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Research Paper Title – Writing Guide and Example

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Research Paper Title

Research Paper Title is the name or heading that summarizes the main theme or topic of a research paper . It serves as the first point of contact between the reader and the paper, providing an initial impression of the content, purpose, and scope of the research . A well-crafted research paper title should be concise, informative, and engaging, accurately reflecting the key elements of the study while also capturing the reader’s attention and interest. The title should be clear and easy to understand, and it should accurately convey the main focus and scope of the research paper.

Examples of Research Paper Title

Here are some Good Examples of Research Paper Title:

• “Investigating the Relationship Between Sleep Duration and Academic Performance Among College Students”
• “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Employment: A Systematic Review”
• “The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis”
• “Exploring the Effects of Social Support on Mental Health in Patients with Chronic Illness”
• “Assessing the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial”
• “The Impact of Social Media Influencers on Consumer Behavior: A Systematic Review”
• “Investigating the Link Between Personality Traits and Leadership Effectiveness”
• “The Effect of Parental Incarceration on Child Development: A Longitudinal Study”
• “Exploring the Relationship Between Cultural Intelligence and Cross-Cultural Adaptation: A Meta-Analysis”
• “Assessing the Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Chronic Pain Management”.
• “The Effects of Social Media on Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis”
• “The Impact of Climate Change on Global Crop Yields: A Longitudinal Study”
• “Exploring the Relationship between Parental Involvement and Academic Achievement in Elementary School Students”
• “The Ethics of Genetic Editing: A Review of Current Research and Implications for Society”
• “Understanding the Role of Gender in Leadership: A Comparative Study of Male and Female CEOs”
• “The Effect of Exercise on Cognitive Function in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial”
• “The Impacts of COVID-19 on Mental Health: A Cross-Cultural Comparison”
• “Assessing the Effectiveness of Online Learning Platforms: A Case Study of Coursera”
• “Exploring the Link between Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance”
• “The Effects of Income Inequality on Social Mobility: A Comparative Analysis of OECD Countries”
• “Exploring the Relationship Between Social Media Use and Mental Health in Adolescents”
• “The Impact of Climate Change on Crop Yield: A Case Study of Maize Production in Sub-Saharan Africa”
• “Examining the Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Disorders: A Meta-Analysis”
• “An Analysis of the Relationship Between Employee Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment”
• “Assessing the Impacts of Wilderness Areas on Local Economies: A Case Study of Yellowstone National Park”
• “The Role of Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education: A Review of the Literature”
• “Investigating the Effects of Technology on Learning in Higher Education”
• “The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges”
• “A Study of the Relationship Between Personality Traits and Leadership Styles in Business Organizations”.

How to choose Research Paper Title

Choosing a research paper title is an important step in the research process. A good title can attract readers and convey the essence of your research in a concise and clear manner. Here are some tips on how to choose a research paper title:

• Be clear and concise: A good title should convey the main idea of your research in a clear and concise manner. Avoid using jargon or technical language that may be confusing to readers.
• Use keywords: Including keywords in your title can help readers find your paper when searching for related topics. Use specific, descriptive terms that accurately describe your research.
• Be descriptive: A descriptive title can help readers understand what your research is about. Use adjectives and adverbs to convey the main ideas of your research.
• Consider the audience : Think about the audience for your paper and choose a title that will appeal to them. If your paper is aimed at a specialized audience, you may want to use technical terms or jargon in your title.
• Avoid being too general or too specific : A title that is too general may not convey the specific focus of your research, while a title that is too specific may not be of interest to a broader audience. Strive for a title that accurately reflects the focus of your research without being too narrow or too broad.
• Make it interesting : A title that is interesting or provocative can capture the attention of readers and draw them into your research. Use humor, wordplay, or other creative techniques to make your title stand out.
• Seek feedback: Ask colleagues or advisors for feedback on your title. They may be able to offer suggestions or identify potential problems that you hadn’t considered.

Purpose of Research Paper Title

The research paper title serves several important purposes, including:

• Identifying the subject matter : The title of a research paper should clearly and accurately identify the topic or subject matter that the paper addresses. This helps readers quickly understand what the paper is about.
• Catching the reader’s attention : A well-crafted title can grab the reader’s attention and make them interested in reading the paper. This is particularly important in academic settings where there may be many papers on the same topic.
• Providing context: The title can provide important context for the research paper by indicating the specific area of study, the research methods used, or the key findings.
• Communicating the scope of the paper: A good title can give readers an idea of the scope and depth of the research paper. This can help them decide if the paper is relevant to their interests or research.
• Indicating the research question or hypothesis : The title can often indicate the research question or hypothesis that the paper addresses, which can help readers understand the focus of the research and the main argument or conclusion of the paper.

Advantages of Research Paper Title

The title of a research paper is an important component that can have several advantages, including:

• Capturing the reader’s attention : A well-crafted research paper title can grab the reader’s attention and encourage them to read further. A captivating title can also increase the visibility of the paper and attract more readers.
• Providing a clear indication of the paper’s focus: A well-written research paper title should clearly convey the main focus and purpose of the study. This helps potential readers quickly determine whether the paper is relevant to their interests.
• Improving discoverability: A descriptive title that includes relevant keywords can improve the discoverability of the research paper in search engines and academic databases, making it easier for other researchers to find and cite.
• Enhancing credibility : A clear and concise title can enhance the credibility of the research and the author. A title that accurately reflects the content of the paper can increase the confidence readers have in the research findings.
• Facilitating communication: A well-written research paper title can facilitate communication among researchers, enabling them to quickly and easily identify relevant studies and engage in discussions related to the topic.
• Making the paper easier to remember : An engaging and memorable research paper title can help readers remember the paper and its findings. This can be especially important in fields where researchers are constantly inundated with new information and need to quickly recall important studies.
• Setting expectations: A good research paper title can set expectations for the reader and help them understand what the paper will cover. This can be especially important for readers who are unfamiliar with the topic or the research area.
• Guiding research: A well-crafted research paper title can also guide future research by highlighting gaps in the current literature or suggesting new areas for investigation.
• Demonstrating creativity: A creative research paper title can demonstrate the author’s creativity and originality, which can be appealing to readers and other researchers.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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The title summarizes the main idea or ideas of your study. A good title contains the fewest possible words needed to adequately describe the content and/or purpose of your research paper.

Importance of Choosing a Good Title

The title is the part of a paper that is read the most, and it is usually read first . It is, therefore, the most important element that defines the research study. With this in mind, avoid the following when creating a title:

• If the title is too long, this usually indicates there are too many unnecessary words. Avoid language, such as, "A Study to Investigate the...," or "An Examination of the...." These phrases are obvious and generally superfluous unless they are necessary to covey the scope, intent, or type of a study.
• On the other hand, a title which is too short often uses words which are too broad and, thus, does not tell the reader what is being studied. For example, a paper with the title, "African Politics" is so non-specific the title could be the title of a book and so ambiguous that it could refer to anything associated with politics in Africa. A good title should provide information about the focus and/or scope of your research study.
• In academic writing, catchy phrases or non-specific language may be used, but only if it's within the context of the study [e.g., "Fair and Impartial Jury--Catch as Catch Can"]. However, in most cases, you should avoid including words or phrases that do not help the reader understand the purpose of your paper.
• Academic writing is a serious and deliberate endeavor. Avoid using humorous or clever journalistic styles of phrasing when creating the title to your paper. Journalistic headlines often use emotional adjectives [e.g., incredible, amazing, effortless] to highlight a problem experienced by the reader or use "trigger words" or interrogative words like how, what, when, or why to persuade people to read the article or click on a link. These approaches are viewed as counter-productive in academic writing. A reader does not need clever or humorous titles to catch their attention because the act of reading research is assumed to be deliberate based on a desire to learn and improve understanding of the problem. In addition, a humorous title can merely detract from the seriousness and authority of your research. 
• Unlike everywhere else in a college-level social sciences research paper [except when using direct quotes in the text], titles do not have to adhere to rigid grammatical or stylistic standards. For example, it could be appropriate to begin a title with a coordinating conjunction [i.e., and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet] if it makes sense to do so and does not detract from the purpose of the study [e.g., "Yet Another Look at Mutual Fund Tournaments"] or beginning the title with an inflected form of a verb such as those ending in -ing [e.g., "Assessing the Political Landscape: Structure, Cognition, and Power in Organizations"].

Appiah, Kingsley Richard et al. “Structural Organisation of Research Article Titles: A Comparative Study of Titles of Business, Gynaecology and Law.” Advances in Language and Literary Studies 10 (2019); Hartley James. “To Attract or to Inform: What are Titles for?” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 35 (2005): 203-213; Jaakkola, Maarit. “Journalistic Writing and Style.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication . Jon F. Nussbaum, editor. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018): https://oxfordre.com/communication.

Structure and Writing Style

The following parameters can be used to help you formulate a suitable research paper title:

• The purpose of the research
• The scope of the research
• The narrative tone of the paper [typically defined by the type of the research]
• The methods used to study the problem

The initial aim of a title is to capture the reader’s attention and to highlight the research problem under investigation.

Create a Working Title Typically, the final title you submit to your professor is created after the research is complete so that the title accurately captures what has been done . The working title should be developed early in the research process because it can help anchor the focus of the study in much the same way the research problem does. Referring back to the working title can help you reorient yourself back to the main purpose of the study if you find yourself drifting off on a tangent while writing. The Final Title Effective titles in research papers have several characteristics that reflect general principles of academic writing.

• Indicate accurately the subject and scope of the study,
• Rarely use abbreviations or acronyms unless they are commonly known,
• Use words that create a positive impression and stimulate reader interest,
• Use current nomenclature from the field of study,
• Identify key variables, both dependent and independent,
• Reveal how the paper will be organized,
• Suggest a relationship between variables which supports the major hypothesis,
• Is limited to 5 to 15 substantive words,
• Does not include redundant phrasing, such as, "A Study of," "An Analysis of" or similar constructions,
• Takes the form of a question or declarative statement,
• If you use a quote as part of the title, the source of the quote is cited [usually using an asterisk and footnote],
• Use correct grammar and capitalization with all first words and last words capitalized, including the first word of a subtitle. All nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that appear between the first and last words of the title are also capitalized, and
• Rarely uses an exclamation mark at the end of the title.

The Subtitle Subtitles are frequently used in social sciences research papers because it helps the reader understand the scope of the study in relation to how it was designed to address the research problem. Think about what type of subtitle listed below reflects the overall approach to your study and whether you believe a subtitle is needed to emphasize the investigative parameters of your research.

1.  Explains or provides additional context , e.g., "Linguistic Ethnography and the Study of Welfare Institutions as a Flow of Social Practices: The Case of Residential Child Care Institutions as Paradoxical Institutions." [Palomares, Manuel and David Poveda.  Text & Talk: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse and Communication Studies 30 (January 2010): 193-212]

2.  Adds substance to a literary, provocative, or imaginative title or quote , e.g., "Listen to What I Say, Not How I Vote": Congressional Support for the President in Washington and at Home." [Grose, Christian R. and Keesha M. Middlemass. Social Science Quarterly 91 (March 2010): 143-167]

3.  Qualifies the geographic scope of the research , e.g., "The Geopolitics of the Eastern Border of the European Union: The Case of Romania-Moldova-Ukraine." [Marcu, Silvia. Geopolitics 14 (August 2009): 409-432]

4.  Qualifies the temporal scope of the research , e.g., "A Comparison of the Progressive Era and the Depression Years: Societal Influences on Predictions of the Future of the Library, 1895-1940." [Grossman, Hal B. Libraries & the Cultural Record 46 (2011): 102-128]

5.  Focuses on investigating the ideas, theories, or work of a particular individual , e.g., "A Deliberative Conception of Politics: How Francesco Saverio Merlino Related Anarchy and Democracy." [La Torre, Massimo. Sociologia del Diritto 28 (January 2001): 75 - 98]

6.  Identifies the methodology used , e.g. "Student Activism of the 1960s Revisited: A Multivariate Analysis Research Note." [Aron, William S. Social Forces 52 (March 1974): 408-414]

7.  Defines the overarching technique for analyzing the research problem , e.g., "Explaining Territorial Change in Federal Democracies: A Comparative Historical Institutionalist Approach." [ Tillin, Louise. Political Studies 63 (August 2015): 626-641.

With these examples in mind, think about what type of subtitle reflects the overall approach to your study. This will help the reader understand the scope of the study in relation to how it was designed to address the research problem.

Anstey, A. “Writing Style: What's in a Title?” British Journal of Dermatology 170 (May 2014): 1003-1004; Balch, Tucker. How to Compose a Title for Your Research Paper. Augmented Trader blog. School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech University; Bavdekar, Sandeep B. “Formulating the Right Title for a Research Article.” Journal of Association of Physicians of India 64 (February 2016); Choosing the Proper Research Paper Titles. AplusReports.com, 2007-2012; Eva, Kevin W. “Titles, Abstracts, and Authors.” In How to Write a Paper . George M. Hall, editor. 5th edition. (Oxford: John Wiley and Sons, 2013), pp. 33-41; Hartley James. “To Attract or to Inform: What are Titles for?” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 35 (2005): 203-213; General Format. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Kerkut G.A. “Choosing a Title for a Paper.” Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Physiology 74 (1983): 1; “Tempting Titles.” In Stylish Academic Writing . Helen Sword, editor. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), pp. 63-75; Nundy, Samiran, et al. “How to Choose a Title?” In How to Practice Academic Medicine and Publish from Developing Countries? A Practical Guide . Edited by Samiran Nundy, Atul Kakar, and Zulfiqar A. Bhutta. (Springer Singapore, 2022), pp. 185-192.

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• How to Write a Great Title

Maximize search-ability and engage your readers from the very beginning

Your title is the first thing anyone who reads your article is going to see, and for many it will be where they stop reading. Learn how to write a title that helps readers find your article, draws your audience in and sets the stage for your research!

How your title impacts the success of your article

Researchers are busy and there will always be more articles to read than time to read them.  Good titles help readers find your research, and decide whether to keep reading. Search engines use titles to retrieve relevant articles based on users’ keyword searches. Once readers find your article, they’ll use the title as the first filter to decide whether your research is what they’re looking for. A strong and specific title is the first step toward citations, inclusion in meta-analyses, and influencing your field. 

What to include in a title

Include the most important information that will signal to your target audience that they should keep reading.

Key information about the study design

Important keywords

What you discovered

Writing tips

Getting the title right can be more difficult than it seems, and researchers refine their writing skills throughout their career. Some journals even help editors to re-write their titles during the publication process! 

• Keep it concise and informative What’s appropriate for titles varies greatly across disciplines. Take a look at some articles published in your field, and check the journal guidelines for character limits. Aim for fewer than 12 words, and check for journal specific word limits.
• Write for your audience Consider who your primary audience is: are they specialists in your specific field, are they cross-disciplinary, are they non-specialists?
• Entice the reader Find a way to pique your readers’ interest, give them enough information to keep them reading.
• Incorporate important keywords Consider what about your article will be most interesting to your audience: Most readers come to an article from a search engine, so take some time and include the important ones in your title!
• Write in sentence case In scientific writing, titles are given in sentence case. Capitalize only the first word of the text, proper nouns, and genus names. See our examples below.

