difference between article and paper in research

Research Article vs. Research Paper

What's the difference.

A research article and a research paper are both scholarly documents that present the findings of a research study. However, there are some differences between the two. A research article is typically a shorter document that is published in a peer-reviewed journal. It focuses on a specific research question and provides a concise summary of the study's methodology, results, and conclusions. On the other hand, a research paper is usually a longer document that provides a more comprehensive analysis of a research topic. It often includes a literature review, detailed methodology, extensive data analysis, and a discussion of the implications of the findings. While both types of documents contribute to the scientific knowledge base, research papers tend to be more in-depth and provide a more thorough exploration of the research topic.

Further Detail

Introduction.

Research articles and research papers are both essential components of academic and scientific discourse. They serve as vehicles for sharing knowledge, presenting findings, and contributing to the advancement of various fields of study. While the terms "research article" and "research paper" are often used interchangeably, there are subtle differences in their attributes and purposes. In this article, we will explore and compare the key characteristics of research articles and research papers.

Definition and Purpose

A research article is a concise and focused piece of scholarly writing that typically appears in academic journals. It presents original research, experiments, or studies conducted by the author(s) and aims to communicate the findings to the scientific community. Research articles often follow a specific structure, including an abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion.

On the other hand, a research paper is a broader term that encompasses various types of academic writing, including research articles. While research papers can also be published in journals, they can take other forms such as conference papers, dissertations, or theses. Research papers provide a more comprehensive exploration of a particular topic, often including a literature review, theoretical framework, and in-depth analysis of the research question.

Length and Depth

Research articles are typically shorter in length compared to research papers. They are usually limited to a specific word count, often ranging from 3000 to 8000 words, depending on the journal's guidelines. Due to their concise nature, research articles focus on presenting the core findings and their implications without delving extensively into background information or theoretical frameworks.

On the other hand, research papers tend to be longer and more comprehensive. They can range from 5000 to 20,000 words or more, depending on the scope of the research and the requirements of the academic institution or conference. Research papers provide a deeper analysis of the topic, including an extensive literature review, theoretical framework, and detailed methodology section.

Structure and Organization

Research articles follow a standardized structure to ensure clarity and consistency across different publications. They typically begin with an abstract, which provides a concise summary of the research question, methodology, results, and conclusions. The introduction section provides background information, states the research problem, and outlines the objectives of the study. The methodology section describes the research design, data collection methods, and statistical analysis techniques used. The results section presents the findings, often accompanied by tables, figures, or graphs. The discussion section interprets the results, compares them with previous studies, and discusses their implications. Finally, the conclusion summarizes the main findings and suggests future research directions.

Research papers, on the other hand, have a more flexible structure depending on the specific requirements of the academic institution or conference. While they may include similar sections as research articles, such as an abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion, research papers can also incorporate additional sections such as a literature review, theoretical framework, or appendices. The structure of a research paper is often determined by the depth and complexity of the research conducted.

Publication and Audience

Research articles are primarily published in academic journals, which serve as platforms for disseminating new knowledge within specific disciplines. These journals often have a rigorous peer-review process, where experts in the field evaluate the quality and validity of the research before publication. Research articles are targeted towards a specialized audience of researchers, scholars, and professionals in the respective field.

Research papers, on the other hand, can be published in various formats and venues. They can be presented at conferences, published as chapters in books, or submitted as dissertations or theses. While research papers can also undergo peer-review, they may have a broader audience, including researchers, students, and professionals interested in the topic. The publication of research papers allows for a wider dissemination of knowledge beyond the confines of academic journals.

In conclusion, research articles and research papers are both vital components of academic and scientific discourse. While research articles are concise and focused pieces of scholarly writing that present original research findings, research papers provide a more comprehensive exploration of a particular topic. Research articles follow a standardized structure and are primarily published in academic journals, targeting a specialized audience. On the other hand, research papers have a more flexible structure and can be published in various formats, allowing for a wider dissemination of knowledge. Understanding the attributes and purposes of research articles and research papers is crucial for researchers, scholars, and students alike, as it enables effective communication and contributes to the advancement of knowledge in various fields.

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Difference between Paper and Article for scientific writings

As I know, in most of situations (in scientific context) these two terms are used to point to same thing and even they are used interchangeably.

For example,

Theory of value with public goods: A survey article

A survey paper on cloud computing

Are there any major differences between them? and can we use them interchangeably in any context?

• differences

• 1 See also: article vs paper –  Martin Thoma Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 11:46

3 Answers 3

The following extract helps understand the difference between a research article and a research paper :

Research paper and research articles are pieces of writing that require critical analysis, inquiry, insight, and demonstration of some special skills from students and scientists. It is really overwhelming for students when their teachers ask them to write a research paper as a form of assignment. Students remain confused between a research paper and a research article because of their similarities. This article attempts to find out if the two terms are synonymous or there is any difference between the two.

Research Article

What do you do when you are a scientist or a scholar and have arrived at a solution to a problem or have made a discovery that you want to share with the world? Well, one of the best ways to let the world know about your piece of wisdom or knowledge is through a research article. This is a piece of writing that contains an original research idea with the relevant data and findings Research article is published in renowned scientific journals that are involved with works in the area to which the paper pertains. A research article is a paper or writing that informs people of a path breaking research or a finding with clinical data to support the finding.

Research Paper

Research is an activity that is given much importance in academics, and this is why assignments requiring research and technical writing start early in the school. Students are asked to submit a research paper as early as in High School, and they become used to the concept when they are pursuing higher studies in colleges. However, a research paper is not just these assignment papers written by students as those written by scholars and scientists and published in journals are also referred to as research papers.

• What is the difference between Research Article and Research Paper?

• There is no difference as such between a research article and a research paper and both involve original research with findings. • There is a trend to refer to term papers and academic papers written by students in colleges as research papers whereas articles submitted by scholars and scientists with their groundbreaking research are termed as research articles. • Research articles are published in renowned scientific journals whereas papers written by students do not go to journals.

(www.differencebetween.com)

There is no definitive distinction between papers and articles that can be applied to all scientific disciplines. Usage varies between disciplines. and within disciplines it can vary depending on context.

Both the examples quoted refer to ‘writings’ that are surveys (in other areas often termed reviews) — one in the field of a social science (economics) and the other in a numerical science (computing). However the term science is also (and perhaps more) associated with the experimental sciences (physics, chemistry and biology), where the types of ‘writings’ are different and where different words are used to distinguish them.

Articles and papers in the Experimental Sciences

Let me illustrate this for the Biomolecular Sciences (biochemistry, molecular biology, molecular genetics and the like). As a practitioner in this area, when I hear these terms, e.g. talking to colleagues, I understand:

Paper : A report of a piece of experimental research work in which the original data presented by the authors was central to interpretation and conclusions regarding advancement of knowledge and understanding of the field. Article : A review or commentary in which the author was discussing the previously published work of others (perhaps including his own) in attempting to provide a perspective of the field or to present a new theory/model/interpretation by integrating such work.

However, despite this professional conversational use of the terms, if I go to any specific journal — here the US heavyweight, Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) — I would find a somewhat different usage:

JBC publishes several types of articles but only two of those can be submitted as an unsolicited manuscript: regular papers and accelerated communications.

Thus, JBC regards all the ‘writings’ it publishes as ‘articles’, in common with other journals such as The Journal of Biophysics , and this is consistent with general non-scientific usage — “I read an article in the Financial Times yesterday…”

The way JBC uses ‘regular paper’, is consistent with my specialist conversational definition (above), and although it doesn’t actually say what types of ‘article’ are unsolicited, but if you look at a table of contents of the journal , you would conclude that for this journal it is ‘minireviews’ and historical appraisals of the work of individual scientists.

The Journal of Biophysics only uses the term ‘paper’ in describing only one of its categories of ‘article’:

Comments to the Editor | Short commentaries on a paper published earlier in BJ.

Again using ‘paper’ rather in the sense I defined above.

To conclude, in the extended sense used by peer-reviewed journals in the experimental sciences, all published ‘papers’ can be referred to as articles, but not all articles would be referred to as ‘papers’. (One wouldn’t use ‘paper’ for an editorial, a news item and generally not for a review.) This is exactly the opposite conclusion reached by @1006a from his reading of the OED.

Conflict with the OED and non-experimental sciences

How can one resolve the conflict with the OED, mentioned above? I think the OED describes more traditional usage in the non-experimental sciences and the arts. It is pertinent, in this respect, to consider the phrase “reading a paper” .

As far as my area of science goes, this is just a rather outdated term for presenting one’s results orally at a conference. The talk in itself is transitory, the abstract unreviewed, and the information conveyed will most probably be published elsewhere.

However for colleagues in computing science the talk is likely to be based on a ‘paper’ that has been submitted to the conference organisers, selected after peer-review, and will be published as conference proceedings or in a journal associated with the conference. This is more in line with traditional non-scientific academic presentations, although in this case the ‘paper’ might never have been published.

The difference would seem to derive in part from whether the field of science is one in which original work is in the form of ideas or in the form of measurements and their interpretation.

The distinction I would make is that an article is formally published, generally in some kind of periodical. The relevant definition, from Oxford Dictionaries:

A piece of writing included with others in a newspaper, magazine, or other publication.

Scholarly/scientific/research articles are thus "pieces of writing included with others in" an appropriate publication, most often an academic journal (see Wikipedia).

A paper , on the other hand, may or may not be published anywhere; and if it is published, may be in some alternate venue like conference proceedings (though it can be published in a scholarly journal). Again from Oxford:

An essay or dissertation, especially one read at an academic lecture or seminar or published in an academic journal.

So you can generally call any scientific (research) article a paper, but not all papers are articles.

Edited to clarify the last sentence, to which I also added the parenthetical (research):

Of course, not all articles are scientific (or research ) articles; that distinction generally means that the article presents original research, and as I am using it, that it has met certain standards of whichever field it represents (usually some form of peer review) so that it can be published in a scientific/scholarly journal. A scientific (research) paper meets the first of these criteria, but not necessarily the second (it presents original research, but may or may not be published). There are other kinds of articles/papers, which would ordinarily get a different modifier, like review or meta-review (or newspaper/magazine etc. for articles), or might commonly go by other terms altogether, like essay .

By this definition, not all articles are papers, and not all papers are articles, but all scientific (research) articles are also scientific (research) papers.

• Just to mention that in my consideration of experimental sciences I present the opposite conclusion from that you draw from the OED. Please don't think I am saying you are wrong, but as I explain, that your assertions only hold for certain areas of science. –  David Commented Jul 15, 2017 at 22:27
• @David The key distinction I make is that articles are published . That would, indeed, include things like (literature) review articles, commentary, and possibly book reviews. It does not exclude original research in any field of which I am aware (which includes "experimental science"). It is certainly possible that certain disciplines or specific journals have non-standard usages, but I don't believe it breaks down along "experimental" and "non-experimental" lines. –  1006a Commented Jul 16, 2017 at 16:38
• I agree about there being a difference in relation to publication. The whole background of "reading a paper" implies it can exist without being published, and even in the experimental sciences one might say "I wrote a paper about 'whatever' and sent it to such-and-such a Journal, but they rejected it because the referees were too stupid to understand it". You might feasibly say that about an article (I once had a solicited mini-review rejected because it was thought to be in bad taste) but it would be unusual. But a very popular program for storing PDFs of publications is called... "Papers". –  David Commented Jul 16, 2017 at 16:53

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Types of journal articles

It is helpful to familiarise yourself with the different types of articles published by journals. Although it may appear there are a large number of types of articles published due to the wide variety of names they are published under, most articles published are one of the following types; Original Research, Review Articles, Short reports or Letters, Case Studies, Methodologies.

Original Research:

This is the most common type of journal manuscript used to publish full reports of data from research. It may be called an  Original Article, Research Article, Research, or just  Article, depending on the journal. The Original Research format is suitable for many different fields and different types of studies. It includes full Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections.

Short reports or Letters:

These papers communicate brief reports of data from original research that editors believe will be interesting to many researchers, and that will likely stimulate further research in the field. As they are relatively short the format is useful for scientists with results that are time sensitive (for example, those in highly competitive or quickly-changing disciplines). This format often has strict length limits, so some experimental details may not be published until the authors write a full Original Research manuscript. These papers are also sometimes called Brief communications .

Review Articles:

Review Articles provide a comprehensive summary of research on a certain topic, and a perspective on the state of the field and where it is heading. They are often written by leaders in a particular discipline after invitation from the editors of a journal. Reviews are often widely read (for example, by researchers looking for a full introduction to a field) and highly cited. Reviews commonly cite approximately 100 primary research articles.

TIP: If you would like to write a Review but have not been invited by a journal, be sure to check the journal website as some journals to not consider unsolicited Reviews. If the website does not mention whether Reviews are commissioned it is wise to send a pre-submission enquiry letter to the journal editor to propose your Review manuscript before you spend time writing it.  

Case Studies:

These articles report specific instances of interesting phenomena. A goal of Case Studies is to make other researchers aware of the possibility that a specific phenomenon might occur. This type of study is often used in medicine to report the occurrence of previously unknown or emerging pathologies.

Methodologies or Methods

These articles present a new experimental method, test or procedure. The method described may either be completely new, or may offer a better version of an existing method. The article should describe a demonstrable advance on what is currently available.

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Magazines and trade journals, conference papers, technical reports, anthologies.

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Because of their short length, articles often exclude background info and explanations, so they're usually the last stop in your research process, after you've narrowed down your topic and need to find very specific information.

The main thing to remember about articles is that they're almost always published in some larger work , like a journal, a newspaper, or an anthology. It's those "article containers" that define the types of articles, how you use them, and how you find them.

Articles are also the main reason we have so many databases . The Library Catalog lists everything we own, but only at the level of whole books and journals. It will tell you we have the New York Times, and for what dates, but it doesn't know what articles are in it. Search in UC Library Search using the "Articles, books, and more" scope will search all the databases we subscribe to and some we don't. If you find something we do not own, you can request it on Interlibrary Loan.

Physical Media

While newer journals and magazines are usually online, many older issues are still only available in paper. In addition, many of our online subscriptions explicitly don't include the latest material, specifically to encourage sales of print subscriptions. Older newspapers are usually transferred to microfilm.

