How to Write a Research Paper Introduction (with Examples)

How to Write a Research Paper Introduction (with Examples)

The research paper introduction section, along with the Title and Abstract, can be considered the face of any research paper. The following article is intended to guide you in organizing and writing the research paper introduction for a quality academic article or dissertation.

The research paper introduction aims to present the topic to the reader. A study will only be accepted for publishing if you can ascertain that the available literature cannot answer your research question. So it is important to ensure that you have read important studies on that particular topic, especially those within the last five to ten years, and that they are properly referenced in this section. 1 What should be included in the research paper introduction is decided by what you want to tell readers about the reason behind the research and how you plan to fill the knowledge gap. The best research paper introduction provides a systemic review of existing work and demonstrates additional work that needs to be done. It needs to be brief, captivating, and well-referenced; a well-drafted research paper introduction will help the researcher win half the battle.

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

  • Present your research topic
  • Capture reader interest
  • Summarize existing research
  • Position your own approach
  • Define your specific research problem and problem statement
  • Highlight the novelty and contributions of the study
  • Give an overview of the paper’s structure

The research paper introduction can vary in size and structure depending on whether your paper presents the results of original empirical research or is a review paper. Some research paper introduction examples are only half a page while others are a few pages long. In many cases, the introduction will be shorter than all of the other sections of your paper; its length depends on the size of your paper as a whole.

  • Break through writer’s block. Write your research paper introduction with Paperpal Copilot

Table of Contents

What is the introduction for a research paper, why is the introduction important in a research paper, craft a compelling introduction section with paperpal. try now, 1. introduce the research topic:, 2. determine a research niche:, 3. place your research within the research niche:, craft accurate research paper introductions with paperpal. start writing now, frequently asked questions on research paper introduction, key points to remember.

The introduction in a research paper is placed at the beginning to guide the reader from a broad subject area to the specific topic that your research addresses. They present the following information to the reader

  • Scope: The topic covered in the research paper
  • Context: Background of your topic
  • Importance: Why your research matters in that particular area of research and the industry problem that can be targeted

The research paper introduction conveys a lot of information and can be considered an essential roadmap for the rest of your paper. A good introduction for a research paper is important for the following reasons:

  • It stimulates your reader’s interest: A good introduction section can make your readers want to read your paper by capturing their interest. It informs the reader what they are going to learn and helps determine if the topic is of interest to them.
  • It helps the reader understand the research background: Without a clear introduction, your readers may feel confused and even struggle when reading your paper. A good research paper introduction will prepare them for the in-depth research to come. It provides you the opportunity to engage with the readers and demonstrate your knowledge and authority on the specific topic.
  • It explains why your research paper is worth reading: Your introduction can convey a lot of information to your readers. It introduces the topic, why the topic is important, and how you plan to proceed with your research.
  • It helps guide the reader through the rest of the paper: The research paper introduction gives the reader a sense of the nature of the information that will support your arguments and the general organization of the paragraphs that will follow. It offers an overview of what to expect when reading the main body of your paper.

What are the parts of introduction in the research?

A good research paper introduction section should comprise three main elements: 2

  • What is known: This sets the stage for your research. It informs the readers of what is known on the subject.
  • What is lacking: This is aimed at justifying the reason for carrying out your research. This could involve investigating a new concept or method or building upon previous research.
  • What you aim to do: This part briefly states the objectives of your research and its major contributions. Your detailed hypothesis will also form a part of this section.

How to write a research paper introduction?

The first step in writing the research paper introduction is to inform the reader what your topic is and why it’s interesting or important. This is generally accomplished with a strong opening statement. The second step involves establishing the kinds of research that have been done and ending with limitations or gaps in the research that you intend to address. Finally, the research paper introduction clarifies how your own research fits in and what problem it addresses. If your research involved testing hypotheses, these should be stated along with your research question. The hypothesis should be presented in the past tense since it will have been tested by the time you are writing the research paper introduction.

The following key points, with examples, can guide you when writing the research paper introduction section:

  • Highlight the importance of the research field or topic
  • Describe the background of the topic
  • Present an overview of current research on the topic

Example: The inclusion of experiential and competency-based learning has benefitted electronics engineering education. Industry partnerships provide an excellent alternative for students wanting to engage in solving real-world challenges. Industry-academia participation has grown in recent years due to the need for skilled engineers with practical training and specialized expertise. However, from the educational perspective, many activities are needed to incorporate sustainable development goals into the university curricula and consolidate learning innovation in universities.

  • Reveal a gap in existing research or oppose an existing assumption
  • Formulate the research question

Example: There have been plausible efforts to integrate educational activities in higher education electronics engineering programs. However, very few studies have considered using educational research methods for performance evaluation of competency-based higher engineering education, with a focus on technical and or transversal skills. To remedy the current need for evaluating competencies in STEM fields and providing sustainable development goals in engineering education, in this study, a comparison was drawn between study groups without and with industry partners.

  • State the purpose of your study
  • Highlight the key characteristics of your study
  • Describe important results
  • Highlight the novelty of the study.
  • Offer a brief overview of the structure of the paper.

Example: The study evaluates the main competency needed in the applied electronics course, which is a fundamental core subject for many electronics engineering undergraduate programs. We compared two groups, without and with an industrial partner, that offered real-world projects to solve during the semester. This comparison can help determine significant differences in both groups in terms of developing subject competency and achieving sustainable development goals.

Write a Research Paper Introduction in Minutes with Paperpal

Paperpal Copilot is a generative AI-powered academic writing assistant. It’s trained on millions of published scholarly articles and over 20 years of STM experience. Paperpal Copilot helps authors write better and faster with:

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With Paperpal Copilot, create a research paper introduction effortlessly. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk you through how Paperpal transforms your initial ideas into a polished and publication-ready introduction.

sample introduction to a research paper

How to use Paperpal to write the Introduction section

Step 1: Sign up on Paperpal and click on the Copilot feature, under this choose Outlines > Research Article > Introduction

Step 2: Add your unstructured notes or initial draft, whether in English or another language, to Paperpal, which is to be used as the base for your content.

Step 3: Fill in the specifics, such as your field of study, brief description or details you want to include, which will help the AI generate the outline for your Introduction.

Step 4: Use this outline and sentence suggestions to develop your content, adding citations where needed and modifying it to align with your specific research focus.

Step 5: Turn to Paperpal’s granular language checks to refine your content, tailor it to reflect your personal writing style, and ensure it effectively conveys your message.

You can use the same process to develop each section of your article, and finally your research paper in half the time and without any of the stress.

The purpose of the research paper introduction is to introduce the reader to the problem definition, justify the need for the study, and describe the main theme of the study. The aim is to gain the reader’s attention by providing them with necessary background information and establishing the main purpose and direction of the research.

The length of the research paper introduction can vary across journals and disciplines. While there are no strict word limits for writing the research paper introduction, an ideal length would be one page, with a maximum of 400 words over 1-4 paragraphs. Generally, it is one of the shorter sections of the paper as the reader is assumed to have at least a reasonable knowledge about the topic. 2 For example, for a study evaluating the role of building design in ensuring fire safety, there is no need to discuss definitions and nature of fire in the introduction; you could start by commenting upon the existing practices for fire safety and how your study will add to the existing knowledge and practice.

When deciding what to include in the research paper introduction, the rest of the paper should also be considered. The aim is to introduce the reader smoothly to the topic and facilitate an easy read without much dependency on external sources. 3 Below is a list of elements you can include to prepare a research paper introduction outline and follow it when you are writing the research paper introduction. Topic introduction: This can include key definitions and a brief history of the topic. Research context and background: Offer the readers some general information and then narrow it down to specific aspects. Details of the research you conducted: A brief literature review can be included to support your arguments or line of thought. Rationale for the study: This establishes the relevance of your study and establishes its importance. Importance of your research: The main contributions are highlighted to help establish the novelty of your study Research hypothesis: Introduce your research question and propose an expected outcome. Organization of the paper: Include a short paragraph of 3-4 sentences that highlights your plan for the entire paper

Cite only works that are most relevant to your topic; as a general rule, you can include one to three. Note that readers want to see evidence of original thinking. So it is better to avoid using too many references as it does not leave much room for your personal standpoint to shine through. Citations in your research paper introduction support the key points, and the number of citations depend on the subject matter and the point discussed. If the research paper introduction is too long or overflowing with citations, it is better to cite a few review articles rather than the individual articles summarized in the review. A good point to remember when citing research papers in the introduction section is to include at least one-third of the references in the introduction.

The literature review plays a significant role in the research paper introduction section. A good literature review accomplishes the following: Introduces the topic – Establishes the study’s significance – Provides an overview of the relevant literature – Provides context for the study using literature – Identifies knowledge gaps However, remember to avoid making the following mistakes when writing a research paper introduction: Do not use studies from the literature review to aggressively support your research Avoid direct quoting Do not allow literature review to be the focus of this section. Instead, the literature review should only aid in setting a foundation for the manuscript.

Remember the following key points for writing a good research paper introduction: 4

  • Avoid stuffing too much general information: Avoid including what an average reader would know and include only that information related to the problem being addressed in the research paper introduction. For example, when describing a comparative study of non-traditional methods for mechanical design optimization, information related to the traditional methods and differences between traditional and non-traditional methods would not be relevant. In this case, the introduction for the research paper should begin with the state-of-the-art non-traditional methods and methods to evaluate the efficiency of newly developed algorithms.
  • Avoid packing too many references: Cite only the required works in your research paper introduction. The other works can be included in the discussion section to strengthen your findings.
  • Avoid extensive criticism of previous studies: Avoid being overly critical of earlier studies while setting the rationale for your study. A better place for this would be the Discussion section, where you can highlight the advantages of your method.
  • Avoid describing conclusions of the study: When writing a research paper introduction remember not to include the findings of your study. The aim is to let the readers know what question is being answered. The actual answer should only be given in the Results and Discussion section.

To summarize, the research paper introduction section should be brief yet informative. It should convince the reader the need to conduct the study and motivate him to read further. If you’re feeling stuck or unsure, choose trusted AI academic writing assistants like Paperpal to effortlessly craft your research paper introduction and other sections of your research article.

1. Jawaid, S. A., & Jawaid, M. (2019). How to write introduction and discussion. Saudi Journal of Anaesthesia, 13(Suppl 1), S18.

2. Dewan, P., & Gupta, P. (2016). Writing the title, abstract and introduction: Looks matter!. Indian pediatrics, 53, 235-241.

3. Cetin, S., & Hackam, D. J. (2005). An approach to the writing of a scientific Manuscript1. Journal of Surgical Research, 128(2), 165-167.

4. Bavdekar, S. B. (2015). Writing introduction: Laying the foundations of a research paper. Journal of the Association of Physicians of India, 63(7), 44-6.

Paperpal is an AI writing assistant that help academics write better, faster with real-time suggestions for in-depth language and grammar correction. Trained on millions of research manuscripts enhanced by professional academic editors, Paperpal delivers human precision at machine speed.

Try it for free or upgrade to  Paperpal Prime , which unlocks unlimited access to premium features like academic translation, paraphrasing, contextual synonyms, consistency checks and more. It’s like always having a professional academic editor by your side! Go beyond limitations and experience the future of academic writing.  Get Paperpal Prime now at just US$19 a month!

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Starting Your Research Paper: Writing an Introductory Paragraph

  • Choosing Your Topic
  • Define Keywords
  • Planning Your Paper
  • Writing an Introductory Paragraph

The Dreaded Introductory Paragraph

Writing the introductory paragraph can be a frustrating and slow process -- but it doesn't have to be.  If you planned your paper out, then most of the introductory paragraph is already written.  Now you just need a beginning and an end.

Here's an introductory paragraph for a paper I wrote.  I started the paper with a factoid, then presented each main point of my paper and then ended with my thesis statement.

  Breakdown:

  • << Previous: Planning Your Paper
  • Last Updated: Feb 12, 2024 12:16 PM
  • URL: https://libguides.astate.edu/papers

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How to Write a Research Introduction

Last Updated: December 6, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Megan Morgan, PhD . Megan Morgan is a Graduate Program Academic Advisor in the School of Public & International Affairs at the University of Georgia. She earned her PhD in English from the University of Georgia in 2015. There are 7 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 2,647,167 times.

The introduction to a research paper can be the most challenging part of the paper to write. The length of the introduction will vary depending on the type of research paper you are writing. An introduction should announce your topic, provide context and a rationale for your work, before stating your research questions and hypothesis. Well-written introductions set the tone for the paper, catch the reader's interest, and communicate the hypothesis or thesis statement.

Introducing the Topic of the Paper

Step 1 Announce your research topic.

  • In scientific papers this is sometimes known as an "inverted triangle", where you start with the broadest material at the start, before zooming in on the specifics. [2] X Research source
  • The sentence "Throughout the 20th century, our views of life on other planets have drastically changed" introduces a topic, but does so in broad terms.
  • It provides the reader with an indication of the content of the essay and encourages them to read on.

Step 2 Consider referring to key words.

  • For example, if you were writing a paper about the behaviour of mice when exposed to a particular substance, you would include the word "mice", and the scientific name of the relevant compound in the first sentences.
  • If you were writing a history paper about the impact of the First World War on gender relations in Britain, you should mention those key words in your first few lines.

Step 3 Define any key terms or concepts.

  • This is especially important if you are attempting to develop a new conceptualization that uses language and terminology your readers may be unfamiliar with.

Step 4 Introduce the topic through an anecdote or quotation.

  • If you use an anecdote ensure that is short and highly relevant for your research. It has to function in the same way as an alternative opening, namely to announce the topic of your research paper to your reader.
  • For example, if you were writing a sociology paper about re-offending rates among young offenders, you could include a brief story of one person whose story reflects and introduces your topic.
  • This kind of approach is generally not appropriate for the introduction to a natural or physical sciences research paper where the writing conventions are different.

Establishing the Context for Your Paper

Step 1 Include a brief literature review.

  • It is important to be concise in the introduction, so provide an overview on recent developments in the primary research rather than a lengthy discussion.
  • You can follow the "inverted triangle" principle to focus in from the broader themes to those to which you are making a direct contribution with your paper.
  • A strong literature review presents important background information to your own research and indicates the importance of the field.

Step 2 Use the literature to focus in on your contribution.

  • By making clear reference to existing work you can demonstrate explicitly the specific contribution you are making to move the field forward.
  • You can identify a gap in the existing scholarship and explain how you are addressing it and moving understanding forward.

Step 3 Elaborate on the rationale of your paper.

