article deals with drafting a suitable “title” and an appropriate “abstract” for an original research paper. Because the “title” and the “abstract” are the “initial impressions” or the “face” of a research article, they need to be drafted correctly, accurately, carefully, meticulously, and consume time and energy.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ] Often, these are drafted after the complete manuscript draft is ready.[ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 9 , 10 , 11 ] Most readers will read only the title and the abstract of a published research paper, and very few “interested ones” (especially, if the paper is of use to them) will go on to read the full paper.[ 1 , 2 ] One must remember to adhere to the instructions laid down by the “target journal” (the journal for which the author is writing) regarding the style and number of words permitted for the title and the abstract.[ 2 , 4 , 5 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 12 ] Both the title and the abstract are the most important parts of a research paper – for editors (to decide whether to process the paper for further review), for reviewers (to get an initial impression of the paper), and for the readers (as these may be the only parts of the paper available freely and hence, read widely).[ 4 , 8 , 12 ] It may be worth for the novice author to browse through titles and abstracts of several prominent journals (and their target journal as well) to learn more about the wording and styles of the titles and abstracts, as well as the aims and scope of the particular journal.[ 5 , 7 , 9 , 13 ]

The details of the title are discussed under the subheadings of importance, types, drafting, and checklist.

Importance of the title

When a reader browses through the table of contents of a journal issue (hard copy or on website), the title is the “ first detail” or “face” of the paper that is read.[ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 13 ] Hence, it needs to be simple, direct, accurate, appropriate, specific, functional, interesting, attractive/appealing, concise/brief, precise/focused, unambiguous, memorable, captivating, informative (enough to encourage the reader to read further), unique, catchy, and it should not be misleading.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 9 , 12 ] It should have “just enough details” to arouse the interest and curiosity of the reader so that the reader then goes ahead with studying the abstract and then (if still interested) the full paper.[ 1 , 2 , 4 , 13 ] Journal websites, electronic databases, and search engines use the words in the title and abstract (the “keywords”) to retrieve a particular paper during a search; hence, the importance of these words in accessing the paper by the readers has been emphasized.[ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 12 , 14 ] Such important words (or keywords) should be arranged in appropriate order of importance as per the context of the paper and should be placed at the beginning of the title (rather than the later part of the title, as some search engines like Google may just display only the first six to seven words of the title).[ 3 , 5 , 12 ] Whimsical, amusing, or clever titles, though initially appealing, may be missed or misread by the busy reader and very short titles may miss the essential scientific words (the “keywords”) used by the indexing agencies to catch and categorize the paper.[ 1 , 3 , 4 , 9 ] Also, amusing or hilarious titles may be taken less seriously by the readers and may be cited less often.[ 4 , 15 ] An excessively long or complicated title may put off the readers.[ 3 , 9 ] It may be a good idea to draft the title after the main body of the text and the abstract are drafted.[ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]

Types of titles

Titles can be descriptive, declarative, or interrogative. They can also be classified as nominal, compound, or full-sentence titles.

Descriptive or neutral title

This has the essential elements of the research theme, that is, the patients/subjects, design, interventions, comparisons/control, and outcome, but does not reveal the main result or the conclusion.[ 3 , 4 , 12 , 16 ] Such a title allows the reader to interpret the findings of the research paper in an impartial manner and with an open mind.[ 3 ] These titles also give complete information about the contents of the article, have several keywords (thus increasing the visibility of the article in search engines), and have increased chances of being read and (then) being cited as well.[ 4 ] Hence, such descriptive titles giving a glimpse of the paper are generally preferred.[ 4 , 16 ]

Declarative title

This title states the main finding of the study in the title itself; it reduces the curiosity of the reader, may point toward a bias on the part of the author, and hence is best avoided.[ 3 , 4 , 12 , 16 ]

Interrogative title

This is the one which has a query or the research question in the title.[ 3 , 4 , 16 ] Though a query in the title has the ability to sensationalize the topic, and has more downloads (but less citations), it can be distracting to the reader and is again best avoided for a research article (but can, at times, be used for a review article).[ 3 , 6 , 16 , 17 ]

From a sentence construct point of view, titles may be nominal (capturing only the main theme of the study), compound (with subtitles to provide additional relevant information such as context, design, location/country, temporal aspect, sample size, importance, and a provocative or a literary; for example, see the title of this review), or full-sentence titles (which are longer and indicate an added degree of certainty of the results).[ 4 , 6 , 9 , 16 ] Any of these constructs may be used depending on the type of article, the key message, and the author's preference or judgement.[ 4 ]

Drafting a suitable title

A stepwise process can be followed to draft the appropriate title. The author should describe the paper in about three sentences, avoiding the results and ensuring that these sentences contain important scientific words/keywords that describe the main contents and subject of the paper.[ 1 , 4 , 6 , 12 ] Then the author should join the sentences to form a single sentence, shorten the length (by removing redundant words or adjectives or phrases), and finally edit the title (thus drafted) to make it more accurate, concise (about 10–15 words), and precise.[ 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 9 ] Some journals require that the study design be included in the title, and this may be placed (using a colon) after the primary title.[ 2 , 3 , 4 , 14 ] The title should try to incorporate the Patients, Interventions, Comparisons and Outcome (PICO).[ 3 ] The place of the study may be included in the title (if absolutely necessary), that is, if the patient characteristics (such as study population, socioeconomic conditions, or cultural practices) are expected to vary as per the country (or the place of the study) and have a bearing on the possible outcomes.[ 3 , 6 ] Lengthy titles can be boring and appear unfocused, whereas very short titles may not be representative of the contents of the article; hence, optimum length is required to ensure that the title explains the main theme and content of the manuscript.[ 4 , 5 , 9 ] Abbreviations (except the standard or commonly interpreted ones such as HIV, AIDS, DNA, RNA, CDC, FDA, ECG, and EEG) or acronyms should be avoided in the title, as a reader not familiar with them may skip such an article and nonstandard abbreviations may create problems in indexing the article.[ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 9 , 12 ] Also, too much of technical jargon or chemical formulas in the title may confuse the readers and the article may be skipped by them.[ 4 , 9 ] Numerical values of various parameters (stating study period or sample size) should also be avoided in the titles (unless deemed extremely essential).[ 4 ] It may be worthwhile to take an opinion from a impartial colleague before finalizing the title.[ 4 , 5 , 6 ] Thus, multiple factors (which are, at times, a bit conflicting or contrasting) need to be considered while formulating a title, and hence this should not be done in a hurry.[ 4 , 6 ] Many journals ask the authors to draft a “short title” or “running head” or “running title” for printing in the header or footer of the printed paper.[ 3 , 12 ] This is an abridged version of the main title of up to 40–50 characters, may have standard abbreviations, and helps the reader to navigate through the paper.[ 3 , 12 , 14 ]

Checklist for a good title

Table 1 gives a checklist/useful tips for drafting a good title for a research paper.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 12 ] Table 2 presents some of the titles used by the author of this article in his earlier research papers, and the appropriateness of the titles has been commented upon. As an individual exercise, the reader may try to improvise upon the titles (further) after reading the corresponding abstract and full paper.

Checklist/useful tips for drafting a good title for a research paper

Some titles used by author of this article in his earlier publications and remark/comment on their appropriateness

The Abstract

The details of the abstract are discussed under the subheadings of importance, types, drafting, and checklist.

Importance of the abstract

The abstract is a summary or synopsis of the full research paper and also needs to have similar characteristics like the title. It needs to be simple, direct, specific, functional, clear, unbiased, honest, concise, precise, self-sufficient, complete, comprehensive, scholarly, balanced, and should not be misleading.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 13 , 17 ] Writing an abstract is to extract and summarize (AB – absolutely, STR – straightforward, ACT – actual data presentation and interpretation).[ 17 ] The title and abstracts are the only sections of the research paper that are often freely available to the readers on the journal websites, search engines, and in many abstracting agencies/databases, whereas the full paper may attract a payment per view or a fee for downloading the pdf copy.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 7 , 8 , 10 , 11 , 13 , 14 ] The abstract is an independent and stand-alone (that is, well understood without reading the full paper) section of the manuscript and is used by the editor to decide the fate of the article and to choose appropriate reviewers.[ 2 , 7 , 10 , 12 , 13 ] Even the reviewers are initially supplied only with the title and the abstract before they agree to review the full manuscript.[ 7 , 13 ] This is the second most commonly read part of the manuscript, and therefore it should reflect the contents of the main text of the paper accurately and thus act as a “real trailer” of the full article.[ 2 , 7 , 11 ] The readers will go through the full paper only if they find the abstract interesting and relevant to their practice; else they may skip the paper if the abstract is unimpressive.[ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 13 ] The abstract needs to highlight the selling point of the manuscript and succeed in luring the reader to read the complete paper.[ 3 , 7 ] The title and the abstract should be constructed using keywords (key terms/important words) from all the sections of the main text.[ 12 ] Abstracts are also used for submitting research papers to a conference for consideration for presentation (as oral paper or poster).[ 9 , 13 , 17 ] Grammatical and typographic errors reflect poorly on the quality of the abstract, may indicate carelessness/casual attitude on part of the author, and hence should be avoided at all times.[ 9 ]

Types of abstracts

The abstracts can be structured or unstructured. They can also be classified as descriptive or informative abstracts.

Structured and unstructured abstracts

Structured abstracts are followed by most journals, are more informative, and include specific subheadings/subsections under which the abstract needs to be composed.[ 1 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 13 , 17 , 18 ] These subheadings usually include context/background, objectives, design, setting, participants, interventions, main outcome measures, results, and conclusions.[ 1 ] Some journals stick to the standard IMRAD format for the structure of the abstracts, and the subheadings would include Introduction/Background, Methods, Results, And (instead of Discussion) the Conclusion/s.[ 1 , 2 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 17 , 18 ] Structured abstracts are more elaborate, informative, easy to read, recall, and peer-review, and hence are preferred; however, they consume more space and can have same limitations as an unstructured abstract.[ 7 , 9 , 18 ] The structured abstracts are (possibly) better understood by the reviewers and readers. Anyway, the choice of the type of the abstract and the subheadings of a structured abstract depend on the particular journal style and is not left to the author's wish.[ 7 , 10 , 12 ] Separate subheadings may be necessary for reporting meta-analysis, educational research, quality improvement work, review, or case study.[ 1 ] Clinical trial abstracts need to include the essential items mentioned in the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials) guidelines.[ 7 , 9 , 14 , 19 ] Similar guidelines exist for various other types of studies, including observational studies and for studies of diagnostic accuracy.[ 20 , 21 ] A useful resource for the above guidelines is available at www.equator-network.org (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research). Unstructured (or non-structured) abstracts are free-flowing, do not have predefined subheadings, and are commonly used for papers that (usually) do not describe original research.[ 1 , 7 , 9 , 10 ]

The four-point structured abstract: This has the following elements which need to be properly balanced with regard to the content/matter under each subheading:[ 9 ]

Background and/or Objectives: This states why the work was undertaken and is usually written in just a couple of sentences.[ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 ] The hypothesis/study question and the major objectives are also stated under this subheading.[ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 ]

Methods: This subsection is the longest, states what was done, and gives essential details of the study design, setting, participants, blinding, sample size, sampling method, intervention/s, duration and follow-up, research instruments, main outcome measures, parameters evaluated, and how the outcomes were assessed or analyzed.[ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 ]

Results/Observations/Findings: This subheading states what was found, is longer, is difficult to draft, and needs to mention important details including the number of study participants, results of analysis (of primary and secondary objectives), and include actual data (numbers, mean, median, standard deviation, “P” values, 95% confidence intervals, effect sizes, relative risks, odds ratio, etc.).[ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 ]

Conclusions: The take-home message (the “so what” of the paper) and other significant/important findings should be stated here, considering the interpretation of the research question/hypothesis and results put together (without overinterpreting the findings) and may also include the author's views on the implications of the study.[ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 ]

The eight-point structured abstract: This has the following eight subheadings – Objectives, Study Design, Study Setting, Participants/Patients, Methods/Intervention, Outcome Measures, Results, and Conclusions.[ 3 , 9 , 18 ] The instructions to authors given by the particular journal state whether they use the four- or eight-point abstract or variants thereof.[ 3 , 14 ]

Descriptive and Informative abstracts

Descriptive abstracts are short (75–150 words), only portray what the paper contains without providing any more details; the reader has to read the full paper to know about its contents and are rarely used for original research papers.[ 7 , 10 ] These are used for case reports, reviews, opinions, and so on.[ 7 , 10 ] Informative abstracts (which may be structured or unstructured as described above) give a complete detailed summary of the article contents and truly reflect the actual research done.[ 7 , 10 ]

Drafting a suitable abstract

It is important to religiously stick to the instructions to authors (format, word limit, font size/style, and subheadings) provided by the journal for which the abstract and the paper are being written.[ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 13 ] Most journals allow 200–300 words for formulating the abstract and it is wise to restrict oneself to this word limit.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 22 ] Though some authors prefer to draft the abstract initially, followed by the main text of the paper, it is recommended to draft the abstract in the end to maintain accuracy and conformity with the main text of the paper (thus maintaining an easy linkage/alignment with title, on one hand, and the introduction section of the main text, on the other hand).[ 2 , 7 , 9 , 10 , 11 ] The authors should check the subheadings (of the structured abstract) permitted by the target journal, use phrases rather than sentences to draft the content of the abstract, and avoid passive voice.[ 1 , 7 , 9 , 12 ] Next, the authors need to get rid of redundant words and edit the abstract (extensively) to the correct word count permitted (every word in the abstract “counts”!).[ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 13 ] It is important to ensure that the key message, focus, and novelty of the paper are not compromised; the rationale of the study and the basis of the conclusions are clear; and that the abstract is consistent with the main text of the paper.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 7 , 9 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 , 22 ] This is especially important while submitting a revision of the paper (modified after addressing the reviewer's comments), as the changes made in the main (revised) text of the paper need to be reflected in the (revised) abstract as well.[ 2 , 10 , 12 , 14 , 22 ] Abbreviations should be avoided in an abstract, unless they are conventionally accepted or standard; references, tables, or figures should not be cited in the abstract.[ 7 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 13 ] It may be worthwhile not to rush with the abstract and to get an opinion by an impartial colleague on the content of the abstract; and if possible, the full paper (an “informal” peer-review).[ 1 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 11 , 17 ] Appropriate “Keywords” (three to ten words or phrases) should follow the abstract and should be preferably chosen from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of the U.S. National Library of Medicine ( https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/search ) and are used for indexing purposes.[ 2 , 3 , 11 , 12 ] These keywords need to be different from the words in the main title (the title words are automatically used for indexing the article) and can be variants of the terms/phrases used in the title, or words from the abstract and the main text.[ 3 , 12 ] The ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors; http://www.icmje.org/ ) also recommends publishing the clinical trial registration number at the end of the abstract.[ 7 , 14 ]

Checklist for a good abstract

Table 3 gives a checklist/useful tips for formulating a good abstract for a research paper.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 , 22 ]

Checklist/useful tips for formulating a good abstract for a research paper

Concluding Remarks

This review article has given a detailed account of the importance and types of titles and abstracts. It has also attempted to give useful hints for drafting an appropriate title and a complete abstract for a research paper. It is hoped that this review will help the authors in their career in medical writing.

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgement

The author thanks Dr. Hemant Deshmukh - Dean, Seth G.S. Medical College & KEM Hospital, for granting permission to publish this manuscript.

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How to Write a Research Paper: Parts of the Paper

  • Choosing Your Topic
  • Citation & Style Guides This link opens in a new window
  • Critical Thinking
  • Evaluating Information
  • Parts of the Paper
  • Writing Tips from UNC-Chapel Hill
  • Librarian Contact

Parts of the Research Paper Papers should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Your introductory paragraph should grab the reader's attention, state your main idea, and indicate how you will support it. The body of the paper should expand on what you have stated in the introduction. Finally, the conclusion restates the paper's thesis and should explain what you have learned, giving a wrap up of your main ideas.

1. The Title The title should be specific and indicate the theme of the research and what ideas it addresses. Use keywords that help explain your paper's topic to the reader. Try to avoid abbreviations and jargon. Think about keywords that people would use to search for your paper and include them in your title.

2. The Abstract The abstract is used by readers to get a quick overview of your paper. Typically, they are about 200 words in length (120 words minimum to  250 words maximum). The abstract should introduce the topic and thesis, and should provide a general statement about what you have found in your research. The abstract allows you to mention each major aspect of your topic and helps readers decide whether they want to read the rest of the paper. Because it is a summary of the entire research paper, it is often written last. 

3. The Introduction The introduction should be designed to attract the reader's attention and explain the focus of the research. You will introduce your overview of the topic,  your main points of information, and why this subject is important. You can introduce the current understanding and background information about the topic. Toward the end of the introduction, you add your thesis statement, and explain how you will provide information to support your research questions. This provides the purpose and focus for the rest of the paper.

4. Thesis Statement Most papers will have a thesis statement or main idea and supporting facts/ideas/arguments. State your main idea (something of interest or something to be proven or argued for or against) as your thesis statement, and then provide your supporting facts and arguments. A thesis statement is a declarative sentence that asserts the position a paper will be taking. It also points toward the paper's development. This statement should be both specific and arguable. Generally, the thesis statement will be placed at the end of the first paragraph of your paper. The remainder of your paper will support this thesis.

Students often learn to write a thesis as a first step in the writing process, but often, after research, a writer's viewpoint may change. Therefore a thesis statement may be one of the final steps in writing. 

Examples of Thesis Statements from Purdue OWL

5. The Literature Review The purpose of the literature review is to describe past important research and how it specifically relates to the research thesis. It should be a synthesis of the previous literature and the new idea being researched. The review should examine the major theories related to the topic to date and their contributors. It should include all relevant findings from credible sources, such as academic books and peer-reviewed journal articles. You will want  to:

  • Explain how the literature helps the researcher understand the topic.
  • Try to show connections and any disparities between the literature.
  • Identify new ways to interpret prior research.
  • Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.

More about writing a literature review. . .

6. The Discussion ​The purpose of the discussion is to interpret and describe what you have learned from your research. Make the reader understand why your topic is important. The discussion should always demonstrate what you have learned from your readings (and viewings) and how that learning has made the topic evolve, especially from the short description of main points in the introduction.Explain any new understanding or insights you have had after reading your articles and/or books. Paragraphs should use transitioning sentences to develop how one paragraph idea leads to the next. The discussion will always connect to the introduction, your thesis statement, and the literature you reviewed, but it does not simply repeat or rearrange the introduction. You want to: 

  • Demonstrate critical thinking, not just reporting back facts that you gathered.
  • If possible, tell how the topic has evolved over the past and give it's implications for the future.
  • Fully explain your main ideas with supporting information.
  • Explain why your thesis is correct giving arguments to counter points.

7. The Conclusion A concluding paragraph is a brief summary of your main ideas and restates the paper's main thesis, giving the reader the sense that the stated goal of the paper has been accomplished. What have you learned by doing this research that you didn't know before? What conclusions have you drawn? You may also want to suggest further areas of study, improvement of research possibilities, etc. to demonstrate your critical thinking regarding your research.

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13.1 Formatting a Research Paper

Learning objectives.

  • Identify the major components of a research paper written using American Psychological Association (APA) style.
  • Apply general APA style and formatting conventions in a research paper.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use APA style , the documentation and formatting style followed by the American Psychological Association, as well as MLA style , from the Modern Language Association. There are a few major formatting styles used in academic texts, including AMA, Chicago, and Turabian:

  • AMA (American Medical Association) for medicine, health, and biological sciences
  • APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the social sciences
  • Chicago—a common style used in everyday publications like magazines, newspapers, and books
  • MLA (Modern Language Association) for English, literature, arts, and humanities
  • Turabian—another common style designed for its universal application across all subjects and disciplines

While all the formatting and citation styles have their own use and applications, in this chapter we focus our attention on the two styles you are most likely to use in your academic studies: APA and MLA.