Don’t

• Write your title as a question In most cases, you shouldn’t need to frame your title as a question. You have the answers, you know what you found. Writing your title as a question might draw your readers in, but it’s more likely to put them off.
• Sensationalize your research Be honest with yourself about what you truly discovered. A sensationalized or dramatic title might make a few extra people read a bit further into your article, but you don’t want them disappointed when they get to the results.

Examples…

Format: Prevalence of [disease] in [population] in [location]

Example: Prevalence of tuberculosis in homeless women in San Francisco

Format: Risk factors for [condition] among [population] in [location]

Example: Risk factors for preterm births among low-income women in Mexico City

Format (systematic review/meta-analysis): Effectiveness of [treatment] for [disease] in [population] for [outcome] : A systematic review and meta-analysis

Example: Effectiveness of Hepatitis B treatment in HIV-infected adolescents in the prevention of liver disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Format (clinical trial): [Intervention] improved [symptoms] of [disease] in [population] : A randomized controlled clinical trial

Example: Using a sleep app lessened insomnia in post-menopausal women in southwest United States: A randomized controlled clinical trial

Format  (general molecular studies): Characterization/identification/evaluation of [molecule name] in/from [organism/tissue] (b y [specific biological methods] ) 

Example: Identification of putative Type-I sex pheromone biosynthesis-related genes expressed in the female pheromone gland of Streltzoviella insularis

Format  (general molecular studies): [specific methods/analysis] of organism/tissue reveal insights into [function/role] of [molecule name] in [biological process]  

Example: Transcriptome landscape of Rafflesia cantleyi floral buds reveals insights into the roles of transcription factors and phytohormones in flower development

Format  (software/method papers): [tool/method/software] for [what purpose] in [what research area]

Example: CRISPR-based tools for targeted transcriptional and epigenetic regulation in plants

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How to Make a Research Paper Title with Examples

What is a research paper title and why does it matter?

A research paper title summarizes the aim and purpose of your research study. Making a title for your research is one of the most important decisions when writing an article to publish in journals. The research title is the first thing that journal editors and reviewers see when they look at your paper and the only piece of information that fellow researchers will see in a database or search engine query. Good titles that are concise and contain all the relevant terms have been shown to increase citation counts and Altmetric scores .

Therefore, when you title research work, make sure it captures all of the relevant aspects of your study, including the specific topic and problem being investigated. It also should present these elements in a way that is accessible and will captivate readers. Follow these steps to learn how to make a good research title for your work.

How to Make a Research Paper Title in 5 Steps

You might wonder how you are supposed to pick a title from all the content that your manuscript contains—how are you supposed to choose? What will make your research paper title come up in search engines and what will make the people in your field read it? 

In a nutshell, your research title should accurately capture what you have done, it should sound interesting to the people who work on the same or a similar topic, and it should contain the important title keywords that other researchers use when looking for literature in databases. To make the title writing process as simple as possible, we have broken it down into 5 simple steps.

Step 1: Answer some key questions about your research paper

What does your paper seek to answer and what does it accomplish? Try to answer these questions as briefly as possible. You can create these questions by going through each section of your paper and finding the MOST relevant information to make a research title.

Step 2: Identify research study keywords

Now that you have answers to your research questions, find the most important parts of these responses and make these your study keywords. Note that you should only choose the most important terms for your keywords–journals usually request anywhere from 3 to 8 keywords maximum.

Step 3: Research title writing: use these keywords

“We employed a case study of 60 liver transplant patients around the US aged 20-50 years to assess how waiting list volume affects the outcomes of liver transplantation in patients; results indicate a positive correlation between increased waiting list volume and negative prognosis after the transplant procedure.”

The sentence above is clearly much too long for a research paper title. This is why you will trim and polish your title in the next two steps.

Step 4: Create a working research paper title

To create a working title, remove elements that make it a complete “sentence” but keep everything that is important to what the study is about. Delete all unnecessary and redundant words that are not central to the study or that researchers would most likely not use in a database search.

“ We employed a case study of 60 liver transplant patients around the US aged 20-50 years to assess how the waiting list volume affects the outcome of liver transplantation in patients ; results indicate a positive correlation between increased waiting list volume and a negative prognosis after transplant procedure ”

Now shift some words around for proper syntax and rephrase it a bit to shorten the length and make it leaner and more natural. What you are left with is:

“A case study of 60 liver transplant patients around the US aged 20-50 years assessing the impact of waiting list volume on outcome of transplantation and showing a positive correlation between increased waiting list volume and a negative prognosis” (Word Count: 38)

This text is getting closer to what we want in a research title, which is just the most important information. But note that the word count for this working title is still 38 words, whereas the average length of published journal article titles is 16 words or fewer. Therefore, we should eliminate some words and phrases that are not essential to this title.

Step 5: Remove any nonessential words and phrases from your title

Because the number of patients studied and the exact outcome are not the most essential parts of this paper, remove these elements first:

 “A case study of 60 liver transplant patients around the US aged 20-50 years assessing the impact of waiting list volume on outcomes of transplantation and showing a positive correlation between increased waiting list volume and a negative prognosis” (Word Count: 19)

In addition, the methods used in a study are not usually the most searched-for keywords in databases and represent additional details that you may want to remove to make your title leaner. So what is left is:

“Assessing the impact of waiting list volume on outcome and prognosis in liver transplantation patients” (Word Count: 15)

In this final version of the title, one can immediately recognize the subject and what objectives the study aims to achieve. Note that the most important terms appear at the beginning and end of the title: “Assessing,” which is the main action of the study, is placed at the beginning; and “liver transplantation patients,” the specific subject of the study, is placed at the end.

This will aid significantly in your research paper title being found in search engines and database queries, which means that a lot more researchers will be able to locate your article once it is published. In fact, a 2014 review of more than 150,000 papers submitted to the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) database found the style of a paper’s title impacted the number of citations it would typically receive. In most disciplines, articles with shorter, more concise titles yielded more citations.

Adding a Research Paper Subtitle

If your title might require a subtitle to provide more immediate details about your methodology or sample, you can do this by adding this information after a colon:

“ : a case study of US adult patients ages 20-25”

If we abide strictly by our word count rule this may not be necessary or recommended. But every journal has its own standard formatting and style guidelines for research paper titles, so it is a good idea to be aware of the specific journal author instructions , not just when you write the manuscript but also to decide how to create a good title for it.

Research Paper Title Examples

The title examples in the following table illustrate how a title can be interesting but incomplete, complete by uninteresting, complete and interesting but too informal in tone, or some other combination of these. A good research paper title should meet all the requirements in the four columns below.

Tips on Formulating a Good Research Paper Title

In addition to the steps given above, there are a few other important things you want to keep in mind when it comes to how to write a research paper title, regarding formatting, word count, and content:

• Write the title after you’ve written your paper and abstract
• Include all of the essential terms in your paper
• Keep it short and to the point (~16 words or fewer)
• Avoid unnecessary jargon and abbreviations
• Use keywords that capture the content of your paper
• Never include a period at the end—your title is NOT a sentence

Research Paper Writing Resources

We hope this article has been helpful in teaching you how to craft your research paper title. But you might still want to dig deeper into different journal title formats and categories that might be more suitable for specific article types or need help with writing a cover letter for your manuscript submission.

In addition to getting English proofreading services , including paper editing services , before submission to journals, be sure to visit our academic resources papers. Here you can find dozens of articles on manuscript writing, from drafting an outline to finding a target journal to submit to.

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Forging good titles in academic writing

Published on March 20, 2015 by Shane Bryson . Revised on July 23, 2023.

The title is the first thing your reader will see, and most readers will make their first judgements of your work based on it. For this reason, it’s important to think about your titles carefully.

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Table of contents

Informative, striking, appropriate, title templates, writing effective headings, other interesting articles, informative title.

Your title should, above all else, convey the topic of your paper. In other words, no matter how witty, clever, original, or otherwise appealing your title may be, it fails if it is not informative.

Decide whether you’ve given a sense of the paper’s topic and claims by comparing your title’s content to the most important aspect(s) of your dissertation statement or hypothesis and conclusions.

Striking title

A striking title is one that entices your audience to read, so know your audience’s tastes.

The analogy of cultivating sexual attraction in a prospective mate is useful here: some audiences will be enticed by a title’s edginess (as with, for example, V. Alneng’s “‘What the Fuck is a Vietnam?’ Touristic Phantasms and the Popcolonization of [the] Vietnam [War],” published in Critique on Anthropology ); others will almost always prefer a more straightforward title (as with J.C. Henderson’s “War as a tourist attraction: The case of Vietnam,” published in the International Journal of Tourism Research ).

You should be able to gauge how edgy your title can be by the tone of your discipline or the publication you’re submitting to, and your main concern should be forming a title that appeals to your readers’ specific tastes.

Consider also that a title that highlights the paper’s fresh insights will often be striking.

An endocrinologist, for example, might become very excited upon seeing the collaboratively authored article “Comparison of the effects on glycaemic control and β-cell function in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients of treatment with exenatide, insulin or pioglitazone: A multicentre randomized parallel-group trial,” published in 2015 in the Journal of Internal Medicine .

This rather long title is more acceptable in the sciences, where what readers tend to find provocative in a title is the degree to which it reveals the paper’s specifics.

Appropriate title

Ensuring that your title is appropriate in a way of making sure not only that your audience understands it, but also that its appeal contributes to its meaning. To make sure the title will be understood, you need to consider how familiar your research topic will be to your audience.

In an academic essay, you can use highly technical terms in your title, but generally avoid terms that the average well-read person in your discipline might not know.

In any writing that has a broad audience, titles need to avoid language that is too sophisticated; a news article, for example, should be easily understood by all.

As a second consideration of appropriateness, make sure that your title does not entice without substance.

The title of Alneng’s paper, for example, does not use “fuck” merely to shock and therefore entice the reader; the uncommon use of a swearword here helps convey the topic of the article: more or less vulgar representations of Vietnam.

The same is true for other striking titles, such as Nancy Tuana’s “Coming to Understand: Orgasm and the Epistemology of Ignorance,” published in Hypatia .

The title’s sexually charged play on words (“coming to understand”) hooks the audience, but is not merely a hook. The pun is directly relevant to the essay’s argument, which is that sexual pleasure offers an important form of knowledge.

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• Use key terms. Find words that your audience can easily identify as markers of the topic matter. These will include, for example, terms that convey the field of research, central concepts, or subjects of study.
• Identify the context (sometimes called “the location”). By context, I mean the source or the setting of the discussion, depending on discipline. In a history paper this might be a certain century or era; in literary studies a certain book or author; and in the sciences an organism or compound.

The following is a list of title formats, with examples of each. I’ve given the names of the publications in brackets to give a sense of how different disciplines treat titles.

Note that these are not mutually exclusive patterns (i.e. it’s possible to have various combinations; e.g. General & interesting: Informative & specific). Note also that this is not meant to be an exhaustive list.

• Striking: Informative – The Specter of Wall Street: “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and the Language of Commodities ( American Literature )
• Informative: Striking – Carbon capture and storage: How green can black be? ( Science )
• General: Specific – The issues of the sixties: An exploratory study in the dynamics of public opinion ( Public Opinion Quarterly )
• “Quotation”: Discussion (social studies) – “I’d rather not talk about it”: Adolescents’ and young adults’ use of topic avoidance in stepfamilies ( Journal of Applied Communication Research )
• “Quotation”: Discussion (literary studies) – “I Would Prefer Not To”: Giorgio Agamben, Bartleby and the Potentiality of the Law ( Law and Critique )
• Simple and precise – Methodological issues in the use of Tsimshian oral Traditions (Adawx) in Archaeology ( Canadian Journal of Archaeology )
• Topic: Method – Mortality in sleep apnea patients: A multivariate analysis of risk factors ( Sleep )
• Topic: Significance – LC3 binds externalized cardiolipin on injured mitochondria to signal mitophagy in neurons: Implications for Parkinson disease ( Autophagy )
• Technical and very specific – Single-shot quantum nondemolition measurement of a quantum-dot electron spin using cavity exciton-polaritons ( Physical Review )

Although similar, headings are not the same as titles. Headings head paragraphs and help structure a document. Effective headings make your paper easily scannable.

Common high level headings in dissertations and research papers are “Methods”, “Research results”, and “Discussion”. Lower level headings are often more descriptive.

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6 Important Tips on Writing a Research Paper Title

When you are searching for a research study on a particular topic, you probably notice that articles with interesting, descriptive research titles draw you in. By contrast, research paper titles that are not descriptive are usually passed over, even though you may write a good research paper with interesting contents. This shows the importance of coming up with a good title for your research paper when drafting your own manuscript.

Importance of a Research Title

The research title plays a crucial role in the research process, and its importance can be summarized as follows:

Why do Research Titles Matter?

Before we look at how to title a research paper, let’s look at a research title example that illustrates why a good research paper should have a strong title.

Imagine that you are researching meditation and nursing, and you want to find out if any studies have shown that meditation makes nurses better communicators.  You conduct a keyword search using the keywords “nursing”, “communication”, and “meditation.” You come up with results that have the following titles:

• Benefits of Meditation for the Nursing Profession: A Quantitative Investigation
• Why Mindful Nurses Make the Best Communicators
• Meditation Gurus
• Nurses on the Move: A Quantitative Report on How Meditation Can Improve Nurse Performance

All four of these research paper titles may describe very similar studies—they could even be titles for the same study! As you can see, they give very different impressions.

• Title 1 describes the topic and the method of the study but is not particularly catchy.
• Title 2 partly describes the topic, but does not give any information about the method of the study—it could simply be a theoretical or opinion piece.
• Title 3 is somewhat catchier but gives almost no information at all about the article.
• Title 4 begins with a catchy main title and is followed by a subtitle that gives information about the content and method of the study.

As we will see, Title 4 has all the characteristics of a good research title.

Characteristics of a Good Research Title

According to rhetoric scholars Hairston and Keene, making a good title for a paper involves ensuring that the title of the research accomplishes four goals as mentioned below:

• It should predict the content of the research paper .
• It should be interesting to the reader .
• It should reflect the tone of the writing .
• It should contain important keywords that will make it easier to be located during a keyword search.

Let’s return to the examples in the previous section to see how to make a research title.

As you can see in the table above, only one of the four example titles fulfills all of the criteria of a suitable research paper title.

Related: You’ve chosen your study topic, but having trouble deciding where to publish it? Here’s a comprehensive course to help you identify the right journal .