  • For example, if you are writing a scientific paper you could stress the merits of the experimental approach or models you have used.
  • Stress what is novel in your research and the significance of your new approach, but don't give too much detail in the introduction.
  • A stated rationale could be something like: "the study evaluates the previously unknown anti-inflammatory effects of a topical compound in order to evaluate its potential clinical uses".

Specifying Your Research Questions and Hypothesis

Step 1 State your research questions.

  • The research question or questions generally come towards the end of the introduction, and should be concise and closely focused.
  • The research question might recall some of the key words established in the first few sentences and the title of your paper.
  • An example of a research question could be "what were the consequences of the North American Free Trade Agreement on the Mexican export economy?"
  • This could be honed further to be specific by referring to a particular element of the Free Trade Agreement and the impact on a particular industry in Mexico, such as clothing manufacture.
  • A good research question should shape a problem into a testable hypothesis.

Step 2 Indicate your hypothesis.

  • If possible try to avoid using the word "hypothesis" and rather make this implicit in your writing. This can make your writing appear less formulaic.
  • In a scientific paper, giving a clear one-sentence overview of your results and their relation to your hypothesis makes the information clear and accessible. [10] X Trustworthy Source PubMed Central Journal archive from the U.S. National Institutes of Health Go to source
  • An example of a hypothesis could be "mice deprived of food for the duration of the study were expected to become more lethargic than those fed normally".

Step 3 Outline the structure of your paper.

  • This is not always necessary and you should pay attention to the writing conventions in your discipline.
  • In a natural sciences paper, for example, there is a fairly rigid structure which you will be following.
  • A humanities or social science paper will most likely present more opportunities to deviate in how you structure your paper.

Research Introduction Help

sample introduction to a research paper

Community Q&A

Community Answer

  • Use your research papers' outline to help you decide what information to include when writing an introduction. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • Consider drafting your introduction after you have already completed the rest of your research paper. Writing introductions last can help ensure that you don't leave out any major points. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

sample introduction to a research paper

  • Avoid emotional or sensational introductions; these can create distrust in the reader. Thanks Helpful 50 Not Helpful 12
  • Generally avoid using personal pronouns in your introduction, such as "I," "me," "we," "us," "my," "mine," or "our." Thanks Helpful 31 Not Helpful 7
  • Don't overwhelm the reader with an over-abundance of information. Keep the introduction as concise as possible by saving specific details for the body of your paper. Thanks Helpful 24 Not Helpful 14

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Publish a Research Paper

  • ↑ https://library.sacredheart.edu/c.php?g=29803&p=185916
  • ↑ https://www.aresearchguide.com/inverted-pyramid-structure-in-writing.html
  • ↑ https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/introduction
  • ↑ https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/PlanResearchPaper.html
  • ↑ https://dept.writing.wisc.edu/wac/writing-an-introduction-for-a-scientific-paper/
  • ↑ https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/planresearchpaper/
  • ↑ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3178846/

About This Article

Megan Morgan, PhD

To introduce your research paper, use the first 1-2 sentences to describe your general topic, such as “women in World War I.” Include and define keywords, such as “gender relations,” to show your reader where you’re going. Mention previous research into the topic with a phrase like, “Others have studied…”, then transition into what your contribution will be and why it’s necessary. Finally, state the questions that your paper will address and propose your “answer” to them as your thesis statement. For more information from our English Ph.D. co-author about how to craft a strong hypothesis and thesis, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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sample introduction to a research paper

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The introduction to an academic essay will generally present an analytical question or problem and then offer an answer to that question (the thesis).

Your introduction is also your opportunity to explain to your readers what your essay is about and why they should be interested in reading it. You don’t have to “hook” your readers with a dramatic promise (every other discussion of the topic you’re writing about is completely wrong!) or an exciting fact (the moon can reach 127 degrees Celsius!). Instead, you should use your introduction to explain to your readers why your essay is going to be interesting to read. To do this, you’ll need to frame the question or problem that you’re writing about and explain why this question or problem is important. If you make a convincing case for why your question or problem is worth solving, your readers will be interested in reading on.

While some of the conventions for writing an introduction vary by discipline, a strong introduction for any paper will contain some common elements. You can see these common elements in the sample introductions on this page . In general, your introductions should contain the following elements:

  • Orienting Information When you’re writing an essay, it’s helpful to think about what your reader needs to know in order to follow your argument. Your introduction should include enough information so that readers can understand the context for your thesis. For example, if you are analyzing someone else’s argument, you will need to identify that argument and possibly summarize its key points. If you are joining a scholarly conversation about education reform, you will need to provide context for this conversation before explaining what your essay adds to the discussion. But you don’t necessarily have to summarize your sources in detail in your introduction; that information may fit in better later in your essay. When you’re deciding how much context or background information to provide, it can be helpful to think about that information in relation to your thesis. You don’t have to tell readers everything they will need to know to understand your entire essay right away. You just need to give them enough information to be able to understand and appreciate your thesis. For some assignments, you’ll be able to assume that your audience has also read the sources you are analyzing. But even in those cases, you should still offer enough information for readers to know which parts of a source you are talking about. When you’re writing a paper based on your own research, you will need to provide more context about the sources you’re going to discuss. If you’re not sure how much you can assume your audience knows, you should consult your instructor.

An explanation of what’s at stake in your essay, or why anyone would need to read an essay that argues this thesis You will know why your essay is worth writing if you are trying to answer a question that doesn’t have an obvious answer; to propose a solution to a problem without one obvious solution; or to point out something that others may not have noticed that changes the way we consider a phenomenon, source, or idea. In all of these cases, you will be trying to understand something that you think is valuable to understand. But it’s not enough that you know why your essay is worth reading; you also need to explain to your readers why they should care about reading an essay that argues your thesis.

  • Your thesis This is what you’re arguing in your essay.  

Tips for writing introductions  

  • If you are writing in a new discipline, you should always make sure to ask about conventions and expectations for introductions, just as you would for any other aspect of the essay. For example, while it may be acceptable to write a two-paragraph (or longer) introduction for your papers in some courses, instructors in other disciplines, such as those in some Government courses, may expect a shorter introduction that includes a preview of the argument that will follow .  
  • In some disciplines (Government, Economics, and others), it’s common to offer an overview in the introduction of what points you will make in your essay. In other disciplines, you will not be expected to provide this overview in your introduction.  
  • Avoid writing a very general opening sentence. While it may be true that “Since the dawn of time, people have been telling love stories,” it won’t help you explain what’s interesting about your topic.  
  • Avoid writing a “funnel” introduction in which you begin with a very broad statement about a topic and move to a narrow statement about that topic. Broad generalizations about a topic will not add to your readers’ understanding of your specific essay topic.  
  • Avoid beginning with a dictionary definition of a term or concept you will be writing about. If the concept is complicated or unfamiliar to your readers, you will need to define it in detail later in your essay. If it’s not complicated, you can assume your readers already know the definition.  
  • Avoid offering too much detail in your introduction that a reader could better understand later in the paper.
  • Tips for Reading an Assignment Prompt
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  • What Do Introductions Across the Disciplines Have in Common?
  • Anatomy of a Body Paragraph
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  • Tips for Organizing Your Essay
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  • Strategies for Essay Writing: Downloadable PDFs
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Writing an Introduction for a Scientific Paper

Dr. michelle harris, dr. janet batzli, biocore.

This section provides guidelines on how to construct a solid introduction to a scientific paper including background information, study question , biological rationale, hypothesis , and general approach . If the Introduction is done well, there should be no question in the reader’s mind why and on what basis you have posed a specific hypothesis.

Broad Question : based on an initial observation (e.g., “I see a lot of guppies close to the shore. Do guppies like living in shallow water?”). This observation of the natural world may inspire you to investigate background literature or your observation could be based on previous research by others or your own pilot study. Broad questions are not always included in your written text, but are essential for establishing the direction of your research.

Background Information : key issues, concepts, terminology, and definitions needed to understand the biological rationale for the experiment. It often includes a summary of findings from previous, relevant studies. Remember to cite references, be concise, and only include relevant information given your audience and your experimental design. Concisely summarized background information leads to the identification of specific scientific knowledge gaps that still exist. (e.g., “No studies to date have examined whether guppies do indeed spend more time in shallow water.”)

Testable Question : these questions are much more focused than the initial broad question, are specific to the knowledge gap identified, and can be addressed with data. (e.g., “Do guppies spend different amounts of time in water <1 meter deep as compared to their time in water that is >1 meter deep?”)

Biological Rationale : describes the purpose of your experiment distilling what is known and what is not known that defines the knowledge gap that you are addressing. The “BR” provides the logic for your hypothesis and experimental approach, describing the biological mechanism and assumptions that explain why your hypothesis should be true.

The biological rationale is based on your interpretation of the scientific literature, your personal observations, and the underlying assumptions you are making about how you think the system works. If you have written your biological rationale, your reader should see your hypothesis in your introduction section and say to themselves, “Of course, this hypothesis seems very logical based on the rationale presented.”

  • A thorough rationale defines your assumptions about the system that have not been revealed in scientific literature or from previous systematic observation. These assumptions drive the direction of your specific hypothesis or general predictions.
  • Defining the rationale is probably the most critical task for a writer, as it tells your reader why your research is biologically meaningful. It may help to think about the rationale as an answer to the questions— how is this investigation related to what we know, what assumptions am I making about what we don’t yet know, AND how will this experiment add to our knowledge? *There may or may not be broader implications for your study; be careful not to overstate these (see note on social justifications below).
  • Expect to spend time and mental effort on this. You may have to do considerable digging into the scientific literature to define how your experiment fits into what is already known and why it is relevant to pursue.
  • Be open to the possibility that as you work with and think about your data, you may develop a deeper, more accurate understanding of the experimental system. You may find the original rationale needs to be revised to reflect your new, more sophisticated understanding.
  • As you progress through Biocore and upper level biology courses, your rationale should become more focused and matched with the level of study e ., cellular, biochemical, or physiological mechanisms that underlie the rationale. Achieving this type of understanding takes effort, but it will lead to better communication of your science.

***Special note on avoiding social justifications: You should not overemphasize the relevance of your experiment and the possible connections to large-scale processes. Be realistic and logical —do not overgeneralize or state grand implications that are not sensible given the structure of your experimental system. Not all science is easily applied to improving the human condition. Performing an investigation just for the sake of adding to our scientific knowledge (“pure or basic science”) is just as important as applied science. In fact, basic science often provides the foundation for applied studies.

Hypothesis / Predictions : specific prediction(s) that you will test during your experiment. For manipulative experiments, the hypothesis should include the independent variable (what you manipulate), the dependent variable(s) (what you measure), the organism or system , the direction of your results, and comparison to be made.

If you are doing a systematic observation , your hypothesis presents a variable or set of variables that you predict are important for helping you characterize the system as a whole, or predict differences between components/areas of the system that help you explain how the system functions or changes over time.

Experimental Approach : Briefly gives the reader a general sense of the experiment, the type of data it will yield, and the kind of conclusions you expect to obtain from the data. Do not confuse the experimental approach with the experimental protocol . The experimental protocol consists of the detailed step-by-step procedures and techniques used during the experiment that are to be reported in the Methods and Materials section.

Some Final Tips on Writing an Introduction

  • As you progress through the Biocore sequence, for instance, from organismal level of Biocore 301/302 to the cellular level in Biocore 303/304, we expect the contents of your “Introduction” paragraphs to reflect the level of your coursework and previous writing experience. For example, in Biocore 304 (Cell Biology Lab) biological rationale should draw upon assumptions we are making about cellular and biochemical processes.
  • Be Concise yet Specific: Remember to be concise and only include relevant information given your audience and your experimental design. As you write, keep asking, “Is this necessary information or is this irrelevant detail?” For example, if you are writing a paper claiming that a certain compound is a competitive inhibitor to the enzyme alkaline phosphatase and acts by binding to the active site, you need to explain (briefly) Michaelis-Menton kinetics and the meaning and significance of Km and Vmax. This explanation is not necessary if you are reporting the dependence of enzyme activity on pH because you do not need to measure Km and Vmax to get an estimate of enzyme activity.
  • Another example: if you are writing a paper reporting an increase in Daphnia magna heart rate upon exposure to caffeine you need not describe the reproductive cycle of magna unless it is germane to your results and discussion. Be specific and concrete, especially when making introductory or summary statements.

Where Do You Discuss Pilot Studies? Many times it is important to do pilot studies to help you get familiar with your experimental system or to improve your experimental design. If your pilot study influences your biological rationale or hypothesis, you need to describe it in your Introduction. If your pilot study simply informs the logistics or techniques, but does not influence your rationale, then the description of your pilot study belongs in the Materials and Methods section.  

How will introductions be evaluated? The following is part of the rubric we will be using to evaluate your papers.

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What is a "good" introduction?

Citing sources in the introduction, "introduction checklist" from: how to write a good scientific paper. chris a. mack. spie. 2018..

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This is where you describe briefly and clearly why you are writing the paper. The introduction supplies sufficient background information for the reader to understand and evaluate the experiment you did. It also supplies a rationale for the study.

  • Present the problem and the proposed solution
  • Presents nature and scope of the problem investigated
  • Reviews the pertinent literature to orient the reader
  • States the method of the experiment
  • State the principle results of the experiment

It is important to cite sources in the introduction section of your paper as evidence of the claims you are making. There are ways of citing sources in the text so that the reader can find the full reference in the literature cited section at the end of the paper, yet the flow of the reading is not badly interrupted. Below are some example of how this can be done:     "Smith (1983) found that N-fixing plants could be infected by several different species of Rhizobium."     "Walnut trees are known to be allelopathic (Smith 1949,  Bond et al. 1955, Jones and Green 1963)."     "Although the presence of Rhizobium normally increases the growth of legumes (Nguyen 1987), the opposite effect has been observed (Washington 1999)." Note that articles by one or two authors are always cited in the text using their last names. However, if there are more than two authors, the last name of the 1st author is given followed by the abbreviation et al. which is Latin for "and others". 

