a research paper in english

How To Write A Research Paper

Step-By-Step Tutorial With Examples + FREE Template

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewer: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | March 2024

For many students, crafting a strong research paper from scratch can feel like a daunting task – and rightly so! In this post, we’ll unpack what a research paper is, what it needs to do , and how to write one – in three easy steps. 🙂 

Overview: Writing A Research Paper

What (exactly) is a research paper.

• How to write a research paper
• Stage 1 : Topic & literature search
• Stage 2 : Structure & outline
• Stage 3 : Iterative writing
• Key takeaways

Let’s start by asking the most important question, “ What is a research paper? ”.

Simply put, a research paper is a scholarly written work where the writer (that’s you!) answers a specific question (this is called a research question ) through evidence-based arguments . Evidence-based is the keyword here. In other words, a research paper is different from an essay or other writing assignments that draw from the writer’s personal opinions or experiences. With a research paper, it’s all about building your arguments based on evidence (we’ll talk more about that evidence a little later).

Now, it’s worth noting that there are many different types of research papers , including analytical papers (the type I just described), argumentative papers, and interpretative papers. Here, we’ll focus on analytical papers , as these are some of the most common – but if you’re keen to learn about other types of research papers, be sure to check out the rest of the blog .

With that basic foundation laid, let’s get down to business and look at how to write a research paper .

Overview: The 3-Stage Process

While there are, of course, many potential approaches you can take to write a research paper, there are typically three stages to the writing process. So, in this tutorial, we’ll present a straightforward three-step process that we use when working with students at Grad Coach.

These three steps are:

• Finding a research topic and reviewing the existing literature
• Developing a provisional structure and outline for your paper, and
• Writing up your initial draft and then refining it iteratively

Let’s dig into each of these.

Need a helping hand?

Step 1: Find a topic and review the literature

As we mentioned earlier, in a research paper, you, as the researcher, will try to answer a question . More specifically, that’s called a research question , and it sets the direction of your entire paper. What’s important to understand though is that you’ll need to answer that research question with the help of high-quality sources – for example, journal articles, government reports, case studies, and so on. We’ll circle back to this in a minute.

The first stage of the research process is deciding on what your research question will be and then reviewing the existing literature (in other words, past studies and papers) to see what they say about that specific research question. In some cases, your professor may provide you with a predetermined research question (or set of questions). However, in many cases, you’ll need to find your own research question within a certain topic area.

Finding a strong research question hinges on identifying a meaningful research gap – in other words, an area that’s lacking in existing research. There’s a lot to unpack here, so if you wanna learn more, check out the plain-language explainer video below.

Once you’ve figured out which question (or questions) you’ll attempt to answer in your research paper, you’ll need to do a deep dive into the existing literature – this is called a “ literature search ”. Again, there are many ways to go about this, but your most likely starting point will be Google Scholar .

If you’re new to Google Scholar, think of it as Google for the academic world. You can start by simply entering a few different keywords that are relevant to your research question and it will then present a host of articles for you to review. What you want to pay close attention to here is the number of citations for each paper – the more citations a paper has, the more credible it is (generally speaking – there are some exceptions, of course).

Ideally, what you’re looking for are well-cited papers that are highly relevant to your topic. That said, keep in mind that citations are a cumulative metric , so older papers will often have more citations than newer papers – just because they’ve been around for longer. So, don’t fixate on this metric in isolation – relevance and recency are also very important.

Beyond Google Scholar, you’ll also definitely want to check out academic databases and aggregators such as Science Direct, PubMed, JStor and so on. These will often overlap with the results that you find in Google Scholar, but they can also reveal some hidden gems – so, be sure to check them out.

Once you’ve worked your way through all the literature, you’ll want to catalogue all this information in some sort of spreadsheet so that you can easily recall who said what, when and within what context. If you’d like, we’ve got a free literature spreadsheet that helps you do exactly that.

Step 2: Develop a structure and outline

With your research question pinned down and your literature digested and catalogued, it’s time to move on to planning your actual research paper .

It might sound obvious, but it’s really important to have some sort of rough outline in place before you start writing your paper. So often, we see students eagerly rushing into the writing phase, only to land up with a disjointed research paper that rambles on in multiple

Now, the secret here is to not get caught up in the fine details . Realistically, all you need at this stage is a bullet-point list that describes (in broad strokes) what you’ll discuss and in what order. It’s also useful to remember that you’re not glued to this outline – in all likelihood, you’ll chop and change some sections once you start writing, and that’s perfectly okay. What’s important is that you have some sort of roadmap in place from the start.

At this stage you might be wondering, “ But how should I structure my research paper? ”. Well, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution here, but in general, a research paper will consist of a few relatively standardised components:

• Introduction
• Literature review
• Methodology

Let’s take a look at each of these.

First up is the introduction section . As the name suggests, the purpose of the introduction is to set the scene for your research paper. There are usually (at least) four ingredients that go into this section – these are the background to the topic, the research problem and resultant research question , and the justification or rationale. If you’re interested, the video below unpacks the introduction section in more detail. 

The next section of your research paper will typically be your literature review . Remember all that literature you worked through earlier? Well, this is where you’ll present your interpretation of all that content . You’ll do this by writing about recent trends, developments, and arguments within the literature – but more specifically, those that are relevant to your research question . The literature review can oftentimes seem a little daunting, even to seasoned researchers, so be sure to check out our extensive collection of literature review content here .

With the introduction and lit review out of the way, the next section of your paper is the research methodology . In a nutshell, the methodology section should describe to your reader what you did (beyond just reviewing the existing literature) to answer your research question. For example, what data did you collect, how did you collect that data, how did you analyse that data and so on? For each choice, you’ll also need to justify why you chose to do it that way, and what the strengths and weaknesses of your approach were.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that for some research papers, this aspect of the project may be a lot simpler . For example, you may only need to draw on secondary sources (in other words, existing data sets). In some cases, you may just be asked to draw your conclusions from the literature search itself (in other words, there may be no data analysis at all). But, if you are required to collect and analyse data, you’ll need to pay a lot of attention to the methodology section. The video below provides an example of what the methodology section might look like.

By this stage of your paper, you will have explained what your research question is, what the existing literature has to say about that question, and how you analysed additional data to try to answer your question. So, the natural next step is to present your analysis of that data . This section is usually called the “results” or “analysis” section and this is where you’ll showcase your findings.

Depending on your school’s requirements, you may need to present and interpret the data in one section – or you might split the presentation and the interpretation into two sections. In the latter case, your “results” section will just describe the data, and the “discussion” is where you’ll interpret that data and explicitly link your analysis back to your research question. If you’re not sure which approach to take, check in with your professor or take a look at past papers to see what the norms are for your programme.

Alright – once you’ve presented and discussed your results, it’s time to wrap it up . This usually takes the form of the “ conclusion ” section. In the conclusion, you’ll need to highlight the key takeaways from your study and close the loop by explicitly answering your research question. Again, the exact requirements here will vary depending on your programme (and you may not even need a conclusion section at all) – so be sure to check with your professor if you’re unsure.

Step 3: Write and refine

Finally, it’s time to get writing. All too often though, students hit a brick wall right about here… So, how do you avoid this happening to you?

Well, there’s a lot to be said when it comes to writing a research paper (or any sort of academic piece), but we’ll share three practical tips to help you get started.

First and foremost , it’s essential to approach your writing as an iterative process. In other words, you need to start with a really messy first draft and then polish it over multiple rounds of editing. Don’t waste your time trying to write a perfect research paper in one go. Instead, take the pressure off yourself by adopting an iterative approach.

Secondly , it’s important to always lean towards critical writing , rather than descriptive writing. What does this mean? Well, at the simplest level, descriptive writing focuses on the “ what ”, while critical writing digs into the “ so what ” – in other words, the implications . If you’re not familiar with these two types of writing, don’t worry! You can find a plain-language explanation here.

Last but not least, you’ll need to get your referencing right. Specifically, you’ll need to provide credible, correctly formatted citations for the statements you make. We see students making referencing mistakes all the time and it costs them dearly. The good news is that you can easily avoid this by using a simple reference manager . If you don’t have one, check out our video about Mendeley, an easy (and free) reference management tool that you can start using today.

Recap: Key Takeaways

We’ve covered a lot of ground here. To recap, the three steps to writing a high-quality research paper are:

• To choose a research question and review the literature
• To plan your paper structure and draft an outline
• To take an iterative approach to writing, focusing on critical writing and strong referencing

Remember, this is just a b ig-picture overview of the research paper development process and there’s a lot more nuance to unpack. So, be sure to grab a copy of our free research paper template to learn more about how to write a research paper.

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Home » Research Paper – Structure, Examples and Writing Guide

Research Paper – Structure, Examples and Writing Guide

Table of Contents

Research Paper

Definition:

Research Paper is a written document that presents the author’s original research, analysis, and interpretation of a specific topic or issue.

It is typically based on Empirical Evidence, and may involve qualitative or quantitative research methods, or a combination of both. The purpose of a research paper is to contribute new knowledge or insights to a particular field of study, and to demonstrate the author’s understanding of the existing literature and theories related to the topic.

Structure of Research Paper

The structure of a research paper typically follows a standard format, consisting of several sections that convey specific information about the research study. The following is a detailed explanation of the structure of a research paper:

The title page contains the title of the paper, the name(s) of the author(s), and the affiliation(s) of the author(s). It also includes the date of submission and possibly, the name of the journal or conference where the paper is to be published.

The abstract is a brief summary of the research paper, typically ranging from 100 to 250 words. It should include the research question, the methods used, the key findings, and the implications of the results. The abstract should be written in a concise and clear manner to allow readers to quickly grasp the essence of the research.

Introduction

The introduction section of a research paper provides background information about the research problem, the research question, and the research objectives. It also outlines the significance of the research, the research gap that it aims to fill, and the approach taken to address the research question. Finally, the introduction section ends with a clear statement of the research hypothesis or research question.

Literature Review

The literature review section of a research paper provides an overview of the existing literature on the topic of study. It includes a critical analysis and synthesis of the literature, highlighting the key concepts, themes, and debates. The literature review should also demonstrate the research gap and how the current study seeks to address it.

The methods section of a research paper describes the research design, the sample selection, the data collection and analysis procedures, and the statistical methods used to analyze the data. This section should provide sufficient detail for other researchers to replicate the study.

The results section presents the findings of the research, using tables, graphs, and figures to illustrate the data. The findings should be presented in a clear and concise manner, with reference to the research question and hypothesis.

The discussion section of a research paper interprets the findings and discusses their implications for the research question, the literature review, and the field of study. It should also address the limitations of the study and suggest future research directions.

The conclusion section summarizes the main findings of the study, restates the research question and hypothesis, and provides a final reflection on the significance of the research.

The references section provides a list of all the sources cited in the paper, following a specific citation style such as APA, MLA or Chicago.

How to Write Research Paper

You can write Research Paper by the following guide:

• Choose a Topic: The first step is to select a topic that interests you and is relevant to your field of study. Brainstorm ideas and narrow down to a research question that is specific and researchable.
• Conduct a Literature Review: The literature review helps you identify the gap in the existing research and provides a basis for your research question. It also helps you to develop a theoretical framework and research hypothesis.
• Develop a Thesis Statement : The thesis statement is the main argument of your research paper. It should be clear, concise and specific to your research question.
• Plan your Research: Develop a research plan that outlines the methods, data sources, and data analysis procedures. This will help you to collect and analyze data effectively.
• Collect and Analyze Data: Collect data using various methods such as surveys, interviews, observations, or experiments. Analyze data using statistical tools or other qualitative methods.
• Organize your Paper : Organize your paper into sections such as Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. Ensure that each section is coherent and follows a logical flow.
• Write your Paper : Start by writing the introduction, followed by the literature review, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. Ensure that your writing is clear, concise, and follows the required formatting and citation styles.
• Edit and Proofread your Paper: Review your paper for grammar and spelling errors, and ensure that it is well-structured and easy to read. Ask someone else to review your paper to get feedback and suggestions for improvement.
• Cite your Sources: Ensure that you properly cite all sources used in your research paper. This is essential for giving credit to the original authors and avoiding plagiarism.

Research Paper Example

Note : The below example research paper is for illustrative purposes only and is not an actual research paper. Actual research papers may have different structures, contents, and formats depending on the field of study, research question, data collection and analysis methods, and other factors. Students should always consult with their professors or supervisors for specific guidelines and expectations for their research papers.

Research Paper Example sample for Students:

Title: The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health among Young Adults

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the impact of social media use on the mental health of young adults. A literature review was conducted to examine the existing research on the topic. A survey was then administered to 200 university students to collect data on their social media use, mental health status, and perceived impact of social media on their mental health. The results showed that social media use is positively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. The study also found that social comparison, cyberbullying, and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) are significant predictors of mental health problems among young adults.

Introduction: Social media has become an integral part of modern life, particularly among young adults. While social media has many benefits, including increased communication and social connectivity, it has also been associated with negative outcomes, such as addiction, cyberbullying, and mental health problems. This study aims to investigate the impact of social media use on the mental health of young adults.

Literature Review: The literature review highlights the existing research on the impact of social media use on mental health. The review shows that social media use is associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and other mental health problems. The review also identifies the factors that contribute to the negative impact of social media, including social comparison, cyberbullying, and FOMO.

Methods : A survey was administered to 200 university students to collect data on their social media use, mental health status, and perceived impact of social media on their mental health. The survey included questions on social media use, mental health status (measured using the DASS-21), and perceived impact of social media on their mental health. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis.

Results : The results showed that social media use is positively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. The study also found that social comparison, cyberbullying, and FOMO are significant predictors of mental health problems among young adults.

Discussion : The study’s findings suggest that social media use has a negative impact on the mental health of young adults. The study highlights the need for interventions that address the factors contributing to the negative impact of social media, such as social comparison, cyberbullying, and FOMO.

Conclusion : In conclusion, social media use has a significant impact on the mental health of young adults. The study’s findings underscore the need for interventions that promote healthy social media use and address the negative outcomes associated with social media use. Future research can explore the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing the negative impact of social media on mental health. Additionally, longitudinal studies can investigate the long-term effects of social media use on mental health.

Limitations : The study has some limitations, including the use of self-report measures and a cross-sectional design. The use of self-report measures may result in biased responses, and a cross-sectional design limits the ability to establish causality.

Implications: The study’s findings have implications for mental health professionals, educators, and policymakers. Mental health professionals can use the findings to develop interventions that address the negative impact of social media use on mental health. Educators can incorporate social media literacy into their curriculum to promote healthy social media use among young adults. Policymakers can use the findings to develop policies that protect young adults from the negative outcomes associated with social media use.

References :

• Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2019). Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being among children and adolescents: Evidence from a population-based study. Preventive medicine reports, 15, 100918.
• Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., Barrett, E. L., Sidani, J. E., Colditz, J. B., … & James, A. E. (2017). Use of multiple social media platforms and symptoms of depression and anxiety: A nationally-representative study among US young adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 1-9.
• Van der Meer, T. G., & Verhoeven, J. W. (2017). Social media and its impact on academic performance of students. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 16, 383-398.

Appendix : The survey used in this study is provided below.

Social Media and Mental Health Survey

• How often do you use social media per day?
• Less than 30 minutes
• 30 minutes to 1 hour
• 1 to 2 hours
• 2 to 4 hours
• More than 4 hours
• Which social media platforms do you use?
• Others (Please specify)
• How often do you experience the following on social media?
• Social comparison (comparing yourself to others)
• Cyberbullying
• Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
• Have you ever experienced any of the following mental health problems in the past month?
• Do you think social media use has a positive or negative impact on your mental health?
• Very positive
• Somewhat positive
• Somewhat negative
• Very negative
• In your opinion, which factors contribute to the negative impact of social media on mental health?
• Social comparison
• In your opinion, what interventions could be effective in reducing the negative impact of social media on mental health?
• Education on healthy social media use
• Counseling for mental health problems caused by social media
• Social media detox programs
• Regulation of social media use

Thank you for your participation!

Applications of Research Paper

Research papers have several applications in various fields, including:

• Advancing knowledge: Research papers contribute to the advancement of knowledge by generating new insights, theories, and findings that can inform future research and practice. They help to answer important questions, clarify existing knowledge, and identify areas that require further investigation.
• Informing policy: Research papers can inform policy decisions by providing evidence-based recommendations for policymakers. They can help to identify gaps in current policies, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, and inform the development of new policies and regulations.
• Improving practice: Research papers can improve practice by providing evidence-based guidance for professionals in various fields, including medicine, education, business, and psychology. They can inform the development of best practices, guidelines, and standards of care that can improve outcomes for individuals and organizations.
• Educating students : Research papers are often used as teaching tools in universities and colleges to educate students about research methods, data analysis, and academic writing. They help students to develop critical thinking skills, research skills, and communication skills that are essential for success in many careers.
• Fostering collaboration: Research papers can foster collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers by providing a platform for sharing knowledge and ideas. They can facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships that can lead to innovative solutions to complex problems.

When to Write Research Paper

Research papers are typically written when a person has completed a research project or when they have conducted a study and have obtained data or findings that they want to share with the academic or professional community. Research papers are usually written in academic settings, such as universities, but they can also be written in professional settings, such as research organizations, government agencies, or private companies.

