the importance of a research paper

• Privacy Policy

Home » Significance of the Study – Examples and Writing Guide

Significance of the Study – Examples and Writing Guide

Table of Contents

Significance of the Study

Definition:

Significance of the study in research refers to the potential importance, relevance, or impact of the research findings. It outlines how the research contributes to the existing body of knowledge, what gaps it fills, or what new understanding it brings to a particular field of study.

In general, the significance of a study can be assessed based on several factors, including:

• Originality : The extent to which the study advances existing knowledge or introduces new ideas and perspectives.
• Practical relevance: The potential implications of the study for real-world situations, such as improving policy or practice.
• Theoretical contribution: The extent to which the study provides new insights or perspectives on theoretical concepts or frameworks.
• Methodological rigor : The extent to which the study employs appropriate and robust methods and techniques to generate reliable and valid data.
• Social or cultural impact : The potential impact of the study on society, culture, or public perception of a particular issue.

Types of Significance of the Study

The significance of the Study can be divided into the following types:

Theoretical Significance

Theoretical significance refers to the contribution that a study makes to the existing body of theories in a specific field. This could be by confirming, refuting, or adding nuance to a currently accepted theory, or by proposing an entirely new theory.

Practical Significance

Practical significance refers to the direct applicability and usefulness of the research findings in real-world contexts. Studies with practical significance often address real-life problems and offer potential solutions or strategies. For example, a study in the field of public health might identify a new intervention that significantly reduces the spread of a certain disease.

Significance for Future Research

This pertains to the potential of a study to inspire further research. A study might open up new areas of investigation, provide new research methodologies, or propose new hypotheses that need to be tested.

How to Write Significance of the Study

Here’s a guide to writing an effective “Significance of the Study” section in research paper, thesis, or dissertation:

• Background : Begin by giving some context about your study. This could include a brief introduction to your subject area, the current state of research in the field, and the specific problem or question your study addresses.
• Identify the Gap : Demonstrate that there’s a gap in the existing literature or knowledge that needs to be filled, which is where your study comes in. The gap could be a lack of research on a particular topic, differing results in existing studies, or a new problem that has arisen and hasn’t yet been studied.
• State the Purpose of Your Study : Clearly state the main objective of your research. You may want to state the purpose as a solution to the problem or gap you’ve previously identified.
• Contributes to the existing body of knowledge.
• Addresses a significant research gap.
• Offers a new or better solution to a problem.
• Impacts policy or practice.
• Leads to improvements in a particular field or sector.
• Identify Beneficiaries : Identify who will benefit from your study. This could include other researchers, practitioners in your field, policy-makers, communities, businesses, or others. Explain how your findings could be used and by whom.
• Future Implications : Discuss the implications of your study for future research. This could involve questions that are left open, new questions that have been raised, or potential future methodologies suggested by your study.

Significance of the Study in Research Paper

The Significance of the Study in a research paper refers to the importance or relevance of the research topic being investigated. It answers the question “Why is this research important?” and highlights the potential contributions and impacts of the study.

The significance of the study can be presented in the introduction or background section of a research paper. It typically includes the following components:

• Importance of the research problem: This describes why the research problem is worth investigating and how it relates to existing knowledge and theories.
• Potential benefits and implications: This explains the potential contributions and impacts of the research on theory, practice, policy, or society.
• Originality and novelty: This highlights how the research adds new insights, approaches, or methods to the existing body of knowledge.
• Scope and limitations: This outlines the boundaries and constraints of the research and clarifies what the study will and will not address.

Suppose a researcher is conducting a study on the “Effects of social media use on the mental health of adolescents”.

The significance of the study may be:

“The present study is significant because it addresses a pressing public health issue of the negative impact of social media use on adolescent mental health. Given the widespread use of social media among this age group, understanding the effects of social media on mental health is critical for developing effective prevention and intervention strategies. This study will contribute to the existing literature by examining the moderating factors that may affect the relationship between social media use and mental health outcomes. It will also shed light on the potential benefits and risks of social media use for adolescents and inform the development of evidence-based guidelines for promoting healthy social media use among this population. The limitations of this study include the use of self-reported measures and the cross-sectional design, which precludes causal inference.”

Significance of the Study In Thesis

The significance of the study in a thesis refers to the importance or relevance of the research topic and the potential impact of the study on the field of study or society as a whole. It explains why the research is worth doing and what contribution it will make to existing knowledge.

For example, the significance of a thesis on “Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare” could be:

• With the increasing availability of healthcare data and the development of advanced machine learning algorithms, AI has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry by improving diagnosis, treatment, and patient outcomes. Therefore, this thesis can contribute to the understanding of how AI can be applied in healthcare and how it can benefit patients and healthcare providers.
• AI in healthcare also raises ethical and social issues, such as privacy concerns, bias in algorithms, and the impact on healthcare jobs. By exploring these issues in the thesis, it can provide insights into the potential risks and benefits of AI in healthcare and inform policy decisions.
• Finally, the thesis can also advance the field of computer science by developing new AI algorithms or techniques that can be applied to healthcare data, which can have broader applications in other industries or fields of research.

Significance of the Study in Research Proposal

The significance of a study in a research proposal refers to the importance or relevance of the research question, problem, or objective that the study aims to address. It explains why the research is valuable, relevant, and important to the academic or scientific community, policymakers, or society at large. A strong statement of significance can help to persuade the reviewers or funders of the research proposal that the study is worth funding and conducting.

Here is an example of a significance statement in a research proposal:

Title : The Effects of Gamification on Learning Programming: A Comparative Study

Significance Statement:

This proposed study aims to investigate the effects of gamification on learning programming. With the increasing demand for computer science professionals, programming has become a fundamental skill in the computer field. However, learning programming can be challenging, and students may struggle with motivation and engagement. Gamification has emerged as a promising approach to improve students’ engagement and motivation in learning, but its effects on programming education are not yet fully understood. This study is significant because it can provide valuable insights into the potential benefits of gamification in programming education and inform the development of effective teaching strategies to enhance students’ learning outcomes and interest in programming.

Examples of Significance of the Study

Here are some examples of the significance of a study that indicates how you can write this into your research paper according to your research topic:

Research on an Improved Water Filtration System : This study has the potential to impact millions of people living in water-scarce regions or those with limited access to clean water. A more efficient and affordable water filtration system can reduce water-borne diseases and improve the overall health of communities, enabling them to lead healthier, more productive lives.

Study on the Impact of Remote Work on Employee Productivity : Given the shift towards remote work due to recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, this study is of considerable significance. Findings could help organizations better structure their remote work policies and offer insights on how to maximize employee productivity, wellbeing, and job satisfaction.

Investigation into the Use of Solar Power in Developing Countries : With the world increasingly moving towards renewable energy, this study could provide important data on the feasibility and benefits of implementing solar power solutions in developing countries. This could potentially stimulate economic growth, reduce reliance on non-renewable resources, and contribute to global efforts to combat climate change.

Research on New Learning Strategies in Special Education : This study has the potential to greatly impact the field of special education. By understanding the effectiveness of new learning strategies, educators can improve their curriculum to provide better support for students with learning disabilities, fostering their academic growth and social development.

Examination of Mental Health Support in the Workplace : This study could highlight the impact of mental health initiatives on employee wellbeing and productivity. It could influence organizational policies across industries, promoting the implementation of mental health programs in the workplace, ultimately leading to healthier work environments.

Evaluation of a New Cancer Treatment Method : The significance of this study could be lifesaving. The research could lead to the development of more effective cancer treatments, increasing the survival rate and quality of life for patients worldwide.

When to Write Significance of the Study

The Significance of the Study section is an integral part of a research proposal or a thesis. This section is typically written after the introduction and the literature review. In the research process, the structure typically follows this order:

• Title – The name of your research.
• Abstract – A brief summary of the entire research.
• Introduction – A presentation of the problem your research aims to solve.
• Literature Review – A review of existing research on the topic to establish what is already known and where gaps exist.
• Significance of the Study – An explanation of why the research matters and its potential impact.

In the Significance of the Study section, you will discuss why your study is important, who it benefits, and how it adds to existing knowledge or practice in your field. This section is your opportunity to convince readers, and potentially funders or supervisors, that your research is valuable and worth undertaking.

Advantages of Significance of the Study

The Significance of the Study section in a research paper has multiple advantages:

• Establishes Relevance: This section helps to articulate the importance of your research to your field of study, as well as the wider society, by explicitly stating its relevance. This makes it easier for other researchers, funders, and policymakers to understand why your work is necessary and worth supporting.
• Guides the Research: Writing the significance can help you refine your research questions and objectives. This happens as you critically think about why your research is important and how it contributes to your field.
• Attracts Funding: If you are seeking funding or support for your research, having a well-written significance of the study section can be key. It helps to convince potential funders of the value of your work.
• Opens up Further Research: By stating the significance of the study, you’re also indicating what further research could be carried out in the future, based on your work. This helps to pave the way for future studies and demonstrates that your research is a valuable addition to the field.
• Provides Practical Applications: The significance of the study section often outlines how the research can be applied in real-world situations. This can be particularly important in applied sciences, where the practical implications of research are crucial.
• Enhances Understanding: This section can help readers understand how your study fits into the broader context of your field, adding value to the existing literature and contributing new knowledge or insights.

Limitations of Significance of the Study

The Significance of the Study section plays an essential role in any research. However, it is not without potential limitations. Here are some that you should be aware of:

• Subjectivity: The importance and implications of a study can be subjective and may vary from person to person. What one researcher considers significant might be seen as less critical by others. The assessment of significance often depends on personal judgement, biases, and perspectives.
• Predictability of Impact: While you can outline the potential implications of your research in the Significance of the Study section, the actual impact can be unpredictable. Research doesn’t always yield the expected results or have the predicted impact on the field or society.
• Difficulty in Measuring: The significance of a study is often qualitative and can be challenging to measure or quantify. You can explain how you think your research will contribute to your field or society, but measuring these outcomes can be complex.
• Possibility of Overstatement: Researchers may feel pressured to amplify the potential significance of their study to attract funding or interest. This can lead to overstating the potential benefits or implications, which can harm the credibility of the study if these results are not achieved.
• Overshadowing of Limitations: Sometimes, the significance of the study may overshadow the limitations of the research. It is important to balance the potential significance with a thorough discussion of the study’s limitations.
• Dependence on Successful Implementation: The significance of the study relies on the successful implementation of the research. If the research process has flaws or unexpected issues arise, the anticipated significance might not be realized.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

You may also like

Survey Instruments – List and Their Uses

Future Research – Thesis Guide

Chapter Summary & Overview – Writing Guide...

Data Collection – Methods Types and Examples

Research Gap – Types, Examples and How to...

Research Problem – Examples, Types and Guide

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Research paper

Writing a Research Paper Introduction | Step-by-Step Guide

Published on September 24, 2022 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on March 27, 2023.

The introduction to a research paper is where you set up your topic and approach for the reader. It has several key goals:

• Present your topic and get the reader interested
• Provide background or summarize existing research
• Position your own approach
• Detail your specific research problem and problem statement
• Give an overview of the paper’s structure

The introduction looks slightly different depending on whether your paper presents the results of original empirical research or constructs an argument by engaging with a variety of sources.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

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.

The first job of the introduction is to tell the reader what your topic is and why it’s interesting or important. This is generally accomplished with a strong opening hook.

The hook is a striking opening sentence that clearly conveys the relevance of your topic. Think of an interesting fact or statistic, a strong statement, a question, or a brief anecdote that will get the reader wondering about your topic.

For example, the following could be an effective hook for an argumentative paper about the environmental impact of cattle farming:

A more empirical paper investigating the relationship of Instagram use with body image issues in adolescent girls might use the following hook:

Don’t feel that your hook necessarily has to be deeply impressive or creative. Clarity and relevance are still more important than catchiness. The key thing is to guide the reader into your topic and situate your ideas.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

This part of the introduction differs depending on what approach your paper is taking.

In a more argumentative paper, you’ll explore some general background here. In a more empirical paper, this is the place to review previous research and establish how yours fits in.

Argumentative paper: Background information

After you’ve caught your reader’s attention, specify a bit more, providing context and narrowing down your topic.

Provide only the most relevant background information. The introduction isn’t the place to get too in-depth; if more background is essential to your paper, it can appear in the body .

Empirical paper: Describing previous research

For a paper describing original research, you’ll instead provide an overview of the most relevant research that has already been conducted. This is a sort of miniature literature review —a sketch of the current state of research into your topic, boiled down to a few sentences.

This should be informed by genuine engagement with the literature. Your search can be less extensive than in a full literature review, but a clear sense of the relevant research is crucial to inform your own work.

Begin by establishing the kinds of research that have been done, and end with limitations or gaps in the research that you intend to respond to.

The next step is to clarify how your own research fits in and what problem it addresses.

Argumentative paper: Emphasize importance

In an argumentative research paper, you can simply state the problem you intend to discuss, and what is original or important about your argument.

Empirical paper: Relate to the literature

In an empirical research paper, try to lead into the problem on the basis of your discussion of the literature. Think in terms of these questions:

• What research gap is your work intended to fill?
• What limitations in previous work does it address?
• What contribution to knowledge does it make?