If you find that the rules of proper source documentation are difficult to keep straight, you are not alone. Writing a good research paper is, in and of itself, a major intellectual challenge. Having to follow detailed citation and formatting guidelines as well may seem like just one more task to add to an already-too-long list of requirements.

Following these guidelines, however, serves several important purposes. First, it signals to your readers that your paper should be taken seriously as a student’s contribution to a given academic or professional field; it is the literary equivalent of wearing a tailored suit to a job interview. Second, it shows that you respect other people’s work enough to give them proper credit for it. Finally, it helps your reader find additional materials if he or she wishes to learn more about your topic.

Furthermore, producing a letter-perfect APA-style paper need not be burdensome. Yes, it requires careful attention to detail. However, you can simplify the process if you keep these broad guidelines in mind:

  • Work ahead whenever you can. Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” includes tips for keeping track of your sources early in the research process, which will save time later on.
  • Get it right the first time. Apply APA guidelines as you write, so you will not have much to correct during the editing stage. Again, putting in a little extra time early on can save time later.
  • Use the resources available to you. In addition to the guidelines provided in this chapter, you may wish to consult the APA website at http://www.apa.org or the Purdue University Online Writing lab at http://owl.english.purdue.edu , which regularly updates its online style guidelines.

General Formatting Guidelines

This chapter provides detailed guidelines for using the citation and formatting conventions developed by the American Psychological Association, or APA. Writers in disciplines as diverse as astrophysics, biology, psychology, and education follow APA style. The major components of a paper written in APA style are listed in the following box.

These are the major components of an APA-style paper:

Body, which includes the following:

  • Headings and, if necessary, subheadings to organize the content
  • In-text citations of research sources
  • References page

All these components must be saved in one document, not as separate documents.

The title page of your paper includes the following information:

  • Title of the paper
  • Author’s name
  • Name of the institution with which the author is affiliated
  • Header at the top of the page with the paper title (in capital letters) and the page number (If the title is lengthy, you may use a shortened form of it in the header.)

List the first three elements in the order given in the previous list, centered about one third of the way down from the top of the page. Use the headers and footers tool of your word-processing program to add the header, with the title text at the left and the page number in the upper-right corner. Your title page should look like the following example.

Beyond the Hype: Evaluating Low-Carb Diets cover page

The next page of your paper provides an abstract , or brief summary of your findings. An abstract does not need to be provided in every paper, but an abstract should be used in papers that include a hypothesis. A good abstract is concise—about one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty words—and is written in an objective, impersonal style. Your writing voice will not be as apparent here as in the body of your paper. When writing the abstract, take a just-the-facts approach, and summarize your research question and your findings in a few sentences.

In Chapter 12 “Writing a Research Paper” , you read a paper written by a student named Jorge, who researched the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets. Read Jorge’s abstract. Note how it sums up the major ideas in his paper without going into excessive detail.

Beyond the Hype: Abstract

Write an abstract summarizing your paper. Briefly introduce the topic, state your findings, and sum up what conclusions you can draw from your research. Use the word count feature of your word-processing program to make sure your abstract does not exceed one hundred fifty words.

Depending on your field of study, you may sometimes write research papers that present extensive primary research, such as your own experiment or survey. In your abstract, summarize your research question and your findings, and briefly indicate how your study relates to prior research in the field.

Margins, Pagination, and Headings

APA style requirements also address specific formatting concerns, such as margins, pagination, and heading styles, within the body of the paper. Review the following APA guidelines.

Use these general guidelines to format the paper:

  • Set the top, bottom, and side margins of your paper at 1 inch.
  • Use double-spaced text throughout your paper.
  • Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in a legible size (10- to 12-point).
  • Use continuous pagination throughout the paper, including the title page and the references section. Page numbers appear flush right within your header.
  • Section headings and subsection headings within the body of your paper use different types of formatting depending on the level of information you are presenting. Additional details from Jorge’s paper are provided.

Cover Page

Begin formatting the final draft of your paper according to APA guidelines. You may work with an existing document or set up a new document if you choose. Include the following:

  • Your title page
  • The abstract you created in Note 13.8 “Exercise 1”
  • Correct headers and page numbers for your title page and abstract

APA style uses section headings to organize information, making it easy for the reader to follow the writer’s train of thought and to know immediately what major topics are covered. Depending on the length and complexity of the paper, its major sections may also be divided into subsections, sub-subsections, and so on. These smaller sections, in turn, use different heading styles to indicate different levels of information. In essence, you are using headings to create a hierarchy of information.

The following heading styles used in APA formatting are listed in order of greatest to least importance:

  • Section headings use centered, boldface type. Headings use title case, with important words in the heading capitalized.
  • Subsection headings use left-aligned, boldface type. Headings use title case.
  • The third level uses left-aligned, indented, boldface type. Headings use a capital letter only for the first word, and they end in a period.
  • The fourth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are boldfaced and italicized.
  • The fifth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are italicized and not boldfaced.

Visually, the hierarchy of information is organized as indicated in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” .

Table 13.1 Section Headings

A college research paper may not use all the heading levels shown in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” , but you are likely to encounter them in academic journal articles that use APA style. For a brief paper, you may find that level 1 headings suffice. Longer or more complex papers may need level 2 headings or other lower-level headings to organize information clearly. Use your outline to craft your major section headings and determine whether any subtopics are substantial enough to require additional levels of headings.

Working with the document you developed in Note 13.11 “Exercise 2” , begin setting up the heading structure of the final draft of your research paper according to APA guidelines. Include your title and at least two to three major section headings, and follow the formatting guidelines provided above. If your major sections should be broken into subsections, add those headings as well. Use your outline to help you.

Because Jorge used only level 1 headings, his Exercise 3 would look like the following:

Citation Guidelines

In-text citations.

Throughout the body of your paper, include a citation whenever you quote or paraphrase material from your research sources. As you learned in Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , the purpose of citations is twofold: to give credit to others for their ideas and to allow your reader to follow up and learn more about the topic if desired. Your in-text citations provide basic information about your source; each source you cite will have a longer entry in the references section that provides more detailed information.

In-text citations must provide the name of the author or authors and the year the source was published. (When a given source does not list an individual author, you may provide the source title or the name of the organization that published the material instead.) When directly quoting a source, it is also required that you include the page number where the quote appears in your citation.

This information may be included within the sentence or in a parenthetical reference at the end of the sentence, as in these examples.

Epstein (2010) points out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Here, the writer names the source author when introducing the quote and provides the publication date in parentheses after the author’s name. The page number appears in parentheses after the closing quotation marks and before the period that ends the sentence.

Addiction researchers caution that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (Epstein, 2010, p. 137).

Here, the writer provides a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence that includes the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number separated by commas. Again, the parenthetical citation is placed after the closing quotation marks and before the period at the end of the sentence.

As noted in the book Junk Food, Junk Science (Epstein, 2010, p. 137), “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive.”

Here, the writer chose to mention the source title in the sentence (an optional piece of information to include) and followed the title with a parenthetical citation. Note that the parenthetical citation is placed before the comma that signals the end of the introductory phrase.

David Epstein’s book Junk Food, Junk Science (2010) pointed out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Another variation is to introduce the author and the source title in your sentence and include the publication date and page number in parentheses within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. As long as you have included the essential information, you can choose the option that works best for that particular sentence and source.

Citing a book with a single author is usually a straightforward task. Of course, your research may require that you cite many other types of sources, such as books or articles with more than one author or sources with no individual author listed. You may also need to cite sources available in both print and online and nonprint sources, such as websites and personal interviews. Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.2 “Citing and Referencing Techniques” and Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provide extensive guidelines for citing a variety of source types.

Writing at Work

APA is just one of several different styles with its own guidelines for documentation, formatting, and language usage. Depending on your field of interest, you may be exposed to additional styles, such as the following:

  • MLA style. Determined by the Modern Languages Association and used for papers in literature, languages, and other disciplines in the humanities.
  • Chicago style. Outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style and sometimes used for papers in the humanities and the sciences; many professional organizations use this style for publications as well.
  • Associated Press (AP) style. Used by professional journalists.

References List

The brief citations included in the body of your paper correspond to the more detailed citations provided at the end of the paper in the references section. In-text citations provide basic information—the author’s name, the publication date, and the page number if necessary—while the references section provides more extensive bibliographical information. Again, this information allows your reader to follow up on the sources you cited and do additional reading about the topic if desired.

The specific format of entries in the list of references varies slightly for different source types, but the entries generally include the following information:

  • The name(s) of the author(s) or institution that wrote the source
  • The year of publication and, where applicable, the exact date of publication
  • The full title of the source
  • For books, the city of publication
  • For articles or essays, the name of the periodical or book in which the article or essay appears
  • For magazine and journal articles, the volume number, issue number, and pages where the article appears
  • For sources on the web, the URL where the source is located

The references page is double spaced and lists entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. If an entry continues for more than one line, the second line and each subsequent line are indented five spaces. Review the following example. ( Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provides extensive guidelines for formatting reference entries for different types of sources.)

References Section

In APA style, book and article titles are formatted in sentence case, not title case. Sentence case means that only the first word is capitalized, along with any proper nouns.

Key Takeaways

  • Following proper citation and formatting guidelines helps writers ensure that their work will be taken seriously, give proper credit to other authors for their work, and provide valuable information to readers.
  • Working ahead and taking care to cite sources correctly the first time are ways writers can save time during the editing stage of writing a research paper.
  • APA papers usually include an abstract that concisely summarizes the paper.
  • APA papers use a specific headings structure to provide a clear hierarchy of information.
  • In APA papers, in-text citations usually include the name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication.
  • In-text citations correspond to entries in the references section, which provide detailed bibliographical information about a source.

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

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

  • 8. The Discussion
  • Purpose of Guide
  • Design Flaws to Avoid
  • Independent and Dependent Variables
  • Glossary of Research Terms
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The purpose of the discussion section is to interpret and describe the significance of your findings in relation to what was already known about the research problem being investigated and to explain any new understanding or insights that emerged as a result of your research. The discussion will always connect to the introduction by way of the research questions or hypotheses you posed and the literature you reviewed, but the discussion does not simply repeat or rearrange the first parts of your paper; the discussion clearly explains how your study advanced the reader's understanding of the research problem from where you left them at the end of your review of prior research.

Annesley, Thomas M. “The Discussion Section: Your Closing Argument.” Clinical Chemistry 56 (November 2010): 1671-1674.

Importance of a Good Discussion

The discussion section is often considered the most important part of your research paper because it:

  • Most effectively demonstrates your ability as a researcher to think critically about an issue, to develop creative solutions to problems based upon a logical synthesis of the findings, and to formulate a deeper, more profound understanding of the research problem under investigation;
  • Presents the underlying meaning of your research, notes possible implications in other areas of study, and explores possible improvements that can be made in order to further develop the concerns of your research;
  • Highlights the importance of your study and how it can contribute to understanding the research problem within the field of study;
  • Presents how the findings from your study revealed and helped fill gaps in the literature that had not been previously exposed or adequately described; and,
  • Engages the reader in thinking critically about issues based on an evidence-based interpretation of findings; it is not governed strictly by objective reporting of information.

Annesley Thomas M. “The Discussion Section: Your Closing Argument.” Clinical Chemistry 56 (November 2010): 1671-1674; Bitchener, John and Helen Basturkmen. “Perceptions of the Difficulties of Postgraduate L2 Thesis Students Writing the Discussion Section.” Journal of English for Academic Purposes 5 (January 2006): 4-18; Kretchmer, Paul. Fourteen Steps to Writing an Effective Discussion Section. San Francisco Edit, 2003-2008.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  General Rules

These are the general rules you should adopt when composing your discussion of the results :

  • Do not be verbose or repetitive; be concise and make your points clearly
  • Avoid the use of jargon or undefined technical language
  • Follow a logical stream of thought; in general, interpret and discuss the significance of your findings in the same sequence you described them in your results section [a notable exception is to begin by highlighting an unexpected result or a finding that can grab the reader's attention]
  • Use the present verb tense, especially for established facts; however, refer to specific works or prior studies in the past tense
  • If needed, use subheadings to help organize your discussion or to categorize your interpretations into themes

II.  The Content

The content of the discussion section of your paper most often includes :

  • Explanation of results : Comment on whether or not the results were expected for each set of findings; go into greater depth to explain findings that were unexpected or especially profound. If appropriate, note any unusual or unanticipated patterns or trends that emerged from your results and explain their meaning in relation to the research problem.
  • References to previous research : Either compare your results with the findings from other studies or use the studies to support a claim. This can include re-visiting key sources already cited in your literature review section, or, save them to cite later in the discussion section if they are more important to compare with your results instead of being a part of the general literature review of prior research used to provide context and background information. Note that you can make this decision to highlight specific studies after you have begun writing the discussion section.
  • Deduction : A claim for how the results can be applied more generally. For example, describing lessons learned, proposing recommendations that can help improve a situation, or highlighting best practices.
  • Hypothesis : A more general claim or possible conclusion arising from the results [which may be proved or disproved in subsequent research]. This can be framed as new research questions that emerged as a consequence of your analysis.

III.  Organization and Structure

Keep the following sequential points in mind as you organize and write the discussion section of your paper:

  • Think of your discussion as an inverted pyramid. Organize the discussion from the general to the specific, linking your findings to the literature, then to theory, then to practice [if appropriate].
  • Use the same key terms, narrative style, and verb tense [present] that you used when describing the research problem in your introduction.
  • Begin by briefly re-stating the research problem you were investigating and answer all of the research questions underpinning the problem that you posed in the introduction.
  • Describe the patterns, principles, and relationships shown by each major findings and place them in proper perspective. The sequence of this information is important; first state the answer, then the relevant results, then cite the work of others. If appropriate, refer the reader to a figure or table to help enhance the interpretation of the data [either within the text or as an appendix].
  • Regardless of where it's mentioned, a good discussion section includes analysis of any unexpected findings. This part of the discussion should begin with a description of the unanticipated finding, followed by a brief interpretation as to why you believe it appeared and, if necessary, its possible significance in relation to the overall study. If more than one unexpected finding emerged during the study, describe each of them in the order they appeared as you gathered or analyzed the data. As noted, the exception to discussing findings in the same order you described them in the results section would be to begin by highlighting the implications of a particularly unexpected or significant finding that emerged from the study, followed by a discussion of the remaining findings.
  • Before concluding the discussion, identify potential limitations and weaknesses if you do not plan to do so in the conclusion of the paper. Comment on their relative importance in relation to your overall interpretation of the results and, if necessary, note how they may affect the validity of your findings. Avoid using an apologetic tone; however, be honest and self-critical [e.g., in retrospect, had you included a particular question in a survey instrument, additional data could have been revealed].
  • The discussion section should end with a concise summary of the principal implications of the findings regardless of their significance. Give a brief explanation about why you believe the findings and conclusions of your study are important and how they support broader knowledge or understanding of the research problem. This can be followed by any recommendations for further research. However, do not offer recommendations which could have been easily addressed within the study. This would demonstrate to the reader that you have inadequately examined and interpreted the data.

IV.  Overall Objectives

The objectives of your discussion section should include the following: I.  Reiterate the Research Problem/State the Major Findings

Briefly reiterate the research problem or problems you are investigating and the methods you used to investigate them, then move quickly to describe the major findings of the study. You should write a direct, declarative, and succinct proclamation of the study results, usually in one paragraph.

II.  Explain the Meaning of the Findings and Why They are Important

No one has thought as long and hard about your study as you have. Systematically explain the underlying meaning of your findings and state why you believe they are significant. After reading the discussion section, you want the reader to think critically about the results and why they are important. You don’t want to force the reader to go through the paper multiple times to figure out what it all means. If applicable, begin this part of the section by repeating what you consider to be your most significant or unanticipated finding first, then systematically review each finding. Otherwise, follow the general order you reported the findings presented in the results section.

III.  Relate the Findings to Similar Studies

No study in the social sciences is so novel or possesses such a restricted focus that it has absolutely no relation to previously published research. The discussion section should relate your results to those found in other studies, particularly if questions raised from prior studies served as the motivation for your research. This is important because comparing and contrasting the findings of other studies helps to support the overall importance of your results and it highlights how and in what ways your study differs from other research about the topic. Note that any significant or unanticipated finding is often because there was no prior research to indicate the finding could occur. If there is prior research to indicate this, you need to explain why it was significant or unanticipated. IV.  Consider Alternative Explanations of the Findings

It is important to remember that the purpose of research in the social sciences is to discover and not to prove . When writing the discussion section, you should carefully consider all possible explanations for the study results, rather than just those that fit your hypothesis or prior assumptions and biases. This is especially important when describing the discovery of significant or unanticipated findings.

V.  Acknowledge the Study’s Limitations

It is far better for you to identify and acknowledge your study’s limitations than to have them pointed out by your professor! Note any unanswered questions or issues your study could not address and describe the generalizability of your results to other situations. If a limitation is applicable to the method chosen to gather information, then describe in detail the problems you encountered and why. VI.  Make Suggestions for Further Research

You may choose to conclude the discussion section by making suggestions for further research [as opposed to offering suggestions in the conclusion of your paper]. Although your study can offer important insights about the research problem, this is where you can address other questions related to the problem that remain unanswered or highlight hidden issues that were revealed as a result of conducting your research. You should frame your suggestions by linking the need for further research to the limitations of your study [e.g., in future studies, the survey instrument should include more questions that ask..."] or linking to critical issues revealed from the data that were not considered initially in your research.

NOTE: Besides the literature review section, the preponderance of references to sources is usually found in the discussion section . A few historical references may be helpful for perspective, but most of the references should be relatively recent and included to aid in the interpretation of your results, to support the significance of a finding, and/or to place a finding within a particular context. If a study that you cited does not support your findings, don't ignore it--clearly explain why your research findings differ from theirs.

V.  Problems to Avoid

  • Do not waste time restating your results . Should you need to remind the reader of a finding to be discussed, use "bridge sentences" that relate the result to the interpretation. An example would be: “In the case of determining available housing to single women with children in rural areas of Texas, the findings suggest that access to good schools is important...," then move on to further explaining this finding and its implications.
  • As noted, recommendations for further research can be included in either the discussion or conclusion of your paper, but do not repeat your recommendations in the both sections. Think about the overall narrative flow of your paper to determine where best to locate this information. However, if your findings raise a lot of new questions or issues, consider including suggestions for further research in the discussion section.
  • Do not introduce new results in the discussion section. Be wary of mistaking the reiteration of a specific finding for an interpretation because it may confuse the reader. The description of findings [results section] and the interpretation of their significance [discussion section] should be distinct parts of your paper. If you choose to combine the results section and the discussion section into a single narrative, you must be clear in how you report the information discovered and your own interpretation of each finding. This approach is not recommended if you lack experience writing college-level research papers.
  • Use of the first person pronoun is generally acceptable. Using first person singular pronouns can help emphasize a point or illustrate a contrasting finding. However, keep in mind that too much use of the first person can actually distract the reader from the main points [i.e., I know you're telling me this--just tell me!].

Analyzing vs. Summarizing. Department of English Writing Guide. George Mason University; Discussion. The Structure, Format, Content, and Style of a Journal-Style Scientific Paper. Department of Biology. Bates College; Hess, Dean R. "How to Write an Effective Discussion." Respiratory Care 49 (October 2004); Kretchmer, Paul. Fourteen Steps to Writing to Writing an Effective Discussion Section. San Francisco Edit, 2003-2008; The Lab Report. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Sauaia, A. et al. "The Anatomy of an Article: The Discussion Section: "How Does the Article I Read Today Change What I Will Recommend to my Patients Tomorrow?” The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery 74 (June 2013): 1599-1602; Research Limitations & Future Research . Lund Research Ltd., 2012; Summary: Using it Wisely. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Schafer, Mickey S. Writing the Discussion. Writing in Psychology course syllabus. University of Florida; Yellin, Linda L. A Sociology Writer's Guide . Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2009.