Tips for Writing an Effective Research Paper Title

When writing a research title, you can use the four criteria listed above as a guide. Here are a few other tips you can use to make sure your title will be part of the recipe for an effective research paper :

• Make sure your research title describes (a) the topic, (b) the method, (c) the sample, and (d) the results of your study. You can use the following formula:

[ Result ]: A [ method ] study of [ topic ] among [ sample ] Example : Meditation makes nurses perform better: a qualitative study of mindfulness meditation among German nursing students

• Avoid unnecessary words and jargons. Keep the title statement as concise as possible. You want a title that will be comprehensible even to people who are not experts in your field. Check our article for a detailed list of things to avoid when writing an effective research title .
• Make sure your title is between 5 and 15 words in length.
• If you are writing a title for a university assignment or for a particular academic journal, verify that your title conforms to the standards and requirements for that outlet. For example, many journals require that titles fall under a character limit, including spaces. Many universities require that titles take a very specific form, limiting your creativity.
• Use a descriptive phrase to convey the purpose of your research efficiently.
• Most importantly, use critical keywords in the title to increase the discoverability of your article.

Resources for Further Reading

In addition to the tips above, there are many resources online that you can use to help write your research title. Here is a list of links that you may find useful as you work on creating an excellent research title:

• The University of Southern California has a guide specific to social science research papers: http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/title
• The Journal of European Psychology Students has a blog article focusing on APA-compliant research paper titles: http://blog.efpsa.org/2012/09/01/how-to-write-a-good-title-for-journal-articles/
• This article by Kristen Hamlin contains a step-by-step approach to writing titles: http://classroom.synonym.com/choose-title-research-paper-4332.html

Are there any tips or tricks you find useful in crafting research titles? Which tip did you find most useful in this article? Leave a comment to let us know!

• Hairston, M., & Keene, M. 2003. Successful writing . 5th ed. New York: Norton.
• University of Southern California. 2017. Organizing your social sciences research paper: choosing a title . [Online] Available at: http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/title

Thank you so much:) Have a nice day!

Thank you so much, it helped me.. God bless..

Thank you for the excellent article and tips for creating a research work, because I always forget about such an essential element as the keywords when forming topics. In particular, I have found a rapid help with the formation of informative and sound titles that also conforms to the standards and requirements.

I am doing a research work on sales girls or shop girls using qualititative method. Basicly I am from Pakistan and writing on the scenario of mycountry. I am really confused about my research title can you kindly give some suggestions and give me an approperaite tilte

Hi Zubair, Thank you for your question. However, the information you have provided is insufficient for drafting an appropriate title. Information on what exactly you intend to study would be needed in order to draft a meaningful title. Meanwhile, you can try drafting your own title after going through the following articles our website: https://www.enago.com/academy/top-10-tips-on-choosing-an-attractive-research-title/ , https://www.enago.com/academy/writing-a-good-research-title-things-to-avoid/ , https://www.enago.com/academy/write-irresistible-research-paper-title/ We would be happy to give you feedback and suggest changes if required. Did you get a chance to install our free Mobile App? https://www.enago.com/academy/mobile-app/ . Make sure you subscribe to our weekly newsletter https://www.enago.com/academy/subscribe-now/ .

thanks for helping me like this!!

Thank you for this. It helped me improve my research title. I just want to verify to you the title I have just made. “Ensuring the safety: A Quantitative Study of Radio Frequency Identification system among the selected students of ( school’s name ).

(I need your reply asap coz we will be doing the chap. 1 tomorrow. Thank u in advance. 🙂 )

I am actually doing a research paper title. I want to know more further in doing research title. Can you give me some tips on doing a research paper?

Hi Joan, Thank you for your question. We are glad to know that you found our resources useful. Your feedback is very valuable to us. You can try drafting your own title after going through the following articles on our website: https://www.enago.com/academy/top-10-tips-on-choosing-an-attractive-research-title/ , https://www.enago.com/academy/writing-a-good-research-title-things-to-avoid/ , https://www.enago.com/academy/write-irresistible-research-paper-title/

We would be happy to give you feedback and suggest changes if required. Did you get a chance to install our free Mobile App? https://www.enago.com/academy/mobile-app/ . Make sure you subscribe to our weekly newsletter https://www.enago.com/academy/subscribe-now/ .

That really helpful. Thanks alot

Thank you so much. It’s really help me.

Thanks for sharing this tips. Title matters a lot for any article because it contents Keywords of article. It should be eye-catchy. Your article is helpful to select title of any article.

nice blog that you have shared

This blog is very informative for me. Thanks for sharing.

nice information that you have shared

i’m found in selecting my ma thesis title ,so i’m going to do my final research after the proposal approved. Your post help me find good title.

I need help. I need a research title for my study about early mobilization of the mechanically ventilated patients in the ICU. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Thank you for posting your query on the website. When writing manuscripts, too many scholars neglect the research title. This phrase, along with the abstract, is what people will mostly see and read online. Title research of publications shows that the research paper title does matter a lot. Both bibliometrics and altmetrics tracking of citations are now, for better or worse, used to gauge a paper’s “success” for its author(s) and the journal publishing it. Interesting research topics coupled with good or clever yet accurate research titles can draw more attention to your work from peers and the public alike. You can check through the following search results for titles on similar topics: https://www.google.com/search?q=early+mobilization+of+the+mechanically+ventilated+patients+in+the+icu&rlz=1C1GCEU_enIN907IN907&oq=&aqs=chrome.0.69i59.4920093j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 .

We hope this would be helpful in drafting an attractive title for your research paper.

Please let us know in case of any other queries.

I’ve been surfing online more than 3 hours these days, but I never found any interesting article like yours. It is lovely worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all website owners and bloggers made just right content material as you did, the internet will be much more helpful than ever before.

Wonderful article! We will bee linking to this particularly great post on our site. Keep up the good writing.

Wow that was odd. I just wrote an very long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyhow, just wanted to say fantastic blog!

In case the topic is new research before you’re writing. And then to stand out, you end up being different.and be inclined to highlight yourself.

There are many free directories, and more paid lists.

To be honest your article is informative. I search many site to know about writing but I didn’t get the information I needed. I saw your site and I read it. I got some new information from here. I think some of your tips can be applied to those too! Thank you so very much for such informative and useful content.

Nice and well written content you have shared with us. thanks a lot!

Thanks for sharing these tips… Rockwide

Its helpful. a person can grab knowledge through it.

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Writing the title and abstract for a research paper: Being concise, precise, and meticulous is the key

Affiliation.

• 1 Department of Pediatrics, Seth G.S. Medical College and KEM Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
• PMID: 30930712
• PMCID: PMC6398294
• DOI: 10.4103/sja.SJA_685_18

This article deals with formulating a suitable title and an appropriate abstract for an original research paper. The "title" and the "abstract" are the "initial impressions" of a research article, and hence they need to be drafted correctly, accurately, carefully, and meticulously. Often both of these are drafted after the full manuscript is ready. Most readers read only the title and the abstract of a research paper and very few will go on to read the full paper. The title and the abstract are the most important parts of a research paper and should be pleasant to read. The "title" should be descriptive, direct, accurate, appropriate, interesting, concise, precise, unique, and should not be misleading. The "abstract" needs to be simple, specific, clear, unbiased, honest, concise, precise, stand-alone, complete, scholarly, (preferably) structured, and should not be misrepresentative. The abstract should be consistent with the main text of the paper, especially after a revision is made to the paper and should include the key message prominently. It is very important to include the most important words and terms (the "keywords") in the title and the abstract for appropriate indexing purpose and for retrieval from the search engines and scientific databases. Such keywords should be listed after the abstract. One must adhere to the instructions laid down by the target journal with regard to the style and number of words permitted for the title and the abstract.

Keywords: Abbreviations; aims; article; author; conclusions; database; indexing; keywords; manuscript; medical writing; message; methods; paper; research; results; summary.

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Formulating the Right Title for a Research Article

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The importance of titles

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

An effective title should:

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

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

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

This title has too many unnecessary words.

Influenza Vaccination of Children: A Randomized Trial

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

Effect of Child Influenza Vaccination on Infection Rates in Rural Communities: A Randomized Trial

This is an effective title. It is short, easy to understand, and conveys the important aspects of the research.

Think about why your research will be of interest to other scientists. This should be related to the reason you decided to study the topic. If your title makes this clear, it will likely attract more readers to your manuscript.

Identifying hot topics for research

Write down a few possible titles, and then select the best to refine further. Ask your colleagues their opinion. Spending the time needed to do this will result in a better title.

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Title Page in Research Paper: Importance, Guidelines & Examples

Make your research paper stand out with an impressive title page. Learn how to craft the perfect title page in research paper in this guide.

The title page is a crucial component of a research paper, serving as the first point of contact between the reader and the study. It provides readers with a first impression, signaling the credibility and relevance of the work. Beyond conveying essential information, a well-designed title page adds visual appeal to the paper, contributing to its overall presentation. In this article, we will explore the importance of title pages in research papers, exploring how they capture attention, convey vital information, and enhance the overall quality of the study.

Overview of Title Page in Research Paper:

The title page in research paper is typically located at the beginning of the document and provides key information about the paper. The title page presents a professional and organized appearance, setting the tone for the entire research paper.

Purpose of a Title Page

The purpose of a title page in a research paper is to convey important details about the study. It includes the title of the paper, the author’s name, the institutional affiliation, and sometimes additional information such as the course name, instructor’s name, or submission date. The title page helps to identify and differentiate the research paper, making it easier for readers, instructors, and researchers to locate, reference, and cite the work accurately. Additionally, it establishes the credibility and professionalism of the study, demonstrating the author’s attention to detail and adherence to academic standards.

Creating a Title Page

To create a title page for a research paper, start by centering the title of your paper at the top of the page. Then, on separate lines, include your name, your affiliation (university or institution), and the date of submission. Optionally, you can also include the course name, instructor’s name, and any other relevant information specified by your institution or guidelines. Make sure to format the title page according to the required style guide (e.g., APA , MLA ) with consistent font, spacing, and alignment.

Elements of a Title Page

A title page is an essential component of a research paper, providing key information about the study and its authors. The elements commonly included on a title page are:

Title : Choose a concise and descriptive title that accurately reflects the main focus of your research. It should be informative, engaging, and capture the essence of your study.

Author’s Name : Include your full name as the author of the research paper. If there are multiple authors, list them in the order they contributed to the study.

Institutional Affiliation : Mention the name of the institution or organization with which you are affiliated. This could be your university, research institute, or academic department.

Course Information : If the research paper is being submitted for a course, include the course name and number.

Date : Indicate the date of submission or completion of the research paper.

Instructor : Include the instructor’s name below the author’s name, affiliation, and course (if the paper is being submitted for a course), using a centered format.

Page Number : Typically, the title page is counted as page 1, although it is often not numbered. Numbering usually starts on the second page, which is usually the abstract or introduction.

Formatting Guidelines for a Title Page

The formatting guidelines for a title page provide specific instructions on how to structure and present the elements of a title page in a research paper. These guidelines ensure consistency and uniformity in academic writing. They may vary depending on the required citation style, such as APA (American Psychological Association) or MLA (Modern Language Association).

APA Formatting Guidelines

The APA formatting guidelines provide a set of rules for formatting academic papers, including the title page. According to APA guidelines, the title page should include the title of the paper, the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and a running head. The running head is a shortened version of the paper’s title and appears at the top of each page. Additionally, APA guidelines specify the use of specific font size and type, margins, and alignment for the title page.

MLA Formatting Guidelines

The MLA formatting guidelines, commonly used in humanities and liberal arts disciplines, also provide instructions for creating a title page. According to MLA guidelines, the title page should include the title of the paper, the author’s name, the course name and number, the instructor’s name, and the due date. Unlike APA, MLA does not require a running head on the title page. MLA guidelines specify the use of specific font size and type, margins, and alignment for the title page.

Title Page Examples

Title page examples provide visual representations of how a title page should be formatted and organized in different contexts. These examples serve as valuable references for students and professionals to understand the layout and presentation of a title page in various academic or professional settings.

Student Version Example

A student version example of a title page demonstrates how a title page should be formatted for academic papers or assignments completed by students. It typically includes the paper’s title, the student’s name, the course name and number, the instructor’s name, and the date. This example is designed to meet the specific requirements and guidelines provided by the educational institution or instructor.

Professional Version Example

A professional version example of a title page showcases how a title page should be formatted for research papers, articles, or other professional documents. In addition to the title, it typically includes the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and any relevant professional credentials. This example follows the formatting guidelines of the specific citation style used in the professional field, such as APA or MLA, and may also include additional information such as the publication date or the name of the journal or conference.

6 Tips for Writing an Effective Title Page

Here are some tips for writing an effective title page:

1. Follow the formatting guidelines

Familiarize yourself with the specific formatting guidelines provided by your educational institution or the citation style you are using (such as APA or MLA). Adhere to these guidelines for font size, margins, spacing, and other formatting elements.

2. Use a clear and concise title

The title should accurately reflect the content of your paper or document in a concise and descriptive manner. Avoid using vague or ambiguous titles that may confuse readers.

3. Include relevant information

Include essential information such as the author’s name, the title of the work, the course or assignment name (if applicable), the instructor’s name, and the date of submission. Ensure that all required elements are included based on the guidelines provided.

4. Use consistent formatting

Maintain consistency in font style, size, and formatting throughout the title page. This helps create a professional and organized appearance.

5. Consider the placement of elements

Arrange the elements on the title page in a logical and visually appealing manner. Typically, the title is centered at the top, followed by the author’s name and other details.

6. Double-check for accuracy

Before finalizing your title page, review it carefully for any spelling or grammatical errors. Make sure all the information provided is accurate and up to date.

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Importance of an apt title for your research paper

Writing a research paper with innovative and groundbreaking findings might be a difficult task in itself, but a carefully formulated title is also just as important.

Often, readers consider the title as the primary parameter to check the suitability and importance of a research work. Hence, the title should be enticing without being verbose, so that the reader is persuaded to read the abstract that follows the title. Much like the cover of a book, it is the main heading of a research paper that leaves an indelible imprint in the reader’s mind. Besides, in this age of Internet search queries, the title can technically act as a metadata string that highlights the aim of your research and helps other researchers locate your paper when they use a web crawler.

The following are some tips for making your title more meaningful and easily discoverable by search engines:

• Use proper sentence structure in the title.
• Consider the target audience of your paper before selecting words for the title and structure them accordingly.
• Think of a short title that best expresses the salient features of your paper.
• Avoid descriptive, interrogative, or rhetoric titles for scientific research papers.
• Try to include the fine points of the subject population (e.g., children with autism and alcohol-withdrawn patients, etc.).
• Focus of the title should be on the outcome of the study.
• Restrict the use of abbreviations unless they are exceptionally common.
• Never construct the title on the basis of statistical findings of the paper.
• Use punctuations wisely.

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Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition (2020)

Table of Contents    |    Supplemental Resources    |    Introduction (PDF)

Official source for APA Style The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition is the official source for APA Style.

Widely adopted With millions of copies sold worldwide in multiple languages, it is the style manual of choice for writers, researchers, editors, students, and educators in the social and behavioral sciences, natural sciences, nursing, communications, education, business, engineering, and other fields.

Authoritative and easy to use Known for its authoritative, easy-to-use reference and citation system, the Publication Manual also offers guidance on choosing the headings, tables, figures, language, and tone that will result in powerful, concise, and elegant scholarly communication.

Scholarly writing It guides users through the scholarly writing process—from the ethics of authorship to reporting research through publication.