You can make the connection between your problem and the existing research using phrases like the following.

Now you’ll get into the specifics of what you intend to find out or express in your research paper.

The way you frame your research objectives varies. An argumentative paper presents a thesis statement, while an empirical paper generally poses a research question (sometimes with a hypothesis as to the answer).

Argumentative paper: Thesis statement

The thesis statement expresses the position that the rest of the paper will present evidence and arguments for. It can be presented in one or two sentences, and should state your position clearly and directly, without providing specific arguments for it at this point.

Empirical paper: Research question and hypothesis

The research question is the question you want to answer in an empirical research paper.

Present your research question clearly and directly, with a minimum of discussion at this point. The rest of the paper will be taken up with discussing and investigating this question; here you just need to express it.

A research question can be framed either directly or indirectly.

• This study set out to answer the following question: What effects does daily use of Instagram have on the prevalence of body image issues among adolescent girls?
• We investigated the effects of daily Instagram use on the prevalence of body image issues among adolescent girls.

If your research involved testing hypotheses , these should be stated along with your research question. They are usually presented in the past tense, since the hypothesis will already have been tested by the time you are writing up your paper.

For example, the following hypothesis might respond to the research question above:

The final part of the introduction is often dedicated to a brief overview of the rest of the paper.

In a paper structured using the standard scientific “introduction, methods, results, discussion” format, this isn’t always necessary. But if your paper is structured in a less predictable way, it’s important to describe the shape of it for the reader.

If included, the overview should be concise, direct, and written in the present tense.

• This paper will first discuss several examples of survey-based research into adolescent social media use, then will go on to …
• This paper first discusses several examples of survey-based research into adolescent social media use, then goes on to …

Full examples of research paper introductions are shown in the tabs below: one for an argumentative paper, the other for an empirical paper.

• Argumentative paper
• Empirical paper

Are cows responsible for climate change? A recent study (RIVM, 2019) shows that cattle farmers account for two thirds of agricultural nitrogen emissions in the Netherlands. These emissions result from nitrogen in manure, which can degrade into ammonia and enter the atmosphere. The study’s calculations show that agriculture is the main source of nitrogen pollution, accounting for 46% of the country’s total emissions. By comparison, road traffic and households are responsible for 6.1% each, the industrial sector for 1%. While efforts are being made to mitigate these emissions, policymakers are reluctant to reckon with the scale of the problem. The approach presented here is a radical one, but commensurate with the issue. This paper argues that the Dutch government must stimulate and subsidize livestock farmers, especially cattle farmers, to transition to sustainable vegetable farming. It first establishes the inadequacy of current mitigation measures, then discusses the various advantages of the results proposed, and finally addresses potential objections to the plan on economic grounds.

The rise of social media has been accompanied by a sharp increase in the prevalence of body image issues among women and girls. This correlation has received significant academic attention: Various empirical studies have been conducted into Facebook usage among adolescent girls (Tiggermann & Slater, 2013; Meier & Gray, 2014). These studies have consistently found that the visual and interactive aspects of the platform have the greatest influence on body image issues. Despite this, highly visual social media (HVSM) such as Instagram have yet to be robustly researched. This paper sets out to address this research gap. We investigated the effects of daily Instagram use on the prevalence of body image issues among adolescent girls. It was hypothesized that daily Instagram use would be associated with an increase in body image concerns and a decrease in self-esteem ratings.

The introduction of a research paper includes several key elements:

• A hook to catch the reader’s interest
• Relevant background on the topic
• Details of your research problem

and your problem statement

• A thesis statement or research question
• Sometimes an overview of the paper

Don’t feel that you have to write the introduction first. The introduction is often one of the last parts of the research paper you’ll write, along with the conclusion.

This is because it can be easier to introduce your paper once you’ve already written the body ; you may not have the clearest idea of your arguments until you’ve written them, and things can change during the writing process .

The way you present your research problem in your introduction varies depending on the nature of your research paper . A research paper that presents a sustained argument will usually encapsulate this argument in a thesis statement .

A research paper designed to present the results of empirical research tends to present a research question that it seeks to answer. It may also include a hypothesis —a prediction that will be confirmed or disproved by your research.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2023, March 27). Writing a Research Paper Introduction | Step-by-Step Guide. Scribbr. Retrieved July 23, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/research-paper/research-paper-introduction/

Is this article helpful?

Jack Caulfield

Other students also liked, writing strong research questions | criteria & examples, writing a research paper conclusion | step-by-step guide, research paper format | apa, mla, & chicago templates, what is your plagiarism score.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

• USC Libraries
• Research Guides

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

• 8. The Discussion
• Purpose of Guide
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Glossary of Research Terms
• Reading Research Effectively
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
• Academic Writing Style
• Applying Critical Thinking
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• Research Process Video Series
• Executive Summary
• The C.A.R.S. Model
• Background Information
• The Research Problem/Question
• Theoretical Framework
• Citation Tracking
• Content Alert Services
• Evaluating Sources
• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tiertiary Sources
• Scholarly vs. Popular Publications
• Qualitative Methods
• Quantitative Methods
• Insiderness
• Using Non-Textual Elements
• Limitations of the Study
• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Writing Concisely
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Footnotes or Endnotes?
• Further Readings
• Generative AI and Writing
• USC Libraries Tutorials and Other Guides
• Bibliography

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; Peacock, Matthew. “Communicative Moves in the Discussion Section of Research Articles.” System 30 (December 2002): 479-497.

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; Ward, Paulet al, editors. The Oxford Handbook of Expertise . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2018.

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.

• << Previous: Using Non-Textual Elements
• Next: Limitations of the Study >>
• Last Updated: Jul 3, 2024 10:07 AM
• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide

• Board Members
• Management Team
• Become a Contributor
• Volunteer Opportunities
• Code of Ethical Practices

KNOWLEDGE NETWORK

• Search Engines List
• Suggested Reading Library
• Web Directories
• Research Papers
• Industry News

• Become a Member
• Associate Membership
• Certified Membership
• Membership Application
• Corporate Application

• CIRS Certification Program
• CIRS Certification Objectives
• CIRS Certification Benefits
• CIRS Certification Exam
• Maintain Your Certification

• Upcoming Events
• Live Classes
• Classes Schedule
• Webinars Schedules

• Latest Articles
• Internet Research
• Search Techniques
• Research Methods
• Business Research
• Search Engines
• Research & Tools
• Investigative Research
• Internet Search
• Work from Home
• Internet Ethics
• Internet Privacy

Six Reasons Why Research is Important

Everyone conducts research in some form or another from a young age, whether news, books, or browsing the Internet. Internet users come across thoughts, ideas, or perspectives - the curiosity that drives the desire to explore. However, when research is essential to make practical decisions, the nature of the study alters - it all depends on its application and purpose. For instance, skilled research offered as a  research paper service  has a definite objective, and it is focused and organized. Professional research helps derive inferences and conclusions from solving problems. visit the HB tool services for the amazing research tools that will help to solve your problems regarding the research on any project.

What is the Importance of Research?

The primary goal of the research is to guide action, gather evidence for theories, and contribute to the growth of knowledge in data analysis. This article discusses the importance of research and the multiple reasons why it is beneficial to everyone, not just students and scientists.

On the other hand, research is important in business decision-making because it can assist in making better decisions when combined with their experience and intuition.

Reasons for the Importance of Research

• Acquire Knowledge Effectively
• Research helps in problem-solving
• Provides the latest information
• Builds credibility
• Helps in business success
• Discover and Seize opportunities

1-  Acquire Knowledge Efficiently through Research

The most apparent reason to conduct research is to understand more. Even if you think you know everything there is to know about a subject, there is always more to learn. Research helps you expand on any prior knowledge you have of the subject. The research process creates new opportunities for learning and progress.

2- Research Helps in Problem-solving

Problem-solving can be divided into several components, which require knowledge and analysis, for example,  identification of issues, cause identification,  identifying potential solutions, decision to take action, monitoring and evaluation of activity and outcomes.

You may just require additional knowledge to formulate an informed strategy and make an informed decision. When you know you've gathered reliable data, you'll be a lot more confident in your answer.

3- Research Provides the Latest Information

Research enables you to seek out the most up-to-date facts. There is always new knowledge and discoveries in various sectors, particularly scientific ones. Staying updated keeps you from falling behind and providing inaccurate or incomplete information. You'll be better prepared to discuss a topic and build on ideas if you have the most up-to-date information. With the help of tools and certifications such as CIRS , you may learn internet research skills quickly and easily. Internet research can provide instant, global access to information.

4- Research Builds Credibility

Research provides a solid basis for formulating thoughts and views. You can speak confidently about something you know to be true. It's much more difficult for someone to find flaws in your arguments after you've finished your tasks. In your study, you should prioritize the most reputable sources. Your research should focus on the most reliable sources. You won't be credible if your "research" comprises non-experts' opinions. People are more inclined to pay attention if your research is excellent.

5-  Research Helps in Business Success

R&D might also help you gain a competitive advantage. Finding ways to make things run more smoothly and differentiate a company's products from those of its competitors can help to increase a company's market worth.

6-  Research Discover and Seize Opportunities

People can maximize their potential and achieve their goals through various opportunities provided by research. These include getting jobs, scholarships, educational subsidies, projects, commercial collaboration, and budgeted travel. Research is essential for anyone looking for work or a change of environment. Unemployed people will have a better chance of finding potential employers through job advertisements or agencies. 

How to Improve Your Research Skills

Start with the big picture and work your way down.

It might be hard to figure out where to start when you start researching. There's nothing wrong with a simple internet search to get you started. Online resources like Google and Wikipedia are a great way to get a general idea of a subject, even though they aren't always correct. They usually give a basic overview with a short history and any important points.

Identify Reliable Source

Not every source is reliable, so it's critical that you can tell the difference between the good ones and the bad ones. To find a reliable source, use your analytical and critical thinking skills and ask yourself the following questions: Is this source consistent with other sources I've discovered? Is the author a subject matter expert? Is there a conflict of interest in the author's point of view on this topic?

Validate Information from Various Sources

Take in new information.

The purpose of research is to find answers to your questions, not back up what you already assume. Only looking for confirmation is a minimal way to research because it forces you to pick and choose what information you get and stops you from getting the most accurate picture of the subject. When you do research, keep an open mind to learn as much as possible.

Facilitates Learning Process

Learning new things and implementing them in daily life can be frustrating. Finding relevant and credible information requires specialized training and web search skills due to the sheer enormity of the Internet and the rapid growth of indexed web pages. On the other hand, short courses and Certifications like CIRS make the research process more accessible. CIRS Certification offers complete knowledge from beginner to expert level. You can become a Certified Professional Researcher and get a high-paying job, but you'll also be much more efficient and skilled at filtering out reliable data. You can learn more about becoming a Certified Professional Researcher.

Stay Organized

You'll see a lot of different material during the process of gathering data, from web pages to PDFs to videos. You must keep all of this information organized in some way so that you don't lose anything or forget to mention something properly. There are many ways to keep your research project organized, but here are a few of the most common:  Learning Management Software , Bookmarks in your browser, index cards, and a bibliography that you can add to as you go are all excellent tools for writing.

Make Use of the library's Resources

If you still have questions about researching, don't worry—even if you're not a student performing academic or course-related research, there are many resources available to assist you. Many high school and university libraries, in reality, provide resources not only for staff and students but also for the general public. Look for research guidelines or access to specific databases on the library's website. Association of Internet Research Specialists enjoys sharing informational content such as research-related articles , research papers , specialized search engines list compiled from various sources, and contributions from our members and in-house experts.

of Conducting Research

Latest from erin r. goodrich.

• Enhancing Efficiency: The Role of Technology in Personal Injury Case Management
• The Evolution and Future of Workplace Benefit Administration
• 10 Best People Search Engines and Websites in 2022

Live Classes Schedule

• JUN 14 CIRS Certification Internet Research Training Program Live Classes Online

World's leading professional association of Internet Research Specialists - We deliver Knowledge, Education, Training, and Certification in the field of Professional Online Research. The AOFIRS is considered a major contributor in improving Web Search Skills and recognizes Online Research work as a full-time occupation for those that use the Internet as their primary source of information.

Get Exclusive Research Tips in Your Inbox

• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Advertising Opportunities
• Knowledge Network

• Search Menu
• Sign in through your institution
• Animal Research
• Cardiovascular/Pulmonary
• Health Services
• Health Policy
• Health Promotion
• History of Physical Therapy
• Implementation Science
• Integumentary
• Musculoskeletal
• Orthopedics
• Pain Management
• Pelvic Health
• Pharmacology
• Population Health
• Professional Issues
• Psychosocial
• Advance Articles
• PTJ Peer Review Academies
• Collections
• Author Guidelines
• Submission Site
• Why Publish With PTJ?
• Open Access
• Call for Papers
• Self-Archiving Policy
• Promote your Article
• About Physical Therapy
• Editorial Board
• Advertising & Corporate Services
• Permissions
• Journals on Oxford Academic
• Books on Oxford Academic

Article Contents

Author contributions, disclosures.

