What is a research paper?

Applying to College
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<p>I see so many people here say that they are doing research, and that many of them are writing research papers.</p>

<p>I am confused on what a research paper is. Does a research paper have to have some kind of new information about a topic? Or can a research paper be just a detail of your experiement with data (like data collecting). For the latter one, one probably cannot use that research paper for any purpose aside from just recording data and what you found based on a single experiement, but can you submit a research paper like that for a competition or for publication?</p>

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<p>You haven’t written one in school before?</p>

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<p>I’m talking about a scientific research paper for the Siemens or Intel STS Competitions.</p>

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<p>for samples, i suggest you read some science journal papers on sciencedirect or elsewhere.</p>

<p>research papers for science generally involve a new topic, or exploring something previously studied by another scientist/lab in greater depth, or applying methods designed by others to a new situation.</p>

<p>research papers talk about those things throughout, and they use experiments and data to prove what they’re studying. i see research papers as a formal, thorough analysis and presentation of the scientific process. You have an objective/something to study, you introduce your study and talk about what others have done to lead you to ask this question, you have a hypothesis, you design experiments, you run them and show your data, you show that your data is replicable, and then you analyze it, discuss it, and conclude.</p>

<p>thus, a paper involving just “can a research paper be just a detail of your experiement with data (like data collecting). For the latter one, one probably cannot use that research paper for any purpose aside from just recording data and what you found based on a single experiement” is NOT a research paper. that’s a crapshoot high school lab report that no one will give a s**t about. a research paper would talk about what the purpose of your study is and why you’re doing it. you would need to have more than one experiment, possibly hundreds, to show that your data is valid and replicable. you need to analyze what happened, make inferences, make conclusions, and possibly state what might need further study.</p>

<p>again, though, i really suggest you start reading some science journals and papers. pick what you’re interested in–bio, biochem, chem, physics, enviro science, geo, geochem–and look up some papers. read them, and if you’re confused about certain terms, wikipedia them (yes, i know it’s not a good source, but it does provide quick explanations).</p>

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<p>A paper written in support of * your hypothesis * could qualify
as a research paper for the Siemens/STS as long as it follows
their [guidleines](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools)
and falls within their [broad topic areas](<a href=“http://sciserv.org/sts/students/categories.asp”>http://sciserv.org/sts/students/categories.asp&lt;/a&gt;). (categories vary by contest)</p>

<p>In 18 pages or less you are expected to discuss the purpose of the research,rationale,
pertinent scientific literature, relevant publications, prior work and contributions of others,
methodology, results, and discuss your results followed by a conclusion section and the
formal citation of references.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the response, and yes, I actually have done that. However, those research papers seem so complex, and I thought that maybe for a high schooler, even a research paper to a top competition might be a little less advanced? I might go ask one of my former classmates that wrote a paper for the competition just to see as a sample.</p>

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<p>The kinds of kids who win Siemens and STS competitions are the kind of kids who are not daunted by papers in science journals. Really, the structure of papers in science journals are NOT complex at all; sometimes the subject matter is, but if were doing science research you would already know the content of the paper thoroughly. The structure is very simple:</p>

<p>-Introduction: why are you doing this research? What’s the purpose, what do you aim to find? Who else has done similar things? What have they found? How does their work relate to your work? What do you expect to find in your own research? These are the questions you answer in the introduction. Usually you include a short literature review in a scientific article, longer if it is a formal research paper.</p>

<p>-Methods: Describe what you did – what instruments you used, the participants or specimens you used and how you found/recruited them, exactly how the procedure went. It should be detailed enough that someone could attempt to replicate it from your article.</p>

<p>-Results: Here is where you produce the results of your research.</p>

<p>-Discussion/Conclusions: Interpret the results of your research, talk about the significance and how it relates to other research in the field, discuss strengths and weaknesses, discuss implications/applications for the research, and recommend future directions for the research, and then summarize.</p>

<p>Very simple format, and this format will be expected of you from high school on up. You will be expected to use the appropriate jargon in your field. Yes, it is supposed to be complex, not easy.</p>

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<p>Yea, actually I kind of meant to ask how do most students come up with such innovative findings for their research paper. I don’t think typing it up once the data is collected will be very hard, but I don’t see how many high school students could do research like that (which is ph.D. research for some) in a few months to have it typed up for the paper.</p>

<p>I have no trouble doing the research-but to gather enough data and combine it with such an innovative idea to put it into a research paper seems very hard. Anyways, thanks for the responses.</p>

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<p>^ Erm some of them have worked on the same idea in the same lab for years (e.g. [Philip</a> Vidal Streich - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Streich]Philip”>List of minor planets: 23001–24000 - Wikipedia)) while others probably got some inspiration from their lab mentors.</p>

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<p>OP, you seem to be under the belief that there is a collection of data phase
followed by an ‘innovative thinking’ phase. This is topsy turvy.</p>

<p>A key idea which is simple forms the basis for posing the central question. The
research is done to prove (or disprove) the hypothesis. The paper documents
your thinking formally with a little bit of data etc.</p>

<p>My paper was on research done since my sophomore year through Junior year.
The key idea was simple and the work could have been carried out in a garage if
necessary.</p>

<p>Innovative findings have very little to do with the quality of the paper. The
systematic way the key hypothesis is set up and proved tends to be the
major contribution. </p>

<p>* Doing research for the sake of competing is a very bad idea. * Yes, I know
enough Juniors and Seniors at my public HS who are engaged in exactly
this. It is interesting that the admissions officers at top 5 colleges seem to
know which one of these are not genuinely interested as evidenced by
their admittance outcomes.</p>

<p>It is exhilarating to win at both Siemens and Intel STS but requires significant
effort in terms of the supplementary essays and material that has to be
put together (especially when your college apps are due). This is why those
who start early and have accrued significant momentum in their research are
rewarded. Using the ScienceBuddies site can be a great starting point. </p>

<p>;) Also spending less time talking about doing something (like on CC) and doing
it might be helpful…?</p>

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<p>“The kinds of kids who win Siemens and STS competitions are the kind of kids who are not daunted by papers in science journals.”</p>

<p>The majority of these kids also have connections.</p>

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<p>^Yea I know…My parents are not Ph.D.'s and I had to contact like 20 professors before one accepted me. Not a single person in the math department was willing to accept me, even though some of them accepted others just because they knew their parents. I’m doing something that’s related to math, but not pure math, which is what I wanted to do because I am interested in doing that in college.</p>

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<p>And thanks for this information. Also, I know that doing it for just competition/presitige is a bad idea. I am doing research because I’ve done so many math competitions but I haven’t done anything practical that would actually be used in a real life situation. I’ve made the USAMO and those are neat problems, but I don’t think proving how a checkerboard can be colored has any practical application, but the project that I am doing can affect businesses and save money and energy. Besides, I think it’s actually worse if you do research just to win an award and end up going to a top 5 college because I think then you will do miserable at that college when it comes down to it, and it will be a waste of time and money (I actually know someone like this-he had two amazing partners that carried him). I am just a total novice at this so I was hoping people here could give me a general idea on how to write these papers.</p>

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<p>well unfortunately for most, that is what the real world is like, so get used to it and work hard.</p>

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<p><em>cough</em> because of their PhD parents and/or mentors/experts in field of choice <em>cough</em></p>

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<p>Don’t be so jaded/jealous KillinEm. I know plenty who did it all on their own and gained valuable experience that goes way past any silly high school competition. You’ll never know the truth but I think you’d be surprised.</p>