Scholarly Sources

The terms academic or scholarly journal are usually synonymous with peer-reviewed , but check the journal's publishing policies to be sure. Trade journals, magazines, and newspapers are rarely peer-reviewed.

Primary or Secondary Sources

In the social sciences and humanities, articles are usually secondary sources; the exceptions are articles reporting original research findings from field studies. Primary source articles are more common in the physical and life sciences, where many articles are reporting primary research results from experiments, case studies, and clinical trials.

Clues that you're reading an academic article

• Footnotes or endnotes
• Bilbliography or list of references

Articles in academic (peer-reviewed) journals are the primary forum for scholarly communication, where scholars introduce and debate new ideas and research. They're usually not written for laymen, and assume familiarity with other recent work in the field. Journal articles also tend to be narrowly focused, concentrating on analysis of one or two creative works or studies, though they may also contain review articles or literature reviews which summarize recent published work in a field.

In addition to regular articles, academic journals often include book reviews (of scholarly books ) and letters from readers commenting on recent articles.

Clues that you're reading a non -academic article

• Decorative photos
• Advertisements

Unlike scholarly journals, magazines are written for a mainstream audience and are not peer-reviewed. A handful of academic journals (like Science and Nature ) blur the line between these two categories; they publish peer-reviewed articles, but combine them with news, opinions, and full-color photos in a magazine-style presentation.

Trade journals are targeted toward a specific profession or industry. Despite the name, they are usually not peer-reviewed. However, they sometimes represent a gray area between popular magazines and scholarly journals. When in doubt, ask your professor or TA whether a specific source is acceptable.

Newspapers as Primary Sources

Though usually written by journalists who were not direct witnesses to events, newspapers and news broadcasts may include quotes or interviews from people who were. In the absence of first-person accounts, contemporary news reports may be the closest thing to a primary source available.

Of all the content types listed here, newspapers are the fastest to publish. Use newspaper articles to find information about recent events and contemporary reports of/reactions to historic events.

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Reviews are a type of article that can appear in any of the categories above. The type of publication will usually determine the type of review. Newspapers and magazines review movies, plays, general interest books, and consumer products. Academic journals review scholarly books.

Note that a review is not the same as scholarly analysis and criticism! Book reviews, even in scholarly journals, are usually not peer-reviewed.

Conference papers aren't always published and can be tricky to find . Recent conference papers are often online, along with the PowerPoint files or other materials used in the actual presentation. However, access may be limited to conference participants and/or members of the academic organization which sponsored the conference.

In paper formats, all of the papers from a certain conference may be re-printed in the conference proceedings . Search for Proceedings of the [name of conference] to find what's available, or ask for help from a librarian. But be aware that published proceedings may only include abstracts or even just the name of the presenter and the title of the presentation. This is especially true of poster presentations , which really are large graphic posters (which don't translate well to either printed books or computer monitors).

As the name implies, most technical reports are about research in the physical sciences or engineering. However, there are also technical reports produced in the life and social sciences,

Like conference papers , some technical reports are eventually transformed into academic journal articles , but they may also be released after a journal article to provide supplementary data that didn't fit within the article. Also like conference papers, technical reports can be hard to find , especially older reports which may only be available in microfiche . Ask for help from a librarian!

Anthologies are a cross-over example. They're books that contain articles (chapters). Anthologies may be collections of articles by a single author, or collections of articles on a theme from different authors chosen by an editor. Many anthologies reprint articles already published elsewhere, but some contain original works.

Anthologies are rarely peer-reviewed, but they still may be considered scholarly works, depending on the reputation of the authors and editors. Use the same criteria listed for scholarly books .

Of course, reprints of articles originally published in peer-reviewed journals retain their "scholarly" status. (Note that most style manuals have special rules for citing reprinted works.)

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Q. What's the difference between a research article (or research study) and a review article?

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Answered By: Priscilla Coulter Last Updated: Jul 26, 2024     Views: 234000

A research paper is a primary source ...that is, it reports the methods and results of an original study performed by the authors . The kind of study may vary (it could have been an experiment, survey, interview, etc.), but in all cases, raw data have been collected and analyzed by the authors , and conclusions drawn from the results of that analysis.

Research papers follow a particular format.  Look for:

• A brief introduction will often include a review of the existing literature on the topic studied, and explain the rationale of the author's study.  This is important because it demonstrates that the authors are aware of existing studies, and are planning to contribute to this existing body of research in a meaningful way (that is, they're not just doing what others have already done).
• A methods section, where authors describe how they collected and analyzed data.  Statistical analyses are included.  This section is quite detailed, as it's important that other researchers be able to verify and/or replicate these methods.
• A results section describes the outcomes of the data analysis.  Charts and graphs illustrating the results are typically included.
• In the discussion , authors will explain their interpretation of their results and theorize on their importance to existing and future research.
• References or works cited are always included.  These are the articles and books that the authors drew upon to plan their study and to support their discussion.

You can use the library's databases  to search for research articles:

• A research article will nearly always be published in a peer-reviewed journal; click here for instructions on limiting your searches to peer-reviewed articles .  
• If you have a particular type of study in mind, you can include keywords to describe it in your search .  For instance, if you would like to see studies that used surveys to collect data, you can add "survey" to your topic in the database's search box. See this example search in our EBSCO databases: " bullying and survey ".   
• Several of our databases have special limiting options that allow you to select specific methodologies.  See, for instance, the " Methodology " box in ProQuest's PsycARTICLES Advanced Search (scroll down a bit to see it).  It includes options like "Empirical Study" and "Qualitative Study", among many others.  

A review article is a secondary source ...it is written about other articles, and does not report original research of its own.  Review articles are very important, as they draw upon the articles that they review to suggest new research directions, to strengthen support for existing theories and/or identify patterns among exising research studies.  For student researchers, review articles provide a great overview of the existing literature on a topic.    If you find a literature review that fits your topic, take a look at its references/works cited list for leads on other relevant articles and books!

You can use the library's article databases to find literature reviews as well!  Click here for tips.

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Scholarly Journals and Popular Magazines: Differences in Research, Review, and Opinion Articles

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Research Articles, Reviews, and Opinion Pieces

Scholarly or research articles are written for experts in their fields. They are often peer-reviewed or reviewed by other experts in the field prior to publication. They often have terminology or jargon that is field specific. They are generally lengthy articles. Social science and science scholarly articles have similar structures as do arts and humanities scholarly articles. Not all items in a scholarly journal are peer reviewed. For example, an editorial opinion items can be published in a scholarly journal but the article itself is not scholarly. Scholarly journals may include book reviews or other content that have not been peer reviewed.

Empirical Study: (Original or Primary) based on observation, experimentation, or study. Clinical trials, clinical case studies, and most meta-analyses are empirical studies.

Review Article: (Secondary Sources) Article that summarizes the research in a particular subject, area, or topic. They often include a summary, an literature reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses.

Clinical case study (Primary or Original sources): These articles provide real cases from medical or clinical practice. They often include symptoms and diagnosis.

Clinical trials ( Health Research): Th ese articles are often based on large groups of people. They often include methods and control studies. They tend to be lengthy articles.

Opinion Piece:  An opinion piece often includes personal thoughts, beliefs, or feelings or a judgement or conclusion based on facts. The goal may be to persuade or influence the reader that their position on this topic is the best.

Book review: Recent review of books in the field. They may be several pages but tend to be fairly short. 

Social Science and Science Research Articles

The majority of social science and physical science articles include

• Journal Title and Author
• Abstract 
• Introduction with a hypothesis or thesis
• Literature Review
• Methods/Methodology
• Results/Findings

Arts and Humanities Research Articles

In the Arts and Humanities, scholarly articles tend to be less formatted than in the social sciences and sciences. In the humanities, scholars are not conducting the same kinds of research experiments, but they are still using evidence to draw logical conclusions.  Common sections of these articles include:

• an Introduction
• Discussion/Conclusion
• works cited/References/Bibliography

Research versus Review Articles

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Difference between Research Paper and Research Article

Research paper and research articles are bits of composing that require inquiry, critical analysis, demonstration and insight of few special abilities from understudies and researchers. This article endeavors to see whether the two terms are synonymous or there is any contrast between the two.

Research paper

Research can be said as activity which is specified much significance in scholastics. Be that as it may, research papers are not only these task papers composed by understudies as those composed by scholars and researchers and also published in different journals are additionally alluded to as research papers.

Research Article

Research article is a bit of composing that have original research thought with the pertinent data and discoveries. A research article is a composing or paper that advises individuals of a way breaking a finding or research with data to bolster the finding.

Research Paper VS Research Article

 There is a pattern to allude to academic papers and term papers composed by understudies in schools as a research paper

The articles presented by researchers and scholars with their noteworthy examination are known as research articles.

Research papers composed by the students mostly not take in journals.

Research articles composed by researchers or scholars mostly published in prestigious scientific journals.

A research paper depends on the original research. The sort of research may fluctuate, contingent upon your field or topics that include survey, experiments, questionnaire, interview and so on; yet authors require gathering and investigating raw data and make an original and real study. The research paper will be founded on the investigation and understanding of this raw data.

A research article depends on other different published articles. It is usually not depend on original study. Research articles for the most part condense the current writing on a point trying to clarify the present condition of comprehension on topic.

A research paper can be said as the primary source that means, it studies the techniques and consequences of original study performed by the writers.

A research article can be said as secondary source that means it is composed about different articles, and does not studies actual research of its own.

• Importance:

In research paper, every part of this has its own importance. A concise is important in light of the fact that it shows that the writers know about existing literature, and want to add to this presented research definitively. A methods part is usually detailed and it is important in a way that different analysts have the capacity to check and/or duplicate these strategies. A result segment depicts the results of the analysis.

Research articles can be considered very important because they describe upon different articles that they analyze to propose new research bearings, to give powerful support for presented theories or distinguish designs among presented research studies. For understudy analysts, these research articles give an excellent review of presented literature on that topic. In the event that you discover a literature review that can be fit in study, investigate its references/works referred to list for guide on other articles.

From the above article we can conclude that research paper is the primary source whereas research articles are secondary.

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good article but which of them is more useful when we conduct a research

both. but research paper is more useful.

Nice explanation

There is a little difference but both are different.

Nice but i have a confusion that can a guys of Bachelors level can write Research Papers?

YEs they can if they do research project instead of development project and do something new in their project.

Thank you 😊

do you have something in your mind then please share with us. We will appreciate that.

Though it may be fairly easy to learn to speak English well enough to be understood, learning to write English correctly is very difficult, as this article so clearly illustrates. Though I greatly admire all those who are making an effort to learn another language, like English, as a non-native speaker, it is wrong for these same individuals to assume they can write English well enough to publish articles.

This article is so poorly written that I cannot understand most of it. For instance, the following phrases are utter nonsense: “A research paper can be said as the primary source that means,” — “A concise is important in light of the fact that it shows that . . .” — “A methods part is usually detailed” — “A result segment depicts the results . . .” — “they describe upon different articles that they analyze to propose new research bearings . . . or distinguish designs among presented . .. studies” — “to clarify the present condition of comprehension” — “Research papers and . . . articles require inquiry, critical analysis, demonstration and insight of few special abilities from . . .”

This article also states that “[a] research article . . . is usually not depend (sic) on original study,” then contradicts that in the next sentence with “[r]esearch articles . . . condense the current writing on a point . . .” Most studies these days are current. But, even if a study was conducted 50 years ago, it’s a cardinal rule that one should always use the original source of information rather than relying on the articles of other authors who may have misquoted something from the original study.

Articles like this one do a grave disservice to the viewing and researching public. To present this article as informative is disingenuous. To ask people who are seeking useful information to struggle with reading and trying to make sense of this poor English is so unkind and inconsiderate that I feel compelled to bring it to the author’s and publisher’s attention.

I would be honored to help anyone with their efforts to write English, but, please, be honest with yourselves about your lack of knowledge, so you will cease and desist the writing of anything online until your English skills have improved significantly. Thank you.

Thanks for such a detail input. Best wishes.

Yes you are saying right. So if you have the skills to deliver the answer in an efficient manner so kindly type it for me. Because I really want to know the difference between research paper and research article

Yes I agree with Martha. I myself found difficulty in going through the article. Although the topic is very important to be discussed because being the student of graduate, I must know the difference. But the way of delivering has dispirited me that now what other website should I visit to get accurate answer.

we need Published example of a scientific research article and another for a scientific research

how can I cite this?

“Difference between Research Paper and Research Article”, Reserachpedia.info, https://researchpedia.info/difference-between-research-paper-and-research-article/ , [27 December 2021].

I don’t understand anything. I am confused more than i came. Otehrwise, thank you for a trial. Simplify this communication.

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What are the main differences between an article and a research paper?  

Insight from top 3 papers.

An article and a research paper have some key differences. A research paper is a verbal presentation of research findings, while an article focuses on sharing findings with a wider audience [1] [2] . Research papers follow a specific structure, typically using the IMRaD format (introduction, methods, results, and discussion) [3] . Articles, on the other hand, may have a more flexible structure, depending on the nature of the research and the target audience [2] . Research papers often include a literature review to survey earlier research and identify research gaps [1] . Articles may also include a literature review, but the emphasis is on presenting new insights and adding to the existing knowledge [2] . Research papers are typically more formal and rely on reasoning, data, examples, and interpretations to support the main point [1] . Articles may also use these elements, but they may also include visual elements and direct quotes to emphasize key results [2] .

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Related Questions

Research involves the systematic investigation of a particular subject to discover new knowledge or reach a conclusion, while reports are the structured presentation of the findings and outcomes of that research. Research is essential for the advancement of various fields, especially in medical sciences, where continuous innovation is crucial . Reports, on the other hand, serve as a means to communicate the research findings effectively, often following specific guidelines like CONSORT, STARD, PRISMA, and ARRIVE to ensure quality and transparency in reporting . Reports provide detailed information on the methodology, results, and implications of the research, allowing for replication and further analysis. In essence, research is the process of exploration and discovery, while reports are the formal documentation and dissemination of the research outcomes.

Academic articles, particularly research articles, exhibit specific structural patterns. The IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) format is commonly used in scientific writing, but its universal application varies across STEM disciplines and types of studies . Research articles are a subgenre of scientific articles with standardized structures that fully present original research findings to the academic community . These articles often contain distinct sections like abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, and conclusion, each serving unique rhetorical purposes and stylistic features . Additionally, the transitivity structure within research articles reflects their informative and objective nature, contributing to the construction of experiential meaning in academic discourse . Understanding these structural conventions is crucial for authors, reviewers, and readers across diverse academic fields .