• < Previous

How Should We Determine the Importance of Research?

• Article contents
• Figures & tables
• Supplementary Data

D U Jette, How Should We Determine the Importance of Research?, Physical Therapy , Volume 98, Issue 3, March 2018, Pages 149–152, https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzx119

• Permissions Icon Permissions

For scientific and professional journals, the publication of research papers that are important and have potentially significant impact is a multifactorial quest. The first step is attracting authors/researchers who are publishing work that is impactful. Editorial boards, such as that of PTJ , have continual conversations about how to attract excellent researchers to publish in their journals. At the same time, higher education institutions in which many authors are employed continue to emphasize research productivity when evaluating faculty performance. 1 , 2 This fact motivates authors to submit manuscripts to what they perceive to be the highest-quality journals. 3 Evaluation of research quality influences who has a career in academia as well as where researchers publish and which journals succeed. 4 Assessing the situation, Altbach remarked, “Universities are engaged in a global arms race of publication: and the academics are the shock troops of the struggle.” 5 (p6) One reason for the added emphasis on research is that research increases visibility of an institution and, therefore, its prestige. 6 More funding flows to universities with prestigious, top-ranked research profiles. 2 , 5 Institutions also emphasize research prestige to attract better students and faculty, thus further bolstering their reputations.

The quest to hire, promote, and retain faculty who bring prestige to the institution in the form of research encourages institutions to measure research recognition. Terms describing the necessary attributes of research contributions for institutional promotion and tenure decisions include excellence, importance and significance, 2 substantiveness, 7 and impact. 8 Assessment of these attributes by hiring and promotion committees is based to some extent on the number of scholarly “products” and their rate of production, whether a product is peer reviewed, the number of citations of the work, numeric ratings of the journals in which work appears, and the general reputation of the journal or publisher among professional peers. 9 Review for promotion and tenure also often includes evaluation of candidates’ research by peers outside of their home institution with like expertise. Peers are asked to comment on the quality of the candidate's research and its impact on the field. 10 Although they may have a better perspective on whether a candidate's work has had an impact on their field, external reviewers are likely to assess the quality of publications by using metrics similar to the institutional review committee, perhaps with more knowledge of the best-known journals in their field.

One common indicator used by institutional review committees to determine qualities such as excellence, impact, or importance is the journal impact factor (JIF). 9 The JIF relies on citation numbers over a relatively short period of time and has well-known limitations. 11 The JIF was originally designed to help librarians decide which journals to buy and has subsequently, and perhaps inappropriately, been used as a surrogate for the quality of individual papers and individual researchers’ scholarship. 12 Other indices such as the h-index are also commonly, and more appropriately, applied at the individual level; however the h-index also is a measure based on numbers of citations. Because authors are driven by the performance expectations and the reward systems at their institutions, 8 they are likely to seek journals with reputations for publishing high-value and frequently cited work, that is, journals with a high JIF. Alberts, 13 editor-in-chief of Science in 2013, noted that this tendency has led to researchers submitting inappropriate papers to highly cited journals so as to “gain points” when being evaluated, and also to journal bias against accepting papers that might not be highly cited. In addition, traditional metrics such as JIF may deter faculty from pursuing anything but the scholarship of discovery 9 and may be detrimental to review of junior faculty because of time lags in publication and citation. 14

Alberts’ statements lead to the question of how to align the desires of authors and journals. Authors must demonstrate the importance of their research; journals want to solicit authors doing important and useful work. A systematic review of literature to identify measures of health care research significance or importance suggested 6 areas of consideration: research activity, scientific production and impact, collaboration, dissemination, industrial production, and health services impact. 15 The authors identified 57 indicators across the 6 categories, the most common (24) categorized as indicators of scientific production. The most frequently identified indicators among the 76 articles included in the review were h-index, number of publications, number of citations, and JIF. Indices that rely on citations, such as JIF, however, are a somewhat narrow reflection of “scholarly” impact, 16 that is, they reflect usefulness of published papers to the scientific community.

Citation indices have several limitations. They are biased toward English language, peer reviewed journals; fail to account for applications of publications by researchers, clinicians, or educators who are not cited in the peer reviewed literature; and do not represent conference presentations and books very well. 17 Moreover, these indicators do not necessarily reflect the quality of the science, how widely read and discussed published work might be, 18 or whether the work has an impact on a broader audience, such as patients or policy makers. The editor of JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery noted that the journal desires “high-impact” articles and identified 3 key themes that characterize this type of article: number of citations, number of downloads, and altmetric score. 19 Similarly, PTJ wishes to publish “innovative and highly relevant content for both clinicians and scientists,” 20 and editorial board members consider the potential importance and significance of the work represented by newly submitted manuscripts when recommending them for full review. The importance of scientific findings to multiple audiences, as well as the significant changes in the way knowledge is disseminated and accessed, suggest the need for revised thinking on how research quality, importance, and impact are evaluated.

Recently, new types of indicators of research impact have become available through the application of technology ( Figure ). They include mentions in public policy documents, mainstream media, blogs, Wikipedia, social media, course syllabi, open and post peer review forums, and downloads into citation managers. The definitions of impact and importance are thereby expanded beyond the benefits to research scientists and include contributions to public health and professional practice and education. 21 These indicators can be gathered from multiple sources in an automated manner by data-aggregating platforms such as Public Library of Science (PLoS) metrics, Webometric Analyst through Bing, Altmetric.com , ImpactStory, and PlumX.

Examples of types of impact metrics tracking how research has been used. Source: Wilsdon J, Allen L, Belfiore E, et al. The Metric Tide: Report of the Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management . July 2015. HEFCE. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4929.1363. This information is licensed under the Open Government License v3.0. To view this license, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/ 12 .

Although commonly referred to as “altmetrics,” these indicators of research impact are not alternatives to citation indicators, but rather complementary to them (“addmetrics”). 12 , 22 In fact, these indicators may not provide a measure of impact as it's traditionally defined, but rather a measure of amount of attention 21 or breadth of dissemination. 16 Attention could be due to negative press; reactions to poorly conducted, invalid research; or even research fraud. At the same time, although traditional metrics indicate the “scholarly impact” of an article, 16 they cannot shed light on whether the findings of the article have had an impact on practice. 21 Studies describing the relationship between traditional indicators and altmetrics suggest that they are related but distinct. 23 , 24 Thelwell et al 24 found that tweets, Facebook wall posts, and blogs were associated with journal-level citations for documents in PubMed between 2010 and 2012. In addition to these 3 indicators, research highlights identified from Nature Publishing Group journals, mainstream media citations, and forum posts were related to individual article citations. The tools used to determine these complementary indicators of impact have some of the same challenges as more traditional indicators in terms of determining how and when they may be useful. Derivation of some of the measurements or calculations may be somewhat opaque; they may be susceptible to “gaming” by authors, and the reliability of the measures may be affected by inaccuracies in the data on which they rely. 25

Despite the limitations, it is worth examining how application of the range of indicators of scholarly, educational, policy and practice impact, dissemination, and attention might support PTJ and other rehabilitation-focused journals in attracting the best authors and papers with potential to significantly affect patient care and health policy, as well as advance rehabilitation science. Suggestions include:

Provide information on individual articles, affording readership and authors information on the attention or dissemination of the article across various platforms. 11

Convert to open-access status, making published work more broadly available, more quickly.

Promote the JIF only in the context of other relevant data, such as Eigenfactor score, SCImago journal rankings, h-index, and publication times 11 —although these measures, too, have limitations.

Eliminate any restrictions on the number of references in papers, and ensure that original works, not secondary sources, are cited. 11

Journal editors and editorial boards should encourage more discussion among authors, reviewers, and readers to raise awareness about the usefulness and meaning of the various types of indicators. By expanding the ways in which the influence of a journal—as well as of the works it contains—is reported and viewed, authors may be encouraged to submit manuscripts to a particular journal, and institutions of higher education would be afforded a broader lens through which to evaluate faculty research that appears in the journal. At the same time, it is important to recognize that the indicators themselves may “change the system through the incentives they establish,” 26 (pg 431) so their application and influence should be evaluated over time.

Journals could benefit from publicizing a variety of indicators of impact to entice authors as they identify potential journals to which to submit their work. Suggested indicators include number of downloads; number of citations, perhaps from more than one platform, such as Web of Science, Scopus, or Google Scholar; and indicators of attention reported from data aggregators such as those mentioned above. Citations take time to accrue, whereas downloads and indicators of attention are more immediate. Making this type of information available to authors immediately and over the long term provides them with valuable feedback about the influence of their work. 27 Although some may argue that using a wide variety of article-level metrics may confound the definition of importance of a research article or body of work, consideration of diverse metrics would afford an editorial board a multifaceted perspective of its meaning. Editorial boards could gain a better understanding of which content has meaning for their audience. 27 Editorial boards might also use information to determine content and methodological areas in which manuscripts should be solicited and areas for special topic issues. 27 Additionally, the geographical information from the indicators may help to direct marketing and outreach. 27 In the long run, a broad perspective of impact may facilitate discussions within editorial boards that lead to greater clarity about the meaning of impact for their journal.

In summary, using an array of indicators of the importance and significance of published research to assess impact of published work—and, by extension, author and journal performance—has the potential to improve success for authors and journals in the milieus in which they must compete and thrive.

Concept/idea/research design: D. U. Jette

Writing: D. U. Jette

There are no funders to report for this submission

The author completed the ICJME Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest and reported no conflicts of interest.

Miller   JE , Seldin P . Changing practices in faculty evaluation. Can better evaluation make a difference ? Academe . 2014 (May-June). American Association of University Professors website. https://www.aaup.org/article/changing-practices-faculty-evaluation#.WiB0TGfSmUk . Accessed November 30, 2017 .

Google Scholar

Gardner   SK , Veliz D . Evincing the ratchet. A thematic analysis of the promotion and tenure guidelines at a striving university . Rev High Ed . 2014 ; 38 ( 1 ): 105 – 132 .

Fairweather   JS . Beyond the rhetoric: trends in the relative value of teaching and research in faculty salaries . J Higher Educ . 2005 ; 76 ( 4 ): 401 – 422 .

Rathemacher   AJ . Article-level metrics and altmetrics: new ways to measure the impact of your research . URI AAUP News . XXXVIII, no . 4 (April 2014):2,4. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-LbmAB0uzHGTDJKbnlUOWhzaUk Accessed November 27, 2017 .

Altbach   PG . What counts for academic productivity in research universities ? International Higher Education . 2015 ; 79 ( Winter ). Boston College Center for International Higher Education website. https://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/ihe/article/view/5837/5201 . Accessed November 27, 2017 .

Remler   DK , Pema E . Why do institutions of higher learning reward research while selling education ? NBER Working Paper 14974 . May 2009 . http://www.nber.org/papers/w14974.pdf . Accessed November 27, 2017 .

Bunton   SA , Mallon WT . The continued evolution of faculty appointment and tenure policies at U.S. medical schools . Acad Med . 2007 ; 82 ( 3 ): 281 – 289 . http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2007/03000/The_Continued_Evolution_of_Faculty_Appointment_and.12.aspx . Accessed November 27, 2017 .

O’Meara   K . Rewarding multiple forms of scholarship: promotion and tenure . In: Fitzgerlad HE , Burack C , Seifer SD , eds. Handbook of Engaged Scholarship, Contemporary Landscapes, Future Directions: Volume 1 : Institutional Change. East Lansing, MI : Michigan State University Press ; 2010 ; 1 : 271 – 294 . https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c8c0/c6c5feaca54fd48d77f52555e0a41df9ab57.pdf . Accessed July 11, 2017 .

Google Preview

Braxton   JM , Del Favero M . Evaluating scholarship performance: traditional and emergent assessment templates . New Directions for Institutional Research . 2002 ; 114 ( Summer ): 19 – 31 .

Female Science Professor . To tenure or not to tenure? The Chronicle of Higher Education website . September 10 , 2014 . https://www.chronicle.com/article/To-Tenure-or-Not-to-Tenure-/148699 . Accessed November 27, 2017 .

San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment . Putting Science into the Assessment of Research . 2012 . http://www.ascb.org/files/SFDeclarationFINAL.pdf?x30490 . Accessed November 30, 2017 .

Wilsdon   J , Allen L , Belfiore E et al.    The Metric Tide: Report of the Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management . July 2015 . HEFCE. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4929.1363. http://www.hefce.ac.uk/media/HEFCE,2014/Content/Pubs/Independentresearch/2015/The,Metric,Tide/2015_metric_tide.pdf . Accessed November 30, 2017 .

Alberts   B . Impact factor distortions . Science . 2013 ; 340 ( 6134 ): 787 .

Klein   WC , Bloom M . Bibliometrics: the best available information ? Soc Work Health Care . 2005 ; 41 ( 3-4 ): 117 – 121 .

Thonon   F , Boulkedid R , Delory T et al.    Measuring the outcome of biomedical research: a systematic literature review . PloS One . 2015 Apr 2 ; 10 ( 4 ): e0122239 .

Trueger   NS , Thoma B , Hsu CH , Sullivan D , Peters L , Lin M . The Altmetric Score: a new measure for article-level dissemination and impact . Ann Emerg Med . 2015 ; 66 ( 5 ): 549 – 553 .