From:  https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/guides/imrad-reports-introductions

  • Indicate the field of the work, why this field is important, and what has already been done (with proper citations).
  • Indicate a gap, raise a research question, or challenge prior work in this territory.
  • Outline the purpose and announce the present research, clearly indicating what is novel and why it is significant.
  • Avoid: repeating the abstract; providing unnecessary background information; exaggerating the importance of the work; claiming novelty without a proper literature search. 
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Organizing Academic Research Papers: 4. The Introduction

  • Purpose of Guide
  • Design Flaws to Avoid
  • Glossary of Research Terms
  • Narrowing a Topic Idea
  • Broadening a Topic Idea
  • Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
  • Academic Writing Style
  • Choosing a Title
  • Making an Outline
  • Paragraph Development
  • Executive Summary
  • Background Information
  • The Research Problem/Question
  • Theoretical Framework
  • Citation Tracking
  • Content Alert Services
  • Evaluating Sources
  • Primary Sources
  • Secondary Sources
  • Tertiary Sources
  • What Is Scholarly vs. Popular?
  • Qualitative Methods
  • Quantitative Methods
  • Using Non-Textual Elements
  • Limitations of the Study
  • Common Grammar Mistakes
  • Avoiding Plagiarism
  • Footnotes or Endnotes?
  • Further Readings
  • Annotated Bibliography
  • Dealing with Nervousness
  • Using Visual Aids
  • Grading Someone Else's Paper
  • How to Manage Group Projects
  • Multiple Book Review Essay
  • Reviewing Collected Essays
  • About Informed Consent
  • Writing Field Notes
  • Writing a Policy Memo
  • Writing a Research Proposal
  • Acknowledgements

The introduction serves the purpose of leading the reader from a general subject area to a particular field of research. It establishes the context of the research being conducted by summarizing current understanding and background information about the topic, stating the purpose of the work in the form of the hypothesis, question, or research problem, briefly explaining your rationale, methodological approach, highlighting the potential outcomes your study can reveal, and describing the remaining structure of the paper.

Key Elements of the Research Proposal. Prepared under the direction of the Superintendent and by the 2010 Curriculum Design and Writing Team. Baltimore County Public Schools.

Importance of a Good Introduction

Think of the introduction as a mental road map that must answer for the reader these four questions:

  • What was I studying?
  • Why was this topic important to investigate?
  • What did we know about this topic before I did this study?
  • How will this study advance our knowledge?

A well-written introduction is important because, quite simply, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. The opening paragraph of your paper will provide your readers with their initial impressions about the logic of your argument, your writing style, the overall quality of your research, and, ultimately, the validity of your findings and conclusions. A vague, disorganized, or error-filled introduction will create a negative impression, whereas, a concise, engaging, and well-written introduction will start your readers off thinking highly of your analytical skills, your writing style, and your research approach.

Introductions . The Writing Center. University of North Carolina.

Structure and Writing Style

I. Structure and Approach

The introduction is the broad beginning of the paper that answers three important questions for the reader:

  • What is this?
  • Why am I reading it?
  • What do you want me to think about / consider doing / react to?

Think of the structure of the introduction as an inverted triangle of information. Organize the information so as to present the more general aspects of the topic early in the introduction, then narrow toward the more specific topical information that provides context, finally arriving at your statement of purpose and rationale and, whenever possible, the potential outcomes your study can reveal.

These are general phases associated with writing an introduction:

  • Highlighting the importance of the topic, and/or
  • Making general statements about the topic, and/or
  • Presenting an overview on current research on the subject.
  • Opposing an existing assumption, and/or
  • Revealing a gap in existing research, and/or
  • Formulating a research question or problem, and/or
  • Continuing a disciplinary tradition.
  • Stating the intent of your study,
  • Outlining the key characteristics of your study,
  • Describing important results, and
  • Giving a brief overview of the structure of the paper.

NOTE: Even though the introduction is the first main section of a research paper, it is often useful to finish the introduction very late in the writing process because the structure of the paper, the reporting and analysis of results, and the conclusion will have been completed and it ensures that your introduction matches the overall structure of your paper.

II.  Delimitations of the Study

Delimitations refer to those characteristics that limit the scope and define the conceptual boundaries of your study . This is determined by the conscious exclusionary and inclusionary decisions you make about how to investigate the research problem. In other words, not only should you tell the reader what it is you are studying and why, but you must also acknowledge why you rejected alternative approaches that could have been used to examine the research problem.

Obviously, the first limiting step was the choice of research problem itself. However, implicit are other, related problems that could have been chosen but were rejected. These should be noted in the conclusion of your introduction.

Examples of delimitating choices would be:

  • The key aims and objectives of your study,
  • The research questions that you address,
  • The variables of interest [i.e., the various factors and features of the phenomenon being studied],
  • The method(s) of investigation, and
  • Any relevant alternative theoretical frameworks that could have been adopted.

Review each of these decisions. You need to not only clearly establish what you intend to accomplish, but to also include a declaration of what the study does not intend to cover. In the latter case, your exclusionary decisions should be based upon criteria stated as, "not interesting"; "not directly relevant"; “too problematic because..."; "not feasible," and the like. Make this reasoning explicit!

NOTE: Delimitations refer to the initial choices made about the broader, overall design of your study and should not be confused with documenting the limitations of your study discovered after the research has been completed.

III. The Narrative Flow

Issues to keep in mind that will help the narrative flow in your introduction :

  • Your introduction should clearly identify the subject area of interest . A simple strategy to follow is to use key words from your title in the first few sentences of the introduction. This will help focus the introduction on the topic at the appropriate level and ensures that you get to the primary subject matter quickly without losing focus, or discussing information that is too general.
  • Establish context by providing a brief and balanced review of the pertinent published literature that is available on the subject. The key is to summarize for the reader what is known about the specific research problem before you did your analysis. This part of your introduction should not represent a comprehensive literature review but consists of a general review of the important, foundational research literature (with citations) that lays a foundation for understanding key elements of the research problem. See the drop-down tab for "Background Information" for types of contexts.
  • Clearly state the hypothesis that you investigated . When you are first learning to write in this format it is okay, and actually preferable, to use a past statement like, "The purpose of this study was to...." or "We investigated three possible mechanisms to explain the...."
  • Why did you choose this kind of research study or design? Provide a clear statement of the rationale for your approach to the problem studied. This will usually follow your statement of purpose in the last paragraph of the introduction.

IV. Engaging the Reader

The overarching goal of your introduction is to make your readers want to read your paper. The introduction should grab your reader's attention. Strategies for doing this can be to:

  • Open with a compelling story,
  • Include a strong quotation or a vivid, perhaps unexpected anecdote,
  • Pose a provocative or thought-provoking question,
  • Describe a puzzling scenario or incongruity, or
  • Cite a stirring example or case study that illustrates why the research problem is important.

NOTE:   Only choose one strategy for engaging your readers; avoid giving an impression that your paper is more flash than substance.

Freedman, Leora  and Jerry Plotnick. Introductions and Conclusions . University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Introduction . The Structure, Format, Content, and Style of a Journal-Style Scientific Paper. Department of Biology. Bates College; Introductions . The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Introductions . The Writer’s Handbook. Writing Center. University of Wisconsin, Madison; Introductions, Body Paragraphs, and Conclusions for an Argument Paper. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Resources for Writers: Introduction Strategies . Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Sharpling, Gerald. Writing an Introduction . Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick; Writing Your Introduction. Department of English Writing Guide. George Mason University.

Writing Tip

Avoid the "Dictionary" Introduction

Giving the dictionary definition of words related to the research problem may appear appropriate because it is important to define specific words or phrases with which readers may be unfamiliar. However, anyone can look a word up in the dictionary and a general dictionary is not a particularly authoritative source. It doesn't take into account the context of your topic and doesn't offer particularly detailed information. Also, placed in the context of a particular discipline, a term may have a different meaning than what is found in a general dictionary. If you feel that you must seek out an authoritative definition, try to find one that is from subject specific dictionaries or encyclopedias [e.g., if you are a sociology student, search for dictionaries of sociology].

Saba, Robert. The College Research Paper . Florida International University; Introductions . The Writing Center. University of North Carolina.

Another Writing Tip

When Do I Begin?

A common question asked at the start of any paper is, "where should I begin?" An equally important question to ask yourself is, "When do I begin?" Research problems in the social sciences rarely rest in isolation from the history of the issue being investigated. It is, therefore, important to lay a foundation for understanding the historical context underpinning the research problem. However, this information should be brief and succinct and begin at a point in time that best informs the reader of study's overall importance. For example, a study about coffee cultivation and export in West Africa as a key stimulus for local economic growth needs to describe the beginning of exporting coffee in the region and establishing why economic growth is important. You do not need to give a long historical explanation about coffee exportation in Africa. If a research problem demands a substantial exploration of historical context, do this in the literature review section; note in the introduction as part of your "roadmap" [see below] that you covering this in the literature review.

Yet Another Writing Tip

Always End with a Roadmap

The final paragraph or sentences of your introduction should forecast your main arguments and conclusions and provide a description of the rest of the paper [a "roadmap"] that let's the reader know where you are going and what to expect.

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What’s Included: Research Paper Template

If you’re preparing to write an academic research paper, our free research paper template is the perfect starting point. In the template, we cover every section step by step, with clear, straightforward explanations and examples .

The template’s structure is based on the tried and trusted best-practice format for formal academic research papers. The template structure reflects the overall research process, ensuring your paper will have a smooth, logical flow from chapter to chapter.

The research paper template covers the following core sections:

  • The title page/cover page
  • Abstract (sometimes also called the executive summary)
  • Section 1: Introduction 
  • Section 2: Literature review 
  • Section 3: Methodology
  • Section 4: Findings /results
  • Section 5: Discussion
  • Section 6: Conclusion
  • Reference list

Each section is explained in plain, straightforward language , followed by an overview of the key elements that you need to cover within each section. We’ve also included links to free resources to help you understand how to write each section.

The cleanly formatted Google Doc can be downloaded as a fully editable MS Word Document (DOCX format), so you can use it as-is or convert it to LaTeX.

FAQs: Research Paper Template

What format is the template (doc, pdf, ppt, etc.).

The research paper template is provided as a Google Doc. You can download it in MS Word format or make a copy to your Google Drive. You’re also welcome to convert it to whatever format works best for you, such as LaTeX or PDF.

What types of research papers can this template be used for?

The template follows the standard best-practice structure for formal academic research papers, so it is suitable for the vast majority of degrees, particularly those within the sciences.

Some universities may have some additional requirements, but these are typically minor, with the core structure remaining the same. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to double-check your university’s requirements before you finalise your structure.

Is this template for an undergrad, Masters or PhD-level research paper?

This template can be used for a research paper at any level of study. It may be slight overkill for an undergraduate-level study, but it certainly won’t be missing anything.

How long should my research paper be?

This depends entirely on your university’s specific requirements, so it’s best to check with them. We include generic word count ranges for each section within the template, but these are purely indicative. 

What about the research proposal?

If you’re still working on your research proposal, we’ve got a template for that here .

We’ve also got loads of proposal-related guides and videos over on the Grad Coach blog .

How do I write a literature review?

We have a wealth of free resources on the Grad Coach Blog that unpack how to write a literature review from scratch. You can check out the literature review section of the blog here.

How do I create a research methodology?

We have a wealth of free resources on the Grad Coach Blog that unpack research methodology, both qualitative and quantitative. You can check out the methodology section of the blog here.

Can I share this research paper template with my friends/colleagues?

Yes, you’re welcome to share this template. If you want to post about it on your blog or social media, all we ask is that you reference this page as your source.

Can Grad Coach help me with my research paper?

Within the template, you’ll find plain-language explanations of each section, which should give you a fair amount of guidance. However, you’re also welcome to consider our private coaching services .

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  • How to write an essay introduction | 4 steps & examples

How to Write an Essay Introduction | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on February 4, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A good introduction paragraph is an essential part of any academic essay . It sets up your argument and tells the reader what to expect.

The main goals of an introduction are to:

  • Catch your reader’s attention.
  • Give background on your topic.
  • Present your thesis statement —the central point of your essay.

This introduction example is taken from our interactive essay example on the history of Braille.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

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Table of contents

Step 1: hook your reader, step 2: give background information, step 3: present your thesis statement, step 4: map your essay’s structure, step 5: check and revise, more examples of essay introductions, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the essay introduction.

Your first sentence sets the tone for the whole essay, so spend some time on writing an effective hook.

Avoid long, dense sentences—start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

The hook should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of the topic you’re writing about and why it’s interesting. Avoid overly broad claims or plain statements of fact.

Examples: Writing a good hook

Take a look at these examples of weak hooks and learn how to improve them.

  • Braille was an extremely important invention.
  • The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

The first sentence is a dry fact; the second sentence is more interesting, making a bold claim about exactly  why the topic is important.

  • The internet is defined as “a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities.”
  • The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education.

Avoid using a dictionary definition as your hook, especially if it’s an obvious term that everyone knows. The improved example here is still broad, but it gives us a much clearer sense of what the essay will be about.

  • Mary Shelley’s  Frankenstein is a famous book from the nineteenth century.
  • Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement.

Instead of just stating a fact that the reader already knows, the improved hook here tells us about the mainstream interpretation of the book, implying that this essay will offer a different interpretation.

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Next, give your reader the context they need to understand your topic and argument. Depending on the subject of your essay, this might include:

  • Historical, geographical, or social context
  • An outline of the debate you’re addressing
  • A summary of relevant theories or research about the topic
  • Definitions of key terms

The information here should be broad but clearly focused and relevant to your argument. Don’t give too much detail—you can mention points that you will return to later, but save your evidence and interpretation for the main body of the essay.

How much space you need for background depends on your topic and the scope of your essay. In our Braille example, we take a few sentences to introduce the topic and sketch the social context that the essay will address:

Now it’s time to narrow your focus and show exactly what you want to say about the topic. This is your thesis statement —a sentence or two that sums up your overall argument.

This is the most important part of your introduction. A  good thesis isn’t just a statement of fact, but a claim that requires evidence and explanation.

The goal is to clearly convey your own position in a debate or your central point about a topic.

Particularly in longer essays, it’s helpful to end the introduction by signposting what will be covered in each part. Keep it concise and give your reader a clear sense of the direction your argument will take.

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sample introduction to a research paper

As you research and write, your argument might change focus or direction as you learn more.

For this reason, it’s often a good idea to wait until later in the writing process before you write the introduction paragraph—it can even be the very last thing you write.

When you’ve finished writing the essay body and conclusion , you should return to the introduction and check that it matches the content of the essay.

It’s especially important to make sure your thesis statement accurately represents what you do in the essay. If your argument has gone in a different direction than planned, tweak your thesis statement to match what you actually say.

To polish your writing, you can use something like a paraphrasing tool .

You can use the checklist below to make sure your introduction does everything it’s supposed to.

Checklist: Essay introduction

My first sentence is engaging and relevant.

I have introduced the topic with necessary background information.

I have defined any important terms.

My thesis statement clearly presents my main point or argument.