• Spiral-Bound $44.99
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It is an indispensable resource for students and professionals to achieve excellence in writing and make an impact with their work.

7 reasons why everyone needs the 7th edition of APA’s bestselling Publication Manual

Full color with first-ever tabbed version

Guidelines for ethical writing and guidance on the publication process

Expanded student-specific resources; includes a sample paper

100+ new reference examples, 40+ sample tables and figures

New chapter on journal article reporting standards

Updated bias-free language guidelines; includes usage of singular “they”

One space after end punctuation!

What’s new in the 7th edition?

Full color All formats are in full color, including the new tabbed spiral-bound version.

Easy to navigate Improved ease of navigation, with many additional numbered sections to help users quickly locate answers to their questions.

Best practices The Publication Manual (7th ed.) has been thoroughly revised and updated to reflect best practices in scholarly writing and publishing.

New student resources Resources for students on writing and formatting annotated bibliographies, response papers, and other paper types as well as guidelines on citing course materials.

Accessibility guidelines Guidelines that support accessibility for all users, including simplified reference, in-text citation, and heading formats as well as additional font options.

New-user content Dedicated chapter for new users of APA Style covering paper elements and format, including sample papers for both professional authors and student writers.

Journal Article Reporting Standards New chapter on journal article reporting standards that includes updates to reporting standards for quantitative research and the first-ever qualitative and mixed methods reporting standards in APA Style.

Bias-free language guidelines New chapter on bias-free language guidelines for writing about people with respect and inclusivity in areas including age, disability, gender, participation in research, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality

100+ reference examples More than 100 new reference examples covering periodicals, books, audiovisual media, social media, webpages and websites, and legal resources.

40+ new sample tables and figures More than 40 new sample tables and figures, including student-friendly examples such as a correlation table and a bar chart as well as examples that show how to reproduce a table or figure from another source.

Ethics expanded Expanded guidance on ethical writing and publishing practices, including how to ensure the appropriate level of citation, avoid plagiarism and self-plagiarism, and navigate the publication process.

7th edition table of contents

• Front Matter
• 1. Scholarly Writing and Publishing Principles
• 2. Paper Elements and Format
• 3. Journal Article Reporting Standards
• 4. Writing Style and Grammar
• 5. Bias-Free Language Guidelines
• 6. Mechanics of Style
• 7. Tables and Figures
• 8. Works Credited in the Text
• 9. Reference List
• 10. Reference Examples
• 11. Legal References
• 12. Publication Process
• Back Matter

List of Tables and Figures

Editorial Staff and Contributors

Acknowledgments

Introduction (PDF, 94KB)

Types of Articles and Papers

1.1 Quantitative Articles 1.2 Qualitative Articles 1.3 Mixed Methods Articles 1.4 Replication Articles 1.5 Quantitative and Qualitative Meta-Analyses 1.6 Literature Review Articles 1.7 Theoretical Articles 1.8 Methodological Articles 1.9 Other Types of Articles 1.10 Student Papers, Dissertations, and Theses

Ethical, legal, and professional standards in publishing

Ensuring the Accuracy of Scientific Findings

1.11 Planning for Ethical Compliance 1.12 Ethical and Accurate Reporting of Research Results 1.13 Errors, Corrections, and Retractions After Publication 1.14 Data Retention and Sharing 1.15 Additional Data-Sharing Considerations for Qualitative Research 1.16 Duplicate and Piecemeal Publication of Data 1.17 Implications of Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism

Protecting the Rights and Welfare of Research Participants and Subjects

1.18 Rights and Welfare of Research Participants and Subjects 1.19 Protecting Confidentiality 1.20 Conflict of Interest

Protecting Intellectual Property Rights

1.21 Publication Credit 1.22 Order of Authors 1.23 Authors’ Intellectual Property Rights During Manuscript Review 1.24 Authors’ Copyright on Unpublished Manuscripts 1.25 Ethical Compliance Checklist

Required Elements

2.1 Professional Paper Required Elements 2.2 Student Paper Required Elements

Paper Elements

2.3 Title Page 2.4 Title 2.5 Author Name (Byline) 2.6 Author Affiliation 2.7 Author Note 2.8 Running Head 2.9 Abstract 2.10 Keywords 2.11 Text (Body) 2.12 Reference List 2.13 Footnotes 2.14 Appendices 2.15 Supplemental Materials

2.16 Importance of Format 2.17 Order of Pages 2.18 Page Header 2.19 Font 2.20 Special Characters 2.21 Line Spacing 2.22 Margins 2.23 Paragraph Alignment 2.24 Paragraph Indentation 2.25 Paper Length

Organization

2.26 Principles of Organization 2.27 Heading Levels 2.28 Section Labels

Sample papers

Overview of Reporting Standards

3.1 Application of the Principles of JARS 3.2 Terminology Used in JARS

Common Reporting Standards Across Research Designs

3.3 Abstract Standards 3.4 Introduction Standards

Reporting Standards for Quantitative Research

3.5 Basic Expectations for Quantitative Research Reporting 3.6 Quantitative Method Standards 3.7 Quantitative Results Standards 3.8 Quantitative Discussion Standards 3.9 Additional Reporting Standards for Typical Experimental and Nonexperimental Studies 3.10 Reporting Standards for Special Designs 3.11 Standards for Analytic Approaches 3.12 Quantitative Meta-Analysis Standards

Reporting Standards for Qualitative Research

3.13 Basic Expectations for Qualitative Research Reporting 3.14 Qualitative Method Standards 3.15 Qualitative Findings or Results Standards 3.16 Qualitative Discussion Standards 3.17 Qualitative Meta-Analysis Standards

Reporting Standards for Mixed Methods Research

3.18 Basic Expectations for Mixed Methods Research Reporting

Effective scholarly writing

Continuity and Flow

4.1 Importance of Continuity and Flow 4.2 Transitions 4.3 Noun Strings

Conciseness and Clarity

4.4 Importance of Conciseness and Clarity 4.5 Wordiness and Redundancy 4.6 Sentence and Paragraph Length 4.7 Tone 4.8 Contractions and Colloquialisms 4.9 Jargon 4.10 Logical Comparisons 4.11 Anthropomorphism

Grammar and usage

4.12 Verb Tense 4.13 Active and Passive Voice 4.14 Mood 4.15 Subject and Verb Agreement

4.16 First- Versus Third-Person Pronouns 4.17 Editorial “We” 4.18 Singular “They” 4.19 Pronouns for People and Animals (“Who” vs. “That”) 4.20 Pronouns as Subjects and Objects (“Who” vs. “Whom”) 4.21 Pronouns in Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses (“That” vs. “Which”)

Sentence Construction

4.22 Subordinate Conjunctions 4.23 Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers 4.24 Parallel Construction

Strategies to Improve Your Writing

4.25 Reading to Learn Through Example 4.26 Writing From an Outline 4.27 Rereading the Draft 4.28 Seeking Help From Colleagues 4.29 Working With Copyeditors and Writing Centers 4.30 Revising a Paper

General Guidelines for Reducing Bias

5.1 Describe at the Appropriate Level of Specificity 5.2 Be Sensitive to Labels

Reducing Bias by Topic

5.3 Age 5.4 Disability 5.5 Gender 5.6 Participation in Research 5.7 Racial and Ethnic Identity 5.8 Sexual Orientation 5.9 Socioeconomic Status 5.10 Intersectionality

Punctuation

6.1 Spacing After Punctuation Marks 6.2 Period 6.3 Comma 6.4 Semicolon 6.5 Colon 6.6 Dash 6.7 Quotation Marks 6.8 Parentheses 6.9 Square Brackets 6.10 Slash

6.11 Preferred Spelling 6.12 Hyphenation

Capitalization

6.13 Words Beginning a Sentence 6.14 Proper Nouns and Trade Names 6.15 Job Titles and Positions 6.16 Diseases, Disorders, Therapies, Theories, and Related Terms 6.17 Titles of Works and Headings Within Works 6.18 Titles of Tests and Measures 6.19 Nouns Followed by Numerals or Letters 6.20 Names of Conditions or Groups in an Experiment 6.21 Names of Factors, Variables, and Effects

6.22 Use of Italics 6.23 Reverse Italics

Abbreviations

6.24 Use of Abbreviations 6.25 Definition of Abbreviations 6.26 Format of Abbreviations 6.27 Unit of Measurement Abbreviations 6.28 Time Abbreviations 6.29 Latin Abbreviations 6.30 Chemical Compound Abbreviations 6.31 Gene and Protein Name Abbreviations

6.32 Numbers Expressed in Numerals 6.33 Numbers Expressed in Words 6.34 Combining Numerals and Words to Express Numbers 6.35 Ordinal Numbers 6.36 Decimal Fractions 6.37 Roman Numerals 6.38 Commas in Numbers 6.39 Plurals of Numbers

Statistical and Mathematical Copy

6.40 Selecting Effective Presentation 6.41 References for Statistics 6.42 Formulas 6.43 Statistics in Text 6.44 Statistical Symbols and Abbreviations 6.45 Spacing, Alignment, and Punctuation for Statistics

Presentation of Equations

6.46 Equations in Text 6.47 Displayed Equations 6.48 Preparing Statistical and Mathematical Copy for Publication

6.49 List Guidelines 6.50 Lettered Lists 6.51 Numbered Lists 6.52 Bulleted Lists

General Guidelines for Tables and Figures

7.1 Purpose of Tables and Figures 7.2 Design and Preparation of Tables and Figures 7.3 Graphical Versus Textual Presentation 7.4 Formatting Tables and Figures 7.5 Referring to Tables and Figures in the Text 7.6 Placement of Tables and Figures 7.7 Reprinting or Adapting Tables and Figures

7.8 Principles of Table Construction 7.9 Table Components 7.10 Table Numbers 7.11 Table Titles 7.12 Table Headings 7.13 Table Body 7.14 Table Notes 7.15 Standard Abbreviations in Tables and Figures 7.16 Confidence Intervals in Tables 7.17 Table Borders and Shading 7.18 Long or Wide Tables 7.19 Relation Between Tables 7.20 Table Checklist 7.21 Sample Tables

Sample tables

7.22 Principles of Figure Construction 7.23 Figure Components 7.24 Figure Numbers 7.25 Figure Titles 7.26 Figure Images 7.27 Figure Legends 7.28 Figure Notes 7.29 Relation Between Figures 7.30 Photographs 7.31 Considerations for Electrophysiological, Radiological, Genetic, and Other Biological Data 7.32 Electrophysiological Data 7.33 Radiological (Imaging) Data 7.34 Genetic Data 7.35 Figure Checklist 7.36 Sample Figures

Sample figures

General Guidelines for Citation

8.1 Appropriate Level of Citation 8.2 Plagiarism 8.3 Self-Plagiarism 8.4 Correspondence Between Reference List and Text 8.5 Use of the Published Version or Archival Version 8.6 Primary and Secondary Sources

Works Requiring Special Approaches to Citation

8.7 Interviews 8.8 Classroom or Intranet Sources 8.9 Personal Communications

In-Text Citations

8.10 Author–Date Citation System 8.11 Parenthetical and Narrative Citations 8.12 Citing Multiple Works 8.13 Citing Specific Parts of a Source 8.14 Unknown or Anonymous Author 8.15 Translated, Reprinted, Republished, and Reissued Dates 8,16 Omitting the Year in Repeated Narrative Citations 8.17 Number of Authors to Include in In-Text Citations 8.18 Avoiding Ambiguity in In-Text Citations 8.19 Works With the Same Author and Same Date 8.20 Authors With the Same Surname 8.21 Abbreviating Group Authors 8.22 General Mentions of Websites, Periodicals, and Common Software and Apps

Paraphrases and Quotations

8.23 Principles of Paraphrasing 8.24 Long Paraphrases 8.25 Principles of Direct Quotation 8.26 Short Quotations (Fewer Than 40 Words) 8.27 Block Quotations (40 Words or More) 8.28 Direct Quotation of Material Without Page Numbers 8.29 Accuracy of Quotations 8.30 Changes to a Quotation Requiring No Explanation 8.31 Changes to a Quotation Requiring Explanation 8.32 Quotations That Contain Citations to Other Works 8.33 Quotations That Contain Material Already in Quotation Marks 8.34 Permission to Reprint or Adapt Lengthy Quotations 8.35 Epigraphs 8.36 Quotations From Research Participants

Reference Categories

9.1 Determining the Reference Category 9.2 Using the Webpages and Websites Reference Category 9.3 Online and Print References

Principles of Reference List Entries

9.4 Four Elements of a Reference 9.5 Punctuation Within Reference List Entries 9.6 Accuracy and Consistency in References

Reference elements

9.7 Definition of Author 9.8 Format of the Author Element 9.9 Spelling and Capitalization of Author Names 9.10 Identification of Specialized Roles 9.11 Group Authors 9.12 No Author

9.13 Definition of Date 9.14 Format of the Date Element 9.15 Updated or Reviewed Online Works 9.16 Retrieval Dates 9.17 No Date

9.18 Definition of Title 9.19 Format of the Title Element 9.20 Series and Multivolume Works 9.21 Bracketed Descriptions 9.22 No Title

9.23 Definition of Source 9.24 Format of the Source Element 9.25 Periodical Sources 9.26 Online Periodicals With Missing Information 9.27 Article Numbers 9.28 Edited Book Chapter and Reference Work Entry Sources 9.29 Publisher Sources 9.30 Database and Archive Sources 9.31 Works With Specific Locations 9.32 Social Media Sources 9.33 Website Sources 9.34 When to Include DOIs and URLs 9.35 Format of DOIs and URLs 9.36 DOI or URL Shorteners 9.37 No Source

Reference Variations

9.38 Works in Another Language 9.39 Translated Works 9.40 Reprinted Works 9.41 Republished or Reissued Works 9.42 Religious and Classical Works

Reference List Format and Order

9.43 Format of the Reference List 9.44 Order of Works in the Reference List 9.45 Order of Surname and Given Name 9.46 Order of Multiple Works by the Same First Author 9.47 Order of Works With the Same Author and Same Date 9.48 Order of Works by First Authors With the Same Surname 9.49 Order of Works With No Author or an Anonymous Author 9.50 Abbreviations in References 9.51 Annotated Bibliographies 9.52 References Included in a Meta-Analysis

Author Variations

Date Variations

Title Variations

Source Variations

Textual Works

10.1 Periodicals 10.2 Books and Reference Works 10.3 Edited Book Chapters and Entries in Reference Works 10.4 Reports and Gray Literature 10.5 Conference Sessions and Presentations 10.6 Dissertations and Theses 10.7 Reviews 10.8 Unpublished Works and Informally Published Works

Data Sets, Software, and Tests

10.9 Data Sets 10.10 Computer Software, Mobile Apps, Apparatuses, and Equipment 10.11 Tests, Scales, and Inventories

Audiovisual Media

10.12 Audiovisual Works 10.13 Audio Works 10.14 Visual Works

Online Media

10.15 Social Media 10.16 Webpages and Websites

General Guidelines for Legal References

11.1 APA Style References Versus Legal References 11.2 General Forms 11.3 In-Text Citations of Legal Materials

Legal Reference Examples

11.4 Cases or Court Decisions 11.5 Statutes (Laws and Acts) 11.6 Legislative Materials 11.7 Administrative and Executive Materials 11.8 Patents 11.9 Constitutions and Charters 11.10 Treaties and International Conventions

