what is a theme of a research paper

What Is the Theme of a Research Paper?

How to Write a Motif Paper

The term "theme" is a small word, but it can intimidate students when they see it on an assignment or test. To overcome the fear and develop confidence, especially with regard to research papers, understand what the word means and see the parallels with any work, including poems, essays, plays, novels and movies.

“Theme” Defined

A theme is a major and sometimes recurring idea, subject or topic that appears in a written work. A dominant theme usually reveals what the work is really about and can be helpful in forming insights and analysis. A theme can consist of one word, two words or more. For example, your teacher might ask you to explore the straightforward ideas of “anger” or “selfishness” or more complex themes of “emotional intelligence” or “conflicted emotions.” Either way, careful reading of the work is vital so that you can marshal examples of where the theme was apparent.

Examples in Research

Themes in research papers might require a little digging, but they are there. Sometimes they are easier to spot when several research papers on the same subject are compared or contrasted, for this is when such subtext emerges. For example, three research papers on the subject of avid TV viewing by teenagers might contain different themes, such as simpler ideas including “passivity” or "grades" or a more complex theme, such as “effects on familial relationships.”

Seize the Opportunity

Once you've identified the theme of a research paper or papers, seize the opportunity and analyze it. Say that you like the idea of exploring how avid TV viewing -- more than four hours per day -- affects teens' grades. Further, suppose that researchers are in general agreement about the correlation but cast a wide net in terms of how they define “passivity.” You might set up a thematic segue for a research paper by saying, “Researchers continue to debate how to define passivity in teens and reach across the spectrum to include the number of hours per day they spend in solitude, the number of people they count as close friends and their lack of interest in hobbies and extracurricular activities.” Then you would take each of these ideas and expound in greater detail.

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• The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers; Maxine Hairston and John Ruszkiewicz.
• The New St. Martin’s Handbook; Andrea Lunsford and Robert Connors.
• Purdue University: Online Writing Lab: Writing in Literature: Writing the Prompt Paper
• Queens College: Research Papers

With education, health care and small business marketing as her core interests, M.T. Wroblewski has penned pieces for Woman's Day, Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal and many newspapers and magazines. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Northern Illinois University.

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How to Write a Theme Essay

Last Updated: January 4, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 210,862 times.

Starting the Essay

• For example, an essay prompt may ask you to reflect on the theme of good versus evil in John Steinbeck's East of Eden .

• Make a list of everything you know about the topic. This can be information you learned in class, as well as information you found on your own.
• Write down keywords or key scenes in the text that respond to the essay prompt. Think about what words or scenes from the text come to mind when you think of a specific theme.
• For example, when you brainstorm ideas on East of Eden , you may write down any moments in the text that seem to speak to the theme of good and evil.

• Your thesis statement will need to address the theme, your primary example or examples, and the stance you will take on the topic.
• For example, your thesis might be: "In East of Eden , John Steinbeck rejects the Biblical idea of good and evil and instead focuses on the contradictions and complications found in good and evil."

• Introduction: Discuss landscape as metaphor, include thesis statement.
• Body: Describe mountains in opening scene, elaborate on how they symbolize good vs. evil, state how characters live between the mountains, showing how people are caught between good and evil.
• Conclusion: Restate thesis statement, return to landscape as metaphor.

Writing Your Essay

• Questions can make fun hooks for the reader. Ask a rhetorical question that relates to the theme of the essay, such as "How does one decide what is good and what is evil?"
• You can also use a quote from the text as the hook. Find a quote in the text that explores the themes and ideas you'll be discussing in your essay.

• For example, you may introduce the role of nature plays in the text to discuss the theme of good and evil. The first sentence of your body paragraph should discuss the role of nature. This will set up the paragraph and let the reader know what the focus of the paragraph will be.

• For example, you may discuss the use of nature in the text in one paragraph. The body of the paragraph should then use quotes and scenes in the text to support this idea.
• You might write,"The descriptions of the Gabilan Mountains in the text symbolize good and evil. The characters in the story live in the Salinas Valley, trapped in a gray area between these two extremes."

• Ask yourself, "What do I want my readers to have learned through this essay?"
• Remind readers about the essay's theme. Reference some of the arguments you made in the body of your essay, reinforcing how they support your original point.

Revising Your Essay

• Check that there are transitions between paragraphs. Look at the beginning of each paragraph to make sure they all flow well together.

• Print out your paper and proofread it. Oftentimes, errors are easier to catch on paper. If you can't print out your paper, try changing the size or type of the font. Anything that alters how the work looked when you wrote it can help alert you to errors. [13] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source

• Be open to constructive feedback from friends and peers. This will only improve the essay and ensure it is at its best when you turn it in.

Expert Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ Jake Adams. Academic Tutor & Test Prep Specialist. Expert Interview. 20 May 2020.
• ↑ https://penandthepad.com/write-essay-theme-book-2200.html
• ↑ https://wts.indiana.edu/writing-guides/how-to-write-a-thesis-statement.html
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/essay-outline/
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-to-write-a-hook/
• ↑ https://libguides.newcastle.edu.au/how-to-write-an-essay/conclusion
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/proofreading/steps_for_revising.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/proofreading/proofreading_suggestions.html
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/

About This Article

When writing a theme essay, you’ll need to explore a given theme in the text you’re studying. Before you start your essay, brainstorm some notes about your theme, which you can then build your essay from. For example, if you have the theme of good and evil, think about which characters are mostly good or evil, any good or evil actions they take, description that uses light and darkness, and any religious context. In your intro, state your thesis, which should summarize your essay’s main argument. Then, choose 4 or 5 examples of your theme and write a paragraph exploring each one. Make sure you support your points with quotes from the text. In your conclusion, link your ideas back to your thesis statement. For more tips from our English co-author, including how to revise your essay to polish it up, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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11.1 The Purpose of Research Writing

Learning objectives.

• Identify reasons to research writing projects.
• Outline the steps of the research writing process.

Why was the Great Wall of China built? What have scientists learned about the possibility of life on Mars? What roles did women play in the American Revolution? How does the human brain create, store, and retrieve memories? Who invented the game of football, and how has it changed over the years?

You may know the answers to these questions off the top of your head. If you are like most people, however, you find answers to tough questions like these by searching the Internet, visiting the library, or asking others for information. To put it simply, you perform research.

Whether you are a scientist, an artist, a paralegal, or a parent, you probably perform research in your everyday life. When your boss, your instructor, or a family member asks you a question that you do not know the answer to, you locate relevant information, analyze your findings, and share your results. Locating, analyzing, and sharing information are key steps in the research process, and in this chapter, you will learn more about each step. By developing your research writing skills, you will prepare yourself to answer any question no matter how challenging.

Reasons for Research

When you perform research, you are essentially trying to solve a mystery—you want to know how something works or why something happened. In other words, you want to answer a question that you (and other people) have about the world. This is one of the most basic reasons for performing research.

But the research process does not end when you have solved your mystery. Imagine what would happen if a detective collected enough evidence to solve a criminal case, but she never shared her solution with the authorities. Presenting what you have learned from research can be just as important as performing the research. Research results can be presented in a variety of ways, but one of the most popular—and effective—presentation forms is the research paper . A research paper presents an original thesis, or purpose statement, about a topic and develops that thesis with information gathered from a variety of sources.

If you are curious about the possibility of life on Mars, for example, you might choose to research the topic. What will you do, though, when your research is complete? You will need a way to put your thoughts together in a logical, coherent manner. You may want to use the facts you have learned to create a narrative or to support an argument. And you may want to show the results of your research to your friends, your teachers, or even the editors of magazines and journals. Writing a research paper is an ideal way to organize thoughts, craft narratives or make arguments based on research, and share your newfound knowledge with the world.

Write a paragraph about a time when you used research in your everyday life. Did you look for the cheapest way to travel from Houston to Denver? Did you search for a way to remove gum from the bottom of your shoe? In your paragraph, explain what you wanted to research, how you performed the research, and what you learned as a result.

Research Writing and the Academic Paper

No matter what field of study you are interested in, you will most likely be asked to write a research paper during your academic career. For example, a student in an art history course might write a research paper about an artist’s work. Similarly, a student in a psychology course might write a research paper about current findings in childhood development.

Having to write a research paper may feel intimidating at first. After all, researching and writing a long paper requires a lot of time, effort, and organization. However, writing a research paper can also be a great opportunity to explore a topic that is particularly interesting to you. The research process allows you to gain expertise on a topic of your choice, and the writing process helps you remember what you have learned and understand it on a deeper level.

Research Writing at Work

Knowing how to write a good research paper is a valuable skill that will serve you well throughout your career. Whether you are developing a new product, studying the best way to perform a procedure, or learning about challenges and opportunities in your field of employment, you will use research techniques to guide your exploration. You may even need to create a written report of your findings. And because effective communication is essential to any company, employers seek to hire people who can write clearly and professionally.

Writing at Work

Take a few minutes to think about each of the following careers. How might each of these professionals use researching and research writing skills on the job?

• Medical laboratory technician
• Small business owner
• Information technology professional
• Freelance magazine writer

A medical laboratory technician or information technology professional might do research to learn about the latest technological developments in either of these fields. A small business owner might conduct research to learn about the latest trends in his or her industry. A freelance magazine writer may need to research a given topic to write an informed, up-to-date article.

Think about the job of your dreams. How might you use research writing skills to perform that job? Create a list of ways in which strong researching, organizing, writing, and critical thinking skills could help you succeed at your dream job. How might these skills help you obtain that job?

Steps of the Research Writing Process

How does a research paper grow from a folder of brainstormed notes to a polished final draft? No two projects are identical, but most projects follow a series of six basic steps.

These are the steps in the research writing process:

• Choose a topic.
• Plan and schedule time to research and write.
• Conduct research.
• Organize research and ideas.
• Draft your paper.
• Revise and edit your paper.

Each of these steps will be discussed in more detail later in this chapter. For now, though, we will take a brief look at what each step involves.

Step 1: Choosing a Topic

As you may recall from Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” , to narrow the focus of your topic, you may try freewriting exercises, such as brainstorming. You may also need to ask a specific research question —a broad, open-ended question that will guide your research—as well as propose a possible answer, or a working thesis . You may use your research question and your working thesis to create a research proposal . In a research proposal, you present your main research question, any related subquestions you plan to explore, and your working thesis.

Step 2: Planning and Scheduling

Before you start researching your topic, take time to plan your researching and writing schedule. Research projects can take days, weeks, or even months to complete. Creating a schedule is a good way to ensure that you do not end up being overwhelmed by all the work you have to do as the deadline approaches.

During this step of the process, it is also a good idea to plan the resources and organizational tools you will use to keep yourself on track throughout the project. Flowcharts, calendars, and checklists can all help you stick to your schedule. See Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , Section 11.2 “Steps in Developing a Research Proposal” for an example of a research schedule.

Step 3: Conducting Research

When going about your research, you will likely use a variety of sources—anything from books and periodicals to video presentations and in-person interviews.

Your sources will include both primary sources and secondary sources . Primary sources provide firsthand information or raw data. For example, surveys, in-person interviews, and historical documents are primary sources. Secondary sources, such as biographies, literary reviews, or magazine articles, include some analysis or interpretation of the information presented. As you conduct research, you will take detailed, careful notes about your discoveries. You will also evaluate the reliability of each source you find.

Step 4: Organizing Research and the Writer’s Ideas

When your research is complete, you will organize your findings and decide which sources to cite in your paper. You will also have an opportunity to evaluate the evidence you have collected and determine whether it supports your thesis, or the focus of your paper. You may decide to adjust your thesis or conduct additional research to ensure that your thesis is well supported.

Remember, your working thesis is not set in stone. You can and should change your working thesis throughout the research writing process if the evidence you find does not support your original thesis. Never try to force evidence to fit your argument. For example, your working thesis is “Mars cannot support life-forms.” Yet, a week into researching your topic, you find an article in the New York Times detailing new findings of bacteria under the Martian surface. Instead of trying to argue that bacteria are not life forms, you might instead alter your thesis to “Mars cannot support complex life-forms.”

Step 5: Drafting Your Paper

Now you are ready to combine your research findings with your critical analysis of the results in a rough draft. You will incorporate source materials into your paper and discuss each source thoughtfully in relation to your thesis or purpose statement.

When you cite your reference sources, it is important to pay close attention to standard conventions for citing sources in order to avoid plagiarism , or the practice of using someone else’s words without acknowledging the source. Later in this chapter, you will learn how to incorporate sources in your paper and avoid some of the most common pitfalls of attributing information.

Step 6: Revising and Editing Your Paper

In the final step of the research writing process, you will revise and polish your paper. You might reorganize your paper’s structure or revise for unity and cohesion, ensuring that each element in your paper flows into the next logically and naturally. You will also make sure that your paper uses an appropriate and consistent tone.

Once you feel confident in the strength of your writing, you will edit your paper for proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, mechanics, and formatting. When you complete this final step, you will have transformed a simple idea or question into a thoroughly researched and well-written paper you can be proud of!

Review the steps of the research writing process. Then answer the questions on your own sheet of paper.

• In which steps of the research writing process are you allowed to change your thesis?
• In step 2, which types of information should you include in your project schedule?
• What might happen if you eliminated step 4 from the research writing process?

Key Takeaways

• People undertake research projects throughout their academic and professional careers in order to answer specific questions, share their findings with others, increase their understanding of challenging topics, and strengthen their researching, writing, and analytical skills.
• The research writing process generally comprises six steps: choosing a topic, scheduling and planning time for research and writing, conducting research, organizing research and ideas, drafting a paper, and revising and editing the paper.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

• Research guides

Writing an Educational Research Paper

Research paper sections, customary parts of an education research paper.