Writing a research article involves sharing evidence-based findings with a wider audience, focusing on the theme and structure of the paper to support the author's knowledge claim . The structure of a research article typically follows the IMRaD format, consisting of an introduction, methods, results, and discussion section . The introduction provides a brief overview of the research and its purpose, while the methods section explains the research process in detail . The results section presents the findings without explanation, and the discussion section interprets the results in the context of previous research . The conclusion and limitation sections are prepared based on the results . It is important to consider rhetorical features and metadiscourse when writing research articles, as they vary across disciplines . Following a logical and systematic approach, addressing the problem statement, existing solutions, new solutions, assumptions, limitations, analysis, simulation, and comparison with competing solutions, is crucial in writing a scientific paper . The dissemination of research results is essential for advancing science, and understanding the mechanisms of writing and publishing can help achieve this effectively .

The genre of a research paper is a specific category of texts marked by the conventions used in their production. It is a staple genre in the economy of scientific research and has specific communicative purposes. Research articles have received considerable treatment in genre scholarship, and they vary across disciplines and languages. The research genre requires students to understand the tone, generic, and disciplinary conventions. It is a corpus-based genre study that focuses on Move 3 of the model "occupying the niche" and outlines the purposes or states the nature of the present research. The research article is a complex and elusive genre that requires a genre-theoretic approach for its analysis. A genre-based approach has implications for financial reporting research, both methodologically and substantively. The research article is a master narrative of our time and has been the subject of extensive investigation. Not all research articles are experimental, and the concept of a research article itself needs a more nuanced account.

A research paper is typically structured with several key components. First, there is the introduction, which provides background information and states the main point or thesis statement of the paper . This is followed by the methods section, where the researcher explains how the study was conducted . The results section presents the findings of the research, often including data, examples, and interpretations . The discussion section then analyzes and interprets the results, offering the researcher's own voice and perspective . Finally, the paper concludes with a summary of the main points and any additional conclusions drawn from the research . In addition to these core parts, research papers may also include a title, abstract, and references section . The abstract provides a concise overview of the paper's content, while the references section acknowledges and cites any sources used in the research .

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The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) significantly influences China-Africa cooperation and transregional cooperation by enhancing infrastructure, trade, and investment links, while also fostering geopolitical shifts. The BRI, a strategic framework initiated by China, aims to improve global connectivity and cooperation through infrastructure development and economic integration. In Africa, this initiative has led to substantial investments in infrastructure and energy, reshaping economic and political dynamics. However, it also presents challenges such as debt sustainability and geopolitical tensions. Below, we explore the various dimensions of China-Africa cooperation under the BRI and its broader transregional implications. ## Infrastructure and Economic Development - The BRI has been pivotal in addressing Africa's infrastructure deficit, with significant investments in highways, railways, ports, and power generation facilities. This has enhanced connectivity and economic growth across the continent, linking Africa more closely with Asia and Europe . - China has become Africa's largest bilateral trading partner and foreign direct investor, with a strong correlation between Chinese FDI and African trade flows. This has led to a substantial increase in trade, altering the dynamics of China-Africa economic relations . - The development of China-Africa International Cooperation Parks (CAICPs) has promoted economic and social development in African countries, driving urbanization and benefiting both China and Africa. These parks focus on industries such as textiles, agriculture, and machinery, fostering industrial growth and employment . ## Energy Cooperation - Energy development is a key area of China-Africa cooperation under the BRI. China invests heavily in Africa's energy sector to ensure energy security and resource accessibility, while also strengthening diplomatic ties. This cooperation includes the construction of energy infrastructure and the development of renewable energy sources, contributing to sustainable development in Africa . - Various energy projects have been implemented, enhancing energy efficiency and security in the region. This cooperation is crucial for Africa's economic development and aligns with China's strategic interests in securing energy resources . ## Geopolitical and Strategic Implications - The BRI reshapes international economic cooperation and geopolitical patterns, strengthening China's economic ties with participating countries and deepening political relationships. This has implications for the global political framework, as major powers like the US and EU respond to China's expanding influence . - Africa's strategic importance in the BRI is underscored by its role in the Maritime Silk Road, which links ports from the South China Sea to Africa. This enhances regional competitiveness and economic integration, positioning Africa as a key player in global trade networks . ## Challenges and Criticisms - Despite the benefits, the BRI faces challenges such as procurement corruption, labor violations, and environmental concerns. High compensation prices and increasing debts are also significant issues, raising questions about the sustainability of BRI projects in Africa . - The initiative's lack of clear project descriptions and stakeholder involvement has led to criticisms and misconceptions. Addressing these challenges is crucial for achieving a balanced and mutually beneficial partnership between China and Africa . While the BRI has brought about significant infrastructure development and economic benefits, it also poses challenges that need to be addressed to ensure sustainable and equitable cooperation. The initiative's impact on China-Africa relations and transregional cooperation is profound, but it requires careful management to balance interests and mitigate potential risks. As the BRI continues to evolve, its role in shaping global economic and political landscapes will remain a critical area of study and policy consideration.

Stoic leadership in contemporary business settings is increasingly recognized for its potential to foster resilience, adaptability, and ethical decision-making. By integrating Stoic principles, leaders can navigate complex and uncertain environments effectively. This approach is particularly relevant in today's rapidly changing business landscape, where leaders face unprecedented challenges. Below are some practical examples of Stoic leadership in modern business contexts. ## Mission-Driven Leadership - Stoic leadership emphasizes the importance of a clear and purposeful mission. In Russian companies, leaders are encouraged to adopt a mission-driven approach that aligns with Stoic principles, focusing on the greater good and long-term objectives rather than short-term gains. This approach helps in creating a resilient organizational culture that can withstand external pressures . ## Antifragility and Stoic Practices - Stoic principles such as the dichotomy of control, discipline of thought, and maintaining calm in chaos are applied to enhance business antifragility. These practices help leaders and organizations not only to survive but thrive amidst crises like the pandemic and geopolitical tensions. By viewing fear as a tool for growth, leaders can transform challenges into opportunities for innovation and improvement . ## Navigating Uncertainty - Stoic leadership is particularly effective in dealing with radical uncertainty. By adopting Stoic practices, leaders develop a capacity for "Negative Capability," which involves embracing uncertainty and ambiguity without the need for immediate resolution. This philosophical approach encourages leaders to remain composed and make thoughtful decisions in unpredictable situations . ## Stoic Pragmatism - The concept of "Stoic pragmatism" combines Stoic philosophy with American pragmatism, offering a practical framework for modern leaders. This approach encourages leaders to view problems as opportunities for solutions, fostering a proactive and solution-oriented mindset. It emphasizes the importance of reason and self-discipline in achieving tranquility and effective leadership . While Stoic leadership offers numerous benefits, it is essential to recognize that some Stoic tenets, such as predetermination and absolute morality, may not resonate with all modern audiences. Adapting these principles to fit contemporary values and cultural contexts is crucial for their successful implementation in business settings .

AI-powered music recommendation systems can be effectively designed to consider age-based preferences and cultural context by integrating advanced technologies and demographic insights. This approach enhances user engagement and satisfaction through personalized experiences. ## Emotion and Age Detection - Systems can utilize Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to analyze facial data for age and emotional state detection, allowing for tailored music recommendations that resonate with users' current feelings and age group. - A study developed a model that combines emotion, age, and ethnicity to create playlists based on user profiles, enhancing the relevance of recommendations. ## Demographic Context Integration - The Attentive Recurrent Recommender Network (ARRN) incorporates demographic information, particularly age, to improve personalization. It uses user-item interaction data and attention mechanisms to adapt recommendations dynamically, addressing the cold-start problem for new users. - Responsible AI practices ensure that these systems remain ethical and accountable, utilizing techniques like SHAP for interpretability, which can help in understanding how age and cultural context influence recommendations. While these systems show promise, challenges remain in balancing personalization with user privacy and ethical considerations, necessitating ongoing research and development in responsible AI practices.

Students in science education face a myriad of academic challenges that hinder their learning and performance. These challenges range from inadequate instructional strategies to language barriers and lack of resources. Understanding these obstacles is crucial for developing effective educational interventions. ## Instructional Challenges - Traditional teaching methods, such as didactic approaches, are often ineffective in fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills necessary for modern science education. - A significant percentage of students report difficulties in understanding material due to ineffective use of learning media and lack of engaging instructional resources. ## Language and Content Proficiency - Many students struggle with articulating their scientific knowledge, particularly in essay formats, due to insufficient content comprehension and limited proficiency in the English language. - The complexity of scientific terminology further complicates students' ability to express their understanding effectively. ## Motivation and Support - Factors such as student motivation, cognitive ability, and parental support significantly influence learning outcomes. Male students, in particular, report more challenges related to instructional resources and support. While these challenges are prevalent, some studies suggest that students generally encounter fewer difficulties than perceived, indicating a need for tailored educational strategies to address specific issues effectively.

The percentage of pediatric hospitalizations related to rare diseases varies across different studies and regions, reflecting the complexity and diversity of rare diseases. Rare diseases, often chronic and debilitating, significantly impact pediatric healthcare systems, as evidenced by various studies. Below, we explore the findings from several research papers to provide a comprehensive understanding of the prevalence of rare diseases in pediatric hospitalizations. ## Prevalence of Rare Diseases in Pediatric Hospitalizations - In Ireland, a retrospective study found that rare diseases accounted for a significant portion of pediatric mortality, with 58.6% of deaths in children under 15 years having an underlying rare disease. Furthermore, rare disease patients occupied 87% of bed days used by children who died during hospitalization, indicating a substantial burden on healthcare resources . - A study in China analyzed hospitalizations in tertiary hospitals and found that rare diseases accounted for 0.35% of all inpatients. Among children aged 0-14, rare diseases constituted 28.6% of the cases, highlighting a notable prevalence in the pediatric population . ## Specific Case Studies and Data - The study on immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), a rare pediatric condition, showed that ITP-related hospitalizations accounted for approximately 0.26% of all non-birth-related discharges among patients aged 1–17 in the US. This illustrates the challenges in quantifying rare disease hospitalizations due to the diversity of conditions classified as rare . - In Brazil, a study at a rare diseases outpatient clinic highlighted the clinical and genetic profiles of pediatric patients, emphasizing the importance of genetic testing in diagnosing rare diseases. This study did not provide specific hospitalization rates but underscored the prevalence of rare diseases in pediatric healthcare settings . ## Broader Implications and Challenges While these studies provide valuable insights, the under-representation of rare diseases in healthcare coding systems complicates accurate epidemiological assessments. The variability in data across regions and the diversity of rare diseases further challenge the estimation of their impact on pediatric hospitalizations. Enhanced coding and data collection methods are necessary to improve healthcare planning and resource allocation for rare diseases.

• Insights blog

Different types of research articles

A guide for early career researchers.

In scholarly literature, there are many different kinds of articles published every year. Original research articles are often the first thing you think of when you hear the words ‘journal article’. In reality, research work often results in a whole mixture of different outputs and it’s not just the final research article that can be published.

Finding a home to publish supporting work in different formats can help you start publishing sooner, allowing you to build your publication record and research profile.

But before you do, it’s very important that you check the  instructions for authors  and the  aims and scope  of the journal(s) you’d like to submit to. These will tell you whether they accept the type of article you’re thinking of writing and what requirements they have around it.

Understanding the different kind of articles

There’s a huge variety of different types of articles – some unique to individual journals – so it’s important to explore your options carefully. While it would be impossible to cover every single article type here, below you’ll find a guide to the most common research articles and outputs you could consider submitting for publication.

Book review

Many academic journals publish book reviews, which aim to provide insight and opinion on recently published scholarly books. Writing book reviews is often a good way to begin academic writing. It can help you get your name known in your field and give you valuable experience of publishing before you write a full-length article.

If you’re keen to write a book review, a good place to start is looking for journals that publish or advertise the books they have available for review. Then it’s just a matter of putting yourself forward for one of them.

You can check whether a journal publishes book reviews by browsing previous issues or by seeing if a book review editor is listed on the editorial board. In addition, some journals publish other types of reviews, such as film, product, or exhibition reviews, so it’s worth bearing those in mind as options as well.

Get familiar with instructions for authors

Be prepared, speed up your submission, and make sure nothing is forgotten by understanding a journal’s individual requirements.

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Case report

A medical case report – also sometimes called a clinical case study – is an original short report that provides details of a single patient case.

Case reports include detailed information on the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. They remain one of the cornerstones of medical progress and provide many new ideas in medicine.

Depending on the journal, a case report doesn’t necessarily need to describe an especially novel or unusual case as there is benefit from collecting details of many standard cases.

Take a look at  F1000Research’s guidance on case reports , to understand more about what’s required in them. And don’t forget that for all studies involving human participants, informed written consent to take part in the research must be obtained from the participants –  find out more about consent to publish.

Clinical study

In medicine, a clinical study report is a type of article that provides in-depth detail on the methods and results of a clinical trial. They’re typically similar in length and format to original research articles.

Most journals now require that you register protocols for clinical trials you’re involved with in a publicly accessible registry. A list of eligible registries can be found on the  WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) . Trials can also be registered at  clinicaltrials.gov  or the  EU Clinical Trials Register . Once registered, your trial will be assigned a clinical trial number (CTN).

Before you submit a clinical study, you’ll need to include clinical trial numbers and registration dates in the manuscript, usually in the abstract and methods sections.

Commentaries and letters to editors

Letters to editors, as well as ‘replies’ and ‘discussions’, are usually brief comments on topical issues of public and political interest (related to the research field of the journal), anecdotal material, or readers’ reactions to material published in the journal.

Commentaries are similar, though they may be slightly more in-depth, responding to articles recently published in the journal. There may be a ‘target article’ which various commentators are invited to respond to.

You’ll need to look through previous issues of any journal you’re interested in writing for and review the instructions for authors to see which types of these articles (if any) they accept.

Conference materials

Many of our medical journals  accept conference material supplements. These are open access peer-reviewed, permanent, and citable publications within the journal. Conference material supplements record research around a common thread, as presented at a workshop, congress, or conference, for the scientific record. They can include the following types of articles:

Poster extracts

Conference abstracts

Presentation extracts

Find out more about submitting conference materials.