Here are some common situations where a person might need to write a research paper:

• For academic purposes: Students in universities and colleges are often required to write research papers as part of their coursework, particularly in the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities. Writing research papers helps students to develop research skills, critical thinking skills, and academic writing skills.
• For publication: Researchers often write research papers to publish their findings in academic journals or to present their work at academic conferences. Publishing research papers is an important way to disseminate research findings to the academic community and to establish oneself as an expert in a particular field.
• To inform policy or practice : Researchers may write research papers to inform policy decisions or to improve practice in various fields. Research findings can be used to inform the development of policies, guidelines, and best practices that can improve outcomes for individuals and organizations.
• To share new insights or ideas: Researchers may write research papers to share new insights or ideas with the academic or professional community. They may present new theories, propose new research methods, or challenge existing paradigms in their field.

Purpose of Research Paper

The purpose of a research paper is to present the results of a study or investigation in a clear, concise, and structured manner. Research papers are written to communicate new knowledge, ideas, or findings to a specific audience, such as researchers, scholars, practitioners, or policymakers. The primary purposes of a research paper are:

• To contribute to the body of knowledge : Research papers aim to add new knowledge or insights to a particular field or discipline. They do this by reporting the results of empirical studies, reviewing and synthesizing existing literature, proposing new theories, or providing new perspectives on a topic.
• To inform or persuade: Research papers are written to inform or persuade the reader about a particular issue, topic, or phenomenon. They present evidence and arguments to support their claims and seek to persuade the reader of the validity of their findings or recommendations.
• To advance the field: Research papers seek to advance the field or discipline by identifying gaps in knowledge, proposing new research questions or approaches, or challenging existing assumptions or paradigms. They aim to contribute to ongoing debates and discussions within a field and to stimulate further research and inquiry.
• To demonstrate research skills: Research papers demonstrate the author’s research skills, including their ability to design and conduct a study, collect and analyze data, and interpret and communicate findings. They also demonstrate the author’s ability to critically evaluate existing literature, synthesize information from multiple sources, and write in a clear and structured manner.

Characteristics of Research Paper

Research papers have several characteristics that distinguish them from other forms of academic or professional writing. Here are some common characteristics of research papers:

• Evidence-based: Research papers are based on empirical evidence, which is collected through rigorous research methods such as experiments, surveys, observations, or interviews. They rely on objective data and facts to support their claims and conclusions.
• Structured and organized: Research papers have a clear and logical structure, with sections such as introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. They are organized in a way that helps the reader to follow the argument and understand the findings.
• Formal and objective: Research papers are written in a formal and objective tone, with an emphasis on clarity, precision, and accuracy. They avoid subjective language or personal opinions and instead rely on objective data and analysis to support their arguments.
• Citations and references: Research papers include citations and references to acknowledge the sources of information and ideas used in the paper. They use a specific citation style, such as APA, MLA, or Chicago, to ensure consistency and accuracy.
• Peer-reviewed: Research papers are often peer-reviewed, which means they are evaluated by other experts in the field before they are published. Peer-review ensures that the research is of high quality, meets ethical standards, and contributes to the advancement of knowledge in the field.
• Objective and unbiased: Research papers strive to be objective and unbiased in their presentation of the findings. They avoid personal biases or preconceptions and instead rely on the data and analysis to draw conclusions.

Advantages of Research Paper

Research papers have many advantages, both for the individual researcher and for the broader academic and professional community. Here are some advantages of research papers:

• Contribution to knowledge: Research papers contribute to the body of knowledge in a particular field or discipline. They add new information, insights, and perspectives to existing literature and help advance the understanding of a particular phenomenon or issue.
• Opportunity for intellectual growth: Research papers provide an opportunity for intellectual growth for the researcher. They require critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, which can help develop the researcher’s skills and knowledge.
• Career advancement: Research papers can help advance the researcher’s career by demonstrating their expertise and contributions to the field. They can also lead to new research opportunities, collaborations, and funding.
• Academic recognition: Research papers can lead to academic recognition in the form of awards, grants, or invitations to speak at conferences or events. They can also contribute to the researcher’s reputation and standing in the field.
• Impact on policy and practice: Research papers can have a significant impact on policy and practice. They can inform policy decisions, guide practice, and lead to changes in laws, regulations, or procedures.
• Advancement of society: Research papers can contribute to the advancement of society by addressing important issues, identifying solutions to problems, and promoting social justice and equality.

Limitations of Research Paper

Research papers also have some limitations that should be considered when interpreting their findings or implications. Here are some common limitations of research papers:

• Limited generalizability: Research findings may not be generalizable to other populations, settings, or contexts. Studies often use specific samples or conditions that may not reflect the broader population or real-world situations.
• Potential for bias : Research papers may be biased due to factors such as sample selection, measurement errors, or researcher biases. It is important to evaluate the quality of the research design and methods used to ensure that the findings are valid and reliable.
• Ethical concerns: Research papers may raise ethical concerns, such as the use of vulnerable populations or invasive procedures. Researchers must adhere to ethical guidelines and obtain informed consent from participants to ensure that the research is conducted in a responsible and respectful manner.
• Limitations of methodology: Research papers may be limited by the methodology used to collect and analyze data. For example, certain research methods may not capture the complexity or nuance of a particular phenomenon, or may not be appropriate for certain research questions.
• Publication bias: Research papers may be subject to publication bias, where positive or significant findings are more likely to be published than negative or non-significant findings. This can skew the overall findings of a particular area of research.
• Time and resource constraints: Research papers may be limited by time and resource constraints, which can affect the quality and scope of the research. Researchers may not have access to certain data or resources, or may be unable to conduct long-term studies due to practical limitations.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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How to Write a Research Paper

Use the links below to jump directly to any section of this guide:

Research Paper Fundamentals

How to choose a topic or question, how to create a working hypothesis or thesis, common research paper methodologies, how to gather and organize evidence , how to write an outline for your research paper, how to write a rough draft, how to revise your draft, how to produce a final draft, resources for teachers .

It is not fair to say that no one writes anymore. Just about everyone writes text messages, brief emails, or social media posts every single day. Yet, most people don't have a lot of practice with the formal, organized writing required for a good academic research paper. This guide contains links to a variety of resources that can help demystify the process. Some of these resources are intended for teachers; they contain exercises, activities, and teaching strategies. Other resources are intended for direct use by students who are struggling to write papers, or are looking for tips to make the process go more smoothly.

The resources in this section are designed to help students understand the different types of research papers, the general research process, and how to manage their time. Below, you'll find links from university writing centers, the trusted Purdue Online Writing Lab, and more.

What is an Academic Research Paper?

"Genre and the Research Paper" (Purdue OWL)

There are different types of research papers. Different types of scholarly questions will lend themselves to one format or another. This is a brief introduction to the two main genres of research paper: analytic and argumentative. 

"7 Most Popular Types of Research Papers" (Personal-writer.com)

This resource discusses formats that high school students commonly encounter, such as the compare and contrast essay and the definitional essay. Please note that the inclusion of this link is not an endorsement of this company's paid service.

How to Prepare and Plan Out Writing a Research Paper

Teachers can give their students a step-by-step guide like these to help them understand the different steps of the research paper process. These guides can be combined with the time management tools in the next subsection to help students come up with customized calendars for completing their papers.

"Ten Steps for Writing Research Papers" (American University)  

This resource from American University is a comprehensive guide to the research paper writing process, and includes examples of proper research questions and thesis topics.

"Steps in Writing a Research Paper" (SUNY Empire State College)

This guide breaks the research paper process into 11 steps. Each "step" links to a separate page, which describes the work entailed in completing it.

How to Manage Time Effectively

The links below will help students determine how much time is necessary to complete a paper. If your sources are not available online or at your local library, you'll need to leave extra time for the Interlibrary Loan process. Remember that, even if you do not need to consult secondary sources, you'll still need to leave yourself ample time to organize your thoughts.

"Research Paper Planner: Timeline" (Baylor University)

This interactive resource from Baylor University creates a suggested writing schedule based on how much time a student has to work on the assignment.

"Research Paper Planner" (UCLA)

UCLA's library offers this step-by-step guide to the research paper writing process, which also includes a suggested planning calendar.

There's a reason teachers spend a long time talking about choosing a good topic. Without a good topic and a well-formulated research question, it is almost impossible to write a clear and organized paper. The resources below will help you generate ideas and formulate precise questions.

"How to Select a Research Topic" (Univ. of Michigan-Flint)

This resource is designed for college students who are struggling to come up with an appropriate topic. A student who uses this resource and still feels unsure about his or her topic should consult the course instructor for further personalized assistance.

"25 Interesting Research Paper Topics to Get You Started" (Kibin)

This resource, which is probably most appropriate for high school students, provides a list of specific topics to help get students started. It is broken into subsections, such as "paper topics on local issues."

"Writing a Good Research Question" (Grand Canyon University)

This introduction to research questions includes some embedded videos, as well as links to scholarly articles on research questions. This resource would be most appropriate for teachers who are planning lessons on research paper fundamentals.

"How to Write a Research Question the Right Way" (Kibin)

This student-focused resource provides more detail on writing research questions. The language is accessible, and there are embedded videos and examples of good and bad questions.

It is important to have a rough hypothesis or thesis in mind at the beginning of the research process. People who have a sense of what they want to say will have an easier time sorting through scholarly sources and other information. The key, of course, is not to become too wedded to the draft hypothesis or thesis. Just about every working thesis gets changed during the research process.

CrashCourse Video: "Sociology Research Methods" (YouTube)

Although this video is tailored to sociology students, it is applicable to students in a variety of social science disciplines. This video does a good job demonstrating the connection between the brainstorming that goes into selecting a research question and the formulation of a working hypothesis.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement for an Analytical Essay" (YouTube)

Students writing analytical essays will not develop the same type of working hypothesis as students who are writing research papers in other disciplines. For these students, developing the working thesis may happen as a part of the rough draft (see the relevant section below). 

"Research Hypothesis" (Oakland Univ.)

This resource provides some examples of hypotheses in social science disciplines like Political Science and Criminal Justice. These sample hypotheses may also be useful for students in other soft social sciences and humanities disciplines like History.

When grading a research paper, instructors look for a consistent methodology. This section will help you understand different methodological approaches used in research papers. Students will get the most out of these resources if they use them to help prepare for conversations with teachers or discussions in class.

"Types of Research Designs" (USC)

A "research design," used for complex papers, is related to the paper's method. This resource contains introductions to a variety of popular research designs in the social sciences. Although it is not the most intuitive site to read, the information here is very valuable. 

"Major Research Methods" (YouTube)

Although this video is a bit on the dry side, it provides a comprehensive overview of the major research methodologies in a format that might be more accessible to students who have struggled with textbooks or other written resources.

"Humanities Research Strategies" (USC)

This is a portal where students can learn about four methodological approaches for humanities papers: Historical Methodologies, Textual Criticism, Conceptual Analysis, and the Synoptic method.

"Selected Major Social Science Research Methods: Overview" (National Academies Press)

This appendix from the book  Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy , printed by National Academies Press, introduces some methods used in social science papers.

"Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: 6. The Methodology" (USC)

This resource from the University of Southern California's library contains tips for writing a methodology section in a research paper.

How to Determine the Best Methodology for You

Anyone who is new to writing research papers should be sure to select a method in consultation with their instructor. These resources can be used to help prepare for that discussion. They may also be used on their own by more advanced students.

"Choosing Appropriate Research Methodologies" (Palgrave Study Skills)

This friendly and approachable resource from Palgrave Macmillan can be used by students who are just starting to think about appropriate methodologies.

"How to Choose Your Research Methods" (NFER (UK))

This is another approachable resource students can use to help narrow down the most appropriate methods for their research projects.

The resources in this section introduce the process of gathering scholarly sources and collecting evidence. You'll find a range of material here, from introductory guides to advanced explications best suited to college students. Please consult the LitCharts  How to Do Academic Research guide for a more comprehensive list of resources devoted to finding scholarly literature.

Google Scholar

Students who have access to library websites with detailed research guides should start there, but people who do not have access to those resources can begin their search for secondary literature here.

"Gathering Appropriate Information" (Texas Gateway)

This resource from the Texas Gateway for online resources introduces students to the research process, and contains interactive exercises. The level of complexity is suitable for middle school, high school, and introductory college classrooms.

"An Overview of Quantitative and Qualitative Data Collection Methods" (NSF)

This PDF from the National Science Foundation goes into detail about best practices and pitfalls in data collection across multiple types of methodologies.

"Social Science Methods for Data Collection and Analysis" (Swiss FIT)

This resource is appropriate for advanced undergraduates or teachers looking to create lessons on research design and data collection. It covers techniques for gathering data via interviews, observations, and other methods.

"Collecting Data by In-depth Interviewing" (Leeds Univ.)

This resource contains enough information about conducting interviews to make it useful for teachers who want to create a lesson plan, but is also accessible enough for college juniors or seniors to make use of it on their own.

There is no "one size fits all" outlining technique. Some students might devote all their energy and attention to the outline in order to avoid the paper. Other students may benefit from being made to sit down and organize their thoughts into a lengthy sentence outline. The resources in this section include strategies and templates for multiple types of outlines. 

"Topic vs. Sentence Outlines" (UC Berkeley)

This resource introduces two basic approaches to outlining: the shorter topic-based approach, and the longer, more detailed sentence-based approach. This resource also contains videos on how to develop paper paragraphs from the sentence-based outline.

"Types of Outlines and Samples" (Purdue OWL)

The Purdue Online Writing Lab's guide is a slightly less detailed discussion of different types of outlines. It contains several sample outlines.

"Writing An Outline" (Austin C.C.)

This resource from a community college contains sample outlines from an American history class that students can use as models.

"How to Structure an Outline for a College Paper" (YouTube)

This brief (sub-2 minute) video from the ExpertVillage YouTube channel provides a model of outline writing for students who are struggling with the idea.

"Outlining" (Harvard)

This is a good resource to consult after completing a draft outline. It offers suggestions for making sure your outline avoids things like unnecessary repetition.

As with outlines, rough drafts can take on many different forms. These resources introduce teachers and students to the various approaches to writing a rough draft. This section also includes resources that will help you cite your sources appropriately according to the MLA, Chicago, and APA style manuals.

"Creating a Rough Draft for a Research Paper" (Univ. of Minnesota)

This resource is useful for teachers in particular, as it provides some suggested exercises to help students with writing a basic rough draft. 

Rough Draft Assignment (Duke of Definition)

This sample assignment, with a brief list of tips, was developed by a high school teacher who runs a very successful and well-reviewed page of educational resources.

"Creating the First Draft of Your Research Paper" (Concordia Univ.)

This resource will be helpful for perfectionists or procrastinators, as it opens by discussing the problem of avoiding writing. It also provides a short list of suggestions meant to get students writing.

Using Proper Citations

There is no such thing as a rough draft of a scholarly citation. These links to the three major citation guides will ensure that your citations follow the correct format. Please consult the LitCharts How to Cite Your Sources guide for more resources.

Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide

Some call  The Chicago Manual of Style , which was first published in 1906, "the editors' Bible." The manual is now in its 17th edition, and is popular in the social sciences, historical journals, and some other fields in the humanities.

APA Citation Guide

According to the American Psychological Association, this guide was developed to aid reading comprehension, clarity of communication, and to reduce bias in language in the social and behavioral sciences. Its first full edition was published in 1952, and it is now in its sixth edition.

MLA Citation Guide

The Modern Language Association style is used most commonly within the liberal arts and humanities. The  MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing  was first published in 1985 and (as of 2008) is in its third edition.

Any professional scholar will tell you that the best research papers are made in the revision stage. No matter how strong your research question or working thesis, it is not possible to write a truly outstanding paper without devoting energy to revision. These resources provide examples of revision exercises for the classroom, as well as tips for students working independently.

"The Art of Revision" (Univ. of Arizona)

This resource provides a wealth of information and suggestions for both students and teachers. There is a list of suggested exercises that teachers might use in class, along with a revision checklist that is useful for teachers and students alike.

"Script for Workshop on Revision" (Vanderbilt University)

Vanderbilt's guide for leading a 50-minute revision workshop can serve as a model for teachers who wish to guide students through the revision process during classtime. 

"Revising Your Paper" (Univ. of Washington)

This detailed handout was designed for students who are beginning the revision process. It discusses different approaches and methods for revision, and also includes a detailed list of things students should look for while they revise.

"Revising Drafts" (UNC Writing Center)

This resource is designed for students and suggests things to look for during the revision process. It provides steps for the process and has a FAQ for students who have questions about why it is important to revise.

Conferencing with Writing Tutors and Instructors

No writer is so good that he or she can't benefit from meeting with instructors or peer tutors. These resources from university writing, learning, and communication centers provide suggestions for how to get the most out of these one-on-one meetings.

"Getting Feedback" (UNC Writing Center)

This very helpful resource talks about how to ask for feedback during the entire writing process. It contains possible questions that students might ask when developing an outline, during the revision process, and after the final draft has been graded.

"Prepare for Your Tutoring Session" (Otis College of Art and Design)

This guide from a university's student learning center contains a lot of helpful tips for getting the most out of working with a writing tutor.

"The Importance of Asking Your Professor" (Univ. of Waterloo)

This article from the university's Writing and Communication Centre's blog contains some suggestions for how and when to get help from professors and Teaching Assistants.

Once you've revised your first draft, you're well on your way to handing in a polished paper. These resources—each of them produced by writing professionals at colleges and universities—outline the steps required in order to produce a final draft. You'll find proofreading tips and checklists in text and video form.