Wouters   P , Thelwall M , Kousha K et al.    The Metric Tide Literature Review (Supplementary Report I to the Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management) . HEFCE. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.5066.3520 2015 . http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/files/2015/07/2015_metrictideS1.pdf . Accessed November 30. 2017 .

PLoS Medicine Editors . The Impact Factor Game . PLoS Med . 2006 ; 3 ( 6 ): e291 . Accessed November 30, 2017 .

Rhee   JS . High-impact articles—citations, downloads and altmetric score . JAMA Facial Plast Surg . 2015 ; 17 ( 5 ): 323 – 324 .

About Physical Therapy . PTJ website. https://academic.oup.com/ptj/pages/About . Accessed June 13, 2017 .

Konkiel   S , Sugimoto CR , Williams S . The use of altmetrics in promotion and tenure . Educause Review . 2016 (March/April).

Validation of the Results of the Public Consultation on Science 2.0: Science in Transition . European Commission ; 2015 . http://www.eesc.europa.eu/resources/docs/validation-of-the-results-of-the-public-consultation-on-science-20.pdf . Accessed November 30, 2017 .

Priem   J , Piwowar HA , Hemminger BM . Altmetrics in the wild: using social media to explore scholarly impact . 2012 ; 1203.4745v1(March). https://arxiv.org/html/1203.4745v1 . Accessed November 30, 2017 .

Thelwall   M , Haustein S , Lariviere V , Sugimoto CR . Do altmetrics work? Twitter and ten other social web services . PloS One . 2013 May 28 ; 8 ( 5 ): e64841 .

Wimmer   EN , Rethlefsen ML , Jarvis C , Shipman JP . Understanding research impact: A review of existing and emerging tools for nursing . J Prof Nurs . 2016 ; 32 ( 6 ): 401 – 411 .

Hicks   D , Wouters P , Waltman L , de Rijcke S , Rafols I . Bibliometrics: the Leiden manifesto for research metrics . Nature . 2015 ; 520 : 429 – 431 . https://capes.gov.br/images/stories/download/diversos/2782015-The-Leiden-Manifesto.pdf . Accessed November 30, 2017 .

Williams   C , Padula D . The evolution of impact indicators: from bibliometrics to altmetrics . Altmetrics and Scholastica ; 2015 . http://docs.scholastica.s3.amazonaws.com/altmetrics/evolution-of-impact-indicators.pdf . Accessed November 30, 2017 .

Email alerts

Citing articles via.

• Recommend to Your Librarian
• Advertising and Corporate Services
• Journals Career Network

Affiliations

• Online ISSN 1538-6724
• Copyright © 2024 American Physical Therapy Association
• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Institutional account management
• Rights and permissions
• Get help with access
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

• SpringerLink shop

Title, Abstract and Keywords

The importance of titles.

The title of your manuscript is usually the first introduction readers (and reviewers) have to your work. Therefore, you must select a title that grabs attention, accurately describes the contents of your manuscript, and makes people want to read further.

An effective title should:

• Convey the  main topics  of the study
• Highlight the  importance  of the research
• Be  concise
• Attract  readers

Writing a good title for your manuscript can be challenging. First, list the topics covered by the manuscript. Try to put all of the topics together in the title using as few words as possible. A title that is too long will seem clumsy, annoy readers, and probably not meet journal requirements.

Does Vaccinating Children and Adolescents with Inactivated Influenza Virus Inhibit the Spread of Influenza in Unimmunized Residents of Rural Communities?

This title has too many unnecessary words.

Influenza Vaccination of Children: A Randomized Trial

This title doesn’t give enough information about what makes the manuscript interesting.

Effect of Child Influenza Vaccination on Infection Rates in Rural Communities: A Randomized Trial This is an effective title. It is short, easy to understand, and conveys the important aspects of the research.

Think about why your research will be of interest to other scientists. This should be related to the reason you decided to study the topic. If your title makes this clear, it will likely attract more readers to your manuscript. TIP: Write down a few possible titles, and then select the best to refine further. Ask your colleagues their opinion. Spending the time needed to do this will result in a better title.

Abstract and Keywords

The Abstract is:

• A  summary  of the content of the journal manuscript
• A time-saving  shortcut  for busy researchers
• A guide to the most important parts of your manuscript’s written content

Many readers will only read the Abstract of your manuscript. Therefore, it has to be able to  stand alone . In most cases the abstract is the only part of your article that appears in indexing databases such as Web of Science or PubMed and so will be the most accessed part of your article; making a good impression will encourage researchers to read your full paper.

A well written abstract can also help speed up the peer-review process. During peer review, referees are usually only sent the abstract when invited to review the paper. Therefore, the abstract needs to contain enough information about the paper to allow referees to make a judgement as to whether they have enough expertise to review the paper and be engaging enough for them to want to review it.

Your Abstract should answer these questions about your manuscript:

• What was done?
• Why did you do it?
• What did you find?
• Why are these findings useful and important?

Answering these questions lets readers know the most important points about your study, and helps them decide whether they want to read the rest of the paper. Make sure you follow the proper journal manuscript formatting guidelines when preparing your abstract.

TIP: Journals often set a maximum word count for Abstracts, often 250 words, and no citations. This is to ensure that the full Abstract appears in indexing services.

Keywords  are a tool to help indexers and search engines find relevant papers. If database search engines can find your journal manuscript, readers will be able to find it too. This will increase the number of people reading your manuscript, and likely lead to more citations.

However, to be effective, Keywords must be chosen carefully. They should:

• Represent  the content of your manuscript
• Be  specific  to your field or sub-field

Manuscript title:  Direct observation of nonlinear optics in an isolated carbon nanotube

Poor keywords:  molecule, optics, lasers, energy lifetime

Better keywords:  single-molecule interaction, Kerr effect, carbon nanotubes, energy level structure

Manuscript title:  Region-specific neuronal degeneration after okadaic acid administration Poor keywords:  neuron, brain, OA (an abbreviation), regional-specific neuronal degeneration, signaling

Better keywords:  neurodegenerative diseases; CA1 region, hippocampal; okadaic acid; neurotoxins; MAP kinase signaling system; cell death

Manuscript title:  Increases in levels of sediment transport at former glacial-interglacial transitions

Poor keywords:  climate change, erosion, plant effects Better keywords:  quaternary climate change, soil erosion, bioturbation

Back │ Next

• Academic Writing / APA

The Importance of Formatting

by Purdue Global Academic Success Center and Writing Center · Published May 13, 2015 · Updated October 23, 2019

Dr. Tamara Fudge, professor in the School of Business and IT, Kaplan University

Too often students complain that I am too tough on them for not following APA formatting . Lest anyone think this post is an apology, I will disappoint you! Formatting is important .

Sure, there are PowerPoints, podcasts, and other kinds of assignments, but most papers written in my school are to be completed using APA style, which was developed by the American Psychological Association. This method defines not just how sources are to be cited and referenced, but how the paper should look overall, including the size of margins, how far to indent first lines of paragraphs, where page numbers are placed, and more.

There are other formats , too, including but not limited to MLA (from the Modern Language Association) and Chicago (short for Chicago Manual of Style). Each style is picky about how words are placed on the page. It’s not that APA is any better than the others; it just happens to be the method of choice for my situation. The important thing is that there is a declared standard .

Why is formatting so important that I will dare to take a point or two off when it’s not followed?

• It demonstrates that you can follow instructions . If you were a hiring manager, you would not want to hire someone who either doesn’t, won’t, or can’t follow directions.
• It provides consistency . Your readers, whether they are your professors, your boss and coworkers, or your clients, won’t have to guess how you organized your ideas.
• It facilitates practice of discipline and adherence to standards . I can’t think of a field that doesn’t have some set of standards, such as how to meet web accessibility issues, provide network security, or maintain HIPAA requirements. Learning to stick to standards takes practice.
• It allows you to focus your efforts on content. There are no surprises in how you create a cover page or put the reference list together when you use an established method. Once you are used to the methodology – seriously, it’s not that difficult – you can spend the bulk of your writing time researching and organizing ideas into words.

Knowing how to use a prescribed formatting style can also help you excel in your career.   For example, one of the ways to move upward in your chosen field is to become a published author; journals typically require a format and may summarily reject any submissions not meeting their standards . It’s also important to know that one of the reasons companies sometimes lose out on grants is that the writers didn’t follow posted guidelines (“The Top Five Reasons Grant Applications Are Rejected”, n.d.).

Legal documents also have very specific formatting. According to an article regarding California civil procedures, “there is a rule for everything … right down to the type of paper to use and the requirement to hole-punch your pleadings” (Haubrich-Hass, 2012, para. 1). I’ve been told that deviating from the requirements might well have an unhappy ending for the lawyer’s client.

My insistence on following rules should only make students stronger candidates for the workplace of their choice. They learn to follow instructions, provide consistency, practice discipline , and then have the ability to focus on content when they have mastered formatting. If I don’t insist on adherence to the rules, I fail to teach these things to my students. And so again, without apology, I declare that formatting is important !

Haubrich-Hass, B. (2012). Formatting California proceedings. Retrieved from  https://thecalifornialitigator.com/pleadings/formatting-california-pleadings-2/

The top five reasons grant applications are rejected. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.grantgopher.com/news/articletype/articleview/articleid/1153/the-top-five-reasons-grant-applications-are-rejected.aspx

Share this:

• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)

Tags: APA Formatting MLA

• Next story  You Want Color With That?
• Previous story  Mood Music for Writing

You may also like...

5 tips that help students avoid plagiarism.

May 11, 2013

 by Purdue Global Academic Success Center and Writing Center · Published May 11, 2013 · Last modified May 12, 2013

Creating Effective PowerPoint® Presentations

February 4, 2014

 by Purdue Global Academic Success Center and Writing Center · Published February 4, 2014 · Last modified February 3, 2014

APA Is Not Grammar

April 21, 2012

 by Purdue Global Academic Success Center and Writing Center · Published April 21, 2012

9 Responses

• Pingbacks 8

Reblogged this on Empowered Composition and commented: How can learning citation guidelines empower students? Dr. Fudge has some great reasons.

[…] University. (2015). The Importance of Formatting. [online] Available at: https://kuwcnews.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/the-importance-of-formatting/ [Accessed 23 Jul. […]

[…] but I actually think that following basic formatting guidelines actually allows you to focus more on the content. Once you understand the academic standards required, it allows you to focus more on the content […]

[…] a printed textbook or an eTextbook, formatting is necessary to me. I discover that high quality formatting is sound education practice, rising college students’ skills to grasp topic content material. Textbooks are extra interesting […]

[…] a printed textbook or an eTextbook, formatting is vital to me. I discover that high quality formatting is sound schooling observe, rising college students’ talents to grasp topic content material. Textbooks are extra […]

[…] I review a printed textbook or an eTextbook, formatting is important to me. I find that quality formatting is sound education practice, increasing students’ abilities to master subject content. Textbooks are more appealing when […]

[…] Fudge, Tamara. 2015. “The Importance of Formatting.” Purdue Global Writing Center. May 13. Accessed October 3, 2022. https://purdueglobalwriting.center/2015/05/13/the-importance-of-formatting/ . […]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

Stack Exchange Network

Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow , the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.

Q&A for work

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

How to effectively explain why my research is important?

I gave a presentation on my PhD research at university last week, and it was criticised for lacking practical significance. A different comment suggested the presentation was not placed in context. Could somebody provide some advice on how to place research in context and convey its practical significance? How can I effectively assess who/what/where/when will see the benefits of my research?

• 8 <rant>It is annoying that (in general in academia) you are forced to say that your research is significant. So it is... (which is hard to tell before) or you make it up.</rant> –  Piotr Migdal Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 7:17
• 1 @Piotr Migdal: I disagree with you. What I find annoying is two things: that there seems to be little place for fondamental research, and that in response fondamental researchers lie about their motivations to make it look more applied than it is. But one should be able to explain at least why she is interested in the question she worked out for years, and this has to be related to some sort of significance. –  Benoît Kloeckner Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 7:45
• 9 @BenoîtKloeckner Actually, I agree with you. The question "Why do you consider this topic worth investigating?" is crucial (and when it is a PhD student is is usually not yet possible to judge significance, without story-telling). But when it comes to "practical significance"... well, for fundamental research (as opposed to applied, or - engineering) it almost certainly not cure cancer, solve environmental problems and create a quantum computer (and again, Roentgen didn't work on "saving millions of lives with better diagnostics" - he was just working on a potentially fruitful thing). –  Piotr Migdal Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 12:17
• I have similar issue but with my advisor. He always asks me for applications (applied scenarios) for my research ideas. I believe its out there but I do not know what's the name of it. I either come up with application from my little head or the whole paper will be screwed. –  seteropere Commented Jul 5, 2013 at 4:34

3 Answers 3

Ask yourself a number of questions:

• Why am I doing the research?
• What problem am I solving?
• Why should anyone else by interested in this research?
• How can my results help solve someone else's problem?

The first two questions will help you understand what you are doing from your own personal perspective, as well as establishing the context of the work. The latter two will help you establish why someone else would be interested in your work.