Writing Tip

Don’t Over-Interpret the Results!

Interpretation is a subjective exercise. As such, you should always approach the selection and interpretation of your findings introspectively and to think critically about the possibility of judgmental biases unintentionally entering into discussions about the significance of your work. With this in mind, be careful that you do not read more into the findings than can be supported by the evidence you have gathered. Remember that the data are the data: nothing more, nothing less.

MacCoun, Robert J. "Biases in the Interpretation and Use of Research Results." Annual Review of Psychology 49 (February 1998): 259-287.

Another Writing Tip

Don't Write Two Results Sections!

One of the most common mistakes that you can make when discussing the results of your study is to present a superficial interpretation of the findings that more or less re-states the results section of your paper. Obviously, you must refer to your results when discussing them, but focus on the interpretation of those results and their significance in relation to the research problem, not the data itself.

Azar, Beth. "Discussing Your Findings."  American Psychological Association gradPSYCH Magazine (January 2006).

Yet Another Writing Tip

Avoid Unwarranted Speculation!

The discussion section should remain focused on the findings of your study. For example, if the purpose of your research was to measure the impact of foreign aid on increasing access to education among disadvantaged children in Bangladesh, it would not be appropriate to speculate about how your findings might apply to populations in other countries without drawing from existing studies to support your claim or if analysis of other countries was not a part of your original research design. If you feel compelled to speculate, do so in the form of describing possible implications or explaining possible impacts. Be certain that you clearly identify your comments as speculation or as a suggestion for where further research is needed. Sometimes your professor will encourage you to expand your discussion of the results in this way, while others don’t care what your opinion is beyond your effort to interpret the data in relation to the research problem.

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Research Method

Home » Research Paper Title – Writing Guide and Example

Research Paper Title – Writing Guide and Example

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Research Paper Title

Research Paper Title

Research Paper Title is the name or heading that summarizes the main theme or topic of a research paper . It serves as the first point of contact between the reader and the paper, providing an initial impression of the content, purpose, and scope of the research . A well-crafted research paper title should be concise, informative, and engaging, accurately reflecting the key elements of the study while also capturing the reader’s attention and interest. The title should be clear and easy to understand, and it should accurately convey the main focus and scope of the research paper.

Examples of Research Paper Title

Here are some Good Examples of Research Paper Title:

  • “Investigating the Relationship Between Sleep Duration and Academic Performance Among College Students”
  • “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Employment: A Systematic Review”
  • “The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis”
  • “Exploring the Effects of Social Support on Mental Health in Patients with Chronic Illness”
  • “Assessing the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial”
  • “The Impact of Social Media Influencers on Consumer Behavior: A Systematic Review”
  • “Investigating the Link Between Personality Traits and Leadership Effectiveness”
  • “The Effect of Parental Incarceration on Child Development: A Longitudinal Study”
  • “Exploring the Relationship Between Cultural Intelligence and Cross-Cultural Adaptation: A Meta-Analysis”
  • “Assessing the Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Chronic Pain Management”.
  • “The Effects of Social Media on Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis”
  • “The Impact of Climate Change on Global Crop Yields: A Longitudinal Study”
  • “Exploring the Relationship between Parental Involvement and Academic Achievement in Elementary School Students”
  • “The Ethics of Genetic Editing: A Review of Current Research and Implications for Society”
  • “Understanding the Role of Gender in Leadership: A Comparative Study of Male and Female CEOs”
  • “The Effect of Exercise on Cognitive Function in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial”
  • “The Impacts of COVID-19 on Mental Health: A Cross-Cultural Comparison”
  • “Assessing the Effectiveness of Online Learning Platforms: A Case Study of Coursera”
  • “Exploring the Link between Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance”
  • “The Effects of Income Inequality on Social Mobility: A Comparative Analysis of OECD Countries”
  • “Exploring the Relationship Between Social Media Use and Mental Health in Adolescents”
  • “The Impact of Climate Change on Crop Yield: A Case Study of Maize Production in Sub-Saharan Africa”
  • “Examining the Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Disorders: A Meta-Analysis”
  • “An Analysis of the Relationship Between Employee Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment”
  • “Assessing the Impacts of Wilderness Areas on Local Economies: A Case Study of Yellowstone National Park”
  • “The Role of Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education: A Review of the Literature”
  • “Investigating the Effects of Technology on Learning in Higher Education”
  • “The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges”
  • “A Study of the Relationship Between Personality Traits and Leadership Styles in Business Organizations”.

How to choose Research Paper Title

Choosing a research paper title is an important step in the research process. A good title can attract readers and convey the essence of your research in a concise and clear manner. Here are some tips on how to choose a research paper title:

  • Be clear and concise: A good title should convey the main idea of your research in a clear and concise manner. Avoid using jargon or technical language that may be confusing to readers.
  • Use keywords: Including keywords in your title can help readers find your paper when searching for related topics. Use specific, descriptive terms that accurately describe your research.
  • Be descriptive: A descriptive title can help readers understand what your research is about. Use adjectives and adverbs to convey the main ideas of your research.
  • Consider the audience : Think about the audience for your paper and choose a title that will appeal to them. If your paper is aimed at a specialized audience, you may want to use technical terms or jargon in your title.
  • Avoid being too general or too specific : A title that is too general may not convey the specific focus of your research, while a title that is too specific may not be of interest to a broader audience. Strive for a title that accurately reflects the focus of your research without being too narrow or too broad.
  • Make it interesting : A title that is interesting or provocative can capture the attention of readers and draw them into your research. Use humor, wordplay, or other creative techniques to make your title stand out.
  • Seek feedback: Ask colleagues or advisors for feedback on your title. They may be able to offer suggestions or identify potential problems that you hadn’t considered.

Purpose of Research Paper Title

The research paper title serves several important purposes, including:

  • Identifying the subject matter : The title of a research paper should clearly and accurately identify the topic or subject matter that the paper addresses. This helps readers quickly understand what the paper is about.
  • Catching the reader’s attention : A well-crafted title can grab the reader’s attention and make them interested in reading the paper. This is particularly important in academic settings where there may be many papers on the same topic.
  • Providing context: The title can provide important context for the research paper by indicating the specific area of study, the research methods used, or the key findings.
  • Communicating the scope of the paper: A good title can give readers an idea of the scope and depth of the research paper. This can help them decide if the paper is relevant to their interests or research.
  • Indicating the research question or hypothesis : The title can often indicate the research question or hypothesis that the paper addresses, which can help readers understand the focus of the research and the main argument or conclusion of the paper.

Advantages of Research Paper Title

The title of a research paper is an important component that can have several advantages, including:

  • Capturing the reader’s attention : A well-crafted research paper title can grab the reader’s attention and encourage them to read further. A captivating title can also increase the visibility of the paper and attract more readers.
  • Providing a clear indication of the paper’s focus: A well-written research paper title should clearly convey the main focus and purpose of the study. This helps potential readers quickly determine whether the paper is relevant to their interests.
  • Improving discoverability: A descriptive title that includes relevant keywords can improve the discoverability of the research paper in search engines and academic databases, making it easier for other researchers to find and cite.
  • Enhancing credibility : A clear and concise title can enhance the credibility of the research and the author. A title that accurately reflects the content of the paper can increase the confidence readers have in the research findings.
  • Facilitating communication: A well-written research paper title can facilitate communication among researchers, enabling them to quickly and easily identify relevant studies and engage in discussions related to the topic.
  • Making the paper easier to remember : An engaging and memorable research paper title can help readers remember the paper and its findings. This can be especially important in fields where researchers are constantly inundated with new information and need to quickly recall important studies.
  • Setting expectations: A good research paper title can set expectations for the reader and help them understand what the paper will cover. This can be especially important for readers who are unfamiliar with the topic or the research area.
  • Guiding research: A well-crafted research paper title can also guide future research by highlighting gaps in the current literature or suggesting new areas for investigation.
  • Demonstrating creativity: A creative research paper title can demonstrate the author’s creativity and originality, which can be appealing to readers and other researchers.

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Writers.com

When someone asks you “What is this book about?” , there are a few ways you can answer. There’s “ plot ,” which refers to the literal events in the book, and there’s “character,” which refers to the people in the book and the struggles they overcome. Finally, there are themes in literature that correspond with the work’s topic and message. But what is theme in literature?

The theme of a story or poem refers to the deeper meaning of that story or poem. All works of literature contend with certain complex ideas, and theme is how a story or poem approaches these ideas.

There are countless ways to approach the theme of a story or poem, so let’s take a look at some theme examples and a list of themes in literature. We’ll discuss the differences between theme and other devices, like theme vs moral and theme vs topic. Finally, we’ll examine why theme is so essential to any work of literature, including to your own writing.

But first, what is theme? Let’s explore what theme is—and what theme isn’t.

  • Theme Definition

20 Common Themes in Literature

  • Theme Examples

Themes in Literature: A Hierarchy of Ideas

Why themes in literature matter.

  • Should I Decide the Themes of a Story in Advance?

Theme Definition: What is Theme?

Theme describes the central idea(s) that a piece of writing explores. Rather than stating this theme directly, the author will look at theme using the set of literary tools at their disposal. The theme of a story or poem will be explored through elements like characters , plot, settings , conflict, and even word choice and literary devices .

Theme definition: the central idea(s) that a piece of writing explores.

That said, theme is more than just an idea. It is also the work’s specific vantage point on that idea. In other words, a theme is an idea plus an opinion: it is the author’s specific views regarding the central ideas of the work. 

All works of literature have these central ideas and opinions, even if those ideas and opinions aren’t immediate to the reader.

Justice, for example, is a literary theme that shows up in a lot of classical works. To Kill a Mockingbird contends with racial justice, especially at a time when the U.S. justice system was exceedingly stacked against African Americans. How can a nation call itself just when justice is used as a weapon?

By contrast, the play Hamlet is about the son of a recently-executed king. Hamlet seeks justice for his father and vows to kill Claudius—his father’s killer—but routinely encounters the paradox of revenge. Can justice really be found through more bloodshed?

What is theme? An idea + an opinion.

Clearly, these two works contend with justice in unrelated ways. All themes in literature are broad and open-ended, allowing writers to explore their own ideas about these complex topics.

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Let’s look at some common themes in literature. The ideas presented within this list of themes in literature show up in novels, memoirs, poems, and stories throughout history.

Theme Examples in Literature

Let’s take a closer look at how writers approach and execute theme. Themes in literature are conveyed throughout the work, so while you might not have read the books in the following theme examples, we’ve provided plot synopses and other relevant details where necessary. We analyze the following:

  • Power and Corruption in the novel Animal Farm
  • Loneliness in the short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”
  • Love in the poem “How Do I Love Thee”

Theme Examples: Power and Corruption in the Novel Animal Farm

At its simplest, the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegory that represents the rise and moral decline of Communism in Russia. Specifically, the novel uncovers how power corrupts the leaders of populist uprisings, turning philosophical ideals into authoritarian regimes.

Most of the characters in Animal Farm represent key figures during and after the Russian Revolution. On an ailing farm that’s run by the negligent farmer Mr. Jones (Tsar Nicholas II), the livestock are ready to seize control of the land. The livestock’s discontent is ripened by Old Major (Karl Marx/Lenin), who advocates for the overthrow of the ruling elite and the seizure of private land for public benefit.

After Old Major dies, the pigs Napoleon (Joseph Stalin) and Snowball (Leon Trotsky) stage a revolt. Mr. Jones is chased off the land, which parallels the Russian Revolution in 1917. The pigs then instill “Animalism”—a system of government that advocates for the rights of the common animal. At the core of this philosophy is the idea that “all animals are equal”—an ideal that, briefly, every animal upholds.

Initially, the Animalist Revolution brings peace and prosperity to the farm. Every animal is well-fed, learns how to read, and works for the betterment of the community. However, when Snowball starts implementing a plan to build a windmill, Napoleon drives Snowball off of the farm, effectively assuming leadership over the whole farm. (In real life, Stalin forced Trotsky into exile, and Trotsky spent the rest of his life critiquing the Stalin regime until he was assassinated in 1940.)

Napoleon’s leadership quickly devolves into demagoguery, demonstrating the corrupting influence of power and the ways that ideology can breed authoritarianism. Napoleon uses Snowball as a scapegoat for whenever the farm has a setback, while using Squealer (Vyacheslav Molotov) as his private informant and public orator.

Eventually, Napoleon changes the tenets of Animalism, starts walking on two legs, and acquires other traits and characteristics of humans. At the end of the novel, and after several more conflicts , purges, and rule changes, the livestock can no longer tell the difference between the pigs and humans.

Themes in Literature: Power and Corruption in Animal Farm

So, how does Animal Farm explore the theme of “Power and Corruption”? Let’s analyze a few key elements of the novel.

Plot: The novel’s major plot points each relate to power struggles among the livestock. First, the livestock wrest control of the farm from Mr. Jones; then, Napoleon ostracizes Snowball and turns him into a scapegoat. By seizing leadership of the farm for himself, Napoleon grants himself massive power over the land, abusing this power for his own benefit. His leadership brings about purges, rule changes, and the return of inequality among the livestock, while Napoleon himself starts to look more and more like a human—in other words, he resembles the demagoguery of Mr. Jones and the abuse that preceded the Animalist revolution.

Thus, each plot point revolves around power and how power is wielded by corrupt leadership. At its center, the novel warns the reader of unchecked power, and how corrupt leaders will create echo chambers and private militaries in order to preserve that power.

Characters: The novel’s characters reinforce this message of power by resembling real life events. Most of these characters represent real life figures from the Russian Revolution, including the ideologies behind that revolution. By creating an allegory around Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, and the other leading figures of Communist Russia’s rise and fall, the novel reminds us that unchecked power foments disaster in the real world.

Literary Devices: There are a few key literary devices that support the theme of Power and Corruption. First, the novel itself is a “satirical allegory.” “ Satire ” means that the novel is ridiculing the behaviors of certain people—namely Stalin, who instilled far-more-dangerous laws and abuses that created further inequality in Russia/the U.S.S.R. While Lenin and Trotsky had admirable goals for the Russian nation, Stalin is, quite literally, a pig.

Meanwhile, “allegory” means that the story bears symbolic resemblance to real life, often to teach a moral. The characters and events in this story resemble the Russian Revolution and its aftermath, with the purpose of warning the reader about unchecked power.

Finally, an important literary device in Animal Farm is symbolism . When Napoleon (Stalin) begins to resemble a human, the novel suggests that he has become as evil and negligent as Mr. Jones (Tsar Nicholas II). Since the Russian Revolution was a rejection of the Russian monarchy, equating Stalin to the monarchy reinforces the corrupting influence of power, and the need to elect moral individuals to posts of national leadership.

Theme Examples: Loneliness in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”

Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is concerned with the theme of loneliness. You can read this short story here . Content warning for mentions of suicide.

There are very few plot points in Hemingway’s story, so most of the story’s theme is expressed through dialogue and description. In the story, an old man stays up late drinking at a cafe. The old man has no wife—only a niece that stays with him—and he attempted suicide the previous week. Two waiters observe him: a younger waiter wants the old man to leave so they can close the cafe, while an older waiter sympathizes with the old man. None of these characters have names.

The younger waiter kicks out the old man and closes the cafe. The older waiter walks to a different cafe and ruminates on the importance of “a clean, well-lighted place” like the cafe he works at.

Themes in Literature: Loneliness in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”

Hemingway doesn’t tell us what to think about the old man’s loneliness, but he does provide two opposing viewpoints through the dialogue of the waiters.

The younger waiter has the hallmarks of a happy life: youth, confidence, and a wife to come home to. While he acknowledges that the old man is unhappy, he also admits “I don’t want to look at him,” complaining that the old man has “no regard for those who must work.” The younger waiter “did not wish to be unjust,” he simply wanted to return home.

The older waiter doesn’t have the privilege of turning away: like the old man, he has a house but not a home to return to, and he knows that someone may need the comfort of “a clean and pleasant cafe.”

The older waiter, like Hemingway, empathizes with the plight of the old man. When your place of rest isn’t a home, the world can feel like a prison, so having access to a space that counteracts this feeling is crucial. What kind of a place is that? The older waiter surmises that “the light of course” matters, but the place must be “clean and pleasant” too. Additionally, the place should not have music or be a bar: it must let you preserve the quiet dignity of yourself.

Lastly, the older waiter’s musings about God clue the reader into his shared loneliness with the old man. In a stream of consciousness, the older waiter recites traditional Christian prayers with “nada” in place of “God,” “Father,” “Heaven,” and other symbols of divinity. A bartender describes the waiter as “otro locos mas” (translation: another crazy), and the waiter concludes that his plight must be insomnia.

This belies the irony of loneliness: only the lonely recognize it. The older waiter lacks confidence, youth, and belief in a greater good. He recognizes these traits in the old man, as they both share a need for a clean, well-lighted place long after most people fall asleep. Yet, the younger waiter and the bartender don’t recognize these traits as loneliness, just the ramblings and shortcomings of crazy people.

Does loneliness beget craziness? Perhaps. But to call the waiter and old man crazy would dismiss their feelings and experiences, further deepening their loneliness.

Loneliness is only mentioned once in the story, when the young waiter says “He’s [the old man] lonely. I’m not lonely. I have a wife waiting in bed for me.” Nonetheless, loneliness consumes this short story and its older characters, revealing a plight that, ironically, only the lonely understand.

Theme Examples: Love in the Poem “How Do I Love Thee”

Let’s turn towards brighter themes in literature: namely, love in poetry . Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem “ How Do I Love Thee ” is all about the theme of love.

Themes in Literature: Love in “How Do I Love Thee”

Browning’s poem is a sonnet , which is a 14-line poem that often centers around love and relationships. Sonnets have different requirements depending on their form, but between lines 6-8, they all have a volta —a surprising line that twists and expands the poem’s meaning.

Let’s analyze three things related to the poem’s theme: its word choice, its use of simile and metaphor , and its volta.

Word Choice: Take a look at the words used to describe love. What do those words mean? What are their connotations? Here’s a brief list: “soul,” “ideal grace,” “quiet need,” “sun and candle-light,” “strive for right,” “passion,” “childhood’s faith,” “the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life,” “God,” “love thee better after death.”

These words and phrases all bear positive connotations, and many of them evoke images of warmth, safety, and the hearth. Even phrases that are morose, such as “lost saints” and “death,” are used as contrasts to further highlight the speaker’s wholehearted rejoicing of love. This word choice suggests an endless, benevolent, holistic, all-consuming love.

Simile and Metaphor: Similes and metaphors are comparison statements, and the poem routinely compares love to different objects and ideas. Here’s a list of those comparisons:

The speaker loves thee:

  • To the depths of her soul.
  • By sun and candle light—by day and night.
  • As men strive to do the right thing (freely).
  • As men turn from praise (purely).
  • With the passion of both grief and faith.
  • With the breath, smiles, and tears of her entire life.
  • Now in life, and perhaps even more after death.

The speaker’s love seems to have infinite reach, flooding every aspect of her life. It consumes her soul, her everyday activities, her every emotion, her sense of justice and humility, and perhaps her afterlife, too. For the speaker, this love is not just an emotion, an activity, or an ideology: it’s her existence.

Volta: The volta of a sonnet occurs in the poem’s center. In this case, the volta is the lines “I love thee freely, as men strive for right. / I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.”

What surprising, unexpected comparisons! To the speaker, love is freedom and the search for a greater good; it is also as pure as humility. By comparing love to other concepts, the speaker reinforces the fact that love isn’t just an ideology, it’s an ideal that she strives for in every word, thought, and action.

“Theme” is part of a broader hierarchy of ideas. While the theme of a story encompasses its central ideas, the writer also expresses these ideas through different devices.