"Developing a Final Draft of a Research Paper" (Univ. of Minnesota)

While this resource contains suggestions for revision, it also features a couple of helpful checklists for the last stages of completing a final draft.

Basic Final Draft Tips and Checklist (Univ. of Maryland-University College)

This short and accessible resource, part of UMUC's very thorough online guide to writing and research, contains a very basic checklist for students who are getting ready to turn in their final drafts.

Final Draft Checklist (Everett C.C.)

This is another accessible final draft checklist, appropriate for both high school and college students. It suggests reading your essay aloud at least once.

"How to Proofread Your Final Draft" (YouTube)

This video (approximately 5 minutes), produced by Eastern Washington University, gives students tips on proofreading final drafts.

"Proofreading Tips" (Georgia Southern-Armstrong)

This guide will help students learn how to spot common errors in their papers. It suggests focusing on content and editing for grammar and mechanics.

This final set of resources is intended specifically for high school and college instructors. It provides links to unit plans and classroom exercises that can help improve students' research and writing skills. You'll find resources that give an overview of the process, along with activities that focus on how to begin and how to carry out research. 

"Research Paper Complete Resources Pack" (Teachers Pay Teachers)

This packet of assignments, rubrics, and other resources is designed for high school students. The resources in this packet are aligned to Common Core standards.

"Research Paper—Complete Unit" (Teachers Pay Teachers)

This packet of assignments, notes, PowerPoints, and other resources has a 4/4 rating with over 700 ratings. It is designed for high school teachers, but might also be useful to college instructors who work with freshmen.

"Teaching Students to Write Good Papers" (Yale)

This resource from Yale's Center for Teaching and Learning is designed for college instructors, and it includes links to appropriate activities and exercises.

"Research Paper Writing: An Overview" (CUNY Brooklyn)

CUNY Brooklyn offers this complete lesson plan for introducing students to research papers. It includes an accompanying set of PowerPoint slides.

"Lesson Plan: How to Begin Writing a Research Paper" (San Jose State Univ.)

This lesson plan is designed for students in the health sciences, so teachers will have to modify it for their own needs. It includes a breakdown of the brainstorming, topic selection, and research question process. 

"Quantitative Techniques for Social Science Research" (Univ. of Pittsburgh)

This is a set of PowerPoint slides that can be used to introduce students to a variety of quantitative methods used in the social sciences.

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Writing a Research Paper

This page lists some of the stages involved in writing a library-based research paper.

Although this list suggests that there is a simple, linear process to writing such a paper, the actual process of writing a research paper is often a messy and recursive one, so please use this outline as a flexible guide.

Discovering, Narrowing, and Focusing a Researchable Topic

• Try to find a topic that truly interests you
• Try writing your way to a topic
• Talk with your course instructor and classmates about your topic
• Pose your topic as a question to be answered or a problem to be solved

Finding, Selecting, and Reading Sources

You will need to look at the following types of sources:

• library catalog, periodical indexes, bibliographies, suggestions from your instructor
• primary vs. secondary sources
• journals, books, other documents

Grouping, Sequencing, and Documenting Information

The following systems will help keep you organized:

• a system for noting sources on bibliography cards
• a system for organizing material according to its relative importance
• a system for taking notes

Writing an Outline and a Prospectus for Yourself

Consider the following questions:

• What is the topic?
• Why is it significant?
• What background material is relevant?
• What is my thesis or purpose statement?
• What organizational plan will best support my purpose?

Writing the Introduction

In the introduction you will need to do the following things:

• present relevant background or contextual material
• define terms or concepts when necessary
• explain the focus of the paper and your specific purpose
• reveal your plan of organization

Writing the Body

• Use your outline and prospectus as flexible guides
• Build your essay around points you want to make (i.e., don’t let your sources organize your paper)
• Integrate your sources into your discussion
• Summarize, analyze, explain, and evaluate published work rather than merely reporting it
• Move up and down the “ladder of abstraction” from generalization to varying levels of detail back to generalization

Writing the Conclusion

• If the argument or point of your paper is complex, you may need to summarize the argument for your reader.
• If prior to your conclusion you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the end of your paper to add your points up, to explain their significance.
• Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration that returns the topic to the context provided by the introduction.
• Perhaps suggest what about this topic needs further research.

Revising the Final Draft

• Check overall organization : logical flow of introduction, coherence and depth of discussion in body, effectiveness of conclusion.
• Paragraph level concerns : topic sentences, sequence of ideas within paragraphs, use of details to support generalizations, summary sentences where necessary, use of transitions within and between paragraphs.
• Sentence level concerns: sentence structure, word choices, punctuation, spelling.
• Documentation: consistent use of one system, citation of all material not considered common knowledge, appropriate use of endnotes or footnotes, accuracy of list of works cited.

Academic and Professional Writing

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How to Write a Research Paper

If you already have a headache trying to understand what research paper is all about, we have created an ultimate guide for you on how to write a research paper. You will find all the answers to your questions regarding structure, planning, doing investigation, finding the topic that appeals to you. Plus, you will find out the secret to an excellent paper. Are you at the edge of your seat? Let us start with the basics then.

• What is a Research Paper
• Reasons for Writing a Research Paper
• Report Papers and Thesis Papers
• How to Start a Research Paper
• How to Choose a Topic for a Research Paper
• How to Write a Proposal for a Research Paper
• How to Write a Research Plan
• How to Do Research
• How to Write an Outline for a Research Paper
• How to Write a Thesis Statement for a Research Paper
• How to Write a Research Paper Rough Draft
• How to Write an Introduction for a Research Paper
• How to Write a Body of a Research Paper
• How to Write a Conclusion for a Research Paper
• How to Write an Abstract for a Research Paper
• How to Revise and Edit a Research Paper
• How to Write a Bibliography for a Research Paper
• What Makes a Good Research Paper

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What is a research paper.

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You probably know the saying ‘the devil is not as black as he is painted’. This particular saying is absolutely true when it comes to writing a research paper. Your feet are cold even with the thought of this assignment. You have heard terrifying stories from older students. You have never done this before, so certainly you are scared. What is a research paper? How should I start? What are all these requirements about?

Luckily, you have a friend in need. That is our writing service. First and foremost, let us clarify the definition. A research paper is a piece of academic writing that provides information about a particular topic that you’ve researched . In other words, you choose a topic: about historical events, the work of some artist, some social issues etc. Then you collect data on the given topic and analyze it. Finally, you put your analysis on paper. See, it is not as scary as it seems. If you are still having doubts, whether you can handle it yourself, we are here to help you. Our team of writers can help you choose the topic, or give you advice on how to plan your work, or how to start, or craft a paper for you. Just contact us 24/7 and see everything yourself.

5 Reasons for Writing a Research Paper

Why should I spend my time writing some academic paper? What is the use of it? Is not some practical knowledge more important? The list of questions is endless when it comes to a research paper. That is why we have outlined 5 main reasons why writing a research paper is a good thing.

• You will learn how to organize your time

If you want to write a research paper, you will have to learn how to manage your time. This type of assignment cannot be done overnight. It requires careful planning and you will need to learn how to do it. Later, you will be able to use these time-managing skills in your personal life, so why not developing them?

• You will discover your writing skills

You cannot know something before you try it. This rule relates to writing as well. You cannot claim that you cannot write until you try it yourself. It will be really difficult at the beginning, but then the words will come to your head themselves.

• You will improve your analytical skills

Writing a research paper is all about investigation and analysis. You will need to collect data, examine and classify it. These skills are needed in modern life more than anything else is.

• You will gain confidence

Once you do your own research, it gives you the feeling of confidence in yourself. The reason is simple human brain likes solving puzzles and your assignment is just another puzzle to be solved.

• You will learn how to persuade the reader

When you write your paper, you should always remember that you are writing it for someone to read. Moreover, you want this someone to believe in your ideas. For this reason, you will have to learn different convincing methods and techniques. You will learn how to make your writing persuasive. In turns, you will be able to use these methods in real life.

What is the Difference between Report and Thesis Papers?

A common question is ‘what is the difference between a report paper and a thesis paper?’ The difference lies in the aim of these two assignments. While the former aims at presenting the information, the latter aims at providing your opinion on the matter. In other words, in a report paper you have to summarize your findings. In a thesis paper, you choose some issue and defend your point of view by persuading the reader. It is that simple.

A thesis paper is a more common assignment than a report paper. This task will help a professor to evaluate your analytical skills and skills to present your ideas logically. These skills are more important than just the ability to collect and summarize data.

How to Write a Research Paper Step by Step

Research comes from the French word  rechercher , meaning “to seek out.” Writing a research paper requires you to seek out information about a subject, take a stand on it, and back it up with the opinions, ideas, and views of others. What results is a printed paper variously known as a term paper or library paper, usually between five and fifteen pages long—most instructors specify a minimum length—in which you present your views and findings on the chosen subject.

It is not a secret that the majority of students hate writing a research paper. The reason is simple it steals your time and energy. Not to mention, constant anxiety that you will not be able to meet the deadline or that you will forget about some academic requirement.

We will not lie to you; a research paper is a difficult assignment. You will have to spend a lot of time. You will need to read, to analyze, and to search for the material. You will probably be stuck sometimes. However, if you organize your work smart, you will gain something that is worth all the effort – knowledge, experience, and high grades.

The reason why many students fail writing a research paper is that nobody explained them how to start and how to plan their work. Luckily, you have found our writing service and we are ready to shed the light on this dark matter.

We have created a step by step guide for you on how to write a research paper. We will dwell upon the structure, the writing tips, the writing strategies as well as academic requirements. Read this whole article and you will see that you can handle writing this assignment and our team of writers is here to assist you.

How to Start a Research Paper?

It all starts with the assignment. Your professor gives you the task. It may be either some general issue or specific topic to write about. Your assignment is your first guide to success. If you understand what you need to do according to the assignment, you are on the road to high results. Do not be scared to clarify your task if you need to. There is nothing wrong in asking a question if you want to do something right. You can ask your professor or you can ask our writers who know a thing or two in academic writing.

It is essential to understand the assignment. A good beginning makes a good ending, so start smart.

Learn how to start a research paper .

Choosing a Topic for a Research Paper

We have already mentioned that it is not enough to do great research. You need to persuade the reader that you have made some great research. What convinces better that an eye-catching topic? That is why it is important to understand how to choose a topic for a research paper.

First, you need to delimit the general idea to a more specific one. Secondly, you need to find what makes this topic interesting for you and for the academia. Finally, you need to refine you topic. Remember, it is not something you will do in one day. You can be reshaping your topic throughout your whole writing process. Still, reshaping not changing it completely. That is why keep in your head one main idea: your topic should be precise and compelling .

Learn how to choose a topic for a research paper .

How to Write a Proposal for a Research Paper?

If you do not know what a proposal is, let us explain it to you. A proposal should answer three main questions:

• What is the main aim of your investigation?
• Why is your investigation important?
• How are you going to achieve the results?

In other words, proposal should show why your topic is interesting and how you are going to prove it. As to writing requirements, they may differ. That is why make sure you find out all the details at your department. You can ask your departmental administrator or find information online at department’s site. It is crucial to follow all the administrative requirements, as it will influence your grade.

Learn how to write a proposal for a research paper .

How to Write a Research Plan?

The next step is writing a plan. You have already decided on the main issues, you have chosen the bibliography, and you have clarified the methods. Here comes the planning. If you want to avoid writer’s block, you have to structure you work. Discuss your strategies and ideas with your instructor. Think thoroughly why you need to present some data and ideas first and others second. Remember that there are basic structure elements that your research paper should include:

• Thesis Statement
• Introduction
• Bibliography

You should keep in mind this skeleton when planning your work. This will keep your mind sharp and your ideas will flow logically.

Learn how to write a research plan .

How to Do Research?

Your research will include three stages: collecting data, reading and analyzing it, and writing itself.

First, you need to collect all the material that you will need for you investigation: films, documents, surveys, interviews, and others. Secondly, you will have to read and analyze. This step is tricky, as you need to do this part smart. It is not enough just to read, as you cannot keep in mind all the information. It is essential that you make notes and write down your ideas while analyzing some data. When you get down to the stage number three, writing itself, you will already have the main ideas written on your notes. Plus, remember to jot down the reference details. You will then appreciate this trick when you will have to write the bibliography.

If you do your research this way, it will be much easier for you to write the paper. You will already have blocks of your ideas written down and you will just need to add some material and refine your paper.

Learn how to do research .

How to Write an Outline for a Research Paper?

To make your paper well organized you need to write an outline. Your outline will serve as your guiding star through the writing process. With a great outline you will not get sidetracked, because you will have a structured plan to follow. Both you and the reader will benefit from your outline. You present your ideas logically and you make your writing coherent according to your plan. As a result, this outline guides the reader through your paper and the reader enjoys the way you demonstrate your ideas.

Learn how to write an outline for a research paper . See research paper outline examples .

How to Write a Thesis Statement for a Research Paper?

Briefly, the thesis is the main argument of your research paper. It should be precise, convincing and logical. Your thesis statement should include your point of view supported by evidence or logic. Still, remember it should be precise. You should not beat around the bush, or provide all the possible evidence you have found. It is usually a single sentence that shows your argument. In on sentence you should make a claim, explain why it significant and convince the reader that your point of view is important.

Learn how to write a thesis statement for a research paper . See research paper thesis statement examples .

Should I Write a Rough Draft for a Research Paper?

Do you know any writer who put their ideas on paper, then never edited them and just published? Probably, no writer did so. Writing a research paper is no exception. It is impossible to cope with this assignment without writing a rough draft.

Your draft will help you understand what you need to polish to make your paper perfect. All the requirements, academic standards make it difficult to do everything flawlessly at the first attempt. Make sure you know all the formatting requirements: margins, words quantity, reference requirements, formatting styles etc.

Learn how to write a rough draft for a research paper .

How to Write an Introduction for a Research Paper?

Let us make it more vivid for you. We have narrowed down the tips on writing an introduction to the three main ones:

• Include your thesis in your introduction

Remember to include the thesis statement in your introduction. Usually, it goes at the end of the first paragraph.

• Present the main ideas of the body

You should tell the main topics you are going to discuss in the main body. For this reason, before writing this part of introduction, make sure you know what is your main body is going to be about. It should include your main ideas.

• Polish your thesis and introduction

When you finish the main body of your paper, come back to the thesis statement and introduction. Restate something if needed. Just make it perfect; because introduction is like the trailer to your paper, it should make the reader want to read the whole piece.

Learn how to write an introduction for a research paper . See research paper introduction examples .

How to Write a Body of a Research Paper?

A body is the main part of your research paper. In this part, you will include all the needed evidence; you will provide the examples and support your argument.

It is important to structure your paragraphs thoroughly. That is to say, topic sentence and the evidence supporting the topic. Stay focused and do not be sidetracked. You have your outline, so follow it.

Here are the main tips to keep in head when writing a body of a research paper:

• Let the ideas flow logically
• Include only relevant information
• Provide the evidence
• Structure the paragraphs
• Make the coherent transition from one paragraph to another

See? When it is all structured, it is not as scary as it seemed at the beginning. Still, if you have doubts, you can always ask our writers for help.

Learn how to write a body of a research paper . See research paper transition examples .

How to Write a Conclusion for a Research Paper?

Writing a good conclusion is important as writing any other part of the paper. Remember that conclusion is not a summary of what you have mentioned before. A good conclusion should include your last strong statement.

If you have written everything according to the plan, the reader already knows why your investigation is important. The reader has already seen the evidence. The only thing left is a strong concluding thought that will organize all your findings.

Never include any new information in conclusion. You need to conclude, not to start a new discussion.

Learn how to write a conclusion for a research paper .

How to Write an Abstract for a Research Paper?

An abstract is a brief summary of your paper, usually 100-200 words. You should provide the main gist of your paper in this short summary. An abstract can be informative, descriptive or proposal. Depending on the type of abstract, you need to write, the requirements will differ.

To write an informative abstract you have to provide the summary of the whole paper. Informative summary. In other words, you need to tell about the main points of your work, the methods used, the results and the conclusion of your research.

To write a descriptive abstract you will not have to provide any summery. You should write a short teaser of your paper. That is to say, you need to write an overview of your paper. The aim of a descriptive abstract is to interest the reader.

Finally, to write a proposal abstract you will need to write the basic summary as for the informative abstract. However, the difference is the following: you aim at persuading someone to let you write on the topic. That is why, a proposal abstract should present your topic as the one worth investigating.

Learn how to write an abstract for a research paper .

Should I Revise and Edit a Research Paper?

Revising and editing your paper is essential if you want to get high grades. Let us help you revise your paper smart:

• Check your paper for spelling and grammar mistakes
• Sharpen the vocabulary
• Make sure there are no slang words in your paper
• Examine your paper in terms of structure
• Compare your topic, thesis statement to the whole piece
• Check your paper for plagiarism

If you need assistance with proofreading and editing your paper, you can turn to the professional editors at our service. They will help you polish your paper to perfection.

Learn how to revise and edit a research paper .

How to Write a Bibliography for a Research Paper?

First, let us make it clear that bibliography and works cited are two different things. Works cited are those that you cited in your paper. Bibliography should include all the materials you used to do your research. Still, remember that bibliography requirements differ depending on the formatting style of your paper. For this reason, make sure you ask you professor all the requirements you need to meet to avoid any misunderstanding.