There is no one right style or manner for writing an education paper. Content aside, the writing style and presentation of papers in different educational fields vary greatly. Nevertheless, certain parts are common to most papers, for example:

Title/Cover Page

Contains the paper's title, the author's name, address, phone number, e-mail, and the day's date.

Not every education paper requires an abstract. However, for longer, more complex papers abstracts are particularly useful. Often only 100 to 300 words, the abstract generally provides a broad overview and is never more than a page. It describes the essence, the main theme of the paper. It includes the research question posed, its significance, the methodology, and the main results or findings. Footnotes or cited works are never listed in an abstract. Remember to take great care in composing the abstract. It's the first part of the paper the instructor reads. It must impress with a strong content, good style, and general aesthetic appeal. Never write it hastily or carelessly.

Introduction and Statement of the Problem

A good introduction states the main research problem and thesis argument. What precisely are you studying and why is it important? How original is it? Will it fill a gap in other studies? Never provide a lengthy justification for your topic before it has been explicitly stated.

Limitations of Study

Indicate as soon as possible what you intend to do, and what you are not going to attempt. You may limit the scope of your paper by any number of factors, for example, time, personnel, gender, age, geographic location, nationality, and so on.

Methodology

Discuss your research methodology. Did you employ qualitative or quantitative research methods? Did you administer a questionnaire or interview people? Any field research conducted? How did you collect data? Did you utilize other libraries or archives? And so on.

Literature Review

The research process uncovers what other writers have written about your topic. Your education paper should include a discussion or review of what is known about the subject and how that knowledge was acquired. Once you provide the general and specific context of the existing knowledge, then you yourself can build on others' research. The guide Writing a Literature Review will be helpful here.

Main Body of Paper/Argument

This is generally the longest part of the paper. It's where the author supports the thesis and builds the argument. It contains most of the citations and analysis. This section should focus on a rational development of the thesis with clear reasoning and solid argumentation at all points. A clear focus, avoiding meaningless digressions, provides the essential unity that characterizes a strong education paper.

After spending a great deal of time and energy introducing and arguing the points in the main body of the paper, the conclusion brings everything together and underscores what it all means. A stimulating and informative conclusion leaves the reader informed and well-satisfied. A conclusion that makes sense, when read independently from the rest of the paper, will win praise.

Works Cited/Bibliography

See the Citation guide .

Education research papers often contain one or more appendices. An appendix contains material that is appropriate for enlarging the reader's understanding, but that does not fit very well into the main body of the paper. Such material might include tables, charts, summaries, questionnaires, interview questions, lengthy statistics, maps, pictures, photographs, lists of terms, glossaries, survey instruments, letters, copies of historical documents, and many other types of supplementary material. A paper may have several appendices. They are usually placed after the main body of the paper but before the bibliography or works cited section. They are usually designated by such headings as Appendix A, Appendix B, and so on.

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Home » Research Paper Title – Writing Guide and Example

Research Paper Title – Writing Guide and Example

Table of Contents

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 Lesson Study Group

at Mills College

Develop a Research Theme

Access the teaching-learning plan, choose a topic.

10-30 minutes

• Develop or revisit your your long-term goals for student development
• Develop a draft of your “theory of action”—the approaches you will explore to build your long-term goals

Identify Your Long-Term Goals

The building blocks of your theme.

A research theme expresses the long-term goals of your work. If your team or school has already developed a research theme, revisit it now to refresh your memory about your long-term goals and ideas about how to get there.

Begin by having team members individually jot down qualities in response to the following prompt:

• Ideally, what qualities do we hope students will have when they graduate from our school? ( If we bumped into our students in 5-10 years, what qualities do we hope they would have?)

Now, again working individually, spend a few minutes jotting down a list of qualities in response to a second prompt:

• What are the current qualities of our students? (For example, what qualities of our students inspire us? Anything that concerns us?)

Again, share your individual lists and write all the qualities on a second list labeled “Current.”

Compare the two lists–ideal and current–and notice gaps that really speak to you as educators. Find one or two gaps where you would like to invest your time and energy.

Your research theme positively states the qualities you will work toward. Some examples follow.

• “For students to value friendship, develop their own perspectives and ways of thinking, and enjoy science.”
• “Develop social-emotional skills and…a deeper understanding of mathematics”
• “Across both math and language arts, develop our students’ abilities to use evidence and reasoning to support and critique arguments.”
• “…to take responsibility and initiative as learners.”

A lot of [U.S.] schools develop mission statements, but we don’t do anything with them. The mission statements get put in a drawer and then teachers become cynical…Lesson Study gives guts to a mission statement, makes it real, and brings it to life.

Develop a Theory of Action

Moving from the what to the how.

The second part of your research theme is a “theory of action”—how you will work toward your long-term goals and the specific research questions you will examine. What experiences in school help students move toward a goal such as “students have their own thoughts and can explain them logically?” Teachers addressing this research theme focused their initial theory of action on two classroom routines: students’ presentation of ideas at the board and their use of reflective journals. They actively tested strategies to improve these two classroom routines and posed questions about them. For example, they asked what the features are of effective student presentations and how teachers help students see the power of these strategies (such as using visual models). In order to strengthen the impact of reflective mathematics journals, teachers strategically selected several student journals from the prior day to be read aloud at the beginning of each mathematics lesson, which built students’ interest in each other’s ideas and helped them see the impact of well-explained ideas. The first part of your research theme—your overarching goal—is likely to stay the same for several years. The second part of your research theme—your theory of action—is likely to change as you incorporate effective ideas into your practice and go on to experiment with additional changes designed to achieve your long-term goals. For example, the group that experimented with changes to student presentations and reflective journals went on to experiment with routines for discussion and lesson summarization that further built students’ capacity “to have their own thoughts and explain them logically.”

Developing a Research Theme Presentation

Examples of Research Themes

• What is Lesson Study?
• Why Lesson Study?
• Teacher Learning
• Content Resources
• Teaching Through Problem-solving (TTP)
• School-wide Lesson Study
• U.S. Networks
• International Networks

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113 Great Research Paper Topics

General Education

One of the hardest parts of writing a research paper can be just finding a good topic to write about. Fortunately we've done the hard work for you and have compiled a list of 113 interesting research paper topics. They've been organized into ten categories and cover a wide range of subjects so you can easily find the best topic for you.

In addition to the list of good research topics, we've included advice on what makes a good research paper topic and how you can use your topic to start writing a great paper.

What Makes a Good Research Paper Topic?

Not all research paper topics are created equal, and you want to make sure you choose a great topic before you start writing. Below are the three most important factors to consider to make sure you choose the best research paper topics.

#1: It's Something You're Interested In

A paper is always easier to write if you're interested in the topic, and you'll be more motivated to do in-depth research and write a paper that really covers the entire subject. Even if a certain research paper topic is getting a lot of buzz right now or other people seem interested in writing about it, don't feel tempted to make it your topic unless you genuinely have some sort of interest in it as well.

#2: There's Enough Information to Write a Paper

Even if you come up with the absolute best research paper topic and you're so excited to write about it, you won't be able to produce a good paper if there isn't enough research about the topic. This can happen for very specific or specialized topics, as well as topics that are too new to have enough research done on them at the moment. Easy research paper topics will always be topics with enough information to write a full-length paper.

Trying to write a research paper on a topic that doesn't have much research on it is incredibly hard, so before you decide on a topic, do a bit of preliminary searching and make sure you'll have all the information you need to write your paper.

#3: It Fits Your Teacher's Guidelines

Don't get so carried away looking at lists of research paper topics that you forget any requirements or restrictions your teacher may have put on research topic ideas. If you're writing a research paper on a health-related topic, deciding to write about the impact of rap on the music scene probably won't be allowed, but there may be some sort of leeway. For example, if you're really interested in current events but your teacher wants you to write a research paper on a history topic, you may be able to choose a topic that fits both categories, like exploring the relationship between the US and North Korea. No matter what, always get your research paper topic approved by your teacher first before you begin writing.

113 Good Research Paper Topics

Below are 113 good research topics to help you get you started on your paper. We've organized them into ten categories to make it easier to find the type of research paper topics you're looking for.

Arts/Culture

• Discuss the main differences in art from the Italian Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance .
• Analyze the impact a famous artist had on the world.
• How is sexism portrayed in different types of media (music, film, video games, etc.)? Has the amount/type of sexism changed over the years?
• How has the music of slaves brought over from Africa shaped modern American music?
• How has rap music evolved in the past decade?
• How has the portrayal of minorities in the media changed?

Current Events

• What have been the impacts of China's one child policy?
• How have the goals of feminists changed over the decades?
• How has the Trump presidency changed international relations?
• Analyze the history of the relationship between the United States and North Korea.
• What factors contributed to the current decline in the rate of unemployment?
• What have been the impacts of states which have increased their minimum wage?
• How do US immigration laws compare to immigration laws of other countries?
• How have the US's immigration laws changed in the past few years/decades?
• How has the Black Lives Matter movement affected discussions and view about racism in the US?
• What impact has the Affordable Care Act had on healthcare in the US?
• What factors contributed to the UK deciding to leave the EU (Brexit)?
• What factors contributed to China becoming an economic power?
• Discuss the history of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies  (some of which tokenize the S&P 500 Index on the blockchain) .
• Do students in schools that eliminate grades do better in college and their careers?
• Do students from wealthier backgrounds score higher on standardized tests?
• Do students who receive free meals at school get higher grades compared to when they weren't receiving a free meal?
• Do students who attend charter schools score higher on standardized tests than students in public schools?
• Do students learn better in same-sex classrooms?
• How does giving each student access to an iPad or laptop affect their studies?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Montessori Method ?
• Do children who attend preschool do better in school later on?
• What was the impact of the No Child Left Behind act?
• How does the US education system compare to education systems in other countries?
• What impact does mandatory physical education classes have on students' health?
• Which methods are most effective at reducing bullying in schools?
• Do homeschoolers who attend college do as well as students who attended traditional schools?
• Does offering tenure increase or decrease quality of teaching?
• How does college debt affect future life choices of students?
• Should graduate students be able to form unions?

• What are different ways to lower gun-related deaths in the US?
• How and why have divorce rates changed over time?
• Is affirmative action still necessary in education and/or the workplace?
• Should physician-assisted suicide be legal?
• How has stem cell research impacted the medical field?
• How can human trafficking be reduced in the United States/world?
• Should people be able to donate organs in exchange for money?
• Which types of juvenile punishment have proven most effective at preventing future crimes?
• Has the increase in US airport security made passengers safer?
• Analyze the immigration policies of certain countries and how they are similar and different from one another.
• Several states have legalized recreational marijuana. What positive and negative impacts have they experienced as a result?
• Do tariffs increase the number of domestic jobs?
• Which prison reforms have proven most effective?
• Should governments be able to censor certain information on the internet?
• Which methods/programs have been most effective at reducing teen pregnancy?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Keto diet?
• How effective are different exercise regimes for losing weight and maintaining weight loss?
• How do the healthcare plans of various countries differ from each other?
• What are the most effective ways to treat depression ?
• What are the pros and cons of genetically modified foods?
• Which methods are most effective for improving memory?
• What can be done to lower healthcare costs in the US?
• What factors contributed to the current opioid crisis?
• Analyze the history and impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic .
• Are low-carbohydrate or low-fat diets more effective for weight loss?
• How much exercise should the average adult be getting each week?
• Which methods are most effective to get parents to vaccinate their children?
• What are the pros and cons of clean needle programs?
• How does stress affect the body?
• Discuss the history of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
• What were the causes and effects of the Salem Witch Trials?
• Who was responsible for the Iran-Contra situation?
• How has New Orleans and the government's response to natural disasters changed since Hurricane Katrina?
• What events led to the fall of the Roman Empire?
• What were the impacts of British rule in India ?
• Was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary?
• What were the successes and failures of the women's suffrage movement in the United States?
• What were the causes of the Civil War?
• How did Abraham Lincoln's assassination impact the country and reconstruction after the Civil War?
• Which factors contributed to the colonies winning the American Revolution?
• What caused Hitler's rise to power?
• Discuss how a specific invention impacted history.
• What led to Cleopatra's fall as ruler of Egypt?
• How has Japan changed and evolved over the centuries?
• What were the causes of the Rwandan genocide ?

• Why did Martin Luther decide to split with the Catholic Church?
• Analyze the history and impact of a well-known cult (Jonestown, Manson family, etc.)
• How did the sexual abuse scandal impact how people view the Catholic Church?
• How has the Catholic church's power changed over the past decades/centuries?
• What are the causes behind the rise in atheism/ agnosticism in the United States?
• What were the influences in Siddhartha's life resulted in him becoming the Buddha?
• How has media portrayal of Islam/Muslims changed since September 11th?

Science/Environment

• How has the earth's climate changed in the past few decades?
• How has the use and elimination of DDT affected bird populations in the US?
• Analyze how the number and severity of natural disasters have increased in the past few decades.
• Analyze deforestation rates in a certain area or globally over a period of time.
• How have past oil spills changed regulations and cleanup methods?
• How has the Flint water crisis changed water regulation safety?
• What are the pros and cons of fracking?
• What impact has the Paris Climate Agreement had so far?
• What have NASA's biggest successes and failures been?
• How can we improve access to clean water around the world?
• Does ecotourism actually have a positive impact on the environment?
• Should the US rely on nuclear energy more?
• What can be done to save amphibian species currently at risk of extinction?
• What impact has climate change had on coral reefs?
• How are black holes created?
• Are teens who spend more time on social media more likely to suffer anxiety and/or depression?
• How will the loss of net neutrality affect internet users?
• Analyze the history and progress of self-driving vehicles.
• How has the use of drones changed surveillance and warfare methods?
• Has social media made people more or less connected?
• What progress has currently been made with artificial intelligence ?
• Do smartphones increase or decrease workplace productivity?
• What are the most effective ways to use technology in the classroom?
• How is Google search affecting our intelligence?
• When is the best age for a child to begin owning a smartphone?
• Has frequent texting reduced teen literacy rates?