In short, ask What? and So what? about your work.

• 3 I think that for many PhD students the answer to the first question is "because my supervisor picked this project for me"... Of course, the real reason is never stated publicly... –  Nick S Commented Oct 20, 2016 at 0:49

Definitely, your advisor is the person who should help you most with this question, so make sure you talk to her.

With this disclaimer, I would like to distinguish two things: the good and the bad way to justify the significance of your research. To be clear, good and bad are personal (but motivated) judgments and are not related with what will please people asking you that question, but with what is sane argument.

Let's start with the bad way:

this is the most important thing and most others are specialization of it: giving false but vaguely plausible reasons to study what you studied, hopping to reach other's expectations,

claiming applications that are often claimed in the area, or vaguely related but at best very long term applications (e.g. "my study of cell migration is crucial for understanding metastases, so it will help cure Cancer"; this works with any fondamental research in cell biology),

name-dropping (e.g. "Nobel Prize Trucmuche has studied this 20 years ago, so surely that must be interesting"),

generalization for the sake of generalization -applies maybe mostly to maths, but applies a lot there- (e.g. "Finsler geometry is a generalization of Riemannian geometry, so surely it is interesting").

lacking any clue (e.g. "My advisor told me to do it, so I did"). If you don't know why you are doing what you do, at some point you should find out or change subject.

Note that 1. is very, very often seen in grant application, and it might be impossible in some cases to apply successfully without resorting to this kind of argument. This does not make it a good argument; we should be as thorough in assessing the relevance of our research than we are in assessing our research result.

Now the good way:

this is the most important thing and all others are specialization of it: explaining the reasons why you where interested in the project, why you find it fascinating or interesting,

giving perspective applications that sincerely did motivate your work , either from start or that you realized during the research process. This may not exist, which is not (rather, should not be) an issue, at least in fondamental research,

placing your research in context: how it relates to what has been done before, to which previously raised question it answers, which previously held beliefs it contradicts,

explaining how it generalizes previous work to meaningful, existing examples (e.g. "My theorem on Finsler geometry explains such and such features of Hilbert geometry"),

explain the perspectives opened by your work (e.g. "if we believe this principle applies even more generally, then we can hope to use my methods to understand such and such important phenomenons"),

explain why it is fun (e.g. "look at this dancing corn starch: weird, huh?")

Without knowing your actual field of research, here are some general pointers (by no means, is this an exhaustive list):

Research and find other papers based on or is similar to your work, this will give a bit of a basis for the practical context.

From reading of papers, try and define a gap where your research may help with.

Ask your supervisor/advisor for advice in this, employ their help in defining the context.

• 1 "From reading of papers, try and define a gap where your research may help with." This seems to go backward: you do research because you noticed a gap in what we know, not the other way round. –  Benoît Kloeckner Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 7:46
• Doesn't hurt to find further evidence for this, particularly in a practical sense. –  user7130 Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 7:59
• 3 @Benoit: Maybe in an ideal sense, but I think many PhD students start marching down their research path because their advisor has noticed that gap; I don't know how many students find that gap on their own. That's why I like the third suggestion here the most. –  J.R. Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 10:37
• 1 @J.R.: sure, but then the advisor can point out the gap, and at some point the graduate student must understand the motivation by herself. –  Benoît Kloeckner Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 14:23

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged phd ..

• Featured on Meta
• Announcing a change to the data-dump process
• Upcoming initiatives on Stack Overflow and across the Stack Exchange network...

Hot Network Questions

• From which notable Europa's surface features could be possible to observe Jupiter eclipsing the sun?
• Could an investor sue the CEO or company for not delivering on promised technological breakthroughs?
• Different between Curly braces{} and brackets[] while initializing array in C#?
• "One-time discount" fraud: is any crime committed?
• Was there an Easter egg in the Electrologica X1 QUINIO (GO-MOKU) game?
• Paying for a flight when 'address line 3' is required
• Solid border Yin-Yang
• Correctly escaping <CR>: how can I map a command to send the literal string "<CR>" to a vim function?
• Can modern civilization maintain itself under an Earth constantly bombarded with lightning?
• How can I make a box with rounded corners that have asymmetrical dimensions?
• Who were the oldest US Presidential nominees?
• Why is 不 instead of 没 used to negate an action in the past in 过去三天为什么你不回我的电话?
• What category position does a copular-be occupy in a basic English sentence?
• Why did Kamala Harris describe her own appearance at the start of an important meeting?
• Tanya is based on Shelah?
• When given a wide passage such as the left-hand part in bars 20-21 - should my fingering seek to avoid the thumb on black keys?
• What are the hole dimensions for 0.1" pitch headers?
• Is the Faith of Jesus Christ, the Faith Given Through the Holy Spirit?
• Had there ever been a case where elephants are carried by aircraft?
• Are there any known precendents of philosophers using modal logic (or any other theory of math) to formalize works of other philosophers?
• Limited list of words for a text or glyph-based messaging system
• Does Event Viewer have any sensitive information like password, or such info?
• Why were the names of Western Roman emperors mostly unique?
• What programming language was used in Frank Rubin's letter about Dijkstra's "Go To Statement Considered Harmful"?

SOU economist’s research paper stresses importance of family support for trans youth

(Ashland, Ore.) — SOU economist Travis Campbell is the lead author of a research paper that highlights the critical role of family support during the “identity development” of transgender youth. The study was published in this month’s issue of JAMA Pediatrics, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Medical Association.

The paper, “Mental Health of Transgender Youth Following Gender Identity Milestones by Level of Family Support,” concludes that transgender youth who live in unsupportive families are at significantly increased risk of suicide attempts and running away from home when they initiate any of four gender identity milestones: feeling that their gender is different, thinking of themselves as transgender, telling others that they are transgender and living full-time in their gender identity. By contrast, for those who live in supportive families, “there were no statistically significant associations between gender identity milestones and adverse mental health outcomes,” the research found.

In their study, Campbell and his co-authors – Yana Rodgers, a professor in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University; Samuel Mann an associate economist at RAND Corporation; and Nathaniel Tran, an incoming assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois, Chicago – analyzed data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, the largest-ever assessment of transgender people with more than 27,700 respondents across the U.S. The collaborating authors analyzed the responses of 18,303 of those survey respondents, all of whom were transgender adults who had initiated at least one gender identity milestone between the ages of 4 and 18 years.

“These results demonstrate that without a supportive family environment, gender identity development increases the risk of transgender youth attempting suicide or running away from home,” the paper in this month’s JAMA Pediatrics said. “Social services and community resources to establish supportive relationships between transgender children and their parents are essential.”

Gender identity milestones are common and important steps in identity development for transgender youth, the paper said, and “may result in changes in internalized and externalized stress because of exclusion, rejection and violence,” which can contribute to “gender dysphoria” – a sense of distress for those who feel their assigned sex at birth does not match their gender identity. But the authors also said that achieving those milestones “is one way transgender people achieve self-actualization.”

The paper said the mental health of transgender people can improve with medical procedures that reduce gender dysphoria and interventions that lessen any gender-related stigma they may experience. On the other hand, limiting the options of transgender people can negatively affect them, the authors said.

“Antitransgender legislation is associated with worsening mental health outcomes among gender minority individuals, which is of particular note given the recent rise in antitransgender legislation, including bills that establish criminal charges for providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth,” the paper said, citing new laws in Oklahoma and Wyoming that ban gender-affirming care for minors.

Campbell joined the  SOU Economics  faculty as an assistant professor after earning his Ph.D. in economics in 2022 from the University of Massachusetts. His research applies microeconomics to social justice issues, including economic inequalities based on race, gender and sexuality. His classes at SOU include Micro and Macroeconomics, Quantitative Methods and Application, Healthcare Economics, Labor Economics and Gender Issues in Economics.

• SOU News Home
• Campus News
• Academic Stories
• Alumni Spotlight
• Student Life
• Recognitions
• Prospective Students
• Current Students
• Graduate Students
• Financial Aid
• Academic Programs
• Virtual Campus Tour
• Campus Events
• SOU Athletics
• Oregon Center for the Arts
• Jefferson Public Radio
• Sustainability
• Press Releases

Joe Mosley – Director of Community and Media Relations Phone: 541.552.6719

• SOU News Archive

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Ann Med Surg (Lond)
• v.72; 2021 Dec

Significance and implications of accurate and proper citations in clinical research studies

Citations are an essential component of clinical research studies. In health sciences most articles will refer to over 20 other peer-reviewed publications [ 1 ]. Citations are a core part of the entire research process. Citations fuel literature reviews [ 2 , 3 ] and they allow researchers to link their experiments to previous results and conclusions and establish credibility [ 2 , 4 , 5 ]. Citations can help authors contribute to the growing compilation of literature and prevent plagiarism [ 6 , 7 ]. However, prior studies have acknowledged a prevalence of improper citation [ [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] ]. Studies report citation inaccuracy rates of approximately 20–26% in biomedical literature [ 8 , 9 ]. Some studies have also reported citation inaccuracies within field-specific journals such as pediatric orthopaedics [ 8 ], neurosurgery [ 12 ], spine surgery [ 13 ], and foot and ankle surgery [ 14 ]. This trend is especially alarming as citation inaccuracies can diminish research validity [ 15 ]. Recognizing the causes or instances of inaccurate citations can prevent further improper citation [ 16 ].

1. What are the root causes of citation inaccuracies?

Citation misuse can originate in literature reviews, as authors can find and choose references in arbitrary fashions. This can stem from keyword choice; many authors use broad keywords to garner a large audience, but this can hurt the number of references they receive [ 17 ]. Language can also be a barrier: one study found over 30% of systematic reviews excluded studies not published in English, which dramatically decreases the scope of literature reviews [ 18 ]. Researchers may also be biased towards articles with many citations. This can be described as the ‘Matthew effect:’ the more a paper is referenced, the more it will continue to be referenced [ 19 , 20 ]. This is concerning as citation rate of articles is not necessarily an indicator of quality or significance [ 21 ]. While papers with many citations continue to receive attention, less cited articles may be neglected, potentially hindering research advancements.

Literature reviews may also be influenced by other arbitrary factors. For example, an author's social media presence showed a positive correlation with the rate at which they were cited [ 22 , 23 ]. Another consideration for citation rate is the primacy effect, which describes how citations listed earlier in a study are used more frequently than those that appear toward the end of a study [ 24 ]. The reputation of the author(s), organization(s), journal, or country represented by a paper may also play a role in the number of times it is cited [ 25 ]. Some authors or groups of authors may receive an increased number of citations based on their production level or experience in the field of study [ 25 ]. Additionally, luck and last name may inevitably affect the rate at which someone is repeatedly cited.

2. What are examples of citation inaccuracies?

Selective citation, whether purposeful or subconscious, is an endemic problem [ 11 , 26 , 27 ]. Studies showing positive results are cited more often than those with neutral or negative results, a phenomenon known as citation bias [ 26 ]. This gives readers a biased view and overrepresents positive findings [ 26 ]. Other common forms of improper citation usage include: secondary citation, incorrect/opposite conclusion, back door invention, fact not found, and inaccurate population. Secondary citation, or “amplification,” is the act of citing a fact in a paper that was itself supported by a citation instead of going to the original article [ 16 ]. Amplification leads to the expansion of a belief without additional primary data [ 10 ]. Incorrect/opposite conclusion occurs when inaccurate or missing information is cited. Specifically, an author may cite an article presenting the opposite conclusion referred to in the study [ 16 ]. This error is especially detrimental as studies make claims contradicting the citation, yet this contradiction may be further perpetuated in future studies via amplification. “Back door invention” is the error of citing abstracts while leading the reader to believe it is a peer-reviewed article [ 10 ]. Fact not found consists of a claim that a cited article has stated a fact or statistic, when in reality did not mention it at all and is therefore unsupported [ 16 ]. Lastly, inaccurate population involves the referencing of a study which may have found the results reported, but the results obtained in the cited article may not be generalizable to the population in the new study [ 16 ]. Research has also shown that citation of retracted studies occurs in many fields and these studies are often cited positively [ [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] ]. One study showed that even after 5 years, retracted studies by an author were still being cited, with only 25% of citations acknowledging it had been retracted [ 31 ].

3. What can be done to prevent or correct citation inaccuracies?

Solutions to many of these problems have been shared [ [15] , [16] , [17] , 22 , 23 ]. Authors can help others find their research by using targeted rather than generic keywords [ 17 ]. Similarly, a social media presence by journals and authors may be warranted to improve discoverability [ 22 , 23 ]. While not feasible for all literature reviews, machine learning has been used in finding relevant references for systematic reviews [ 32 ]. In short, machine learning is a form of artificial intelligence that allows systems to create algorithms based on data received. Future improvements in machine learning may allow for widespread use in finding and citing references in a way that is both efficient and accurate. One solution that has been proposed is the development of a tool named MyCites [ 33 ]. This tool would allow for the ability to mark citations as inaccurate and have these notations travel with the digital document so that future readers are aware of the accuracy of any contested citations [ 33 ]. These capabilities may help to stifle early citation inaccuracies and prevent the amplification of inaccurate citations.