Everything in the introduction is relevant to the main body of the essay.

You have a strong introduction - now make sure the rest of your essay is just as good.

  • Argumentative
  • Literary analysis

This introduction to an argumentative essay sets up the debate about the internet and education, and then clearly states the position the essay will argue for.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

This introduction to a short expository essay leads into the topic (the invention of the printing press) and states the main point the essay will explain (the effect of this invention on European society).

In many ways, the invention of the printing press marked the end of the Middle Ages. The medieval period in Europe is often remembered as a time of intellectual and political stagnation. Prior to the Renaissance, the average person had very limited access to books and was unlikely to be literate. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century allowed for much less restricted circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation.

This introduction to a literary analysis essay , about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , starts by describing a simplistic popular view of the story, and then states how the author will give a more complex analysis of the text’s literary devices.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale. Arguably the first science fiction novel, its plot can be read as a warning about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, and in popular culture representations of the character as a “mad scientist”, Victor Frankenstein represents the callous, arrogant ambition of modern science. However, far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to gradually transform our impression of Frankenstein, portraying him in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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  • Post hoc fallacy
  • Appeal to authority fallacy
  • False cause fallacy
  • Sunk cost fallacy

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Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

  • An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
  • Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
  • A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

The “hook” is the first sentence of your essay introduction . It should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of why it’s interesting.

To write a good hook, avoid overly broad statements or long, dense sentences. Try to start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

  • It gives your writing direction and focus.
  • It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

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McCombes, S. (2023, July 23). How to Write an Essay Introduction | 4 Steps & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved February 17, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/introduction/

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Management Paper Blog Academic Writing Guides And Tips

Management Paper

  • Three Research Paper Introduction Examples: Learn How to Initiate and Hook
  • ManagementPaper
  • Apr 13, 2021

A research paper introduction holds perhaps the most importance for a study to be successful. After a good research paper abstract , it is the introduction that builds the interest in a reader to continue reading the research paper. If the introduction turns out to be dull and drab, then the study would be a failed one.

A good research paper needs a lot of background study, which you often fail to do. To make your work easier, Management Paper is there for you to help you write yours efficiently.

Key Features of a Research Paper Introduction

  • It forms the basic part of both the research paper as well as the research proposal .
  • Apart from giving a general notion about the research paper topic , it includes important elements such as background, aim, objectives, questions and many more.
  • It must contain the questions ‘WHY’: why is the research conducted, why it is important, why this chosen topic and so on is.
  • It helps in pointing out the knowledge gaps and fills them up throughout the paper.
  • Use precise and clear points.

The Most Commonly Included Elements in The Research Papers

There are different kinds of research papers like essays, reports, dissertations and journals. The introduction which is generally used in case of all other types of research paper except dissertations are similar in nature. Such an introduction is similar to a summary of the topic, defining the problem, stating the aims and objectives that are going to be established through the research.

But in case of dissertation, in a good research paper format the introduction is presented in great detail by dividing the section into the following parts:

  • Research background
  • Research problem
  • Research rationale
  • Research aim
  • Research objectives
  • Research hypothesis
  • Research questions

Apart from this, many papers include time plan, scope and limitations of the research too. The experts from the team of Management Paper can help you with your paper writing and also make you understand the various aspects of a research paper.

Some Significant Examples of Research Paper Introduction

Research paper introduction example #1, topic: impact of leadership effectiveness on employees for the company amazon (dissertation).

The history and the various past events related to the topic are being mentioned in this section. Thsi supplies context to the paper and contains both relevant and important studies. Authenticating your information is a must by in-text citations.

The research problem states a specific area of concern, a bothering question, a difficulty which is to be eliminated or a condition that demands improvement. The missing knowledge about the topic is being found out through this and then only you can do further research about the problem.

The rationale answers the question of why the research is being conducted and thus states its importance.

The things that are expected to be achieved at the end of the research are generally mentioned here.

The objectives are the various goals or targets that are to be established and achieved throughout the study.

The research question points out the facts that are to be established through the paper and provides the research with a clear focus and purpose.

This is a specific predictive statement about the possible future outcome of the study which is mostly based upon the relationship between different variables or on a single variable.

Research Paper Introduction Example # 2

Topic: implementing online customer support service through chat portal at aldi, research paper introduction example # 3, topic: compare and contrast the policies for the aged people in various countries.

In both the second and the third example, the introduction is written in a single paragraph. In the first line itself you must introduce the topic. Try to avoid embellishments. Write any remarkable event about the topic then. Explain the problem and the purpose of the research. Try to build a reasonable thesis statement. Then with few lines, insert a smooth transition to make a shift from the introduction to the body.

 You can check out more examples from the page of Management paper, and can also avail paper writing service from them with ease. We do not compromise with quality and believe in time management.

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Research Paper Introduction Example: Academic Writing Insight

How to write an introductory paragraph for research paper.

The writing of the research paper is a multi-aspect process. Because this type of academic assignment consists of several parts. If you fail to complete one of the levels, you will fail the whole paper.

Introduction is not a Literal Beginning

As you know, the hardest part is just to begin the paper. And what should do student at the beginning? Not writing an outline. And not working on the introduction. He should make massive research on his topic . You cannot start writing an introduction without having a personal view on the issue that you are going to study. You have to prepare for introduction writing though analyzing facts available online and making notes. If it’s hard to do it yourself, the  online essay help service by Edusson.com will solve this problem instantly!

Why do We Need an Introduction?

The key aim of the introduction is to introduce to the reader the purpose of your research. Just imagine any academic writing starting from the main body section. You cannot pour on the reader your evidence, ideas, and arguments without an explanation of what are you writing about. In the introduction, you must clearly indicate the hypothesis you want to prove or deny. You must explain the necessity of your research, its urgency, and significance for your study, and, finally, hook readers to continue reading it!

What Information Can I Get From my Search for the Introduction?

It depends on the discipline you are writing the research paper on. If your field of study is Humanities, it is likely that you can find a relevant quote, aphorism, or anecdote to introduce your topic to the reader. In case you study tech, social, and medical sciences quotes are irrelevant. More precise and specific facts will fit such an introduction. There is a general rule for all specialties too. You must find a fact that will intrigue a reader. You must hook him.

Attract the Reader in Any Case

Imagine that your research paper is a product that you want to sell and be paid for it. Figuratively, it is true because your aim is to be rewarded with high mark. The first thing salesmen do to sell their product is a promotion of it. They put effort into and use various methods to hook clients. So, what should research paper writers  do to attract a reader? Even if you write a research paper, and the style of writing is formal, it is still necessary and possible to draw his attention. For example, your research paper topic is “How has the music industry been affected by the internet and digital downloading?”. After a hasty internet search, you can find out that there are many legendary musicians like Radiohead that gave up being dependent on music labels and started to issue their LPs by themselves, online. Also, there is a site Pledge Music which is a popular crowdfunding platform for modern musicians. Such popular synth-pop band as IAMX raises money there to record and promote their albums. These two facts prove that digital downloading somehow affects the music industry, and it is urgent to research this topic to learn the character of this effect. Connect with a professional writer in 5 simple steps. Start now Please provide as many details about your writing struggle as possible. Next What's the area of study of your paper? English Business and Entrepreneurship Nursing History African-American Studies Accounting Anthropology Architecture Art, Theatre and Film Biology Business and Entrepreneurship Chemistry Communication Strategies Computer Science Criminology Economics Education English Engineering Environmental Issues Ethics Finance Geography Healthcare History International and Public Relations Law and Legal Issues Linguistics Literature Management Marketing Mathematics Music Nursing Nutrition Other Philosophy Physics Political Science Psychology Religion and Theology Sociology Sport Technology Tourism Next How many pages do you need? Next When is it due? 01 AM 02 AM 03 AM 04 AM 05 AM 06 AM 07 AM 08 AM 09 AM 10 AM 11 AM 12 AM 01 PM 02 PM 03 PM 04 PM 05 PM 06 PM 07 PM 08 PM 09 PM 10 PM 11 PM 12 PM Next What's your e-mail? Next Done!

Writing a Thesis Statement

Research paper writing is one of the most challenging tasks for students. To write your research papers in a relevant way, it is important to add new information and to connect the text with the research topic. For example, a research paper introduction example can help you learn how to create an introduction that grabs the attention of the reader. The introduction should not only explain the topic but should also provide enough detail to set up the body of the paper. This can be done by providing background information, presenting a hypothesis, or discussing existing research on the topic. Adding new information will make the introduction more interesting and will lead the reader to the body of the paper.

What do you feel when you watch a good teaser for the movie? You feel hooked, intrigued, and eager to watch the story till the end. The same result you must achieve with the thesis statement in a research paper. You must indicate the highlights of your essay, and leave an open question, a mystery, which the reader will want to learn for sure. To provide a worthy example of a research paper thesis statement let’s return to the discussed above topic “How has the music industry been affected by the internet and digital downloading?”. A thesis statement is a point that you will have to defend. It mandatorily must not be general. For example, if you declare this statement during the conversation, it will surely provoke a conflict and make all people differ in their attitude and take a side. Wrong way: “Downloading music from the internet is bad and we must fight it.” It leaves too many questions to answer. And this statement is way too objective, it does not reflect the controversy of your topic. The truth is that there are no absolutely good or totally bad phenomena. And your thesis statement must show the reality.

Right way: “The culture of digital music consumption must be changed because the creations of musicians become worthless due to activity of web pirates and people stop valuing music according to its merit .”

In this example of thesis, I’ve narrowed my argument to the consequences of digital music downloads on the culture of music consumption. I’ve also focused on the fact that the main harm to the music industry present web pirates.  It induces readers to assume that I will argue against them in the main body. To check if you have created a debatable thesis statement for the research paper, you must figure out whether it is debatable. It means that you must make the reader argue either for or against this statement. Wrong way : “The music industry has changed because of the era of the internet.” It is a statement, but not a thesis statement. It is a general truth. There is no point to argue with that fact. You can narrate about that, but not argue and make research to provide proper evidence to prove your point.

Right way: “Free music download sites must become commercial because recording a music is a full-time job of musicians and every work must be rewarded.” Now it is debatable. Opponents can argue that product that music product is not principal way to earn money for musicians, and internet is a the most effective way to promote their creation and lure audience to visit their concerts, what is a real way to earn money.

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Research paper Introduction Writing Tips

Research paper introduction is an essential part of your writing and it must be created according to certain rules. It is true that when you write any kind of text you can push yourself too hard and cross the borders of norms. Because academic styles of writing are referred to as creative writing as well. You look for information, then analyze it, come up with thoughts, and ideas, and reflect it in a coherent text. The next tips will show you how to fulfill the purpose of the research paper introduction and get rid of the creative mess.

  • Size matters. Before a tutor starts reading the article, he reviews it visually. If the size of the introduction is too large, it will make a bad impression on your paper. Just remember, all you have to present in the introduction is: the definition of the topic idea and its urgency, an explanation of the aim of the research, facts to hook the reader, and a thesis statement.
  • Be logical. Your introduction will be really strong if it contains key ideas only in a few sentences. To reach such a result it is important to satisfy the logical connection of the thoughts. Your goal is to make the reader understand in the end of the introduction what exactly you attempted to achieve in a research paper and why this problem is worth profound research.
  • Make it the last part. Many successful students first work on the whole outline, write the body of the paper and only then form the introduction. That’s because a person becomes more sure in what direction his research goes only after at least a shallow search and analysis of sources.
  • Review previous studies on your topic. Every person can study the same topic in a different way. Before you start your own research, you must become aware of the discoveries other scholars made on this issue. Any result will be a reliable background for future work. Note that it is better to indicate recent developments in the primary research rather than a lengthy report.

sample introduction to a research paper

Research Paper Introduction Example

Finally, when we have analyzed all highlights of introduction writing we can gather all parts of it in one, ultimate part of a paper. Let’s refresh the exemplary topic of it:  “How has the music industry been affected by the internet and digital downloading?”. Now, have a look at the research paper introduction example: “The musical marketing turns to be digital according to demands of current online epoche. Such underground, but worldwide famous bands like Radiohead and IAMX gain profit from the internet and use it as a primary source to show the audience their creation. On the other hand, many artists find the digital era harmful and destructive to their creativity because there are many sites that offer their products for free, giving no profit to the creator. Currently, there are more and more studies that reveal the business side of the music industry is far from the positive side. This research paper will define whether the culture of digital music consumption must be changed because the creations of musicians become worthless due to the activity of web pirates and because people have stopped valuing music according to its merit.”

As you see, all main components are preserved in the example above. The first sentences hook readers, the mid part of the introduction prove the reason for the research, and the thesis statement puts a debatable argument that needs further analysis and the right solution.

Integrity is a Key

After you created the final paper, be decisive to make necessary changes and corrections, especially before the submission. It usually happens that at the end of the research, a writer can face with inconsistencies in all sections of his writing. If the whole paper does not sound like a cohesive text, make improvements. If your main part does not answer the question raised in the introduction nothing obstructs you from adjusting its sense to the ideas from the main body. A paper with cohesive text deserves a high mark, so rule your writing!

Now You’re a Winner

I suppose that before you came across this article you underestimated the value of a worthy introductive paragraph. In fact, I have not introduced you to another meaningful feature of it. You know that all academic essays must end with a conclusive paragraph. There is an assumption that this is the hardest part of research paper completion. In fact, if you have succeeded in making of impressive introduction, you will significantly facilitate the process of conclusion writing. You don’t think it is easy for you? Ask professionals “ write an essay for me ” because writing your essay does not have to be a difficult job.

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Video generation models as world simulators.

We explore large-scale training of generative models on video data. Specifically, we train text-conditional diffusion models jointly on videos and images of variable durations, resolutions and aspect ratios. We leverage a transformer architecture that operates on spacetime patches of video and image latent codes. Our largest model, Sora, is capable of generating a minute of high fidelity video. Our results suggest that scaling video generation models is a promising path towards building general purpose simulators of the physical world.

More resources

  • View Sora overview

This technical report focuses on (1) our method for turning visual data of all types into a unified representation that enables large-scale training of generative models, and (2) qualitative evaluation of Sora’s capabilities and limitations. Model and implementation details are not included in this report.

Much prior work has studied generative modeling of video data using a variety of methods, including recurrent networks, [^1] [^2] [^3] generative adversarial networks, [^4] [^5] [^6] [^7] autoregressive transformers, [^8] [^9] and diffusion models. [^10] [^11] [^12] These works often focus on a narrow category of visual data, on shorter videos, or on videos of a fixed size. Sora is a generalist model of visual data—it can generate videos and images spanning diverse durations, aspect ratios and resolutions, up to a full minute of high definition video.