Learn how to write a bibliography for a research paper .

The Key Secret to a Good Research Paper

Now when you know all the stages of writing a research paper, you are ready to find the key to a good research paper:

• Choose the topic that really interests you
• Make the topic interesting for you even if it is not at the beginning
• Follow the step by step guide and do not get sidetracked
• Be persistent and believe in yourself
• Really do research and write your paper from scratch
• Learn the convincing writing techniques and use them
• Follow the requirements of your assignment
• Ask for help if needed from real professionals

Feeling more confident about your paper now? We are sure you do. Still, if you need help, you can always rely on us 24/7.

We hope we have made writing a research paper much easier for you. We realize that it requires lots of time and energy. We believe when you say that you cannot handle it anymore. For this reason, we have been helping students like you for years. Our professional team of writers is ready to tackle any challenge.

All our authors are experienced writers crafting excellent academic papers. We help students meet the deadline and get the top grades they want. You can see everything yourself. All you need to do is to place your order online and we will contact you. Writing a research paper with us is truly easy, so why do not you check it yourself?

Additional Resources for Research Paper Writing:

• Anthropology Research
• Career Research
• Communication Research
• Criminal Justice Research
• Health Research
• Political Science Research
• Psychology Research
• Sociology Research

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English for Writing Research Papers

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• How to: structure sections (abstract, methods) and keep editors/ referees happy
• Sentence/paragraph structure; avoiding redundancy, ambiguity and plagiarism; using AI to correct and paraphrase
• Unique insights into writing skills based on editing around 5000 research papers authored by non-natives

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Table of contents (20 chapters)

Front matter, writing skills, planning and preparation.

Adrian Wallwork

Word order and sentence length

Structuring paragraphs, being concise and removing redundancy, avoiding ambiguity, repetition, and vague language, clarifying and highlighting, discussing your limitations, readability, automatic translation, sections of a paper, abstracts: standard types, abstracts: particular types, introduction, writing a review of the literature.

• Research papers
• preparing and structuring a manuscript
• readability
• avoiding mistakes
• redundancy and ambiguity
• introductions
• review of the literature
• highlighting results

About this book

Publishing your research in an international journal is key to your success in academia. This guide is based on a study of over 1000 manuscripts and reviewers' reports revealing why papers written by non-native researchers are often rejected due to problems with English usage and poor structure and content. 

With easy-to-follow rules and tips, and examples taken from published and unpublished papers, you will learn how to:

• prepare and structure a manuscript
• increase readability and reduce the number of mistakes you make in English by writing concisely, with no redundancy and no  ambiguity
• write a title and an abstract that will attract attention and be read
• decide what to include in the various parts of the paper (Introduction, Methodology, Discussion etc)
• highlight your claims and contribution
• avoid plagiarism
• discuss the limitations of your research
• choose the correct tenses and style
• satisfy the requirements of editors and reviewers

This edition has two completely new chapters covering machine translation and using AI tools (e.g. chatbots, paraphrasers, editing tools) to improve and correct the English of a text.

Other titles in this series:

Grammar, Usage and Style

Grammar, Vocabulary, and Writing Exercises (three volumes)

100 Tips to Avoid Mistakes in Academic Writing and Presenting

English for Presentations at International Conferences

English for Academic Correspondence

English for Interacting on Campus

English for Academic CVs, Resumes, and Online Profiles

English for Academic Research: A Guide for Teachers

Adrian Wallwork  is the author of more than 40 English Language Teaching (ELT) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) textbooks. He has trained several thousand PhDstudents and researchers from 50 countries to write papers. He edits research manuscripts through his own proofreading and editing agency.

Authors and Affiliations

About the author, bibliographic information.

Book Title : English for Writing Research Papers

Authors : Adrian Wallwork

Series Title : English for Academic Research

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31072-0

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Education , Education (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-031-31071-3 Published: 21 September 2023

eBook ISBN : 978-3-031-31072-0 Published: 20 September 2023

Series ISSN : 2625-3445

Series E-ISSN : 2625-3453

Edition Number : 3

Number of Pages : XVI, 338

Number of Illustrations : 1 b/w illustrations, 2 illustrations in colour

Topics : Language Education , Linguistics, general , Linguistics, general

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ENGL 101: Academic Writing: How to write a research paper

• Research Tools
• How to evaluate resources
• How to write a research paper
• Occupational Resources

How to write a research paer

Understand the topic, what is the instructor asking for, who is the intended audience, choosing a topic.

• General Research

Books on the subject

Journal articles, other sources, write the paper.

You've just been assigned by your instructor to write a paper on a topic. Relax, this isn't going to be as bad as it seems. You just need to get started. Here are some suggestions to make the process as painless as possible. Remember, if you have any questions ASK .

Is the assignment a formal research paper where you have to do research and cite other sources of information, or is the assignment asking you for your reaction to a particular topic where all you will need to do is collect your thoughts and organize them coherently. If you do need to research your topic, make sure you know what style manual your instructor prefers (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc).

Make sure you keep track of any restrictions that your instructor places on you. If your instructor wants a 4 page paper, they won't be happy with a 2 page paper, or a 10 page paper. Keep in mind that the instructor knows roughly how long it should take to cover the topic. If your paper is too short, you probably aren't looking at enough materials. If you paper is too long, you need to narrow your topic. Also, many times the instructor may restrict you to certain types of resources (books written after 1946, scholarly journals, no web sites). You don't want to automatically lessen your grade by not following the rules. Remember the key rule, if you have any questions ask your instructor!

You will also need to know which audience that you are writing for. Are you writing to an audience that knows nothing about your topic? If so you will need to write in such a way that you paper makes sense, and can be understood by these people. If your paper is geared to peers who have a similar background of information you won't need to include that type of information. If your paper is for experts in the field, you won't need to include background information.

If you're lucky, you were given a narrow topic by your instructor. You may not be interested in your topic, but you can be reasonably sure that the topic isn't too broad. Most of you aren't going to be that lucky. Your instructor gave you a broad topic, or no topic at all and you are going to have to choose the specific topic for your paper.

There are some general rules that you can use to help choose and narrow a topic. Does a particular topic interest you? If you are excited by a particular field, choose a topic from that field. While doing research you will learn more about the field, and learn which journals are written for your topic. Are you answering a relevant question? You and your instructor are going to be bored if you are writing a paper on the hazards of drunken driving. However, it might be more interesting to write about what causes people to drink and drive. The more interesting your topic the more you will enjoy and learn from writing your paper. You may also want to focus on a specific point of view about the topic, such as what teenagers think the causes of drunken driving are.

Do General Research

Now that you have a topic, it is time to start doing research. Don't jump to the card catalog and the indexes yet. The first research that you want to do is some general research on your topic. Find out what some of the terms used in the field are. You will also find that this research can help you further define you topic.

One source of general research is a general encyclopedia. Depending on the encyclopedia, at the end of each entry there may be a bibliography of suggested works. Good encyclopedias to consult are Encyclopedia Britannica , Encyclopedia Americana, and World Book.

You will also want to check to see if your topic is in a field that has a subject Encyclopedia, a Subject Handbook, or a Subject Dictionary. These guides contain information about a wide variety of topics inside a specific field. Generally the information in more detailed that what is contained in a general encyclopedia. Also the bibliographies are more extensive.

Find further information

Now that we have some background information on our topic; we need to find information about our specific topic. Before searching, ask yourself what type of information you are looking for. If you want to find statistical information, you will need to look in certain types of sources. If you are looking for news accounts of an event, you will need to look in other types of sources. Remember, if you have a question about what type of source to use, ask a librarian.

Have you asked your instructor for suggestions on where to look? Why not? This person is experienced in the field, and they have been doing research in it longer than you have. They can recommend authors who write on your topic, and they can recommend a short list of journals that may contain information on your topic.

Books are one type of resource that you can use for your research. To find a book on your topic, you will need to use the online catalog, the CamelCat . Taking the list of keywords that you created while doing general research, do keyword searches in the catalog. Look at the titles that are being returned, do any look promising? If none do, revise your search using other keywords. If one does, look at the full record for that book. Check the subject headings that it is cataloged by. If one of those headings looks pertinent to your research, do a subject search using that particular heading.

Once you've got the books that you want to use start evaluating whether the book will be useful. Is it written by an author who is knowledgeable about that particular topic? Is the author qualified to write about the topic? What biases does the author have about the topic? Is the book current enough to contain useful information?

Once you've answered these questions, use the books that you deem useful for your research. Remember while taking notes to get the information that you need to do a proper citation. Also, pay attention to any bibliographies that are included in the book. These can help you locate other books and articles that may be useful for your research.

The Campbell University Libraries subscribe to a wide variety of Indexes and Journals for the use of students and faculty. Increasingly these materials are provided as Electronic Databases. These databases contain citations of articles and in some cases the full text of articles on a variety of topics. If you don't know which database will be useful for you, ask a librarian and they will be happy to assist you. You can also use the Find Articles link to search multiple databases at one time for information on your topic.

Once you've selected a database to use, use the keywords that you developed from your general research to find articles that will be useful for you. Once you've found one, see which terms the database used to catalog the article and use those terms to find more articles. Don't forget to set limits on the database so that only scholarly articles are returned if your instructor has made that a requirement for your paper.

Look at the journal articles that you have selected, and examine the bibliographies. Are there any authors that are mentioned in more than one article? Are there any articles that are mentioned more than once? You should find those authors and articles and include them in your research.

There are other useful sources that you can use in your research. If your report tends to be on a business topic or if you need company information for your research there are many companies that provide company reports. The contents of these reports differ, depending on which service that you are using. Generally speaking you will find company officers, financial statements, lists of competitors, and stock price.

The Internet is another source for information on a variety of topics. The major problem with the using Internet resources is authority. Anybody who knows HTML can produce a web site that looks pretty decent. However, a website produced by a sophomore in high school on a topic is not going to be useful to you in your research. Before using a website for information, you need to evaluate the site. Here are some questions you will want to ask: Who created the site? (If you can't tell, don't use it.) Has the site been recently updated? Is the site promoting a specific agenda/ does it have a bias? (Bias isn't necessarily bad, but you need to keep it in mind when interpreting the information presented?) Are there any misspellings on the site? (If there is one misspelling careless error more than three, don't use the page) Do the links on the page work? (If a few don't work, not a big problem, if most of the links don't work, the site isn't being maintained, and should not be used.)

You have all of your research, now it is time to write the paper. Don't forget to cite all of the research that you have collected using the preferred citation style of your instructor. If possible try to give yourself a couple of days to let the paper sit before you edit it. Look at a hard copy of the paper and check for mechanical errors (spelling, punctuation). Also try to imagine that you are the intended audience for the paper. Does your paper make sense? Are the arguments logical? Does the evidence presented support the arguments made? If you answered no to any of these questions, make the necessary changes to your paper.

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Writing a Research Paper

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The Research Paper

There will come a time in most students' careers when they are assigned a research paper. Such an assignment often creates a great deal of unneeded anxiety in the student, which may result in procrastination and a feeling of confusion and inadequacy. This anxiety frequently stems from the fact that many students are unfamiliar and inexperienced with this genre of writing. Never fear—inexperience and unfamiliarity are situations you can change through practice! Writing a research paper is an essential aspect of academics and should not be avoided on account of one's anxiety. In fact, the process of writing a research paper can be one of the more rewarding experiences one may encounter in academics. What is more, many students will continue to do research throughout their careers, which is one of the reasons this topic is so important.

Becoming an experienced researcher and writer in any field or discipline takes a great deal of practice. There are few individuals for whom this process comes naturally. Remember, even the most seasoned academic veterans have had to learn how to write a research paper at some point in their career. Therefore, with diligence, organization, practice, a willingness to learn (and to make mistakes!), and, perhaps most important of all, patience, students will find that they can achieve great things through their research and writing.

The pages in this section cover the following topic areas related to the process of writing a research paper:

• Genre - This section will provide an overview for understanding the difference between an analytical and argumentative research paper.
• Choosing a Topic - This section will guide the student through the process of choosing topics, whether the topic be one that is assigned or one that the student chooses themselves.
• Identifying an Audience - This section will help the student understand the often times confusing topic of audience by offering some basic guidelines for the process.
• Where Do I Begin - This section concludes the handout by offering several links to resources at Purdue, and also provides an overview of the final stages of writing a research paper.

How to write a Research Paper – Step by Step Guide

A Step-by-Step Guide to writing a research paper

Introduction:

Writing a research paper is a job that we all have to do in our academic life. A research paper represents the ideas of the person who writes it. In simple words, a research paper presents an original idea and substantiates it with logical arguments. Writing a research paper in the domain of English literature is very different compared to writing research articles in other domains. Literature inclines towards abstract thinking. In other subjects, one has to stick to the facts. Howsoever you try, disputing an idea of science becomes very difficult. On the other hand, to contradict an idea in the purview of literature, you just need a systematic flow of arguments (logical and valid) and it’s done! So, writing a research paper in the field of English literature becomes easy if arguments are strong, in a sequence and wisely crafted.

Step 1: Choose the topic of your research paper:

This is one of the most vital parts. Choosing a topic is a crucial choice to make and it has to be taken seriously. You have to choose the area of your interest in English literature and then narrow it down to the area of your expertise. You cannot write a paper on the topics which are wider than a Doctoral thesis! So, you have to be precise and wise while choosing your topic.

An example: Suppose a person has adequate knowledge about Matthew Arnold. Can he write a research article on Arnold alone? No! He will need to bring the topic to some specific idea related to Arnold. The possibilities may be in his prose or poetry writing. In certain states in India, students work on topics like “Matthew Arnold as a poet” and “Matthew Arnold as a great prose writer” which is invalid, injustice and academically a sin. It should not be encouraged! Someone being a poet cannot be a subject of a research article. Any special quality of someone’s poetry writing can certainly be an interesting topic of a research paper – now you must have the idea. ‘Hopelessness and Despair in the poetry of Matthew Arnold’ can be a topic for a brilliant research paper. The hint is very simple – narrow it down to the speciality and you will have your topic ready!

Read in detail – How to choose a research topic? 

Step 2: Collect information – primary and secondary sources:

Now that you have selected a topic for your research paper, you should find ‘credible sources’ that substantiate your ‘paper’s purpose’. Sources are divided into two major categories – primary and secondary. Primary sources are the materials produced by the people who feature in your topic. In the case of our example above, poetry by Matthew Arnold and other writings by him will be primary sources. Secondary sources are the writings ‘about the topic and anything related to the topic’. Therefore, you have to browse the internet, visit a library, check your bookshelves and do anything that will bring you information about the topic and anything that relates to the topic.

Step 3: Plan your research article:

Before you begin writing the paper, it’s always wise to have a clear plan in your mind. Planning a research paper in the domain of English literature should always begin with a clear ‘purpose of research’ in your mind. Why are you writing this paper? What point do you want to make? How significant is that point? Do you have your arguments to support the point (or idea) that you want to establish? Do you have enough credible sources that support the arguments you want to make in the body of the paper? If all the answers are positive, move to the next step and begin writing the drafts for your paper.

Step 4: Writing the first draft of your research paper:

Now it comes to writing the paper’s first draft. Before you begin writing, have a clear picture of your paper in your mind. It will make the job easier. What does a research paper look like? Or, rather, what’s the ideal structure of a research paper?

Beginning – Introduce your idea that drives the research paper. How do you approach that idea? What is your paper – an analysis, review of a book or two ideas compared or something else. The introduction must tell the story of your research in brief – ideas, a highlight or arguments and the glimpse of conclusion. It is generally advised that the introduction part should be written in the end so that you have the final research paper clearly justified, introduced and highlighted at the beginning itself.

Middle – And here goes the meat of your paper. All that you have to emphasise, euphemise, compare, collaborate and break down will take place in the middle or the body of your research paper. Please be careful once you begin writing the body of your paper. This is what will impact your readers (or the examiners or the teachers) the most. You have to be disciplined, systematic, clever and also no-nonsense. Make your points and support them with your arguments. Arguments should be logical and based on textual proofs (if required). Analyse, compare or collaborate as required to make your arguments sharp and supportive to the proposition that you make. The example topic of a research paper that we chose somewhere above in this article – Hopelessness and Despair in the Poetry of Matthew Arnold will require the person writing this paper to convince the readers (and so on) that actually Arnold’s poetry gives a sign of the two negative attitudes picked as the topic. It would be wise to analyse the works (and instances from them, to be specific) The Scholar Gypsy, Empedocles on Etna, Dover Beach and others that support the proposition made in the topic for research. You can use primary and secondary sources and cite them wisely as required. You have to convince the readers of your paper that what you propose in the purpose of the research paper stands on the ground as a logical and valid proposition.

End – Or the conclusion of a research paper that should be written wisely and carefully. You can use a few of your strongest arguments here to strike the final balance and make your proposition justified. After a few of your strongest arguments are made, you can briefly summarise your research topic and exhibit your skills of writing to close the lid by justifying why you are proposing that you have concluded what you began. Make sure that you leave the least possible loopholes for conjecture after you conclude your paper.

Reference: You can use two of the most used styles (or rather only used) to give a list of references in your paper – APA or MLA. Whatever you choose needs to be constant throughout the paper.