Given the prevalence of citation inaccuracies, it is imperative those involved in the peer review process review submissions with an eye toward citation accuracy. At the start, authors must thoroughly recheck their citations and verify the relevance and validity of each reference. [ 34 ] One survey showed that only 4% of published scientists regularly check citations in articles they read [ 3 ]. Some authors have suggested that a simple checklist would avoid most errors [ 16 ]. It has also been suggested that editors develop training courses for authors outlining the acceptable citation styles pertinent to a particular journal [ 34 ]. Reviewers are in the unique role of making sure that new submissions are, evidence-based, in publishable condition, and add to the current body of knowledge. Such responsibility also includes evaluating the references of these submissions and suggesting the alteration, removal, or addition of references which would ensure citation accuracy [ 34 ]. The peer review process can help correct citation mistakes, especially through increased spot checks by editors/reviewers [ 9 ]. Lastly, the publisher's role in citation accuracy has started to include the use of software to process, link, and check the quality of references. [ 35 ] The increased utilization of new technology to verify citation accuracy will be of great benefit to both researchers and readers.

We also seek to share common guidelines for proper citation. First, ensure the citation provides correct publication details, including name, article title, and journal [ 15 ]. Second, the citation must substantiate the claim [ 15 ]. Next, authors should use unbiased sources that provide reliable data [ 15 ]. Articles from prestigious journals should not be assumed as reliable; analysis of the article itself is critical [ 15 ]. Additionally, be mindful of reconciling evidence. Authors should present the information in an objective manner [ 15 ]. In research it is crucial for “evidence to guide conclusions.” [ 36 ] Citations are an important part of the scientific process. They allow researchers to support and share findings, helping to further innovation. However, citations can be misused, slowing progress in clinical research and circulating unsupported beliefs. Many problems with citations can be fixed with increased attention to detail by authors and editors, ultimately strengthening credibility of the literature.

Ethical approval

Not applicable.

Sources of funding

Author contribution.

Study design and conception: AE. Data collection, interpretation and analysis: MN, CA, AE. Manuscript preparation: MN, CA, AE, MM. Critical revision of manuscript: MN, CA, MM, AE. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Trial registry number

• 1. Name of the registry:
• 2. Unique Identifying number or registration ID:
• 3. Hyperlink to the registration (must be publicly accessible):

Adel Elkbuli.

Mark McKenney

Declaration of competing interest

The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value

If 2023 was the year the world discovered generative AI (gen AI) , 2024 is the year organizations truly began using—and deriving business value from—this new technology. In the latest McKinsey Global Survey  on AI, 65 percent of respondents report that their organizations are regularly using gen AI, nearly double the percentage from our previous survey just ten months ago. Respondents’ expectations for gen AI’s impact remain as high as they were last year , with three-quarters predicting that gen AI will lead to significant or disruptive change in their industries in the years ahead.

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Alex Singla , Alexander Sukharevsky , Lareina Yee , and Michael Chui , with Bryce Hall , representing views from QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and McKinsey Digital.

Organizations are already seeing material benefits from gen AI use, reporting both cost decreases and revenue jumps in the business units deploying the technology. The survey also provides insights into the kinds of risks presented by gen AI—most notably, inaccuracy—as well as the emerging practices of top performers to mitigate those challenges and capture value.

AI adoption surges

Interest in generative AI has also brightened the spotlight on a broader set of AI capabilities. For the past six years, AI adoption by respondents’ organizations has hovered at about 50 percent. This year, the survey finds that adoption has jumped to 72 percent (Exhibit 1). And the interest is truly global in scope. Our 2023 survey found that AI adoption did not reach 66 percent in any region; however, this year more than two-thirds of respondents in nearly every region say their organizations are using AI. 1 Organizations based in Central and South America are the exception, with 58 percent of respondents working for organizations based in Central and South America reporting AI adoption. Looking by industry, the biggest increase in adoption can be found in professional services. 2 Includes respondents working for organizations focused on human resources, legal services, management consulting, market research, R&D, tax preparation, and training.

Also, responses suggest that companies are now using AI in more parts of the business. Half of respondents say their organizations have adopted AI in two or more business functions, up from less than a third of respondents in 2023 (Exhibit 2).

Future frontiers: Navigating the next wave of tech innovations

Join Lareina Yee and Roger Roberts on Tuesday, July 30, at 12:30 p.m. EDT/6:30 p.m. CET as they discuss the future of these technological trends, the factors that will fuel their growth, and strategies for investing in them through 2024 and beyond.

Gen AI adoption is most common in the functions where it can create the most value

Most respondents now report that their organizations—and they as individuals—are using gen AI. Sixty-five percent of respondents say their organizations are regularly using gen AI in at least one business function, up from one-third last year. The average organization using gen AI is doing so in two functions, most often in marketing and sales and in product and service development—two functions in which previous research  determined that gen AI adoption could generate the most value 3 “ The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier ,” McKinsey, June 14, 2023. —as well as in IT (Exhibit 3). The biggest increase from 2023 is found in marketing and sales, where reported adoption has more than doubled. Yet across functions, only two use cases, both within marketing and sales, are reported by 15 percent or more of respondents.

Gen AI also is weaving its way into respondents’ personal lives. Compared with 2023, respondents are much more likely to be using gen AI at work and even more likely to be using gen AI both at work and in their personal lives (Exhibit 4). The survey finds upticks in gen AI use across all regions, with the largest increases in Asia–Pacific and Greater China. Respondents at the highest seniority levels, meanwhile, show larger jumps in the use of gen Al tools for work and outside of work compared with their midlevel-management peers. Looking at specific industries, respondents working in energy and materials and in professional services report the largest increase in gen AI use.

Investments in gen AI and analytical AI are beginning to create value

The latest survey also shows how different industries are budgeting for gen AI. Responses suggest that, in many industries, organizations are about equally as likely to be investing more than 5 percent of their digital budgets in gen AI as they are in nongenerative, analytical-AI solutions (Exhibit 5). Yet in most industries, larger shares of respondents report that their organizations spend more than 20 percent on analytical AI than on gen AI. Looking ahead, most respondents—67 percent—expect their organizations to invest more in AI over the next three years.

Where are those investments paying off? For the first time, our latest survey explored the value created by gen AI use by business function. The function in which the largest share of respondents report seeing cost decreases is human resources. Respondents most commonly report meaningful revenue increases (of more than 5 percent) in supply chain and inventory management (Exhibit 6). For analytical AI, respondents most often report seeing cost benefits in service operations—in line with what we found last year —as well as meaningful revenue increases from AI use in marketing and sales.

Inaccuracy: The most recognized and experienced risk of gen AI use

As businesses begin to see the benefits of gen AI, they’re also recognizing the diverse risks associated with the technology. These can range from data management risks such as data privacy, bias, or intellectual property (IP) infringement to model management risks, which tend to focus on inaccurate output or lack of explainability. A third big risk category is security and incorrect use.

Respondents to the latest survey are more likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider inaccuracy and IP infringement to be relevant to their use of gen AI, and about half continue to view cybersecurity as a risk (Exhibit 7).

Conversely, respondents are less likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider workforce and labor displacement to be relevant risks and are not increasing efforts to mitigate them.

In fact, inaccuracy— which can affect use cases across the gen AI value chain , ranging from customer journeys and summarization to coding and creative content—is the only risk that respondents are significantly more likely than last year to say their organizations are actively working to mitigate.

Some organizations have already experienced negative consequences from the use of gen AI, with 44 percent of respondents saying their organizations have experienced at least one consequence (Exhibit 8). Respondents most often report inaccuracy as a risk that has affected their organizations, followed by cybersecurity and explainability.

Our previous research has found that there are several elements of governance that can help in scaling gen AI use responsibly, yet few respondents report having these risk-related practices in place. 4 “ Implementing generative AI with speed and safety ,” McKinsey Quarterly , March 13, 2024. For example, just 18 percent say their organizations have an enterprise-wide council or board with the authority to make decisions involving responsible AI governance, and only one-third say gen AI risk awareness and risk mitigation controls are required skill sets for technical talent.

Bringing gen AI capabilities to bear

The latest survey also sought to understand how, and how quickly, organizations are deploying these new gen AI tools. We have found three archetypes for implementing gen AI solutions : takers use off-the-shelf, publicly available solutions; shapers customize those tools with proprietary data and systems; and makers develop their own foundation models from scratch. 5 “ Technology’s generational moment with generative AI: A CIO and CTO guide ,” McKinsey, July 11, 2023. Across most industries, the survey results suggest that organizations are finding off-the-shelf offerings applicable to their business needs—though many are pursuing opportunities to customize models or even develop their own (Exhibit 9). About half of reported gen AI uses within respondents’ business functions are utilizing off-the-shelf, publicly available models or tools, with little or no customization. Respondents in energy and materials, technology, and media and telecommunications are more likely to report significant customization or tuning of publicly available models or developing their own proprietary models to address specific business needs.

Respondents most often report that their organizations required one to four months from the start of a project to put gen AI into production, though the time it takes varies by business function (Exhibit 10). It also depends upon the approach for acquiring those capabilities. Not surprisingly, reported uses of highly customized or proprietary models are 1.5 times more likely than off-the-shelf, publicly available models to take five months or more to implement.

Gen AI high performers are excelling despite facing challenges

Gen AI is a new technology, and organizations are still early in the journey of pursuing its opportunities and scaling it across functions. So it’s little surprise that only a small subset of respondents (46 out of 876) report that a meaningful share of their organizations’ EBIT can be attributed to their deployment of gen AI. Still, these gen AI leaders are worth examining closely. These, after all, are the early movers, who already attribute more than 10 percent of their organizations’ EBIT to their use of gen AI. Forty-two percent of these high performers say more than 20 percent of their EBIT is attributable to their use of nongenerative, analytical AI, and they span industries and regions—though most are at organizations with less than $1 billion in annual revenue. The AI-related practices at these organizations can offer guidance to those looking to create value from gen AI adoption at their own organizations.

To start, gen AI high performers are using gen AI in more business functions—an average of three functions, while others average two. They, like other organizations, are most likely to use gen AI in marketing and sales and product or service development, but they’re much more likely than others to use gen AI solutions in risk, legal, and compliance; in strategy and corporate finance; and in supply chain and inventory management. They’re more than three times as likely as others to be using gen AI in activities ranging from processing of accounting documents and risk assessment to R&D testing and pricing and promotions. While, overall, about half of reported gen AI applications within business functions are utilizing publicly available models or tools, gen AI high performers are less likely to use those off-the-shelf options than to either implement significantly customized versions of those tools or to develop their own proprietary foundation models.

What else are these high performers doing differently? For one thing, they are paying more attention to gen-AI-related risks. Perhaps because they are further along on their journeys, they are more likely than others to say their organizations have experienced every negative consequence from gen AI we asked about, from cybersecurity and personal privacy to explainability and IP infringement. Given that, they are more likely than others to report that their organizations consider those risks, as well as regulatory compliance, environmental impacts, and political stability, to be relevant to their gen AI use, and they say they take steps to mitigate more risks than others do.

Gen AI high performers are also much more likely to say their organizations follow a set of risk-related best practices (Exhibit 11). For example, they are nearly twice as likely as others to involve the legal function and embed risk reviews early on in the development of gen AI solutions—that is, to “ shift left .” They’re also much more likely than others to employ a wide range of other best practices, from strategy-related practices to those related to scaling.

In addition to experiencing the risks of gen AI adoption, high performers have encountered other challenges that can serve as warnings to others (Exhibit 12). Seventy percent say they have experienced difficulties with data, including defining processes for data governance, developing the ability to quickly integrate data into AI models, and an insufficient amount of training data, highlighting the essential role that data play in capturing value. High performers are also more likely than others to report experiencing challenges with their operating models, such as implementing agile ways of working and effective sprint performance management.

About the research

The online survey was in the field from February 22 to March 5, 2024, and garnered responses from 1,363 participants representing the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, functional specialties, and tenures. Of those respondents, 981 said their organizations had adopted AI in at least one business function, and 878 said their organizations were regularly using gen AI in at least one function. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data are weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP.

Alex Singla and Alexander Sukharevsky  are global coleaders of QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and senior partners in McKinsey’s Chicago and London offices, respectively; Lareina Yee  is a senior partner in the Bay Area office, where Michael Chui , a McKinsey Global Institute partner, is a partner; and Bryce Hall  is an associate partner in the Washington, DC, office.

They wish to thank Kaitlin Noe, Larry Kanter, Mallika Jhamb, and Shinjini Srivastava for their contributions to this work.

This article was edited by Heather Hanselman, a senior editor in McKinsey’s Atlanta office.

Explore a career with us

Related articles.

Moving past gen AI’s honeymoon phase: Seven hard truths for CIOs to get from pilot to scale

A generative AI reset: Rewiring to turn potential into value in 2024

Implementing generative AI with speed and safety

• Open access
• Published: 18 July 2024

Characterizing physician directory data quality: variation by specialty, state, and insurer

• Neel M. Butala 1 , 2 ,
• Kuldeep Jiwani 3 &
• Emily M. Bucholz 2 , 4  

BMC Health Services Research volume  24 , Article number:  808 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

288 Accesses

52 Altmetric

Metrics details

As U.S. legislators are urged to combat ghost networks in behavioral health and address the provider data quality issue, it becomes important to better characterize the variation in data quality of provider directories to understand root causes and devise solutions. Therefore, this manuscript examines consistency of address, phone number, and specialty information for physician entries from 5 national health plan provider directories by insurer, physician specialty, and state.