How to Write a Great Research Paper

Even great research paper topics won't give you a great research paper if you don't hone your topic before and during the writing process. Follow these three tips to turn good research paper topics into great papers.

#1: Figure Out Your Thesis Early

Before you start writing a single word of your paper, you first need to know what your thesis will be. Your thesis is a statement that explains what you intend to prove/show in your paper. Every sentence in your research paper will relate back to your thesis, so you don't want to start writing without it!

As some examples, if you're writing a research paper on if students learn better in same-sex classrooms, your thesis might be "Research has shown that elementary-age students in same-sex classrooms score higher on standardized tests and report feeling more comfortable in the classroom."

If you're writing a paper on the causes of the Civil War, your thesis might be "While the dispute between the North and South over slavery is the most well-known cause of the Civil War, other key causes include differences in the economies of the North and South, states' rights, and territorial expansion."

#2: Back Every Statement Up With Research

Remember, this is a research paper you're writing, so you'll need to use lots of research to make your points. Every statement you give must be backed up with research, properly cited the way your teacher requested. You're allowed to include opinions of your own, but they must also be supported by the research you give.

#3: Do Your Research Before You Begin Writing

You don't want to start writing your research paper and then learn that there isn't enough research to back up the points you're making, or, even worse, that the research contradicts the points you're trying to make!

Get most of your research on your good research topics done before you begin writing. Then use the research you've collected to create a rough outline of what your paper will cover and the key points you're going to make. This will help keep your paper clear and organized, and it'll ensure you have enough research to produce a strong paper.

What's Next?

Are you also learning about dynamic equilibrium in your science class? We break this sometimes tricky concept down so it's easy to understand in our complete guide to dynamic equilibrium .

Thinking about becoming a nurse practitioner? Nurse practitioners have one of the fastest growing careers in the country, and we have all the information you need to know about what to expect from nurse practitioner school .

Want to know the fastest and easiest ways to convert between Fahrenheit and Celsius? We've got you covered! Check out our guide to the best ways to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit (or vice versa).

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

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Techniques to Identify Themes in Qualitative Data

Gery W. Ryan RAND 1700 Main Street P.O. Box 2138 Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138   H. Russell Bernard Department of Anthropology 1350 Turlington Hall University of Florida Gaineville, FL 32611 Key Words: Theme Identification, Exploratory Analysis, Open Coding, Text Analysis, Qualitative Research Methods

Theme identification is one of the most fundamental tasks in qualitative research. It also one of the most mysterious. Explicit descriptions of theme discovery are rarely described in articles and reports and if so are often regulated to appendices or footnotes. Techniques are shared among small groups of social scientists and are often impeded by disciplinary or epistemological boundaries. During the proposal-writing phase of a project, investigators struggle to clearly explain and justify plans for discovering themes. These issues are particularly cogent when funding reviewers are unfamiliar with qualitative traditions. In this article we have outlined a dozen techniques that social scientists have used to discover themes in texts. The techniques are drawn from across epistemological and disciplinary boundaries. They range from quick word counts to laborious, in-depth, line-by-line scrutiny. Some methods work well for short answers to open-ended questions while others are more appropriate for rich, complex narratives. Novices and non-native speakers may find some techniques easier than others. No single technique is does it all. To us, these techniques are simply tools to help us do better research.

Authors’ Statement

Gery W. Ryan is an Associate Behavioral Scientist at RAND in Santa Monica, California. H. Russell Bernard is professor of anthropology at the University of Florida. The research on which this article is based is part of a National Science Foundation Grant, on "Methods for Conducting Systematic Text Analysis" (SRB-9811166). We wish to thank Stephen Borgatti for his helpful suggestions and two anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Introduction

At the heart of qualitative data analysis is the task of discovering themes. By themes, we mean abstract, often fuzzy, constructs which investigators identify before, during, and after data collection. Where do these themes come from?

They come from reviewing the literature, of course. Richer literatures produce more themes. They come from the characteristics of the phenomena being studied. And they come from already-agreed-upon professional definitions, from local common-sense constructs, and from researchers’ values, theoretical orientation, and personal experience with the subject matter (Bulmer 1979; Strauss 1987; Maxwell 1996).

Mostly, though, researchers who consider themselves part of the qualitative tradition in social science induce themes from texts. This is what grounded theorists call open coding , and what classic content analysts call qualitative analysis (Berleson 1952) or latent coding (Shapiro and Markoff 1997). There are many variations on these methods. Unfortunately, however, they are (a) scattered across journals and books that are read by disparate groups of specialists; and (b) often entangled in the epistemological wars that have divided the social sciences. Our goal in this paper is to cross these boundaries and lay out a variety of theme-dredging methods so that all researchers who deal with texts can use them to solve common research problems.

We outline here a dozen helpful techniques for discovering themes in texts. These techniques are based on: (1) an analysis of words (word repetitions, key-indigenous terms, and key-words-in contexts); (2) a careful reading of larger blocks of texts (compare and contrast, social science queries, and searching for missing information); (3) an intentional analysis of linguistic features (metaphors, transitions, connectors); and (4) the physical manipulation of texts (unmarked texts, pawing, and cut and sort procedures).

The list is by no means exhaustive. Social scientists are an enterprising lot. Over the last century they have invented solutions to all kinds of problems for managing and analyzing texts, and they will continue to do so. These bursts of methodological creativity, however, are commonly described perfunctorily, or are relegated to footnotes, and get little notice by colleagues across disciplines. The dozen methods we describe here come from across the social sciences and have been used by positivists and interpretivists alike.

1. Word repetitions

We begin with word-based techniques. Word repetitions, key-indigenous terms, and key-words-in-contexts (KWIC) all draw on a simple observation—if you want to understand what people are talking about, look at the words they use.

Words that occur a lot are often seen as being salient in the minds of respondents. D'Andrade notes that "perhaps the simplest and most direct indication of schematic organization in naturalistic discourse is the repetition of associative linkages" (1991:294). He observes that "indeed, anyone who has listened to long stretches of talk, whether generated by a friend, spouse, workmate, informant, or patient, knows how frequently people circle through the same network of ideas" (1991:287).

Word repetitions can be analyzed formally and informally. In the informal mode, investigators simply read the text and note words or synonyms that people use a lot. For example, while conducting multiple in-depth interviews with Tony, a retired blue collar worker in Connecticut, Claudia Strauss (1992) found that Tony repeatedly referred to ideas associated with greed, money, businessmen, siblings, and "being different." These repetitions indicated to Strauss that these ideas were important, recurring themes in Tony’s life. Strauss displayed the relationships among these ideas by writing the concepts on a page of paper and connecting them with lines and explanations. Computer programs such as ATLAS.ti and Nud*ist let you do this kind of connect-the-dots exercise by computer. 1

A more formal analysis of word frequencies can be done by generating a list of all the unique words in a text and counting the number of times each occurs. Computers can easily generate word-frequency lists from texts and are a quick and easy way to look for themes. Ryan and Weisner (1996) asked fathers and mothers of adolescents: "Describe your children. In your own words, just tell us about them." Ryan and Weisner produced a list of all the unique words in the set of responses and the number of times each word was used by mothers and by fathers. Mothers were more likely than fathers to use words like friends, creative, time, and honest; fathers were more likely than mothers to use words like school, good, lack, student, enjoys, independent, and extremely. Ryan and Weisner used this information as clues for themes that they would use later in actually coding the texts.

2. Indigenous categories

Another way to find themes is to look for local terms that may sound unfamiliar or are used in unfamiliar ways. Patton (1990:306, 393-400) refers to these as "indigenous categories" and contrasts them with "analyst-constructed typologies." Grounded theorist refer to the process of identifying local terms as in vivo coding (Strauss 1987:28-32, Strauss and Corbin 1990:61-74) .

Understanding indigenous categories and how they are organized has long been a goal of cognitive anthropologists. The basic idea in this area of research is that experience and expertise are often marked by specialized vocabulary. For example, Spradley (1972) recorded conversations among tramps at informal gatherings, meals, card games, and bull sessions. As the men talked to each other about their experiences, there were many references to making a flop .

Spradley combed through his recorded material and notes looking for verbatim statements made by informants about his topic. On analyzing the statements, he found that most of the statements could fit into subcategories such as kinds of flops , ways to make flops , ways to make your own flop , kinds of people who bother you when you flop , ways to make a bed , and kinds of beds . Spradley then returned to his informants and sought additional information from them on each of the subcategories. For other classic examples of coding for indigenous categories see Becker’s (1993) description of medical students use of the word crock , and Agar’s (1973) description of drug addicts’ understandings of what it means to shoot up .

3. Key-words-in-context (KWIC)

Key-words-in-context (KWIC) are closely associated with indigenous categories. KWIC is based on a simple observation: if you want to understand a concept, then look at how it is used. In this technique, researchers identify key words and then systematically search the corpus of text to find all instances of the word or phrase. Each time they find a word, they make a copy of it and its immediate context. Themes get identified by physically sorting the examples into piles of similar meaning.

The concept of deconstruction is an abstract and often incomprehensible term used by social scientists, literary critics and writers in the popular press. Jacques Derrida, who coined the term, refused to define it. To Derrida, the meaning of any text is inherently unstable and variable. Wiener (1997) was curious as to how the concept of deconstruction was used in the popular press. He used a text-based data set (such as Lexis/Nexis), to find instances of the word in popular publications. He found the term used in by everything from Entertainment Weekly to the American Banker . Wiener concludes that:

Most often writers use "deconstruction" as a fancy word for "analysis" or "explanation," or else as an upscale synonym for "destruction." But in some genres, like rock music writing, the term isn't negative at all; it has become a genuinely floating signifier, a verbal gesture that implies a kind of empty intellectual sophistication.

Word-based techniques are typically a fast and efficient ways to start looking for themes. We find that they are particularly useful at early stages of theme identification. These techniques are also easy for novice researchers to apply. Nothing, however, beats a careful scrutiny of the texts for finding themes that may be more subtle or that don’t get signified directly in the lexicon of the text. Scrutiny-based techniques are more time-intensive and require a lot of attention to details and nuances.

4. Compare and contrast

The compare and contrast approach is based on the idea that themes represent the ways in which texts are either similar or different from each other. Glazer and Strauss (1967:101_116) refer to this as the "constant comparison method." [For other good descriptions of the technique see Glazer (1978:56_72) and Strauss and Corbin (1990:84_95).] Typically, grounded theorists begin by conducting a careful line-by-line analysis. They read each line or sentence and ask themselves, "What is this about?" and "How does it differ from the preceding or following statements?" This kind of detailed work keeps the researcher focused on the data themselves rather than on theoretical flights of fancy (Charmaz 1990).

This approach is like interviewing the text and is remarkably similar to the ethnographic interviewing style that Spradley talks about using with his informants (1979:160_172). Researchers compare pairs of texts by asking "How is this text different from the preceding text?" and "What kinds of things are mentioned in both?" They ask hypothetical questions like "What if the informant who produced this text had been a woman instead of a man?" and "How similar is this text to my own experiences?" Bogdan and Biklen (1982:153) recommend reading through passages of text and asking "What does this remind me of?" Like a good journalist, investigators compare answers to questions across people, space, and time.

5. Social science queries

Besides identifying indigenous themes—themes that characterize the experience of informants—researchers are interested in understanding how textual data illuminate questions of importance to social science. Spradley (1979:199–201) suggested searching interviews for evidence of social conflict, cultural contradictions, informal methods of social control, things that people do in managing impersonal social relationships, methods by which people acquire and maintain achieved and ascribed status, and information about how people solve problems. Bogdan & Bilken (1982:156-162) suggested examining the setting and context, the perspectives of the informants, and informants’ ways of thinking about people, objects, processes, activities, events, and relationships. "Moving across substantive areas," says Charmaz, "fosters developing conceptual power, depth, and comprehensiveness" (1990:1163).

Strauss and Corbin (1990:158_175) urge investigators to be more sensitive to conditions, actions/interactions, and consequences of a phenomenon and to order these conditions and consequences into theories. To facilitate this, they offer a useful tool called the conditional matrix. The conditional matrix is a set of concentric circles, each level corresponding to a different unit of influence. At the center are actions and interactions. The inner rings represent individual and small group influences on these actions, and the outer rings represent international and national effects.

Querying the text as a social scientist is a powerful technique because investigators concentrate their efforts on searching for specific kinds of topics – any of which are likely to generate major social and cultural themes. By examining the data from a more theoretical perspective, however, researchers must be careful that they do not overfit the data – that is, find only that for which they are looking. There is a trade-off between bringing a lot of prior theorizing to the theme-identification effort and going at it fresh. Prior theorizing, as Charmaz says (1990), can inhibit the forming of fresh ideas and the making of surprising connections. Assiduous theory-avoidance brings the risk of not making the connection between data and important research questions. Novice researchers may be more comfortable with the tabula rasa approach. More seasoned researchers, who are more familiar with theory issues, may find the social science query approach more compatible with their interests.

6. Searching for missing information

The final scrutiny-based approach we describe works in reverse from typical theme identification techniques. Instead of identifying themes that emerge from the text, investigators search for themes that are missing in the text.