Preparing for Publication

12.1 Adapting a Dissertation or Thesis Into a Journal Article 12.2 Selecting a Journal for Publication 12.3 Prioritizing Potential Journals 12.4 Avoiding Predatory Journals

Understanding the Editorial Publication Process

12.5 Editorial Publication Process 12.6 Role of the Editors 12.7 Peer Review Process 12.8 Manuscript Decisions

Manuscript Preparation

12.9 Preparing the Manuscript for Submission 12.10 Using an Online Submission Portal 12.11 Writing a Cover Letter 12.12 Corresponding During Publication 12.13 Certifying Ethical Requirements

Copyright and Permission Guidelines

12.14 General Guidelines for Reprinting or Adapting Materials 12.15 Materials That Require Copyright Attribution 12.16 Copyright Status 12.17 Permission and Fair Use 12.18 Copyright Attribution Formats

During and After Publication

12.19 Article Proofs 12.20 Published Article Copyright Policies 12.21 Open Access Deposit Policies 12.22 Writing a Correction Notice 12.23 Sharing Your Article Online 12.24 Promoting Your Article

Credits for Adapted Tables, Figures, and Papers

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• Open access
• Published: 17 June 2024

Impact of academic title structure of university research teams on research output: evidence from 30 Chinese universities

• Mengmeng Zhang 1 ,
• Liyuan Liu 1 ,
• Dongmei Zeng 1 &
• Xiaoying Li 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  769 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

• Science, technology and society

Despite widespread agreement in the scholarly community about the significance of academic title structure on research output, research on the underlying mechanisms remains insufficient. Social contribution and research resources were selected as mediating variables, panel data of the materials science and engineering discipline of 30 Chinese universities from 2016 to 2020 were chosen as the research samples, and a fixed-effects model was subsequently applied to conduct a chain mediating effect test. The results showed: (1) Both the proportion of national-level talents and that of senior titles can promote research output, with the former having a much greater effect, while the proportion of associate senior titles has an indistinctive negative correlation with research output. (2) Both the proportion of national-level talents and that of senior titles can significantly enhance research output through the chain mediating effect of social contribution and research resources, with national-level talents having a stronger ability to make social contributions and obtain research resources. (3) Social contribution is more effective than research resources in enhancing research output. Based on the findings, it is recommended to improve policies for introducing high-end talents and to increase support for researchers with associate senior titles. Furthermore, it is advisable to establish a research evaluation system based on social influence, guiding researchers to obtain research resources and enhance research output through social contributions.

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Introduction.

To seize the opportunities of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, China has formulated and implemented the innovation-driven development strategy, setting three milestone goals: to join the ranks of innovative countries by 2020, to be among the forefront of innovative countries by 2030, and to become a world-leading power in science and technology innovation and a major global center for science and innovation by 2050 (Bo, 2019 ). Against the backdrop of China’s unprecedented emphasis on scientific and technological innovation, the research output of universities should be highly valued, as the higher education institutions are the main battleground for innovation. Studies on the factors influencing research output have shown that academic titles contribute significantly more to researchers’ output than other factors such as salary, research investment time, and research collaboration (Zhang and Shen, 2019 ; Gu and Shen, 2012 ). These studies provide a theoretical basis for this paper to focus on the impact of academic title structure on research output.

The research on the relationship between academic title and research output can be roughly divided into three categories: the first category is to study the impact of academic title on scientific research output from the perspective of individual researchers, revealing a positive relationship between academic titles and the quantity and quality of research output (Huang, 2021 ; Fulton and Trow, 1974 ). Notably, scholars with senior titles are more productive in research papers (Wei et al., 2018 ). The second category is the influence investigation of academic title structure from the perspective of university management on scientific research output. These studies focus on the relationship between the proportion of different academic titles and university development, suggesting that university research output and development are influenced by the structure of academic titles (You et al., 2017 ; Ding and He, 2021 ; Cai and Ren, 2017 ). The third category is to explore the function mechanism of academic title on scientific research output. These studies concentrate on the mediating role of research resources such as research funding and projects. It is believed that senior titled scholars, due to their possession of substantial human and social capital, can attract abundant external resources like research topics and funding for the university, which are crucial for the university survival and development (Thomas, 2010 ). Therefore, an important consideration in the appointment of professors in American universities is the ability to obtain resources from the government and the business sector (Derek, 2015 ). It is also found that research resources tend to flow towards renowned scientists (Merton, 1968 ), and when the proportion of senior and associate senior titles reaches a certain level, research resources such as the number of projects and research funding can reach a theoretical optimal level, thereby affecting research output (Chen and Yang, 2022 ). Existing literatures provide strong support for this study, but research on the function mechanism of academic title structure on research output still needs to be deepened. Current literatures mostly explore the single pathway of research resources, which is far from sufficient. In fact, a large number of literatures have analyzed the significance of social contribution to university development (Xia et al., 2022 ; Qi, 2022 ; Wang, 2018 ; Kim, Seok ( 2016 ); Liu, 2015 ), suggesting that universities must prove their value through social contributions in order to obtain development resources (Zhou and Zhi, 2009 ). Although these studies are not directly related to academic title structure and research output, and mostly lack the empirical data, they still provide inspirations for this study, suggesting that social contribution may play both an independent mediating role and a chain mediating role through research resources in the impact of academic title structure on research output. The potential dual-role of social contribution merits further detailed investigation.

In light of this, this paper refers to existing research (Wang and Lou, 2020 ), measures social contribution by the number of scientific research awards at the provincial level and above, employs a fixed-effects model to test the chain mediating effect, and attempts to answer the following three specific questions: (1) What is the impact of the academic title structure on research output? (2) What is the function mechanism of academic title structure on research output? Is social contribution a function mechanism through which the academic title structure influences research output? If so, whether it plays an independent mediating role or a chain mediating role through research resources? (3) What are the differences in the impacts of diverse academic titles on research output? To accurately answer these questions, this study selects panel data from the materials science and engineering disciplines of 30 Chinese universities for empirical analysis. The main reason for choosing these 30 universities is that they all prioritize scientific research over teaching, making them suitable for addressing the research questions of this paper. Chinese higher education institutions include universities, colleges, and higher vocational and technical colleges. Among them, colleges focus on general education, and higher vocational colleges emphasize training in operational skills. In contrast to colleges and higher vocational colleges, which relatively focus more on teaching, the distinct characteristic of universities is their greater emphasis on scientific research. Furthermore, the materials science disciplines of all 30 Chinese universities in this study include national-level research talents in their academic title structures, ensuring comparability.

Overview of academic titles, social contributions, and research output of the study sample

Academic titles.

As can be seen in Fig. 1 , the total number of associate senior titles was slightly higher than that of senior titles throughout the study period, both of which were almost 3 times more than the total number of national-level talents. Moreover, the growth rate of both senior and associate senior titles was greater than that of national-level talents. Overall, the numbers of national-level talents, senior titles, and associate senior titles all showed steady growth, which reflects the motivational role of academic titles for researchers to some extent.

National-level talents, senior titles, and associate senior titles from 2016 to 2020.

Social contribution

From Fig. 2 , it can be observed that the social contribution (the number of scientific research awards at the provincial level and above) during the study period was not optimistic. In terms of quantity, the largest number of awards was achieved at 2019, scoring the number of 109, while there were 3648 academic titles holding the associate senior title and above in 2019, resulting in the number of awards per capita is less than 0.03. In term of trend, the number of scientific research awards has significantly declined after 2019. Scientific research awards represent the creative contributions of researchers to the economy and society (Wang and Lou, 2020 ), but their importance seems to be severely overlooked, which intensifies the necessity of this study.

Provincial-level and above research awards from 2016 to 2020.

Research output

This study uses the number of SCI papers published to evaluate research output, following the practice of the previous study (Zhang et al., 2015 ). As shown in Fig. 3 , the quantity of research output has steadily increased during the study period, reflecting the research responsibilities of universities in the new era. However, the growth rate of research output is not high. So, there is an urgent need to further explore the pathways for researchers to enhance output, in order to better adapt to the requirements of the innovation-driven development strategy for university research.

The SCI papers published from 2016 to 2020.

Theoretical analysis and research hypotheses

A rational academic title structure can positively enhance the research output of universities (Ding and He, 2021 ). On the one hand, the primary consideration for the selection of top talents and the evaluation of titles is research capability, in other words, talent titles and senior titles represent higher research output. On the other hand, top talents have completed a higher degree of knowledge innovation and research accumulation in specific research fields, which can enhance the research productivity of their teams. Bland et al. ( 2006 ) three-factor model suggests that the academic ability of research team leaders not only directly affects the research output of team members but also drives their research output by fostering research environment and atmosphere. Azoulay et al. ( 2010 ) found that after the death of an academic “superstar”, the publication rate of their team collaborators would on average continue to decline by 5–8%. It was also reported that senior titles have an absolute leading role in the quantity of research output (Liang et al., 2015 ). Accordingly, the first hypothesis of this study is proposed:

Hypothesis 1: the promotion of academic title structure on research output decreases in the following order: national-level talent proportion > senior title proportion > associate senior title proportion.

The production of high-quality research outcomes not only call for subjective factors such as self-discipline, research interest, and research capability of scholars but also require research resources such as project funding. Jacob and Lefgren ( 2011 ) found that research output of funded scholars increased by 20% in the following five years. Wang ( 2018 ) found that commercial R&D funding in American universities had a significant positive impact on research output. Meanwhile, the acquisition of research resources is also influenced by academic titles. Merton ( 1968 ) proposed the Matthew effect in science, suggesting that research resources often flow to scientists who have already proven their capabilities, and the more renowned the researchers are, the more advantages in research resources they can acquire. Based on the above analysis, the second hypothesis of this study is proposed:

Hypothesis 2: research resources play an independent mediating role between academic title structure and research output.

The fundamental reason why the acquisition of research resources is influenced by academic titles lies in the different levels of social contributions made by researchers at different levels of academic titles. Typically, The higher the academic title of researchers, the greater their social contribution. Social contribution is a way for researchers to demonstrate their value to the external community. Only when the external community recognizes the value of researchers will it provide them with the research resources (Zhou and Zhi, 2009 ). That is to say, social contribution can lead to an increase in research resources. At the same time, the social contributions of researchers mean that they have creatively solved problems encountered in human production and life. In other words, social contributions can also lead to the generation of new knowledge. Based on the above analysis, the following hypotheses are proposed:

Hypothesis 3: social contribution plays an independent mediating role between academic title structure and research output.

Hypothesis 4: social contribution and research resources play a chain mediating role between academic title structure and research output.

Research design

Sample and data.

The data for this study was collected from a survey of materials science and engineering disciplines in 30 Chinese universities, all of which could grant master and doctor degrees in the first-level discipline of materials science and engineering Footnote 1 (hereafter referred to as “materials discipline”). The reason for choosing the materials discipline as the research subject is due to its strong applicability and close connection with social production and life, which makes its social contribution more pronounced and highly applicable to this study. Therefore, selecting it as the research object is highly representative and referential. To explore the function mechanism of academic title structure on university research output, the number of academic titles at different levels, social contributions, research resources, and research output in the materials disciplines of the surveyed universities from 2016 to 2020 were collected. The survey was conducted from April to June 2022, lasting 3 months, and five years of balanced panel data were collected.

Dependent variable

The dependent variable in this study is research output. Most of studies use the number of papers to measure it (Xie and Shauman, 1998 ). Therefore, following the practice of the previous study (Zhang et al., 2015 ), the number of SCI papers published is used to measure research output.

Independent variable

The independent variable in this study is the academic title structure, mainly referring to the proportion of top talents and various academic titles in universities. The scope of the academic title in this study is the associate senior title and above, including national-level talents. Therefore, the title structure is measured by the proportion of national-level talents, senior titles, and associate senior titles in the total number of full-time teachers.

Mediating variable

Social contribution and research resources are chosen as mediating variables. (1) Social contribution. It is suggested that scientific awards represent the creative contributions of researchers to the economy and society (Wang and Lou, 2020 ). Based on the availability of data, the total number of national research awards, Outstanding Scientific Research Achievement Awards from the Chinese Ministry of Education and provincial research awards are used to represent the social contribution. The number of national research awards refers to the total of the National Natural Science Awards, the National Technological Invention Awards, and the National Science and Technology Progress Awards. (2) Research resources. Research platforms, projects, and funding are important research resources (Chen, 2023 ; Zhao et al., 2023 ; Chen and Yang, 2022 ). Therefore, indicators from three dimensions are selected to measure research resources: the number of research platforms at the provincial level and above, the number of projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and the annual research funds received. Inspired by the method of Liu and Chen ( 2023 ), the weights of the three dimensions are assigned using the equal-weight method, and a weighted average is subsequently computed to derive the assessment of research resources.

Control variables

Existing researches have shown that the level of the university, the province in which the university is located, the number of postgraduates, and the total number of full-time teachers (Chen and Yang, 2022 ; Liang et al., 2021 ) are all important factors affecting research output. Therefore, the level of the university, the province in which the university is located, the number of postgraduates, and the total number of full-time teachers are included as control variables in the model. Among them, the level of the university and the province in which the university is located are dummy variables, based on “whether it belongs to ‘Project 211’ or ‘Project 985’”, with 1 assigned if so, or with 0 assigned if not. The same assignment is made for “whether it is located in the Beijing-Shanghai-Guangzhou”, with 1 assigned if so, or with 0 assigned if not. Meanwhile, in order to mitigate validity issues arising from multicollinearity, the quantities of postgraduates and the number of full-time teachers are log-transformed prior to incorporation into the model. The descriptive statistics results of the relevant data are shown in Table 1 .

Research method

Econometric model.

A fixed-effects model is employed to test the chain mediating effect. Since the development plans of Chinese universities generally follow the same institutional system and value norms, and they often emulate each other in their operating models, leading to less pronounced individual differences in aspects such as campus culture and research atmosphere. Instead, the economic development status of the province where a university is located, and whether the university is classified as “Project 211” or “Project 985” have significant impact on the received development funds and policy support. Therefore, the fixed-effects model in this study refers to year-fixed effects, province fixed effects, and university level fixed effects.

The steps for testing the chain mediating effect

The chain mediating effect is a type of multiple mediating effect, where multiple mediating variables influence each other, exhibiting sequential characteristics, and forming a mediating chain. According to the sequential testing method proposed by Wen and Ye ( 2014 ), the steps for testing the chain mediating effect are as follows:

In the equations above, the coefficient c represents the total effect of the independent variable X on the dependent variable Y , \({c}^{{\prime} }\) represents the direct effect of X on Y , and M 1 and M 2 are the two mediating variables. The conditions that should be satisfied at each step are as follows:

Step 1: perform regression on Eq. ( 1 ) and test whether the coefficient \(c\) is statistically significant. If the coefficient \(c\) is significant, proceed to Step 2; if the coefficient \(c\) is insignificant, the test should be terminated.