We included all physicians in the Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS) found in ≥ 2 health insurer physician directories across 5 large national U.S. health insurers. We examined variation in consistency of address, phone number, and specialty information among physicians by insurer, physician specialty, and state.

Of 634,914 unique physicians in the PECOS database, 449,282 were found in ≥ 2 directories and included in our sample. Across insurers, consistency of address information varied from 16.5 to 27.9%, consistency of phone number information varied from 16.0 to 27.4%, and consistency of specialty information varied from 64.2 to 68.0%. General practice, family medicine, plastic surgery, and dermatology physicians had the highest consistency of addresses (37-42%) and phone numbers (37-43%), whereas anesthesiology, nuclear medicine, radiology, and emergency medicine had the lowest consistency of addresses (11-21%) and phone numbers (9-14%) across health insurer directories. There was marked variation in consistency of address, phone number, and specialty information by state.

Conclusions

In evaluating a large national sample of U.S. physicians, we found minimal variation in provider directory consistency by insurer, suggesting that this is a systemic problem that insurers have not solved, and considerable variation by physician specialty with higher quality data among more patient-facing specialties, suggesting that physicians may respond to incentives to improve data quality. These data highlight the importance of novel policy solutions that leverage technology targeting data quality to centralize provider directories so as not to not reinforce existing data quality issues or policy solutions to create national and state-level standards that target both insurers and physician groups to maximize quality of provider information.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Patients rely on health insurer provider directories to find physicians and access the care they need, but these directories have a high rate of inaccuracies [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Poor quality data in provider directories can lead to difficulties in accessing care since patients may be directed to incorrect phone numbers and addresses. Additionally, health insurer provider directory inaccuracies can lead to surprise bills if patients visit a provider that they believe is covered in their network based on inaccurate directory information, but the provider is not actually covered. More broadly, inaccurate provider directories lead to misrepresentation of network breadth and depth for consumers as they choose health plans.

Inaccurate provider directories can also lead to adverse effects at a health system level. In countries with large private healthcare systems in which many individuals depend on commercial health insurance, governments rely on provider directories to ensure that health insurers have contracted with an adequate number of providers to provide their members the option of receiving comprehensive care [ 6 ]. In countries with large public healthcare systems, governments can rely on provider directory information to engage in healthcare workforce planning across multiple health disciplines. Current data on physicians, nurses, dentists, and other health professionals from provider directories with information on the range of services offered are a crucial input to health workforce planning frameworks, regardless of the methodology chosen [ 7 ]. As such, high-quality provider directory data are necessary to enhance health workforce planning and make decisions regarding the targeted number and mix of professions and skillsets.

A U.S. recent study found that address and specialty information was inconsistent for over 80% of physicians across directories of 5 large national health insurers [ 8 ]. In the U.S., health policy solutions to improve provider directory accuracy have been attempted, but they have largely been unsuccessful in achieving their aim. Most states have laws requiring health plans to keep their directories updated [ 9 ]. Additionally, the No Surprises Act, as a part of the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act, created specific requirements for health plans regarding accuracy and timely updating of provider directories. However, enforcement of these regulations has been minimal [ 9 ].

In the U.S. Congress, there have been renewed calls by legislators to address provider directory data quality, particularly as it relates to ‘ghost networks’ [ 10 ]. Notably, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee recently passed the Requiring Enhanced and Accurate Lists of (REAL) Health Providers Act, which aims to ensure that Medicare Advantage plans maintain accurate directories of providers, with bipartisan support [ 11 ]. Ghost networks are physicians listed in provider directories but, in reality, are not accepting new patients or are unavailable for other reasons [ 12 ]. The presence of ghost physician entries is a byproduct of provider directory inaccuracies and can complicate access to physicians for the most vulnerable patients.

As U.S. legislators are urged to combat ghost networks and address the provider data quality issue, it becomes important to better characterize the variation in consistency of provider directories to understand root causes and inform solutions. The aim of this manuscript was to examine variation in consistency of address, phone number, and specialty information for physician entries from 5 national health plan provider directories by insurer, physician specialty, and state. These results can inform the development of novel federal and state-specific policies and guide insurers’ efforts to update provider directories.

We searched the Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS) database for all physicians who were included in the online provider directories of 5 large national health insurers: UnitedHealth, Elevance (formerly Anthem), Cigna, Aetna, and Humana, based on physician name and zip code in September 2022. Once identified in insurer directories, we used the National Provider Identifier number to distinguish between different physicians with the same name in the same zip code. This study was not considered human subjects research as all data were available in publicly accessible health insurer provider directories and therefore there was no interaction or interventions with any individuals or use of any private information. Therefore, the need for ethics approval and informed consent to participate was waived from Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board review. All methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.

Among physicians with address information found in ≥ 2 health insurer directories, we compared consistency of physician practice street address across health insurer directories using an approximate matching algorithm, as previously described [ 8 ]. Specifically, this algorithm was validated internally through iterative manual review of 200 entries and externally through contacting a sample of 600 entries directly with correct classification in 99%. In evaluating consistency of physician address information across health insurer directories, we did not penalize for differences in abbreviations or punctuation or evaluate secondary unit identifiers, such as suite number.

Among physicians with phone number information found in ≥ 2 health insurer directories, we evaluated consistency of physician phone number information across health plan directories. All digits of a phone number had to match exactly to be considered consistent.

Among physicians with specialty information found in ≥ 2 health insurer directories, we evaluated consistency of physician specialty information across health plan directories according to the 2021 National Uniform Claim Committee taxonomy, as previously described [ 8 ]. We categorized specialty information into 31 classifications according to the 2021 National Uniform Claim Committee taxonomy to account for differences in presence of specialty or subspecialty information across health insurer directories [ 13 ].

A physician’s information was deemed to be consistent if it was the same among all locations, phone numbers, or specialties across all health insurer directories in which the physician’s information was found. A physician’s information was considered inconsistent if physician address, phone number, or specialty differed across directories or if a physician was found in a directory but an address, phone number, or specialty present in other directories was missing from that directory.

Consistency of address, phone number, and specialty for each physician was computed independently and were not conditional on consistency of other variables.

Statistical analysis

For each insurer, we calculated the percentage of physicians in that insurer’s directory with consistent address, phone number, or specialty information when including only physicians found in that specific insurer’s physician directory. In order to evaluate consistency of physician information by physician specialty, we calculated the percentage of physicians with consistent address and phone number information by specialty among physicians with consistent specialty information only.

For each state, we calculated the percentage of physicians with consistent address, phone number, or specialty information. We attributed physicians with addresses in multiple states to the most frequent state (mode state) that appeared across all addresses for that physician. Since the presence of insurers in each state may vary, and the consistency of physician information decreases as a physician is found in more directories, we repeated this state-level analysis stratifying by the number of directories in which a physician appeared to account for potential differential ascertainment of consistency information based on the presence of number of insurers in each state.

In supplemental analysis, we additionally evaluated pair-wise consistency of physician directory address, phone number, and specialty information between each individual insurer and PECOS directly.

All analyses were conducted using Python version 3.4 (Python Software Foundation) and SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC).

Of 634,914 unique physicians in the PECOS database, 449,282 were found in ≥ 2 directories and included in our sample. Consistency of address information varied from 16.5 to 27.9% across insurers, consistency of phone number information varied from 16.0 to 27.4%, and consistency of specialty information varied from 64.2 to 68.0% across insurers (Fig.  1 ). Similar patterns were observed when each individual insurer was compared to PECOS directly, though address consistency was higher (ranging from 41 to 50% across insurers), phone number consistency was lower (ranging from 14 to 32% across insurers), and specialty consistency was higher (ranging from 80 to 87% across insurers; Supplemental Fig.  1 ).

Consistency of physician address, phone number, and specialty information by insurer compared to other insurer directories

Among physicians with consistent specialty information, address and phone number consistency varied considerably by physician specialty (Table  1 ). General practice, family medicine, plastic surgery, and dermatology physicians had the highest consistency of addresses (37-42%) and phone numbers (37-43%), whereas anesthesiology, nuclear medicine, radiology, and emergency medicine had the lowest consistency of address (11–21%) and phone number (9–14%) information across health insurer directories. Physicians in specialties that deliver primary care (general practice, family medicine, preventive medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, and obstetrics & gynecology) had consistency of addresses 31% of the time and phone numbers 30% of the time in aggregate.

There was marked variation in consistency of address information by state (Fig.  2 A), with only 13% of physicians having consistent addresses in Minnesota and 47% of physicians having consistent addresses in Washington, D.C. Similarly, there was marked variation in consistency of phone number information by state (Fig.  2 B), with only 6% of physicians having consistent phone numbers in North Dakota and 39% of physicians having consistent phone numbers in Florida. There was less variation in consistency of specialty information by state (Fig.  2 C), though this still ranged from 54% of physicians having consistent specialty information in Minnesota to 82% of physicians having consistent specialty information in Alaska. Similar patterns across states were observed when stratifying by number of directories in which a physician was found (Supplemental Figs.  2 – 4 ).

Variation in physician information by state (heat map)

In evaluating a large national sample of U.S. physicians, we found considerable variation in consistency of health plan directory information by specialty and state, but less variation by insurer.

The low variation in physician data consistency by insurer is suggestive of the systemic nature of the provider data quality problem across insurers, irrespective of individual insurer processes. All physician directory information originates from physician practices, which face tremendous administrative burden to send physician information to insurers in distinct formats via disparate mechanisms on different schedules [ 14 ]. Prior U.S. legislation, as well as the REAL Health Providers Act bill that is currently under consideration, has primarily targeted insurers to maintain accurate directories; however, newer policy solutions may be more successful if they incorporate provider groups as well to address another source of the provider data quality problem.

The magnitude of inconsistency of address and phone number information for physicians in all specialties was high. All specialties had < 50% consistency of physician addresses and phone numbers across health insurer directories examined. Reassuringly, primary care physicians and those that receive many direct patient referrals (plastic surgery and dermatology) had the greatest consistency across addresses and phone numbers, despite often practicing in multiple locations. In contrast, physicians with the lowest consistency across addresses and phone numbers were those that rarely had direct patient referrals (anesthesiology, nuclear medicine, radiology, emergency medicine), for which a health plan provider directory may be less important to ensure access to care. These data suggest that physician practices may be responsive to incentives to improve provider directory accuracy, given that specialties with a higher degree of interface with patients often had better provider data quality. Future policy solutions could leverage physician incentives further to improve directory quality.

We found considerable variation in address, phone number, and specialty data quality by state. However, the key drivers of this variation are unclear. States vary in their enforcement strategy for national laws pertaining to provider directory accuracy that target insurers [ 15 ]. Additionally, many states have specific laws on health plan provider directory quality targeting insurers, but they are variably enforced [ 9 ]. Notably, California has had several documented enforcements of state laws regarding provider directories in recent years [ 1 ]. but it remains near the median nationally in terms of provider data quality. Future research into the drivers of state variation in provider directory quality remains a rich area for further inquiry.

In the United States, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has proposed the creation of a National Directory of Healthcare Providers and Services, which would be a single, centralized system that would aim to reduce the burden for insurers and physicians while promoting real-time accuracy for patients [ 16 ]. This unified solution would engage both insurers and physician groups, though would require a radical shift in the way physician data is transmitted between entities. Notably, the PECOS directory is currently meant to be a national “gold standard” source of provider information for physicians who treat Medicare patients, but repeated Office of Inspector General investigations have found this to have substantial inaccuracies [ 17 ]. These findings are consistent with the results from the pairwise comparisons between individual insurers and PECOS in our study, which reaffirm the large magnitude of inconsistencies in this existing U.S. national government-run provider directory. An alternative, less-disruptive policy solution that may be easier to implement would be to create a national standard by which to exchange provider directory information, similar to administrative claims.

Internationally, many government agencies maintain centralized provider directories, in part by necessity as a function of operating public healthcare delivery systems, such as the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. In such contexts, accurate provider directory information is a key input to health workforce planning, which has implications for the short-term allocation of the healthcare workforce as well as the long-term development of the healthcare workforce through targeted investment in training programs. Some evidence suggests that inaccuracies are also present in high magnitude in such government-maintained directories [ 18 , 19 ], though a thorough evaluation of provider directory accuracy in most countries is lacking. Recognizing the need to streamline and improve provider data, in early 2023, the Australian Digital Health Agency launched Provider Connect Australia (PCA) [ 20 ], which is a unified database that streamlines access to provider information for patients and other healthcare entities. Given many parallels between the healthcare systems of Australia and the United States, it will be important to gauge the success of PCA in enrolling provider groups and the accuracy of its information as the world looks to PCA as a model for forward-thinking technology-enabled national provider directory.