Much can be learned from a text by what is not mentioned. As early as 1959, propaganda analysts found that material not covered in political speeches were sometimes more predictive that material that was covered (George 1959). Sometimes silences indicate areas that people are unwilling or afraid to discuss. For instance, women with strong religious convictions may fail to mention abortion during discussions of birth control. In power-laden interviewers, silence may be tied to implicit or explicit domination (Gal 1991). In a study of birth planning in China, Greenhalgh (1994) surveyed 1,011ever-married women, gathered social and economic histories from 150 families. She conducted in-depth interviews with present and formal officials (known as cadres), and collected documentary evidence from local newspapers, journals and other sources. Greenhalgh notes that "Because I was largely constrained from asking direct questions about resistance, the informal record of field notes, interview transcripts, and questionnaire data contains few overt challenges to state policy (1994:9)." Greenhalgh concludes, however, that

I believe that in their conversations with us, both peasants and cadres made strategic use of silence to protest aspects of the policy they did not like. Cadres, for example were loathe to comment on birth-planning campaigns; peasant women were reluctant to talk about sterilization. These silences form one part of the unofficial record of birth planning in the villages. More explicit protests were registered in informal conversations. From these interactions emerged a sense of profound distress of villagers forced to choose between a resistance that was politically risky and a compliance that violated the norms of Chinese culture and of practical reason (1994:9).

Other times, absences may indicate primal assumptions made by respondents. Spradley (1987:314) noted that when people tell stories, they assume that their listeners share many assumptions about how the world works and so they leave out information that "everyone knows." He called this process abbreviating . Price (1987) takes this observation and builds on it. Thus, she looks for what is not said in order to identify underlying cultural assumptions. Price finds the missing pieces by trying to translate what people say in the stories into something that the general public would understand.

Of all the scrutiny-based techniques, searching for missing information is the most difficult. There are many reasons people do not mention topics. In addition to avoiding sensitive issues or assuming investigator already knows about the topic, people may not trust the interviewer, may not wish to speak when others are present, or may not understand the investigator’s questions. Distinguishing between when informants are unwilling to discuss topics and when they assume the investigator already knows about the topic requires a lot of familiarity with the subject matter.

In addition to word- and scrutiny-based techniques, researchers have used linguistic features such as metaphors, topical transitions, and keyword connectors to help identify themes.

7. Metaphors and analogies

Schema analysts suggest searching through text for metaphors, similes, and analogies (D’Andrade 1995, Quinn and Strauss 1997). The emphasis on metaphor owes much to the pioneering work by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and the observation that people often represent their thoughts, behaviors, and experiences with analogies.

Naomi Quinn (1997) has analyzed hundreds of hours of interviews to discover concepts underlying American marriage and to show how these concepts are tied together. She began by looking at patterns of speech and at the repetition of key words and phrases, paying particular attention to informants' use of metaphors and the commonalities in their reasoning about marriage. Nan, one of her informants, says that "marriage is a manufactured product." This popular metaphor indicates that Nan sees marriages as something that has properties, like strength and staying power, and as something that requires work to produce. Some marriages are "put together well," while others "fall apart" like so many cars or toys or washing machines (Quinn 1987:174).

The object is to look for metaphors in rhetoric and deduce the schemas, or underlying principles, that might produce patterns in those metaphors. Quinn found that people talk about their surprise at the breakup of a marriage by saying that they thought the couple’s marriage was "like the Rock of Gibraltar" or that they thought the marriage had been "nailed in cement." People use these metaphors because they assume that their listeners know that cement and the Rock of Gibraltar are things that last forever.

But Quinn reasons that if schemas or scripts are what make it possible for people to fill in around the bare bones of a metaphor, then the metaphors must be surface phenomena and cannot themselves be the basis for shared understanding. Quinn found that the hundreds of metaphors in her corpus of texts fit into just eight linked classes that she calls: lastingness, sharedness, compatibility, mutual benefit, difficulty, effort, success (or failure), and risk of failure. For example, Quinn’s informants often compared marriages (their own and those of others) to manufactured and durable products ("it was put together pretty good") and to journeys ("we made it up as we went along; it was a sort of do-it-yourself project"). Quinn sees these metaphors, as well as references to marriage as "a lifetime proposition," as exemplars of the overall expectation of lastingness in marriage.

Other examples of the search for cultural schemas in texts include Holland’s (1985) study of the reasoning that Americans apply to interpersonal problems, Kempton’s (1987) study of ordinary Americans’ theories of home heat control, and Claudia Strauss’s (1997) study of what chemical plant workers and their neighbors think about the free enterprise system.

8. Transitions

Another linguistic approach is to look for naturally occurring shifts in thematic content. Linguistic forms of transition vary between oral and written texts. In written texts, new paragraphs are often used by authors to indicate either subtle or abrupt shifts in topics. In oral speech, pauses, change in tone, or particular phrases may indicate thematic transitions. Linguists who have worked with precisely recorded texts in Native American languages have noticed the recurrence of elements like "Now," "Then," "Now then," and "Now again." These often signal the separation of verses and "once such patterning has been discovered in cases with such markers, it can be discerned in cases without them" (Hymes 1977:439).

For example, Sherzer (1994) presents a detailed analysis of a two-hour performance by Chief Olopinikwa of a traditional San Blas Kuna chant. The chant was recorded in 1970. Like many linguistic anthropologists, Sherzer had taught an assistant, Alberto Campos, to use a phonetic transcription system. After the chant, Sherzer asked Campos, to transcribe and translate the tape. Campos put Kuna and Spanish on left- and right-facing pages (1994:907). By studying Campos’s translation against the original Kuna, Sherzer was able to pick out certain recurrent features. Campos left out the chanted utterances of the responding chief (usually something like "so it is"), which turned out to be markers for verse endings in the chant. Campos also left out so-called framing words and phrases (like "Thus" at the beginning of a verse and "it is said, so I pronounce" at the end of a verse). These contribute to the line and verse structure of the chant. Finally, "instead of transposing metaphors and other figurative and allusive language into Spanish" Campos "explains them in his translation" (Sherzer 1994:908). Researchers

In two-party and multiparty speech, transitions occur naturally. Conversation or discourse analysts closely examine linguistic features such as turn-taking and speaker interruptions to identify transitions in speech sequences. For a good overview, see Silverman (1993:114-143).

9. Connectors

A third linguistic approach is to look carefully at words and phrases that indicate relationships among things. For example, causal relationships are often indicated by such words and phrases as, because, since, and as a result. Words such as if or then , rather than, and instead of often signify conditional relationships. The phrase is a is often associated with taxonomic categories. Time-oriented relationships are expressed with words such as before, after, then, and next . Typically negative characteristics occur less often than positive characteristics. Simply searching for the words not , no , none , or the prefix non may be a quick way to identify themes. Investigator can discover themes by searching on such groups of word and looking to see what kinds of things the words connect.

What other kinds of relationships might be of interest to social scientists? Casagrande and Hale (1967) suggest looking for: attributes (e.g., X is Y), contingencies (e.g., if X, then Y), functions (e.g., X is a means of affecting Y), spatial orientations (e.g., X is close to Y), operational definitions (e.g., X is a tool for doing Y), examples (e.g., X is an instance of Y), comparisons (e.g., X resembles Y), class inclusions (X is a member of class Y), synonyms (e.g., X is equivalent to Y), antonyms (e.g., X is the negation of Y), provenience (e.g., X is the source of Y), and circularity (e.g., X is defined as X). [For lists of kinds of relationships that may be useful for identifying themes see Burton and Kirk (1980:271), Werner and Schoepfle (1987) and Lindsay and Norman (1972).]

Investigators often use the linguistic features described above unconsciously. Metaphors, transitions, and connectors are all part of a native speaker’s ability to grasp meaning in a text. By making these features more explicit, we sharpen our ability to find themes.

Finally, we turn to more tactile approaches for theme discovery. Each of the next three techniques requires some physical manipulation of the text itself.

10. Unmarked texts

One way to identify new themes is to examine any text that is not already associated with a theme (Ryan 1999). This technique requires multiple readings of a text. On the first reading, salient themes are clearly visible and can be quickly and readily marked with different colored pencils or highlighters. In the next stage, the search is for themes that remain unmarked. This tactic–marking obvious themes early and quickly—forces the search for new, and less obtrusive themes.

We highly recommend pawing through texts and marking them up with different colored highlighter pens. Sandelowski (1995a:373) observes that analysis of texts begins with proofreading the material and simply underlining key phrases "because they make some as yet inchoate sense." Bernard (2000) refers to this as the ocular scan method , otherwise known as eyeballing . In this method, you get a feel for the text by handling your data multiple times. [Bogdan and Biklen (1982:165) suggest reading over the text at least twice.] Researchers have been known to spread their texts out on the floor, tack bunches of them to a bulletin board, and sort them into different file folders. By living with the data, investigators can eventually perform the interocular percussion test—which is where you wait for patterns to hit you between the eyes.

This may not seem like a very scientific way to do things, but it is one of the best ways we know of to begin hunting for patterns in qualitative data. Once you have a feel for the themes and the relations among, then we see no reason to struggle bravely on without a computer. Of course, a computer is required from the onset if the project involves hundreds of interviews, or if it’s part of a multi-site, multi-investigator effort. Even then, there is no substitute for following hunches and intuitions in looking for themes to code in texts (Dey 1993).

12. Cutting and sorting

Cutting and sorting is a more formal way of pawing and a technique we both use quite a bit. It is particularly useful for identifying subthemes. The approach is based on a powerful trick most of us learned in kindergarten and requires paper and scissors. We first read through the text and identify quotes that seem somehow important. We cut out each quote (making sure to maintain some of the context in which it occurred) and paste the material on small index cards. On the back of each card, we then write down the quote’s reference—who said it and where it appeared in the text. Then we lay out the quotes randomly on a big table and sort them into piles of similar quotes. Then we name each pile. These are the themes. This can be done with tag and search software, but we find that nothing beats the ability to manually sort and group the cards.

There are many variations on this pile-sorting technique. The principle investigator on a large project might ask several team members to sort the quotes into named piles independently. This is likely to generate a longer list of possible themes than would be produced by a group discussion. In really large projects, pairs of coders could sort the quotes together and decide on the names for the piles. The pile-sorting exercise should be video- or audiotaped and investigators should pay close attention to discussions—between themselves and coders or between coders—about which quotes belong together and why. These conversations are about as close as we will ever get to witnessing the emergence of themes.

Barkin et al. (1999) interviewed clinicians, community leaders, and parents about what physicians could and did do to prevent violence among youth. These were long, complex interviews, so Barkin et al. broke the coding process into two steps. They started with three major themes that they developed from theory. The principle investigator went through the transcripts and cut out all the quotes that pertained to each of the major themes. Then four other coders independently sorted the quotes from each major theme into piles. Then, the pile sort data were analyzed with multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis to identify subthemes shared across coders. [See Patterson et al. (1993) for another example.]

Jehn and Doucet (1997) had short answers to open-ended questions. They found that several coders could easily sort these paragraph-length descriptions of inter and intra-ethnic conflict. Then, like Barkin et al., Jehn and Doucet then used multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis to identify subthemes of conflict.

Another advantage to the cutting and sorting technique is that the data can be used to systematically describe how such themes are distributed across informants. After the piles have been formed and themes have been named, simply turn over each quote and identify who mentioned each theme. (If the people sorting the quotes are unaware of who the quotes came from, this is an unbiased way of coding.)

The variety of methods available for coding texts raises some obvious questions:

(1) Which technique generates more themes?

Frankly, we don’t know. There are just too many factors that influence the number of themes that are generated, including the technique itself, who and how many people are looking for themes, and the kind and amount of texts being analyzed. If the goal is to generate as many themes as possible—which is often the case in initial exploratory phases of research—then more is better. This means using multiple techniques, investigators, and texts.

Nowhere is a multiple technique approach better exemplified than in the work of Jehn and Doucet (1996, 1997). Jehn and Doucet asked 76 U.S. managers who had worked in Sino_American joint ventures to describe recent interpersonal conflicts with business partners. Each person described a situation with a same_culture manager and a different_cultural manger. First they generated separate lists of words from the intercultural and intracultural conflict narratives. They asked 3 expatriate managers to act as judges and to identify all the words that were related to conflict. They settled on a list of 542 conflict words from the intercultural list and 242 words from the intracultural list.

Jehn and Doucet then asked the three judges to sort the words into piles or categories. The experts identified 15 subcategories for the intercultural data—things like conflict, expectations, rules, power, and volatile—and 15 categories for the intracultural data—things like conflict, needs, standards, power, contentious, and lose. Taking into consideration the total number of words in each corpus, conflict words were used more in intracultural interviews and resolution terms were more likely to be used in intercultural interviews.

Jehn and Doucet (1996, 1997) also used traditional content analysis on their data. The had two coders read the 152 conflict scenarios (76 intracultural and 76 intercultural) and evaluated (on a 5_point scale) each on 27 different themes they had identified from the literature. This produced two 76x27 scenario_by_theme profile matrices—one for the intracultural conflicts and one for the intercultural conflicts. The first three factors from the intercultural matrix reflect: (1) interpersonal animosity and hostility; (2) aggravation; and (3) the volatile nature of the conflict. The first two factors from the intracultural matrix reflect: (1) hatred and animosity with a volatile nature and (2) conflicts conducted calmly with little verbal intensity.

Finally, Jehn and Doucet identified the 30 intracultural and the 30 intercultural scenarios that they felt were the most clear and pithy. They recruited fifty more expatriate managers to assess the similarities (on a 5_point scale) of 60–120 randomly selected pairs of scenarios. When combined across informants, the managers judgments produced two aggregate, scenario_by_scenario, similarity matrices—one for the intracultural conflicts and one for the intercultural conflicts.

Multidimensional scaling of the intercultural similarity data identified four dimensions: (1) open versus resistant to change, (2) situational causes versus individual traits, (3) high_ versus low_resolution potential based on trust, and (4) high_ versus low_resolution potential based on patience. Scaling of the intracultural similarity data identified four different dimensions: (1) high versus low cooperation, (2) high versus low confrontation, (3) problem_solving versus accepting, and (4) resolved versus ongoing.

The work of Jehn and Doucet is impressive because the analysis of the data from these tasks produced different sets of themes. All three emically induced theme sets have some intuitive appeal and all three yield analytic results that are useful. They could have also used the techniques of grounded theory or schema analysis to discover even more themes.

