A research paper is the addition of new knowledge to the existing body of knowledge. There are several components of the research that are easily identified by any person who is doing research. All this should be present in the research paper for it to be published. Some of the most important components of a research paper and what they contain are explained here.
The literature review is the part that occurs after the introduction. The introduction is only a prelude to what the study is all about and the author just talks of the need for the study and what the study is all about. This gives the reader an idea about what the paper is going to tell. The literature review on the other hand, deals with the various aspects of research that have already been done on similar topics. This is very important because the author has to study some new phenomenon or try to understand the various existing knowledge in the topic to proceed further.
Once the literature review is over, the methods used in the research are all listed. This will help the reader to understand all the basic information about the research that has been published. This section also increases the value of the research. This is because there are some kinds of research that are not valid because of the methods that were used in the study.
The data collection methods and the analysis of the data are the next part of the research paper. This is the gold mine of information which has been analyzed in various methods. Once the analysis has been made, the discussion is placed, where the researcher discusses the various outcomes of the study and what to decipher from the research. The results that follow the discussion are actually based on the data analysis and also the discussion.