Turning visual data into patches

We take inspiration from large language models which acquire generalist capabilities by training on internet-scale data. [^13] [^14] The success of the LLM paradigm is enabled in part by the use of tokens that elegantly unify diverse modalities of text—code, math and various natural languages. In this work, we consider how generative models of visual data can inherit such benefits. Whereas LLMs have text tokens, Sora has visual patches . Patches have previously been shown to be an effective representation for models of visual data. [^15] [^16] [^17] [^18] We find that patches are a highly-scalable and effective representation for training generative models on diverse types of videos and images.

Figure Patches

At a high level, we turn videos into patches by first compressing videos into a lower-dimensional latent space, [^19] and subsequently decomposing the representation into spacetime patches.

Video compression network

We train a network that reduces the dimensionality of visual data. [^20] This network takes raw video as input and outputs a latent representation that is compressed both temporally and spatially. Sora is trained on and subsequently generates videos within this compressed latent space. We also train a corresponding decoder model that maps generated latents back to pixel space.

Spacetime latent patches

Given a compressed input video, we extract a sequence of spacetime patches which act as transformer tokens. This scheme works for images too since images are just videos with a single frame. Our patch-based representation enables Sora to train on videos and images of variable resolutions, durations and aspect ratios. At inference time, we can control the size of generated videos by arranging randomly-initialized patches in an appropriately-sized grid.

Scaling transformers for video generation

Sora is a diffusion model [^21] [^22] [^23] [^24] [^25] ; given input noisy patches (and conditioning information like text prompts), it’s trained to predict the original “clean” patches. Importantly, Sora is a diffusion transformer . [^26] Transformers have demonstrated remarkable scaling properties across a variety of domains, including language modeling, [^13] [^14] computer vision, [^15] [^16] [^17] [^18] and image generation. [^27] [^28] [^29]

Figure Diffusion

In this work, we find that diffusion transformers scale effectively as video models as well. Below, we show a comparison of video samples with fixed seeds and inputs as training progresses. Sample quality improves markedly as training compute increases.

Variable durations, resolutions, aspect ratios

Past approaches to image and video generation typically resize, crop or trim videos to a standard size—e.g., 4 second videos at 256x256 resolution. We find that instead training on data at its native size provides several benefits.

Sampling flexibility

Sora can sample widescreen 1920x1080p videos, vertical 1080x1920 videos and everything inbetween. This lets Sora create content for different devices directly at their native aspect ratios. It also lets us quickly prototype content at lower sizes before generating at full resolution—all with the same model.

Improved framing and composition

We empirically find that training on videos at their native aspect ratios improves composition and framing. We compare Sora against a version of our model that crops all training videos to be square, which is common practice when training generative models. The model trained on square crops (left) sometimes generates videos where the subject is only partially in view. In comparison, videos from Sora (right) have improved framing.

Language understanding

Training text-to-video generation systems requires a large amount of videos with corresponding text captions. We apply the re-captioning technique introduced in DALL·E 3 [^30] to videos. We first train a highly descriptive captioner model and then use it to produce text captions for all videos in our training set. We find that training on highly descriptive video captions improves text fidelity as well as the overall quality of videos.

Similar to DALL·E 3, we also leverage GPT to turn short user prompts into longer detailed captions that are sent to the video model. This enables Sora to generate high quality videos that accurately follow user prompts.

Prompting with images and videos

All of the results above and in our landing page show text-to-video samples. But Sora can also be prompted with other inputs, such as pre-existing images or video. This capability enables Sora to perform a wide range of image and video editing tasks—creating perfectly looping video, animating static images, extending videos forwards or backwards in time, etc.

Animating DALL·E images

Sora is capable of generating videos provided an image and prompt as input. Below we show example videos generated based on DALL·E 2 [^31] and DALL·E 3 [^30] images.

sample introduction to a research paper

Extending generated videos

Sora is also capable of extending videos, either forward or backward in time. Below are four videos that were all extended backward in time starting from a segment of a generated video. As a result, each of the four videos starts different from the others, yet all four videos lead to the same ending.

We can use this method to extend a video both forward and backward to produce a seamless infinite loop.

Video-to-video editing

Diffusion models have enabled a plethora of methods for editing images and videos from text prompts. Below we apply one of these methods, SDEdit, [^32] to Sora. This technique enables Sora to transform  the styles and environments of input videos zero-shot.

Connecting videos

We can also use Sora to gradually interpolate between two input videos, creating seamless transitions between videos with entirely different subjects and scene compositions. In the examples below, the videos in the center interpolate between the corresponding videos on the left and right.

Image generation capabilities

Sora is also capable of generating images. We do this by arranging patches of Gaussian noise in a spatial grid with a temporal extent of one frame. The model can generate images of variable sizes—up to 2048x2048 resolution.

sample introduction to a research paper

Emerging simulation capabilities

We find that video models exhibit a number of interesting emergent capabilities when trained at scale. These capabilities enable Sora to simulate some aspects of people, animals and environments from the physical world. These properties emerge without any explicit inductive biases for 3D, objects, etc.—they are purely phenomena of scale.

3D consistency. Sora can generate videos with dynamic camera motion. As the camera shifts and rotates, people and scene elements move consistently through three-dimensional space.

Long-range coherence and object permanence. A significant challenge for video generation systems has been maintaining temporal consistency when sampling long videos. We find that Sora is often, though not always, able to effectively model both short- and long-range dependencies. For example, our model can persist people, animals and objects even when they are occluded or leave the frame. Likewise, it can generate multiple shots of the same character in a single sample, maintaining their appearance throughout the video.

Interacting with the world. Sora can sometimes simulate actions that affect the state of the world in simple ways. For example, a painter can leave new strokes along a canvas that persist over time, or a man can eat a burger and leave bite marks.

Simulating digital worlds. Sora is also able to simulate artificial processes–one example is video games. Sora can simultaneously control the player in Minecraft with a basic policy while also rendering the world and its dynamics in high fidelity. These capabilities can be elicited zero-shot by prompting Sora with captions mentioning “Minecraft.”

These capabilities suggest that continued scaling of video models is a promising path towards the development of highly-capable simulators of the physical and digital world, and the objects, animals and people that live within them.

Sora currently exhibits numerous limitations as a simulator. For example, it does not accurately model the physics of many basic interactions, like glass shattering. Other interactions, like eating food, do not always yield correct changes in object state. We enumerate other common failure modes of the model—such as incoherencies that develop in long duration samples or spontaneous appearances of objects—in our landing page .

We believe the capabilities Sora has today demonstrate that continued scaling of video models is a promising path towards the development of capable simulators of the physical and digital world, and the objects, animals and people that live within them.

  • Bill Peebles
  • Connor Holmes
  • David Schnurr
  • Troy Luhman
  • Eric Luhman
  • Clarence Wing Yin Ng
  • Aditya Ramesh

Acknowledgments

Please cite as Brooks, Peebles, et al., and use the following BibTeX for citation:  https://openai.com/bibtex/videoworldsimulators2024.bib

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  • Open access
  • Published: 05 February 2024

Elevated body temperature is associated with depressive symptoms: results from the TemPredict Study

  • Ashley E. Mason 1 ,
  • Patrick Kasl 2 ,
  • Severine Soltani 2 ,
  • Abigail Green 3 ,
  • Wendy Hartogensis 1 ,
  • Stephan Dilchert 4 ,
  • Anoushka Chowdhary 5 ,
  • Leena S. Pandya 1 ,
  • Chelsea J. Siwik 6 ,
  • Simmie L. Foster 7 , 8 ,
  • Maren Nyer 7 , 8 ,
  • Christopher A. Lowry 9 ,
  • Charles L. Raison 10 ,
  • Frederick M. Hecht 1   na1 &
  • Benjamin L. Smarr 2 , 11   na1  

Scientific Reports volume  14 , Article number:  1884 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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  • Diagnostic markers
  • Human behaviour

Correlations between altered body temperature and depression have been reported in small samples; greater confidence in these associations would provide a rationale for further examining potential mechanisms of depression related to body temperature regulation. We sought to test the hypotheses that greater depression symptom severity is associated with (1) higher body temperature, (2) smaller differences between body temperature when awake versus asleep, and (3) lower diurnal body temperature amplitude. Data collected included both self-reported body temperature (using standard thermometers), wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperature (using an off-the-shelf wearable sensor that collected minute-level physiological data), and self-reported depressive symptoms from > 20,000 participants over the course of ~ 7 months as part of the TemPredict Study. Higher self-reported and wearable sensor-assessed body temperatures when awake were associated with greater depression symptom severity. Lower diurnal body temperature amplitude, computed using wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperature data, tended to be associated with greater depression symptom severity, though this association did not achieve statistical significance. These findings, drawn from a large sample, replicate and expand upon prior data pointing to body temperature alterations as potentially relevant factors in depression etiology and may hold implications for development of novel approaches to the treatment of major depressive disorder.

Introduction

Depression has become a health crisis of epidemic proportions 1 . Globally, the prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) has risen over the last several generations in countries across the world 2 . The last decade has seen a particularly significant increase in depression in the United States, with prevalence rates increasing by 33% between 2013 and 2016, with the largest increase among youth and young adults 3 , 4 . This is particularly concerning as the disease course is most likely to be malignant, and the costs of depression in terms of lost opportunities across a lifetime are likely to be highest in youth and young adulthood 4 . Rates of antidepressant use have increased substantially in most Western countries during the same time period 5 , and currently available pharmacologic agents have significant limitations in efficacy 6 , 7 , 8 . Taken together, these patterns highlight the urgent need to identify and implement new treatments for depression.

To develop novel treatments for depression it is important to identify mechanisms that contribute to the development and/or maintenance of depressive symptoms and that may be amenable to intervention. Although depression is both biologically and behaviorally heterogeneous 9 , 10 , an important first step in treatment development is often to identify physiologic signatures among individuals with MDD that are not present among those without MDD. Although no single biological or behavioral abnormality will characterize all individuals with MDD, the identification of an abnormality associated with MDD may open the door to identifying a relatively biologically homogeneous subgroup that demonstrates a larger treatment response to interventions that target the specific abnormality 11 .

One physiologic characteristic that may hold potential as a therapeutic target is thermoregulatory dysregulation 12 , which is among the most widely reported circadian biological abnormalities in affective disorders, including MDD. This has been observed in the form of elevated body temperature, particularly at night 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , when thermoregulatory cooling responses are critical for sleep onset and quality 17 , 18 . Such temperature elevations have also been reported during the day 19 , 20 . Notably, some data suggest that these aberrant temperature elevations improve upon clinical recovery in MDD 21 , 22 . Data have shown that circadian amplitude is blunted in depression 23 and that smaller differences between average body temperature during time awake (typically during the daytime) and during time asleep (typically during the nighttime) are associated with greater depressive symptoms 21 . Additionally, data have shown that individuals with depression have lower circadian body temperature amplitudes that increase upon clinical recovery 13 , 21 . These alterations are notable in light of the narrow range of human body temperature 24 , 25 .

Although suggestive, these results derive from small-scale studies conducted with limited sample sizes (< 300) and in controlled settings 13 , 14 , 15 , 19 , 20 . Thus, an important step toward understanding the association between thermoregulatory dysfunction and depressive symptoms is to establish this association outside of clinical laboratory settings and in larger samples. Establishing a more definitive association between measures of body temperature and depression would set the stage for further explorations of depression treatment modalities that target the thermoregulatory system. To accomplish this, the current analyses tested associations between monthly depression symptom scores and (1) self-collected body temperature submitted to the research team via online surveys and (2) wearable sensor device-collected distal body temperature automatically transmitted to the research team over the internet, in a large international sample ( N  > 20,000) of adults who participated in an online study focused on COVID-19 detection beginning in March of 2020. Initial analyses used self-reported body temperature, which participants collected using personal thermometers (e.g., oral temperature) and reported via daily surveys. Further analyses used minute-level distal body temperature data collected using an off-the-shelf wearable sensor device. In total, using wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperature, we analyzed four body temperature metrics examined in prior research 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 19 , 20 , 21 : (1) distal body temperature while awake; (2) distal body temperature while asleep; (3) the difference between the average distal body temperatures while asleep and awake; and (4) the diurnal distal body temperature amplitude. Based on prior studies with small samples and our prior theoretical work 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 19 , 20 , 21 , we hypothesized that higher self-reported body temperature and wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperatures, lower diurnal distal body temperature amplitude, and smaller differences between awake and asleep distal body temperature, would be associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms.

Study overview

The TemPredict Study, initiated in March of 2020, sought to assess whether off-the-shelf wearable sensor devices collect data that could be used to screen large numbers of individuals for the early stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection 26 , 27 . The primary findings included that physiological data allowed for prediction of a COVID-19 infection 2.75 days prior to diagnosis. All participants wore a commercially available off-the-shelf wearable sensor device, the Oura Ring (Oura Health, Oulu, Finland) that collected distal body temperature (one value per minute while worn on the finger) and paired with a smartphone app. Participants also completed daily surveys that asked for a self-collected body temperature measurement (assessed with a handheld thermometer; not assessed using the wearable device), a baseline survey that collected demographic data, and monthly surveys that included mental health assessments.

The self-reported body temperature analytic sample included 20,880 individuals ( Supplementary Fig. S1 ). The mean age (standard deviation [SD]) was 46.9 (12.6) years; 53% male; 47% female. For adjusted analyses, we excluded participants who reported their biological sex as ‘other’ and participants whose biological sex was missing ( n  = 17). We first computed each participant’s average T-score across a maximum of seven monthly PROMIS depression assessments. We then computed the average of all participants’ mean T-scores (SD); this value was 51.49 (7.37), which is within normal limits (WNL). On average, participants completed 3.6 of 7 possible PROMIS depression assessments and self-reported a total of 559,664 body temperature assessments (mean of 27 daily temperature reports per participant).

The wearable sensor-assessed body temperature analytic sample included 21,064 individuals ( Supplementary Fig. S2 ). The mean age (SD) was 46.5 (12.1) years; 56% male; 44% female. The average T-score across a maximum of seven monthly PROMIS depression assessments in this sample was 50.94 (7.26), which is also WNL. On average, participants completed 4.0 of 7 possible PROMIS depression assessments; we used 2 weeks of wearable sensor device distal body temperature data prior to each completed PROMIS assessment for analyses. Participants had an average of 35.5 days of distal body temperature data with at least (1) 4 h of distal body temperature data during the asleep period and (2) at least 4 h of distal body temperature data during the awake period for each 24-h period available within our timeframe of analyses. Both analytic samples (which we drew from the same participant pool) included a geographically diverse set of individuals from 106 different countries.