In this report evaluating health plan physician directory consistency for over 40% of all US physicians, we found minimal variation by insurer and considerable variation by physician specialty and state. These data highlight the importance of novel policy solutions to centralize provider directories or create national and state-level standards. Future legislation should engage both insurers and physician groups to maximize quality of provider information.

Data availability

Deidentified participant data can be made available at time of publication upon reasonable request to researchers for analyses pertaining to physician directory data quality by contacting the corresponding author.

Abbreviations

Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System

Requiring Enhanced and Accurate Lists of Health Providers Act

Burman A, Haeder SF. Potemkin protections: assessing Provider Directory Accuracy and Timely Access for four specialties in California. J Health Polit Policy Law. 2022;47(3):319–49.

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Burman A, Haeder SF. Directory Accuracy and Timely Access in Maryland’s Medicaid Managed Care Program. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2022;33(2):597–611.

Resneck JS Jr, Quiggle A, Liu M, Brewster DW. The Accuracy of Dermatology Network Physician directories posted by Medicare Advantage Health Plans in an era of narrow networks. JAMA Dermatology. 2014;150(12):1290–7.

Busch SH, Kyanko KA. Incorrect Provider Directories Associated with Out-Of-Network Mental Health Care and Outpatient Surprise bills. Health Aff. 2020;39(6):975–83.

Article   Google Scholar  

Haeder SF, Weimer DL, Mukamel DB. Secret shoppers find Access to providers and Network Accuracy Lacking for those in Marketplace and Commercial Plans. Health Aff. 2016;35(7):1160–6.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. HHS-0938-2022-F-9991: Medicare Advantage and Sect. 1876 Cost Plan Network Adequacy Guidance_03_04_2022. 3/22/2022. https://www.hhs.gov/guidance/document/2022-network-adequacy-guidance . Accessed 12/12/2023.

Asamani JA, Christmals CD, Reitsma GM. The needs-based health workforce planning method: a systematic scoping review of analytical applications. Health Policy Plan. 2021;36(8):1325–43.

Butala NM, Jiwani K, Bucholz EM. Consistency of Physician Data Across Health Insurer Directories. JAMA. 2023;329(10):841–2.

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Burman A, Haeder SF. Without a dedicated enforcement mechanism, new federal protections are unlikely to improve provider directory accuracy. Health Affairs Blog [blog on the Internet]; 2021.

Yarrow G. Congress urged to tackle ‘ghost networks’ amid mental health crisis. https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3988563-congress-urged-tackle-ghost-networks-amid-mental-health-crisis/

Gonzales M. Senate finance committee passes ‘game changer’ behavioral health bill. Behav Health Bus. 11/9/2023. https://bhbusiness.com/2023/11/09/senate-finance-committee-passes-game-changer-behavioral-health-bill/ . Accessed 12/12/2023.

Burman A. Laying ghost networks to rest: combatting deceptive health plan provider directories. Yale L Pol’y Rev. 2021;40:78.

Google Scholar  

National Uniform Claim Committee. Health care provider taxonomy code set CSV, Version 22.1. Retrieved from https://nucc.org/index.php/code-sets-mainmenu-41/provider-taxonomy-mainmenu-40/csv-mainmenu-57 . September 30, 2022.

CAQH. (2019). The Hidden Causes of Inaccurate Provider Directories. Retrieved from https://www.caqh.org/sites/default/files/explorations/CAQH-hidden-causes-provider-directories-whitepaper.pdf

The Commonwealth Fund. Map: No Surprises Act Enforcement. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/maps-and-interactives/2022/feb/map-no-surprises-act . Accessed 12/12/2023.

Request for Information; National Directory of Healthcare Providers. & Serv Fed Register 10/7/2022. federalregister.gov/d/2022–21904

Ridgely MS, Damberg CL, Totten M, Escarce JJ. The perils of PECOS: using Medicare administrative data to answer important policy questions about health care markets. Health Affairs Forefr. 2021.

Knight-Madden J, Gray R. The accuracy of the Jamaican national physician register: a study of the status of physicians registered and their countries of training. BMC Health Serv Res. 2008;8:1–7.

Aeenparast A, Maftoon F, Farzadi F, Yazdeli MR. Accuracy of Physician directories in Tehran considering the present situation and improvement suggestions. Thrita. 2014;3(2).

McDonald K. Provider connect Australia to begin national roll-out as vaccine clinic finder connect closes down. PulseIT News April 8, 2023. https://www.pulseit.news/australian-digital-health/provider-connect-australia-to-begin-national-roll-out-as-vaccine-finder-connect-closes-down/ . Accessed 12/12/2023.

Download references

Acknowledgements

NB is supported by grants from the Boettcher Foundation and the American Heart Association.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center, 1700 N Wheeling St, Aurora, CO, 80045, USA

Neel M. Butala

University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA

Neel M. Butala & Emily M. Bucholz

Hilabs, Inc, Bethesda, MD, USA

Kuldeep Jiwani

Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA

Emily M. Bucholz

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

NB contributed to idea generation, analysis and interpretation of results, and writing of manuscript. KJ contributed to data aggregation and analysis and critical revision of manuscript. EB contributed to analysis and interpretation of results and critical revision of manuscript. NB and EB had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Neel M. Butala .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

This study was not considered human subjects research as all data were available in publicly accessible health insurer provider directories and therefore there was no interaction or interventions with any individuals or use of any private information. Therefore, this was deemed exempt from Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board review. All methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

NB and KJ report personal fees from HiLabs outside the submitted work. EB reports that her spouse has received personal fees from HiLabs outside the submitted work. This analysis was initiated independent of any of HiLabs products or financial interests. HiLabs did not have any direct input into the analysis or interpretation of the data. HiLabs had no role in the design and conduct of the study, preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary Material 1

Rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Butala, N.M., Jiwani, K. & Bucholz, E.M. Characterizing physician directory data quality: variation by specialty, state, and insurer. BMC Health Serv Res 24 , 808 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-11269-5

Download citation

Received : 22 October 2023

Accepted : 01 July 2024

Published : 18 July 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-11269-5

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Physician directory
• Health informatics
• Health plan
• Information technology infrastructure
• Health insurance

BMC Health Services Research

ISSN: 1472-6963

• General enquiries: [email protected]

FinancialResearch.gov

The ofr blog, low home equity depresses flood insurance take-up.

By Philip Mulder and Yanjun Liao

Published: July 24, 2024

Share on Facebook Share on Linked In Logo for Twitter

Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent official positions or policy of the OFR or Treasury .

New OFR Working Paper Shows Low Home Equity Depresses Flood Insurance Take-up

University of Wisconsin – Madison professor and affiliated OFR researcher Philip Mulder sought to understand why millions of U.S. homeowners with flood-prone properties don’t have flood insurance. In “What’s at Stake? Understanding the Role of Home Equity in Flood Insurance Demand,” Mr. Mulder and co-author Yanjun Liao explain how they arrive at one reason—low home equity depresses flood insurance take-up. Understanding why so few homeowners insure their flood risk is important for understanding how increasing flood risk could affect financial markets, particularly by exposing the mortgage system to risks from upticks in delinquencies and defaults.

The Pattern of Insurance Take-up Closely Follows That of House Prices

The authors find a direct relationship between home prices and flood insurance take-up. To isolate the causal effect of home equity on flood insurance demand, they exploit price changes over the housing boom and bust of the 2000s and early 2010s. They find that the dynamic pattern of insurance take-up closely follows variation in home prices. Insurance take-up and home prices peak around the same time—three years after the start of the boom—before declining.

The authors find a large, positive relationship between home prices and flood insurance take-up during the boom cycle of 2003-05. For example, a one-standard-deviation increase in the initial boom size was associated with 5 percent higher flood insurance take-up at the peak. Insurance take-up during the housing bust declined the most for homes built at the peak of the boom, a group that was highly leveraged with little home equity at the market’s low.

Mortgage Default Can Insure Households Against Climate Shocks, Albeit at the Social Cost of Reducing Incentives to Buy Insurance or Otherwise Lower Risk

Leveraged homeowners have less incentive to purchase flood insurance policies because mortgage default provides a form of implicit insurance that shifts some of their losses to lenders and investors. A natural disaster is a classic example of the sort of double-trigger events—simultaneous income and equity shocks—that are the main drivers of mortgage default. For highly leveraged households, the option of mortgage default or bankruptcy after a disaster can act as a high-deductible substitute for formal insurance.

The relationship between home prices and flood insurance demand is strongest in states with stronger mortgage borrower protections and in high-risk areas outside the floodplain where lenders do not require leveraged homeowners to carry flood insurance. As a result, disaster losses in such areas can spread to the investors who ultimately hold uninsured borrowers’ mortgage debt.

As disaster risk increases over time, more homeowners will face the choice between purchasing insurance or risking default after a flood. This working paper (link to WP) provides the first evidence of a causal relationship between home equity and flood insurance demand, with the key factor being that leveraged households with little home equity are less likely to insure. This means that the broader housing finance system, the GSEs that securitize mortgages, and the taxpayers who support GSEs will all ultimately bear some of such households’ losses. These results have important implications for understanding the likely impact of climate change on housing and mortgage markets.

Back to The Ofr Blog

You are now leaving the OFR’s website.

You will be redirected to:

You are now leaving the OFR Website. The website associated with the link you have selected is located on another server and is not subject to Federal information quality, privacy, security, and related guidelines. To remain on the OFR Website, click 'Cancel'. To continue to the other website you selected, click 'Proceed'. The OFR does not endorse this other website, its sponsor, or any of the views, activities, products, or services offered on the website or by any advertiser on the website.

Thank you for visiting www.financialresearch.gov.

• UB Directory
• Giving to UB >
• Find Your Cause >
• International Education >
• Lipshultz Paper Shows Additional Benefits of Dexrazoxane

Lipshultz Research Expands Effective Uses of Dexrazoxane

By Bill Bruton

Published June 21, 2023

Steven E. Lipshultz, MD , professor of pediatrics , is senior author on a paper published in the prestigious Journal of Clinical Oncology that shows that for survivors of childhood cancer treated with doxorubicin, dexrazoxane is cardioprotective for at least 18 years.

Targeted Leading Clinical Oncology Journal

Steven E. Lipshultz, MD

The paper is titled “Dexrazoxane and Long-Term Heart Function in Survivors of Childhood Cancer.” 

“Dexrazoxane should be considered as a standard cardioprotectant in children with cancer receiving a cumulative dose of at least 250 mg/m 2  of doxorubicin,” wrote Jonathan W. Friedberg, MD, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, in his commentary about the paper.

“We were pleased with this comment since we specifically targeted perhaps the leading clinical oncology journal, since even though this is a cardiac medication, the providers making decisions to prescribe it are clinical oncologists,” Lipshultz says. “Enhancing its use by oncologists was our objective.”

Study in US, Canada

This study followed 195 survivors of childhood cancer who are nearly 20 years from treatment and who were enrolled on clinical trials featuring dexrazoxane, primarily in the 1990s.

The work has been supported in part by a National Cancer Institute-funded R01 multicenter study performed at 49 institutions throughout the U.S. and Canada that enabled follow-up on the long-term (15 to 20 years) status of dexrazoxane-treated patients.

“The findings reported in this manuscript represent the primary aims of this R01 grant and indicate that there is long-term cardioprotection from dexrazoxane,” Lipshultz says. “Dexrazoxane-treated young adult-aged survivors of childhood cancer who had received the anthracycline chemotherapy doxorubicin were significantly more likely to have preserved left ventricular function and lower myocardial stress compared with the group assigned to doxorubicin alone nearly 20 years after initial anthracycline exposure.”

Research Goes Back to Late 1980s

Lipshultz and Eric J. Chow, MD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, are co-principal investigators on the grant from the National Cancer Institute that supported this study. Chow is also first author on the paper.

“Since the late 1980s, we have been publishing articles that identify the multiple number of cardiac risk factors associated with late cardiotoxicity associated with cancer treatments in long-term cancer survivors,” Lipshultz says. “The mission that we have been pushing over the past nearly four decades is that the successful treatment of cancer is the balance between the oncological cure while minimizing the toxicity and late effects resulting in the highest quality of life for survivors over their lifespans.”

Despite the demonstrated effectiveness of dexrazoxane, there remained a need for data showing the drug’s long-term efficacy.

“This publication represents the longest-term follow-up of a pediatric cardioprotectant therapy that we are aware of for any indication,” Lipshultz says. “To our knowledge, no other study has been able to examine the long-term efficacy of dexrazoxane as a cardioprotectant in children and adolescents treated for cancer. As such, we believe these results have important clinical practice implications given the uncertainty regarding dexrazoxane’s long-term benefit in childhood cancer survivors, especially since their clinically significant cardiotoxicity appears years — if not decades — after initial oncologic therapy.”

The study was conducted within the NCI-sponsored Children’s Oncology Group, and also supported by the NCI-sponsored Dana Farber Cancer Institute’s Childhood ALL Consortium.

Co-authors on the paper are from:

• Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
• Children’s Hospital of Michigan
• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• Children’s Wisconsin
• City of Hope
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• Golisano Children’s Hospital
• University of Alabama at Birmingham
• University of Arizona
• University of Montreal