You may have heard of some of these devices: motif, moral, topic, etc. What is motif vs theme? What is theme vs moral? These ideas interact with each other in different ways, which we’ve mapped out below.

Theme of a story diagram

Theme vs Topic

The “topic” of a piece of literature answers the question: What is this piece about? In other words, “topic” is what actually happens in the story or poem.

You’ll find a lot of overlap between topic and theme examples. Love, for instance, is both the topic and the theme of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem “How Do I Love Thee.”

The difference between theme vs topic is: topic describes the surface level content matter of the piece, whereas theme encompasses the work’s apparent argument about the topic.

Topic describes the surface level content matter of the piece, whereas theme encompasses the work’s apparent argument about the topic.

So, the topic of Browning’s poem is love, while the theme is the speaker’s belief that her love is endless, pure, and all-consuming.

Additionally, the topic of a piece of literature is definitive, whereas the theme of a story or poem is interpretive. Every reader can agree on the topic, but many readers will have different interpretations of the theme. If the theme weren’t open-ended, it would simply be a topic.

Theme vs Motif

A motif is an idea that occurs throughout a literary work. Think of the motif as a facet of the theme: it explains, expands, and contributes to themes in literature. Motif develops a central idea without being the central idea itself .

Motif develops a central idea without being the central idea itself.

In Animal Farm , for example, we encounter motif when Napoleon the pig starts walking like a human. This represents the corrupting force of power, because Napoleon has become as much of a despot as Mr. Jones, the previous owner of the farm. Napoleon’s anthropomorphization is not the only example of power and corruption, but it is a compelling motif about the dangers of unchecked power.

Theme vs Moral

The moral of a story refers to the story’s message or takeaway. What can we learn from thinking about a specific piece of literature?

The moral is interpreted from the theme of a story or poem. Like theme, there is no single correct interpretation of a story’s moral: the reader is left to decide how to interpret the story’s meaning and message.

For example, in Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” the theme is loneliness, but the moral isn’t quite so clear—that’s for the reader to decide. My interpretation is that we should be much more sympathetic towards the lonely, since loneliness is a quiet affliction that many lonely people cannot express.

Great literature does not tell us what to think, it gives us stories to think about.

However, my interpretation could be miles away from yours, and that’s wonderful! Great literature does not tell us what to think, it gives us stories to think about, and the more we discuss our thoughts and interpretations, the more we learn from each other.

The theme of a story affects everything else: the decisions that characters make, the mood that words and images build, the moral that readers interpret, etc. Recognizing how writers utilize various themes in literature will help you craft stronger, more nuanced works of prose and poetry .

“To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.” —Herman Melville

Whether a writer consciously or unconsciously decides the themes of their work, theme in literature acts as an organizing principle for the work as a whole. For writers, theme is especially useful to think about in the process of revision: if some element of your poem or story doesn’t point towards a central idea, it’s a sign that the work is not yet finished. 

Moreover, literary themes give the work  stakes . They make the work stand for something. Remember that our theme definition is an idea plus an opinion. Without that opinion element, a work of literature simply won’t stand for anything, because it is presenting ideas in the abstract without giving you something to react to. The theme of a story or poem is never just “love” or “justice,” it’s the author’s particular spin and insight on those themes. This is what makes a work of literature compelling or evocative. Without theme, literature has no center of gravity, and all the words and characters and plot points are just floating in the ether. 

Should I Decide the Theme of a Story or Poem in Advance?

You can, though of course it depends on the actual story you want to tell. Some writers certainly start with a theme. You might decide you want to write a story about themes like love, family, justice, gender roles, the environment, or the pursuit of revenge.

From there, you can build everything else: plot points, characters, conflicts, etc. Examining themes in literature can help you generate some strong story ideas !

Nonetheless, theme is not the only way to approach a creative writing project. Some writers start with plot, others with character, others with conflicts, and still others with just a vague notion of what the story might be about. You might not even realize the themes in your work until after you finish writing it.

You certainly want your work to have a message, but deciding what that message is in advance might actually hinder your writing process. Many writers use their poems and stories as opportunities to explore tough questions, or to arrive at a deeper insight on a topic. In other words, you can start your work with ideas, and even opinions on those ideas, but don’t try to shoehorn a story or poem into your literary themes. Let the work explore those themes. If you can surprise yourself or learn something new from the writing process, your readers will certainly be moved as well. 

So, experiment with ideas and try different ways of writing. You don’t have think about the theme of a story right away—but definitely give it some thought when you start revising your work!

Develop Great Themes at Writers.com

As writers, it’s hard to know how our work will be viewed and interpreted. Writing in a community can help. Whether you join our Facebook group or enroll in one of our upcoming courses , we have the tools and resources to sharpen your writing.

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Sean Glatch

17 comments.

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Sean Glatch,Thank you very much for your discussion on themes. It was enlightening and brought clarity to an abstract and sometimes difficult concept to explain and illustrate. The sample stories and poem were appreciated too as they are familiar to me. High School Language Arts Teacher

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Hi Stephanie, I’m so glad this was helpful! Happy teaching 🙂

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Wow!!! This is the best resource on the subject of themes that I have ever encountered and read on the internet. I just bookmarked it and plan to use it as a resource for my teaching. Thank you very much for publishing this valuable resource.

Hi Marisol,

Thank you for the kind words! I’m glad to hear this article will be a useful resource. Happy teaching!

Warmest, Sean

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What is Theme? A Look at 20 Common Themes in Literature | writers.com

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Hello! This is a very informative resource. Thank you for sharing.

farrow and ball pigeon

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This presentation is excellent and of great educational value. I will employ it already in my thesis research studies.

John Never before communicated with you!

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Brilliant! Thank you.

[…] THE MOST COMMON THEMES IN LITERATURE […]

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marvellous. thumbs up

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Thank you. Very useful information.

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found everything in themes. thanks. so much

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In college I avoided writing classes and even quit a class that would focus on ‘Huck Finn’ for the entire semester. My idea of hell. However, I’ve been reading and learning from the writers.com articles, and I want to especially thank Sean Glatch who writes in a way that is useful to aspiring writers like myself.

You are very welcome, Anne! I’m glad that these resources have been useful on your writing journey.

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Thank you very much for this clear and very easy to understand teaching resources.

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Hello there. I have a particular question.

Can you describe the exact difference of theme, issue and subject?

I get confused about these.

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Current trends and future directions of global research on wastewater to energy: a bibliometric analysis and review

  • Review Article
  • Open access
  • Published: 24 February 2024

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

  • Zhining Shi 1 ,
  • Ke Xing   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6341-6298 1 ,
  • Rameez Rameezdeen 1 &
  • Christopher W. K. Chow 1  

This paper presents a structured bibliometric analysis and review of the research publications recorded in the Web of Science database from 2000 to 2023 to methodically examine the landscape and development of the ‘wastewater to energy’ research field in relation to global trends, potential hotspots, and future research directions. The study highlights three main research themes in ‘wastewater to energy’, which are biogas production through anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge, methane generation from microbial wastewater treatment, and hydrogen production from biomass. The analysis reveals activated sludge, biochar, biomethane, biogas upgrading, hydrogen, and circular economy as key topics increasingly gaining momentum in recent research publications as well as representing potential future research directions. The findings also signify transformation to SDGs and circular economy practices, through the integration of on-site renewables and biogas upgrading for energy self-sufficiency, optimising energy recovery from wastewater treatment systems, and fostering research and innovation in ‘wastewater to energy’ supported by policy incentives. By shedding light on emerging trends, cross-cutting themes, and potential policy implications, this study contributes to informing both knowledge and practices of the ‘wastewater to energy’ research community.

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

Wastewater management consists of a series of energy-intensity processes, including collection, conveyance, treatment processes, and sludge disposal. Wastewater treatment alone consumes about 25% of the electricity consumption of the water sector globally and contributes to 3% of greenhouse gas emissions (IEA 2018 ). Energy efficiency and energy savings are essential to the wastewater sector to reduce operational costs and environmental impact (Zuo et al. 2023 ). A wide range of studies has focused on techniques to increase energy efficiency and lower the operational costs of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Some water utilities, such as SA Water in South Australia, even set ambitious targets to achieve zero energy costs (AWA 2019 ). Wastewater contains five to ten times the amount of energy required for the treatment process and is a potential source of biohydrogen (WRF 2021 ). In recent years, wastewater has been increasingly studied as a source of clean energy for industrial WWTPs, which contributes to energy optimisation of wastewater treatment and the reduction of carbon emissions.

Wastewater can be used to generate biogas, biomethane and green hydrogen with technologies include biomass gasification (Cao et al. 2020 ), photo-fermentation (Cheng et al. 2011 ), photocatalysis (Rasouli et al. 2023 ), electrolysis (Zeppilli et al. 2019 ), biosolid pyrolysis (Patel et al. 2020 ), and supercritical water gasification (Shan et al. 2021 ). Some water utilities have been recovering energy as biogas through wastewater treatment processes to generate electricity, which covers up to 85% of the energy demand for WWTPs (WSAA 2012 ). Innovative technologies have been developed to turn biogas into hydrogen, such as the use of iron ore (ARENA 2019 ) or biochar (Patel et al. 2020 ) as catalysts. There have been reviews conducted on energy recovery from wastewater, most of which focus on specific topics, including biogas production from anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge for on-demand electricity generation (Lafratta et al. 2020 ), methane production from sewage sludge (Choi et al. 2018 ), aerobic granular sludge (Purba et al. 2022 ), wastewater treatment for sustainable water resources management (Silva 2023 ), and microbial electrochemical technologies (Deng et al. 2023 ). Bio-hydrogen production from wastewater (Islam et al. 2021 ) and resource recovery from municipal WWTPs as water, energy, nitrogen, and phosphorus (Kehrein et al. 2020 ) have also been examined.

While the number of publications on ‘wastewater to energy’ research has been growing significantly in recent years, those studies were predominantly focused on technology development, applications, and evaluation for wastewater treatment and energy conversion. In contrast, there is a lack of methodical analysis on the development of the ‘wastewater to energy’ research field to identify global trends, potential hotspots, and future research directions in this aspect. To address such limitations, bibliometric analysis represents the befitting technique for quantitative and qualitative analysis of patterns and characteristics of scientific publications (Zhang et al. 2017 ). It has been widely used in recent years to visualise qualitative and quantitative information (Goh and See 2021 ) as well as evaluate research trends based on published articles (Saidulu et al. 2021 ). The technique often serves to examine topics, themes, and research methods in a particular field and the trends of the research, including the wastewater area (Mao et al. 2021 ). For example, in the field of wastewater treatment, Mao et al. ( 2021 ) applied bibliometric analysis, combined with other techniques such as social network analysis, to study global trends in industrial wastewater treatment and treatment technologies from 1998 to 2019. Similarly, the bibliometric method was also used to benchmark the scientific research on wastewater-energy nexus for energy and resources recovery prior to 2015 (Zheng et al. 2017 ). In addition, Marcal et al. ( 2021 ) adopted this method to examine European municipal wastewater research in the 2010s and identified a paradigm shift from pollutant removal to resource recovery. Although the aforementioned studies performed bibliometric analysis on ‘wastewater to energy’ research publications over time, there are still limitations and gaps in this area. Despite having the wastewater and energy nexus covered in the analysis, it was only examined as part of the scope of reviewing research on wastewater treatment processes and technologies, rather than a dedicated area of focus. Therefore, the analysis of research patterns and trends in this particular aspect was rather limited and less comprehensive. For those bibliographic analyses centred specifically on ‘wastewater to energy’, the studies reported so far in extant literature were largely based on research work and outcomes up to the first half of the 2010s and mostly limited to technology development for biogas and methane production from wastewater treatment processes. There is still a lack of clear understanding and systematic analysis of the overall research landscape and progression trends in the ‘wastewater to energy’ field including biogas, methane, and hydrogen generation from biomass, biosolids, or sludge of wastewater. Hence, a new study is much needed and especially useful to inform knowledge and practice by comparing with earlier analyses reported to shed light on hot issues, emerging trends, cross-cutting themes, and potential policy implications for the ‘wastewater to energy’ research community. With these in mind, this paper is set out to explore and address the following four questions about the ‘wastewater to energy’ research:

What have been the overall global trends for the past two decades?

How have the research focuses been evolving over time?

What has the recent progress in research been?

What are the likely trends and hotspots for future research?

A bibliometric analysis approach was adopted in this study to provide a methodical investigation of research literature on energy generation, particularly in the forms of biogas and hydrogen, from wastewater over the past two decades. The information used to interrogate publication patterns in the literature included keywords, categories of articles, journals, and countries of publications. Word-cloud analysis, keyword occurrence and co-occurrence analysis, and keyword network analysis were performed to help explore global research trends and identify hotspots of ‘wastewater to energy’ research.

Data collection

Bibliometric analysis is a widely used research method to analyse the state of the art for a particular field in publications. The bibliographic data for this study were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database. The WoS is one of the most comprehensive databases used by past studies of bibliometric analyses on wastewater, which includes a comparative study of low energy–intensive production processes for hydrogen generation from wastewater (Islam et al. 2021 ) and an analysis of industrial wastewater treatment trends (Mao et al. 2021 ). The data utilised in this study was first extracted using search queries on 18 January 2023 and then updated on 18 January 2024. The search queries were performed using the ‘front page’ filter technique which the queries search in titles, abstracts, and author keywords of articles to screen the relevant documents effectively (Ho 2020 ). This technique has been used to analyse emerging interest in water research and research collaborations (Goh and See 2021 ). The search queries are presented in Fig.  1 and limited to English language and Science Citation Index Expanded articles. The ‘wastewater to energy’ in this study was defined as ‘biomass or sludge or biosolids’ of wastewater converted to energy as ‘hydrogen or biogas or methane’. Thus, the keywords for collecting publications were defined as (wastewater or ‘waste water’ or ‘waste-water’) and (biomass or sludge or biosolids) and (H 2 or hydrogen or biogas or methane). The timespan of publications was set from 1st of January 2000 to 31st of December 2023. Data of these publications during this period were extracted and pre-treated to remove the duplicates or irrelevant information before being admitted for further analysis.

figure 1

The search strategy for 'wastewater to energy' research literature

Data analysis and in-depth review

A range of data analysis methods was applied as shown in Fig.  2 to answer the research questions of this study. Both quantitative and qualitative bibliometric analyses were performed to interrogate the collected data. Firstly, the overall publication patterns were analysed based on the year of publication, journals, and the country of the research conducted, to cast light on the distribution and concentrations of the research work. Then, research themes and trends were further analysed by examining a word-cloud of keywords, probing the co-authorship networks, mapping knowledge structure by co-occurrence with author keywords, and inquiring into the most cited publications.

figure 2

Data analysis methods used to address the research questions

The information used for overviews of the publication patterns in the area of ‘wastewater to energy’ was mainly extracted from the collected publication data using the Biblioshiny’ and the Bibliometrix package. The Biblioshiny provides a web interface for the Bibliometrix (Aria and Cuccurullo 2017 ) under R version 3.6.2. The package is an open-source tool for quantitative research that has been used for various studies to extract useful information for research trends analysis since 2017. The overview of the publications includes the total number of publications, annual scientific production, the annual increase of the publications, and the number of articles for the top WoS categories per year in the field of ‘wastewater to energy’.

The information on the top ten core sources of ‘wastewater to energy’ research was identified by using Bradford’s Law. Bradford’s law describes how publications are distributed in journals, which has been widely employed in bibliometric research to identify the most-cited journal in a field (Marcal et al. 2021 ). Publication contributions by countries were analysed based on the countries of corresponding authors to determine the countries with the most journal articles. A map of scientific advances in the ‘wastewater to energy’ field was generated for the visualisation of publication patterns based on the countries’ publications using the Datawrapper, which is an open-source web tool for creating interactive graphs.

A word-cloud is generated using the Biblioshiny to analyse prominent keywords in the field of wastewater to energy. The size of the word in the word-cloud depends on the occurrence frequencies of the keywords shown in the articles. The word-cloud allows quick visualisation by highlighting the most frequently used keywords in all the publications.

The co-authorship network for the top 20 countries was analysed in terms of the number of publications with the full counting method. The full counting method is that a publication that has co-authors from multiple countries is counted as a full publication for each of those countries. A co-occurrence network with author keywords was also generated based on cluster analysis to show the number of publications that appear together using the same keywords. Cluster analysis establishes similarities between keywords and has been widely used to explore the research trends from published articles (Zheng et al. 2015 ). The co-authorship and co-occurrence networks were generated by employing VOSViewer (version 1.6.17), which is a computer-aided tool to construct networks of scientific publications (Tan et al. 2021 ) and has been used in research to visualise bibliometric networks (Marcal et al. 2021 ).

Analysis of publication patterns

By following the process depicted in Fig.  1 , the dataset derived from the literature survey in the field of ‘wastewater to energy’ contains 2539 published journal articles in 303 sources with 7328 authors and 5861 keywords, indicating this is a highly active research field. In terms of authorship, the average number of authors per article is 3. There are 7276 authors of multi-authored articles, with only 60 single-authored articles, showing a strong sign of collaborative work in this research field.

Overview of publications

As depicted by the number of articles published per year during 2000–2023 (Fig.  3 a), the total number of publications related to the wastewater and energy nexus has grown from only 14 in 2000 to more than 260 in 2022 and in 2023, with an average annual growth rate of 17.5%. This demonstrates a clear trend of dramatic progress and increase in publications from 2010 and onward in contrast to the small scale of research in the first 10 years of this millennium. The six main WoS categories of studies on ‘wastewater to energy’ and the number of publications in each of the respective categories between 2010 and 2023 are presented in Fig.  3 b to reveal the trends of research progress in the relevant disciplines over the recent decade. Environmental Sciences appears as the top category for the area of analysis, with the number of published articles in the category significantly escalating since 2013 and a much higher publication rate compared to the other categories. A steady increase was observed in the number of publications in Engineering Environmental and Energy Fuels over the past decade . In contrast, rather fluctuating trends of publications were noticed in the categories of Biotechnology Applied Microbiology , Engineering Chemical , and Water Resources . Such trends suggest that the progress of research developments in ‘wastewater to energy’ shows signs of diversification in interests, from traditional focuses on wastewater treatments to more cross-cutting themes of sustainability and clean energy research.

figure 3

a Annual scientific production per year from 2000 to 2023 and b number of publications for top WoS categories per year in the field of ‘wastewater to energy’ from 2010 to 2023

Noticing that over 70% of the articles published were between 2015 and 2023, this serves as a clear manifestation of growing and strong interest in ‘wastewater to energy’ topics and studies in recent years. The dramatic increase in this field of research can be attributed to countries’ emissions reduction targets, e.g. the European Union’s greenhouse gas emissions target of 20% reduction by 2020 (Scarlat et al. 2015 ) and China’s progressive policies and plans for water pollution control since 2014 (Xu et al. 2020 ). An increasing number of water utilities are now moving towards ‘net zero’ strategies to minimise carbon emissions and tackle climate change by exploiting more clean and renewable energy sources and optimising energy consumption (Ballard et al. 2018 ).

The top ten core sources of ‘wastewater to energy’ research were identified using Bradford’s law and are shown in Table  1 , sorted according to the cumulated number of publications. Overall, these ten sources cover 43.1% of the total number of relevant articles through 2000–2023. Among those journals, Bioresource Technology and Water Science and Technology emerged as the two leading sources for ‘wastewater to energy’ research publications.