Data notes  are a short peer-reviewed article type that concisely describe research data stored in a repository. Publishing a data note can help you to maximize the impact of your data and gain appropriate credit for your research.

Data notes promote the potential reuse of research data and include details of why and how the data were created. They do not include any analysis but they can be linked to a research article incorporating analysis of the published dataset, as well as the results and conclusions.

F1000Research  enables you to publish your data note rapidly and openly via an author-centric platform. There is also a growing range of options for publishing data notes in Taylor & Francis journals, including in  All Life  and  Big Earth Data .

Read our guide to data notes to find out more.

Letters or short reports

Letters or short reports (sometimes known as brief communications or rapid communications) are brief reports of data from original research.

Editors publish these reports where they believe the data will be interesting to many researchers and could stimulate further research in the field. There are even entire journals dedicated to publishing letters.

As they’re relatively short, the format is useful for researchers with results that are time sensitive (for example, those in highly competitive or quickly-changing disciplines). This format often has strict length limits, so some experimental details may not be published until the authors write a full original research article.

Brief reports  (previously called Research Notes) are a type of short report published by  F1000Research  – part of the Taylor & Francis Group. To find out more about the requirements for a brief report, take a look at  F1000Research’s guidance .

Method article

A method article is a medium length peer-reviewed, research-focused article type that aims to answer a specific question. It also describes an advancement or development of current methodological approaches and research procedures (akin to a research article), following the standard layout for research articles. This includes new study methods, substantive modifications to existing methods, or innovative applications of existing methods to new models or scientific questions. These should include adequate and appropriate validation to be considered, and any datasets associated with the paper must publish all experimental controls and make full datasets available.  

Posters and slides

With F1000Research, you can publish scholarly posters and slides covering basic scientific, translational, and clinical research within the life sciences and medicine. You can find out more about how to publish posters and slides  on the F1000Research website .

Registered report

A  Registered Report  consists of two different kinds of articles: a study protocol and an original research article.

This is because the review process for Registered Reports is divided into two stages. In Stage 1, reviewers assess study protocols before data is collected. In Stage 2, reviewers consider the full published study as an original research article, including results and interpretation.

Taking this approach, you can get an in-principle acceptance of your research article before you start collecting data. We’ve got  further guidance on Registered Reports here , and you can also  read F1000Research’s guidance on preparing a Registered Report .

Research article

Original research articles are the most common type of journal article. They’re detailed studies reporting new work and are classified as primary literature.

You may find them referred to as original articles, research articles, research, or even just articles, depending on the journal.

Typically, especially in STEM subjects, these articles will include Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion sections. However, you should always check the instructions for authors of your chosen journal to see whether it specifies how your article should be structured. If you’re planning to write an original research article, take a look at our guidance on  writing a journal article .

Review article

Review articles provide critical and constructive analysis of existing published literature in a field. They’re usually structured to provide a summary of existing literature, analysis, and comparison. Often, they identify specific gaps or problems and provide recommendations for future research.

Unlike original research articles, review articles are considered as secondary literature. This means that they generally don’t present new data from the author’s experimental work, but instead provide analysis or interpretation of a body of primary research on a specific topic. Secondary literature is an important part of the academic ecosystem because it can help explain new or different positions and ideas about primary research, identify gaps in research around a topic, or spot important trends that one individual research article may not.

There are 3 main types of review article

Literature review

Presents the current knowledge including substantive findings as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic.

Systematic review

Identifies, appraises and synthesizes all the empirical evidence that meets pre-specified eligibility criteria to answer a specific research question. Researchers conducting systematic reviews use explicit, systematic methods that are selected with a view aimed at minimizing bias, to produce more reliable findings to inform decision making.

Meta-analysis

A quantitative, formal, epidemiological study design used to systematically assess the results of previous research to derive conclusions about that body of research. Typically, but not necessarily, a meta-analysis study is based on randomized, controlled clinical trials.

Take a look at our guide to  writing a review article  for more guidance on what’s required.

Software tool articles

A  software tool article  – published by  F1000Research  – describes the rationale for the development of a new software tool and details of the code used for its construction.

The article should provide examples of suitable input data sets and include an example of the output that can be expected from the tool and how this output should be interpreted. Software tool articles submitted to F1000Research should be written in open access programming languages. Take a look at  their guidance  for more details on what’s required of a software tool article.

Further resources

Ready to write your article, but not sure where to start?

For more guidance on how to prepare and write an article for a journal you can download the  Writing your paper eBook .

Difference Between Research Article and Research Paper

This article will discuss both writings formats and discuss Difference Between Research Article and Research Paper.

Both types of writing are common techniques used by educators and businesses to get feedback from coworkers and students on a topic or subject. One must understand each form and how people use it in to differentiate between the two types of writing.

Research Article

What will a researcher or scientist do after they have found the answer to a question or made a discovery they wish to share with the world?

A research article, according to Simon Fraser University, is a piece of writing that is written about a specific topic. A research article written by an expert in a certain field is frequently written by another expert in the same field. Peer reviews are another term for this kind of writing.

Purpose of Research Article

A research article may be a significant source, making it a valuable resource for creating the thesis for the relevant topic. It includes a report on the methods and results of the researchers’ original research.

Format of Research Article

Create a title that is specific enough to summarize the entire article’s content while being understandable. The article’s title ought to be relevant for the target audience.

Other people have made significant contributions in writing the research article that is published, and as a result, they are considered authors. Before listing your mentor’s name as a co-author or author, you can get their permission.

Giving all the information in a single paragraph is not very simple. Start by including the overview of what you feel is vital to mention, and then gradually reduce the length by omitting the unimportant details while keeping the crucial information.

→INTRODUCTION

A two- to four-paragraph introduction is appropriate. Finish it up with a statement that clarifies the question.

If you have a complicated method, it can be beneficial to include diagrams, flowcharts, or tables to describe how you use it.

What pain-reduction measures would you adopt if you used animals?

Don’t discuss the outcomes or speculate as to why anything occurred. None of the information you discovered from research needs to be mentioned.   Employ appropriate techniques to explain the data. Don’t try to distort your facts to make it appear that you have accomplished more than you have.

→TABLES AND GRAPHS

→discussion.

Provide reasons if the results are surprising.

→ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

→references, research paper.

When referring to research papers, Dr. Jane Simonsen, a history professor, once said, “The work and design are your own, but you can’t do it without relying on the efforts and wisdom of others.”

After gathering all necessary information from sources, a student’s work will be organized into the structure. Teachers frequently use this method to help students develop a balance in their writing abilities while promoting structural discipline and standard formatting.

Purpose of Research Paper

Format for research papers.

There is a set format for research papers. 

Read More: Reliability vs Validity | Examples

References and citations can be added here. References are genuine books and articles that authors use to conduct their research and support their arguments.

Difference Between Research Paper and Research Article

3- A research paper isn’t published in any publication unless it’s a guideline on how to write one, whereas a research article is submitted to periodicals, magazines or peer-reviewed journal.

6- The title of the research paper will be centered, and the student’s name, class, date, and teacher will be in the left corner. Whereas the title will be top and centre in the research article. The names of the author(s) are listed below.

Other articles

Comparision

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Expert Commentary

White papers, working papers, preprints, journal articles: What’s the difference?

In this updated piece, we explain the most common types of research papers journalists will encounter, noting their strengths and weaknesses.

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

by Denise-Marie Ordway, The Journalist's Resource February 25, 2022

This <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org/media/working-papers-research-articles/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org">The Journalist's Resource</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/cropped-jr-favicon-150x150.png" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;">

This tip sheet, originally published in May 2018, has been updated to include preprint research, a type of research featured often in news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

Journalists rely most often on four types of research in their work. White papers, working papers, preprints and peer-reviewed journal articles.

How are they different? And which is best?

Below, we explain each, pointing out its strengths and weaknesses. As always, we urge journalists to use care in selecting any research to ground their coverage and fact-check claims.

Peer-reviewed article

Peer-reviewed research — the kind that appears in academic journals and that we highlight here at The Journalist’s Resource — has undergone a detailed critique by scholars with expertise in the field. While peer-reviewed research is generally the most reliable, journalists should keep in mind that publication in a prestigious journal is no guarantee of quality and that no single university or research organization always does the best research on a given topic.

It is safe to assume, however, that articles published in top-tier journals have been reviewed and given a stamp of approval by a number of accomplished scholars. For journalists who are uncertain, we’ve put together a list of 13 questions  to ask to gauge the quality of a research article.

Keep in mind that not everything that appears in a scholarly journal has been peer reviewed. Journals publish various types of content, including book reviews, editorials, letters to the editor and, sometimes, even poetry.

Working paper

This broad category describes research papers that have not been peer reviewed or published in a journal. Working papers can be in various stages of completion. One might be ready for publication in a prestigious journal while another requires significant editing and other changes that could actually alter its main findings. Sometimes, working paper findings are so preliminary, authors will advise against citing their work .

Even so, working papers are a great way for journalists to gain access to new research quickly. The peer-review and publication process can take months to a year or longer, which means that by the time studies get published, their findings are sometimes not as useful or the data are old.

In choosing working papers, journalists should communicate with scholars about the progress of their research and how confident they are in their findings. It’s a good idea to seek corroboration from peer-reviewed research and to ask other researchers for help assessing a study.

A preprint is similar to a working paper in that it has not been vetted through a formal peer-review process. However, preprints tend to be more complete . Also, preprints submitted to public servers such as the Social Science Research Network and the health sciences server medRxiv get a cursory screening before they’re published online for public view.

Preprints, like academic journal articles, are assigned a Digital Object Identifier , or DOI, and become a permanent part of the scientific record.

White paper

A white paper is a report, often compiled by government agencies, businesses and nonprofit organizations, that outlines an issue and often explores possible solutions to a problem. For example, in November 2021, the federal Office of Community Oriented Policing Services released a white paper looking at factors that help or hinder law enforcement recruitment of Black Americans. Earlier in the year, the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center published a white paper on the American Rescue Plan ‘s widespread implications for government agencies.

In the business world, white papers also are used for marketing purposes — to describe a new product or approach, for instance, or diagnose a problem.

While a white paper can help journalists get up to speed quickly on an issue, it’s important to note some white papers advocate a specific position or policy change. Some rely on incomplete research or research that has not been peer reviewed.

Looking for more guidance on writing about research? Check out our tip sheets on covering biomedical research preprints amid the coronavirus and what journalists should know about peer review .

The Journalist’s Resource would like to thank Matthew Baum , the Marvin Kalb professor of global communications and professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, for his help preparing this tip sheet.

About The Author

Denise-Marie Ordway

International Journal of Research (IJR)

IJR Journal is Multidisciplinary, high impact and indexed journal for research publication. IJR is a monthly journal for research publication.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RESEARCH PAPER AND JOURNAL ARTICLE

Difference between research paper and journal article.

Research Paper

Argumentative Research Paper

Analytical research paper, journal article, the differences, research paper:, journal article:.

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Primary research vs review article.

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Characteristics of a Primary Research Article

• Goal is to present the result of original research that makes a new contribution to the body of knowledge
• Sometimes referred to as an empirical research article
• Typically organized into sections that include:  Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion/Conclusion, and References.

Example of a Primary Research Article:

Flockhart, D.T.T., Fitz-gerald, B., Brower, L.P., Derbyshire, R., Altizer, S., Hobson, K.A., … Norris, D.R., (2017). Migration distance as a selective episode for wing morphology in a migratory insect. Movement Ecology , 5(1), 1-9. doi: doi.org/10.1186/s40462-017-0098-9

Characteristics of a Review Article

• Goal is to summarize important research on a particular topic and to represent the current body of knowledge about that topic.
• Not intended to provide original research but to help draw connections between research studies that have previously been published.  
• Help the reader understand how current understanding of a topic has developed over time and identify gaps or inconsistencies that need further exploration.

Example of a Review Article:

https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.oswego.edu/science/article/pii/S0960982218302537

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• Next: Peer Review >>

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Review vs. Research Articles

How can you tell if you are looking at a research paper, review paper or a systematic review  examples and article characteristics are provided below to help you figure it out., research papers.

A research article describes a study that was performed by the article’s author(s). It explains the methodology of the study, such as how data was collected and analyzed, and clarifies what the results mean. Each step of the study is reported in detail so that other researchers can repeat the experiment.

To determine if a paper is a research article, examine its wording. Research articles describe actions taken by the researcher(s) during the experimental process. Look for statements like “we tested,” “I measured,” or “we investigated.” Research articles also describe the outcomes of studies. Check for phrases like “the study found” or “the results indicate.” Next, look closely at the formatting of the article. Research papers are divided into sections that occur in a particular order: abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and references.

Let's take a closer look at this research paper by Bacon et al. published in the International Journal of Hypertension :

Review Papers

Review articles do not describe original research conducted by the author(s). Instead, they give an overview of a specific subject by examining previously published studies on the topic. The author searches for and selects studies on the subject and then tries to make sense of their findings. In particular, review articles look at whether the outcomes of the chosen studies are similar, and if they are not, attempt to explain the conflicting results. By interpreting the findings of previous studies, review articles are able to present the current knowledge and understanding of a specific topic.

Since review articles summarize the research on a particular topic, students should read them for background information before consulting detailed, technical research articles. Furthermore, review articles are a useful starting point for a research project because their reference lists can be used to find additional articles on the subject.

Let's take a closer look at this review paper by Bacon et al. published in Sports Medicine :

Systematic Review Papers

A systematic review is a type of review article that tries to limit the occurrence of bias. Traditional, non-systematic reviews can be biased because they do not include all of the available papers on the review’s topic; only certain studies are discussed by the author. No formal process is used to decide which articles to include in the review. Consequently, unpublished articles, older papers, works in foreign languages, manuscripts published in small journals, and studies that conflict with the author’s beliefs can be overlooked or excluded. Since traditional reviews do not have to explain the techniques used to select the studies, it can be difficult to determine if the author’s bias affected the review’s findings.

Systematic reviews were developed to address the problem of bias. Unlike traditional reviews, which cover a broad topic, systematic reviews focus on a single question, such as if a particular intervention successfully treats a medical condition. Systematic reviews then track down all of the available studies that address the question, choose some to include in the review, and critique them using predetermined criteria. The studies are found, selected, and evaluated using a formal, scientific methodology in order to minimize the effect of the author’s bias. The methodology is clearly explained in the systematic review so that readers can form opinions about the quality of the review.