To summarise, here is what a research paper should look like:

• Introduction
• A list of References

Step 5: Read & re-read your draft: It gives you the chance to judge your research paper and find the possible shortcomings so that you can make amends and finalise your paper before you print it out for your academic requirements. While you read your first draft, treat it with a purpose to find contradictions and conjecture points as much as possible. Wherever you find the chances of contradiction possible, you have to make those arguments forceful and more logical and substantiate them to bypass the fear of being contradicted (and defeated). Let us be clear – it is English literature we are dealing with and there will be contradictions. Don’t fear it. However, make sure your arguments are not defeated. The defeat means your paper will not hold up to the scrutiny of the experts. And this is why you need to read and re-read the first draft of your literature research paper.

Step 6: Finalise & print your research paper: After reading your paper 1 or 2 times, you should be sure what needs to be changed and otherwise. Finalise it so that it appears the best and sounds good to be the final version. Print your work in the best possible quality and you are done! If there is a verbal question-answer associated with the paper you prepare, make sure you understand it completely and are ready for the questions from any possible side of your topic.

This was our step-by-step guide to writing a research paper in the field of English literature. We hope you have found it useful. We will write more articles associated with the concept – such as choosing a research topic, building arguments, writing powerful introductions. Make sure you subscribe to our website so that you are notified whenever we post a new article on English Literature Education! All the best with your paper!

More guides on How to Subjects: 

How to Study Poetry?

Read related articles from this category:

Bildungsroman – literary term definition, examples, notes & help you need

List of important literary terms associated with studying drama or play – Literature Guides

What is Drama? What is Drama in Literature? Features, Types & Details Students Must Know

Have something to say? Add your comments:

9 Comments . Leave new

Thank you so much, explanation about research work is a nice manner. (private information retracted)

Very well written article! Thanks for this. I was confused about my research paper. I am sure I can do it now.

Quite resourceful. thank you.

Very nice reseach paper

It was very nice reading, helpful for writing research paper.

Thanks for your kind sharing of the information

Normally, I don’t leave any replies after reading a blog, but I couldn’t help this time. I found this blog very useful. So, I’m writing my research paper and I’ve been racking my brain and the internet for a good topic, plus trying to learn how to write a research paper. Thank you so much for putting this up!

I want to work on The French Revolution and its impact on romantic poetry. Please help in this regard.

Thanks a lot for the information.

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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.

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Crafting a comprehensive research paper can be daunting. Understanding diverse citation styles and various subject areas presents a challenge for many.

Without clear examples, students often feel lost and overwhelmed, unsure of how to start or which style fits their subject.

Explore our collection of expertly written research paper examples. We’ve covered various citation styles and a diverse range of subjects.

So, read on!

• 1. Research Paper Example for Different Formats
• 2. Examples for Different Research Paper Parts
• 3. Research Paper Examples for Different Fields
• 4. Research Paper Example Outline

Research Paper Example for Different Formats

Following a specific formatting style is essential while writing a research paper . Knowing the conventions and guidelines for each format can help you in creating a perfect paper. Here we have gathered examples of research paper for most commonly applied citation styles :

Social Media and Social Media Marketing: A Literature Review

APA Research Paper Example

APA (American Psychological Association) style is commonly used in social sciences, psychology, and education. This format is recognized for its clear and concise writing, emphasis on proper citations, and orderly presentation of ideas.

Here are some research paper examples in APA style:

Research Paper Example APA 7th Edition

Research Paper Example MLA

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is frequently employed in humanities disciplines, including literature, languages, and cultural studies. An MLA research paper might explore literature analysis, linguistic studies, or historical research within the humanities. 

Here is an example:

Found Voices: Carl Sagan

Research Paper Example Chicago

Chicago style is utilized in various fields like history, arts, and social sciences. Research papers in Chicago style could delve into historical events, artistic analyses, or social science inquiries. 

Here is a research paper formatted in Chicago style:

Chicago Research Paper Sample

Research Paper Example Harvard

Harvard style is widely used in business, management, and some social sciences. Research papers in Harvard style might address business strategies, case studies, or social policies.

View this sample Harvard style paper here:

Harvard Research Paper Sample

Examples for Different Research Paper Parts

A research paper has different parts. Each part is important for the overall success of the paper. Chapters in a research paper must be written correctly, using a certain format and structure.

The following are examples of how different sections of the research paper can be written.

Research Proposal

The research proposal acts as a detailed plan or roadmap for your study, outlining the focus of your research and its significance. It's essential as it not only guides your research but also persuades others about the value of your study.

Example of Research Proposal

An abstract serves as a concise overview of your entire research paper. It provides a quick insight into the main elements of your study. It summarizes your research's purpose, methods, findings, and conclusions in a brief format.

Research Paper Example Abstract

Literature Review 

A literature review summarizes the existing research on your study's topic, showcasing what has already been explored. This section adds credibility to your own research by analyzing and summarizing prior studies related to your topic.

Literature Review Research Paper Example

Methodology

The methodology section functions as a detailed explanation of how you conducted your research. This part covers the tools, techniques, and steps used to collect and analyze data for your study.

Methods Section of Research Paper Example

How to Write the Methods Section of a Research Paper

The conclusion summarizes your findings, their significance and the impact of your research. This section outlines the key takeaways and the broader implications of your study's results.

Research Paper Conclusion Example

Research Paper Examples for Different Fields

Research papers can be about any subject that needs a detailed study. The following examples show research papers for different subjects.

History Research Paper Sample

Preparing a history research paper involves investigating and presenting information about past events. This may include exploring perspectives, analyzing sources, and constructing a narrative that explains the significance of historical events.

View this history research paper sample:

Many Faces of Generalissimo Fransisco Franco

Sociology Research Paper Sample

In sociology research, statistics and data are harnessed to explore societal issues within a particular region or group. These findings are thoroughly analyzed to gain an understanding of the structure and dynamics present within these communities. 

Here is a sample:

A Descriptive Statistical Analysis within the State of Virginia

Science Fair Research Paper Sample

A science research paper involves explaining a scientific experiment or project. It includes outlining the purpose, procedures, observations, and results of the experiment in a clear, logical manner.

Here are some examples:

Science Fair Paper Format

What Do I Need To Do For The Science Fair?

Psychology Research Paper Sample

Writing a psychology research paper involves studying human behavior and mental processes. This process includes conducting experiments, gathering data, and analyzing results to understand the human mind, emotions, and behavior.

Here is an example psychology paper:

The Effects of Food Deprivation on Concentration and Perseverance

Art History Research Paper Sample

Studying art history includes examining artworks, understanding their historical context, and learning about the artists. This helps analyze and interpret how art has evolved over various periods and regions.

Check out this sample paper analyzing European art and impacts:

European Art History: A Primer

Research Paper Example Outline

Before you plan on writing a well-researched paper, make a rough draft. An outline can be a great help when it comes to organizing vast amounts of research material for your paper.

Here is an outline of a research paper example:

Here is a downloadable sample of a standard research paper outline:

Research Paper Outline

Want to create the perfect outline for your paper? Check out this in-depth guide on creating a research paper outline for a structured paper!

Good Research Paper Examples for Students

Here are some more samples of research paper for students to learn from:

Fiscal Research Center - Action Plan

Qualitative Research Paper Example

Research Paper Example Introduction

How to Write a Research Paper Example

Research Paper Example for High School

Now that you have explored the research paper examples, you can start working on your research project. Hopefully, these examples will help you understand the writing process for a research paper.

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International Journal of English Language, Literature and Translation Studies (IJELR) is a quarterly, Indexed, Refereed, and Peer Reviewed Open Access & Printed Journal ( Published in March, June, Sept, and December ) devoted to the critical and scholarly study of the new and the established Language, literatures in English around the world in its various manifestations as International English Literature, Postcolonial Literatures, Commonwealth Literature, New Literatures in English, and World Writing in English. It welcomes articles on the relationships among the new literatures and between the new and the established literatures.

For submissions

To submit an article to IJELR, please send us an email attachment to [email protected] , [email protected]

All submissions must be received online, as email attachment.

Before Submission, please check your article format : 1.Title 2. Author (s) Details 3.Abstract 4.Key Words, 5 Introductions/discussion 6.References/Work cited 7. Author Photograph (optional)

Authors should be submitted article along with author agreement form Click here for download

Journal Key Words: English Literature Journal, Print Journal, Linguistics Journal, Translation Journal, Indian English Literature Journal, Online English Journal, Indexed journal, English Language Journal, English Journal With Impact Factor

NOTE: The submission must not have been previously published, nor should it be under consideration for publication elsewhere. We also have a strict policy against plagiarism. The plagiarism is checked through two methods: reviewer check and plagiarism prevention tool. All submissions will be checked by online software before being sent to reviewers. Editor in Chief having the right to publish or reject the article in pre or post publication

updated on 01-08-2015

Focus and Scope

IJELR publishes original papers, review papers, conceptual framework, analytical and simulation models, case studies, empirical research, technical notes, and book reviews in the fields of:

Comparative Literature

Critical Theory

Cultural Studies

Discourse and Inter language Pragmatics   

Discourse and Organization

English Literature

ELT and Related studies

ESL, ESP,EFL etc.,

Interdisciplinary Approaches in Literature

Interpreting Studies

Literary Studies

Literary Theory and Cultural Studies

Literature and Media

Literature in Translation

Translation in Literature

Translation Studies

Translation and Globalization

World Literature

And other related themes

Types of papers Accepting

> Original Research Articles > Express Papers: Research Article Needs to Publish within short period (2-3 working days after submissions) > Review Articles > Short Communications > Case Studies > Letters to the editors and book reviewers > Abstracts/Full Papers of Seminars and symposia will also consider for publications

© Copy Right www.ijelr.in , Andhra Pradesh, India

Published by KY Publications, India

doi: 10.33329/ijelr

• * International Citation Impact factor : 5.9745
• SJIF Impact Factor: 7.146
• Thamson Reuters Research ID: N-3455-2018
• Scopus indexing (under Progress)
• Abstract & Indexing
• Editorial Board
• Article Submission
• Author Guidelines
• Past Issues

Open access publishing is not without costs. IJELR therefore charges (See Below) as Article Processing Charge for each article accepted for publication after double-blind review. We routinely waive charges for authors from low-income countries. For other countries, article-processing charge waivers or discounts are granted on a case-by-case basis to authors with insufficient funds. Authors can apply for a waiver or discount during the submission process

• NEWS & TOPICS

Publication Support for English Research Papers (First Half of FY 2024)

• Research Support

We are pleased to announce that the following support programs, which aim to help researchers with scholarly publication, have opened calls for applications for the firsr half of FY 2024. Some changes from the previous fiscal year have been made in each program. For details, please refer to the application guidelines .

• Open Access Publishing Support [Transformative Agreement with Springer Nature, Elsevier and Wiley] (Details are in the application guidelines about 1.)
• Open Access Publishing Support [Support for Article Processing Charge]   (Details are in the application guidelines about 2.)
•   English Language Editing Support (For Journal Article Publishing) (Details are in the application guidelines about 3.)

We have also signed a new e-journal transformative agreement with Elsevier, an international academic publisher, to promote the publication of open access articles, in April 2024. As a result, “Open Access Publishing Support [Transformative Agreement] is available to three publishers: Springer Nature, Wiley (including Hindawi), and Elsevier.

As stated in the "Osaka University Open Access Policy" , we encourage you to make the results of your research openly accessible. For this purpose, please utilize Osaka University’s institutional repository(OUKA) as well as this support. 

-Contact Information- Department of Research Promotion, Research Planning Division, Research Support Section e-mail： [email protected]

Mercury poisoning near Grassy Narrows First Nation worsened by ongoing industrial pollution, study suggests

New research shows sulfate, organic matter are exacerbating methylmercury levels.

Social Sharing

A new study from the University of Western Ontario suggests mercury contamination in northwestern Ontario's English-Wabigoon River has been made worse by ongoing industrial pollution.

Contamination of the river system dates back to the 1960s and 70s , when the pulp and paper mill dumped an estimated nine tonnes of mercury into the water.

The mercury has impacted generations of people living in Grassy Narrows First Nation, also known as Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek, a community about 150 kilometres from Dryden near the Ontario-Manitoba border, and Wabaseemoong Independent Nation.

However, the new study, published Thursday, has found that discharge of wastewater from the Dryden Paper Mill, combined with existing mercury, has created high levels of methylmercury – an even more toxic compound.

"Other forms of mercury don't accumulate as strongly as methylmercury, but because it accumulates, it builds up to high levels in organisms, presenting that greater risk," said Brian Branfireun, a biology professor at the University of Western Ontario. "It's actually more serious than I even imagined."

The experiment was conducted by masters student Eric Grimm under Branfireun's supervision.

Dianne Loewen, communications and engagement co-ordinator for Dryden Fibre Canada, the owner of the Dryden Paper Mill, said in an email to CBC News on Wednesday that she could not comment on the study.

"Dryden Fibre Canada only recently acquired the mill from Domtar. We are not in a position to comment as we have not seen, nor have we been briefed on, Dr. Branfireun's report."

Dryden Fibre Canada took over the mill from Domtar in August 2023.

Poison through the food chain

While the wastewater coming from the mill today does not contain mercury, it does contain high levels of sulfate and organic matter, which "feed the bacteria that produce methylmercury from inorganic mercury in the environment," the study says.

These toxins build up in the river's fish, which are then passed on to the people that consume them.

"The accumulation of methylmercury in the human body causes neuromuscular problems and can also lead to death," Branfireun said.

Grassy Narrows Chief Rudy Turtle reacts to new mercury research

Just under 1,000 people live in Grassy Narrows First Nation, and fish are a staple part of the community's diet.

"Most of the families continue to fish, they continue to eat the fish. It's something they've done for hundreds of years – you can't really stop them," said Grassy Narrows Chief Rudy Turtle in an interview with CBC News.

It is estimated that 90 per cent of Grassy Narrows' population has symptoms of mercury poisoning, which causes problems including tremors, insomnia, memory loss, neuromuscular effects, headaches and cognitive and motor dysfunction.

• Grassy Narrows chief calls out feds amid 'ridiculous' delays to mercury treatment centre construction
• As First Nations chiefs in northern Ontario call for health-care action, youth demand more involvement

For years, Turtle has called for the paper mill to be closed and for the river to be cleaned up. The community has also been anxiously awaiting the construction of a Mercury Care Home, for which the federal government signed a funding agreement in 2020.

"We continue to be poisoned," said Turtle, who himself has shared his experiences with mercury poisoning.

Mercury Care Home construction slated for summer

Anispiragas Piragasanathar, a spokesperson for Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), provided CBC News an emailed statement about the Mercury Care Home.

Piragasanathar said the federal government has committed:

• $77M to build the Mercury Care Home.
• $68.9M for operations, maintenance and specialized service delivery.

"ISC continues to support Grassy Narrows leadership as they take steps toward realizing their vision for health-care delivery in their community through the Mercury Care Home," Piragasanathar said.

• In Depth NWMO reaffirms safety of Canada's 1st nuclear waste repository but there's still heavy pushback
• Mining claims jump in northern Ontario's Ring of Fire as EV battery interest grows

"Together, we have developed key construction milestones to ensure that the Mercury Care Home is built in a timely manner." 

Construction is planned to begin by July 1 and take about two to three years to complete.

Turtle said he is pleased with the additional funds the government has committed to the project this year, and that a ceremony will be held in the community once the shovels hit the ground.

No simple solutions

It is possible to remove the methylmercury from the water – but it won't be easy, Branfireun said.

"We are talking about potentially hundreds of kilometres of rivers and lakes and wetlands in a very complicated landscape that is not developed," he said.

While cleaning up the river will take substantial time and resources, removing the sulfate and organic matter is a more manageable solution for the short-term, Branfireun said.

"It wouldn't completely solve the mercury problem in fish in this river, but it would dramatically improve it while these other remediation strategies are being implemented over the next few decades."

Michael Rennie is an associate professor at Lakehead University's biology department, as well as a research fellow at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Experimental Lakes Area.

While he was not involved in the methylmercury study, he said he is not surprised by the results. 

We are talking about potentially hundreds of kilometres of rivers and lakes and wetlands in a very complicated landscape that is not developed. - Brian Branfireun, University of Western Ontario

"It shows a pretty clear role for the impact that the mill has on the system now just from the effluent that's going into it from the current operations," Rennie said in an interview with CBC News.

There are ways to reduce the impact of mill operations on the river, Rennie said, such as settling ponds or new environmental policies, but the level of contamination throughout the system means there are no simple solutions.

"I don't think this is saying, 'Oh my God, we have to close the mill.'

"What I think it's saying is there are likely industrial processes that can be put in to help reduce sulfate concentrations that are coming out of that effluent to help reduce organic matter, that will at least not make the problem continue to be worse," he said.

Branfireun is expected to share the study's findings on Thursday morning at the Earth Sciences Centre in Toronto.

Study shows ongoing pollution at Grassy Narrows First Nation

About the author.

Sarah Law is a CBC News reporter based in Thunder Bay, Ont., and has also worked for newspapers and online publications elsewhere in the province. Have a story tip? You can reach her at [email protected]

With files from Brett Forester and Philip Lee-Shanok

Related Stories

This paper is in the following e-collection/theme issue:

Published on 31.5.2024 in Vol 26 (2024)

Vulnerability to Cyberattacks and Sociotechnical Solutions for Health Care Systems: Systematic Review

Authors of this article:

• Pius Ewoh, MBA   ; 
• Tero Vartiainen, PhD  

School of Technology and Innovations, Information Systems Science, University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland

Corresponding Author:

Pius Ewoh, MBA

School of Technology and Innovations

Information Systems Science

University of Vaasa

Wolffintie 32

Vaasa, 65200

Phone: 358 414888477

Email: [email protected]

Background: Health care organizations worldwide are faced with an increasing number of cyberattacks and threats to their critical infrastructure. These cyberattacks cause significant data breaches in digital health information systems, which threaten patient safety and privacy.