Self-reported body temperature

Depression symptom frequencies.

Of the 20,880 participants with self-reported temperature data, 13,595 had an average depression symptom severity WNL (T-score < 55), 4527 had an average depression symptom severity within the mild range (T-score ≥ 55 and < 60), 2666 had an average depression symptom severity within the moderate range (T-score ≥ 60 and < 70), and 92 had an average depression symptom severity within the severe range (T-score ≥ 70) of the PROMIS depression assessment 28 . The average depression symptom severity score across participants’ average scores was 51.5 (the average within-person SD = 2.5), and the average range between participants’ lowest to highest scores was 5.2 (SD = 5.5), and the median was 3.9 (interquartile range [IQR] = 0–8.3).

Graphical depictions of self-report temperature data

Figure  1 illustrates the differences in average self-reported body temperature across participants with average PROMIS depression symptom T-scores WNL, and in the mild, moderate, and severe ranges. The self-reported, time-stamped body temperature survey data (adjusted for local time zone) revealed that participants’ self-reported temperatures followed expected diurnal patterns (Fig.  2 ), with lower body temperatures in the early morning and rising body temperatures during daytime hours that fell in the evening hours. This is consistent with the interpretation that participants self-collected their body temperature around the same time that they reported their body temperature to the study. As shown, participants tended to self-report their body temperature more often in the morning than in the evening.

figure 1

Average self-reported body temperature ( A ) and average wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperature ( B ) plotted by PROMIS depression symptom T-score categories. Figure panels show that individuals with PROMIS depression symptom T-scores within normal limits (WNL; green) have the lowest average self-reported and wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperatures, with increasing average self-reported and wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperatures among individuals in the mild (yellow), moderate (orange), and severe (red) PROMIS depression symptom T-score categories. Note . We took the self-reported body temperature data from each calendar day (Panel A ; most frequently reported by participants in the morning) and the average of any available wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperature data from each calendar day (during awake time; Panel B ) and plotted those average values for the different depression groups. We smoothed average self-reported and wearable sensor-assessed body temperatures (°C) using an exponentially weighted moving average with a 7-day window before and after each timepoint as a function of the average NIH PROMIS Adult Health Profile instrument for depression (Form 4a) score. See Supplementary Fig. S3 for unsmoothed figure panels.

figure 2

Average self-reported body temperature by time-of-day. Figure depicts expected diurnal pattern of lowest self-reported body temperatures reported in the early morning hours and higher self-reported body temperatures during daytime hours. Note. Blue line depicts average self-reported body temperature (right Y axis) by time of day; blue shading indicates standard error of the mean. Red shading indicates number of responses (left Y axis) provided at each minute (X axis).

Linear regression models

We used linear regression models to assess whether the average daily self-reported body temperature recorded over seven months was correlated with the average PROMIS depression T-score across seven monthly assessments from the same period. We found that these were positively correlated (greater body temperature associated with greater depression T-score) in an unadjusted model ( b  = 1.6661; 95% CI [1.4128,1.9195]; p  = 7.1 × 10 –38 ) and in a model adjusted for age, biological sex, and self-reported body temperature survey time stamp ( b  = 0.8595; 95% CI [0.6118,1.1071]; p  = 1.1 × 10 –11 ], Table 1 ). We calculated E-values as sensitivity analyses. E-values for these linear models ranged from 1.38 to 1.60, and in all cases were larger than observed effects of body temperature, age, or biological sex on depression (Table 1 ), meaning that it is unlikely that unaddressed or unmeasured confounders had effects that better explained the reported (observed) effects. Standardized adjusted regression analyses showed that body temperature accounted for unique variance in PROMIS depression T-scores beyond the known variance accounted for by biological sex and age ( Supplementary Table S1 ).

Logistic regression models

We next tested whether greater self-reported body temperature was associated with increased odds of having depression using separate logistic regression models for each category of depression (mild, moderate, and severe). In unadjusted analyses (Table 2 ), the odds ratio for having average PROMIS depression T-scores within the mild range vs. WNL were significantly increased with each 0.1 °C increase in average body temperature (OR: 1.030; 95% CI [1.021,1.039]; p  = 1.4 × 10 –11 ). Similarly, there were increased (but progressively greater) odds of having (with each 0.1 °C increase in body temperature) PROMIS depression T-scores within the moderate range (OR = 1.051 [95% CI, 1.040, 1.062], p  = 2.3 × 10 –20 ) and of having PROMIS depression T-scores within the severe range (OR: 1.114; 95% CI [1.060, 1.171], p  = 2.1 × 10 –5 ) relative to PROMIS depression T-scores WNL (Fig.  3 ). Similar regression analyses adjusting for covariates attenuated these differences somewhat (mild vs. WNL; OR: 1.015; 95% CI [1.006, 1.024], p  = 8.7 × 10 –4 ; moderate vs. WNL OR: 1.027 95% CI [1.016, 1.038], p  = 1.8 × 10 –6 ; severe vs. WNL: OR = 1.081; 95% CI [1.028, 1.138], p  = 0.0026; Table 3 ). E-values for these logistic models ranged from 1.09 to 1.30, and in all cases were larger than observed effects of self-reported body temperature, age, or biological sex, on depression (Tables 2 and 3 ).

figure 3

Forest plot depicting odds ratios from logistic regression models. Adjusted and unadjusted models predict PROMIS depression T-score categories (mild, moderate, severe) vs. depressive symptoms within normal limits (WNL) from self-reported body temperature (scaled per 0.1 °C).

Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analyses

ROC curve analyses for each logistic regression model (Fig.  4 ) showed better discernment based on the adjusted rather than unadjusted models comparing PROMIS depression T-scores between the severe and WNL ranges (AUC = 0.762 vs. unadjusted AUC = 0.635), between the moderate and WNL ranges (AUC = 0.672 vs. unadjusted AUC = 0.557), and between the mild and WNL ranges (AUC = 0.612 vs. unadjusted AUC = 0.537). Using Youden’s Index, which locates the threshold value that maximizes the distance between the ROC curve and the line of chance, to identify optimally performing threshold values from each ROC curve resulted in 85.87% sensitivity to detect PROMIS depression T-scores within the severe range based on the adjusted model, but with specificity of 34.05%; the best performance was 96.91% sensitivity to detect PROMIS depression T-scores within the moderate range (with 63.40% specificity) from the unadjusted model. Sensitivity was lowest (42.72%) for detection of PROMIS depression T-scores within the mild range based on an unadjusted analysis. Specificity was lowest (31.55%) for detection of PROMIS depression T-scores within the moderate range based on the adjusted model (Table 4 ).

figure 4

Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses. Figure panel depicts ROC curves based on unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models for PROMIS depression T-scores in the severe range (Panel A ), the moderate range (Panel B ), and the mild range (Panel C ), versus PROMIS depression symptom T-scores within normal limits (WNL).

Wearable sensor-assessed temperature

Of the 21,064 participants with wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperature data, 14,345 had an average depression symptom severity WNL, 4318 had an average depression symptom severity within the mild range, 2330 had an average depression symptom severity within the moderate range, and 71 had an average depression symptom severity within the severe range of the PROMIS depression assessment 28 . The average depression symptom severity score across participants’ mean scores was 50.9 (SD = 2.2), and the mean range between participants’ lowest to highest scores was 5.5 (SD = 5.6), and the median was 4.9 (IQR = 0–8.7).

Distributions of wearable sensor-assessed body temperature metrics by depression symptom severity

Probability density plots illustrate differences in the distribution of 4 wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperature metrics by severity of depressive symptoms (Fig.  5 A–D). The awake distal body temperature distributions shift slightly higher from WNL to mild, and from WNL to moderate, with the most pronounced shift from WNL to severe depressive symptoms (see Kolmogorov–Smirnov D-statistics, below). In contrast, the asleep–awake distal body temperature difference and the diurnal distal body temperature amplitude plots demonstrate similar distribution shifts in the other direction; the visible separation of curves largely shows that differences in the mean values for these two variables decrease as depression symptom severity (in comparison to depression symptom scores WNL) increases. The plot for asleep distal body temperature shows more overlap in distributions but some separation of the curves is evident. For diurnal distal body temperatures, the mean within-individual standard deviation was 0.96 for the WNL category, 0.95 for the mild category, 0.91 for the moderate category, and 0.88 for the severe category.

figure 5

Figure panel depicting wearable sensor-assessed body temperature metrics. Probability Density Plots showing distributions of: Awake distal body temperature (Panel A ); asleep distal body temperature (Panel B ); asleep–awake distal body temperature difference (Panel C ); diurnal distal body temperature amplitude separately for individuals with PROMIS depression T-scores within normal limits (WNL; green), and within the mild (yellow), moderate (orange), and severe (red) PROMIS depression symptom T-score categories (Panel D ); distribution of the Euclidean Distance (within mild, moderate, and severe depression subgroups) of three distal body temperature metrics (awake temperature, asleep–awake temperature difference, and diurnal distal body temperature amplitude) from the centroid of those metrics among individuals with depression scores WNL (Panel E ).

Magnitude of associations between wearable sensor-assessed body temperature metrics and depression symptom severity

Kolmogorov–Smirnov D-statistics, which can be considered a measure of effect size, ranged from 0.094 to 0.225 for comparisons of severe symptoms versus WNL for all 4 distal body temperature metrics, while they ranged from 0.014 to 0.056 for comparisons between moderate symptoms versus WNL, and mild symptoms versus WNL (Table 5 ). Within each of the 4 distal body temperature metrics, the D-statistic was largest for the comparisons of severe symptoms versus WNL and smallest for comparisons of mild symptoms versus WNL. Relative to individuals WNL, individuals with severe depressive symptoms had distal body temperature distributions that were higher during the awake and asleep periods and had lower diurnal amplitudes and smaller asleep–awake temperature differences than individuals with moderate or mild depressive symptoms. The associated statistical tests revealed statistically significant differences between distribution of awake distal body temperature, the asleep–awake difference in distal body temperature, and the diurnal distal body temperature amplitude, but not for asleep distal body temperature, when comparing distributions of these metrics among participants with severe symptoms versus WNL. The distributions of all 4 metrics in participants with moderate symptoms were statistically significantly different from the distributions among participants with symptoms WNL. Only the distribution of asleep distal body temperature in participants with mild symptoms had statistically significant differences compared to participants WNL; comparisons of the distributions of the other 3 metrics between mild symptoms and WNL were not statistically significant.

The Kolomogorov-Smirnov D-statistics shown in Table 5 are a measure of the maximum vertical distance between WNL and all other depression symptom categories on the empirical Cumulative Distribution Function (eCDF) plots ( Supplementary Fig. S4 ). The eCDF plots, as with the density plots in Fig.  5 A–D, are another illustration of the shifts in distal body temperature metric distributions with depressive symptom severity. These analyses show that the distal body temperature distributions differed the most between individuals with depressive symptoms in the severe range and individuals with depression symptoms WNL.

The rank biserial correlation coefficients (RBC) comparing each distal body temperature metric for individuals with severe, moderate, or mild depressive symptoms (relative to individuals WNL) showed that the RBC increased as depressive symptoms increased for awake distal body temperature and asleep distal body temperature, consistent with the D-statistics and the increasing mean distal body temperatures with increasing depression symptom severity for these metrics (Table 6 ). The asleep–awake difference in distal body temperature and diurnal distal body temperature amplitude generally both decreased as symptom severity increased, and correspondingly, the RBC decreased as symptom severity increased.

Standardized (to WNL) comparisons of body temperature metrics between mild, moderate, and severe depression symptom severities

A probability density plot showing the distribution of the Euclidean Distance of awake distal body temperature, the asleep–awake difference in distal body temperature, and diurnal distal body temperature amplitude to the centroid (mean of these measures among participants WNL), appears in Fig.  5 E. This plot shows that all levels of depression symptom severity (mild, moderate, severe) shifted away from the WNL centroid but with much overlap between curves for mild and moderate depressive symptoms, and less overlap with the curve for severe depressive symptoms. This indicates that people with severe depressive symptoms differed more from the WNL values than did people with mild or moderate depressive symptoms. That is, the severe depressive symptoms showed a more pronounced shift away from WNL values compared to the WNL centroid, though this was not statistically significant (Kruskal–Wallis test, p  = 0.065).

To our knowledge, this is the largest study to date to examine the association between body temperature, assessed using both self-report methods and wearable sensors, and depressive symptoms in a geographically broad sample. In these analyses, higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with higher body temperatures during time awake. We observed this finding using body temperatures assessed (1) at most once per day via self-collection using handheld thermometers, and (2) at most once per minute via an unobtrusive wearable sensor device (worn on the finger). We found that distal body temperatures collected by the wearable sensor device during sleep were fairly similar across depression categories and were higher than awake distal body temperatures; this resulted in smaller asleep–awake distal body temperature differences with increasing depressive symptom severity. We also found that the association between self-reported body temperature and depressive symptoms was robust to adjusting for time of day at which body temperature was assessed (as done in prior work with smaller samples) 19 . We also observed these associations between self-reported body temperature and depressive symptoms in models that statistically accounted for demographic factors that can affect body temperature 29 .

These findings confirm associations between depressive symptoms and body temperature reported in smaller studies (< 300 participants) 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 19 , 20 , 21 . Specifically, these analyses replicated prior results showing that daytime self-reported body temperature was associated with greater depressive symptoms 19 , 20 and build on one prior study showing that the asleep–awake body temperature difference was more than twice as large among controls relative to individuals with depression 21 . In contrast to prior work 13 , 21 ; however, we did not observe an association between increased body temperature during sleep time among individuals with greater depressive symptoms. This may be due in part to key differences in measurement; prior studies 13 , 21 monitored rectal (core) temperature during the night, whereas the wearable sensor in these analyses was collected from the skin of the finger (distal). As core temperature typically decreases whereas peripheral temperature increases during sleep 30 , it is possible that body temperature increases we observed during sleep are specific to distal temperature. Additionally, these analyses went beyond single self-reported daily body temperature assessments by including minute-level wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperature data over the course of several months, which prior studies of depressive symptoms and body temperature have not done. Importantly, we observed these associations outside of the controlled laboratory setting, which lends further external validity to these findings.