Step 2: sequentially test the coefficient \({a}_{1}\) in Eq. ( 2 ) and the coefficient \({b}_{1}\) in Eq. ( 4 ). If the both are significant, it indicates that at least part of the effect of the independent variable \(X\) on the dependent variable \(Y\) is realized through \({M}_{1}\) , the mediating effect is established, and the indirect effect should be reported as \({a}_{1}\times {b}_{1}\) . Sequentially test the coefficient \({a}_{2}\) in Eq. ( 3 ) and the coefficient \({b}_{2}\) in Eq. ( 4 ). If the both are significant, it indicates that at least part of the effect of the independent variable \(X\) on the dependent variable \(Y\) is realized through \({M}_{2}\) , the mediating effect is established, and the indirect effect should be reported as \({a}_{2}\times {b}_{2}\) . Test the coefficient \({d}_{1}\) in Eq. ( 3 ). If it is significant, the chain indirect effect of \({M}_{1}\) and \({M}_{2}\) is significant, and the indirect effect should be reported as \({a}_{1}\times {d}_{1}\times {b}_{2}\) .

Step 3: compare the coefficient \({c}^{{\prime} }\) in Eq. ( 4 ) with the coefficient \(c\) in Eq. ( 1 ). If they have the same sign and \({c}^{{\prime} }\) is significant, it indicates that only part of the effect of the independent variable \(X\) on the dependent variable \(Y\) is realized through the mediating paths of \({M}_{1}\) and \({M}_{2}\) , so there is a partial mediating effect. If \({c}^{{\prime} }\) is insignificant, it indicates that the entire effect of \(X\) on \(Y\) is realized through the mediating paths of \({M}_{1}\) and \({M}_{2}\) , so there is a full mediating effect.

According to the above test steps and the research hypotheses hereinbefore, a theoretical model of the chain mediating effect of academic title structure on research output is built.

\({{Out}}_{{it}}\) represents the research output of university \(i\) ’s materials discipline in year \(t\) . \({{\rm{Tale}}}_{{it}}\) , \({{\rm{Seni}}}_{{it}}\) , and \({{\rm{Asso}}}_{{it}}\) respectively represent the proportions of national-level talents, senior titles, and associate senior titles in university \(i\) ’s materials discipline in year \(t\) , \({{\rm{Cont}}}_{{it}}\) represents the social contribution of university \(i\) ’s materials discipline in year \(t\) , and \({{\rm{Reso}}}_{{it}}\) represents the research resources of university \(i\) ’s materials discipline in year \(t\) . \({{Lev}}_{{it}}\) , \({{Pro}}_{{it}}\) , \({ln}{{Post}}_{{it}}\) , and \({ln}{{Ful}}_{{it}}\) are four control variables, representing the level of university \(i\) , the province of university \(i\) , and the log-transformed numbers of postgraduates and full-time teachers in year \(t\) respectively. \({\varepsilon }_{{it}}\) represents the random error term. In addition, year fixed effects, province fixed effects, and university level fixed effects are all included in the model. The function mechanism diagram of academic title structure on research output is depicted in Fig. 4 .

The function mechanism of academic title structure on research output.

As can be seen in Fig. 4 , the independent mediating effects of social contribution and research resources are \({a}_{1}\times {b}_{1}\) and \({a}_{2}\times {b}_{2}\) respectively; the chain mediating effect is \({a}_{1}\times {d}_{1}\times {b}_{2}\) , the direct effect of academic title structure on research output is \({c}^{{\prime} }\) , and the total effect of academic title structure on research output \({c=c}^{{\prime} }+{a}_{1}\times {b}_{1}+{a}_{1}\times {d}_{1}\times {b}_{2}+{a}_{2}\times {b}_{2}.\)

This study conducts regression analysis using Stata software, and the regression results are presented in Table 2 .

In Table 2 , Models (1–4) are the regression results of Eqs. ( 5 – 8 ), respectively. It can be seen that the total effect (430.20) and direct effect (292.78) of the proportion of national-level talents on research output are significant at the 1% level; the total effect (266.90) and direct effect (204.47) of the proportion of senior titles on research output are significant at the 1% and 5% levels, respectively; the total effect (−0.67) of the proportion of associate senior titles on research output is insignificant negative. It is evident that the promotion of academic title structure on research output decreases in the following order: national-level talent proportion > senior title proportion > associate senior title proportion, confirming the validity of Hypothesis 1.

Furthermore, based on the mediating effect test method proposed by Wen and Ye ( 2014 ), the test results of the mechanisms through which the proportions of associate senior titles, senior titles, and national-level talents affect research output are separately analyzed:

First, in Model (1), the total effect of the proportion of associate senior titles on research output is not significant, which does not meet the condition for proceed of the next test step, thus, the chain mediating effect test is terminated.

Second, in Model (1), the total effect of the proportion of senior titles on research output (266.90) is significant positive at the 1% level. It is determined that the coefficient \(c\) in the first step of the chain mediating effect model is significant, meeting the verification condition of the next test step. In Models (2) and (4), the regression coefficient of the proportion of senior titles on social contribution (5.16) and the regression coefficient of social contribution on research output (4.60) are both significant positive at the 10% level, confirming that both \({a}_{1}\) and \({b}_{1}\) in the second step of the chain mediating effect model are significant; in Models (3) and (4), the regression coefficient of the proportion of senior titles on research resources (6.35) and the regression coefficient of research resources on research output (4.50) are significant positive at the 10% and 5% levels, respectively, indicating that both \({a}_{2}\) and \({b}_{2}\) in the second step of the chain mediating effect model are significant; in Model (3), the regression coefficient of social contribution on research resources (0.44) is significant positive at the 1% level, manifesting that \({d}_{1}\) in the second step of the chain mediating effect model is significant. Comparing Models (1) and (4), the regression coefficients of the proportion of senior titles on research output (266.90 and 204.47) are both significant, confirming that \(c\) and \({c}^{{\prime} }\) in the third step of the chain mediating effect model are both positive and significant. It can be seen that the two mediating factors, which are social contribution and research resources, can play independent mediating roles and chain mediating role in the impact of senior titles on research output.

Third, in Model (1), the total effect of the proportion of national-level talents on research output (430.20) is significant positive at the 1% level. It can be concluded that the coefficient \(c\) in the first step of the chain mediating effect model is significant, meeting the verification condition of the next test step. In Models (2) and (4), the regression coefficient of the proportion of national-level talents on social contribution (13.33) and the regression coefficient of social contribution on research output (4.60) are significant positive at the 1% and 10% levels, respectively, indicating that both \({a}_{1}\) and \({b}_{1}\) in the second step of the chain mediating effect model are significant; in Models (3) and (4), the regression coefficient of the proportion of national-level talents on research resources (11.09) and the regression coefficient of research resources on research output (4.50) are significant positive at the 1% and 5% levels, respectively, confirming that both \({a}_{2}\) and \({b}_{2}\) in the second step of the chain mediating effect model are significant; in Model (3), the regression coefficient of social contribution on research resources (0.44) is significant positive at the 1% level, manifesting that \({d}_{1}\) in the second step of the chain mediating effect model is significant. Comparing Models (1) and (4), the regression coefficients of the proportion of national-level talents on research output (430.20 and 292.78) are both significant at the 1% level, confirming that \(c\) and \({c}^{{\prime} }\) in the third step of the chain mediating effect model are both positive and significant. It can be seen that the two mediating factors, which are social contribution and research resources, can also both play independent mediating roles and a chain mediating role in the impact of national-level talents on research output.

In summary, although it is not possible to verify the hypotheses related to the mediating effect using the proportion of associate senior titles, Hypotheses 2, 3, and 4 of this study are all validated in the impact of the proportion of national-level talents and senior titles on research output. That is, the two mediating factors, which are social contribution and research resources, can both play independent mediating role and chain mediating role in the impact of national-level talents on research output.

To further conduct an in-depth analysis, the effect levels of each mediation pathway are sorted out. The results are shown in Table 3 .

As can be seen from Table 3 , in the impact of the proportion of national-level talents and senior titles on research output, the total indirect effects account for 31.99% and 23.43% of the total effects, respectively. This proportion is not negligible, indicating that the indirect roles of social contribution and research resources are significant and should not be overlooked.

To facilitate comparative analysis, the impact processes of the proportion of national-level talents and senior titles on research output are further decomposed. The details are presented in Table 4 .

As can be seen from Table 4 , the impact of the proportion of national-level talents on social contribution (13.33) is nearly three times more than that of the proportion of senior titles (5.16); the impact of the proportion of national-level talents on research resources (11.09) is nearly twice more than that of the proportion of senior titles (6.35). This indicates that the higher the proportion of top talents in a research team of university, the stronger its ability to make social contributions and obtain research resources.

Additionally, the impact of social contribution on research resources (0.44) is significant positive at the 1% level, indicating that social contribution can positively promote the acquisition of research resources. At the same time, the impact of social contribution on research output (4.60) is greater than that of research resources (4.50). It is suggested that researchers in universities should focus more on social contributions other than research resources, demonstrating their value by meeting the real and significant need of society, thereby obtaining research resources and enhancing research output.

Conclusion and discussion

To further explore the impact of the academic title structure on research output, social contribution and research resources are firstly selected as mediating variables through literature review. Based on this, panel data from the materials disciplines of 30 Chinese universities from 2016 to 2020 were chosen as the research sample, and a fixed-effects model was subsequently used to conduct a chain mediating effect test. The results showed: (1) Both the proportion of national-level talents and that of senior titles can promote research output, with the former having a much greater effect, while the proportion of associate senior titles has an indistinctive negative correlation with research output. (2) Both the proportion of national-level talents and that of senior titles can significantly enhance research output through the chain mediating effect of social contribution and research resources, with national-level talents having a stronger ability to make social contributions and obtain research resources. (3) Social contribution is more effective than research resources in enhancing research output. These findings can provide a basis for improving the research evaluation system and reforming the conferring of academic titles.

The conclusions of this study are corroborated by previous research. Liang et al. ( 2015 ) revealed that the research output of professors, associate professors, and lecturers decreases in sequence. Although their sample selection differs from that of this study, both exhibit the same trend: higher titles promote research output more effectively than lower titles. And this trend has also been validated by Fulton and Trow ( 1974 ). Additionally, it is found in current study that the total effect of the proportion of associate senior titles on research output is insignificant negative. The study by Jin et al. ( 2022 ) provides support for the result. They found that associate professors are under the greatest pressure from quantitative assessments, and this heavy pressure distorts their academic production behavior. Regarding the role of social contribution, He ( 2010 ) posited that universities can enhance their scientific research level and technological innovation ability through serving society. Kim and Seok ( 2016 ) also believed that the social contributions of universities aid their development. These findings are in line with the conclusions of this study. In terms of the role of research resources, Ebadi and Schiffauerova ( 2016 ) argued that funding can affect research output. Gulbrandsem and Smeby ( 2005 ) found a high correlation between commercial funding and research output. Zhang et al. ( 2015 ) discovered that research groups funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China have a significantly higher number of SCI publications than those funded by other sources. Wang et al. ( 2016 ) found that the Youth Fund significantly improves the research output of young researchers. Although the types of research resources focused on in these studies are different from those in this study, the general conclusions provide important support for strengthening the conclusions of this paper.

There are three important implications in current study: (1) It provides a basis for improving the research evaluation system and reforming the conferring of academic titles. The indirect effects of social contribution and research resources on research output are clarified. Based on these findings, universities should place greater emphasis on social contributions in research evaluation and the conferring process of academic titles. They should also construct a research evaluation system based on social influence (Geng and Ouyang, 2024 ), which guides researchers to obtain research resources through social contributions, thereby enhancing research output. (2) It provides a clear path for university researchers to enhance their research output. (3) It contributes modestly to the enrichment of related theories. This study reveals the potential mechanisms through which academic title structure affects research output, and it can help to address the shortcomings of the existing literature and enrich theories related to academic titles and research output.

Policy recommendations

Based on the above findings, this study recommends improving policies for introducing high-end talents; increasing support for scholars with associate senior titles; and establishing a research evaluation system based on social influence (Geng and Ouyang, 2024 ) to guide researchers in obtaining research resources and enhancing research output through social contributions.

Universities should improve policies for introducing high-end talents to optimize talent resources. Actively introduce national-level talents and researchers with senior titles by providing support in terms of identity recognition, research funding, and team building through stratified classification (Hao and Zhang, 2021 ). Increase high-end talents proportion in university research teams to leverage their roles in contributing to society, obtaining resources, and enhancing research output.

Universities should increase support for researchers with associate senior titles. Given the insignificant negative effect of the proportion of associate senior titles on research output, it is recommended to take measures in two aspects. On one hand, encourage researchers with associate senior titles to actively participate in academic exchanges and research collaborations with top domestic and international universities to enhance their research capabilities. On the other hand, provide appropriate guidance for researchers with associate senior titles (Sun et al., 2009 ) to help them overcome research bottlenecks, alleviate the pressure of promotion assessments, and enhance research output (Jin et al., 2022 ).

Universities should construct a research evaluation system based on social influence (Geng and Ouyang, 2024 ) to guide researchers to focus on social contributions. This study finds that the indirect effects of social contribution and research resources on research output are not negligible. Especially for social contribution, it is not only more effective than research resources in enhancing research output, but also serves as a channel for obtaining research resources. Therefore, it is necessary to construct evaluation indicators that can promote social contributions (Xie and Wang, 2024 ), to guide university researchers to focus on the actual needs of economic and social development, solve real-world problems, and thereby obtain research resources and enhance research output.

Limitations and suggestions for future research

Certainly, there are some potential limitations that need to be further expanded in future. Though the sample of materials disciplines is highly representative, it is necessary to expand the research sample to other disciplines, entire universities, and even universities in different countries to explore the impact of academic title structure on research output. Furthermore, the issue of reverse causality, that higher academic titles have greater promotional effect on research output, and researchers with higher academic titles are attracted by universities with better research foundations, is also an important aspect that needs to be considered.

Data availability

The authors do not have permission to share the raw data.

The disciplines in Chinese universities are classified into three levels: discipline categories, first-level disciplines, and second-level disciplines. Taking the discipline of materials as an illustrative example, its category belongs to Engineering. Materials Science and Engineering is a first-level discipline under the category of Engineering, and within this first-level discipline, there are also second-level disciplines such as Materials Physics and Chemistry, and Materials Processing Engineering. If master and doctor degrees are granted based on the first-level discipline rather than the second-level discipline, it suggests that the research strength of the discipline is relatively strong.

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Mengmeng Zhang, Liyuan Liu, Dongmei Zeng & Xiaoying Li

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Mengmeng Zhang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing-Original draft. Liyuan Liu: Visualization, Software, Validation. Dongmei Zeng: Administration, Resources. Xiaoying Li: Reviewing, Resources. Correspondence to Dongmei Zeng or Xiaoying Li.