Let's take a closer look this systematic review paper by Vigano et al. published in Lancet Oncology :

Finding Review and Research Papers in PubMed

Many databases have special features that allow the searcher to restrict results to articles that match specific criteria. In other words, only articles of a certain type will be displayed in the search results. These “limiters” can be useful when searching for research or review articles. PubMed has a limiter for article type, which is located on the left sidebar of the search results page. This limiter can filter the search results to show only review articles.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between peer-reviewed (scholarly) articles and everything else.

Peer-reviewed articles, also known as scholarly articles, are published based on the approval of a board of professional experts in the discipline relating to the article topic.

For instance, a paper discussing the psychological effects of homeschooling a child would need to be reviewed by a board of psychology scholars and professional psychologists in order to be approved for publication in a psychology journal.

Scholarly/peer-reviewed articles differ from other easily available print sources because the review process gives them more authority than, for example, a newspaper or magazine article.

Newspaper or popular magazine articles are written by journalists (not specialists in any field except journalism).

They are reviewed only by the magazine/newspaper editors (also not specialists in any field except editing).

For more information, see:  https://wrtg150.lib.byu.edu/finding-sources .

• Research and Writing

Updated 2024-03-07 14:35:37 • LibAnswers page

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Difference between research paper and scientific paper

What is the difference between a research paper and a scientific paper? Does the research paper also mean a term paper at the end of your Masters?

I need to present a research paper. So does it mean I need to present a solution to an existing problem or does it mean a summary of various solutions already existing?

• terminology

2 Answers 2

A research paper is a paper containing original research. That is, if you do some work to add (or try to add) new knowledge to a field of study, and then present the details of your approach and findings in a paper, that paper can be called a research paper.

Not all academic papers contain original research; other kinds of academic papers that are not research papers are

• review papers, (see What is the difference between a review paper and a research paper? )
• position papers (which present an opinion without original research to support it)
• tutorial papers (which contain a tutorial introduction a topic or area, without contributing new results).

A scientific paper is any paper on a scientific subject.

Does the research paper also mean a term paper at the end of your Masters? I need to present a research paper. So does it mean I need to present a solution to an existing problem or does it mean a summary of various solutions already existing?

If the term paper at the end of your masters contains original research, then it's a research paper.

Depending on the policies of your department, you may or may not be required to attempt original research during your masters. In some departments, a review of existing literature may be fine. If you're not sure exactly what's required from you, you need to ask the relevant faculty or staff members in your department.

• Related: What is a "white paper"? . –  E.P. Commented Jan 20, 2015 at 18:15
• It also bears mention that "a summary of various solutions already existing" does not usually qualify as a research paper. –  E.P. Commented Jan 20, 2015 at 18:16

Research means that you add something new. Something you didn't know before, and ideally something no-one knew before (although at BSc. and MSc. levels the novelty requirement is generally relaxed). This can be a new investigation, or simply an analysis of a number existing papers. It must however not be a summary of existing solutions. It should go beyond that.

An important thing to remember is that in terms of assignment you are expected to demonstrate insight and understanding. To demonstrate this you need to engage with the topics, not merely summarise (which requires less understanding).

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged terminology ..

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What a Thesis Paper is and How to Write One

From choosing a topic and conducting research to crafting a strong argument, writing a thesis paper can be a rewarding experience.

It can also be a challenging experience. If you've never written a thesis paper before, you may not know where to start. You may not even be sure exactly what a thesis paper is. But don't worry; the right support and resources can help you navigate this writing process.

What is a Thesis Paper?

A thesis paper is a type of academic essay that you might write as a graduation requirement for certain bachelor's, master's or honors programs. Thesis papers present your own original research or analysis on a specific topic related to your field.

“In some ways, a thesis paper can look a lot like a novella,” said Shana Chartier , director of information literacy at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). “It’s too short to be a full-length novel, but with the standard size of 40-60 pages (for a bachelor’s) and 60-100 pages (for a master’s), it is a robust exploration of a topic, explaining one’s understanding of a topic based on personal research.”

Chartier has worked in academia for over 13 years and at SNHU for nearly eight. In her role as an instructor and director, Chartier has helped to guide students through the writing process, like editing and providing resources.

Chartier has written and published academic papers such as "Augmented Reality Gamifies the Library: A Ride Through the Technological Frontier" and "Going Beyond the One-Shot: Spiraling Information Literacy Across Four Years." Both of these academic papers required Chartier to have hands-on experience with the subject matter. Like a thesis paper, they also involved hypothesizing and doing original research to come to a conclusion.

“When writing a thesis paper, the importance of staying organized cannot be overstated,” said Chartier. “Mapping out each step of the way, making firm and soft deadlines... and having other pairs of eyes on your work to ensure academic accuracy and clean editing are crucial to writing a successful paper.”

How Do I Choose a Topic For My Thesis Paper?

What your thesis paper is for will determine some of the specific requirements and steps you might take, but the first step is usually the same: Choosing a topic.

“Choosing a topic can be daunting," said Rochelle Attari , a peer tutor at SNHU. "But if (you) stick with a subject (you're) interested in... choosing a topic is much more manageable.”

Similar to a thesis, Attari recently finished the capstone  for her bachelor’s in psychology . Her bachelor’s concentration is in forensics, and her capstone focused on the topic of using a combined therapy model for inmates who experience substance abuse issues to reduce recidivism.

“The hardest part was deciding what I wanted to focus on,” Attari said. “But once I nailed down my topic, each milestone was more straightforward.”

In her own writing experience, Attari said brainstorming was an important step when choosing her topic. She recommends writing down different ideas on a piece of paper and doing some preliminary research on what’s already been written on your topic.

By doing this exercise, you can narrow or broaden your ideas until you’ve found a topic you’re excited about. " Brainstorming is essential when writing a paper and is not a last-minute activity,” Attari said.

How Do I Structure My Thesis Paper?

Thesis papers tend to have a standard format with common sections as the building blocks.

While the structure Attari describes below will work for many theses, it’s important to double-check with your program to see if there are any specific requirements. Writing a thesis for a Master of Fine Arts, for example, might actually look more like a fiction novel.

According to Attari, a thesis paper is often structured with the following major sections:

Introduction

• Literature review
• Methods, results

Now, let’s take a closer look at what each different section should include.

Your introduction is your opportunity to present the topic of your thesis paper. In this section, you can explain why that topic is important. The introduction is also the place to include your thesis statement, which shows your stance in the paper.

Attari said that writing an introduction can be tricky, especially when you're trying to capture your reader’s attention and state your argument.

“I have found that starting with a statement of truth about a topic that pertains to an issue I am writing about typically does the trick,” Attari said. She demonstrated this advice in an example introduction she wrote for a paper on the effects of daylight in Alaska:

In the continental United States, we can always count on the sun rising and setting around the same time each day, but in Alaska, during certain times of the year, the sun rises and does not set for weeks. Research has shown that the sun provides vitamin D and is an essential part of our health, but little is known about how daylight twenty-four hours a day affects the circadian rhythm and sleep.

In the example Attari wrote, she introduces the topic and informs the reader what the paper will cover. Somewhere in her intro, she said she would also include her thesis statement, which might be:

Twenty-four hours of daylight over an extended period does not affect sleep patterns in humans and is not the cause of daytime fatigue in northern Alaska .

Literature Review

In the literature review, you'll look at what information is already out there about your topic. “This is where scholarly articles  about your topic are essential,” said Attari. “These articles will help you find the gap in research that you have identified and will also support your thesis statement."

Telling your reader what research has already been done will help them see how your research fits into the larger conversation. Most university libraries offer databases of scholarly/peer-reviewed articles that can be helpful in your search.

In the methods section of your thesis paper, you get to explain how you learned what you learned. This might include what experiment you conducted as a part of your independent research.

“For instance,” Attari said, “if you are a psychology major and have identified a gap in research on which therapies are effective for anxiety, your methods section would consist of the number of participants, the type of experiment and any other particulars you would use for that experiment.”

In this section, you'll explain the results of your study. For example, building on the psychology example Attari outlined, you might share self-reported anxiety levels for participants trying different kinds of therapies. To help you communicate your results clearly, you might include data, charts, tables or other visualizations.

The discussion section of your thesis paper is where you will analyze and interpret the results you presented in the previous section. This is where you can discuss what your findings really mean or compare them to the research you found in your literature review.

The discussion section is your chance to show why the data you collected matters and how it fits into bigger conversations in your field.

The conclusion of your thesis paper is your opportunity to sum up your argument and leave your reader thinking about why your research matters.

Attari breaks the conclusion down into simple parts. “You restate the original issue and thesis statement, explain the experiment's results and discuss possible next steps for further research,” she said.

Find Your Program

Resources to help write your thesis paper.

While your thesis paper may be based on your independent research, writing it doesn’t have to be a solitary process. Asking for help and using the resources that are available to you can make the process easier.

If you're writing a thesis paper, some resources Chartier encourages you to use are:

• Citation Handbooks: An online citation guide or handbook can help you ensure your citations are correct. APA , MLA and Chicago styles have all published their own guides.
• Citation Generators: There are many citation generator tools that help you to create citations. Some — like RefWorks — even let you directly import citations from library databases as you research.
• Your Library's Website: Many academic and public libraries allow patrons to access resources like databases or FAQs. Some FAQs at the SNHU library that might be helpful in your thesis writing process include “ How do I read a scholarly article? ” or “ What is a research question and how do I develop one? ”

It can also be helpful to check out what coaching or tutoring options are available through your school. At SNHU, for example, the Academic Support Center offers writing and grammar workshops , and students can access 24/7 tutoring and 1:1 sessions with peer tutors, like Attari.

"Students can even submit their papers and receive written feedback... like revisions and editing suggestions," she said.

If you are writing a thesis paper, there are many resources available to you. It's a long paper, but with the right mindset and support, you can successfully navigate the process.

“Pace yourself,” said Chartier. “This is a marathon, not a sprint. Setting smaller goals to get to the big finish line can make the process seem less daunting, and remember to be proud of yourself and celebrate your accomplishment once you’re done. Writing a thesis is no small task, and it’s important work for the scholarly community.”

A degree can change your life. Choose your program  from 200+ SNHU degrees that can take you where you want to go.

Meg Palmer ’18 is a writer and scholar by trade who loves reading, riding her bike and singing in a barbershop quartet. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English, language and literature at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and her master’s degree in writing, rhetoric and discourse at DePaul University (’20). While attending SNHU, she served as the editor-in-chief of the campus student newspaper, The Penmen Press, where she deepened her passion for writing. Meg is an adjunct professor at Johnson and Wales University, where she teaches first year writing, honors composition, and public speaking. Connect with her on LinkedIn .

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What is the Difference Between Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees?

Academic Referencing: How to Cite a Research Paper

What is Considered Plagiarism And How to Avoid It

About southern new hampshire university.

SNHU is a nonprofit, accredited university with a mission to make high-quality education more accessible and affordable for everyone.

Founded in 1932, and online since 1995, we’ve helped countless students reach their goals with flexible, career-focused programs . Our 300-acre campus in Manchester, NH is home to over 3,000 students, and we serve over 135,000 students online. Visit our about SNHU  page to learn more about our mission, accreditations, leadership team, national recognitions and awards.

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Study Reveals Differences Between Psilocybin, Escitalopram in Depression Treatment

by Denis Storey August 30, 2024 at 7:46 AM UTC

Clinical relevance: New research explores how psilocybin therapy and escitalopram alter brain dynamics in different ways to treat major depressive disorder (MDD).

• A double-blind, phase II trial with nearly four dozen MDD patients used fMRI scans to assess brain hierarchy changes after psilocybin or escitalopram treatment.
• Psilocybin flattens brain hierarchy, promoting decentralized organization, while escitalopram reinforces top-down control mechanisms, stabilizing brain function.
• The study highlights distinct mechanisms of antidepressants, suggesting personalized treatments and reinforcing the role of brain hierarchy in neuropsychiatric disorders.

New research offers fresh insights into how different major depressive disorder (MDD) treatments can transform brain dynamics. More specifically, this paper – appearing in Nature Mental Health – compares how psilocybin therapy and escitalopram alter the brain’s functional hierarchical organization to treat depression. The results of the double-blind, phase II randomized controlled trial suggest that recalibrating the brain’s hierarchical structure could help with neuropsychiatric disorders beyond MDD.

Methodology

The research project included nearly four dozen patients diagnosed with MDD, who the researchers randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups.

• The first, comprising 22 patients, received two doses of 25 mg oral psilocybin, spaced three weeks apart. Researchers also administered a daily placebo for six weeks.
• The second group, made up of another 20 patients, received two doses of 1 mg psilocybin, also three weeks apart, alongside a daily dose of escitalopram (10-20 mg) over the same period.

The researchers designed the study to assess the influence these treatments might have on brain dynamics. To do that, the team relied on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans taken at the start of the trial and again three weeks after the final psilocybin dose.

Investigating Brain Hierarchy

Researchers zeroed in on how these treatments influenced the mind’s functional hierarchy — a concept that refers to the organization of regions from top to bottom in terms of the level of control over general brain activity. Scientists argue that this hierarchical structure remains a critical component of healthy brain operations. Consequently, any disruptions to this hierarchy can lead to neuropsychiatric problems – such as depression.

To quantify changes in brain hierarchy, the study’s authors relied on a technique dubbed generative effective connectivity (GEC), which models whole-brain dynamics. By assessing the direction and strength of cerebral connections, the researchers isolated where each region of the brain fit with the overall hierarchy. The team then used what it called “measures of directedness and trophic levels — a concept lifted from ecological studies that indicate a node’s position in a network — to track changes in the brain’s dynamics.

Psilocybin vs. Escitalopram vs. Depression

The researchers found that psilocybin and escitalopram led to dramatically different reconfigurations of the brain’s hierarchy. Psilocybin treatment typically causes a flattening of the brain’s hierarchical structure, marked by reduced directedness and less pronounced differences in trophic levels across brain regions. The authors interpreted this as a shift toward a more decentralized brain organization, which aligns with earlier theories that psychedelics can disrupt rigid, top-down control mechanisms in the brain. This, of course, allows for more malleable, bottom-up processing.