(2) When are the various techniques most appropriate?

The choice of techniques depends minimally on the kind and amount of text, the experience of the researcher, and the goals of the project. Word-based techniques (e.g., word repetitions, indigenous categories, and KWIC) are probably the least labor intensive. Computer software such as Anthropac and Code-a-text have little trouble in generating frequency counts of key words. 2 A careful look at the frequency list and maybe some quick pile sorts are often enough to identify quite a few themes. Word-based techniques are also the most versatile. They can easily be used with complex texts such as the complete works of Shakespear or the Bible, as well as, with simple short answers to open-ended questions. They can also be used relatively easily by novice and expert investigators alike. Given their very nature, however, they are best used in combination with other approaches.

Scrutiny-based techniques (e.g., compare and contrast, querying the text, and examining absences) are most appropriate for rich textual accounts and tend to be overkill for analyzing short answer responses. Investigators who are just beginning to explore a new topical area might want to start with compare-and-contrast techniques before moving on to the more difficult tasks of querying the text or searching for missing information. We do not advise using the latter two techniques unless the investigator is fluent in the language in which the data are collected. If the primary goal of the this portion of the investigation is to discover as many themes as possible, then nothing beats using these techniques on a line-by-line basis.

Like scrutiny-based techniques, linguist-based approaches are better used on narrative style accounts rather than short answer responses. Looking for transitions is the easiest technique to use, especially if the texts are actually written by respondents themselves (rather than transcribed from tape recordings of verbal interviews). Searching for metaphors is also relatively easy once novices have been trained on what kind of things to look for in the texts. Looking for connecting words and phrases is best used as a secondary wave of finding themes, once the investigator has a more definite idea of what kinds of themes he or she finds most interesting.

In the early stages of exploration, nothing beats a thorough reading and pawing through of the data. This approach is the easiest for novice researchers to master and is particularly good for identifying major themes. As the exploration progresses, investigators often find themselves looking for subthemes within these major themes. The cutting and sorting techniques are most helpful here. Investigators can identify all text passages that are related to a major theme, cut them out, and sort them into subthematic categories. Likewise, if they are marking texts for each newly discovered theme, then they can apply the unmarked text technique as they go. We have seen these three techniques applied successfully to both rich narrative data as well as simple responses to open-ended questions.

An even more powerful strategy would be to combine multiple techniques in a sequential manner. For example, investigators might begin by pawing through the data to see what kinds of themes just stick out. As part of this process, they might want to make comparisons between paragraphs and across informants. A quick analysis of word repetitions would also be appropriate for identifying themes at such an early stage of the analysis. If key words or indigenous phrases are present, researchers might followed-up by conducting more focused KWIC analyses. If the project is examining issues of equality, investigators might also look for texts that are indicative of power differentials and access to resources. Texts representing major themes can be marked either on paper or by computer. Investigators can then search areas that are not already marked for additional themes or cut and sort marked texts into subthemes.

Researchers also might consider beginning by looking for identifying all metaphors and similes, marking them, cutting them out and sorting them into thematic categories. There is no single way to discover themes. In theme discovery, we assume that more is always better.

(3) When do you know when you’ve found all the themes?

There is no magic formula to answer this question. The problem is similar to asking members of a population to list all the illnesses they know. One can never be sure of the full range of illnesses without interviewing the entire population. This is true because there is always the possibility that the last person interviewed will mention a new disease. We can simplify the process considerably, however, if we are willing to miss rarely-mentioned illness. One strategy would be to interview people until some number of respondents in a row (say five or more) fail to mention any new illnesses.

In text analysis, grounded theorists refer to the point at which no new themes are being identified as theoretical saturation (Strauss and Corbin 1990:188). When and how theoretical saturation is reached, however, depends the number of texts and their complexity, as well as on investigator experience and fatigue, and the number of investigators examining the texts. Again, more is better. Investigators who have more experience finding themes are likely to reach saturation latter than novices. Wilson and Hutchinson warn against premature closure where the researcher "fails to move beyond the face value of the content in the narrative (1990:123)."

Theme identification is one of the most fundamental tasks in qualitative research. It also one of the most mysterious. Explicit descriptions of theme discovery are rarely described in articles and reports and if so are often regulated to appendices or footnotes. Techniques are shared among small groups of social scientists and are often impeded by disciplinary or epistemological boundaries. The lack of clear methodological descriptions is most evident during the grant-writing phase of research. Investigators (ourselves included) struggle to clearly explain and justify plans for discovering themes in the qualitative data. These issues are particularly cogent when funding reviewers are unfamiliar with qualitative traditions.

In this article we have outlined a dozen techniques that social scientists have used to discover themes in texts. The techniques are drawn from across epistemological and disciplinary boundaries. They range from quick word counts to laborious, in-depth, line-by-line scrutiny. Some work well for short answers to open-ended questions while others are more appropriate for rich, complex narratives. Novices and non-native speakers may find some techniques easier than others. No single technique is does it all. To us, these techniques are simply tools to help us do better research.

1 ATLAS.ti (Scientific Software Development) and Nud•ist (Qualitative Solutions & Research) are qualitative analysis packages distributed in the United States by SCOLARI, Sage Publications, Inc., 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: (805) 499 1325. Fax: (805) 499 0871. E_mail: [email protected]. Web: www.scolari.com.

2 Anthropac (Analytic Technologies) and Coda-A-Text (Cartwright) are software packages that have the capacity to convert free flowing texts into word-by-document matrices. Code-A-Text is distributed in the United States by SCOLARI, Sage Publications. Anthropac is created and distributed by Analytic Technologies, Inc., Analytic Technologies, Inc., 11 Ohlin Lane, Harvard, MA 01451. Tel: (978) 456_7372. Fax: (978) 456_7373. E_mail: [email protected]. Web: www.analytictech.com.

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Themes and Codes

Defining themes and codes.

‘Themes’  are features of participants’ accounts characterising particular perceptions and/or experiences that the researcher sees as relevant to the research question.

‘Coding’  is the process of identifying themes in accounts and attaching labels (codes) to index them.

Researchers will generally choose to define features as themes where they recur several times in the data set, within and/or across transcripts. This is not, however, a hard and fast rule. If a single comment made by one participant is particularly helpful in elucidating their account, you may want to devise a theme that encapsulates it and include it in your template.

It is important to recognise that themes in qualitative research are not hiding in the data, waiting to be ‘discovered’  by the researcher. Rather, they arise from the engagement of a particular researcher with the text, as he or she attempts to address a particular research question. As such, they are pragmatic tools to help the researcher produce their account of the data. When deciding whether and how to define themes, keep this pragmatic intent in mind, ask yourself the question, ‘if I code the text in this way, is it likely to help me build my understanding of the data?’

For a discussion of the philosophical issues regarding the relationship between text, analysis, and the participant’s experience, visit the  what is Template Analysis?  section.

For a discussion about how to judge the quality of thematic coding, visit the  quality checks and reflexivity  section.

Using a priori themes

In template analysis it is common to identify some themes in advance, usually referred to as ‘a priori’  themes. Usually this is because a research project has started with the assumption that certain aspects of the phenomena under investigation should be focused on. A recent example from Nigel’s research is a qualitative evaluation of the Gold Standards Framework (GSF) for community palliative care. This framework, known as the ‘GSF’, specifies seven key issues regarding the organisation and delivery of care that practitioners need to address. It therefore made sense to use those seven issues as a priori themes when analysing GPs’ and District Nurses’ accounts of their experiences with the scheme ( King, Bell, Martin and Farrell, 2003 ).

Another justification for using a priori themes is that the importance of certain issues in relation to the topic being researched is so well-established that one can safely expect them to arise in the data. For example, a researcher investigating patient experiences of chronic illness may feel that ‘uncertainty’ may be safely used as an a priori theme, given its prominence in the literature.

The main benefit of using a priori themes is that they can help to accelerate the initial coding phase of analysis, which is normally very time-consuming. There are also some important dangers associated with their use, which you need to bear in mind. Firstly, by focusing on data that fit the a priori themes, you may overlook material that does not relate to them. Secondly, you may fail to recognise when an a priori theme is not proving to be the most effective way of characterising the data. To prevent these pitfalls, it is crucial to recognise a priori themes as tentative, equally subject to redefinition or removal as any other theme. In the GSF study, mentioned above, two of the original seven a priori top-level themes were removed and included along with others under a new top-level theme. You should also try to restrict the number of a priori themes as far as possible, if you start with much of the initial template already defined, the danger of it having a blinkering effect on your analysis will be considerable.

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Research in Academic Themes 2024-2025

Who Should Apply:  Full-time tenure-system faculty and non-tenure-track faculty on multiyear contracts from any/all CLAS units, across all divisions; other non-tenure-track faculty may serve as Co-Is. Faculty with research appointments should email the Dean’s Office to determine their eligibility to serve as PI.

Deadline:  Nov. 6, 2024

Funding:  Up to $30,000 may be requested; resources must be spent before August 29, 2025.

The   CLAS Strategic Plan outlines six academic themes that build on existing strengths. These are:

• The Earth and Its Future
• Sustainable Systems, Global Resources, and World Cultures
• Big Data: Science, Policy, and Ethics
• Inequalities, Social Justice, Truth, and Belief
• Health, Disease, and Well-Being
• Brain, Mind, Language, and Logic

Funding for this opportunity is available to individuals or groups to achieve tangible outcomes that advance research or scholarship in support of any of these academic themes. It is desirable for the research supported by this internal funding mechanism to lead to the submission of successful proposals for external funding, to the extent that such opportunities are available for the type of work.

Individual or teams of faculty members should submit a research proposal of no more than three pages that includes:

• Description of how the work will advance the goals of the CLAS Strategic Plan with reference to the theme(s) the project addresses.
• What will be accomplished and the timeframe for the work. This should include explicit goals and/or milestones anticipated, including any specific plans for submission of proposals for external funding and/or plans for publications or other forms of disseminating to the broader community.
• Budget and justification for the anticipated expenses.  If you would like assistance in developing the budget based on your specific needs, please email CLAS Grant Management Services . Projects may include faculty and/or student collaborators, but salary support will only be provided for individuals in CLAS units..

All proposals must also append a supplement that includes the following. The supplement does not count towards the proposal’s three-page limit.

• Acknowledgement from the unit head(s) of PI and any Co-Is. This need not be a letter of support but should acknowledge that the unit head(s) is/are aware of the proposal submission.
• PI and/or co-PIs must report balances for all current funding (e.g., grants, fellowships, startup, indirect costs, etc.). Proposals from PIs with unspent funds in startup, indirect costs, or other internal award accounts must justify the need for additional funds requested in this proposal. This supplemental information is not counted toward the three-page limit.
• If the PI and/or co-PIs have received funding from any CLAS program within the past five years, describe the outcome(s) and the impact achieved from the funding. This supplemental information is not counted toward the three-page limit. Note: Proposals from PIs who have not achieved targeted objectives from prior CLAS awards will be reviewed at a lower priority.

Submissions must be made by Nov. 6, 2024 through the  CLAS proposal submission portal .

Each faculty member may be involved in the submission of no more than one proposal as PI or Co-I.  While individuals in other appointment categories may be involved in the work, the PI must be a CLAS faculty member in the tenure system and non-tenure-track faculty with a multiyear contract; other non-tenure-track faculty may serve as Co-Is. Faculty with research appointments should email the Dean’s Office to determine their eligibility to serve as PI.

The funds must be spent by Aug. 29, 2025; any unspent funds will be returned to CLAS. Short-term project outcomes must be reported to the Dean’s Office at that time; provisions will be made to enable PIs to report longer-term outcomes.

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Earth Systems Science: Key Themes, Trends, and Emerging Concerns

Our Earth system is facing a multitude of challenges across a variety of threat vectors. Identifying, characterizing, quantifying, and addressing these risks remains difficult. Threats like climate change pose existential risks but are not well understood from an integrated systems and safety and security perspective. This paper will cover a few themes that should drive our thinking and research agenda on resilience, disaster preparedness, and climate change and be factored into our calculus going forward.

• Science and Technology
• Climate Change
• Natural Disaster
• Preparedness

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Methodology

• How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

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See an example

Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

• Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

• To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

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• Open access
• Published: 16 September 2024

A research agenda to advance the study of implementation mechanisms

• Cara C. Lewis   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8920-8075 1 ,
• Hannah E. Frank 2 ,
• Gracelyn Cruden 3 ,
• Bo Kim 4 , 5 ,
• Aubyn C. Stahmer 6 ,
• Aaron R. Lyon 7 ,
• Bianca Albers 8 ,
• Gregory A. Aarons 9 ,
• Rinad S. Beidas 10 ,
• Brian S. Mittman 11 ,
• Bryan J. Weiner 12 ,
• Nate J. Williams 13 ,
• Byron J. Powell 14 , 15 , 16 &

Implementation Science Communications volume  5 , Article number:  98 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

Implementation science scholars have made significant progress identifying factors that enable or obstruct the implementation of evidence-based interventions, and testing strategies that may modify those factors. However, little research sheds light on how or why strategies work, in what contexts, and for whom. Studying implementation mechanisms—the processes responsible for change—is crucial for advancing the field of implementation science and enhancing its value in facilitating equitable policy and practice change. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded a conference series to achieve two aims: (1) develop a research agenda on implementation mechanisms, and (2) actively disseminate the research agenda to research, policy, and practice audiences. This article presents the resulting research agenda, including priorities and actions to encourage its execution.