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Zhang, M., Liu, L., Zeng, D. et al. Impact of academic title structure of university research teams on research output: evidence from 30 Chinese universities. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 769 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03294-w

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The Importance of Awareness, Acceptance, and Alignment With the Self: A Framework for Understanding Self-Connection

Kristine klussman.

1 Connection Lab, San Francisco, CA, USA

Nicola Curtin

Julia langer, austin lee nichols.

We provide a theoretical framework for what it means to be self-connected and propose that self-connection is an important potential contributor to a person’s well-being. We define self-connection as consisting of three components: 1) an awareness of oneself, 2) an acceptance of oneself based on this awareness, and 3) an alignment of one’s behavior with this awareness. First, we position the concept within the broader self literature and provide the empirical context for our proposed definition of self-connection. We next compare and contrast self-connection to related constructs, including mindfulness and authenticity. Following, we discuss some of the potential relationships between self-connection and various aspects of mental health and well-being. Finally, we provide initial recommendations for future research, including potential ways to promote self-connection. In all, we present this theory to provide researchers with a framework for understanding self-connection so that they can utilize this concept to better support the efforts of researchers and practitioners alike to increase individuals’ well-being in various contexts.

In recent years, there has been growing interest in understanding the factors that contribute to people experiencing meaningful and happy lives (e.g., Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005 ; Seligman, 2002 , 2008 ; Veenhoven, 2003 ). Results suggest that a fulfilling life includes a sense of meaning ( Steger, 2009 ), strong interpersonal relationships ( Myers, 2000 ), and the pursuit and attainment of personal goals ( Emmons, 2003 ). In addition, there is a long-standing belief that happiness is the result of identifying one’s strengths and virtues and living a life that cultivates and reflects them ( Aristotle, 2002 ).

In our research lab, we consider how people build lives characterized by deep connection to self and others and the importance of these efforts for health and well-being. People often understand, and empirical research supports, the importance of establishing close relationships and building social networks ( Cohen, 2004 ; Helliwell & Putnam, 2004 ; Holt-Lunstad & Smith, 2012 ; Lakey & Cronin, 2008 ; Lakey, Vander Molen, Fles, & Andrews, 2016 ). In contrast, although “knowing oneself” has long been of philosophical and psychological interest, sparse research has investigated what self-connection is and what it means to people’s health and well-being. In this paper, we will 1) provide an overview of the definition of self-connection and its three components, 2) discuss the potential well-being increases that result from self-connection, and 3) present some initial thoughts on the fruitful directions that future investigations of self-connection might pursue.

Understanding the Self in Self-Connection

The first, and possibly most important, aspect of self-connection is that it refers to the self. As such, it is useful to clarify our intended use and context of the term “self.” Social psychological theories generally highlight that people form and maintain self-concepts (i.e., ideas about who they are as distinct entities). Self-concepts help individuals to organize information extracted from momentary experiences. Select information is attended to as self-relevant, often information related to autobiographical memories and motivations, and is mentally processed in ways that can yield a sense of more enduring (though still malleable) personal characteristics and social roles ( Markus, 1977 ; Oyserman, 2001 ). For example, if one currently feels compelled to comfort a distressed acquaintance and recalls multiple instances of feeling concerned for friends, the person’s self-concept might include “caring” or “a supportive friend.” Of note, one may hold multiple overlapping self-concepts (e.g., public and private selves; see Baumeister, 2012 ) and multi-faceted self-concepts (e.g., situationally contingent or flexible aspects of the self; see Paulhus & Martin, 1988 ). Within these self-concepts, people often have a sense of what they regard as their true self, in terms of what is most essential about them or most personally endorsed ( Rogers, 1959 ; Schlegel & Hicks, 2011 ). This perceived true self is important for our definition of self-connection.

Both the perceived true self and potentially broader self-concepts are formed and maintained by selectively attending to, interpreting, and remembering aspects of momentary experiences (see Oyserman, 2001 ). In turn, maintaining one’s self-concept can sometimes detract from individual and social well-being, such as when individuals become preoccupied in primarily negative self-related thoughts ( Lyubomirsky & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1993 ; Nolen-Hoeksema, 2000 ) or react defensively toward others ( Crocker & Park, 2004 ; Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997 ). To avoid such undesirable efforts of self-concept maintenance, some research has explored meta-cognitively distancing (e.g., “disidentifying”) from self-related thinking during momentary experiences ( Bernstein et al., 2015 ; Fresco et al., 2007 ; also see Brewer, Garrison, & Whitfield-Gabrieli, 2013 ). Although these approaches may be useful in some instances, they risk throwing out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak, since engaging with the self can be beneficial when it helps people find meaning and purpose in life ( Schlegel & Hicks, 2011 ; Schlegel, Hicks, King, & Arndt, 2011 ). This then raises the question of if that upside can be maximized while minimizing potential pitfalls. Within that context, this paper presents the concept of self-connection as a way of relating to the self that supports individual and social well-being.

Defining Self-Connection

In addition to its focus on the self, self-connection inherently involves a sense of connection. In our conceptualization, that sense of connection uniquely relates to the perceived self. More specifically, it refers to the presence of and relationship between three capacities—awareness of, acceptance of, and behavioral alignment with oneself. Consequently, we define self-connection as a subjective experience consisting of three components: 1) an awareness of oneself, 2) an acceptance of oneself based on this awareness, and 3) an alignment of one’s behaviors with this awareness. We posit that the three components are interrelated in a non-hierarchical structure and contribute synergistically to experiencing self-connection. As such, an individual who is lacking in any of the three components would experience less overall self-connection.

Awareness of Oneself

The first component of self-connection, self-awareness, is defined as knowing one’s internal states, preference, resources, and intuitions ( Goleman, 2006 ). As part of their self-concepts, many people believe that they have an essential, internal, and private self, capable of being truly or fully known only to them ( Rogers, 1959 ; Schlegel & Hicks, 2011 ). This perceived self may be more endorsed or important than other aspects of one’s self-concept. People may see this self as immutable, but some psychological perspectives, such as Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1980 , 1985 ), posit that the self need not be unchangeable but rather be determined and meaningful to the individual ( Schlegel & Hicks, 2011 ). As such, we are not arguing that there is one, “real” internal self ( Darley & Fazio, 1980 ; Murray, Holmes, & Griffen, 1996 ). Instead, we contend it is people’s perceived understanding of aspects of their self-concepts resembling a self (e.g., important values) that is relevant to experiencing self-connection.

Also informing our conceptualization of the awareness component of self-connection is the construct of mindfulness. One central feature of mindfulness is an awareness of and attention to one’s current experiences, from moment to moment ( Bishop et al., 2004 ; Brown & Ryan, 2003 ; Kabat-Zinn, 1990 ). Part of mindfulness is observing or noting sensations, thoughts, and emotions as they occur, bringing them into awareness and potentially greater clarity ( Brown, Ryan, & Creswell, 2007 ; Mikulas, 2011 ). Similarly, the awareness component of self-connection notices self-relevant aspects of experiences, potentially providing more attention to, and clarity on, those that pertain to oneself.

Acceptance of Oneself

The second part of the definition of self-connection is self-acceptance and can be defined as a complete acceptance of one’s internal states, preference, resources, and intuitions. Acceptance involves receptivity and openness to oneself, rather than avoidance and denial. We assert that acceptance of the perceived self is a key component of self-connection and can also best be understood within the psychological literature on mindfulness. A second, integral quality of mindfulness, in addition to present-moment awareness, is an accepting stance toward experiences (see Kabat-Zinn, 1990 ; Lindsay & Creswell, 2017 ). Acceptance in mindfulness involves receptively meeting one’s experiences as they are, without trying to alter them. Self-connection consists of a similar acceptance, yet this acceptance is oriented more toward the self. When self-relevant experiences and characteristics come into awareness, they are allowed as “this feels like part of me” and not automatically judged as good or bad. In this way, the acceptance component of self-connection is not about liking or esteeming oneself (or how likable the self is to others), as some other conceptualizations of self-acceptance include (e.g., Ryff & Keyes, 1995 ). Instead, the focus is on a willingness to acknowledge one’s feelings, values, and other aspects of the self and truly accepting oneself.

Alignment With Oneself

The third part of our definition involves drawing on one’s awareness and acceptance of the perceived self when making behavioral decisions. This self-alignment can be defined as behaving in ways that are consistent with one’s internal states, preference, resources, and intuitions. Specifically, self-connection involves acting in alignment (component three) with one’s awareness of the self (component one) by using one’s acceptance of this awareness (component two) to facilitate behaviors that align with the perceived self. This component of self-connection is similar to conceptualizations of self-determined decisions in Self-Determination Theory ( Deci & Ryan, 1980 , 1985 ) as well as authentic behavior ( Kernis & Goldman, 2006 ; Wood, Linley, Maltby, Baliousis, & Joseph, 2008 ). That is, behavioral alignment involves deciding to act in ways that authentically reflect the perceived self. Awareness and acceptance of the perceived self theoretically should facilitate aligned behavioral decisions, and behavioral experiences may also help individuals to become more aware of what they perceive as their self and/or accept that self. Developing concordance between behavior, self-awareness, and self-acceptance is critical to a lived experience of self-connection.

Limitations of Similar Concepts

Self-connection versus authenticity.

In part, the proposed definition of self-connection shares some relation with concepts of authenticity ( Kernis & Goldman, 2006 ; Wood et al., 2008 ) but can also be distinguished from them. In their development of a measure of dispositional authenticity, Wood and colleagues (2008) argued that authenticity primarily includes authentic living—the degree to which a person’s behavior matches their self. This most strongly maps onto the self-alignment component of self-connection, but is only one of three necessary components of self-connection. Other conceptualizations or operationalizations of authenticity also may include some form of awareness or acceptance (see Kernis & Goldman, 2006 ). These differ from how we conceptualize awareness and acceptance in self-connection. First, self-connection is inherently relational within one’s own experience: It is about experiencing a sense of linkage with oneself. That is, awareness and acceptance are essentially a way of relating to one’s self-relevant mental processing and tuning into oneself. In contrast, conceptualizations of awareness and acceptance in authenticity tend to imply that one exists in an experience of the self and are more focused on avoiding self-deception and contending with external influences and judgments, respectively ( Kernis & Goldman, 2006 ). Authenticity may also be affected by judgments of “good” and “bad” whereas these are not relevant to self-connection. Likewise, we assert that the nonjudgmental conceptualization of acceptance proposed as part of self-connection may have added value in enhancing one's ability to act in alignment with oneself.

Self-Connection Versus Mindfulness

The proposed definition of self-connection bears resemblance to mindfulness but also contains aspects that distinguish the two concepts. Awareness and a lack of judgement are two defining, synergistic components of mindfulness (see Lindsay & Creswell, 2017 ). However, most scientific definitions of mindfulness do not include alignment of behavior with the perceived self (the third component of self-connection). When intentional behavior is considered, it is usually as a correlate or consequence of mindfulness (e.g., Chatzisarantis & Hagger, 2007 ). Moreover, mindfulness itself does not specifically concern or reference the self, as self-connection does. In fact, substantial mindfulness-related theory and research addressing the self treats it as something to distance oneself from or to transcend (see Bernstein et al., 2015 ). A growing literature does address mindful self-compassion, but this concept only concerns handling difficult experiences and includes identifying less with them ( Neff, 2003 ). Altogether, we propose that mindfulness concerns itself with broader awareness and acceptance of experience and thus may be helpful for, but is not synonymous with, experiencing self-connection. The concept of self-connection goes beyond mindfulness and self-compassion in that it draws on components of mindfulness—awareness and acceptance—along with behavioral alignment to facilitate experiences of connection to the perceived self.

Is Self-Connection a State or Trait?

At a basic level , self-connection could be thought of as both a state and an individual difference characteristic (similar to a trait). That is, it is possible to temporarily experience a state of greater self-connection. Additionally, repeatedly experiencing states of increased self-connection may promote its ease and frequency throughout life. Likewise, individuals may differ in the extent to which they generally tend toward experiencing self-connection. Whether this would be considered a trait-level difference might vary with different models of personality. We discuss one such framework next.

Within the context of McAdams and Pals’ (2006) holistic model of personality, self-connection can be understood as a characteristic adaptation—more individualized and, possibly, more malleable across situations and time than a basic trait. In this model, self-connection may be a third- and/or fourth-level characteristic adaptation. Third-level characteristic adaptations are not simply basic traits and instead include “aspects of human individuality that speak to motivational, social-cognitive, and developmental concerns” (p. 208). Awareness of the perceived true self can be developed, and one may choose to accept it and act accordingly or not — these are individual motivational, social-cognitive, and developmental concerns akin to third-level characteristic adaptations. For example, as one might develop a commitment to environmental conservation (itself a characteristic adaptation), one might simultaneously develop awareness and acceptance of that value and act in a manner consistent with it.

The fourth level of McAdams and Pals’ (2006) model refers to the more malleable aspects of characteristic adaptations that are subject to change based on context or experience. Characteristic adaptations are more likely to change over time than traits as they are anchored in everyday situational and personality processes and dynamics. Awareness of, acceptance of, and alignment with a value may develop nuances as the value is experienced in more contexts—a fourth-level characteristic adaptation. As such, self-connection may contribute in significant ways to an individual's development across life domains. To the extent that people experience self-connection across life domains and throughout daily life, it would be more trait-like for an individual, even though any individual could also experience a temporary, heightened state of self-connection. As such, we view self-connection as something that can be treated and examined at both the state and trait level.

The Implications of Self-Connection for Well-Being

We propose that self-connection is a way of relating to the self that supports positive functioning and well-being. Specifically, experiencing connection to oneself should promote meaning and purpose in life and greater attainment of related goals. In terms of well-being assessment, this may also be reflected in greater life satisfaction (as in assessments of subjective well-being; Diener, 1984 ) and greater eudaimonic well-being at a personal level (as operationalized as either flourishing as in Keyes, 2002 , or psychological well-being as in Ryff, 1989 ). Self-connection may also conceivably enhance various aspects of social connection and social well-being. For example, one may be able to communicate preferences and values to others more clearly and support others in doing so. More self-connected individuals may also engage in more meaningful social activities due to acting in alignment with their values. For such reasons, connection with self and others may go hand-in-hand.

Theoretical and empirical literatures on related constructs provide indirect support for these propositions. The mindfulness literature suggests that awareness and acceptance are associated with greater well-being ( Lindsay & Creswell, 2017 ; McNall, Tombari, & Brown, 2019 ). More relevant to self-awareness specifically, Schlegel and colleagues assert that discovering and expressing the self is crucial to psychological health ( Schlegel, Hicks, Arndt, & King, 2009 ). Their research suggests that the feeling of knowing yourself predicts self-actualization, vitality, self-esteem, active coping, psychological need satisfaction, positive affect, and subjective well-being ( Schlegel, Vess, & Arndt, 2012 ). Schlegel and colleagues also assert that understanding the self allows one to interpret actions that are congruent with the self as valuable ( Schlegel & Hicks, 2011 ) and provide a sense of coherence ( Hicks, 2013 ).