Contributions by countries

Based on the nations of the corresponding authors, the top 20 countries with the highest research output during the study period and their geographical distributions are shown in Fig.  4 . It is discerned that China had 602 articles contributing to ‘wastewater to energy’, equivalent to more than 20% of the total publications in this research field globally. This represented the highest concentration of research, followed by Spain (153), India (140), the USA (127), and Japan (119). The highest research output from China could be attributed to intensive development in wastewater treatment due to progressive government policies in water management and pollution control since 2014 (Neighbour 2020 ) and continuously growing financial support (Qu et al. 2019 ). This is consistent with China’s strong innovation for the future revolution of wastewater management and treatment technologies and towards new wastewater treatments focusing on energy recovery from sludge (Xu et al. 2020 ) and carbon reduction since 2014 to meet the target of carbon neutrality by 2030 (CEWP 2021 ).

figure 4

Thematic maps of scientific advances on ‘wastewater to energy’ of the top 20 countries

By further analysing the authorship, publications were further categorised into single country publications (SCP), i.e. collaborations of authors within the same country, and multiple country publications (MCP), i.e. collaborations of authors across two or more countries, as shown in Fig.  5 . China was found to have the highest SCP and MCP among all the countries. The MCP/SCP ratio in Australia and the Netherlands was the highest among the countries studied, reaching 45%, indicating that nearly half of the publications from these countries involved international collaboration. Followed by the UK, Sweden, and Japan, which had MCP and SCP ratios of 43%, 35%, and 34%, respectively. These countries with high ratios of MCP and SCP demonstrated great interest in international collaborations in the ‘wastewater to energy’ area.

figure 5

Single-country publications (SCP), multiple country publications (MCP), and the percentage of MCP over the total number of publications of the corresponding author’s country for the top 20 countries with the highest research outputs for ‘wastewater to energy’

A co-authorship network, as demonstrated in Fig.  6 , was generated to examine the international academic collaborations among the top 20 countries. The full counting method was applied for the co-authorship network analysis with a threshold value of 30 applied as the cutoff for the minimum number of collaborative publications attributed to a country. The size of a node, which corresponds to a country, represents the number of publications produced by the particular country. Signifying the collaboration, the thickness of a link between two nodes denotes the strength of joint research, demonstrated by the number of co-authored publications, between the two countries. For ease of analysis and comparison, the 20 countries (nodes) were categorised into three groups, based on the extent of collaborations. Indicated in different colours, the formation of the network centred on China, Spain, India, and the USA, which demonstrated preeminent roles in contributing to the research collaborations and output within their respective subnetworks. It was also noticed that over the past 20 years, China, as the spotlight of Group 1, had extensive collaborations with the USA, Australia, and Japan. Japan and India were the key nodes of Group 2 and had more collaborations with South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan. The USA had strong research links with China, Canada, and Turkey. As the key contributors of Group 3, Spain worked closely with Brazil, Italy, and the UK. Some European countries, such as Spain, Italy, the UK, Netherlands, France, and Switzerland, preferred cooperation within the European Union, forming a Europeanization of shared co-authorship (Mattsson et al. 2008 ). Consistent with the previous research on municipal wastewater research (Marcal et al. 2021 ), China can also be seen as the most collaborative country in the ‘wastewater to energy’ research field. The broad collaborations among the top 20 countries with the highest publications could be led by the tremendous growth in wastewater treatment research and substantial development of policies and plans in the area of pollution control since 2014 and energy recovery from sludge (Xu et al. 2020 ).

figure 6

Co-authorship network for the top 20 countries in terms of the number of publications. Note: ‘people r china’ refers to ‘People’s Republic of China’, which is the official name of China

Main research focuses

To enable identifying focal areas of research on the wastewater-energy nexus, a word-cloud diagram (Fig.  7 ) of author keywords was created to capture the 50 most frequently used keywords in all relevant publications over the past two decades. For a keyword, the higher the frequency of occurrence in publications, the larger the font size becomes to illustrate in the word-cloud. As shown in the diagram, anaerobic digestion , biogas , wastewater , methane , sludge , sewage sludge , hydrogen , and wastewater treatment represent the top keywords, each of which had the occurrence more than 100 times, among all the publications. Anaerobic digestion and biogas emerged as the top two keywords with the occurrence of 489 and 411 times, respectively, while methane and hydrogen also appeared 255 and 207 times each. The results of word-cloud analysis indicate that research on the ‘wastewater to energy’ had a strong focus on biogas generated from the anaerobic digestion processes and systems. Anaerobic digestion is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly technology for converting the organics of wastewater to biogas (Hanum et al. 2019 ). Anaerobic digestion attracted much focus of intensive innovation before 2017 (Zheng et al. 2017 ). Sludge is a source of green energy and some WWTPs have systems to recycle sludge into biogas for electricity in the European Union countries (Bodík et al. 2011 ), Brazil (Cañote et al. 2021 ), Poland (Masłoń, 2019 ), and Australia. Biogas includes methane (48–65%), and hydrogen can be used to generate energy for powering the WWTPs, which is important for resource recovery, energy savings, and carbon emission reduction.

figure 7

WordCloud of author’s keywords (top 50) based on the frequencies of keyword occurrence (2000–2023)

Analysis of trends and themes

Global research trends.

Analysis of the occurrence frequencies of author keywords in the collected articles can help to further reveal how the ‘wastewater to energy’ research focus has evolved over time and the recent progress. The median year was used to select the keywords for each year. Figure  8 shows the evolution of research trends for the periods of 2000–2023 based on up to three keywords per year, with the condition of minimum frequency of occurrence set as five times.

figure 8

Research focuses on 'wastewater to energy' in the past two decades

The trend of ‘wastewater to energy’ research emerged in 2005, signified by acidogenesis (as one of the stages of anaerobic digestion and produces biogas from wastewater). While the frequencies of research were low (< 10) between 2005 and 2008, the research focus moved to acidification and methanogen of pharmaceutical wastewater in 2006. In 2007, the ‘wastewater to energy’ research appeared concentrating on methanogen , clostridium , and flocculation . The most popular research areas on wastewater to energy were ozone , acidification , and hydraulic in 2008. The trendy research topics in 2009 turned out to be pH , thermophilic , and pyrolysis . There was more research focused on thermophilic (appearance frequency of 26) than the other topics. Thermophilic often refers to a thermophilic wastewater treatment temperature of 50–60 °C and thermophilic bacteria grows at high temperatures. From 2010 to 2015, it occurred that research on wastewater to produce energy largely engaged in anaerobic treatment . Biological hydrogen production became a trendy focus for the first time in 2010, using the wastewater treatment technologies of expanded granular sludge bed with granules . The research in 2011 focused on biodegradability and performance of anaerobic wastewater treatment. Continuing with the trend, the research in 2012 and 2013 strong emphasis on the treatment technology of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB) . Furthermore, biosolids , pre-treatment , and fermentation came to the research focus in 2014. Along with the high frequencies of hydrogen production , granular sludge and daily wastewater appeared in 2015, indicating rising intensive interest in research of hydrogen fuel production from wastewater anaerobic processes and gasification.

Anaerobic digestion and biogas became the most contemporary topics in ‘wastewater to energy’ research over the past decade. Between 2016 and 2019, keywords related to anaerobic , biogas , and methane appeared regularly as the largest number of occurrences in publications. This shows that biogas and methane produced from anaerobic digestion/co-digestion processes were significant research themes, fostered by substantial development of the anaerobic digestion technologies since 2010. The high occurrences of wastewater , methane , and hydrogen were considered to be related to energy recovery (Zhang and Li 2019 ) and bioenergy generation (Zhang and Li 2019 ). The concentrated research of wastewater to energy on biogas production of anaerobic digestion could be attributed to progressive policies and plans for wastewater treatment and renewable energy generation by various national governments.

The keyword activated sludge came on top in 2016. The effect of pre-treatment methods on the microbial populations studied for converting waste-activated sludge to biogas (Xu et al. 2021 ). Methane-rich biogas production could be realised for both energy recovery from waste-activated sludge and pollution control.

Biochar was found to be a popular topic in 2021. Biochar as a cost-effective material has been applied to the improvement of biomethane production in anaerobic digesters for wastewater treatment. Biochar can be converted from biosolids. It is a carbon-rich form of charcoal that contains heavy metals and is an ideal catalyst for generating hydrogen from biogas (Patel et al. 2020 ). Research shows that biochar can significantly enhance the methane production rate (Wang et al. 2020 ). Biochar can also be applied as filters to replace mineral filters for the removal of pharmaceutically active compounds from wastewater (Jakub et al. 2019 ). It is particularly effective for onsite household wastewater treatment to treat wastewater that also contains pharmaceuticals and heavy metals. The use of biochar fits the circular economy and contributes to carbon emission reductions.

Much aligned with a global trend for research and policy in recent years, circular economy has also been gaining great momentum as a hot topic, especially in Europe, for wastewater to energy research (Marcal et al. 2021 ). The wastewater sector is transforming towards energy sustainability (Ghimire et al. 2021 ) and a circular economy (Guerra-Rodríguez et al. 2020 ) Recovery of energy is an important component of the circular economy, such as the biomethane produced from biogas (Bianco 2018 ). There are many WWTPs that have achieved energy self-sufficiency and generated up to 150% of the energy requirements (Guerra-Rodríguez et al. 2020 ).

The keyword analysis reveals how the global research focus of wastewater to energy changed over time and the recent progress of wastewater to energy, from wastewater treatment–centric to energy-centric and from technology-focused to more process/system-oriented. The research on wastewater to energy was extremely low in the early 2000s, indicated by the appearance of relevant keywords in publications less than five times per year until 2005. This research interest started to grow with a gradual expansion since 2009 and led to a significant spike in 2016. It appears that during 2009–2016, the research focus was largely concentrated on anaerobic wastewater treatment for biogas generation from both municipal and industrial (e.g. dairy and food production) wastewater treatment sources, and then the emphasis was shifted more to anaerobic co-digestion for biogas and methane production from 2017 onward. These also correlated with the trend of research on hydrogen production, which has become increasingly pronounced in ‘wastewater to energy’ research. Meanwhile, methane generation from waste-activated sludge and microbial communities appeared to be the popular research topics in 2019. Biogas upgrading for energy recovery was the research focus in 2020. The research focus shifted to target biochar and waste management with circular economy models and impact assessments in wastewater areas over the last 3 years. Biogas generation from wastewater as energy recovery is the key to adopting circular economy principles in the wastewater sector. Machine learning has been a rising research keyword in 2023. Research using machine learning has been focused on prediction and increased biogas production.

Main research themes

In order to further identify and analyse the main research themes, a total of 100 author keywords from 2000 to 2023, selected based on a minimum of ten occurrences, were examined to create a co-occurrence network by using VOSviewer (Fig.  9 ). In this network, each node represents a keyword captured and the size of the node corresponds to the number of occurrences of that keyword. Anaerobic digestion appeared as the most used keyword, followed by biogas . Meanwhile, the arc that connects a pair of nodes denotes their relationship of co-occurrence, i.e. the thicker the arc, the more frequently the two keywords co-occur in the same context and thus the stronger their co-relation. For example, the occurrences of anaerobic digestion exhibited a strong association with waste activated sludge and methane production . Clusters can be defined and formed accordingly, illustrated in different colours, in relation to the strength of co-occurrences of those keywords. Overall, there are seven clusters identified within the co-occurrence network, with some overlapping with each other as shown in Fig.  9 . The themes of research were then further derived for these clusters. Figure  9 presents an overview of the research trends of each cluster based on five main (most popular) keywords and the frequencies of their appearances in the publications from 2000 to 2023.

figure 9

Co-occurrence network of keywords and clusters

Cluster 1 (highlighted in purple) is centred on Anaerobic digestion with the inclusion of sewage sludge and co-digestion as well as some less-frequent keywords such as biodegradability , bioenergy , and thermal hydrolysis . It demonstrates the importance of research on bioenergy production from anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge. Anaerobic digestion as the most popular keyword in the cluster, together with sewage sludge and co-digestion , created the major research hotspot, which has seen a strong surge of interest since 2012. Sludge from municipal wastewater has been increasingly recognised as a renewable and cost-effective energy source for biofuels (Seiple et al. 2020 ). As a result, studies on sewage sludge have also been on an upward trajectory over the past 20 years.

Cluster 2 (in yellow) includes biogas , activated sludge , pretreatment , and keywords with fewer co-occurrences, such as algae and energy recovery . Gravitated towards biogas , it shows that there was intensive research on the pretreatment of activated sludge for biogas production. Pretreatment methods such as thermal pretreatment for anaerobic digestion cause the hydrolysis of sludge and provide substrate for the methanogen’s growth, thus increasing methane production (Ennouri et al. 2016 ). The most prominent topic in this cluster is biogas , which appeared far more frequently than other co-occurring keywords within the same cluster.

Cluster 3 (depicted in green) contains hydrogen , hydrogen production , biomass , gasification , and energy as the main keywords and largely overlaps with Cluster 2 around hydrogen production. Despite displaying no single dominant topic, these still pronounce the featuring research concentration of the cluster as hydrogen production from biomass gasification. Hydrogen production via biomass gasification was intensively studied (Salam et al. 2018 ) and reviewed (Cao et al. 2020 ). Biomass gasification is an indirect combustion technology that converts solid and liquid biomass into syngas including hydrogen.

Marked in light brown, Cluster 4 centres on the keyword methane and encompasses microalgae , wastewater treatment plant , biomethane , and life cycle assessment . The extent of correlations demonstrated by the network of these keywords signifies the emphasis of research on microalgal wastewater treatment for biogas production. Wastewater provides nutrients for microalgae growth, and the generated biomass can be used to produce methane (Caporgno et al. 2015 ).

Cluster 5 (in red) consists of the most frequent keywords of wastewater treatment , biogas production , UASB (upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor), and anaerobic treatment , as well as the less-frequent keyword— energy recovery . It suggests a coherent concentration of research on biogas production from wastewater treatment with the UASB. UASB is a form of an anaerobic digester that is used particularly to treat industrial wastewater and produce biogas with a high concentration of methane (Gür and Demirer 2019 ). The UASB system has a high rate of biogas production, needs low maintenance, and yields a low amount of sludge which can make it energy-self-sufficient (Ahmad and Senaidi 2023 ).

Cluster 6 (in light blue) contains keywords of waste activated sludge , sludge , anaerobic co-digestion , and low frequent keywords of dewaterability , anaerobic fermentation , and food waste . The connections among these keywords in the network indicate that the concentration of research was also on the generation of biogas from anaerobic co-digestion of waste-activated sludge. It is also noticed that a large proportion of Cluster 6 overlaps with Cluster 1, with shared accentuation on anaerobic digestion and sludge . Anaerobic digestion is versatile in treating waste-activated sludge in different conditions for biogas production in the anaerobic co-digestion, and simultaneous digestion processes were reviewed (Yang et al. 2019 ). Recent research shows anaerobic co-digestion of waste-activated sludge with other waste such as food waste at WWTPs is a promising approach for biogas production (Hallaji et al. 2019 ).

Cluster 7 (shaded in blue colour) involves high-occurrence keywords of wastewater , methane production , microbial community , and low-occurrence keywords of granular sludge , methanogenesis , and biodegradation . This indicates the intensive research on methane production from microbial communities in the wastewater. Methanogenesis of microbial communities plays a crucial role in anaerobic wastewater treatment, particularly for industrial wastewater. The relationships between industrial wastewater composition and methanogen microbial communities in anaerobic reactors were summarised by Vítězová et al. ( 2020 ).

The seven clusters were grouped into three themes based on the commonalities shared in the areas of research focus. Centred on ‘biogas generation from anaerobic digestion’ (Theme 1), Clusters 1, 2, and 6 belong to the same theme, with anaerobic digestion and biogas as the most dominant thematic keywords representing the research hotspots. Intensive research has been conducted on this theme, including anaerobic co-digestion of waste-activated sludge, for harvesting bioenergy and improvement of pre-treatment technologies used for activated sludge to produce biogas. Clusters 4, 5, and 7 have a common thematical emphasis on ‘methane production from microbial wastewater treatment’ (Theme 2). This theme encompasses studies on methane production using microalgae from wastewater treatment plants, energy recovery as the form of methane using various techniques such as UASB, and methanogenesis of the microbial community in the methane production of wastewater. The number of research publications in the scope of Theme 2 was relatively low in comparison to those related to Theme 1. However, the trend of research interest in biogas exhibits a very similar pattern to and coincides with that of the research publications on anaerobic digestion, making Theme 1 and Theme 2 the two primary themes of ‘wastewater to energy’ research. Cluster 3 represents a special theme, signifying ‘hydrogen production from biomass’ (Theme 3). Biomass gasification is a key focus of research on this theme. It is a relatively mature technology pathway to convert biomass to hydrogen without direct combustion to produce electricity or heat for wastewater treatment processes.

Research hotspots

The analysis of occurrence patterns and cluster networks of author keywords in publications help to shed light on trends, themes, and hotspots for the wastewater-energy nexus, which help to answer the research questions of this study.

In terms of identifying the overall global trends over the past two decades, both the word-cloud analysis and the co-occurrence network of popular keywords lead to a convergence of findings that underscore the dominant focus in the ‘wastewater to energy’ research on biogas production through anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge. The extant research in this field was categorised into three typical themes based on the clusters of keyword network analysis, as shown in Fig.  9 . The focuses of the three themes are consistent with the overall trend: biogas produced by the anaerobic digestion process of sewage sludge, methane production from microbial wastewater treatment, and hydrogen production from biomass. These research themes state the long-term goals of ‘wastewater to energy’ studies.

The analysis of the keywords revealed how the global research focus has evolved over the years, with the most research work produced since the year 2010. While ‘wastewater to energy’ gained attention in the early 2000s, the number of research publications remained extremely low. The research in this area has grown steadily since 2009 and then expanded rapidly around 2016. The research pre-2010 was limited and largely concentrated on sludge treatment to capture opportunities for energy recovery. Anaerobic digestion for biogas generation became the primary focus from 2010 and onward, which saw the first surge, both in volume and in significance, of “wastewater to energy” research, while methane and hydrogen production were also increasingly studied. There has been growing research interest in methane production from co-digestion since 2017. Pre-treatment and activated sludge have also emerged as hot topics since 2018. Based on the analysis of keyword occurrences and clusters, research hotspots attracting much progress in recent years, especially the last 3 years, were activated sludge , biochar , biomethane , biogas upgrading , and circular economy .

Future directions of ‘wastewater to energy’ research

The analysis of global trends and patterns of research, indicated by the evolution of keywords and the thematic research focuses, helps to provide further insight to reveal and inform potential directions for future research in the following key areas:

Optimisation of anaerobic digesters for biogas generation

Biogas and biochar from anaerobic digestion systems.

Energy recovery for the circular economy of WWTPs

New technologies for biomethane generation

Hydrogen production from biogas, biosolids, and recycled wastewater

Alignments with sustainable development goals, policies, and practices

The analysis of trends and patterns of research, indicated by the evolution of keywords, has optimisation of anaerobic digesters for biogas generation identified as a main area of development for ‘wastewater to energy’ research and applications. With significant advancement since 2010, anaerobic digestion has increasingly become a mature and widely accepted technology and can produce a high amount of electricity from wastewater (about 0.1 kW h/m 3 ) (Stillwell et al. 2010 ). It is now commonly employed in large WWTPs (> 22,000 m 3 /day) because of the amount of available sludge for digestion and can meet on-site energy needs. Many European countries have financial incentives in place for the development and deployment of anaerobic digesters to produce heat and electricity from biogas (Maktabifard et al. 2018 ). Table 2 summarises some most recent and key studies on optimising anaerobic digestion technology and processes for generating biogas and energy products with respect to their research focus, application scale, advantages, and limitations.