Conversely, the authors noted that escitalopram treatment led to an uptick in the brain’s hierarchical directedness. This, they insisted,  implies that the treatment reinforced the top-down control mechanisms within the brain, potentially stabilizing the brain’s functional organization in a way that supports more controlled and consistent brain activity.

The researchers also leveraged machine learning to break down the patterns of hierarchical reconfiguration before and after the treatment.

Notably, the team observed that the machine learning models could predict treatment outcomes with 86 percent accuracy. This reinforced the authors’ argument that artificial intelligence can help caregivers mold treatment to someone’s brain dynamics.

Implications for Depression Treatment

The results only add to the mounting body of work that shows that various antidepressant treatments work through distinct mechanisms at the level of brain dynamics. Psilocybin’s effect on leveling brain hierarchy might offer a novel approach to treating patients resistant to more traditional pharmaceutical treatments, such as SSRIs, which appear to buttress the existing hierarchical framework.

The research also supports the theory that neuropsychiatric disorders – such as depression – could be tied directly to interference with the brain’s hierarchy. By addressing that, these treatments could help restore healthy brain functions – just a little bit differently.

While the researchers found the results encouraging, they added that future research would be necessary to replicate these findings in larger populations.

Either way, this study illustrates a new way of understanding how different treatments can reconfigure brain dynamics in depression, offering hope for more targeted and effective therapies.

Original Research

Perinatal Timing of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Onset

Findings show that OCD is most likely to begin in the early postpartum, with a rapid transition from symptoms to disorder. People with pre-existing OCD are vulnerable to symptom exacerbation postpartum, and in those without pre-existing OCD, onset can occur up to 8 months postpar...

Nichole Fairbrother and others

Case Report

Recurrence of Tolosa-Hunt Syndrome Isolated to the Sixth Cranial Nerve

The authors present a unique presentation of ipsilateral recurrence of Tolosa Hunt syndrome involving the sixth cranial nerve in a 64-year-old man.

Harshit Arora and others

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• Published: 03 September 2024

Giant impact on early Ganymede and its subsequent reorientation

• Naoyuki Hirata 1  

Scientific Reports volume  14 , Article number:  19982 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Planetary science
• Rings and moons

Ganymede has an ancient impact structure called a furrow system. The furrow system is the largest impact structure in the outer solar system, and the impact should have significantly affected Ganymede’s early history; however, its effects are poorly understood. No attention has been given to the center of the furrow system coinciding with Ganymede's tidal axis, indicating that mass redistribution induced by the furrow-forming impact caused a reorientation (true polar wander) of Ganymede. We propose that the impact ejecta created a mass anomaly that reoriented the impact site toward the tidal axis. We found that an impactor with a radius of 150 km and an incidence angle between 60° and 90° most accurately reproduces the current location of the furrow system. We predict that future explorations would reveal remnant topographic profiles or gravity anomalies associated with the furrow-forming impact and reorientation. Additionally, various possible explanations for the reorientation of Ganymede, such as an impactor-origin mascon beneath the basin or a thickness variation in the lithosphere, should be studied.

Introduction

Ganymede is the largest satellite in the solar system and has many unique features, including tectonic troughs known as furrows 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 . Furrows are the oldest surface features recognized on Ganymede because they are crosscut by any impact craters with diameters exceeding 10 km 3 . Therefore, furrows can provide a window into the early history of Ganymede. Furrows have been proposed to be fragments of multiring impact basin structures, similar to those of the Valhalla or Asgard basins on Callisto 1 , 2 , 6 , 7 . The largest furrow system is present across Galileo and Marius Regios (the so-called Galileo‒Marius furrow system), and it is the remnant of an ancient giant impact, which extends concentrically from a single point of Ganymede, 21° S 179° W 8 (Fig.  1 ); however, estimating the size of the impactor is complicated because of the absence of an identifiable clear rim 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 . Although there are a few small furrow systems on Ganymede, only the Galileo–Marius furrow system is examined in this study.

Distribution of furrows and location of the center of the furrow system shown in the hemisphere that always faces away from Jupiter (top) and the cylindrical projection map of Ganymede (bottom). The distribution of furrows was obtained from Collins et al. 10 . The gray regions represent geologically young terrain without furrows. Furrows (green lines) exist only on geologically old terrains (black regions).

We propose that the ejecta mass of the furrow-forming impact created a large positive gravity anomaly around the impact center, which subsequently led to the reorientation of Ganymede. No attention has been given to the fact that the center of the furrow system coincides with the longitude of Ganymede's tidal axis; however, this coincidence implies that Ganymede has experienced significant reorientation. Interestingly, the center of the furrow system has a very similar geometric location to that of the center of the Sputnik Planitia (18° N 178° E 12 ), which is the largest impact basin on Pluto. Both centers are located along the tidal longitude and deviate poleward by 20° from the tidal axis. Note that the coordinates of Ganymede and Pluto are defined such that the tidal axes are at a latitude of 0° and longitudes of 0°/180°. Previous studies have proposed that the Sputnik Planitia has a large positive gravity anomaly that caused significant reorientation of Pluto 12 , 13 , 14 .

In general, a positive gravity anomaly on the surface of a tidally locked satellite leads to the reorientation of the satellite wherein the anomaly approaches the tidal axis; alternatively, a negative gravity anomaly leads to a reorientation wherein the anomaly approaches the rotation axis 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 . The crater hole and ejecta blanket act as negative and positive gravity anomalies, respectively. Both anomalies mostly cancel each other out, but the overall gravity anomaly becomes slightly negative, leading to a net effect of the reorientation of the crater center toward the rotation axis 19 . In fact, some of the largest impact basins, such as the South Pole Aitken basin (Moon) and Rheasilvia basin (Vesta), are located close to the polar region. In contrast, the Sputnik Planitia basin is located near the tidal axis. Previous studies 12 , 13 have proposed that isostasy can be achieved within the basin floor if Pluto has a global ocean, which, together with the nitrogen deposits within the basin, creates a large positive gravity anomaly. Because the isostatically compensated topography (e.g., supported by the buoyancy of the asthenosphere or subsurface ocean) exhibits no free-air gravity anomaly, the negative gravity anomaly of the basin depression vanishes even if it has a negative topographic profile. In short, the basin depression of the Sputnik Planitia is likely to be compensated for and does not exhibit a negative gravity anomaly, whereas the ejecta blanket is not compensated for and thus exhibits a positive gravity anomaly.

A similar mechanism is appropriate for the case of the furrow-forming impact on Ganymede because the formation of multiring basins on the Jovian icy satellites has been explained by the collapse of a crater basin owing to fluid or warm convective ice beneath a thin ice shell 6 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 . Although it is difficult to argue whether Ganymede had a differentiated interior with an ocean or an undifferentiated interior without an ocean at the time of the formation of the furrow system, numerical simulations 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 have shown that both a thin ice shell over the ocean and warm convective ice without an ocean can reproduce the shallowing of the basin floor and widening of the crater rim of the multiring basin. Isostasy would have been achieved within the basin floor in both subsurface models (see also Methods). The ejecta blanket alone then played the role of a gravity anomaly, leading to reorientation toward the tidal axis.

We used two different techniques to investigate the reorientation of Ganymede: the first technique balances the degree-2 gravity anomaly caused by a simplified ejecta blanket model against the remnant rotational bulge, and the second technique calculates the perturbation of the moment of inertia from a more complex ejecta blanket model without taking the remnant bulge into account.

Evaluation on the basis of comparison with the remnant bulge

We evaluated the extent to which ejecta mass would have been sufficient to induce significant reorientation in Ganymede. Many significant studies have been conducted on the reorientation of solid bodies in the solar system 16 , 17 , 18 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 . For a rigid spinning tidally locked body, mass redistribution, such as cratering or subsurface diapirism, leads to a new principal axis rotational state (reorientation), while the remnant rotational and tidal bulge stabilizes the rotation axis. Therefore, the true polar-wander solutions are determined by the balance between the remnant bulge and a load (i.e., the mass creating the gravity anomaly) 34 , 35 . The dimensionless parameter \(Q\) , defined as the ratio of the degree-2 gravitational potential perturbation of the load to the fossil part of the rotational bulge, is useful in determining solutions 34 , 35 ; this parameter is expressed as follows:

where \({g}_{20}\) is the degree-2 order-0 coefficient of the gravitational potential perturbation of the mass redistribution at the object surface; \(G\) is the gravitational constant; \(M\) , \(R\) , and \(\Omega\) are the mass, radius, and rotation angular frequency of Ganymede, respectively; and \({k}_{2}^{T*}\) and \({k}_{2}^{T}\) are the degree-2 fluid and actual Love numbers, respectively. If the load is too small compared with the existing bulge (i.e., \(\left|Q\right|\ll 1\) ), reorientation does not occur because the bulge plays a role in stabilizing the current rotation axis. Here, \(Q>0\) ( \(Q<0\) ) indicates that the load plays the role of a positive (negative) gravity anomaly, and \(\left|Q\right|=1\) indicates that the gravity anomaly of the load is comparable with that of the rotational bulge. As an example, the load of \(\left|Q\right|=1\) leads to a reorientation of 7° if its latitude is 45° 16 .

If the ejecta blanket with a total volume of \({V}_{ejecta}\) has a uniform thickness and simple annulus shape with inner and outer radii of \(R\phi\) and \(R\theta\) ( \(\theta =2\phi )\) and isostasy is achieved within the basin radius ( \(R\phi )\) , \({g}_{20}\) is given by.

where \(\phi\) and \(\theta\) are the angles from the object center, \({C}_{n}\) is the degree of isostatic compensation, and \({\rho }_{c}\) is the density of the ejecta blanket (Methods). Note that this simple annulus provides a good approximation of the ejecta distribution because the wavelength of the degree-2 gravitational potential is sufficiently longer than the basin radius. On the basis of the Z model (e.g., ref. 36 ), we assumed that the total volume ejected from a crater ( \({V}_{ejecta}\) ) was a fraction of the total volume displaced from the transient crater ( \({V}_{tc}\) ), \({V}_{ejecta}=\frac{1}{4}{V}_{tc}\) , and that the size of the transient crater was a simple hemisphere, \({V}_{tc}=\frac{2}{3}\pi {{r}_{tc}}^{3}\) . Additionally, we used a relation of \(R\phi =1.3{r}_{tc}\) (e.g., ref. 36 ). As a result, we obtain the value of \(Q\) as a function of the transient crater radius, \({r}_{tc}\) (Fig.  2 ). The values of \({C}_{n}\) and \(\Delta {k}_{2}={k}_{2}^{T*}-{k}_{2}^{T}\) , which depend on the interior structure of Ganymede 4 billion years ago, are highly uncertain. Various estimations exist regarding the thickness of the lithosphere at the time of furrow formation: (i) the thickness of the lithosphere was estimated as 6–10 km on the basis of the width and spacing of furrows 37 , 38 , 39 , and (ii) the effective elastic thickness was estimated as 0.5 km on the basis of flexural uplift around furrows, although flexural uplift may have formed during a geologically active period of Ganymede long after furrow formation 40 . If the elastic thickness was \(t=\) 10 km or 0.5 km, we can assume that \({C}_{n}\) =0.87 or 0.99, respectively (Methods). When \(t=\) 10 km, we can assume two cases: \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.6 if Ganymede had no ocean and its mantle had a high viscosity of \(\eta >\) 10 14  Pa s or \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.03 if Ganymede had an ocean or its mantle had a low viscosity of \(\eta <\) 10 12  Pa s (Methods). When \(t=\) 0.5 km, we can assume two cases: \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.6 if Ganymede had no ocean and its mantle had a high viscosity of \(\eta >\) 10 14  Pa s, or \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.005 if Ganymede had an ocean or its mantle had a low viscosity of \(\eta <\) 10 12  Pa s (Methods). Figure  2 presents the four cases: \(\left(t,\Delta {k}_{2}\right)\) =(10 km, 0.6), (10 km, 0.03), (0.5 km, 0.6), and (0.5 km, 0.005). As a result, the volume of the ejecta blanket that creates a gravity anomaly with \(Q=1\) corresponds to 100% of the ejecta created by a transient crater with radii of 480, 160, and 220 km when \(\left(t,\Delta {k}_{2}\right)\) =(10 km, 0.6), (10 km, 0.03), and (0.5 km, 0.005), respectively (Fig.  2 ). Therefore, a transient crater larger than 160 ~ 480 km in radius can lead to significant reorientation. When \(\left(t,\Delta {k}_{2}\right)\) = (0.5 km, 0.6), we can obtain \(\left|Q\right|\ll 1\) for any transient crater radius.

Parameter \(Q\) is a function of the transient crater radius, where t represents the lithospheric thickness and where \(\Delta {k}_{2}={k}_{2}^{T*}-{k}_{2}^{T}\) represents the difference between the degree-2 fluid and actual Love numbers. Here, \(\left|Q\right|\gg 1\) ( \(\left|Q\right|\ll 1\) ) means that the load of the ejecta leads to significant (small) reorientation of Ganymede. Here, the gravity anomaly inside the basin radius is assumed to be zero.

Global distribution of the ejecta blanket and the most stable orientation

The location of the Sputnik Planitia, which deviates 20° from the tidal axis, was explained by the balance between the bulge and mass anomaly of the basin 12 . However, the center of the furrow system cannot be explained in the same manner if the remnant bulge of Ganymede is readjusted on a short timescale. In general, some fraction of the remnant bulge eventually vanishes with the occurrence of reorientation; a new bulge is immediately formed in response to the new rotation state, and the gravity anomaly ultimately migrates to the tidal axis 15 . We calculated the center of the gravity anomaly (i.e., the minimum principal axis of the load) of the mass distribution of the ejecta blanket created by the furrow-forming impact. This approach ignores the stabilizing effect of any remnant bulge and would thus be expected to underestimate the size of the impactor compared with the results derived above for a simplified ejecta blanket. Numerical simulations and experimental studies have shown that although the shape of the crater depression is not sensitive to the impact incidence angle unless the angle is very shallow, the shape of the ejecta blanket is strongly sensitive to the impact incidence angle, and most impacts produce asymmetric ejecta patterns (Methods). Unless an ejecta blanket is perfectly symmetric, the center of the load does not match that of the crater. Therefore, we considered the impact incidence angle, utilized the methods described by Hirata et al. 41 and Hirata 42 , calculated the trajectories of ejecta particles, and reproduced the thickness distribution of the ejecta blanket.