Furthermore, beyond research on mindfulness (which is inherently accepting), some research also suggests that self-acceptance may play a role in well-being. Most relevant to self-connection is research that conceptualizes self-acceptance as unconditional and less evaluative, as compared to positive self-evaluations (e.g., Ryff & Keyes, 1995 ). Such research has found unique, positive associations between self-acceptance and overall mood as well as eudaimonic well-being ( Chamberlain & Haaga, 2001 ; MacInnes, 2006 ; Ranzijn & Luszcz, 1999 ).

Several research programs also provide evidence to support the argument that congruence between one’s implicit and/or internal goals and explicit behaviors is an important cornerstone of well-being ( Schultheiss & Brunstein, 1999 ; Schultheiss, Jones, Davis, & Kley, 2008 ; Sheldon, 2004 , 2014 ). For example, people who choose goals based on their own internal interests are more likely to achieve those goals ( Sheldon & Elliot, 1999 ; Sheldon & Houser-Marko, 2001 ) and show increased levels of happiness ( Sheldon & Elliot, 1998 ; Sheldon & Kasser, 1998 ). Bailis, Fleming, and Segall (2005) surveyed people when they first joined a gym and found that people who had self-concordant goals were more likely to be members of the gym 2 years later, were less likely to compare themselves to others, and were less negatively influenced by social comparisons. In their experimental study, Chatzisarantis, Hagger, and Wang (2010) found that their manipulation of self-concordant goal motivation and implementation intention resulted in the highest level of short-term adherence to taking daily multivitamins. Thus, research suggests pursuing goals that reflect one’s self results in greater long-term commitment to those goals, and possibly even greater satisfaction in the pursuit of them. Altogether, such existing literature suggests that constructs related or similar to the three components of self-connection support well-being. Therefore, it is reasonable to propose that the combination of the three components of self-connection may synergize to support well-being.

There also is some indirect evidence to support the idea that such benefits of self-connection may not carry risks of preoccupation in negative self-related thinking or defensive reactions, both of which may undermine individual and social well-being. For example, research on negative rumination has found that private self-reflection can be distinguished from maladaptive rumination ( Trapnell & Campbell, 1999 ), indicating that self-awareness is not inherently a rumination risk. Self-Affirmation Theory ( Aronson, Cohen, & Nail, 1999 ; Sherman & Cohen, 2006 ; Steele, 1988 ) has produced considerable evidence that reminders of broader valued aspects of the self (e.g., writing briefly about a core value after a threat to some other aspect of the self; reminders of other important goals when frustrated about a particular goal), can reduce both negative rumination ( Koole, Smeets, van Knippenberg, & Dijksterhuis, 1999 ) and defensive reactions ( Sherman & Cohen, 2006 ).

These findings are generally consistent with the idea that experiencing a sense of connection to aspects of oneself (e.g., values, important goals) may not carry risks of rumination or defensiveness. Further, the mechanisms underlying such effects are not clear empirically. Self-Affirmation Theory suggests that, after an aspect of the self has been threatened, reminders of other values restore a positive view of the self, reducing a need for rumination or defensiveness. We posit that it is also possible that reminders of values could operate through connecting to oneself with acceptance (rather than needing esteem or liking). This potential role of acceptance is supported by the empirical literature on mindfulness.

Mindfulness inherently involves acceptance and is associated with less maladaptive rumination and defensiveness. Many studies have found that trait mindfulness and mindfulness training are associated with less negative rumination and stress ( Gu, Strauss, Bond, & Cavanagh, 2015 ; Paul, Stanton, Greeson, Smoski, & Wang, 2012 ; Van der Velden et al., 2015 ). More mindful individuals also may show fewer defensive reactions to self-related threats. For example, in a series of studies on the role of mindfulness in responses to mortality threats (i.e., making thoughts of death salient, thus threatening people’s sense of self), more mindful individuals were less defensive in their responses. In all, evidence suggests that an accepting awareness may attenuate risks of rumination and defensiveness and thus indirectly supports our contention that self-connection may as well.

Future Research on Self-Connection

There are several promising directions that research on self-connection might take. We describe only a few of them below.

Operationalizing Self-Connection

The first requirement for researching self-connection is the development of a validated tool to measure it. Ideally, a measure would be able to assess overall self-connection as well as the individual components of self-connection: self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-alignment. As conceptualized, self-connection should be measured through a composite of items that measures all three components. Additionally, we need to ensure that the measure is reliable and valid, such as testing whether it relates to relevant variables as predicted and its incremental value beyond existing measures. Development of one such measure is underway in our lab.

The ability to experimentally increase self-connection also is needed to help reach causal conclusions about the effects of self-connection. Experimental manipulations could attempt to temporarily boost a state of self-connection or increase an individual’s overall tendency toward self-connection in daily life. The former might be accomplished with brief, one-time exercises and could potentially reveal immediate, albeit temporary, effects of heightened self-connection on state-dependent measures, including in certain contexts or domains. The latter, increasing individual differences in self-connection, may require more extended intervention, potentially with multiple exercises and/or covering multiple life domains. We describe some potential intervention ideas below.

Building the Nomological Network of Self-Connection

After we understand how to measure self-connection, research into the nomological network of self-connection needs to examine the ways in which self-connection may or may not relate to various aspects of both well-being and health. Such research could examine cross-sectional and prospective relationships between measured self-connection and meaning in life, aspects of individual and social well-being, and goal persistence and attainment. Intervention studies, especially randomized controlled trials, will provide evidence of directionality and potential causality.

Individual Differences Predicting Self-Connection

Correlational and prospective studies also should assess individual differences that may predict the self-awareness, self-acceptance, and/or the self-alignment components of self-connection and the overall representation of self-connection. Trait mindfulness is one variable noted previously. Self-concept clarity also has been associated with mindfulness and may characterize individuals higher in self-connection ( Hanley & Garland, 2017 ). Additionally, consistent with SDT and Sheldon’s (2004) argument that self-determination is vital for achieving an integrated self, Thrash and Elliot (2002) found that people high in self-determination also showed higher levels of congruence between implicitly and explicitly measured motives. Self-determination and implicit-explicit motivational concordance may also relate to self-connection. Other individual differences to examine might include basic personality traits, gender, cultural variables, age, ethnicity, and income.

Self-Connection and Meaning in Life

For many people, the search for profound self-understanding and a life built around it is an eternal, imperfect pursuit. As positive psychology has begun to offer many answers to the question of how to best promote and enhance well-being, research has turned to the concept of meaning in life ( Martela, Ryan, & Steger, 2018 ; Schlegel et al., 2011 ; Steger, 2009 ). We have posited that self-connection increases of a sense of meaning in life. Knowing about and accepting who one perceives one truly is should theoretically lead to an increase in a sense of coherence across one’s life and allow for actions that are in support of one’s values and goals or purpose. When people act in a way that is in alignment with their values and goals, their sense of significance may also increase. Thus, experimentally increasing self-connection should also increase one's sense of meaning in life, whether at a state or trait-like level.

Self-Connection and Broader Well-Being

As detailed above, self-connection may predict individual and social well-being at a dispositional level. Greater coherence, meaning, and social connection from self-connection may also contribute to more positive affect in daily life (see Fredrickson, 2013 ). These relations could be examined using longitudinal and brief intervention studies (e.g., Goodman, Kashdan, Mallard, & Schumann, 2014 ). Although such positive functioning is the primary hypothesized outcome of self-connection, greater self-connection may also be associated with fewer depression symptoms (given the roles of anhedonia and hopelessness in depression). Therefore, initial prospective studies should examine a range of potential mental health outcomes. As part of such research on self-connection and well-being, it also would be useful to examine whether high self-connection carries less risk of negative rumination and defensiveness than low self-connection or self-disconnection.

Self-Connection and Goal Striving

When people’s perceived selves include goals, self-connection may support self-regulation toward those goals. We propose that awareness and acceptance of such goals may foster greater goal clarity and accessibility, while behavioral alignment may promote follow through on intentions and persistence (cf. Mann, De Ridder, & Fujita, 2013 ). These hypothesized component processes and the role of overall self-connection in goal striving should be examined in future correlational and, ideally, experimental research. One domain in which the relation between self-connection and goal-related processes could be especially important to examine is health behavior. Not only is engaging in health-promoting behavior important for physical health, it could also be another way that self-connection supports overall well-being.

Promoting Self-Connection

Once we can measure self-connection and begin to understand how it relates to other constructs and aspects of life, self-connection has the potential to be an extremely useful tool for promoting positive life outcomes. To realize these benefits and study its effects using experimental designs, it will be important to examine how to promote self-connection. It is possible that several existing practices, either in isolation or in combination, may be useful for promoting self-connection by increasing self-awareness, self-acceptance, and/or self-alignment.

For example, we have proposed that mindfulness may facilitate the self-awareness and self-acceptance components of self-connection. Future research should examine whether and when mindfulness practices (formal mindfulness meditation or informal mindfulness in various domains of daily life) can lead to greater self-connection. It also would be interesting to consider the role that self-connection may play in the relationship between mindfulness and aspects of well-being.

Another promising way to promote self-connection may be journaling. Daily journals have been widely used across disciplines ( Hülsheger, Alberts, Feinholdt, & Lang, 2013 ; Hülsheger et al., 2014 ; Pennebaker, Mehl, & Niederhoffer, 2003 ; Pennebaker & Seagal, 2003 ) and can provide people the opportunity to become more aware of their internal thoughts and values. This, in turn, should provide a space to accept them and lead to an understanding of themselves to modify actions as needed. Repeated journaling could focus on different life domains to develop and apply self-connection across daily life. Thus, the act of journaling about self-connection may increase self-connection and the positive outcomes potentially associated with it.

Physical activity also may be a means for promoting self-connection. For one, it may help people tune into their sensations and feelings. When done repeatedly, it also may enhance self-connection through building confidence, independence, and/or positive body image to accept internal values and goals ( Kaufman, Glass, & Arnkoff, 2009 ; Lawlor & Hopker, 2001 ; Taylor, Sallis, & Needle, 1985 ). Additionally, physical activity in a non-competitive environment might be especially useful because it may allow people to practice being more accepting of themselves and acting accordingly. Finally, when combined with meditation, the effects of activity could be especially pronounced ( Edwards & Loprinzi, 2019 ).

Interventions aimed at increasing self-connection at more of a trait level, throughout daily life, might benefit from incorporating all the above activities with specific guidance aimed at connecting with oneself. Additional options for practices to increase self-connection are also possible and might even be useful in the workplace ( Lomas, Medina, Ivtzan, Rupprecht, & Eiroa-Orosa, 2018 ). As part of research on promoting self-connection, it also may be important to identify potential barriers (either internal or external) to self-connection and how certain practices or beliefs may help to overcome them. Finally, this all must be done in a way that considers the cultural influences in play ( Christopher & Hickinbottom, 2008 ).

Being self-connected requires one to be aware of the self, accept that self, and act in alignment with it. We argue that self-connection is important to obtaining greater well-being and believe that there currently is significant indirect evidence to support this claim. We detail our conceptualization of self-connection so that future research can test our propositions more directly. We are optimistic about future research to uncover practices, such as mindfulness and journaling, that promote self-connection. By understanding self-connection and finding ways to be more connected to oneself, we hope to help everyone pursue a life “well-lived.”

Acknowledgments

The authors have no additional (i.e., non-financial) support to report.

Biographies

Kristine Klussman is the founder of Connection Lab and its parent Purpose Project, a nonprofit aimed at helping people live more satisfying, meaningful lives. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Palo Alto University. In addition to overseeing Connection Lab research, she is a clinician, graduate university instructor, author, clinical supervisor and speaker.

Nicola Curtin was one of the founding members of Connection Lab, the research arm of the Purpose Project. She received her PhD in Personality and Social Contexts from the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan.

Julia Langer is a Senior Research Associate at Connection Lab. She received her MHS in Public Mental Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and has focused her career on using mental health interventions to improve well-being.

Austin Lee Nichols is the former Director of Research at Connection Lab. He received his PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Florida. Prior to and after working at Connection Lab, he held various faculty positions around the world in both psychology and business.

The authors have no funding to report.

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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Build a Corporate Culture That Works

There’s a widespread understanding that managing corporate culture is key to business success. Yet few companies articulate their culture in such a way that the words become an organizational reality that molds employee behavior as intended.

All too often a culture is described as a set of anodyne norms, principles, or values, which do not offer decision-makers guidance on how to make difficult choices when faced with conflicting but equally defensible courses of action.

The trick to making a desired culture come alive is to debate and articulate it using dilemmas. If you identify the tough dilemmas your employees routinely face and clearly state how they should be resolved—“In this company, when we come across this dilemma, we turn left”—then your desired culture will take root and influence the behavior of the team.

To develop a culture that works, follow six rules: Ground your culture in the dilemmas you are likely to confront, dilemma-test your values, communicate your values in colorful terms, hire people who fit, let culture drive strategy, and know when to pull back from a value statement.

Start by thinking about the dilemmas your people will face.

Idea in Brief

The problem.

There’s a widespread understanding that managing corporate culture is key to business success. Yet few companies articulate their corporate culture in such a way that the words become an organizational reality that molds employee behavior as intended.

What Usually Happens

How to fix it.

Follow six rules: Ground your culture in the dilemmas you are likely to confront, dilemma-test your values, communicate your values in colorful terms, hire people who fit, let culture drive strategy, and know when to pull back from a value.

At the beginning of my career, I worked for the health-care-software specialist HBOC. One day, a woman from human resources came into the cafeteria with a roll of tape and began sticking posters on the walls. They proclaimed in royal blue the company’s values: “Transparency, Respect, Integrity, Honesty.” The next day we received wallet-sized plastic cards with the same words and were asked to memorize them so that we could incorporate them into our actions. The following year, when management was indicted on 17 counts of conspiracy and fraud, we learned what the company’s values really were.

• EM Erin Meyer is a professor at INSEAD, where she directs the executive education program Leading Across Borders and Cultures. She is the author of The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business (PublicAffairs, 2014) and coauthor (with Reed Hastings) of No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention (Penguin, 2020). ErinMeyerINSEAD

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Computer Science > Computation and Language

Title: decoding the diversity: a review of the indic ai research landscape.

Abstract: This review paper provides a comprehensive overview of large language model (LLM) research directions within Indic languages. Indic languages are those spoken in the Indian subcontinent, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan, among others. These languages have a rich cultural and linguistic heritage and are spoken by over 1.5 billion people worldwide. With the tremendous market potential and growing demand for natural language processing (NLP) based applications in diverse languages, generative applications for Indic languages pose unique challenges and opportunities for research. Our paper deep dives into the recent advancements in Indic generative modeling, contributing with a taxonomy of research directions, tabulating 84 recent publications. Research directions surveyed in this paper include LLM development, fine-tuning existing LLMs, development of corpora, benchmarking and evaluation, as well as publications around specific techniques, tools, and applications. We found that researchers across the publications emphasize the challenges associated with limited data availability, lack of standardization, and the peculiar linguistic complexities of Indic languages. This work aims to serve as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners working in the field of NLP, particularly those focused on Indic languages, and contributes to the development of more accurate and efficient LLM applications for these languages.

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