Improving biogas recovery from anaerobic digestion systems represents another hotspot for further research. Two main areas attracting increased research in this aspect are process enhancement through optimising key parameters such as digestion time, process stability, biogas yield and rate, and exploring the use of new and improved microbial inoculants (Zagorskis et al. 2023 ). Recent studies have been conducted on the optimisation of the systems for biogas generation from anaerobic digestion by increasing the organic content of feedstock (Freund et al. 2020 ), through modelling the energy generation with machine learning algorithms (Kerem and Yuce 2023 ), biogas steam reforming (Park et al. 2020 ), and combined optimisation with nitrogen removal (Vergara-Araya et al. 2022 ). These studies were mainly proof-of-concept studies of modelling using advanced computing such as machine learning to optimise the technology or predict the performance for effective biogas generation. In addition to biogas, biochar is also considered a product of wastewater treatment with strong commercial value for energy generation. Some studies in Table  2 emphasised converting biochar from biosolids and also having it applied as a catalyst to produce hydrogen from biogas on-site at WWTPs (Patel et al. 2020 ). Another focus for research is to produce biochar from anaerobic digestion and to further use it to couple with or modify the anaerobic digestion process for promoting methane production (Song et al. 2021 ), which signifies the potential of biochar’s functions to enhance the process of converting wastewater to energy. Biochar can be produced from sewage sludge and microalgae mixtures (Bolognesi et al. 2021 ) and biomass (Seow et al. 2021 ) to improve digestion efficiency by operating as a medium, contributing trace elements, and increasing the number of microorganisms (Qambrani et al. 2017 ).

Energy recovery for circular economy practices of WWTPs

Energy recovery from wastewater is an essential part of the circular economy model (EEA 2022 ). Energy recovery can be achieved by anaerobic digestion of algal biomass from integrated microalgae/constructed wetland wastewater treatment (Silveira et al. 2023 ). The concept of circular economy can serve as the main impetus for WWTPs in the development of technologies towards energy and carbon neutrality (Zhang and Liu 2022 ) through resource recovery and carbon reduction (Preisner et al. 2022 ) allowing better management and utilisation of wastewater treatment processes towards energy self-sufficiency and resource efficiency. This not only helps waste reduction, but also turns waste streams into valuable inputs for other processes. Supported by the growing body of research in recent years, biogas produced from wastewater through anaerobic digestion becomes the main contributor to energy self-sufficiency at WWTPs (Llácer-Iglesias et al. 2021 ). While most large WWTPs have an anaerobic process on site, it is difficult for small-scale plants to achieve the same energy self-sufficiency. Technology such as solar-PV can provide an additional renewable energy boost to power the plants and aid the enhancement of cleaner energy production that contributes to the transition of WWTPs in achieving energy neutrality or even energy positive. Only a small number of WWTPs in the world are operating in the vicinity of being energy neutral, with the Sheboygan Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility in Wisconsin (USA) as one of the few small-scale WWTPs able to achieve nearly 100% energy self-sufficiency. Future research to identify the technology barrier to address the large gap between current practices and energy self-sufficiency needs for WWTPs is necessary, especially the generation of biogas with the input of renewable energy via solar (Baş and Köksal 2022 ) or wind (Gu et al. 2017 ) at small-scale WWTPs as well as increasing biogas production by adding other organic material, such as biosolids from other WWTPs or food waste (Kunatsa and Xia 2022 ). It is worth noting that future research on the utilisation of biochar as an aide for increasing anaerobic digestion will have added benefits for the circular economy (WSAA 2023 ), including the use of food-waste-based biochar to increase methane production (Kalengyo et al. 2023 ). This could be further expanded to focus on exploring the use of alternative feedstocks such as food waste (Paranjpe et al. 2023 ) or agriculture waste (Tshemese et al. 2023 ) to improve the efficiency of anaerobic digestion.

Exploring and improving new technologies for biomethane generation from wastewater is trending as another recent key focal research area with substantial progresses in recent years, as epitomised in Table  3 .

Upgrading the lower-valued biogas to a higher-valued biomethane is a critical step of improvement that can result in greater circular economy benefits to support the wastewater treatment sector. Biomethane is converted by removing carbon dioxide through a biogas-upgrading process (Martín-Hernández et al. 2020 ) to produce methane with a purity level of 98% which is a higher-valued product as compared with the normal biogas (60% methane, 40% carbon dioxide, and other contaminants). Many WWTPs have utilised the anaerobic co-digestion process to generate surplus biogas and upgrade biogas to biomethane for the domestic market using various techniques including scrubbing (Martín-Hernández, 2020), adsorption, membrane separation, and cryogenic technology (Assunção et al. 2021 ). Water scrubbing is the most applied approach for biogas upgrading because of low capital and operating costs. Nonetheless, with the rapid market growth and progress of membrane separation technology, it is expected to be the dominant technology in the near future (Nguyen et al. 2021 ). Further research is needed on emerging technology for biogas upgrading, optimising, and exploring the application of the membrane separation technique would be an achievable option without too much further development. It is also essential for future research to focus on process development and optimisation to lower both capital and energy costs. Combining anaerobic digestion and membrane bioreactor appears the most compelling technological option in the near future. Other technologies, such as microbial electrolysis cell technology, are also worth further investments to move from laboratory-scale trails to full-scale applications.

Hydrogen production from biogas, biosolids, and recovered wastewater

The patterns of recent progress in ‘wastewater to energy’ research have also featured a heightening interest in hydrogen and hydrogen production . This signifies one of the most important future research areas from the trends analysis and the critical decarbonising role of hydrogen in the wastewater industry. Growing studies on technologies for hydrogen production using biogas or biosolids as by-products of wastewater treatments have been observed since the 2000s. Much of the research, however, was limited to a lab- or pilot-level. While most of the technologies for hydrogen production from wastewater are yet to be attested as economically viable for large-scale deployments, this is an active area of research with some promising recent progress (Batool and Shahzad 2021 ). There are a series of low-carbon footprint technologies for hydrogen production from wastewater including fermentation (Zhang et al. 2022 ) and photocatalysis. Yet there are significant challenges towards commercial use such as the design and configuration of photoreactor for optimal light absorption (Elgarahy et al. 2022 ), and catalyst fouling is also a difficulty (Islam et al. 2021 ). Future research is needed to close the gap between demonstration as proof of concept and actual industry-based applications. More research is needed to develop production from wastewater (Arun et al. 2024 ). Future research could focus on scaling up these processes and exploring commercialisation opportunities.

Globally, research on the nexus between wastewater and hydrogen production is further supported by strategies and planned investments of governments and industries in many countries for achieving the net zero targets (Meadowcroft and Rosenbloom 2023 ). One approach for hydrogen production from wastewater is through electrolysis of recycled water using renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions. It consumes the treated wastewater as non-potable water to generate hydrogen and a pure oxygen co-product. The co-product can be recycled to enhance aerobic wastewater treatment on site. This is the preferred approach for the wastewater industry as electrolysis is a relatively mature technology and it is well fit in with the circular economy by cutting carbon emissions (Freund et al. 2020 ) and recovery energy through hydrogen production (Simoes et al. 2021 ). However, there are still knowledge gaps on how the impurities in recycled water affect water electrolyser design and process operation. Future research needs to assess the suitability of recycled water for water electrolysis (Woods et al. 2022 ) and evaluate the influence of recycled water on the performance of water electrolysers and guidelines for the design of integrated water electrolysers and existing wastewater treatment plants for hydrogen production. The other favourite method of hydrogen production is steaming biogas reformation to separate pure hydrogen from the syngas generated by the direct conversion of methane in raw biogas from the anaerobic digestion of sludge. This method has significant potential but is in the early development phase and needs intensive research for hydrogen production from biogas. Future studies are needed on the enhancement of hydrogen production from biogas sourced from wastewater treatment plants. Microbial electrolysis cells can efficiently convert organic waste in wastewater into hydrogen with a lower energy input compared to traditional methods, while simultaneously treating the wastewater (Arun et al. 2024 ). Microbial electrolysis cells are currently limited by their catalysts, reactor design, anode and cathode materials, and challenges in scaling up for industrial use (Aber et al. 2023 ).

‘Wastewater to energy’ research initiatives are well aligned with multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations (Kalengyo et al. 2023 ). Key SDGs contributed by ‘wastewater to energy’ include SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) by reducing pollution and increasing water recycling and safe reuse, SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) through the generation of renewable energy from wastewater, contributing to more sustainable and affordable energy sources, and SDG 13 (Climate Action) by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment processes and utilising energy recovery methods. Reduction of energy consumption in WWTPs is of critical importance to sustaining urban wastewater treatment and reuse (Silva 2023 ).

Improving energy efficiency holds immense potential for transformation towards greenhouse gas emissions reduction and climate change mitigation in achieving the SDGs. Decarbonisation of wastewater treatment involves minimising the carbon footprint of treatment processes (Rusmanis et al. 2022 ). This can be achieved through renewable energy integration, optimization of treatment processes, and adoption of low-carbon technologies. Based on the discussion above, we propose three key strategies to achieve net-zero carbon along with energy sufficiency in the water sector and to contribute to SDGs. First, on-site integration of renewables such as solar and wind energy to maximise on-site renewable capacities and biogas upgrading. Biogas can be used for combined heat and power to decrease energy consumption and carbon emissions. It could support operations across the wastewater treatment facility to provide power to the grid. Flexibility in adopting technologies with process automation and integration with existing technologies to increase overall efficiency. Anaerobic digestion equipped with combined heat and power facilities and installation of energy-extracting technologies will contribute to the energy self-sufficiency of WWTPs. The on-site installation of standalone or hybrid renewable energy generators with energy storage could provide a decarbonised power source for wastewater treatment systems. secondly, research and innovation in wastewater-to-energy technologies for energy security and self-sufficiency through closed-loop inputs and outputs should be supported by policies, including pilot projects, demonstration programs, and collaboration with the private sector. Encouraging innovation can lead to more cost-effective and environmentally friendly solutions. One example of research innovation is fuel cells which have gained popularity for generating electricity (Rani et al. 2022 ). The application of modern treatment techniques like microbial fuel cells (Kunwar et al. 2023 ) and microbial electrolysis cells (Deng et al. 2023 ) can enable the conversion of wastewater’s chemical energy into electricity without external energy input, leading to significant energy savings and potential energy recovery. The last one is the modelling of the effects of different scenarios for energy optimisation and generation with data analytics using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Such studies could be using models to calculate and adjust parameters for the biogas production from wastewater such as anaerobic digestion (Chaabna and Semcheddine 2023 ) since it is easier and cheaper to test a control method on simulation than to test it on a real system. Studies could also use a hydroeconomic model to assess the tradeoffs between different wastewater management approaches (Kuwayama and Olmstead 2020 ).

This paper presents a structured bibliometric analysis and review on the research publications recorded in the Web of Science database from 2000 to 2023 to methodically examine the development of the ‘wastewater to energy’ research field and to identify global trends, potential hotspots, and future research directions. The study highlights three main research themes in ‘wastewater to energy’, which are biogas production through anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge, methane generation from microbial wastewater treatment, and hydrogen production from biomass. The findings also indicate that activated sludge, biochar, biomethane, biogas upgrading, and circular economy represent key topics increasingly gaining momentum in recent research publications. These trends align with global research patterns, highlighting the exploration of biochar applications, economic and environmental assessments of biochar production, membrane techniques for biogas upgrading, small-scale biogas generation, and renewable energy integration for both operational performance and energy self-sufficiency of wastewater treatment plants. The analysis also signifies transforming the traditionally energy-consuming and carbon-intensive water treatment process into a significant producer of energy, recycled water, and biosolids, contributing to SDGs and circular economy practices through lowering greenhouse gas emissions and adopting energy recovery methods. The review of recent key research publications further reveals the importance of resource recovery, including biosolids and biochar, for reducing waste and converting it into valuable inputs. In light of policy and practice implications, three strategies are envisaged as critical for achieving the net-zero target in the wastewater sector, i.e. integration of on-site renewables and biogas upgrading for energy self-sufficiency, optimising energy recovery from wastewater treatment systems, and fostering research and innovation in ‘wastewater to energy’ supported by policy incentives. These strategies encompass advanced technologies, such as microbial fuel cells, electrolysis cells, and anaerobic digestion for biogas production, and provide future research thrusts to enhance the uptake of data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning for a holistic approach towards sustainable and efficient wastewater treatment.

Nevertheless, the capacity and the results of the analysis are subjected to limitations in both data sources and techniques applied. As the sampling of data for this study was predominantly from the Web of Science archives, the investigation could have been affected by a potential bias from a single database. Future analysis can incorporate other research databases and data achieves to improve the scope of analysis and the representativeness of findings. Also, interrogating article citation metrics together with the keyword analysis is able to enhance the forecasting of future research trends. Applying machine learning techniques can help further improve the rigour and the quality of such analysis.

Data availability

The data and materials that support the findings of this study are available on request.

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Research design, methodology and data collection, data analysis and interpretation: Z. Shi, K. Xing, and C. Chow; writing—original draft preparation: Z. Shi and K. Xing; writing—review: C. Chow, R. Rameezdeen, and K. Xing; supervision: K. Xing; funding acquisition: K.Xing, C. Chow. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Shi, Z., Xing, K., Rameezdeen, R. et al. Current trends and future directions of global research on wastewater to energy: a bibliometric analysis and review. Environ Sci Pollut Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32560-2

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  • Published: 19 February 2024

‘It depends’: what 86 systematic reviews tell us about what strategies to use to support the use of research in clinical practice

  • Annette Boaz   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0557-1294 1 ,
  • Juan Baeza 2 ,
  • Alec Fraser   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1121-1551 2 &
  • Erik Persson 3  

Implementation Science volume  19 , Article number:  15 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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The gap between research findings and clinical practice is well documented and a range of strategies have been developed to support the implementation of research into clinical practice. The objective of this study was to update and extend two previous reviews of systematic reviews of strategies designed to implement research evidence into clinical practice.

We developed a comprehensive systematic literature search strategy based on the terms used in the previous reviews to identify studies that looked explicitly at interventions designed to turn research evidence into practice. The search was performed in June 2022 in four electronic databases: Medline, Embase, Cochrane and Epistemonikos. We searched from January 2010 up to June 2022 and applied no language restrictions. Two independent reviewers appraised the quality of included studies using a quality assessment checklist. To reduce the risk of bias, papers were excluded following discussion between all members of the team. Data were synthesised using descriptive and narrative techniques to identify themes and patterns linked to intervention strategies, targeted behaviours, study settings and study outcomes.

We identified 32 reviews conducted between 2010 and 2022. The reviews are mainly of multi-faceted interventions ( n  = 20) although there are reviews focusing on single strategies (ICT, educational, reminders, local opinion leaders, audit and feedback, social media and toolkits). The majority of reviews report strategies achieving small impacts (normally on processes of care). There is much less evidence that these strategies have shifted patient outcomes. Furthermore, a lot of nuance lies behind these headline findings, and this is increasingly commented upon in the reviews themselves.

Combined with the two previous reviews, 86 systematic reviews of strategies to increase the implementation of research into clinical practice have been identified. We need to shift the emphasis away from isolating individual and multi-faceted interventions to better understanding and building more situated, relational and organisational capability to support the use of research in clinical practice. This will involve drawing on a wider range of research perspectives (including social science) in primary studies and diversifying the types of synthesis undertaken to include approaches such as realist synthesis which facilitate exploration of the context in which strategies are employed.

Peer Review reports

Contribution to the literature

Considerable time and money is invested in implementing and evaluating strategies to increase the implementation of research into clinical practice.

The growing body of evidence is not providing the anticipated clear lessons to support improved implementation.

Instead what is needed is better understanding and building more situated, relational and organisational capability to support the use of research in clinical practice.

This would involve a more central role in implementation science for a wider range of perspectives, especially from the social, economic, political and behavioural sciences and for greater use of different types of synthesis, such as realist synthesis.

Introduction

The gap between research findings and clinical practice is well documented and a range of interventions has been developed to increase the implementation of research into clinical practice [ 1 , 2 ]. In recent years researchers have worked to improve the consistency in the ways in which these interventions (often called strategies) are described to support their evaluation. One notable development has been the emergence of Implementation Science as a field focusing explicitly on “the scientific study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of research findings and other evidence-based practices into routine practice” ([ 3 ] p. 1). The work of implementation science focuses on closing, or at least narrowing, the gap between research and practice. One contribution has been to map existing interventions, identifying 73 discreet strategies to support research implementation [ 4 ] which have been grouped into 9 clusters [ 5 ]. The authors note that they have not considered the evidence of effectiveness of the individual strategies and that a next step is to understand better which strategies perform best in which combinations and for what purposes [ 4 ]. Other authors have noted that there is also scope to learn more from other related fields of study such as policy implementation [ 6 ] and to draw on methods designed to support the evaluation of complex interventions [ 7 ].

The increase in activity designed to support the implementation of research into practice and improvements in reporting provided the impetus for an update of a review of systematic reviews of the effectiveness of interventions designed to support the use of research in clinical practice [ 8 ] which was itself an update of the review conducted by Grimshaw and colleagues in 2001. The 2001 review [ 9 ] identified 41 reviews considering a range of strategies including educational interventions, audit and feedback, computerised decision support to financial incentives and combined interventions. The authors concluded that all the interventions had the potential to promote the uptake of evidence in practice, although no one intervention seemed to be more effective than the others in all settings. They concluded that combined interventions were more likely to be effective than single interventions. The 2011 review identified a further 13 systematic reviews containing 313 discrete primary studies. Consistent with the previous review, four main strategy types were identified: audit and feedback; computerised decision support; opinion leaders; and multi-faceted interventions (MFIs). Nine of the reviews reported on MFIs. The review highlighted the small effects of single interventions such as audit and feedback, computerised decision support and opinion leaders. MFIs claimed an improvement in effectiveness over single interventions, although effect sizes remained small to moderate and this improvement in effectiveness relating to MFIs has been questioned in a subsequent review [ 10 ]. In updating the review, we anticipated a larger pool of reviews and an opportunity to consolidate learning from more recent systematic reviews of interventions.

This review updates and extends our previous review of systematic reviews of interventions designed to implement research evidence into clinical practice. To identify potentially relevant peer-reviewed research papers, we developed a comprehensive systematic literature search strategy based on the terms used in the Grimshaw et al. [ 9 ] and Boaz, Baeza and Fraser [ 8 ] overview articles. To ensure optimal retrieval, our search strategy was refined with support from an expert university librarian, considering the ongoing improvements in the development of search filters for systematic reviews since our first review [ 11 ]. We also wanted to include technology-related terms (e.g. apps, algorithms, machine learning, artificial intelligence) to find studies that explored interventions based on the use of technological innovations as mechanistic tools for increasing the use of evidence into practice (see Additional file 1 : Appendix A for full search strategy).

The search was performed in June 2022 in the following electronic databases: Medline, Embase, Cochrane and Epistemonikos. We searched for articles published since the 2011 review. We searched from January 2010 up to June 2022 and applied no language restrictions. Reference lists of relevant papers were also examined.

We uploaded the results using EPPI-Reviewer, a web-based tool that facilitated semi-automation of the screening process and removal of duplicate studies. We made particular use of a priority screening function to reduce screening workload and avoid ‘data deluge’ [ 12 ]. Through machine learning, one reviewer screened a smaller number of records ( n  = 1200) to train the software to predict whether a given record was more likely to be relevant or irrelevant, thus pulling the relevant studies towards the beginning of the screening process. This automation did not replace manual work but helped the reviewer to identify eligible studies more quickly. During the selection process, we included studies that looked explicitly at interventions designed to turn research evidence into practice. Studies were included if they met the following pre-determined inclusion criteria:

The study was a systematic review

Search terms were included

Focused on the implementation of research evidence into practice

The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed as part of the review

Study populations included healthcare providers and patients. The EPOC taxonomy [ 13 ] was used to categorise the strategies. The EPOC taxonomy has four domains: delivery arrangements, financial arrangements, governance arrangements and implementation strategies. The implementation strategies domain includes 20 strategies targeted at healthcare workers. Numerous EPOC strategies were assessed in the review including educational strategies, local opinion leaders, reminders, ICT-focused approaches and audit and feedback. Some strategies that did not fit easily within the EPOC categories were also included. These were social media strategies and toolkits, and multi-faceted interventions (MFIs) (see Table  2 ). Some systematic reviews included comparisons of different interventions while other reviews compared one type of intervention against a control group. Outcomes related to improvements in health care processes or patient well-being. Numerous individual study types (RCT, CCT, BA, ITS) were included within the systematic reviews.