Objective: From a sociotechnical perspective, this paper explores why digital health care systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks and provides sociotechnical solutions through a systematic literature review (SLR).

Methods: An SLR using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) was conducted by searching 6 databases (PubMed, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and Springer) and a journal ( Management Information Systems Quarterly ) for articles published between 2012 and 2022 and indexed using the following keywords: “(cybersecurity OR cybercrime OR ransomware) AND (healthcare) OR (cybersecurity in healthcare).” Reports, review articles, and industry white papers that focused on cybersecurity and health care challenges and solutions were included. Only articles published in English were selected for the review.

Results: In total, 5 themes were identified: human error, lack of investment, complex network-connected end-point devices, old legacy systems, and technology advancement (digitalization). We also found that knowledge applications for solving vulnerabilities in health care systems between 2012 to 2022 were inconsistent.

Conclusions: This SLR provides a clear understanding of why health care systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks and proposes interventions from a new sociotechnical perspective. These solutions can serve as a guide for health care organizations in their efforts to prevent breaches and address vulnerabilities. To bridge the gap, we recommend that health care organizations, in partnership with educational institutions, develop and implement a cybersecurity curriculum for health care and intelligence information sharing through collaborations; training; awareness campaigns; and knowledge application areas such as secure design processes, phase-out of legacy systems, and improved investment. Additional studies are needed to create a sociotechnical framework that will support cybersecurity in health care systems and connect technology, people, and processes in an integrated manner.

Introduction

Cybersecurity in health care systems entails the safeguarding of electronic information and assets against unauthorized access, use, and disclosure [ 1 ]. The main objective of cybersecurity in health care systems is to protect the privacy, integrity, and accessibility of health information to provide secure health care services. Despite the digital transformation in health care delivery, health care organizations are facing increasing challenges and crises, which include data breaches of patient health information and vulnerability in their critical infrastructure [ 2 ]. Research has highlighted that health care systems are becoming more vulnerable to cyberattacks as technology advances [ 3 ]. Furthermore, the internet and its diverse nature and connection to the delivery of telehealth and continuous health care services create multiple points of access for cyberattacks [ 4 , 5 ].

In high-income countries such as Finland, the United States, and the United Kingdom, integrated technology is used to monitor and manage health care systems. For instance, at least 10 to 15 medical devices are linked to each patient’s electronic bed in a public hospital [ 6 ]. These complexities increase the susceptibility of health care networks to cyberattacks [ 6 , 7 ]. Studies conducted through the simulation of medical devices have similarly revealed that pacemakers and pulse oximeters can be hacked and compromised without a physician’s knowledge [ 8 , 9 ]. Ransomware is another type of man-made malware that can disrupt health care systems by infecting computer systems, locking people out of their files, and then demanding a ransom payment in exchange for access to those files [ 10 , 11 ]. Cyberattackers can publish the exposed health information to the web or sell it on the dark web [ 12 ]. This type of attack can result in breaches of patient privacy, subjecting health care organizations to fines that are consistent with human health service regulations and European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) policies for data breaches. For example, research has shown that, between 2012 and 2022, more than US $128,244,290 million in fines were paid in the United States alone for violations of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act laws on data breaches against health care organizations [ 13 ]. Although these fines were derived from no less than 111 health care organizations, many organizations have failed to report breaches.

Cybersecurity education is seriously lacking [ 14 , 15 ]. Moreover, a critical problem with cybersecurity in health care systems is the lack of involvement or recruitment of people with expertise and training in cybersecurity [ 16 ], resulting in considerable neglect of the cybersecurity infrastructure [ 17 ]. A systematic literature review (SLR) revealed that, between 2018 and 2019, more than 24% of the data breaches in all industries happened within the health care context [ 18 , 19 ].

Between 2009 and 2021, the US Department of Health and Human Services office reported 4419 health care data breaches, resulting in >314 million health care records being lost, stolen, or exposed [ 20 ]. In 2015, an estimated 113.27 million records were stolen and exposed, and in 2021 alone, the US Department of Health and Human Services also reported at least 2 health care data leaks daily [ 13 ]. The statistics clearly show an upward trend in health care data breaches over the past 10 years [ 21 ]. When considering this trend on a global scale, the number of health information breaches could potentially reach into the billions of health records. Organizations such as Vaastimo Oy Finland; National Health Service trusts in the United Kingdom; Anthem, Inc; Premera Blue Cross; and Excellus Health Plan have been victims of these threats and breaches of health information. Breaches and vulnerabilities in health care delivery, human safety, and protection of sensitive information are deeply disconcerting. However, it can be argued that research solutions are fragmented and sparse. There is a gap in the knowledge areas of health care cybersecurity in the literature and in practice regarding the vulnerability of health care systems and the reasons for cyberattacks. The argument and motivation are that a holistic approach to security is needed because humans are the weakest link in the cyberattack chain [ 11 , 22 ].

Coventry and Branley [ 6 ] have highlighted the need for resilience and changes in their studies on human behavior, technology, and processes as part of a holistic solution to the problem of health care system vulnerability. The information, technology, processes, objectivity and values, skills and knowledge, management systems and structure, and other resources dimensions by Heeks [ 23 ] also point out that avoiding security design reality gaps requires approaching the security functionality of a health information system as a sociotechnical system and not as a technical system. Security by design, or secure design, is an approach to cybersecurity that enables organizations to automate their data security controls and formalize the design of their infrastructure so that they can build security into their IT management processes [ 24 , 25 ].

In this study, a sociotechnical approach is defined as the interaction between humans and technology with the aim of creating technically efficient organizational information systems and user satisfaction [ 26 ]. Furthermore, conceptualizations of this approach are concerned with 3 primary dimensions: the social environment, technical environment, and organizational environment [ 27 ]. Sociotechnical design is identified as an approach to connect the integration of systems while ensuring that the multifaceted challenges and complexities in smart health care are well managed [ 28 , 29 ]. Smart health care can be defined as care that is equipped with smart IT, such as Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices that have the capabilities to anticipate and diagnose patient diseases; respond to treatments; guide, manage, and improve user comfort; and provide security and entertainment via hospital management systems. According to Coiera [ 30 ], “if healthcare is to evolve at a pace that will meet the needs of society, it will need to embrace the science of sociotechnical design.” Therefore, the application of a sociotechnical perspective in health care cybersecurity in this study aimed at better understanding and mitigating the multifaceted challenges and poor uptake and performance of health care system security within health care organizations.

This existing gap in knowledge and practice was a major motivation for this SLR. It is necessary to connect the fragmented research and manage this knowledge gap regarding why health care systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks as the study by Coventry and Branley [ 6 ] did not address this aspect in detail. An SLR was conducted to develop proactive cybersecurity strategies to mitigate threats and vulnerabilities that result in health care data breaches by proposing sociotechnical solutions and recommendations. Furthermore, to link human behavior, technology, and processes as highlighted by Coventry and Branley [ 6 ] and supported by the narrative review by Mohan et al [ 31 ] for further research, these 3 core areas can be interpreted as a sociotechnical framework [ 27 ]. It is essential to mitigate the increase in breaches of health information and protect health care from cybercrime and cyberattacks on critical health care infrastructure. However, none of these studies have examined why health care systems are vulnerable to attack through a sociotechnical lens. On the basis of this knowledge gap identified in the literature, the following research questions (RQs) were raised: (1) Why are health care systems vulnerable to cyberattacks? (RQ 1) (2) How can health care systems be protected? (RQ 2).

The objective of this review was to explore from a sociotechnical approach why digital health care systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks, provide sociotechnical solutions, and identify the areas of health care systems that need further improvement.

Previous Literature Review

Regarding the existing literature on health care cybersecurity, our previous SLR identified the following review themes: (1) cybersecurity threats and trends: studies that provide solutions and insights into threats and trends have been conducted to address cybersecurity threats and trends in health care systems [ 2 , 6 , 11 , 17 , 32 , 33 ]; (2) cybersecurity vulnerability: some studies have also investigated the cybersecurity vulnerability of health care systems to provide solutions and future directions for health care services [ 22 , 34 - 36 ]; and (3) cybersecurity interceptions in health care: studies have also investigated cybersecurity interceptions with health care systems to protect the security posture of these systems [ 12 , 19 , 37 ]—Coventry and Branley [ 6 ] have highlighted the need for further studies on human behavior, technology, and processes to further investigate why health care systems are vulnerable and provide a holistic solution to this problem.

Therefore, there is a need for further studies to identify the reasons behind the increase in health information breaches in health care systems. This area of study through a sociotechnical lens is lacking. Accordingly, our SLR critically investigated why health care systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks and expanded this area of study from a sociotechnical point of view. This review is significant given the lack of SLRs on the areas linking human behavior, technology, and processes using a holistic approach from a sociotechnical viewpoint in this context and as the studies by Coventry and Branley [ 6 ] and Mohan et al [ 31 ] were based on narrative reviews.

Protocol and Registration

The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines were followed to conduct our SLR using the checklist guide [ 38 ] ( Multimedia Appendix 1 ). The aim of this review was to identify the reasons why health care systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks and provide sociotechnical solutions. In the planning stage of this review, a protocol for the sources of information, search strategies, study selection, criteria for eligibility, and data collection processes was created, and this review was not registered.

Eligibility Criteria

A paper was selected for inclusion if it was published in English and comprised a full-text version of the manuscript, review paper, conference proceeding paper, report, news article or website, or white paper published between 2012 and 2022. The introduction, abstract, results, and discussion sections of the paper were checked by the authors for conformity with the study objectives and critical appraisal using the checklist guidelines before inclusion. Research papers were excluded if they were not relevant to the research areas—cybersecurity, cybercrime, ransomware, and health care. These criteria are presented in Textbox 1 .

Inclusion criteria

• Study types: published peer-reviewed and original research papers (empirical and conceptual papers)
• Bibliometric study types: white papers and cybersecurity news reports in line with health care and cybersecurity
• Period: papers published between 2012 and 2022
• Language: English
• Subjects and domain: computer sciences, health care, and cybersecurity
• Requirements for paper inclusion: full-text papers.

Exclusion criteria

• Study types: unpublished work, editorial letters, textbooks, and research in progress
• Language: any other languages
• Subjects: studies outside the domain of cybersecurity and health care

Information Sources

To identify original research papers and review papers on cybersecurity in health care systems published between 2012 and 2022, a total of 6 databases (Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus, PubMed, Springer, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and a journal ( Management Information Systems Quarterly ) were searched. Furthermore, bibliometric records such as website reports, white paper reports, and magazine reports that supported cybersecurity in health care were also collected for the review. As a means of verifying the papers identified in our search, we searched Google Scholar using a search string.

Search Strategy

The following search string and keywords were used: (“cybersecurity” OR “cybercrime OR ransomware”) AND (“health care”) OR (“cybersecurity in healthcare”). Multimedia Appendix 2 provides more information.

Data Extraction

A total of 70 papers were extracted and recorded in a Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corp) spreadsheet. The extracted data included information such as author or authors, year of publication, method, problem, and solution. The first author independently charted the data and updated the table to ensure the quality of the key findings drawn from the papers based on the recommendations of the second author. Critical appraisal was conducted to ensure the quality of evidence and the relevance of the articles. The data retrieved from the selected articles were analyzed.

Data Synthesis

The data from the literature were analyzed and synthesized using qualitative themes, which are presented in the following sections. The data were analyzed to identify the causes of vulnerabilities; solutions provided in the literature; and areas of classification based on sociotechnical, technical, and social perspectives in health care systems.

Selection of Sources of Evidence

A total of 1257 papers were retrieved for the screening exercises. To determine whether the papers met our inclusion criteria regarding the topic domain, we began by scanning the abstracts and titles. The papers were reviewed by reading the full texts and determining their eligibility. Duplicated papers as well as those nonrelevant to cybersecurity, cybercrime, ransomware, and health care research were excluded. Furthermore, some papers were excluded after reading them in full and discovering that they were papers on research in progress. Finally, 70 papers were included in the analysis based on the eligibility criteria. Figure 1 illustrates the selection process.

The results of the SLR show the reasons why health care systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks and health care breaches. These reasons are the 5 vulnerability themes ( Figure 2 and Table 1 ). Furthermore, the 5 vulnerability themes were classified into social, technical, and sociotechnical approaches.

a ECRI: Emergency Care Research Institute.

b PECB: Professional Evaluation and Certification Board.

The results also revealed that >24% of the data breaches from all industry clusters originated in the health care sector alone ( Table 1 ) [ 19 , 21 , 84 ]. Other studies highlighted that organizations tend to spend more money on procuring new technology while committing only ≤5% of their budgets to the security of their critical health care systems [ 17 , 35 ]. Cybercriminals exploit health care systems due to the lack of investment, technology advancement as a result of digitalization, human error due to a lack of awareness and training, and old legacy systems, which enable cybercriminals to access valuable health information and sell it on the dark web for money and other gains [ 12 ]. The results reported a significant increase in data breaches and cyberattacks, with complex systems, IoMT devices, technology advancement, and network-connected end-point devices in complex connected heterogeneous health care systems identified as the major contributing factors.

The studies also identified a shortage of cybersecurity skills to contain cyberattacks or threats to health care organizations and systems [ 16 ]. The studies revealed that approximately 60% to 70% of health care organizations have witnessed breaches of health information without disclosure [ 85 ].

Human Error

Human error is a significant factor in the event of a cyberattack [ 11 , 22 ]. This shortcoming is one of the most crucial issues in health care systems as most cybercriminals use methods such as phishing to execute attacks with just a deceitful email. This is a social problem that can be addressed from a social approach. For example, human error posed a risk to the Geneva University Hospitals [ 86 ]. Table 1 shows that 11% (8/70) of the studies acknowledged human error as the primary social reason for health care system vulnerability. Human error is attributed to a lack of skills and is a major trend in this ever-changing technological landscape, playing a role in several cybersecurity breaches [ 56 ]. From a technological point of view, a lack of expertise from humans and threats from human-related events are responsible for >70% of data fraud and breaches in business organizations (McCue, A, unpublished data, May 2008) [ 80 ] because of the value of health information on the dark web [ 6 ] and breaches in business organizations (McCue, A, unpublished data, May 2008) [ 80 ]. Furthermore, human-related threats have recently emerged as a growing concern.

Old Legacy Systems

Old legacy systems have been the basis of system development from the dawn of the medical device, operating system, and embedded mobile device era. Legacy operating systems such as Windows ME, Windows 2000, MS-DOS, UNIX, and firmware provide the foundation for system development. However, these systems pose a significant threat to health care sectors and organizations in our current era. Table 1 shows that 16% (11/70) of the studies acknowledged the vulnerability of health care systems to attacks due to old legacy systems. Such attacks occur from a sociotechnical approach, with cybercriminals exploiting humans and technology. Many data breaches, system incompatibilities, and security risks in health care systems and sectors are associated with legacy systems. Similarly, our SLR found that 85% of medical organizations use outdated operating systems or infrastructure [ 12 , 16 ]. Furthermore, Fu and Blum [ 50 ] raised concerns about organizations relying on unsupported software, alluding to medical devices that run on Windows XP operating systems with service packs but lack security updates. In addition, the case of the National Health Service 2017 WannaCry malware, which interrupted health care operations and shut down numerous hospitals by infecting thousands of computers, was caused by Windows XP software [ 87 ]. The authorities had been informed about the bugs but failed to act due to negligence. When a medical device is compromised, cybercriminals use it as a gateway to abuse hospitals, health care system networks, and health information or data. Perriello [ 88 ] and Meggitt [ 89 ] highlighted another issue, Medijack , referring to hackers hijacking medical devices to construct a back entrance into a hospital network. As a result, the use of a network of old legacy medical devices for administrative processes and care delivery increases the opportunities for an attacker or cybercriminal to easily intrude into hospital or health care organization networks and exploit and compromise the network of medical devices and health information. In this era of rapid medical technological advancement, health care systems also lack built-in security safeguards. Legacy systems do not support new technologies, and so the network of medical equipment in intensive care units, recovery rooms, operating rooms, and electronic health records (EHRs) will lack proper and secure communication and interoperability. Outdated legacy systems and unsupported operating systems are vulnerable to high-speed attacks. Furthermore, these problems are attributable to the lack of important updates to health care infrastructure. To support our point, health and human services should provide more guidance on applying the National Institute of Standards and Technology framework to the health care industry and consider appropriate incentives that would allow health care organizations to phase out old vulnerable legacy systems [ 16 ].