Building on prior concept mapping work, in a semi-structured, 3-day, in-person working meeting, 23 US-based researchers used a modified nominal group process to generate priorities and actions for addressing challenges to studying implementation mechanisms. During each of the three 120-min sessions, small groups responded to the prompt: “What actions need to be taken to move this research forward?” The groups brainstormed actions, which were then shared with the full group and discussed with the support of facilitators trained in structured group processes. Facilitators grouped critical and novel ideas into themes. Attendees voted on six themes they prioritized to discuss in a fourth, 120-min session, during which small groups operationalized prioritized actions. Subsequently, all ideas were collated, combined, and revised for clarity by a subset of the authorship team.

From this multistep process, 150 actions emerged across 10 priority areas, which together constitute the research agenda. Actions included discrete activities, projects, or products, and ways to shift how research is conducted to strengthen the study of implementation mechanisms.

Conclusions

This research agenda elevates actions to guide the selection, design, and evaluation of implementation mechanisms. By delineating recommended actions to address the challenges of studying implementation mechanisms, this research agenda facilitates expanding the field of implementation science, beyond studying what works to how and why strategies work, in what contexts, for whom, and with which interventions.

Peer Review reports

Contributions to the literature

This research agenda operationalizes a set of activities to strengthen the implementation science field’s focus on why and how strategies work.

The research agenda addresses the following activities: accumulating knowledge, innovating methods and overcoming design challenges, improving measurement, providing guidance for specifying causal mechanisms, increasing focus on theorizing, engaging the policy and practice community, engaging funders, building capacity, enhancing equity, and effectively disseminating methods.

Studying implementation mechanisms can promote pragmatic strategy development, equitable processes and outcomes, and policy relevance by clarifying pathways for overcoming contextually specific barriers and achieving outcomes of interest.

Some see implementation science as not just a pathway, but the pathway for advancing equity in healthcare access and outcomes, and equitable population health [ 1 ]. Although this research pathway can lead to equity, it is certainly not guaranteed, and in fact, like many fields, most implementation science theories, models, and frameworks did not center equity until recently [ 2 ]. This omission leaves implementation studies and strategies vulnerable to unintended consequences (or ripple effects) that might actually exacerbate disparities [ 3 , 4 ]. The field of implementation science has made significant progress in this regard. Scholars like Woodward et al. [ 5 ] offer practical guidance for incorporating health equity domains into implementation determinant frameworks, and Gaias et al. [ 6 ] proposed a process to evaluate and adapt implementation strategies to promote equity. Walsh-Bailey is developing a resource to guide the integration of equity into strategy selection, design, and specification [ 7 ]. Moreover, numerous efforts collate factors that enable or obstruct the implementation of evidence-based interventions [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], and compile behavior change techniques and implementation strategies that may modify these factors [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Even with these advances, little research sheds light on how or why strategies work, in what contexts, and for whom [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Studying implementation mechanisms, or the processes through which strategies exert their effects on outcomes, can address this research gap to meaningfully advance the field of implementation science and enhance its value in facilitating equitable policy and practice change. Mechanistic implementation research can identify potential mediators or moderators that illuminate differential strategy impact based on factors such as gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and center on understanding equitable approaches to implementation science and practice.

One of the principles of implementation science is that context matters , and by nature, each context is unique. The people, their interactions, their physical environment and resources, and their history and beliefs about the future, are among the subset of aspects that are diverse among clinics in the same organization, schools in the same district, and hospitals in the same health system. As implementation science evolves, complex and costly strategies are increasingly being deployed, making equity issues especially pronounced for those receiving care in under-resourced settings [ 20 ]. Evidence suggests that tailored implementation may be superior to standardized approaches [ 22 , 23 ], but tailoring in the absence of understanding strategy mechanisms may compromise outcomes for some or undermine scaling positive outcomes. Establishing strategy mechanisms of action means that the essence of how a strategy works is known and empirically supported. Therefore, when tailoring, adapting, or modifying to fit different contexts, the essence of the strategy’s operation can be retained. When strategies are streamlined to fit contextual constraints or adapted to be a better fit, the mechanism ought to be activated if we are to expect the same outcome. Conversely, if strategies underperform or fail to work in certain settings, unpacking the causal pathway can lead to isolation of contextual factors that threaten mechanism activation or demand a new mechanism altogether. This is not to say that simply studying mechanisms will guarantee equitable outcomes, but in studying them, equitable implementation processes and outcomes are more likely.

To this end, in 2017, the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) conference theme centered implementation mechanisms to elevate dialogue and research about, “What Makes Implementation Work and Why?” [ 24 ]. SIRC is a not-for-profit society that convenes scholars, practitioners, policy makers, and others interested in advancing rigorous evaluation of implementation initiatives. SIRC’s call to action was motivated by the observation across trials that heterogeneity is the rule, not the exception, and weak main effects result. Thus, advancing the study of implementation mechanisms may offer benefits to research and practice communities. For example, identifying and evaluating mechanisms can help researchers learn from null studies [ 17 ] and optimize strategies for subsequent efforts or different objectives (e.g., equity, effectiveness, scalability) [ 25 ]. Articulating mechanisms can guide the practice community to identify the impact that strategies might have on their outcomes and inform their design or tailoring of strategies to the local context [ 26 , 27 ]. Despite this call, only 7% of abstracts included at the subsequent (2019) SIRC conference [ 28 ] explicitly “featured the study of implementation mechanisms” [ 29 ].

In response to this need to advance the study of mechanisms, we convened an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded 3-year conference series titled, “Advancing mechanisms of implementation to accelerate sustainable evidence-based practice integration” [ 30 ]. The specific aims were to (1) develop a research agenda on implementation mechanisms, and (2) disseminate the research agenda to research, policy, and practice audiences. Similar to processes used for generating related research agendas (e.g., sustainability research [ 31 ]), concept mapping was employed in the first two years of the grant to elucidate challenges to advancing implementation mechanisms research [ 30 , 32 ] and to organize these ideas into conceptually distinct clusters. Reported in more detail elsewhere [ 30 , 32 ], concept mapping analyses yielded a 12-cluster solution that organized 105 challenge statements within five “super clusters” of mechanism research domains: (1) Accumulating Knowledge, (2) Conceptualization and Measurement, (3) Methods and Design, (4) Strategy, Mechanisms, Determinant, Outcome Linkages, and (5) Theory, Causality, and Context. See Table  1 for a complete list of identified challenges organized by cluster. These concept mapping results provided the basis for the research agenda. This paper describes how actions that could overcome those challenges were identified and presents the resulting research agenda.

Mechanisms Network of Expertise (MNoE)

The research agenda was developed by the Mechanisms Network of Expertise (MNoE). The MNoE is composed of over 40 invited implementation scientists who are diverse with respect to several dimensions (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, stage of career, focus on priority populations, research settings), but who are predominantly United States (US)-based (4 scholars are from outside the US); See Additional File 1. Expertise ranged across various aspects of implementation mechanism research including strategy development, measurement, design, theory, and practice. We gathered collective wisdom and engaged in reciprocal learning with these experts through immersive, multi-day “Deep Dive” meetings.

Identifying research priorities via nominal group technique: MNoE data generation

A US-based Footnote 1 subset of the MNoE ( N  = 23) met in person for a 3-day Deep Dive to address two goals: 1) expand upon the challenges derived from the previously completed concept mapping, and 2) generate ideas or actions (hereafter just referred to as actions ) organized by priority areas, which constitute the research agenda, to advance the study of implementation mechanisms. To this end, attendees received handouts with the cluster solution from concept mapping and the list of statements associated with each cluster (Table  1 ). These two goals were pursued through four, 120-min sessions comprised of a 75-min small-group activity followed by a 45-min large-group activity. (Table 2 ) Group activities were structured using evidence-informed, semi-structured group problem solving activities—called “scripts”— derived from operations, consulting, and systems science methods [ 33 , 34 ] (Table  3 ). Scripts include discussion prompts, guidelines about how time is spent (e.g., in small versus large groups), roles to be assumed by individuals (e.g., timekeeper), and session goals (e.g., brainstorming actions for a given cluster). A core planning team ( n  = 5) selected scripts from a repository and tailored them to Deep Dive objectives (e.g., identifying actions for addressing challenges to studying implementation mechanisms) across the sessions. Tailoring of scripts included adjusting the time allocated for each script, the examples used, and the wording of the prompts. The planning team assigned small group membership beforehand to ensure diverse groups regarding career stage and content or methodological expertise. The small group composition changed by session to stimulate creative conversation and cross-pollinate ideas by hearing new perspectives.

A tailored Nominal Group Technique process was followed for the first three sessions. Instead of first brainstorming individually, as in the traditional Nominal Group Technique [ 35 ], small groups first generated action ideas before sharing, discussing, and voting on priority ideas with the large group. Attendees did the following in small groups before converging as a large group (Table  3 ): 1) Assign group roles , including scribe (to record discussion), reporter for large group, and timekeeper. Individuals could assume more than one role. 2) Brainstorm actions for inclusion in the research agenda and address the challenges from the five super-clusters (the planning team assigned which super-clusters were discussed during each of these sessions). Actions could include methods, tools, activities, meetings, research products, research foci, disciplines, or people/perspectives to be engaged. 3) Prioritize two actions for full group discussion: based on consensus, one idea favored by the group and one idea that was complex, underdeveloped, or surprising to work through were selected. Small groups were encouraged to spend approximately 60 min brainstorming and 15 min prioritizing actions. Each prioritized action was submitted on paper for sharing in the large group session. Groups were encouraged to write as many actions as they could generate. Scribes’ notes were later analyzed (see below). All actions generated, not just those prioritized for deeper discussion, were considered in developing the research agenda.

During the first three large-group discussions, each group’s reporter briefly described how their two prioritized actions would advance the study of implementation mechanisms. Each group had 5 min to share and take questions. Simultaneous with sharing out, facilitators collected the papers and grouped similar actions on a wall visible to all. After all small groups shared, the facilitator summarized the action themes. The large group collectively reflected on these and used the remaining time to further develop prioritized actions.

The fourth (final) session synthesized and expanded actions brought forth in the preceding sessions. Each attendee used five votes to indicate preferred actions (or group of actions) [ 36 ]. The highest-voted actions ( n  = 6) were prioritized for this session. Attendees self-selected into small groups based on which prioritized actions they wanted to discuss. During the final large-group session, each group shared how the actions had evolved or whether new actions emerged. One facilitator synthesized actions and asked clarifying questions, while another captured actions and priorities on large pieces of paper for the large group to see and discuss.

Data extraction and consolidation

To populate the research agenda, a subgroup ( N  = 6) of attendees extracted data from notes taken across the Deep Dive. Please refer to Table  4 for terms (and definitions) used to organize the research agenda. All unique actions were extracted from each session note that covered at least one super-cluster. Each session note was assigned a primary and a secondary coder. Coders met monthly as a group to refine the process and discuss emergent content. The primary coder extracted action data and refined the language to represent a succinct, coherent action based on: (1) the content of the notes, (2) the context of the larger discussion in the notes, (3) discussion with colleagues (during and/or after the Deep Dive), and (4) consideration of the broader literature. The secondary coder checked data accuracy, separated or grouped actions to ensure each reflected a singular activity, and refined the action verbiage. Coders were encouraged to interpret data to generate additional actions. Coders then worked across sessions to clarify and condense the list of actions, reduce redundancy, and organize actions into priority areas (“priorities”). Given the number of actions identified for each priority area, it became clear that organizing actions within priorities by goals could offer a useful, high-level summary. Coders reviewed all actions in a priority and articulated 2–4 goals that could be achievable by a subset of actions. Each action was then labeled with its corresponding goal. Lastly, the first author synthesized all actions and associated goals within each priority, solicited input from the full authorship team, and refined the data to yield the final research agenda.

Table 5 presents the refined list of the MNoE-generated actions, organized by priorities and goals, into a research agenda to advance the study of implementation mechanisms. Although not required per our method, priorities reflected all five super-clusters from the concept mapping solution. In addition, priorities emerged specific to Engagement (of policy and practice communities, as well as funders) and Growing the Field in terms of capacity (number of knowledgeable researchers) and skills specific to studying mechanisms. The MNoE generated 150 unique actions across 10 priority areas (range: 11–19 actions per area). These actions included a mix of discrete activities, projects, or products, as well as ways to shift how research is conducted to center implementation mechanisms. Wherever possible, citations are included in the table to offer exemplars that represent the intention behind the possibility.

Here, we briefly describe each priority and the types of associated actions. Table 5 presents additional details—including goals that each priority area might achieve. The first set of actions are directly aligned with the concept mapping solution super-clusters.

Accumulate Knowledge within and Across Disciplines includes 19 actions that feature specific systematic reviews and meta-analyses, for example, and research questions that would drive this type of evidence synthesis (e.g., determine whether mechanisms are universal, or if variation across contexts is observed).

Prioritize Mechanism Research and Incorporate Other Knowledge includes 11 actions that would bring together transdisciplinary teams across fields where mechanisms are likely a prominent area of research, such as psychology and epidemiology.

Overcome Design Challenges and Innovate Methods includes 18 actions where new methods are needed (e.g., modeling time in quantitative assessment to isolate specific mechanisms) and identifies underused methods offering specific value (e.g., comparative case studies to generate hypotheses about complex mechanistic pathways).

Improve Measurement includes 13 actions, such as pragmatic approaches for objective data collection and those that capture lived experiences—an essential measurement component to understand when disparities might be addressed or exacerbated through implementation research and practice.

Provide Guidance for Specifying Mechanisms includes 15 actions reflecting mostly tools/aids to improve researchers’ approach to examining mechanisms (e.g., a list of questions and criteria for articulating mechanisms).

Increase Focus on Theorizing includes 12 ways to capitalize on developing, incorporating, and refining theory into mechanistic research to better characterize mechanisms (e.g., make theory explicit in the strategy design phase).

The emergent actions related to Engagement and Growing the Field provide further priorities for action.