It is uncertain whether the elevated body temperature observed in depression reflects increased metabolic heat production, decreased ability to induce thermoregulatory cooling, or a combination of both. Body temperature reflects a balance between metabolic heat generation and thermoregulatory heat loss, with these processes under tight control by an integrated neural and immune-based feedback system that involves both bodily and central nervous system processes 12 . Available data suggest that the inadequate ability to activate thermoregulatory cooling mechanisms, as indexed by a reduced ability to sweat, may play an important role in the body temperature alterations observed in depression 15 , 31 . Based on these and other findings, we have previously proposed that MDD may be associated with dysregulation of afferent warm signals from distal cutaneous sensors to the central nervous system, i.e., involving heat-defense mechanisms traveling along the spinoparabrachial pathway 32 , leading secondarily to decreases in sweating as assessed by measurement of skin conductance levels 12 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 . Indeed, a recent systematic review and narrative synthesis concluded that lower skin conductance level in individuals with depression versus healthy controls has been a consistent finding 37 .

Evidence suggests that individuals with MDD may have altered electrodermal activity (EDA), which is now the preferred term that encompasses historical terms related to electrical characteristics of the skin, such as electrodermal level, electrodermal response, galvanic skin response, psychogalvanic reflex, skin conductance, skin conductance level, skin conductance response, and sympathetic skin response. EDA is typically assessed as changes in the amount of sweat secreted by eccrine sweat glands in the hypodermis of the palmar region of the hand and plantar region of the foot. EDA has a tonic and a phasic component, with the tonic component being related to skin conductance level), and with the phasic component being related to faster-changing elements of the signal that can be associated with an acute stimulus (skin conductance response) or “spontaneous” or “nonspecific” (nonspecific skin conductance response) 38 , 39 . Reduced EDA was first associated with depression in 1890 40 , an observation repeatedly observed in depression since then 37 , 41 . The most consistent findings in individuals with MDD (relative to healthy controls), have been lower skin conductance level, increased skin conductance response latency, and lower skin conductance response amplitude, suggesting alterations of multiple elements of EDA in persons with depression 37 .

Correlations between body temperature metrics and depressive symptoms suggest potential common underlying pathophysiological mechanisms. For example, chronic stressors that contribute to risk for depression 42 may also impact thermoregulation dysregulation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis 43 , 44 , 45 . In addition, abnormal glutamate/gamma-aminobutyric acid signaling has been observed in MDD post-mortem brains 46 , and this altered excitatory/inhibitory balance could also contribute to dysregulated body temperature, as shown in models of hot flashes 47 . Finally, low-grade (micro- or para-) inflammation 48 could lead to both elevated body temperature 49 and depressive symptoms 50 , 51 . Interestingly, temperature sensitive channels have been implicated in MDD and bipolar disorder and have also been shown to regulate inflammatory responses 52 and body temperature 53 , 54 . Thus, temperature-sensitive immune-regulatory channels are potential targets for development of MDD treatments.

Associations between body temperature and depression might be relegated to the realm of academic interest were it not for data showing that interventions directly targeting thermoregulatory systems have yielded antidepressant effects. Although it may seem counterintuitive that interventions that temporarily raise body temperature could benefit a condition characterized by increased body temperature, acute exposure to high heat induces counter-regulatory thermoregulatory cooling processes that produce longer-term and sustained reductions in body temperature 55 . In the context of MDD, whole-body hyperthermia has been reported to elicit a rapid and sustained reduction in depressive symptoms following a single whole-body hyperthermia treatment designed to raise core body temperature to 38.5 °C 56 , 57 . Notably, in one of these trials, participants with depression and higher body temperatures prior to WBH tended to experience larger antidepressant responses 57 . Antidepressant effects have also been observed for other heat-based interventions, including hot yoga 58 , hyperthermic baths 59 , and infrared sauna lamps 56 , 57 . Though these initial studies suggest that alterations in abilities to regulate body temperature may be associated with at least some cases of depression, clarifying the biological pathways through which body temperature is altered in some individuals with depression may reveal more specific pathogenic mechanisms amenable to targeted treatment for individuals with depression and elevated body temperature.

Several limitations of this study warrant discussion and have implications for further investigation. Though most self-reported body temperatures were likely collected using oral assessment methods, participants used personal thermometers to collect their body temperature, and did not report the body site from which they collected their temperature. Unless the site from which participants measured their temperature varied systematically by levels of depressive symptoms, this measurement issue is likely to have made it more difficult to observe an association between body temperature and mood because of increased noise in temperature measurement (thus attenuating observed effects and plausibly rendering them conservative estimates of the true association). Thus, that the reported effects emerged despite this methodological noise is noteworthy. Additionally, we report here the most conservative statistical analysis of difference between groups by aggregating across time to determine average temperature parameters per person. As Fig.  1 makes clear, there are substantial changes for all groups across the year, and we do not attempt to use these changes to reduce the unexplained variance in our comparisons. Given the consistency of the differences visible across the months of data collection, we expect that future classification analyses could generate substantially larger effect sizes than we report here by statistically accounting for time of day, week, month, and year in order to reduce the contribution of these non-random sources of variance from the statistical comparisons.

Although adjusted analyses accounted for the time of day at which participants collected their body temperature, standardizing the time of day at which participants collected their body temperature would have reduced measurement variability. Future research using self-reported body temperature should standardize the thermometer device used, the site from which participants collect their body temperature, and the time of day temperature measurements are collected. Wearable sensor-assessed body temperature may have some additional benefits, such as the provision of continuous assessments that can provide significantly more analytic power. Additionally, wearable sensors may reduce problems associated with human errors in self-collecting body temperature (e.g., improper thermometer placement) and self-reporting (e.g., forgetting to report a value, incorrectly typing in a value).

The wearable sensor-based temperature measurements we used in this study supported the main findings of associations between depressive symptoms and self-reported temperature. Further, they extended these findings, for example, by allowing us to assess associations between depressive symptoms and the difference between awake and asleep body temperature. The wearable sensor devices we used have their own limitations, however. The wearable sensor devices measured dermal temperature on the finger, which can differ from core body temperature. Self-reported body temperatures were likely oral body temperature, which is a metric of core body temperature. The wearable sensor may have artifacts due to measurement errors, for example, due to removing the ring from a finger. To limit measurement artifacts from the wearable sensor, we took steps such as removing the upper and lower 5% body temperature assessments.

We used average depressive symptom scores and body temperature values in these analyses. An important remaining question is whether changes in depressive symptoms are associated with changes in body temperature, and over what timescale. We were unable to assess this well, as depressive symptoms were relatively stable in most of our cohort, with the median range between the highest and lowest depression T-score being 3.9, which may constitute a clinically meaningful difference but relative to categorical depression levels represents a relatively small difference. Although limited prior data suggest that body temperature may decrease when depressive symptoms decrease 21 , 57 , we were not able to address whether altering body temperature may improve depressive symptoms. As noted, small pilot studies suggest this might be the case 57 , but this is a key area for more rigorous, larger studies in the future. The current analyses reinforce the rationale for such intervention research.

Although we were unable to assess many potential confounders, sensitivity analysis using E-values showed that unmeasured confounders would need to be larger than observed effects of several known relevant variables to explain away all observed effects in these models. Although there are several known risk factors for depression that were not included in this analysis, to function as a confounder, these factors would also need to be associated with elevated body temperature. Genetics play a role in depression, and plausibly may be related to body temperature; however, it seems possible that genetic links to depression and temperature may relate to genetic mediators of depression through a thermoregulatory pathway, rather than constituting unmeasured confounders in observed associations. Illness can play a role in depression and may also influence body temperature, and we were not able to control for this; however, the magnitude of unmeasured potential confounding effects of chronic illnesses causing both depression and elevated body temperature would need to be substantially larger than our observed effects, given the magnitude of the E-values we observed. In these data, ROC curve analysis illustrated the strength of the association between body temperature and depression, with moderate-to-high AUC values across all models, and the highest being for severe depression.

These data confirm an association between body temperature and depressive symptoms in a large sample using body temperature metrics (1) that participants self-collected and self-reported and (2) assessed by wearable sensor devices that automatically transmitted data to the research team, and replicate prior research showing that individuals with depression have smaller asleep–awake body temperature differences. Though depression is biologically, behaviorally, and psychologically heterogeneous, these findings suggest that body temperature may be a candidate biological marker of depression for some individuals with depressive symptoms. Treatments that target elevated body temperature in individuals with both elevated body temperature and depression may warrant further evaluation.

Study design and participants

The TemPredict Study 26 , 27 was a prospective, worldwide, cohort study that continuously collected physiological metrics (e.g., body temperature) using an off-the-shelf wearable device (Oura Ring) with the primary aim of developing an algorithm to identify the onset of COVID-19. In addition to data collected by the Oura Ring, participants self-reported their body temperature daily and completed monthly surveys. Average study engagement was 127.1 days for the self-reported body temperature analyses and 87.7 days for the sensor-assessed distal body temperature analyses. Eligible participants were at least 18 years of age, possessed a smartphone that could pair with the Oura Ring, and could communicate in English. Eligible participants either already possessed an Oura Ring that they used for participation or were provided with an Oura Ring for participation (the study provided Oura Rings to frontline healthcare workers at several participating healthcare institutions). We conducted participant recruitment through invitations delivered within the Oura smartphone app; these invitations contained embedded weblinks for prospective participants to review study details and to begin the study enrollment process 60 . All participants provided electronic informed consent. Participants provided consent to use data from their personally owned Oura Ring prior to their enrollment; we therefore analyzed data collected by the wearable devices beginning in April 2020. We did not pay participants for participation. The University of California, San Francisco, Institutional Review Board (IRB; IRB# 20-30408) and U.S. Department of Defense, Human Research Protection Office (HRPO; HRPO# E01877.1a) approved of all study procedures, and all research was performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations and the Declaration of Helsinki. We followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guidelines 61 .

Depression severity

Participants received a monthly survey (Qualtrics Survey Software) via email that included the Patient Reported Outcomes Medical Information System (PROMIS) Adult Health Profile instrument for depression (v1.0 Form 4a) with the recall period modified (as described elsewhere 62 ) to reflect the past month rather than the past 7 days 63 .

Participants self-reported their demographic information, including age and biological sex, in a baseline survey. Participants self-reported their self-assessed body temperature once per day by accessing a daily self-reported survey (Qualtrics Survey Software) that was linked within the Oura App. The daily survey asked participants to report the highest body temperature value they collected within the last day (in °F or °C, per participant preference). For these daily self-reported temperature assessments, participants used their own thermometers (which were not provided by the study, and which may have been of any brand), and we did not ask participants to report the type of thermometer used or the method of body temperature assessment. Qualtrics generated a time stamp for each completed survey.

Wearable sensor-assessed body temperature

All participants wore the Oura Ring Gen2 (ouraring.com), a commercially available wearable sensor device (Oura Health, Oulu, Finland), on a finger of their choosing, as previously described 27 . The Oura Ring connects to the Oura App (available in Google Play Store and Apple App Stores) via Bluetooth. Users can wear the ring continuously during daily activities and sleep in wet and dry environments. The Oura Ring assesses distal body temperature using a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor (resolution of 0.07 °C) on the internal surface of the ring, which is in relatively consistent contact with the skin. The wearable sensor registers distal (dermal, peripheral) body temperature readings from the palm side of the finger base every minute. As described elsewhere 27 , 64 , the Oura Ring also assesses other physiological metrics, including sleep parameters, heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, and activity metrics.

Data analyses

We performed statistical analyses using Stata v16 and Python v3.8.10 with the statsmodels (v0.13.2), scipy (v1.8.0), and scikit_posthocs (v0.8.0) packages.

Variable preparation

Each item on the PROMIS depression Form 4a is scored from 1 ( never ) to 5 ( always ), and these item scores are summed to create a total raw summary score. We converted raw PROMIS depression summary scores to T-scores using the conversion tables in the PROMIS scoring manual (healthmeasures.net 65 ). PROMIS T-scores are referenced to a general adult population with a mean score of 50 and standard deviation of 10, with higher T-scores indicating greater depression symptomatology 63 , 66 .

Self-report body temperature

We excluded self-reported body temperature data points that were above 38.0 °C, as these are not representative of baseline temperature and meet criteria for clinical fever. We excluded these periods of potential illness because the focus of this analysis was body temperature under usual conditions of daily life, and so we excluded known periods of aberrant physiology. We used the Qualtrics auto-generated timestamp to create self-reported body temperature “time of day variables” as done in prior work examining associations between oral temperature and self-reported depressive symptoms 19 . Specifically, we calculated the cosine (B1) and sine (B2) of 2*pi*t for each self-reported body temperature value, where “t” was the decimal proportion of the day during which the daily survey was completed.

Wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperature

For each participant, we used the two weeks of distal body temperature data prior to each completed PROMIS assessment. For each 24-h period, we discarded wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperature values below the 5th percentile value and above the 95th percentile. This served to exclude periods of non-wear and periods of clinical fever and to minimize influence from non-representative extreme values (e.g., outliers), as done in prior research with wearable sensor-assessed metrics 67 , 68 , 69 . We used hypnogram data to determine periods of asleep versus awake. As done in prior studies of body temperature and depression 19 , 21 , we computed metrics for the daily average distal body temperature during minutes awake (“awake distal body temperature”), the daily average during sleeping minutes (“asleep distal body temperature”), and the difference between those averages (“asleep–awake distal body temperature difference”). To compute the diurnal distal body temperature amplitude, we calculated the daily maximum distal body temperature as the highest daily value and the daily minimum distal body temperature as the lowest daily value for each person and calculated the difference between these two values.

Statistical approach

Analyses of self-reported body temperature data included participants who completed one or more PROMIS depression assessments and who provided at least one self-reported temperature assessment, resulting in a sample of 20,880 participants.

We computed an unadjusted linear regression model with participants’ average self-reported body temperature as the predictor variable and average PROMIS depression T-score as the outcome variable. We also computed a multiple linear regression model that adjusted for age and biological sex, both of which can affect body temperature 29 , as well as body temperature survey time stamp (as done in prior analyses of depression and body temperature 19 ). We included each participant’s body temperature time-of-day variables (average B1 and B2) in adjusted models to hold constant the average effect of time of day for each participant’s average body temperature. We plotted body temperatures for each depression T-score category.