Lack of Investment

Investment in the health sector will yield better outcomes and quality health care delivery. According to our analysis and results, the health care sector suffers from underinvestment, and crucial infrastructure and training for health care cybersecurity are disregarded [ 6 ], which is one of the primary causes of the increase in sensitive health information breaches. Investment can be seen in social (human) and technical (technology) aspects. As shown in the analysis in Table 1 , a total of 21% (15/70) of the studies acknowledged the lack of investment and advised both directly and indirectly regarding the necessity of cybersecurity investment in the health care industry [ 55 , 56 ]. The analysis acknowledged and revealed that the health care sector lagged more than other sectors in terms of health information protection and breaches. Furthermore, the findings of our SLR revealed that 80% to 85% of worldwide breaches occur in the health sector [ 4 ], whereas 45% to 90% of health care organizations have witnessed one or more threats or breaches [ 18 , 57 ]. Investment in critical infrastructure for health care and best practices in cyber hygiene will aid in the protection of health care systems from potential vulnerabilities. Proper investment will ensure the safeguarding of personal information and render health care systems more resilient to cyberattacks.

Complex Network-Connected End-Point Devices

Medical end-point devices have long served as a hospital’s backbone for treatment, diagnosis, and precision-based technological applications to complement health care service operations and management. To fully exploit their potential, the medical device development pattern has shifted from traditional-based medical device system development to a network of wireless, connected end-point technological devices with built-in communications and remote connectivity. Complex network-connected end-point devices have increased the cyberattack surfaces in conjunction with their complexity and technological systems as heterogeneity in nature of medical technology has evolved. Complex network devices are classified as a technical challenge from the perspective of technical security system design. The analysis in Table 1 shows that 51% (36/70) of the studies acknowledged network-connected end-point medical devices as the most significant technical reason for health care systems’ vulnerability to cyberattacks. The operational modes continue to evolve with more interconnections between new applications and devices such as cloud-based applications, third-party software, IoMT devices, and system networks in health care environments. Lechner [ 68 ] revealed that original equipment manufacturers are now creating interconnected medical devices without incorporating proper cybersecurity features into the development life cycle of medical and end-point device systems. The vulnerability of the end point requires urgent attention; otherwise, cybercriminals will continue to use the weakness of connected devices to access personal health information. According to research and cybersecurity stakeholders, wearables, implanted devices, and sensors may become the new targets of future exploits [ 6 , 8 ]. As shown in Table 1 , complex network-connected end-point medical devices also require medical technology security by design [ 72 , 90 ] as a solution strategy to protect critical health care infrastructure from breaches. In the past, medical device system development has primarily focused on critical performance and safety. Furthermore, the security aspects of these medical devices are not a factor during the planning and development process. The process indicates that developing traditional or stand-alone systems of noninterconnected devices was a suitable method for designing the traditional approach. These are the current legacy systems that lack interoperability, updates, security design, or compatibility. Furthermore, connected medical devices such as sensor-controlled drug infusion pumps, cardiac pacemakers, pulse oximeters, and network-connected x-ray machine components such as picture archiving and communication systems are vulnerable to cybersecurity threats and attacks [ 5 ]. To continue solving cybersecurity issues in medical devices, developers and actors must recognize the importance of the health care environment’s complex operations. In addition, there should be incident reports, an audit trail in the device system database, and paper-based documentation of technical vulnerabilities [ 34 ]. Medical device manufacturers such as security experts or systems integrators must address this issue because, with a single cyber vulnerability, cybercriminals or hackers can exploit medical technology connected to the internet, compromising data integrity, wearable sensor readings, protected health information, patient safety, and care outcomes [ 2 , 50 ]. When cyberattackers manipulate systems or deposit a virus, this could cause medical device software or systems to malfunction, resulting in abnormal effects or different readings from the systems, such as implantable medical devices that take and display incorrect readings [ 5 , 8 ].

Technology Advancement (Digitalization)

Technology advancement has enabled unique access and benefits to revolutionize health care systems in terms of precision. Modern medical care now relies on health care delivery organizations, including hospitals and clinics, built on a backbone of connected computer-based infrastructure. Over the past 30 years, the expansive integration of new health care technology has changed the face of medicine [ 53 ]. However, the rapid digitalization in health care delivery, where medical devices are intertwined in a digital network setting and system to ensure the precision of health care delivery with the use of IoMT and digital devices, has created gateway access for cyberattacks, risks, and vulnerabilities [ 37 , 81 ]. Table 1 shows that 14% (10/70) of the studies acknowledged technology advancement due to digital transformation as the reason why health care systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks. This type of attack and vulnerability usually occur from the technical areas of cyberattacks, for example, a technology error such as glitches and design errors. One example of vulnerability is St. Joseph Hospital in California, where the health information of 31,800 patients was made public through a basic internet search engine for >1 year without anyone noticing. The underlying issue was that security settings on the medical devices were not correctly configured [ 91 ]. As technology continues to evolve, IoMT will become more inseparable in health care service delivery, which will create more vulnerabilities if health care organizations continue to disregard cybersecurity threats without proactive readiness to address them in this era of Industry 4.0. These vulnerabilities pose threats to the security and privacy of human and health information.

Studies have shown the health care sector to be unequipped and lacking in investment [ 11 , 92 ]. For example, the use of electronic health technology, motivated by acts such as the Meaningful Use program introduced by the US government, has compelled many health care organizations to increase the use of digital technology in health care, such as EHRs and electronic data exchange, and comply with enhanced health care delivery management. Organizations began to focus on adopting new technology and spending less on security, creating part of the problem [ 32 ]. Technological advancements and a federal policy mandate ultimatum are 2 of the causes noted in this SLR that have increased health care industry exposure to cyberattacks and breaches of health information [ 17 ]. Therefore, an organization should have proper planning; be proactive instead of reactive; and ensure the protection of health technology, information, patient privacy, and security when implementing or adopting advanced technology [ 17 , 80 ]. One such process is to ensure that a medical technology statement of disclosure and liability is included during the procurement, integration, and adoption of a technology. Support services and maintenance during and after procurement and installation should be part of the procurement process. Furthermore, the device manufacturer should also consider security in product development planning. Digital technology should also have the capability to monitor and collate threats and patterns and log these in a risk assessment register for analysis and improvement or threat containment.

Causes of Vulnerabilities in Health Care Systems

Figure 3 shows the causes of vulnerabilities in health care systems, which complement the findings regarding health care vulnerability, and categorizes them accordingly. The following sections address these vulnerabilities.

How Can Health Care Systems Be Protected?

This study summarizes how health care systems can be protected from cyber threats and cyberattacks and presented in Table 2 .

a Not applicable.

b IoMT: Internet of Medical Things.

c IoT: Internet of Things.

Human-Related Case Type and Challenges

The protection of health care systems from cyberattack-related vulnerabilities caused by human error, such as identity theft and health information breaches, requires by law that health care organizations inform the human health office, regulatory bodies, and data owners [ 93 ] to ensure compliance with ethical and privacy standard regulations [ 94 , 95 ]. A security compliance officer should also be employed to guide and ensure that proper cyber hygiene measures are in place to avoid such occurrences. It is important to ensure that health information is encrypted to assure that data are unusable and back up data offline and on the web. Furthermore, in cases in which a health care organization is saddled with challenges due to insecure human behavior, such as employee negligence, a lack of skills, and cyber warfare, the organization must ensure proper training of all staff [ 62 ] and implement awareness programs using a comprehensive guide to avert cyber threats [ 36 , 41 ]. This proposed solution requires a social approach in designing guidelines and training programs.

Old Legacy Systems Case Type and Challenges

Interoperability and compatibility challenges in medical devices stem from human-related activities within health care systems, potentially impacting the persistence of outdated legacy systems [ 50 ]. Therefore, to holistically protect health care systems, proposed solutions involve sociotechnical measures due to the old legacy in human work processes, organizational structures, and technology tasks, as mentioned by Offner et al [ 2 ]. Organizations should adhere to policies and standards linked to the old legacy, ensure proper updates and upgrades, and implement patches. Modern equipment that supports security and carries out updates must be procured to avert crises and phase out legacy systems [ 16 ].

Lack of Investment Case Type and Challenges

Investment in critical health care infrastructure is very important to ensure a health care ecosystem that is secure from cyberattacks and vulnerabilities. The susceptibility of health care to cyberattacks is a result of the underinvestment in and neglect of cybersecurity infrastructures. Kruse et al [ 17 ] also highlighted that a health organization invests ≤5% in cybersecurity but tends to focus on integrating and delivering care. It is important for a health care organization to invest in technology, human behavior, and processes [ 96 ] to protect sensitive and valuable health information from breaches and attacks.

Complex Network-Connected End-Point Devices Case Type and Challenges

The increase in health information breaches in hospitals is attributed to complex network-connected end-point devices, which are vulnerable to cyberattacks because sensor-based medical devices and system networks are interlinked and connected to the internet [ 8 ]. Internet of Things devices are vulnerable because they can be controlled through a media access control address and network. A proposed solution identified in this SLR highlighted that health care can be protected though proper encryption of data and installation of network defenders [ 3 ]. It is important that medical device simulation and assessment be performed through vulnerability analysis to ensure that devices are not tampered with or compromised [ 8 ].

Technology Advancement (Digitalization) Case Type and Challenges

Technology advancement has revolutionized the health care delivery process using digital technological processes. Manufactured medical devices enable patients to be diagnosed remotely, and physicians can administer care using telemedicine. However, technological advancements still lack security in the design of these devices because security is an afterthought during development, which makes them vulnerable to cyberattacks [ 5 ]. A proposed solution is that health care organizations must ensure that medical device security starts from the planning stage [ 68 ] and that device manufacturers maintain and manage security in the pre- and postmarket phases. This solution paradigm must be catalogued as a technical measure. Hospitals with modern-day smart care should leverage comprehensive guidelines and compliance with standards such as those of the International Organization for Standardization or International Electrotechnical Commission 27001 or 27002, as well as cyber hygiene to enable effective and efficient care delivery processes [ 4 , 11 ]. Therefore, the implementation of solutions should always adopt a sociotechnical approach [ 96 ].

Intervention Application Areas and Domain Counts for 2012 to 2022

The selected studies from this SLR that discussed and presented knowledge interventions and solutions applied in some health care sectors between 2012 and 2022 are categorized and presented in Table 3 .

a PECB: Professional Evaluation and Certification Board.

b HIPAA: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

c ECRI: Emergency Care Research Institute.

Knowledge Application Domains and Vulnerabilities

The vulnerabilities listed in Table 3 reveal that human error was associated with interventions linked to one of the knowledge application domains of training, awareness, education, and intelligence information sharing.

Employee training is important to avoid human factors or error challenges in health care. Table 3 shows the proposed solutions and interventions for training from 17% (12/70) of the studies. Figure 4 shows that training emerged in 2018 at 1% and increased to its peak between 2019 and 2021. However, this finding suggests the need for cybersecurity training in health care to manage human vulnerability challenges. This need is supported by the literature highlighting the importance of cybersecurity skills and education for health care professionals [ 16 ] and the need for investment in this area [ 17 ].

The solutions presented regarding educational intervention were derived from 3% (2/70) of the studies ( Table 3 ). Figure 4 shows that educational solutions emerged in 2017 and declined until 2020, when studies on educational intervention emerged. This finding is supported by research that shows a lack of educational skills [ 16 ]. Organizations must invest in educational training and skills to curb social and technical cybersecurity vulnerability in health care.

A total of 6% (4/70) of the studies in Table 3 presented solutions on awareness to address the vulnerability of human errors. This small number of studies has shown a decline and a lack of cybersecurity awareness program in health care systems. Figure 4 similarly shows that cybersecurity awareness emerged in 2016 and reached its peak at 2 studies. This has been validated by previous studies that indicate a lack of awareness programs and training [ 45 , 62 ].

Intelligence Information Sharing

Table 3 also shows that intelligence information sharing was a solution investigated in 7% (5/70) of the studies. It can be seen that information sharing emerged in 2014 and declined in 2015 before re-emerging in 2017 and 2018 at the rate of 1 study each year. This finding also shows that health care organizations should collaborate in training and intelligence information sharing to address cybersecurity challenges in health care.

The vulnerabilities listed in Table 3 reveal that old legacy systems were associated with interventions linked to the knowledge application domain of health policy and standards.

Health Policy and Standards

The knowledge intervention analysis indicates that 36% (25/70) of the studies acknowledged and were linked to health policy and standards ( Table 3 ). The analysis shows that governments and health care organizations have proposed more interventions or solutions regarding health policy and standards to regulate health care organizations. The policy studies shown in Figure 4 emerged in 2014 and continued to increase to their peak in 2018. Policies such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the GDPR, and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act to engineer has helped to mitigate data breaches and vulnerabilities in health care organizations in addressing old legacy systems to avoid sanctions and fines in case of breaches. However, full implementation or enforcement of day-to-day monitoring in hospitals or health care organizations remains challenging.

The vulnerabilities listed in Table 1 reveal that a lack of investment was associated with interventions linked to the knowledge application domain of partnership.

Partnership

Partnership is key to sustaining and protecting health care systems from cybersecurity vulnerability [ 72 ]. When organizations fail to invest in critical cyber infrastructure, skills, and partnerships with governments and expert security organizations, it is likely that they will be vulnerable to cyberattacks and breaches of health information and lack the capability to protect health care systems from the vulnerability of underinvestment. Table 3 shows that partnership solutions were provided in 4% (3/70) of the studies, whereas Figure 4 shows that partnership emerged in 2018 and declined in 2021. There is a need for health care organizations to partner for better capability and structure to protect health care systems [ 64 ].

The vulnerabilities listed in Table 1 reveal that complex network-connected end-point devices were associated with interventions linked to the knowledge application domains of participatory design, network security, and encryption.

Participatory Design

Health care organizations and medical device manufacturers must jointly participate in designing processes and systems to avoid a sociotechnical design gap. This collaboration will help protect health care systems and increase the acceptability of organizational systems and productivity. Table 3 shows only 1 pertinent study in 2014. This infer that participatory design is one of the reasons for the vulnerabilities in complex network-connected end-point devices in health care systems. Health care systems comprise a complex environment that requires a sociotechnical and collaborative approach to addressing challenges [ 2 ].

Network Security

Network security solutions were covered in 23% (16/70) of the studies ( Table 3 ). A number of intervention solution studies were conducted in this domain. As shown in Figure 4 , the first increase was observed in 2014 with 4 studies, a decline to 2 studies was observed in 2017, and then the number of studies increased to 3 before a final decline to 2 studies in 2021. These studies still attest to the vulnerability of complex network-connected end-point devices, which require increased interventions to solve health care vulnerability challenges.

The encryption technological solution in this review was mentioned in 6% (4/70) of the studies. There was a limited number of solutions regarding encryption intervention in this review ( Figure 4 ). Encryption only emerged in 2014 with 2 studies, and there was a gap in studies until 2017 and 2018. This finding shows that health care organizations need to implement encryption technology to protect valuable health information from breaches and attacks [ 77 ].

The vulnerabilities listed in Table 1 reveal that technology advancement (digitalization) was associated with interventions linked to the knowledge application domains of machine learning, blockchain, and security design.

Machine Learning

Machine learning is a new area in which cybersecurity in health care systems is evolving. However, solutions were provided in only 11% (8/70) of the studies ( Table 3 ). This technology surfaced in 2014 according to Figure 4 . There was only 1 study in 2014 and 2015. No solutions were provided until 2018, and the number of interventions categorized under technology advancement increased from 2019 to 2021.

Blockchain technology is new and still lacking solutions according to this SLR, where only 1% (1/70) of the studies showed an effective intervention. Blockchain surfaced in 2019, as shown in Figure 4 . Additional solutions and interventions are needed as this area is promising and can be categorized under technology advancement (digitalization) as the key to protecting smart health care systems.

Security by Design

Security by design is a strategy that demands that health care organizations implement auto-based technology to protect digital health care systems. Table 3 shows that 9% (6/70) of the studies acknowledged security by design as a solution for technology advancement to prevent vulnerability in digital systems. Figure 4 shows studies on secure design in 2013 to 2014. There were no studies in 2015, whereas in 2016 to 2019, some studies provided interventions. There is a need for more solutions in this area to protect technological advancement or digital health care systems from vulnerability [ 68 ].

Summary of the Knowledge Application Domains and Vulnerabilities

In summary, the findings of this SLR indicate that interventions provided for the containment of health care cybersecurity vulnerabilities were limited over the past 11 years. This SLR also revealed that interventions regarding the rate of technological advancements in addressing health care cybersecurity challenges were inconsistent and lagging between 2012 and 2022. Findings also indicates that interventions in some of the mapped variables were scarce between 2012 and 2022 ( Table 3 ). Few or no solutions are provided to address the challenges in many domains regarding health care vulnerabilities.

Brief Summary of Findings

This SLR provided a synthesis of literature on cybersecurity in health care and identified the reasons why health care systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks. This review analyzed 70 published studies and identified 5 vulnerability themes of cybersecurity in health care systems and also proposed sociotechnical solutions for health care organizations.

The findings indicate that the extensive vulnerability of health care systems is due to internet-connected devices and software applications. Health care organizations face significant challenges, such as medical end-point device complexities and saturated wireless medical technology resulting in its difficulty in securing an interconnected technological landscape.

Importantly, many cyberattacks occur within this interconnected network without the health care organization’s awareness, contributing to health information breaches.

Our findings also underscore that the crucial role of investment in health care organizations is a key panacea for addressing cyberattacks and threats. Thus, lack of investment leverages the other vulnerabilities.

In addition, this study found that lack of adequate preparation for the potential threats or vulnerability in shifting to the digitalization of health care is also a contributing factor to most successful cyberattacks on health care organizations.

