Parts of a Research Paper

This part of a research article should be specific and indicate the problem the research project addresses using keywords that will be helpful in literature reviews in the future.

• Title

• Abstract

• Introduction

This part is used by readers to quickly review the overall content of the paper. It should provide a complete synopsis of the research paper and should introduce the topic and the specific research question, provide a statement regarding methodology and should provide a general statement about the results and the findings.

• Title

• Introduction

• Abstract

This part gives the broad overall topic and providing basic background information. It then narrows down to the specific research question relating to this topic. It provides the purpose and focus for the rest of the paper and sets up the justification for the research.

• Title

• Abstract

• Introduction

The purpose of this section is to describe past important research and it relate it specifically to the research problem. It should be a synthesis of the previous literature and the new idea being researched.

• Literature Review

• Abstract

• Methods

This section will describe the research design and methodology used to complete to the study. The general rule of thumb is that readers should be provided with enough detail to replicate the study.

• Literature Review

• Methods

• Results

This section should focus only on results that are directly related to the research or the problem. Graphs and tables should only be used when there is too much data to efficiently include it within the text.

• Methods

• Literature Review

• Results

This section should also discuss how the results relate to previous research mentioned in the literature review, any cautions about the findings, and potential for future research.

• Results

• Methods

• Discussion/Conclusion

This section should be an alphabetized list of all the academic sources of information utilized in the paper.

• Conclusion

• References/Bibliography

• Methods