Engaging the Policy and Practice Community includes 12 actions or methods for understanding the perspective of these potential partners (e.g., cognitive walkthroughs, plain language, Implementation Mapping [ 64 , 65 ]) and questions about when to include whom and how (e.g., compare “ground up” elucidation of mechanisms to the “top down” or theory-driven approach).

Engaging Funders and the Need for New Funding includes 17 actions to garner interest and expertise (e.g., mock study sections) and inspire novel use of new grant mechanisms (e.g., administrative supplements, trainee funding mechanisms).

Build Capacity includes 17 actions to offer clarification/guidance (e.g., how to understand conceptual/theoretical misalignment between strategies, mechanisms, and outcomes) and avenues to build the field’s capacity (e.g., postdoctoral training grants).

Emphasize Dissemination includes 17 actions like specific manuscript ideas, ways to engage journals to support mechanism-focused manuscripts, forums to host this dialogue, and other methods for generating broader interest beyond academia. Such methods are intended to foster iterative and collaborative advancements in mechanism research across interdisciplinary groups.

This paper articulates opportunities to advance the study of implementation mechanisms in a research agenda organized by priorities for the field and specific actions to advance those priorities. Actions range from those that can be acted upon now by way of shifting the research paradigm (e.g., always articulate mechanisms when designing implementation strategies) to those that may need targeted funding and specialized knowledge/expertise (e.g., conduct sufficiently powered, multilevel tests of mechanisms with multidisciplinary input). What follows is a discussion of each priority area by highlighting actions (represented by A# corresponding to Table  5 ) or exemplars organized by goals (represented by G# in Table  5 ). These actions were articulated by the MNoE (a group of experts) as ways to address challenges identified in their prior concept mapping work.

Accumulating knowledge

With 100 + discrete implementation strategies and behavior change techniques from which to choose [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ], balanced with evidence that rarely will a single strategy suffice in realizing sustained and robust change [ 68 , 69 ], accumulating basic knowledge about how strategies work is crucial. Although the MNoE acknowledged that a starting place could be to curate a list of implementation mechanisms, they also emphasized that there is a risk in overreliance on static lists and frameworks at the expense of theorizing or broader critical thinking [ 70 , 71 ] (A22.4), particularly where evidence for strategy functioning and causal processes is thin. To this end, the MNoE prioritized knowledge synthesis across completed studies (G1) and coordination of future studies (G2). Specifically, the MNoE prioritized accumulating knowledge to yield practical information such as: (i) which strategies are needed for specific types of interventions across most contexts (e.g., ‘practice & feedback’ needed for evidence-based psychotherapy implementation) (A1.8); (ii) which strategies hold promise in addressing certain barriers across diverse operationalizations [ 72 , 73 ] (A1.12) (e.g., educational training to address knowledge deficits); (iii) whether strategy-mechanism pairings are universal, or if and how pathways vary across contexts (e.g., service system, level of actor, community, culture) or strategy operationalization (i.e., form versus function [ 74 , 75 ]) (A1.7).

Not only are individual studies needed to test strategy pathways to yield this information (P1.5), which could be done in practical and efficient simulation studies (A2.5), but evidence syntheses are needed to curate this practical information (A1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.6, 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, 1.11, 1.12). These possible actions are ripe for those interested in secondary data analysis. Alternatively, meta-laboratories (meta-labs) [ 76 ] offer an approach to testing implementation strategies at scale with the possibility of pooling samples for mediation analyses (A2.3). Meta-labs can harness practical implementation efforts in health systems, for example, where different operationalizations of commonly deployed strategies can be examined using harmonized implementation process, service, and patient-level health outcomes contained in electronic medical records. Grimshaw and colleagues are pioneering the meta-lab by convening subject matter experts to accumulate evidence about audit and feedback [ 76 , 77 ]. It is unclear whether existing grant funding mechanisms can accommodate the infrastructure necessary for multi-study, global coordination, and data sharing in such efforts (A19.5).

To accumulate knowledge efficiently, the MNoE recommended a mechanism-focused study repository for sharing information, evidence, and methods (A2.2). A repository could be used to share measures of mechanisms for cross-study testing and comparison; report impact/effect of strategies with how and why data; and provide diverse exemplar studies, especially those that engage community/practice partners. Web-based resources for implementation science are mounting (e.g., measure repositories [ 78 , 79 ]), but to our knowledge, few living repositories or systematic reviews exist perhaps because they are a relatively novel methodology [ 80 ] expedited into action by the COVID-19 pandemic [ 81 , 82 ].

Finally, the MNoE prioritized drawing on other disciplines (G3) and collaborating with experts from other disciplinary backgrounds (G4), such as scholars who study mechanisms using a multilevel perspective (A3.1). There are dozens of fields in which one entity helps another do something differently (A3.2) (e.g., governance, natural resources, education, health promotion) to integrate evidence-based interventions and strive for equity. The MNoE cautioned against our field ‘recreating the methodological wheel,’ and underscored the utility of multidisciplinary workgroups (A4.1) and workshops (A4.2). The MNoE prioritized actions to make implementation science more accessible (e.g., 1-page documents such as an SBAR: Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation [ 83 ] that conveys the importance of studying implementation mechanisms) to support bidirectional learning and springboard convenings. A recent commentary expressed concern that our field borrows superficially from others when interdisciplinarity or trans-disciplinarity is warranted [ 20 ]. Funders have recently made deep interdisciplinary collaboration a priority through opportunities such as the National Cancer Institute Implementation Science Centers [ 84 ] in which their Research Program Cores bring together numerous disciplines in a Methods Unit to test, refine, and disseminate new approaches [ 85 ] throughout 5-year awards [ 86 ].

Methods and design

The MNoE asserted the importance of overcoming design challenges (e.g., multiple multi-level mechanisms) and innovating methods (e.g., to address the time-varying nature of mechanism activation) specific to the study of mechanisms. They prioritized activities to guide selection and refinement of study designs (G5), enable measurement of pertinent and feasible data (G6), and leverage strengths of different research methods (G7) to enable establishing strategy mechanisms. For instance, much like the overview of designs that emerged from an NIH working session in 2014 [ 52 ], guidance is needed regarding when to use different designs and methods specifically for the purpose of establishing implementation mechanisms (A5.1). The MNoE suggested mechanism activation may offer an earlier signal along the causal pathway to indicate whether a strategy is working as hypothesized (A6.3). Designing trials for early signal testing demands methodological guidance regarding what constitutes reasonable levels of evidence (go/no-go indicators) (A6.4), how to time mechanism measurement or measure intermediate outcomes (A6.5), and how to pivot if the signal is not detected, particularly in a grant-funded study where adapting/changing the implementation strategy (i.e., independent variable) could be deemed a protocol deviation [ 58 ]. Fortunately, methods experts are beginning to apply adaptive trial designs that directly answer this call [ 87 ]. The MNoE also acknowledged the power of qualitative methods [ 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 ] to inform theory development and surface candidate mechanisms (A7.1) and to offer formative evidence for why a strategy did not work as intended (A7.2). The MNoE highlighted that qualitative methods provide richness, unique insights, and critical perspectives of those with lived experience [ 57 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 ]. Engagement with diverse partners will yield more specific, contextualized, and experientially-informed hypotheses of how strategies are working (A7.3) that may be more acceptable and appropriate for a given context and innovation compared to researcher-derived hypotheses. For example, a secondary analysis of a large implementation trial of measurement-based care revealed no significant mediators from the quantitative data but identified important candidate mechanisms from qualitative analyses [ 93 ].

Conceptualization and measurement

In general, great strides have been made to enhance the quality, access, and utility of measurement in implementation science through systematic reviews, guidance documents, and web-based repositories [ 78 , 79 , 94 ]. The MNoE prioritized actions specific to studying mechanisms to develop grounded and generalizable measures (G8), recommend best practices regarding measurement (G9), and clarify ongoing measurement challenges (G10). The MNoE articulated the need to deploy measurement methods that allow for multiple, real-time assessments to detect changes that unfold over time (A8.2), as mechanisms are hypothesized to be activated at varying rates by population and context. The MNoE elevated the possible use of passive data collection approaches for continuous monitoring of mechanisms (A9.2), ecological momentary assessment (EMA), or lower-burden, near-continuous assessments to track changes in mechanisms and determinants (A9.3). As an example, EMA was used to identify predictors of noncompliance of event-based reporting of tobacco use [ 95 ]. Although this example is implementation-adjacent, it reveals how underused approaches like EMA can overcome measurement challenges critical to studying mechanisms such as timing (e.g., multiple, repeated measures) and self-report (e.g., bias, memory).

Strategy, mechanism, determinant, outcome linkages

The MNoE was initially organized to include a subset of scholars who focused on understanding the linkages between strategies, mechanisms, determinants, and outcomes [ 30 ]. Recognizing that strategies are too often disconnected from determinants [ 96 , 97 ] and overpromising outcomes [ 69 ], the MNoE articulated the role of mechanisms in the causal pathway in terms of how a strategy exerts its effects on target outcomes by overcoming barriers [ 98 ]. The MNoE prioritized defining mechanisms as distinct from determinants and establishing reporting standards for mechanisms research (G11) to support deployment of cross-context and multilevel approaches (G12). The MNoE remarked on this as critical “foundational work” for scientific and practical progress to be made. For instance, the MNoE encouraged consideration of which strategies (from compilations such as Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) [ 13 ] and Effective Practice and Organization of Care (EPOC) [ 99 ]) have evidence of activating specific mechanisms to resolve particular barriers and achieve specific outcomes. Such foundational knowledge of discrete strategies would be instrumental in designing a practical implementation plan, but no synthesis or repository exists to our knowledge (A11.1), although a 2016 review does offer preliminary evidence on a subset of strategy-mediator pairings [ 21 ]. One activity to contribute this knowledge may be the “salvage strategy” [ 100 , 101 ] in which journals or conferences feature implementation failures and invite exploration of mechanism activation or lack thereof [ 17 ] (A12.9). The MNoE also prioritized using theory to guide articulation of putative mechanisms (A12.3) and the examination of mechanisms across diverse contexts to explore how mechanisms might be activated differently or over a different timeframe across contexts, populations, or interventions (A12.4). Moreover, the MNoE acknowledged the potential to hyperfocus on intrapersonal mechanisms of behavior change, which has a mounting evidence base [ 16 , 72 , 102 ]. To complement this individually focused work, the MNoE explicitly prioritized exploring mechanisms at aggregate levels of analysis that are less studied (e.g., community or policy levels), but where structures should be targeted to improve (A12.6) equitable outcomes [ 32 , 50 ,  52 ,  58 ,  75 ,  87 ,  103 , 104 ].

Theory, causality, and context

Because implementation science is a convergence of many disciplines, there are relevant classic theories (e.g., from social psychology, business, economics, education, anthropology) that articulate mechanisms [ 105 ]. Most utilized are frameworks, from which the theoretical underpinnings that depict relationships among constructs and enable prediction through propositions are absent, leaving a list of measurable factors organized by conceptual coherence, as in the case of the Theoretical Domains Framework [ 106 ] and the updated Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research [ 107 ]. Kislov et al. [ 108 ] wrote about the importance of theorizing as a process that could enable implementation scientists to bidirectionally inform and learn from empirical data to test and advance generalizable knowledge and theory working at the mid-range level to develop and refine grand theories. More recently, Meza and colleagues [ 109 ] attempted to make theorizing more accessible to researchers, and although they use theorizing about determinants as their use case, they name mechanisms as a critical component of causal chains that explain how an implementation initiative is successful. Toward this goal, the MNoE prioritized activities that would incorporate theory (G13) through examples and guidance (G14). Actions included differentiating causal theory from program theory (A13.1), modifying implementation science “grand” theories to better represent mechanisms (A13.2), and making the notion of timing more explicit in the theory of change (A13.6). Consistent with the above-mentioned calls to prioritize theory, the MNoE prioritized guidance to choose relevant theories for study planning (A14.4), to fully integrate theory in an implementation study of mechanisms (A14.3), and to clarify how theory is used to articulate mechanisms (A14.2).

Beyond the five priority clusters initially identified in the concept mapping of challenges stymying the field, two new priority clusters of actions emerged through MNoE discussions: Engagement and Growing the Field . These priorities reflect critical areas of work to advance the study of implementation mechanisms. The Engagement cluster represents actions that, if prioritized early, would amplify the impact of actions in other clusters. Growing the Field actions are foundational and/or underpin the work of the other clusters, which might not be possible otherwise.

In terms of Engagement, the MNoE thought it critical to engage the policy and practice community, as well as funders of implementation science. The MNoE emphasized that the policy and practice communities are critical to establishing mechanisms, yet this area of science can feel obscure and pedantic to those communities. Funders were identified as a separate target for engagement because many of the prioritized actions do not fit neatly within traditional funding mechanisms.

The MNoE articulated priorities for engaging policy and practice partners in mechanism identification, validation, and testing (G15) and in using methods to obtain practice-based data and confirm theory (G16). The MNoE recommended plain-language mechanism definitions and de-jargonized questions for identifying mechanisms with community partners to help scientific teams learn from their perspectives (A15.1). Plain language was repeatedly emphasized because the term “mechanisms” itself may limit idea generation or perceptions of applicability as it tends to surface mechanical or biological underpinnings (A15.2, 15.3). The MNoE saw the policy and practice communities, broadly construed, as central to unearthing putative mechanisms and generated actions for facilitating their engagement, including motivating them to study mechanisms (A15.5), supporting them to collect and track data on mechanisms (A15.7), providing feedback (A15.8), and constructing causal pathways (A15.9). For instance, group model building presents a directed approach to engaging participants in articulating implementation mechanisms [ 110 ]. There are several more general frameworks, models, and approaches that can guide this kind of policy and practice community engagement, including community-based participatory research [ 111 ], community partnered participatory research [ 112 ], participatory action research [ 113 ], integrated knowledge translation [ 114 ], and user-centered design [ 67 , 115 ].