In this ejecta model, the initial launch position, velocity, and volume of ejecta particles were determined via the scaling law developed by Housen and Holsapple 43 and Raducan et al. 44 . The ejecta model was obtained by experimental studies on Earth and has been used in studies of secondary craters and ejecta on icy satellites, including Ganymede 45 , 46 . Because the furrow-forming impact is in a gravity regime that does not depend on the strength of the target material, the interior structure of Ganymede would hardly affect the ejecta model. For example, an experimental study 47 demonstrated that the shattering strength in impact experiments of icy clay samples with water contents of up to 35 wt% is not different from that of basalt, although the static tensile strength of basalt is approximately 8 times greater than that of icy clay samples. Housen and Holsapple 43 provided three ejecta models in the gravity regime (water, dry sand, and glass microspheres as target surfaces), although the three ejecta models do not differ markedly from each other. The ejecta model of Housen and Holsapple 43 was based on an experiment with a normal impact (incidence angle of 90°). Raducan et al. 44 updated the ejecta model by including the incidence angle of the impactor as a parameter. The trajectories of the ejecta particles were solved via Hill’s equation 48 . We defined ejecta particles that reached below the object surface as colliding with the object and ejecta particles that reached an altitude greater than the Hill radius of the object as escaping from the object. Additionally, we removed the particles that land within the radius of a basin rim to assume an isostatically compensated basin floor.

The left plates in Figs. 3 , 4 , and 5 show fifteen examples of the global distribution of an ejecta blanket in the cases of an ejecta launch angle of 45°, C4 (dry sand as a target surface) as the set of scaling constants, a basin rim radius of \(R\phi\) =1000 km, and other parameters presented in Supplementary Table 1 . We calculated the moment of inertia tensor of the mass distribution of each ejecta blanket and the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the tensor to obtain the principal moments of inertia and principal axes of each ejecta blanket. We remapped each ejecta blanket in body-fixed coordinates after reorientation to ensure that Ganymede had the most stable rotation; the maximum and minimum principal axes of the mass distribution matched the rotation and tidal axes, respectively (right plates in Figs. 3 , 4 , and 5 ). In many cases, the current location of the center of the furrow system can be reproduced by this ejecta model (Figs. 3 and 4 ). However, this could not be reproduced in some cases (Fig.  5 ). Although reproducing the current location of the furrow system involves many parameters and is complicated, our results suggest that (i) the impact incidence angle is between 60° and 90° or (ii) the uprange direction is roughly on the west side. This is almost independent of the initial location of the impact site (Fig.  4 ).

(left) Global distribution of ejecta blankets before reorientation using impact parameters #1–5 presented in Supplementary Table 1 . The white, gray, and black “ + ” symbols represent the minimum, intermediate, and maximum principal axes, respectively. (right) Global ejecta thickness after reorientation to ensure that Ganymede had the most stable rotation. The vertical and horizontal axes in each plate indicate the latitude and east longitude, respectively, where the top left corner is 90° N and 0° E, and the bottom right corner is 90° S and 360° E. The color bar is represented on a logarithmic scale.

Global distribution of ejecta blankets before reorientation (left) and after reorientation (right) using impact parameters #6–10 presented in Supplementary Table 1 . The white, gray, and black “ + ” symbols represent the minimum, intermediate, and maximum principal axes, respectively. The vertical and horizontal axes in each plate indicate the latitude and east longitude, respectively, where the top left corner is 90° N and 0° E, and the bottom right corner is 90° S and 360° E. The color bar is represented on a logarithmic scale.

Global distribution of ejecta blankets before reorientation (left) and after reorientation (right) using impact parameters #11–15 presented in Supplementary Table 1 .

In this ejecta model, a small mound with a height of approximately 10 km and a width of 300 ~ 600 km owing to the accumulation of ejecta appears near the sub-Jovian point (Figs. 3 d, e, 4 a, b). This may agree with the small mound with a height of 3 km located near the sub-Jovian point (1.5° E, 0.5° N) discovered by the Juno flyby and legacy data reanalysis 49 , 50 . When the uprange direction is roughly on the west side, the mound tends to appear near the sub-Jovian point after reorientation because the small mound shifted slightly from the exact opposite point of the impact owing to the effect of Ganymede's rotation. Viscous relaxation, isostatic readjustment, and/or uncertainty of the ejecta model may be responsible for the difference in height and shape between the discovered mound and our ejecta mound.

Furthermore, via the Monte Carlo method, we examined the probability that the center of the furrow system after the most stable reorientation matched the current location. The initial longitude, latitude, uprange direction, and incidence angle of the impactor follow the functions of \(2\pi {x}_{1},\text{acos}\left(2{x}_{2}-1\right),2\pi {x}_{3}, \text{and}, \text{acos}(\sqrt{{x}_{4}})\) , respectively, where \(0\le {x}_{1},{x}_{2},{x}_{3},{x}_{4}<1\) are uniformly distributed random numbers 51 . We examined cases for an impact incidence angle between 60° and 90° or between 30° and 60°; a target material of C4 or C1 (water); a transient crater radius of 500, 600, 700, 800, or 900 km; and an ejecta launch angle of 25°, 30°, or 45° (angle between the initial launch velocity vector and the object surface). Note that an ejecta launch angle of ~ 28° may be the most appropriate for a giant impact because of the curvature of the target surface 52 , 53 . For each case, 1000 trials were performed. Figure  6 shows the initial and final locations of the crater centers in the case of an impact incidence angle between 60° and 90°, a target material of C4, and an ejecta launch angle of 30° or 45°. This figure shows that the basin center tends to shift poleward from the tidal axis by the basin radius along the tidal longitude. Figure  7 shows the relationship between the transient crater and the probability that the center of the furrow system after the most stable reorientation moved within 5° or 10° from the point deviated poleward by 20° from the tidal axis.

(top) Initial location of the center of the crater, (middle) final location of the center of the crater after reorientation, and (bottom) final location in the coordinate centered at the tidal axis. We have displayed cases with ejecta launch angles of 45° (left) and 30° (right). Note that because the true polar wander solution does not distinguish between the southern and northern hemispheres, points plotted in the Northern Hemisphere are shown with the opposite sign on the bottom plate. Owing to satellite rotation, it is not symmetrical with respect to the east‒west direction.

Probability that the center of the furrow system after the most stable reorientation moves within 5° (left) or 10° (right) from the point that deviates poleward by 20° from the tidal axis as a function of the transient crater radius. Here, we assume an impact incidence angle (inc) between 30° and 60° or between 60° and 90°; an ejecta launch angle (ej) of 25°, 30°, or 45°; and a target material (tar) of C1 or C4. The legend is common on both plates.

For example, the probability that the impact center falls within 5° from the point that deviates poleward by 20° from the tidal axis under the conditions of an impact incidence angle between 60° and 90°, a transient crater radius of 700 km, and an ejecta launch angle of 30° is 57.2% (Fig.  7 ). This transient crater radius creates a gravity anomaly with \(Q>1\) , as shown in Fig.  2 . If reorientation does not occur, the probability is 0.76%. Note that there are four locations on Ganymede that deviate poleward by 20° from the tidal axis. The probability tends to be maximum when the size of the transient crater radius is 700 or 800 km, which is consistent with the above arguments for the Q value. A transient crater radius of 700 or 800 km is produced by an impactor with a radius of 150 km 11 . In conclusion, an impactor with a radius of 150 km and an incidence angle between 60° and 90° most likely reproduces the current location of the furrow system.

Although we demonstrated that the load of the ejecta blanket can reorient the impact site toward the tidal axis, a variety of other possible explanations for the reorientation of Ganymede cannot be ruled out because of the high uncertainty of the conditions of Ganymede 4 billion years ago. First, because inhomogeneous lithospheric thickness leads to an inhomogeneous degree of isostatic compensation, even if the ejecta blanket is perfectly symmetric, the ejecta rim supported by a thicker lithosphere would have greater gravity anomalies. Therefore, variations in lithospheric thickness, rather than an asymmetric ejecta distribution, may be responsible for the deviation of the center of the furrow system from the tidal axis by 20°. Second, it is proposed that the variation in the thickness of the icy shell driven by the latitudinal variation in solar radiation leads to the reorientation of Ganymede 32 or that a captured rocky impactor core beneath the Sputnik Planitia basin leads to the reorientation of Pluto 33 , although we do not discuss these hypotheses in this paper. Third, the mass anomaly of the ejecta blanket and bulge supported by the lithosphere may vanish on a long timescale, whereas the presence of localized gravity anomalies (e.g., ref. 54 ) indicates that relaxation does not always occur and that long-term mass anomalies can persist. However, it is difficult to estimate the relaxation time of the ejecta blanket and the remnant bulge (Method). If the gravity anomaly of the ejecta blanket vanishes before that of the remnant bulge, Ganymede should reorient back to its initial position. Alternatively, the cooling of Ganymede during the timeframe possibly increased the thickness of the lithosphere and should have fixed the orientation of Ganymede. These issues also need to be discussed in further studies.

The reorientation of Ganymede provides a window into the early history of the Jovian satellites. It is proposed that the 10-km-thick (0.5-km-thick) lithosphere of Ganymede indicates a surface heat flow of approximately 40 mW/m 2 (60–80 mW/m 2 ) at the time of furrow formation 39 , 40 , which exceeds the maximum plausible heat fluxes expected from radiogenic heating alone 4.5 billion years ago (nearly 27 mW/m 2 55 ). Therefore, additional energy sources, such as tidal heating, gravity segregation, and/or loss of accretional heat 40 , may have been present at the time of furrow formation. In particular, large-amplitude librations and/or nonsynchronous rotations can themselves cause significant heating due to tidal dissipation. We estimate that Ganymede should have attained its new orientation approximately 1000 years after the furrow-forming impact as a result of tidal dissipation (Methods). In addition, a 150 km-radius impactor was proposed to pump early Ganymede's free eccentricity 56 .

Heliocentric impactors preferentially hit the leading hemisphere of a tidally locked satellite, and the impact crater density of Ganymede decreases from the apex (center of the leading hemisphere) to the antapex (center of the trailing hemisphere) of its motion; however, the degree of apex–antapex asymmetry in various tidally locked satellites is considerably lower than that of theoretical estimates for ecliptic comets 51 , 57 , 58 . Previous studies 51 , 57 , 58 have proposed various possible explanations for this difference, such as crater saturation, nonsynchronous rotation, reorientation, and nearly isotropic comets as the dominant impactor population. If the load of the ejecta has fixed the orientation of Ganymede, further reorientation would be unlikely in the case of Ganymede. This could be an area that needs further study.

The amount of ejecta in the Valhalla basin on Callisto is equivalent to \(Q=\) 10, which is sufficiently large to cause a reorientation of Callisto (Methods); however, Valhalla is far from both the pole and tidal axes. Possible explanations include the following: (i) Callisto's rotation at the time of formation of the Valhalla basin was faster than that at present, (ii) isostasy is not archived on the basin floor, (iii) other surface loads exist on Callisto, or (iv) Callisto has a large remnant bulge; however, we cannot argue these explanations conclusively.

Many areas of Ganymede still have not been imaged with sufficient resolution 5 , and further data from future explorations are required for further discussions of the tectonic landforms formed by reorientation and the age of furrow formation. For example, tectonic patterns (other than furrows) resulting from Ganymede’s reorientation have not been discovered, although tectonic patterns resulting from the reorientation of Pluto and the Jovian satellites have been investigated 13 , 28 , 31 . New fractures may not have formed if the reactivation of existing fractures, or furrows, absorbed reorientation-induced stresses. The current accuracy of the gravity and topography measurements of Ganymede 59 , 60 , 61 are insufficient for comparisons between individual topographic features owing to the lack of a global shape model of Ganymede and a local topographic map around the center of the furrow system. Although it is not clear that the gravity anomaly has vanished, the topographic profiles of the ejecta blankets should still be visible in the topography even if they are mostly viscously relaxed. Future explorations would reveal such a remnant of topographic profiles associated with the furrow-forming impact and the reorientation of Ganymede, which would provide insights into Ganymede’s early history and highlight its differences compared with those of other Jovian satellites.

The degree of isostatic compensation and the value of \({{\varvec{g}}}_{20}\)

Following Melosh 19 , we assumed the following conditions for a crater basin: (i) the ejecta blanket of excavated material has a uniform thickness, \({t}_{e}\) , and a simple annulus shape with inner and outer radii of \(R\phi\) and \(R\theta\) , respectively, where \(\phi\) and \(\theta\) are the angles from the center of the object, respectively, and the outer radius is twice the inner radius, \(\theta =2\phi\) ; and (ii) the basin floor has a uniform depth, \(h\) , and a simple circular shape with a radius of \(R\phi\) . In this case, a simple geometric solution gives the volume of the ejecta blanket and hole as follows:

In general, both volumes are equal because of the conservation of mass 19 , even if the very shallow basin was created after the collapse of a transient crater; subsequently, we can use the simple relation of \(h={t}_{e}(\text{cos}\phi -\text{cos}\theta )/(1-\text{cos}\phi )\) . We considered the variations in the density of a nearly spherical object expressed by variations over a series of concentric spherical shells, and the density perturbations were azimuthally symmetric. The density perturbation in this model of the ejecta blanket model is expressed as follows:

where \({\rho }_{0}\left(r\right)\) is the mean density for radius \(r\) , \({\rho }_{c}\) is the density of the crust, and \(\varphi\) is the colatitude from the crater center. The degree-2 order-0 coefficient of the density perturbation is expressed as follows 62 :

We can obtain.

The degree- \(l\) order- \(m\) spherical harmonic coefficients of the gravitational potential at an arbitrary distance, \(s (s\ge R)\) , are given by 62 :

where \(s\) is the distance from the center. Therefore, if this density perturbation is supported by an infinitely rigid lithosphere, the degree-2 order-0 gravitational potential coefficient at the object surface can be described as follows:

If we assume that \(h={t}_{e}(\text{cos}\phi -\text{cos}\theta )/(1-\text{cos}\phi )\) ), this gravitational coefficient is always negative, \({g}_{20}<0\) , which gives \(Q<0\) .

