The anatomy of a research paper or rather the format is very important when it comes to guiding you, researcher, as you craft your research paper. The whole idea of having the different defined parts of a research paper is to make your work easier and help you focus on one key element at a time. This format will provide you with an outline that you can rely on when structuring your research. When you follow a certain format in crafting your research paper, your audience will have an easier time understanding what you are putting across.
As a researcher looking to advance academically and career wise, it is only realistic to consider the presentation of your work. This will attract the needed attention from fellow scholars and researchers to analyze your work. It will also attract the attention of several journal hosts like CARI Journals where you can publish your paper.
CARI Journals is an accredited journal hosting that calls for well-crafted scientific papers to publish, with the aim of allowing researchers become successful in their fields of study. This means that when you are submitting your research paper to CARI it is important that it has a structure that is in line with CARI Journals standards of publishing.
If you are just starting out in your career, you should not be worried- CARI Journals provides you with a peer review process that will guide you through the whole process of having a well-crafted research paper for publication. Now let us look at the proper format for a research paper.
Cover page– the first section of your research should be the cover page or rather the title page. This page contains the title of your research paper, your name as the author and email address.
The abstract– this is often a one page summary that provides a broad overview of what the research is about. This is broken down into four parts: purpose of the study, methodology, the findings and the study’s contribution to theory, practice and policy. It is important that your abstract is impressive and compelling as it is the first thing your readers will read.
The introduction– a good introduction states the background of the study, statement of the problem, the objectives and significance of the study. Your introduction should clearly explain what you are trying to find out and why it is important.
Literature review– this section contains two parts, that is, theoretical review and empirical review. Theoretical review simply involves a review of existing theories that serve as a guide in developing arguments for your research. The empirical review on the other hand, examines research works that have been conducted by other scholars within the same scope of study. You will be required to present the sources of the studies you have looked into. Include the names of the relevant authors along with a formatted citation that points to their work that you have analyzed together with the year of publication.
Methodology– here you will need to point out the method of research that you adopted in your research. Commonly used methods include direct observation, desktop study, statistical evaluations or laboratory experiments. This is where you discuss your methodology of choice for your study.
Findings– you are expected to analyze the data you have collected while conducting the research. Your results should align with your statement of the problem and your methodology. The main aim is to answer questions posed in the introduction and the objectives of the study.
Conclusion and recommendations to the study– An informative conclusion on its own allows your audience to make sense out of your research. The conclusion brings everything together to make meaning. As you craft your conclusion, you should keep in mind the research question or rather the statement of the problem, the methodology employed and the findings. By bringing all these sections together, you will have reached the purpose of the study.
References page– This is where you put together all the sources of information that you dug into while collecting your data. You should ensure to use the appropriate citation when listing down your references. Various citation styles adopted include MLA, Harvard and APA formats