We excluded papers that:

Focused on changing patient rather than provider behaviour

Had no demonstrable outcomes

Made unclear or no reference to research evidence

The last of these criteria was sometimes difficult to judge, and there was considerable discussion amongst the research team as to whether the link between research evidence and practice was sufficiently explicit in the interventions analysed. As we discussed in the previous review [ 8 ] in the field of healthcare, the principle of evidence-based practice is widely acknowledged and tools to change behaviour such as guidelines are often seen to be an implicit codification of evidence, despite the fact that this is not always the case.

Reviewers employed a two-stage process to select papers for inclusion. First, all titles and abstracts were screened by one reviewer to determine whether the study met the inclusion criteria. Two papers [ 14 , 15 ] were identified that fell just before the 2010 cut-off. As they were not identified in the searches for the first review [ 8 ] they were included and progressed to assessment. Each paper was rated as include, exclude or maybe. The full texts of 111 relevant papers were assessed independently by at least two authors. To reduce the risk of bias, papers were excluded following discussion between all members of the team. 32 papers met the inclusion criteria and proceeded to data extraction. The study selection procedure is documented in a PRISMA literature flow diagram (see Fig.  1 ). We were able to include French, Spanish and Portuguese papers in the selection reflecting the language skills in the study team, but none of the papers identified met the inclusion criteria. Other non- English language papers were excluded.

figure 1

PRISMA flow diagram. Source: authors

One reviewer extracted data on strategy type, number of included studies, local, target population, effectiveness and scope of impact from the included studies. Two reviewers then independently read each paper and noted key findings and broad themes of interest which were then discussed amongst the wider authorial team. Two independent reviewers appraised the quality of included studies using a Quality Assessment Checklist based on Oxman and Guyatt [ 16 ] and Francke et al. [ 17 ]. Each study was rated a quality score ranging from 1 (extensive flaws) to 7 (minimal flaws) (see Additional file 2 : Appendix B). All disagreements were resolved through discussion. Studies were not excluded in this updated overview based on methodological quality as we aimed to reflect the full extent of current research into this topic.

The extracted data were synthesised using descriptive and narrative techniques to identify themes and patterns in the data linked to intervention strategies, targeted behaviours, study settings and study outcomes.

Thirty-two studies were included in the systematic review. Table 1. provides a detailed overview of the included systematic reviews comprising reference, strategy type, quality score, number of included studies, local, target population, effectiveness and scope of impact (see Table  1. at the end of the manuscript). Overall, the quality of the studies was high. Twenty-three studies scored 7, six studies scored 6, one study scored 5, one study scored 4 and one study scored 3. The primary focus of the review was on reviews of effectiveness studies, but a small number of reviews did include data from a wider range of methods including qualitative studies which added to the analysis in the papers [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. The majority of reviews report strategies achieving small impacts (normally on processes of care). There is much less evidence that these strategies have shifted patient outcomes. In this section, we discuss the different EPOC-defined implementation strategies in turn. Interestingly, we found only two ‘new’ approaches in this review that did not fit into the existing EPOC approaches. These are a review focused on the use of social media and a review considering toolkits. In addition to single interventions, we also discuss multi-faceted interventions. These were the most common intervention approach overall. A summary is provided in Table  2 .

Educational strategies

The overview identified three systematic reviews focusing on educational strategies. Grudniewicz et al. [ 22 ] explored the effectiveness of printed educational materials on primary care physician knowledge, behaviour and patient outcomes and concluded they were not effective in any of these aspects. Koota, Kääriäinen and Melender [ 23 ] focused on educational interventions promoting evidence-based practice among emergency room/accident and emergency nurses and found that interventions involving face-to-face contact led to significant or highly significant effects on patient benefits and emergency nurses’ knowledge, skills and behaviour. Interventions using written self-directed learning materials also led to significant improvements in nurses’ knowledge of evidence-based practice. Although the quality of the studies was high, the review primarily included small studies with low response rates, and many of them relied on self-assessed outcomes; consequently, the strength of the evidence for these outcomes is modest. Wu et al. [ 20 ] questioned if educational interventions aimed at nurses to support the implementation of evidence-based practice improve patient outcomes. Although based on evaluation projects and qualitative data, their results also suggest that positive changes on patient outcomes can be made following the implementation of specific evidence-based approaches (or projects). The differing positive outcomes for educational strategies aimed at nurses might indicate that the target audience is important.

Local opinion leaders

Flodgren et al. [ 24 ] was the only systemic review focusing solely on opinion leaders. The review found that local opinion leaders alone, or in combination with other interventions, can be effective in promoting evidence‐based practice, but this varies both within and between studies and the effect on patient outcomes is uncertain. The review found that, overall, any intervention involving opinion leaders probably improves healthcare professionals’ compliance with evidence-based practice but varies within and across studies. However, how opinion leaders had an impact could not be determined because of insufficient details were provided, illustrating that reporting specific details in published studies is important if diffusion of effective methods of increasing evidence-based practice is to be spread across a system. The usefulness of this review is questionable because it cannot provide evidence of what is an effective opinion leader, whether teams of opinion leaders or a single opinion leader are most effective, or the most effective methods used by opinion leaders.

Pantoja et al. [ 26 ] was the only systemic review focusing solely on manually generated reminders delivered on paper included in the overview. The review explored how these affected professional practice and patient outcomes. The review concluded that manually generated reminders delivered on paper as a single intervention probably led to small to moderate increases in adherence to clinical recommendations, and they could be used as a single quality improvement intervention. However, the authors indicated that this intervention would make little or no difference to patient outcomes. The authors state that such a low-tech intervention may be useful in low- and middle-income countries where paper records are more likely to be the norm.

ICT-focused approaches

The three ICT-focused reviews [ 14 , 27 , 28 ] showed mixed results. Jamal, McKenzie and Clark [ 14 ] explored the impact of health information technology on the quality of medical and health care. They examined the impact of electronic health record, computerised provider order-entry, or decision support system. This showed a positive improvement in adherence to evidence-based guidelines but not to patient outcomes. The number of studies included in the review was low and so a conclusive recommendation could not be reached based on this review. Similarly, Brown et al. [ 28 ] found that technology-enabled knowledge translation interventions may improve knowledge of health professionals, but all eight studies raised concerns of bias. The De Angelis et al. [ 27 ] review was more promising, reporting that ICT can be a good way of disseminating clinical practice guidelines but conclude that it is unclear which type of ICT method is the most effective.

Audit and feedback

Sykes, McAnuff and Kolehmainen [ 29 ] examined whether audit and feedback were effective in dementia care and concluded that it remains unclear which ingredients of audit and feedback are successful as the reviewed papers illustrated large variations in the effectiveness of interventions using audit and feedback.

Non-EPOC listed strategies: social media, toolkits

There were two new (non-EPOC listed) intervention types identified in this review compared to the 2011 review — fewer than anticipated. We categorised a third — ‘care bundles’ [ 36 ] as a multi-faceted intervention due to its description in practice and a fourth — ‘Technology Enhanced Knowledge Transfer’ [ 28 ] was classified as an ICT-focused approach. The first new strategy was identified in Bhatt et al.’s [ 30 ] systematic review of the use of social media for the dissemination of clinical practice guidelines. They reported that the use of social media resulted in a significant improvement in knowledge and compliance with evidence-based guidelines compared with more traditional methods. They noted that a wide selection of different healthcare professionals and patients engaged with this type of social media and its global reach may be significant for low- and middle-income countries. This review was also noteworthy for developing a simple stepwise method for using social media for the dissemination of clinical practice guidelines. However, it is debatable whether social media can be classified as an intervention or just a different way of delivering an intervention. For example, the review discussed involving opinion leaders and patient advocates through social media. However, this was a small review that included only five studies, so further research in this new area is needed. Yamada et al. [ 31 ] draw on 39 studies to explore the application of toolkits, 18 of which had toolkits embedded within larger KT interventions, and 21 of which evaluated toolkits as standalone interventions. The individual component strategies of the toolkits were highly variable though the authors suggest that they align most closely with educational strategies. The authors conclude that toolkits as either standalone strategies or as part of MFIs hold some promise for facilitating evidence use in practice but caution that the quality of many of the primary studies included is considered weak limiting these findings.

Multi-faceted interventions

The majority of the systematic reviews ( n  = 20) reported on more than one intervention type. Some of these systematic reviews focus exclusively on multi-faceted interventions, whilst others compare different single or combined interventions aimed at achieving similar outcomes in particular settings. While these two approaches are often described in a similar way, they are actually quite distinct from each other as the former report how multiple strategies may be strategically combined in pursuance of an agreed goal, whilst the latter report how different strategies may be incidentally used in sometimes contrasting settings in the pursuance of similar goals. Ariyo et al. [ 35 ] helpfully summarise five key elements often found in effective MFI strategies in LMICs — but which may also be transferrable to HICs. First, effective MFIs encourage a multi-disciplinary approach acknowledging the roles played by different professional groups to collectively incorporate evidence-informed practice. Second, they utilise leadership drawing on a wide set of clinical and non-clinical actors including managers and even government officials. Third, multiple types of educational practices are utilised — including input from patients as stakeholders in some cases. Fourth, protocols, checklists and bundles are used — most effectively when local ownership is encouraged. Finally, most MFIs included an emphasis on monitoring and evaluation [ 35 ]. In contrast, other studies offer little information about the nature of the different MFI components of included studies which makes it difficult to extrapolate much learning from them in relation to why or how MFIs might affect practice (e.g. [ 28 , 38 ]). Ultimately, context matters, which some review authors argue makes it difficult to say with real certainty whether single or MFI strategies are superior (e.g. [ 21 , 27 ]). Taking all the systematic reviews together we may conclude that MFIs appear to be more likely to generate positive results than single interventions (e.g. [ 34 , 45 ]) though other reviews should make us cautious (e.g. [ 32 , 43 ]).

While multi-faceted interventions still seem to be more effective than single-strategy interventions, there were important distinctions between how the results of reviews of MFIs are interpreted in this review as compared to the previous reviews [ 8 , 9 ], reflecting greater nuance and debate in the literature. This was particularly noticeable where the effectiveness of MFIs was compared to single strategies, reflecting developments widely discussed in previous studies [ 10 ]. We found that most systematic reviews are bounded by their clinical, professional, spatial, system, or setting criteria and often seek to draw out implications for the implementation of evidence in their areas of specific interest (such as nursing or acute care). Frequently this means combining all relevant studies to explore the respective foci of each systematic review. Therefore, most reviews we categorised as MFIs actually include highly variable numbers and combinations of intervention strategies and highly heterogeneous original study designs. This makes statistical analyses of the type used by Squires et al. [ 10 ] on the three reviews in their paper not possible. Further, it also makes extrapolating findings and commenting on broad themes complex and difficult. This may suggest that future research should shift its focus from merely examining ‘what works’ to ‘what works where and what works for whom’ — perhaps pointing to the value of realist approaches to these complex review topics [ 48 , 49 ] and other more theory-informed approaches [ 50 ].

Some reviews have a relatively small number of studies (i.e. fewer than 10) and the authors are often understandably reluctant to engage with wider debates about the implications of their findings. Other larger studies do engage in deeper discussions about internal comparisons of findings across included studies and also contextualise these in wider debates. Some of the most informative studies (e.g. [ 35 , 40 ]) move beyond EPOC categories and contextualise MFIs within wider systems thinking and implementation theory. This distinction between MFIs and single interventions can actually be very useful as it offers lessons about the contexts in which individual interventions might have bounded effectiveness (i.e. educational interventions for individual change). Taken as a whole, this may also then help in terms of how and when to conjoin single interventions into effective MFIs.

In the two previous reviews, a consistent finding was that MFIs were more effective than single interventions [ 8 , 9 ]. However, like Squires et al. [ 10 ] this overview is more equivocal on this important issue. There are four points which may help account for the differences in findings in this regard. Firstly, the diversity of the systematic reviews in terms of clinical topic or setting is an important factor. Secondly, there is heterogeneity of the studies within the included systematic reviews themselves. Thirdly, there is a lack of consistency with regards to the definition and strategies included within of MFIs. Finally, there are epistemological differences across the papers and the reviews. This means that the results that are presented depend on the methods used to measure, report, and synthesise them. For instance, some reviews highlight that education strategies can be useful to improve provider understanding — but without wider organisational or system-level change, they may struggle to deliver sustained transformation [ 19 , 44 ].

It is also worth highlighting the importance of the theory of change underlying the different interventions. Where authors of the systematic reviews draw on theory, there is space to discuss/explain findings. We note a distinction between theoretical and atheoretical systematic review discussion sections. Atheoretical reviews tend to present acontextual findings (for instance, one study found very positive results for one intervention, and this gets highlighted in the abstract) whilst theoretically informed reviews attempt to contextualise and explain patterns within the included studies. Theory-informed systematic reviews seem more likely to offer more profound and useful insights (see [ 19 , 35 , 40 , 43 , 45 ]). We find that the most insightful systematic reviews of MFIs engage in theoretical generalisation — they attempt to go beyond the data of individual studies and discuss the wider implications of the findings of the studies within their reviews drawing on implementation theory. At the same time, they highlight the active role of context and the wider relational and system-wide issues linked to implementation. It is these types of investigations that can help providers further develop evidence-based practice.

This overview has identified a small, but insightful set of papers that interrogate and help theorise why, how, for whom, and in which circumstances it might be the case that MFIs are superior (see [ 19 , 35 , 40 ] once more). At the level of this overview — and in most of the systematic reviews included — it appears to be the case that MFIs struggle with the question of attribution. In addition, there are other important elements that are often unmeasured, or unreported (e.g. costs of the intervention — see [ 40 ]). Finally, the stronger systematic reviews [ 19 , 35 , 40 , 43 , 45 ] engage with systems issues, human agency and context [ 18 ] in a way that was not evident in the systematic reviews identified in the previous reviews [ 8 , 9 ]. The earlier reviews lacked any theory of change that might explain why MFIs might be more effective than single ones — whereas now some systematic reviews do this, which enables them to conclude that sometimes single interventions can still be more effective.

As Nilsen et al. ([ 6 ] p. 7) note ‘Study findings concerning the effectiveness of various approaches are continuously synthesized and assembled in systematic reviews’. We may have gone as far as we can in understanding the implementation of evidence through systematic reviews of single and multi-faceted interventions and the next step would be to conduct more research exploring the complex and situated nature of evidence used in clinical practice and by particular professional groups. This would further build on the nuanced discussion and conclusion sections in a subset of the papers we reviewed. This might also support the field to move away from isolating individual implementation strategies [ 6 ] to explore the complex processes involving a range of actors with differing capacities [ 51 ] working in diverse organisational cultures. Taxonomies of implementation strategies do not fully account for the complex process of implementation, which involves a range of different actors with different capacities and skills across multiple system levels. There is plenty of work to build on, particularly in the social sciences, which currently sits at the margins of debates about evidence implementation (see for example, Normalisation Process Theory [ 52 ]).

There are several changes that we have identified in this overview of systematic reviews in comparison to the review we published in 2011 [ 8 ]. A consistent and welcome finding is that the overall quality of the systematic reviews themselves appears to have improved between the two reviews, although this is not reflected upon in the papers. This is exhibited through better, clearer reporting mechanisms in relation to the mechanics of the reviews, alongside a greater attention to, and deeper description of, how potential biases in included papers are discussed. Additionally, there is an increased, but still limited, inclusion of original studies conducted in low- and middle-income countries as opposed to just high-income countries. Importantly, we found that many of these systematic reviews are attuned to, and comment upon the contextual distinctions of pursuing evidence-informed interventions in health care settings in different economic settings. Furthermore, systematic reviews included in this updated article cover a wider set of clinical specialities (both within and beyond hospital settings) and have a focus on a wider set of healthcare professions — discussing both similarities, differences and inter-professional challenges faced therein, compared to the earlier reviews. These wider ranges of studies highlight that a particular intervention or group of interventions may work well for one professional group but be ineffective for another. This diversity of study settings allows us to consider the important role context (in its many forms) plays on implementing evidence into practice. Examining the complex and varied context of health care will help us address what Nilsen et al. ([ 6 ] p. 1) described as, ‘society’s health problems [that] require research-based knowledge acted on by healthcare practitioners together with implementation of political measures from governmental agencies’. This will help us shift implementation science to move, ‘beyond a success or failure perspective towards improved analysis of variables that could explain the impact of the implementation process’ ([ 6 ] p. 2).

This review brings together 32 papers considering individual and multi-faceted interventions designed to support the use of evidence in clinical practice. The majority of reviews report strategies achieving small impacts (normally on processes of care). There is much less evidence that these strategies have shifted patient outcomes. Combined with the two previous reviews, 86 systematic reviews of strategies to increase the implementation of research into clinical practice have been conducted. As a whole, this substantial body of knowledge struggles to tell us more about the use of individual and MFIs than: ‘it depends’. To really move forwards in addressing the gap between research evidence and practice, we may need to shift the emphasis away from isolating individual and multi-faceted interventions to better understanding and building more situated, relational and organisational capability to support the use of research in clinical practice. This will involve drawing on a wider range of perspectives, especially from the social, economic, political and behavioural sciences in primary studies and diversifying the types of synthesis undertaken to include approaches such as realist synthesis which facilitate exploration of the context in which strategies are employed. Harvey et al. [ 53 ] suggest that when context is likely to be critical to implementation success there are a range of primary research approaches (participatory research, realist evaluation, developmental evaluation, ethnography, quality/ rapid cycle improvement) that are likely to be appropriate and insightful. While these approaches often form part of implementation studies in the form of process evaluations, they are usually relatively small scale in relation to implementation research as a whole. As a result, the findings often do not make it into the subsequent systematic reviews. This review provides further evidence that we need to bring qualitative approaches in from the periphery to play a central role in many implementation studies and subsequent evidence syntheses. It would be helpful for systematic reviews, at the very least, to include more detail about the interventions and their implementation in terms of how and why they worked.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Before and after study

Controlled clinical trial

Effective Practice and Organisation of Care

High-income countries

Information and Communications Technology

Interrupted time series

Knowledge translation

Low- and middle-income countries

Randomised controlled trial

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Jenkins HJ, Hancock MJ, French SD, Maher CG, et al. Effectiveness of interventions designed to reduce the use of imaging for low-back pain: a systematic review. CMAJ. 2015;187:401–8. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.141183 .

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Professor Kathryn Oliver for her support in the planning the review, Professor Steve Hanney for reading and commenting on the final manuscript and the staff at LSHTM library for their support in planning and conducting the literature search.

This study was supported by LSHTM’s Research England QR strategic priorities funding allocation and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration South London (NIHR ARC South London) at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Grant number NIHR200152. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, the Department of Health and Social Care or Research England.

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Boaz, A., Baeza, J., Fraser, A. et al. ‘It depends’: what 86 systematic reviews tell us about what strategies to use to support the use of research in clinical practice. Implementation Sci 19 , 15 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-024-01337-z

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Critical Writing Program: Decision Making - Spring 2024: Researching the White Paper

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Research the White Paper

Researching the White Paper:

The process of researching and composing a white paper shares some similarities with the kind of research and writing one does for a high school or college research paper. What’s important for writers of white papers to grasp, however, is how much this genre differs from a research paper.  First, the author of a white paper already recognizes that there is a problem to be solved, a decision to be made, and the job of the author is to provide readers with substantive information to help them make some kind of decision--which may include a decision to do more research because major gaps remain. 