We found that human activity also played a major role in subjecting health care systems to cybercrimes. The decision of humans to develop medical devices, health software applications, management systems, and processes in an effective and secured manner is vital in safeguarding health information. However, there is a bit of disconnect in the human-centric design in health care system development, most importantly during the planning of procurement of medical technology and systems and the integration between health care organizations and stakeholders such as medical device developers, health care professionals, cybersecurity compliance officers, and system integration experts. Generally, the findings revealed that health care organizations lack adequate cybersecurity preparations during transitions to digitalization.

The findings also revealed that the health care cybersecurity knowledge application domain areas in Figure 4 depict that more intervention studies over the past 11 years were focused on health policy and standards.

In Table 4 , solutions are proposed from a sociotechnical perspective to counteract cybersecurity vulnerabilities in health care organizations.

Further findings on the vulnerabilities and implications for future research are discussed in the following sections.

Table 4 is an integrated table that is presented in a stand-alone view for health care system solutions from a sociotechnical viewpoint.

To protect health care systems from attacks and vulnerabilities, as shown in Table 4 , through the intervention of effective and noneffective studies, it can be seen that sociotechnical intervention studies classified invention most often and were the most effective. There are patterns and convergences between technical solutions and sociotechnical solutions in their domain of applications and solutions, such as a lack of investment, complex network-connected end-point devices, old legacy systems, and technology advancement, which lean toward interventions.

While we can consider human errors in human-computer interactions and technology usability from a human perspective, design and management can be approached through a sociotechnical perspective [ 96 ]. This approach also considers the final users of digital health care systems. Organizations would benefit from leveraging the sociotechnical solutions and guide in Table 4 in the case of cyberattacks attributed to human error by training all staff to respond using a comprehensive guide to avert cyber threats [ 62 ]. Challenges of technology, such as network-connected end-point devices and technology advancement for digitalization, should be addressed through network and security solutions and encryptions [ 6 , 67 ].

Hospitals with modern-day smart care should leverage their comprehensive guidelines and standard International Organization for Standardization or International Electrotechnical Commission 27001 and 27002 compliances.

Health care organizations should ensure and implement proper cyber hygiene to enable effective and efficient health care delivery processes [ 4 , 11 ]. They should increase their budget for critical cyber systems to address the lack of investment [ 17 ] and phase out old legacy systems by increasing investment. These actions will enable resilience and preparedness for future response plans and mitigations.

a AIDE: Assess, Identify, Develop, and Evaluate.

b Not applicable.

c ISA: information security awareness.

d ANT: actor-network theory.

e CERT RMM: Computer Emergency Response Team Resilience Management Model.

f IoMT: Internet of Medical Things.

g HIPAA: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

h GDPR: General Data Protection Regulation.

i HITECH: Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health.

j FDA: Food and Drug Administration.

k NIST-CSF: National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework.

l HICP: Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices.

m ITPOSOM: information, technology, processes, objectivity and values, skills and knowledge, management systems and structure, and other resources.

n EHR: electronic health record.

o e-PSG: electronic health record–specific patient safety goals.

p IoT: Internet of Things.

q FHSS: frequency-hopping spread spectrum.

r RSSI: received signal strength indicator.

s BYOD: bring your own device.

t PHR: personal health record.

u OCSVM: one-class support vector machine.

Implications for Future Research

Health care sectors have improved with policies and measures developed to control health information breaches and vulnerabilities. However, further research is needed in social and technical interception design, namely, the human factor. Managing complex end-point devices and investment on addressing health care vulnerability and breaches should be considered from a sociotechnical design and sustainability perspective.

Protecting Complex Network-Connected End-Point Devices

The protection of complex network-connected end-point devices for health care organizations involves several key measures. The network of interconnected medical end-point devices and the software systems that connect to the internet are becoming vulnerable to attacks and breaches. This is a growing issue; health care organizations tend to procure medical device technology without proper equipment planning and guidelines in place. This implies that security is overlooked and is not a major focus area. Examples include hospital beds connected to >10 medical devices, such as pulse oximeters, syringe pumps, and patient care monitors, which are connected devices and vulnerable to attacks [ 2 , 6 ].

To address this technical challenge, organizations can concentrate on developing advanced threat detection and mitigation techniques, such as network defenders tailored to intricate network-connected end-point devices in health care and the integration of artificial intelligence using machine learning algorithms to effectively identify and respond to emerging threats. Furthermore, the health care industry must take a sociotechnical approach [ 96 ] toward implementing standard guidelines and technical solutions via the protection of health care networks through planning and integrating network security protection and segmentation. In addition, health information exchange over the network should undergo steganography and encryption as a solution using blockchain technology. Therefore, the integration of a complex end-point medical device should use built-in security with alert response and communication in processes to monitor health care cybersecurity ecosystems for a healthy security posture.

Health care organizations should collaborate with security experts and health care professionals and implement user education and incidence response to catalog cyber vulnerability incidences for further analysis. The implication is that, if networks and end-point medical devices are not properly secured, this will lead to breaches of health information through the network, which will cause patient information to be hijacked by cybercriminals for political gains. Sponsored state actors may use this weakness to seize networks and systems of care delivery, demanding money from an organization before the latter can regain access. This approach will expose the health information of patients while they are receiving treatment and accessing health care services. This is an evolving challenge of the digital consequences of connected care. Building security through a design solution should be achieved from a sociotechnical approach as the human is the final user of systems of care.

Future research should focus on security by design before integrations of complex technology and design a simpler flow process with the disaggregation of complex network connections.

Increasing Investment in Cybersecurity

Investment in health care systems is critical to ensure the proper safeguarding of health care ecosystems from cyberattacks and vulnerabilities. To ensure efficient and secure health care, organizations should invest in human capital and technology to function effectively. An evaluation through research reveals that health care is lagging behind other sectors in terms of investment. This finding was confirmed by Kruse et al [ 17 ], who found that only 5% of health care investment is earmarked to protect health care, whereas a large percentage is allocated for health care delivery.

Insufficient investment in cybersecurity experts, awareness, and investment partnership plans will continue to subject health care employees to insecure behavior and result in a health care organization that is unprepared to mitigate cyber threats and other tactics used by attackers to disrupt evolving health care trends and patterns, particularly ransomware attacks.

Similarly, old legacy systems pose another security risk. Malicious actors can continue to exploit these systems to expose personal health information due to their limited capabilities and outdated organizational structure. Such vulnerability is worsened by a lack of investment in new cybersecurity infrastructure and computer devices to protect or process health information in a secure manner.

Health care organizations can engage in partnership with medical technology providers, application developers, and network solution integrators to develop strong systems and structures with seamless integration. Health care organizations should also develop and implement a framework for prioritizing cybersecurity investment based on risk assessments and threat intelligence. This approach can help identify the most critical areas of vulnerability within different departments, aiding organizations and policy makers in directing investments where they are most needed. Health care organizations should invest in humans and technology through training to ensure the development of necessary skills and investment in critical cyber infrastructure.

Awareness campaigns for patients and staff will help organizations recover from errors and breaches, whereas investment in technological security systems for health care will prepare health care organizations with the appropriate structure and system for resilience.

The findings presented in this paper are also highlighted in Table 4 . Investment challenges in health care cybersecurity should focus on a sociotechnical approach that involves human behavior, technology, and organizational processes and should not be segregated as a separate technical or social problem. Future research should focus on security and investment in smart health care for attaining sustainability and resilience.

Managing Technological Advancement

Health care industries and organizations have improved over the years and are continuing to forge the development of new capabilities, technological advances, and processes to manage the multifaceted challenges of health care cybersecurity. Complexity in technology advancement and networks of digital systems increase the number of attack surfaces, where cybercriminals take advantage of the digital gateway access and execute malicious software programmed with code, such as malware to compromise digital technology and health care system networks. However, technological development necessitates a proactive approach to cybersecurity, particularly when considering security-by-design principles.

Future research projects must concentrate on important areas to protect networks, systems, and applications against vulnerabilities. Health care organizations should collaborate with medical device manufacturers as part of the planning phase of procurement requirements to ensure specifications needs before the development of medical devices technology for seamless integration. Implanted devices, for instance, should be built with security by design and continuously updated when necessary. A 2-factor authentication security for critical medical technology is also necessary. In addition, it is important that health care organizations quantify the risk, ensure that proper National Institute of Standards and Technology and GDPR standard guidelines are followed, and conduct threat modeling and simulation to evaluate the protectability of health care systems as a guideline in managing cybersecurity vulnerability.

Collaborative (sociotechnical) efforts among academia, industry, and policy makers are essential to drive this research agenda forward and create a safer digital landscape for the future.

The technology procurement requirement and collaboration should consider the integration of social and technical processes during digital technology development with health care delivery processes.

Health care organizations can adopt a blockchain technology solution for the protection of health information and other applications such as EHR systems from malicious use and insider threats.

Future research should examine the use of blockchain for health care big data protection and processes to manage cybersecurity vulnerability.

Containing Human Error in Cybersecurity

Humans are at the receiving end of the cyberattack chain. An example is the case of the WannaCry attack that affected 150,000 computers. It was attributed to human error because humans were warned of the attack on Windows server legacy systems but they ignored the warning by clicking on malicious email links [ 38 , 43 ]. When an organization fails to train humans, cybercriminals take advantage of human weakness to exploit health care systems. Today, medical device manufacturers are building devices without considering humans as the final users or a participatory (sociotechnical) design approach. This is one factor of the clinical process and security dimension to protect critical infrastructure. Another factor is that, if a system is developed and does not start with security and support human usability, it becomes stressful for a human user to navigate the systems, which could cause them techno-stress, with the likelihood of mistakes. The health sector should use the Assess, Identify, Develop, and Evaluate technique to identify areas of human weakness, develop a new training method through simulations, and offer gamification training on issues such as phishing email deception and ransomware attacks. The implication is that, if humans are not trained, they will lead organizations to disaster because cybercriminals will continue to exploit the weakness of humans to cause more damage to health care systems. The consequences will include legal issues, fines, and possibly bankruptcy for health care organizations. Proper training and awareness campaigns should be implemented. Future research should focus on developing futuristic health care cybersecurity curriculums and training.

Practical Implications

Inadequate systems will cause health care systems and organizations to face increasing cyberattacks and setbacks in health information and patient safety. Moreover, a new trend reveals that, if implanted medical devices and technology are not protected, humans will be targeted by hackers seeking to make money or gain political power for ransom. However, implementation and adoption of the medical device security life cycle model [ 68 ] will protect medical devices, health information, patients, and organizations from harm and against future emerging threats. Thus, there is a need for the design of a cybersecurity sociotechnical framework toward sustaining smart health care systems.

Comparison With Prior Work

Previous narrative literature reviews by Coventry and Branley [ 6 ] and Mohan et al [ 31 ] highlight the need for an integrated approach in health care systems to address cybersecurity vulnerabilities. They emphasize the need for a comprehensive approach that connects human behavior, technology, and processes in a holistic way as a best strategy to tackle vulnerabilities, although the authors did not classify human behavior, technology, and processes from a sociotechnical lens. This systematic review supports their view by building and extending the literature on cybersecurity case challenge descriptions in all the tables in this paper to integrate human behavior, technology, and processes as a sociotechnical approach [ 2 , 23 , 26 - 28 ]. For example, an SLR conducted by Offner et al [ 2 ] reported that health care system vulnerability is a complex sociotechnical problem. Furthermore, for a health care organization to build resilience against cyberattacks and threats to avoid cybersecurity design gaps and vulnerabilities in the health care system, a strategic approach that integrates people, technology, and processes must be adopted [ 23 , 27 , 31 ]. The aforementioned aligns with the approach adopted in this study.

Different schools of thought have highlighted the key importance of investment in technology and humans to protect health care systems from cyberattacks and threats [ 6 , 8 , 11 , 19 , 36 , 56 ]. This corroborates our findings that cybersecurity investment plays a main role in health care systems.

This study also revealed that complex network-connected end-point devices were mentioned several times by different schools of thought. Moreover, existing literature has opined that complex network-connected end-point devices were the most mentioned vulnerability [ 5 , 17 , 18 , 35 , 53 ].

Furthermore, technology advancement through a digital transformation evolution has created precision, and managed health care delivery [ 32 , 94 ]. However, more effort is still required in designing security features in health care technology. This study highlighted that security by design is required for medical device technology in health care systems [ 9 , 34 , 68 ].

Health care organizations must ensure that the design of technology evolves with a secure design approach from conception to avoid breaches of health information by external and internal attackers [ 24 , 32 , 68 ].

The sociotechnical solutions in Table 4 will aid health care organizations in being resilient in dealing with vulnerabilities and cybersecurity breaches in health care systems through a comprehensive and holistic approach. The sociotechnical perspective defines the meaning and constructs of technology, humans and processes [ 6 , 19 , 31 , 36 , 37 ]. This approach is promising and effective in dealing with health care system and cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

Limitations

For this study, non–English-language articles on cybersecurity and health care were not included. Closed-access articles directly related to cybersecurity and health care were also not included. Textbooks linked to cybersecurity and health care were excluded. In addition, as cybersecurity is a broad topic, more time was needed for data analysis.

Conclusions

This study conducted an SLR (PRISMA guidelines) to investigate the body of literature on cybersecurity in health care systems because of the exponential increase in health information breaches and vulnerability issues surrounding medical device technology and networks. This study also examined why health care systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks and threats.

In this review, sociotechnical solutions and mitigation strategies were proposed to protect patient health information, medical devices, and the critical cyber infrastructure of health care organizations from attacks and threats. We identified human error, lack of investment, complex network-connected end-point devices, old legacy systems, and technological advancement due to rapid digitalization as the causes of data breaches and the vulnerability of digital health care systems to attacks and threats. This study also revealed that research in the areas of education, awareness, training, collaborative partnerships, blockchain, and machine learning for health care cybersecurity is underrepresented. In addition, there was inconsistency in the publication of intervention studies. There is a gap in intervention studies published between 2012 and 2013, as shown in this SLR, as well as breaks in research publications between 2012 and 2022, as illustrated in Table 3 and Figure 4 .

As shown in Table 1 , of the 70 papers published between 2012 and 2022 and reviewed in this study, only 8 (11%) carried out research in the areas of human error–related perspectives where health care systems are vulnerable to attacks. This finding clearly shows that considerably more studies are required on human factors. We also identified from this review that network-connected end-point devices are the most vulnerable challenge that causes health information breaches. However, stakeholders have rolled out interventions in the areas of health policy, health care system support (network security), and training. The support and training target operational activities and health care delivery while investment in cybersecurity critical infrastructure is disregarded. Rapid technology advancement has resulted to an increasing risk of cyberattacks and threats because most manufactured connected medical devices were not built with security in mind. With the possible sociotechnical solutions in Table 4 , we form conclusions about how to protect health care systems as a sociotechnical solution in relation to the gap in research on technology, human behavior, and processes.

Health care organizations must concede that efficient and effective cybersecurity cannot be addressed with a technological process only but must also evolve beyond technological operation to a sociotechnical process that calls for a comprehensive knowledge of the human elements.

The profound implication of our findings steps further from just the concept of security. It deems it necessary for a major change in the approach to health care security by shifting from a reactive measure of patching and mitigation toward an approach of proactiveness and integration of detailed mechanisms that depend on complex sociotechnical dynamics at play in the design and development processes across the health care systems.

Our review emphasized the importance of a mandatory collaboration and cross-disciplinary engagement among stakeholders in health care, technology policy, and academia. The inclusion of a team-based effort from stakeholders will foster an integrated solution that responds to the challenges of cybersecurity vulnerabilities in health care systems.

In addition, our findings also give prominence to the great significance of investment in health care systems, such as in cybersecurity technology, medical devices, networks, health care professionals, and cybersecurity professionals, in advancing health care organizations. Furthermore, investment is imperative in cybersecurity education and training programs that will provide health care professionals and organizations with the updated knowledge and skills to navigate the complexities of cybersecurity vulnerabilities constructively. Governments should provide additional financial incentives for health care organizations to facilitate cybersecurity sustainability in health care systems. Future research should explore the application of blockchain technology for safeguarding health care system data. Blockchain offers a secure decentralized architecture. Therefore, system developers should consider a human-centric design approach when integrating blockchain technology into health care systems.

By strengthening awareness culture, intelligence information sharing, and accountability in health care systems, health care organizations can equip their operations and workforce to become active front-runners in safeguarding patient data and health care critical infrastructure and assuring the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of health care systems. Consequently, our SLR implores for an exhaustive procedure regarding cybersecurity in health care that affirms and entwines the sociotechnical nature of the vulnerabilities and challenges. By merging a technical approach with human-centric strategies, health care organizations can protect health care systems from vulnerabilities and cyber threats and advance a culture of resilience, trust, and innovation in health care service delivery. The implications of this review present a sociotechnical solution for establishing more secure and resilient health care ecosystems. This paper provides health care organizations with a better understanding of and resilience to cyberattacks, threats, and vulnerabilities.

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to the Finnish Cultural Foundation and University of Vaasa in Finland for their support in funding this research.

Conflicts of Interest

None declared.

PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) checklist guide.

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Abbreviations

Edited by A Mavragani; submitted 03.03.23; peer-reviewed by R Marshall, V Perez Jover; comments to author 27.07.23; revised version received 17.10.23; accepted 08.03.24; published 31.05.24.

©Pius Ewoh, Tero Vartiainen. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 31.05.2024.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.