Parts of a Research Paper

Following are the main parts of a research

paper;

Title
In fact, this is the most vital part of research
paper. It is to grab the reader’s attention
basically as it determines whether the person is
going to read your entire research or not. While
deciding on the title for your research, you
must keep in mind that it should indicate the main focus of your research. It must also contain
the most important and relevant keywords (the search terms) from your paper. It let the user
find your paper in the search results when searching for the related database.

There are two ways of writing titles for your paper. The first one is the descriptive way, which
basically states the main focus of your research. The second way is the conclusive way, which
portrays the conclusion from paper. The first listed way of writing the title i.e. the descriptive
way is preferred for the reason that it speaks for itself.
1. Descriptive title: ‘GSM-BASED SMART ELECTRIC BILL MONITORING SYSTEM
WITH AUTOMATIC ELECTRICAL ENERGY THEFT DETECTION’

‘DIRECT SOLAR POWER GENERATION AND UTILIZATION SYSTEM WITH AUTOMATIC

MICROCONTROLLER-BASED SOLAR TRACKER’

2. Conclusive title: ‘Social media has badly destroyed our youngsters’

The last but not the least thing to mention here is the length of the title. It shouldn’t be either
too long or too short. Approximately your title must comprise of 5 to 20 words. Don’t go for the
least limit of words as it must contain all the keywords so that the people may find your paper in
the search results when searching for the relevant database, as mentioned previously.

Page 1
 Abstract
This is the section of the research paper that comes after the title. The purpose of this section is
to provide the user with the brief summary of your paper. This section has equal importance as
the title of the research paper. Often, after reading the research paper title, the reader may
switch to its abstract to recognize if this paper is of his interest or not. Basically, abstract
determine the findings of the author and this is the main plot where the reader decides if he
needs to continue reading this paper or not.

Keeping all these things in mind, the best recommendation for you is to write the abstract in such
a way it looks like a mini-research paper. The reason is that it could provide the reader with all
the information about his interest to continue reading.
▪ Basic Introduction – Write a few introductory lines in the abstract to let the reader know a few
background details and the investigated problem as well.
▪ Methods used – Don’t forget to mention the methods used in the abstract.
▪ Major results – Try to mention all the major results of your paper in this section. If possible, try
your level best to proffer reader the results in form of quantitative information.
▪ Discussion – Choose to write a few lines discussing your own (author) interpretation of the
presented results.
▪ Final summary – The last but not the least thing to mention is a brief and a final summary in this
abstract portion. This is considered the most crucial abstract part and researchers are going to
read this portion to realize if it is important enough for them to read it further or not.
One more thing to keep in mind while writing the abstract is that abbreviations aren’t allowed
here to state. The reason is that, at this point, you haven’t yet stated your abbreviations so the
reader may lose interest as he is unable to understand it. The length of the abstract is usually
kept between 150 to 300 words.

Introduction

Page 2
 This introduction portion let the reader know the background of your research first and primarily
consist of the following three sections.
▪ 1st section of the introduction portion must state the background knowledge i.e. why this study
was undertaken.
▪ 2nd portion of the introduction must state the nature of work being performed in your whole
research. It must include the investigated variables as well as the methods utilized.
▪ 3rd portion of introduction, which is usually the last portion, must state the problem’s condition
at the end of the research.
There are a different point of views of the people regarding introduction writing. Lots of people
consider writing first two points in this section and consider the third one unnecessary. But, it is
highly recommended for you to include the third portion as well. It let the reader evaluate your
paper more accurately.
The author’s findings must be stated in the past tense and everything else in the present tense
in this section. When it comes to its length, it is not fixed but is kept around 500 to 700 words

Review of Related Literature

It is the critical as well as the detailed section of the research paper that includes the in-depth
evaluation of previous researches. It allows the reader to understand the reason why you took
this particular research project and a good research paper must entail all the details behind why
you took this question for research.
The literature shall be divided into two categories namely local and foreign existing projects.

Methodology
There are basically two functions this methods section;
1. The first one is that the reader must be able to evaluate your performed work i.e. you must
describe all the aspects of methodology you utilized in your study.
2. The second function is that you must allow the reader to replicate the study if they desire to do
so. In this regard, all of your methodologies must be described clearly so that someone could

Page 3
 replicate your work, if desired, without referring to any other publication. This is the reason
people also refer this section as ‘Method and Materials’.
These are definitely written in past tense. If there are different procedures to describe, you can
make separate heading for each to make it readable.

Results
This is usually the variable section of your research paper and it entirely depends on your results
as well as your goals.
Most of the time, in short research papers, the results and discussion sections are mixed up by
the authors. You must try your level best only to state the observations of your findings. You may
choose to reserve the interpretations for the next section i.e. discussion section.

As you are going to state your own results so it must be written in the past tense, as you are
already done with everything. All other general statements must be in present tense. If more
than one result from different experiments has to be stated here, you can divide this section, as
per your requirements. There is no fixed length for this section too but it is usually the short one.

Discussion
A plausible interpretation of the reported data must be presented here and you have to relate
these findings to the other investigator’s findings.
There are a few things which are considered important to include in this section, which are the
following:
▪ Conclusion summary – The conclusion of data by the author i.e. the trend between variables etc.
▪ The relation of the author’s findings to the previously done work.
▪ Aberrant results – If there is an existence of any abnormality in data, which may impact the result
as well, that anomaly must also be stated here and must be explained to the reader to remove
all kind of ambiguities.
▪ Implications – Practical or theoretical implication of your work.

Page 4
▪ The grand summary must be there at the end i.e. all the conclusions and results of the paper.
If any of your work is listed, it must be in past tense. On the other hand, current knowledge must
be stated in the present tense. The last but not the least thing to mention here is the length of
this section. It can vary depending upon work but is usually kept between 1500 to 1800 words.

References/Bibliography
The purpose of this section is to provide the full citation of the referenced articles in your paper,
in a specific format. A complete reference must state the name of the author, article title, the
name of the journal, volume number, year of publications as well as the page numbers.
A list of the references is written at the end of the paper and its number is limited to the cited
references in the paper. Alphabetical order is followed while writing references. When it comes
to the exact number of references, these can’t be defined but there is a maximum limit for it. For
instance, for a point, there must not be 6 references for it. On the other hand, for a research
paper, 100 is the maximum limit for references.

Page 5