Thus, a white paper author would not “brainstorm” a topic. Instead, the white paper author would get busy figuring out how the problem is defined by those who are experiencing it as a problem. Typically that research begins in popular culture--social media, surveys, interviews, newspapers. Once the author has a handle on how the problem is being defined and experienced, its history and its impact, what people in the trenches believe might be the best or worst ways of addressing it, the author then will turn to academic scholarship as well as “grey” literature (more about that later).  Unlike a school research paper, the author does not set out to argue for or against a particular position, and then devote the majority of effort to finding sources to support the selected position.  Instead, the author sets out in good faith to do as much fact-finding as possible, and thus research is likely to present multiple, conflicting, and overlapping perspectives. When people research out of a genuine desire to understand and solve a problem, they listen to every source that may offer helpful information. They will thus have to do much more analysis, synthesis, and sorting of that information, which will often not fall neatly into a “pro” or “con” camp:  Solution A may, for example, solve one part of the problem but exacerbate another part of the problem. Solution C may sound like what everyone wants, but what if it’s built on a set of data that have been criticized by another reliable source?  And so it goes. 

For example, if you are trying to write a white paper on the opioid crisis, you may focus on the value of  providing free, sterilized needles--which do indeed reduce disease, and also provide an opportunity for the health care provider distributing them to offer addiction treatment to the user. However, the free needles are sometimes discarded on the ground, posing a danger to others; or they may be shared; or they may encourage more drug usage. All of those things can be true at once; a reader will want to know about all of these considerations in order to make an informed decision. That is the challenging job of the white paper author.     
 The research you do for your white paper will require that you identify a specific problem, seek popular culture sources to help define the problem, its history, its significance and impact for people affected by it.  You will then delve into academic and grey literature to learn about the way scholars and others with professional expertise answer these same questions. In this way, you will create creating a layered, complex portrait that provides readers with a substantive exploration useful for deliberating and decision-making. You will also likely need to find or create images, including tables, figures, illustrations or photographs, and you will document all of your sources. 

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This paper is in the following e-collection/theme issue:

Published on 23.2.2024 in Vol 26 (2024)

Correction: Exploring the Effect of the Dynamics of Behavioral Phenotypes on Health Outcomes in an mHealth Intervention for Childhood Obesity: Longitudinal Observational Study

Authors of this article:

Author Orcid Image

Corrigenda and Addenda

  • Sarah Woo 1 * , PhD   ; 
  • Sunho Jung 2 * , PhD   ; 
  • Hyunjung Lim 3 , PhD   ; 
  • YoonMyung Kim 4 , PhD   ; 
  • Kyung Hee Park 5 , MPH, MD, PhD  

1 Department of Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chuncheon-si, Republic of Korea

2 School of Management, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

3 Department of Medical Nutrition, Kyung Hee University, Yongin-si, Republic of Korea

4 University College, Yonsei University International Campus, Incheon, Republic of Korea

5 Department of Family Medicine, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University, Anyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea

*these authors contributed equally

Corresponding Author:

Kyung Hee Park, MPH, MD, PhD

Department of Family Medicine

Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital

Hallym University

Gwanpyeong-ro 170beon-gil, Dongan-gu

Anyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 14068

Republic of Korea

Phone: 82 31 380 3805

Fax:82 31 380 1782

Email: [email protected]

Related Article Correction of: https://www.jmir.org/2023/1/e45407 J Med Internet Res 2024;26:e57013 doi:10.2196/57013

In “Exploring the Effect of the Dynamics of Behavioral Phenotypes on Health Outcomes in an mHealth Intervention for Childhood Obesity: Longitudinal Observational Study” (J Med Internet Res 2023;25:e45407) a figure number and some symbols were misnamed. The following corrections have been made:

In the second paragraph of the ‘FPCA Results’ subsection under the Results section, Figure 4 was misnamed as Figure 3 . Changes were made in the following sentences.

The original passage:

In PC1, adherence to missions 1, 4, and 5 decreased at the end of the intervention ( Figure 3 A, 3G, and 3I), but compliance to missions 2 and 3 maintained high scores throughout the intervention ( Figure 3 C and 3E). Participants with –1 SD from the average had a low score at the beginning of the intervention and maintained a low level below average throughout the treatment.

has been changed to:

In PC1, adherence to missions 1, 4, and 5 decreased at the end of the intervention ( Figure 4 A, 4G, and 4I), but compliance to missions 2 and 3 maintained high scores throughout the intervention ( Figure 4 C and 4E). Participants with –1 SD from the average had a low score at the beginning of the intervention and maintained a low level below average throughout the treatment.

The following passage:

Participants with +1 SD from the average on PC 2 of behavioral phenotypes 1, 2, 3, and 5 showed a pattern of a low score at the beginning of the treatment, followed by a rapid increase at 8 to 10 weeks of the intervention ( Figure 3 B, 3D, 3F, and 3J).

was changed to:

Participants with +1 SD from the average on PC 2 of behavioral phenotypes 1, 2, 3, and 5 showed a pattern of a low score at the beginning of the treatment, followed by a rapid increase at 8 to 10 weeks of the intervention ( Figure 4 B, 4D, 4F, and 4J).
PC 2 of the fourth behavioral phenotype exhibited a slightly distinctive pattern, wherein participants with +1 SD showed a gradual increase throughout the intervention. In addition, the crossing point of participants with +1 SD and −1 SD was between 10 and 15 weeks of intervention, which is a later point compared with other phenotypes ( Figure 3 H).
PC 2 of the fourth behavioral phenotype exhibited a slightly distinctive pattern, wherein participants with +1 SD showed a gradual increase throughout the intervention. In addition, the crossing point of participants with +1 SD and −1 SD was between 10 and 15 weeks of intervention, which is a later point compared with other phenotypes ( Figure 4 H).

In Figure 5 , the seventh symbol from the left originally appeared as ‘M3 (PC2)’, and now reads ‘M4 (PC1)’. The eighth symbol originally appeared as ‘M4 (PC1)’ and now reads ‘M4 (PC2).

The correction will appear in the online version of the paper on the JMIR Publications website on February 23, 2024, together with the publication of this correction notice. Because this was made after submission to PubMed, PubMed Central, and other full-text repositories, the corrected article has also been resubmitted to those repositories.

theme of a research paper

This is a non–peer-reviewed article. submitted 01.02.24; accepted 05.02.24; published 23.02.24.

©Sarah Woo, Sunho Jung, Hyunjung Lim, YoonMyung Kim, Kyung Hee Park. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 23.02.2024.

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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  • How to Write a Research Proposal | Examples & Templates

How to Write a Research Proposal | Examples & Templates

Published on October 12, 2022 by Shona McCombes and Tegan George. Revised on November 21, 2023.

Structure of a research proposal

A research proposal describes what you will investigate, why it’s important, and how you will conduct your research.

The format of a research proposal varies between fields, but most proposals will contain at least these elements:

Introduction

Literature review.

  • Research design

Reference list

While the sections may vary, the overall objective is always the same. A research proposal serves as a blueprint and guide for your research plan, helping you get organized and feel confident in the path forward you choose to take.

Table of contents

Research proposal purpose, research proposal examples, research design and methods, contribution to knowledge, research schedule, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about research proposals.

Academics often have to write research proposals to get funding for their projects. As a student, you might have to write a research proposal as part of a grad school application , or prior to starting your thesis or dissertation .

In addition to helping you figure out what your research can look like, a proposal can also serve to demonstrate why your project is worth pursuing to a funder, educational institution, or supervisor.

Research proposal length

The length of a research proposal can vary quite a bit. A bachelor’s or master’s thesis proposal can be just a few pages, while proposals for PhD dissertations or research funding are usually much longer and more detailed. Your supervisor can help you determine the best length for your work.

One trick to get started is to think of your proposal’s structure as a shorter version of your thesis or dissertation , only without the results , conclusion and discussion sections.

Download our research proposal template

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Writing a research proposal can be quite challenging, but a good starting point could be to look at some examples. We’ve included a few for you below.

  • Example research proposal #1: “A Conceptual Framework for Scheduling Constraint Management”
  • Example research proposal #2: “Medical Students as Mediators of Change in Tobacco Use”

Like your dissertation or thesis, the proposal will usually have a title page that includes:

  • The proposed title of your project
  • Your supervisor’s name
  • Your institution and department

The first part of your proposal is the initial pitch for your project. Make sure it succinctly explains what you want to do and why.

Your introduction should:

  • Introduce your topic
  • Give necessary background and context
  • Outline your  problem statement  and research questions

To guide your introduction , include information about:

  • Who could have an interest in the topic (e.g., scientists, policymakers)
  • How much is already known about the topic
  • What is missing from this current knowledge
  • What new insights your research will contribute
  • Why you believe this research is worth doing

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As you get started, it’s important to demonstrate that you’re familiar with the most important research on your topic. A strong literature review  shows your reader that your project has a solid foundation in existing knowledge or theory. It also shows that you’re not simply repeating what other people have already done or said, but rather using existing research as a jumping-off point for your own.

In this section, share exactly how your project will contribute to ongoing conversations in the field by:

  • Comparing and contrasting the main theories, methods, and debates
  • Examining the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches
  • Explaining how will you build on, challenge, or synthesize prior scholarship

Following the literature review, restate your main  objectives . This brings the focus back to your own project. Next, your research design or methodology section will describe your overall approach, and the practical steps you will take to answer your research questions.

To finish your proposal on a strong note, explore the potential implications of your research for your field. Emphasize again what you aim to contribute and why it matters.

For example, your results might have implications for:

  • Improving best practices
  • Informing policymaking decisions
  • Strengthening a theory or model
  • Challenging popular or scientific beliefs
  • Creating a basis for future research

Last but not least, your research proposal must include correct citations for every source you have used, compiled in a reference list . To create citations quickly and easily, you can use our free APA citation generator .

Some institutions or funders require a detailed timeline of the project, asking you to forecast what you will do at each stage and how long it may take. While not always required, be sure to check the requirements of your project.

Here’s an example schedule to help you get started. You can also download a template at the button below.

Download our research schedule template

If you are applying for research funding, chances are you will have to include a detailed budget. This shows your estimates of how much each part of your project will cost.

Make sure to check what type of costs the funding body will agree to cover. For each item, include:

  • Cost : exactly how much money do you need?
  • Justification : why is this cost necessary to complete the research?
  • Source : how did you calculate the amount?

To determine your budget, think about:

  • Travel costs : do you need to go somewhere to collect your data? How will you get there, and how much time will you need? What will you do there (e.g., interviews, archival research)?
  • Materials : do you need access to any tools or technologies?
  • Help : do you need to hire any research assistants for the project? What will they do, and how much will you pay them?

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Methodology

  • Sampling methods
  • Simple random sampling
  • Stratified sampling
  • Cluster sampling
  • Likert scales
  • Reproducibility

 Statistics

  • Null hypothesis
  • Statistical power
  • Probability distribution
  • Effect size
  • Poisson distribution

Research bias

  • Optimism bias
  • Cognitive bias
  • Implicit bias
  • Hawthorne effect
  • Anchoring bias
  • Explicit bias

Once you’ve decided on your research objectives , you need to explain them in your paper, at the end of your problem statement .

Keep your research objectives clear and concise, and use appropriate verbs to accurately convey the work that you will carry out for each one.

I will compare …

A research aim is a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear in your introduction at the end of your problem statement , before your research objectives.

Research objectives are more specific than your research aim. They indicate the specific ways you’ll address the overarching aim.

A PhD, which is short for philosophiae doctor (doctor of philosophy in Latin), is the highest university degree that can be obtained. In a PhD, students spend 3–5 years writing a dissertation , which aims to make a significant, original contribution to current knowledge.

A PhD is intended to prepare students for a career as a researcher, whether that be in academia, the public sector, or the private sector.

A master’s is a 1- or 2-year graduate degree that can prepare you for a variety of careers.

All master’s involve graduate-level coursework. Some are research-intensive and intend to prepare students for further study in a PhD; these usually require their students to write a master’s thesis . Others focus on professional training for a specific career.

Critical thinking refers to the ability to evaluate information and to be aware of biases or assumptions, including your own.

Like information literacy , it involves evaluating arguments, identifying and solving problems in an objective and systematic way, and clearly communicating your ideas.

The best way to remember the difference between a research plan and a research proposal is that they have fundamentally different audiences. A research plan helps you, the researcher, organize your thoughts. On the other hand, a dissertation proposal or research proposal aims to convince others (e.g., a supervisor, a funding body, or a dissertation committee) that your research topic is relevant and worthy of being conducted.

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  1. What Is the Theme of a Research Paper?

    The term "theme" is a small word, but it can intimidate students when they see it on an assignment or test. To overcome the fear and develop confidence, especially with regard to research papers, understand what the word means and see the parallels with any work, including poems, essays, plays, novels and movies.

  2. Understanding and Identifying 'Themes' in Qualitative Case Study Research

    Sifting through multiple qualitative research papers it can be seen that themes can be single terminologies, a combination of two words or even phrases, like the one suggested by Saldana . There is no singular rule as to what a final theme shall look like. They can be static words like nouns or action words (gerunds ending with 'ing') or ...

  3. How to Do Thematic Analysis

    When to use thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is a good approach to research where you're trying to find out something about people's views, opinions, knowledge, experiences or values from a set of qualitative data - for example, interview transcripts, social media profiles, or survey responses. Some types of research questions you might use thematic analysis to answer:

  4. How to Write a Theme Essay: 11 Steps (with Pictures)

    Download Article. 1. Read the essay prompt carefully. A theme essay usually responds to a specific prompt given to you by a teacher or professor. Most essay prompts will ask you to identify the theme, or the overarching message, in a text. Look at the terms used in the prompt and highlight keywords or important terms.

  5. Research Paper

    Definition: Research Paper is a written document that presents the author's original research, analysis, and interpretation of a specific topic or issue. It is typically based on Empirical Evidence, and may involve qualitative or quantitative research methods, or a combination of both. The purpose of a research paper is to contribute new ...

  6. How to Write a Research Paper

    Choose a research paper topic. Conduct preliminary research. Develop a thesis statement. Create a research paper outline. Write a first draft of the research paper. Write the introduction. Write a compelling body of text. Write the conclusion. The second draft.

  7. Writing a Research Paper Introduction

    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.

  8. Writing an Educational Research Paper

    However, for longer, more complex papers abstracts are particularly useful. Often only 100 to 300 words, the abstract generally provides a broad overview and is never more than a page. It describes the essence, the main theme of the paper. It includes the research question posed, its significance, the methodology, and the main results or findings.

  9. How to Write a Thematic Essay: Outline, Tips, Example

    3. Read between the lines: After finding the most suitable subject, decipher what main point the author is trying to make. This will become clearer as you get deeper into the literature since clues and examples will appear frequently. After fully deciphering the central theme, there is one more significant step. 4.

  10. Toolkit: How to write a great paper

    A clear format will ensure that your research paper is understood by your readers. Follow: 1. Context — your introduction. 2. Content — your results. 3. Conclusion — your discussion. Plan ...

  11. Develop a Research Theme

    The research theme helps a Lesson Study team keep in mind its long-term goals. As U.S. educator Cindy Ann Black says, A lot of [U.S.] schools develop mission statements, but we don't do anything with them. The mission statements get put in a drawer and then teachers become cynical…Lesson Study gives guts to a mission statement, makes it ...

  12. (PDF) Techniques to Identify Themes

    They include both observational and manipulative techniques and range from quick word counts to laborious, in-depth, line-by-line scrutiny. Techniques are compared on six dimensions: (1 ...

  13. PDF The Structure of an Academic Paper

    Not all academic papers include a roadmap, but many do. Usually following the thesis, a roadmap is a narrative table of contents that summarizes the flow of the rest of the paper. Below, see an example roadmap in which Cuevas (2019) succinctly outlines her argument. You may also see roadmaps that list

  14. Writing the title and abstract for a research paper: Being concise

    This has the essential elements of the research theme, that is, the patients/subjects, design, interventions, comparisons/control, and outcome, but does not reveal the main result or the conclusion.[3,4,12,16] Such a title allows the reader to interpret the findings of the research paper in an impartial manner and with an open mind.

  15. How to Write a Research Paper: Parts of the Paper

    1. The Title. The title should be specific and indicate the theme of the research and what ideas it addresses. Use keywords that help explain your paper's topic to the reader. Try to avoid abbreviations and jargon. Think about keywords that people would use to search for your paper and include them in your title. 2.

  16. 13.1 Formatting a Research Paper

    Set the top, bottom, and side margins of your paper at 1 inch. Use double-spaced text throughout your paper. Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in a legible size (10- to 12-point). Use continuous pagination throughout the paper, including the title page and the references section.

  17. Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

    The discussion section is often considered the most important part of your research paper because it: Most effectively demonstrates your ability as a researcher to think critically about an issue, to develop creative solutions to problems based upon a logical synthesis of the findings, and to formulate a deeper, more profound understanding of the research problem under investigation;

  18. Research Paper Title

    Research Paper Title. Research Paper Title is the name or heading that summarizes the main theme or topic of a research paper.It serves as the first point of contact between the reader and the paper, providing an initial impression of the content, purpose, and scope of the research.A well-crafted research paper title should be concise, informative, and engaging, accurately reflecting the key ...

  19. How to Write a Literature Review

    It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic. There are five key steps to writing a literature review: Search for relevant literature; Evaluate sources; Identify themes, debates, and gaps

  20. A Step-by-Step Process of Thematic Analysis to Develop a Conceptual

    Thematic analysis is a research method used to identify and interpret patterns or themes in a data set; it often leads to new insights and understanding (Boyatzis, 1998; Elliott, 2018; Thomas, 2006).However, it is critical that researchers avoid letting their own preconceptions interfere with the identification of key themes (Morse & Mitcham, 2002; Patton, 2015).

  21. What is Theme? A Look at 20 Common Themes in Literature

    Power and Corruption. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This theme is often closely related to "Man vs Society.". Additionally, "Power" can refer to a person's political leadership, personal wealth, physical prowess, etc. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.

  22. Current trends and future directions of global research on ...

    This paper presents a structured bibliometric analysis and review of the research publications recorded in the Web of Science database from 2000 to 2023 to methodically examine the landscape and development of the 'wastewater to energy' research field in relation to global trends, potential hotspots, and future research directions. The study highlights three main research themes in ...

  23. Research Paper Format

    Formatting an APA paper. The main guidelines for formatting a paper in APA Style are as follows: Use a standard font like 12 pt Times New Roman or 11 pt Arial. Set 1 inch page margins. Apply double line spacing. If submitting for publication, insert a APA running head on every page. Indent every new paragraph ½ inch.

  24. 'It depends': what 86 systematic reviews tell us about what strategies

    To identify potentially relevant peer-reviewed research papers, we developed a comprehensive systematic literature search strategy based on the terms used in the Grimshaw et al. ... Two reviewers then independently read each paper and noted key findings and broad themes of interest which were then discussed amongst the wider authorial team.

  25. Researching the White Paper

    The research you do for your white paper will require that you identify a specific problem, seek popular culture sources to help define the problem, its history, its significance and impact for people affected by it. You will then delve into academic and grey literature to learn about the way scholars and others with professional expertise ...

  26. Journal of Medical Internet Research

    Journal of Medical Internet Research 8195 articles ... This paper is in the following e-collection/theme issue: Discretionary Corrigenda (78) ... 23.2.2024 in Vol 26. Preprints (earlier versions) of this paper are available at https: ...

  27. How to Write a Research Proposal

    Writing a research proposal can be quite challenging, but a good starting point could be to look at some examples. We've included a few for you below. Example research proposal #1: "A Conceptual Framework for Scheduling Constraint Management" Example research proposal #2: "Medical Students as Mediators of Change in Tobacco Use" Title page