We then conducted unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models with categorical depression level variables (mild, moderate, and severe, each with WNL as the reference category) as outcomes. We used established thresholds for PROMIS depression T-scores, with separate models for mild (T-score 55–59.99) vs. WNL (T-score below 55); moderate (T-score 60–69.99) vs. WNL; and severe (T-score 70 or greater) vs. WNL, as the outcome variable, and self-reported body temperature as the predictor, scaled per 0.1 °C 63 . We report odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the odds for each depression level with a 0.1 °C increase in average self-reported body temperature and visualized this in a forest plot. For each linear and logistic regression model, we performed sensitivity analyses by calculating E-values 70 , 71 , which provide estimates of the magnitude of unmeasured confounding that could explain the observed effects and have been recommended as a type of sensitivity analysis 70 , 72 . We conducted receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analyses for each logistic regression model and calculated the area under the curve (AUC) to evaluate how well self-reported body temperature could identify depressive symptoms in three depression comparisons (WNL vs. mild; WNL vs. moderate, and WNL vs. severe), and used Youden’s Index to identify body temperature thresholds to evaluate sensitivity and specificity based on those threshold values 73 . Youden’s index can be calculated as (sensitivity + specificity –1) and ranges between 1 and 0, with 1 indicating perfect sensitivity and specificity and 0 indicating results no better than chance 73 . Maximizing Youden’s index in ROC analysis identifies the value of a continuous predictor that best distinguishes cases and non-cases, and is equivalent to locating the point on the curve that is furthest from the line of chance 74 . To control for multiple comparisons, we set the significance level at p  < 0.01 for all statistical tests (all two-sided).

Analyses involving wearable sensor-assessed distal body temperature data included participants who completed one or more PROMIS depression assessments and wore an Oura Ring for at least seven 24-h periods with at least 4 h of asleep and awake distal body temperature data recorded during each 24-h period, resulting in a sample of 21,064 participants. We included distal body temperature data collected in the 2 weeks prior to each completed PROMIS depression assessment.

We grouped participants into WNL, mild, moderate, or severe depression PROMIS depression symptom categories 75 , 76 . We plotted probability density plots to illustrate differences in the distributions of the four distal body temperature metrics by severity of depressive symptoms. We then calculated Kolmogorov–Smirnov Distance (D-statistic) and p -values, together with rank biserial correlations and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals, to quantify the magnitude of the association between distal body temperature metrics and depression symptom severity. We also created empirical Cumulative Distribution Function (eCDF) plots. Briefly, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov D-statistic is proportional to the maximum vertical distance between two eCDF plots, and ranges from 0 (distributions entirely overlapping) to 1 (distributions completely separated), functioning as a relative effect size metric for the comparison between two empirical distributions 77 , 78 . Together, the above analyses allowed us to compare the distributions of distal body temperature metrics of the three depression symptom categories (mild, moderate, severe) relative to WNL. We also calculated Rank Biserial Correlations 79 , 80 with 95% confidence intervals 81 . To further explore distal body temperature differences between depression symptom categories, we computed the standardized distal body temperature metrics within each level of depression symptom severity (mild, moderate, and severe) against those from the WNL centroid (the Euclidean Distance). We calculated the WNL centroid as mean of awake distal body temperature, asleep–awake temperature difference in distal body temperature, and diurnal distal body temperature amplitude; we did not include asleep distal body temperature within this centroid calculation as asleep distal body temperature did not diverge based on depression symptom category. We calculated the Euclidean Distance as the distance between the WNL centroid and each participants’ values on each of three distal body temperature metrics (awake distal body temperature, asleep–awake temperature difference in distal body temperature, and diurnal distal body temperature amplitude). We then created density plots for the distribution of the Euclidean Distance; we did this within each depression category (mild, moderate, severe) and computed a Kruskal–Wallis test.

Data availability

Oura’s data use policy does not permit us to make wearable sensor-assessed (via the Oura Ring) data available to third parties. Self-report data (e.g., self-reported body temperature, self-reported depressive symptoms) can be made available; those seeking to reproduce our findings should contact Ashley Mason, PhD, and Benjamin Smarr, PhD for an online application to access the study data portal. This application process will require requesters to make a written commitment expressing agreements to not duplicate data, to not share data with third parties, and/or other confidentiality precautions.

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This effort was funded under MTEC solicitation MTEC-20-12-Diagnostics-023 and the USAMRDC under the Department of Defense (#MTEC-20-12-COVID19-D.-023). The #StartSmall foundation (#7029991), and Oura Health Oy (#134650) also provided funding for this work. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Government.

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These authors contributed equally: Frederick M. Hecht and Benjamin L. Smarr.

Authors and Affiliations

Osher Center for Integrative Health, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

Ashley E. Mason, Wendy Hartogensis, Leena S. Pandya & Frederick M. Hecht

Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

Patrick Kasl, Severine Soltani & Benjamin L. Smarr

Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

Abigail Green

Department of Management, Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

Stephan Dilchert

Department of Psychology, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

Anoushka Chowdhary

Department of Wellness and Preventative Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA

Chelsea J. Siwik

Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

Simmie L. Foster & Maren Nyer

Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

Christopher A. Lowry

Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

Charles L. Raison

Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

Benjamin L. Smarr

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Conception or design of the work: A.E.M., P.K., B.L.S., C.L.R.; acquisition of data: A.E.M., S.D., A.C., L.S.P., C.J.S., F.M.H.; analysis or interpretation of data: P.K., S.S., A.G., W.H., F.M.H.; creation of new software used in the work: P.K., S.S., A.G., B.L.S.; drafted or substantively revised the work: A.E.M., W.H., C.A.L., S.F., M.N., C.L.R., F.M.H. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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CLR serves as a consultant for Usona Institute, Novartis, Emory Healthcare and Biogen/Sage. AEM and BLS have received financial renumeration from Oura Ring, Inc. for consulting. BLS has a financial interest in Oura Ring, Inc. CAL is Cofounder, Board Member, and Chief Scientific Officer of Mycobacteria Therapeutics Corporation, and is a member of the faculty of the Integrative Psychiatry Institute, Boulder, Colorado, the Institute for Brain Potential, Los Banos, California, and Intelligent Health Ltd, Reading, UK. All other authors do not have any competing interests to declare.

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Mason, A.E., Kasl, P., Soltani, S. et al. Elevated body temperature is associated with depressive symptoms: results from the TemPredict Study. Sci Rep 14 , 1884 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-51567-w

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-51567-w

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sample introduction to a research paper

IMAGES

  1. Example Of Introduction In Research Paper Pdf

    sample introduction to a research paper

  2. Example Of An Introduction For A Research Paper : 3 : After the title page and abstract, the

    sample introduction to a research paper

  3. Example Of An Introduction For A Research Paper : 4+ self introduction written sample

    sample introduction to a research paper

  4. Thesis Introduction Sample Pdf

    sample introduction to a research paper

  5. Example Of An Introduction For A Research Paper : How To Write A Research Paper Step By Step Guide

    sample introduction to a research paper

  6. Example Of An Introduction For A Research Paper

    sample introduction to a research paper

VIDEO

  1. Sample Introduction (for interview to study abroad)

  2. 0 introduction research method Doctoral Program

  3. 12 Important Practice Questions /Research Methodology in English Education /Unit-1 /B.Ed. 4th Year

  4. Research Paper Methodology

  5. Secret To Writing A Research Paper

  6. Writing a Research Paper's Opening

COMMENTS

  1. How to Write a Research Paper Introduction (with Examples)

    The introduction for a research paper is where you set up your topic and approach for the reader. It has several key goals: Present your research topic Capture reader interest Summarize existing research Position your own approach Define your specific research problem and problem statement Highlight the novelty and contributions of the study

  2. Writing a Research Paper Introduction

    Step 1: Introduce your topic Step 2: Describe the background Step 3: Establish your research problem Step 4: Specify your objective (s) Step 5: Map out your paper Research paper introduction examples Frequently asked questions about the research paper introduction Step 1: Introduce your topic

  3. 6 Examples of Research Paper Introductions to Hook Your Readers

    6 Examples of Research Paper Introductions to Hook Your Readers Welcome to our guide on research paper introductions! As you may already know, the introduction is a critical component of any research paper, as it sets the tone for the rest of the paper and establishes the reader's expectations.

  4. Research Paper Introduction

    January 3, 2024 by Muhammad Hassan Table of Contents Research Paper Introduction Research paper introduction is the first section of a research paper that provides an overview of the study, its purpose, and the research question (s) or hypothesis (es) being investigated.

  5. How to Write a Research Paper Introduction in 4 Steps

    How to Write a Research Paper Introduction in 4 Steps - QuillBot Blog Hannah Skaggs Along with Mitchell Allen Hannah, a writer and editor since 2017, specializes in clear and concise academic and business writing. She has mentored countless scholars and companies in writing authoritative and engaging content. Recommended for you

  6. How to Write a Research Paper Introduction

    1 Thesis statement 2 Background context 3 Niche (research gap) 4 Relevance (how the paper fills that gap) 5 Rationale and motivation First, a thesis statement is a single sentence that summarizes the main topic of your paper. The thesis statement establishes the scope of the paper, defining what will and won't be discussed.

  7. Starting Your Research Paper: Writing an Introductory Paragraph

    Example Here's an introductory paragraph for a paper I wrote. I started the paper with a factoid, then presented each main point of my paper and then ended with my thesis statement. Breakdown: Last Updated: Oct 17, 2023 9:10 AM https://libguides.astate.edu/papers

  8. How to Write a Research Introduction: 10 Steps (with Pictures)

    1 Announce your research topic. You can start your introduction with a few sentences which announce the topic of your paper and give an indication of the kind of research questions you will be asking. This is a good way to introduce your readers to your topic and pique their interest.

  9. How to Write a Research Paper

    A research paper is a piece of academic writing that provides analysis, interpretation, and argument based on in-depth independent research. Research papers are similar to academic essays, but they are usually longer and more detailed assignments, designed to assess not only your writing skills but also your skills in scholarly research.

  10. Introductions & Conclusions

    Introductions for academic papers. An introduction is the first paragraph of your paper. The goal of your introduction is to let your reader know the topic of the paper and what points will be made about the topic. The thesis statement that is included in the introduction tells your reader the specific purpose or main argument of your paper.

  11. Introductions

    The introduction to an academic essay will generally present an analytical question or problem and then offer an answer to that question (the thesis). Your introduction is also your opportunity to explain to your readers what your essay is about and why they should be interested in reading it. You don't have to "hook" your readers with a ...

  12. PDF Wr i tte n by Carol i n e A m m on w w w. sj su . e d u /w r i t i n gc

    The introduction should answer three important questions: 1. What am I writing about? 2. Why is it important? 3. What do I want the reader to know about it? An introduction should establish the topic with a strong opening that grabs the reader 's attention before giving an overview of recent research on your chosen topic.

  13. How to Write a Thesis or Dissertation Introduction

    Overview of the structure. To help guide your reader, end your introduction with an outline of the structure of the thesis or dissertation to follow. Share a brief summary of each chapter, clearly showing how each contributes to your central aims. However, be careful to keep this overview concise: 1-2 sentences should be enough.

  14. Writing an Introduction for a Scientific Paper

    Dr. Michelle Harris, Dr. Janet Batzli,Biocore. This section provides guidelines on how to construct a solid introduction to a scientific paper including background information, study question, biological rationale, hypothesis, and general approach. If the Introduction is done well, there should be no question in the reader's mind why and on ...

  15. Research Paper Introduction Examples

    Looking for research paper introduction examples? Quotes, anecdotes, questions, examples, and broad statements—all of them can be used successfully to write an introduction for a research paper. It's instructive to see them in action, in the hands of skilled academic writers.

  16. Research Guides: Writing a Scientific Paper: INTRODUCTION

    The introduction supplies sufficient background information for the reader to understand and evaluate the experiment you did. It also supplies a rationale for the study. Goals: Present the problem and the proposed solution. Presents nature and scope of the problem investigated. Reviews the pertinent literature to orient the reader.

  17. Organizing Academic Research Papers: 4. The Introduction

    The introduction serves the purpose of leading the reader from a general subject area to a particular field of research. It establishes the context of the research being conducted by summarizing current understanding and background information about the topic, stating the purpose of the work in the form of the hypothesis, question, or research problem, briefly explaining your rationale ...

  18. PDF Section 1 Introduction to The Research 2017. Process

    1: Introduction to the Research Process. 3. Report and Argument Research Papers. All research papers require an exploration of the work of other scholars on the chosen topic. The type of research paper you write will depend on your research question . and your treatment of the information that you gather. There are two basic types of research ...

  19. How to Write an Introduction, With Examples

    An introduction for an essay or research paper is the first paragraph, which explains the topic and prepares the reader for the rest of the work. Because it's responsible for both the reader's first impression and setting the stage for the rest of the work, the introduction paragraph is arguably the most important paragraph in the work.

  20. Free Research Paper Template (Word Doc & PDF)

    The template structure reflects the overall research process, ensuring your paper will have a smooth, logical flow from chapter to chapter. The research paper template covers the following core sections: The title page/cover page; Abstract (sometimes also called the executive summary) Section 1: Introduction Section 2: Literature review

  21. How to Write an Essay Introduction

    Step 1: Hook your reader Step 2: Give background information Step 3: Present your thesis statement Step 4: Map your essay's structure Step 5: Check and revise More examples of essay introductions Other interesting articles Frequently asked questions about the essay introduction Step 1: Hook your reader

  22. (PDF) How to Write an Introduction for Research

    Research paper introduction examples. Full examples of research paper introductions are shown in the tabs below: one. for an argumentative paper, the other for an empirical paper. Citations (0)

  23. Three Research Paper Introduction Examples: Learn How to Initiate and

    A research paper introduction holds perhaps the most importance for a study to be successful. After a good research paper abstract, it is the introduction that builds the interest in a reader to continue reading the research paper.If the introduction turns out to be dull and drab, then the study would be a failed one. A good research paper needs a lot of background study, which you often fail ...

  24. Research Paper Introduction Example: Tips On Writing

    Tips Topics How to Write an Introductory Paragraph for Research Paper The writing of the research paper is a multi-aspect process. Because this type of academic assignment consists of several parts. If you fail to complete one of the levels, you will fail the whole paper. Introduction is not a Literal Beginning

  25. Video generation models as world simulators

    We explore large-scale training of generative models on video data. Specifically, we train text-conditional diffusion models jointly on videos and images of variable durations, resolutions and aspect ratios. We leverage a transformer architecture that operates on spacetime patches of video and image latent codes. Our largest model, Sora, is capable of generating a minute of high fidelity video.

  26. Elevated body temperature is associated with depressive symptoms

    Correlations between altered body temperature and depression have been reported in small samples; greater confidence in these associations would provide a rationale for further examining potential ...