The MNoE articulated goals for engaging funders including emphasizing the study of mechanisms as a priority (G17), growing mechanism expertise (G18), and considering new funding models to support mechanism-focused research (G19). The MNoE suggested that it might be important to clarify, or confirm, that mechanism-focused research can lead to more parsimonious and efficient implementation approaches and reproducibility (A17.5). To this end, the MNoE surfaced the possibility of using scientific administrative supplements for mechanism data testing (A17.1) and making the study of mechanisms an explicit priority in funding opportunities (A17.2). To ensure mechanism evaluation fits within grant budget limits, the MNoE suggested deprioritizing patient and clinical outcomes when the intervention’s efficacy and/or effectiveness is robust and adaptation is minimal (A17.3).

The MNoE highlighted the importance of ensuring that grant reviewers are familiar with implementation mechanisms and can critically review grant proposals on these topics. To grow the capacity of reviewers (and the extramural community more broadly), the MNoE proposed specialized training for reviewers or the reviewer pipeline (A18.1), including conference workshops (A18.2) and mock study sections that center applications proposing implementation mechanisms research (A18.3). The MNoE envisioned a guideline document that would support assessing a study proposal’s plan to evaluate implementation mechanisms and scaffold learning key elements for mechanisms testing for those writing grant applications (A18.4).

Finally, the MNoE articulated several ideas for funding opportunities or suggested elements to emphasize within planned/existing funding opportunities. These included funding a coordinating center to harmonize measures, create the infrastructure for data collection, and integrate findings across numerous studies examining implementation strategy mechanisms (A19.5). The MNoE also wondered about the possibility of mechanism evaluation occurring during a follow-up (e.g., renewal) grant funding period, leveraging the longitudinal nature of the evaluation and the need to engage multiple partners (A19.4). In addition to large cross-study or longer initiatives, the MNoE suggested small and nimble grant opportunities that allow for discrete strategy testing and the need to pivot if the strategy “signal” is not detected (A19.1).

Growing the field

Throughout the Deep Dive, the MNoE called for multi-pronged efforts to grow the field. The MNoE recommended resources for evaluating mechanisms that could scaffold scientists’ efforts (G20) as well as more robust training that would help scholars grow new skillsets in the study of implementation mechanisms (G21). The MNoE prioritized guidance and resources regarding topics such as: how to test a strategy causal pathway (A20.1), how to choose the most appropriate outcome for a given mechanism (A20.2), how to isolate a mechanism from other factors in a causal pathway (A20.3, 20.4), how to disentangle the intervention from implementation strategies (A20.5), when to adapt the intervention versus modify the implementation strategy (A20.6), and when to change the strategy for the context versus change the context using the strategy based on our understanding of mechanisms (A20.8). With respect to this last topic, many scholars see contextual targets that, if changed, boast greater societal benefit (e.g., consideration of social determinants of health; addressing structural racism) as being inappropriate targets for implementation scientists, unless the evidence-based intervention itself is directed at those higher levels. Yet, implementing within existing structures can exacerbate inequities. These are critical questions, answers to which would have serious practical implications if, indeed, empirical guidance could be curated. Moreover, these questions are faced by numerous research teams, making the investment in generating such guidance even more valuable. These are the types of empirical evidence and associated resources that might come from larger investments to support the study of mechanisms, such as center grant awards, from which the scientific field and practice community stand to benefit.

The MNoE also generated several actions that were characterized as training-like approaches to build capacity. These included efforts like brief, recorded, didactic sessions regarding definitional issues surrounding mechanisms (A21.1), as well as more process-oriented training on, for example, how to specify causal chains (A21.2) and how to regularly reflect on why an implementation strategy is or is not working throughout the course of a study (A21.3). A team at the IMPACT Center has begun to produce videos aligned with these actions with funding from the US National Institute of Mental Health (P50MH126219) [ 116 ]. Acknowledging that videos might not be sufficient, this team has also offered in-person workshop training followed by office hours and one year of expert consultation around causal pathway diagramming [ 117 ]. Multipronged training and consultation will be critical for capacity building in new areas like the study of implementation mechanisms. Somewhat innovative actions were also shared, including a workgroup to support a series of training grants focused on the study of mechanisms (A21.4) and a data summit in which underutilized data from grants could be made available for secondary analysis paired with postdoctoral researchers using a shared mentoring model. The sentiment was that the expertise required to advance the study of mechanisms is sparse and approaches that extend the reach to new teams and data sources would be critical.

Although several of the above suggestions function as dissemination, the MNoE articulated four specific dissemination-related goals: produce focused manuscripts (G22); partner with journals to generate new paper types (G23); establish forums for dialog (G24); and generate broad interest using strategies that reach community partners (G25). The MNoE articulated numerous manuscripts that would be helpful such as Mechanisms Made Too Simple , inspired by Curran’s article [ 118 ]. They also imagined new paper types, such as one that centered on “learning from failure with wisdom,” which would essentially unpack implementation failures with a mechanistic lens. An example of such a commentary was written by researchers (not members of the original research team) regarding a recently published null trial that appears fruitful [ 17 ], and yet another approach is to ensure that implementers have opportunities to share “salvage strategies” that make the most out of opportunities to retain rigor when unexpected events threaten to derail studies that could shed light on mechanisms [ 100 , 101 ]. Finally, the MNoE underscored the importance of clarifying the “why” behind the study of mechanisms, particularly given the importance of learning from and supporting the policy and practice community. As they discussed dissemination, they surfaced a marketing problem in that not all would agree that the study of mechanisms could advance both science and practice, and some members believed this reductionist approach is misaligned with the very nature of implementation [ 20 ].

Limitations

Importantly, the MNoE may not be representative of those who could contribute and/or stand to benefit from this work. Although we made efforts to engage researchers from outside the United States (US; e.g., open attendance during a SIRC breakout; international representation in MNoE paper writing groups), the inputs and outputs of this research agenda largely reflect a US perspective. Indeed, parallel and complementary work from scholars in the United Kingdom (UK) includes an ontology of mechanisms of action in behavior change interventions that begins to address several aspects of the Research Agenda [ 119 ]. We hope readers with different perspectives will consider building from the US and UK work, for example, writing a commentary to further the dialogue and/or pursuing research that advances some of the priorities discussed above. Moreover, although some of the MNoE identify more as clinically or practically oriented researchers, the MNoE did not include policy and practice community members. Thus, it is likely that new actions across the priority clusters would have emerged if different groups were engaged in the process of generating this content. Also, the focus of this research agenda is on implementation strategy mechanisms, or the processes through which strategies exert their effects to achieve outcomes [ 30 ]. This focus overlooks contextual mechanisms, such as those surfaced through realist reviews [ 120 ]. This focus is consistent with prior work by our team [ 19 ], but can limit the field’s ability to explain how and why implementation occurs.

Implementation science needs to further expand from what works to how and why certain strategies work, for whom, when, and in which contexts [ 121 ]. This research agenda outlines a roadmap of concrete actions for advancing the study of mechanisms. To carry out this research agenda, concerted and strategic effort is needed. There are numerous training forums that grow implementation research capacity [ 122 ]. We hope some will highlight the priorities articulated herein, bring together transdisciplinary experts with mechanism-specific expertise, and contribute to the study of implementation mechanisms.

Availability of data and materials

MNoE members from other countries were invited, but unable to attend due to COVID restrictions.

Abbreviations

Society for Implementation Research Collaboration

Mechanisms Network of Expertise

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Acknowledgements

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

In addition to federal funding, we are grateful to have received funding support from the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration, which helped make our Deep Dive meetings possible. Moreover, we would like to thank attendees at SIRC’s 2019 conference who provided input into the challenges associated with studying implementation mechanisms. Finally, we wish to thank each member of the MNoE, some of whom contributed to the development of the R13 grant proposal (Gregory Aarons, Rinad Beidas, Aaron Lyon, Brian Mittman, Byron Powell, Bryan Weiner, Nate Williams), and the rest of whom participated in one or more Deep Dive meetings, between event virtual sessions, or in the paper writing groups; see Additional File 1. Gracelyn Cruden began this work at her prior institution, Oregon Social Learning Center, and completed it at her current institution.

This research was supported by funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R13HS025632), National Institute of Mental Health (P50MH126219, R01MH111950, R01MH111981, K01MH128769, R25MH080916, K01MH113806, K01MH128761), and National Cancer Institute (P50CA244432 and R01CA262325, P50CA244690).

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Gracelyn Cruden

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Byron J. Powell

Center for Dissemination & Implementation, Institute for Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

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CCL, HEF, BK, AS, GC, and BJP contributed to the conceptualization of the manuscript, engaged in the coding, and participated in data interpretation. CCL drafted the introduction, results, and discussion. HEF and GC drafted the method section. ARL and BA reviewed preliminary results and contributed to revisions to the results table. BJP and CCL worked the manuscript through several cycles of review by all coauthors. All authors (CCL, HEF, BK, AS, GC, BJP GAA, RSB, BSM, BJW, NJW, MF, SM, MP, LS, AW, CWB, SWS) reviewed, edited, and approved the final content of the manuscript.

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Drs. Lewis and Weiner receive royalties from Springer Publishing. Dr. Beidas is principal at Implementation Science & Practice, LLC. She receives royalties from Oxford University Press, consulting fees from United Behavioral Health and OptumLabs, and serves on the advisory boards for Optum Behavioral Health, AIM Youth Mental Health Foundation, and the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation outside of the submitted work. Dr. Aarons is a Co-Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Beidas is an Associate Editor, and Drs. Powell and Weiner are on the Editorial Board of Implementation Science , none of whom will play a role in the editorial process of this manuscript.

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Lewis, C.C., Frank, H.E., Cruden, G. et al. A research agenda to advance the study of implementation mechanisms. Implement Sci Commun 5 , 98 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43058-024-00633-5

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• Call for Papers for the MIMAP closing conference

Call for Papers for the MIMAP closing conference , Date: 2024.09.19 , format: Informationsblatt , area: Authority

"irregularly staying migrants: empirical findings and methodological advances".

Managing irregularity is a central issue in the political debate on effective migration management. The complexities and challenges associated with irregular migration require a multifaceted approach to research and policy-making. In Germany, the government has recently implemented concrete measures to reduce the number of irregularly staying migrants. Thereby, it is pursuing two main strategies: first, the "opportunity residency law" aims to provide pathways to legal residency; second, measures such as the "return improvement law" are intended to expedite the departure of those required to leave. The actual impacts of these regulations have yet to be studied.

This conference aims to bring together researchers from various disciplines and methodological backgrounds (qualitative, quantitative, ethnography, mixed-methods), who empirically address irregularly staying migrants or apply innovative methodological approaches to study explicitly hard-to-reach migrant groups. Thereby, we seek to provide a platform for the presentation of empirical findings and methodological approaches that contribute to a better understanding of irregularly staying migrants, and that can inform asylum and migration policy. By "irregularly staying migrants" we refer to persons "without any legal residence status in the country they are residing in" (Kraler & Ahrens, 2023), irrespective of their way into irregularity and regardless of whether they are known to the authorities or not.

The MIMAP research project

In the MIMAP research project ("Feasibility study on the im-/mobility of people obliged to leave Germany"), we explored the im-/mobility trajectories (Peitz, 2023), aspirations (Johnson forthcoming 2024; Stache, Johnson, Peitz, Carwehl, forthcoming 2025), and living situations of rejected asylum seekers (Stache, 2024). Additionally, the project probed the applicability of an app-based respondent-driven sampling (RDS) to survey this target group (Peitz, Stache, Johnson, 2024).

Themes and Topics

We welcome submissions on various topics related to irregular migrants, including but not limited to the following questions, ideally with implications for practitioners or policy makers:

Ways into and out of irregularity: What are recent estimations of irregular migration stocks and flows, or trends and forecasts on the local, national or international level? What are the implications of terminating an irregular stay by voluntary return, deportation, onward migration, or regularization? Are there specific patterns, and do these patterns change over time or in consequence of new laws?

Integration, well-being and everyday life: Under what conditions (e.g. housing, employment) do irregularly staying migrants live? How does the obligation to leave the country affect social participation, identity, life satisfaction, and health? What role do agency, social networks, and discrimination play? How do irregularly staying migrants experience phases of activity and passivity? What inequalities exist among them, e.g. concerning gender?

Agency, networks, and negotiating im-/mobility: How salient is the negotiation of return or onward migration in everyday life and how actively is a further stay in irregularity negotiated? Which formal and informal actors are involved in individual negotiations about staying or leaving? What information and which external factors are relevant for the decision-making process? Do im-/mobility aspirations change in the course of irregularity?

Methodological and ethical reflections: What are promising innovative approaches, 'do's and don'ts' of empirical research with hard-to-reach, hidden and/or vulnerable migrant groups? How to comprehensibly and ethically correctly guarantee issues of privacy and data protection? What is the role and responsibility of researchers working with such groups? What are opportunities and risks of using digital research tools (web, app, social media)? How can response rates, coverage, representativeness and data quality be improved?

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• Abstracts of max. 300 words (preferably in English) should be submitted via the pdf form "MIMAP closing conference: Submission form" by November 30, 2024. Authors of accepted abstracts will be notified by January 31, 2025.
• This call is also open to work-in-progress contributions.
• Formats of presentations are oral and poster presentations.
• Limited places are available for people who are not actively contributing with a presentation or poster. We will provide information on registration in spring 2025.
• Participation is free of charge. Travel and accommodation costs must be covered by the participants.
• The conference will feature a keynote address by a leading expert in the field of migration studies and will give participants the opportunity to engage with cutting-edge research and to network with peers.
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Further information

• MIMAP-Abschlusskonferenz: Formular zur Beitragseinreichung / MIMAP closing conference: Submission form pdf, 104KB, accessible