The actual shapes of the eject blankets in Fig.  3 are not simple annulus shapes. However, this simple annulus provides a good approximation of the ejecta distribution because the wavelength of the degree-2 gravitational potential is sufficiently longer than that of the basin radius and mostly averages inhomogeneity or asymmetry in the ejecta distribution. As a simple example, if we define \(\theta =1.3\phi\) or \(\theta =2.5\phi\) instead of \(\theta =2\phi\) , the value of \(Q\) changes by only approximately 20–30%. Inhomogeneity in the tangential direction should have little effect on \({g}_{20}\) if the total mass of ejecta as a function from the center is equal to the simple annulus shape because Eq. ( 6 ) does not depend on the tangential direction.

A mass excess/deficit that is compensated for by isostasy does not create a free-air gravity anomaly, whereas the ejecta mass supported by the bending and membrane stresses of the lithosphere creates a gravity anomaly. Therefore, the gravity anomaly decreases by a factor of \((1-{C}_{n})\) , where the degree of isostatic compensation, \({C}_{n}\) , is described as follows 63 :

where \(N=n\left(n+1\right)\) , \(n\) is the degree of spherical harmonics of the horizontal width of the load ( \(n=2\pi R/w\) , where \(w\) is the horizontal width of the load), \(\overline{\rho }\) is the mean density of the satellite, and \(\tau\) and \(\sigma\) are nondimensional parameters that are defined as follows:

where \(t\) is the elastic thickness; \({\rho }_{m}\) is the density of the mantle underlying the lithospheric plate; \(E\) and \(\nu\) are the Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio of the lithosphere, respectively; and \(g\) is the surface gravity. Here, \({C}_{n}=0\) indicates that the load is fully supported by the lithosphere, and \({C}_{n}=1\) indicates that the load is fully compensated by isostasy. We assumed that \(E\) = 9 GPa, \(\nu\) =0.32 (ref. 64), \({\rho }_{m}\) = 1000 kg m −3 , and \({\rho }_{c}\) = 930 kg m −3 (ref. 65). We assumed that \(w=\) 1000 km because the ejecta blanket spreads across several basin radii. Note that the value of \(w\) hardly affects \({C}_{n}\) : \({C}_{n}=0.871\) ( \(w=\) 3000 km), \({C}_{n}=0.875\) ( \(w=\) 1000 km), and \({C}_{n}=0.868\) ( \(w=\) 500 km) for \(t=\) 10 km, and \({C}_{n}=0.992\) ( \(w=\) 3000 km), \({C}_{n}=0.993\) ( \(w=\) 1000 km), and \({C}_{n}=0.993\) ( \(w=\) 500 km) for \(t=\) 0.5 km. Consequently, we assume \({C}_{n}=0.87\) for \(t=\) 10 km and \({C}_{n}=0.99\) for \(t=\) 0.5 km.

If the value of \({C}_{n}\) is homogeneous inside and outside the basin, the gravity anomaly is always negative ( \({g}_{20}<0\) ); thus, reorientation that orients the basin center to the tidal axis does not occur. At least \({C}_{n}\) outside the basin must be smaller than \({C}_{n}\) inside the basin to obtain \({g}_{20}>0\) . Nimmo et al. 12 assumed that isostasy is archived inside the Sputnik Planitia basin. Similarly, in the case of Ganymede, the gravity anomaly becomes positive ( \({g}_{20}>0\) ) if (i) isostasy is archived inside the basin, which has the same attribute as \(h=0\) , and (ii) it is not archived outside the basin (i.e., the load of the ejecta is partially supported by the lithosphere). This assumption is natural for the following reasons. First, numerical simulations 26 or impact experiments 66 have proposed that the impactor can penetrate Europa’s ice shell and create conduits to the underlying ocean. Similarly, if Ganymede has an ocean and its ice shell is sufficiently thin, isostasy is easily achieved within the basin floor by the inflow of water. The furrow-forming impact alone may not create a large ocean because the size of a local melt pool created by the impact is up to 6 times the impactor radii 67 , which is less than 10% of the total volume of Ganymede. However, isostasy would be achieved within the basin floor even if Ganymede’s interior is warm convective ice without an ocean. Numerical simulations of warm convective ice without the ocean 11 , 27 have shown that cold lithospheric material is replaced by warm subsurface material and that the postimpact lithospheric thickness becomes quite thin within the transient crater radius when the transient crater size is sufficiently larger than the lithospheric thickness. The lithospheric thickness recovered by cooling from the surface is roughly determined by the characteristic thermal diffusion depth, \(\sqrt{\kappa {t}_{d}}\) , where \(\kappa\) is the thermal diffusivity and where \({t}_{d}\) is the timeframe 68 . The relaxation time of a load with a horizontal width of 100 km is 25 years (see below). If we use \(\kappa =\) 2.9 \(\times\) 10 –5 for ice 69 , 70 and \({t}_{d}=\) 25 years, we obtain \(\sqrt{\kappa {t}_{d}}\) = 150 m. An elastic thickness of \(t=\) 150 m does not support a load above the lithosphere at all \(({C}_{n}=1)\) . In other words, the mass anomaly within the basin floor quickly disappears before the lithospheric thickness recovers. Therefore, isostasy can be achieved within the basin floor of the furrow system, regardless of the two surface models used. Second, numerical simulations 11 , 27 have shown that the postimpact lithospheric thickness and temperature do not become thin and warm outside the basin. Numerical simulations for the Sputnik Planitia 71 also show that hot preimpact thermal structures or cold thermal structures with an ocean greater than 150 km thick produce basins that are broadly isostatically compensated inside the basin and that are not fully isostatically compensated outside the basin. Therefore, it is likely that isostasy is not fully archived outside the basin. Third, furrow formation is unlikely to cause a significant change in the rheology of the lithosphere overall before and after the furrow-forming impact because individual furrows occur in the brittle part of the lithosphere 6 , 7 , and the brittle part above the brittle‒ductile transition layer should already include many cracks and faults due to impacts or tectonics. Notably, if the lithosphere is fully damaged by impact and isostasy is fully and broadly archived even outside the basin, any gravity anomalies will not be created by ejecta. If so, we should conclude that a coincidence or another hypothesis, such as the impactor-origin silicate mascon beneath the basin or the variation in the lithospheric thickness, is responsible for the current position of the center of the furrow system coinciding with the tidal axis.

Based on the above assumption ( \(h=0\) ), the dimensionless parameter becomes.

The radius of the transient crater of the Gilgamesh basin is 135 km (ref. 46), which indicates a load of \(Q\) =0.027 ( \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.6) or 0.54 ( \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.03). The Gilgamesh basin does not cause significant reorientation of Ganymede, although a reorientation caused by the Gilgamesh basin has previously been proposed 28 . As another example, the mound at the sub-Jovian point, discovered by the Juno flyby and legacy data reanalysis, with a height of 3 km and an oval of 450 km × 750 km (refs. 49,50), has a value of \(Q\) =0.018 ( \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.6) or 0.36 ( \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.03), assuming \(h\) =-3 km, \({t}_{e}\) = 0, \(R\phi\) =300 km, and \({C}_{n}=0\) .87 (t = 10 km). Following Eq. (41) in Matsuyama and Nimmo 16 , the mound leads to very small reorientation of less than 2.6° if its latitude is 45°. We obtain a value of \(Q\) =0.17 for the mound if we assume that \(h\) =-3 km, \({t}_{e}\) = 0, \(R\phi\) =300 km, \({C}_{n}=0.\) 99 ( t  = 0.5 km), and \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.005.

The degree 2 Love number of Ganymede

The value of \(\Delta {k}_{2}={k}_{2}^{T*}-{k}_{2}^{T}\) is determined by the internal structure of Ganymede and has a significant effect on the value of \(Q\) . Many studies have investigated the tidal response of Ganymede, assuming various interior structure models 72 , 73 , 74 . For example, Moore and Schubert 72 reported that \({k}_{2}^{T}\) is approximately 0.01 if the present-day Ganymede has no ocean and its mantle has a high viscosity of \(\eta >\) 10 14  Pa s or approximately 0.4 to 0.6 if Ganymede has an ocean or its mantle has a low viscosity of \(\eta <\) 10 12  Pa s. Although it is unclear whether Ganymede’s interior is differentiated or undifferentiated, we estimate the Love number on the basis of a four-layer Ganymede model. Here, we assume that Ganymede consists of (1) a 10 km-thick elastic icy shell, (2) a viscoelastic icy mantle, (3) a viscoelastic rocky mantle, and (4) a liquid metallic core, where the rigidities of the icy shell and rocky mantle are 10 and 100 GPa, respectively; the densities of the icy shell, icy mantle, rocky mantle, and metallic core are 1050, 1050, 1050, 3100, and 5150 kg/m 3 , respectively; the outer radii of the icy shell, icy mantle, rocky mantle, and metallic core are 2638, 2628, 1745, and 710 km, respectively; and the viscosity of the rocky mantle is 10 20  Pa s. The value of \({k}_{2}^{T*}\) is defined as the value when the elastic icy shell is assumed to be a liquid ocean layer. Those rigidities, densities, outer radii, and viscosities are from Kamata et al. 73 . We use a code released by Kamata 75 to calculate the periodic spheroidal deformation of a planetary body to obtain the Love number. As a result, when the viscosity of the icy mantle is 10 11 , 10 13 , or 10 15  Pa s, we obtain ( \({k}_{2}^{T},{k}_{2}^{T*})\) = (0.579,0.604), (0.335,0.605), or (0.018,0.605), respectively. If the subsurface ocean layer (with a density of 1050 kg/m 3 ) is present instead of the viscoelastic icy mantle, we can obtain ( \({k}_{2}^{T},{k}_{2}^{T*})\) =(0.579,0.604). Considering the large uncertainties, we studied the two cases of \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.03 and \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.6 for t  = 10 km. If we assume a 0.5 km-thick elastic icy shell instead of a 10 km-thick elastic icy shell, when the viscosity of the icy mantle is 10 11 , 10 13 , or 10 15  Pa s, we obtain ( \({k}_{2}^{T},{k}_{2}^{T*})\) =(0.599,0.604), (0.446, 0.605), or (0.018,0.605); therefore, we study the two cases of \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.005 and \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.6 for t  = 0.5 km. This combination of \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.6 and t  = 0.5 km may be unlikely because the very thin lithosphere and cold interior are not consistent.

Tidal decay of rotation

Following a large impact event, tidal friction quickly dampens the motions of the satellite’s orientation, such as librational oscillations and nonsynchronous rotation, and the satellite attains its new orientation on a short timescale 19 . The timescales of the tidal decay of librational rotation and nonsynchronous rotation have been estimated in previous studies 19 , 76 , 77 , and all three studies were equivalent. Following Noyelles et al. 77 , the timescale is expressed as follows:

where \(C\) is the maximum moment of inertia about the center of mass; \({n}_{o}\) is the mean orbital motion; and \({Q}_{d}\) is the specific dissipation factor of the satellite. Assuming a homogenous interior ( \(C=0.4 M{R}^{2}\) ) and reasonable values for warm icy satellites, \({k}_{2}^{T}\) =0.5 and \({Q}_{d}\) =100 (ref. 78), we can obtain \({T}_{damp}\) =870 years. If Ganymede was cold and rigid ( \({Q}_{d}/{k}^T_{2}\) ~ 10 5 ), we can obtain \({T}_{damp}\) =4.4 million years.

Viscous relaxation of the load and bulge

The mass anomaly not supported by the lithosphere disappears owing to viscous relaxation on a timescale of \(\eta /{\rho }_{m}gw\) (ref. 68), where \(w\) is the horizontal width of the load. The icy materials underlying the elastic layer are convecting, and their reference viscosity is as low as \(\eta\) = 10 12 to 10 17  Pa s (ref. 79). For example, a 100 km-wide load not supported by the lithosphere would vanish in less than 25 years. Similarly, the density perturbations below the lithosphere created by heating and redistribution of the impact crater would vanish on a short timescale. If the relaxation time of the remnant tidal/rotational bulge is given by \(\eta /{\rho }_{m}gR\) (ref. 17), the bulge would vanish in 1 year. However, this estimate is suitable only for an isoviscous case, whereas the internal structure of Ganymede is much more complicated and, in particular, may have a rigid outer shell that can maintain a remnant bulge over geological time. In short, the actual bulge relaxation timescale is extremely uncertain. It is estimated that old craters on the dark terrain of Ganymede have relaxed viscously for 1 billion years 55 , 80 . The timescale of relaxation of the mass anomaly of the ejecta blankets and the tidal/rotational bulge may also be approximately 1 billion years.

The Valhalla basin

The original crater radius of the Valhalla basin was estimated to be 500 km on the basis of the mapping of ejecta and secondaries 81 . The thickness of the lithosphere was estimated to range from 15 to 20 km during the formation of the Valhalla basin 6 . Assuming \(R\phi\) =500 km, \(t=\) 20 km, \(h=\) 0, \(w\) = 500 km, \(n\) = 15, \({C}_{n}\) =0.66, and physical parameters for Callisto, we can obtain \(Q\) =199.8 ( \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.03) or \(Q\) =10.0 ( \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.6) for the Valhalla basin, which should lead to a significant reorientation of Callisto. Possible explanations for this include Callisto's rotational period, incomplete isostatic compensation within the basin floor, and other surface loads. If Callisto's rotational period was 50 h (currently 400 h), we could obtain \(Q\) =0.16 ( \(\Delta {k}_{2}\) =0.6). The Valhalla basin is one of the oldest surface features on Callisto 21 , 82 , and Callisto at the time of the formation of the Valhalla basin may not have yet reached a synchronous rotation state. However, this scenario may be unlikely because Callisto attains a synchronous rotation state in 2 million years if we use \({Q}_{d}/{k}_{2}\) ~ 20 (ref. 83). If Callisto was cold and rigid ( \({Q}_{d}/{k}_{2}\) ~ 10 5 ), Callisto obtained a synchronous rotation state 1 billion years after its formation. Note that because Ganymede attains a synchronous rotation state at 0.66 million years for \({Q}_{d}\) =100 after its formation 76 , Ganymede’s rotational period at the time of furrow formation should not differ much from the present period. If isostasy is not achieved within the basin floor of the Valhalla basin (i.e., \(h>0\) ), incomplete isostatic compensation of the negative topographic profile within the basin would decrease \(Q\) . Finally, as many areas of Callisto have not yet been imaged with sufficient resolution, we cannot rule out the possibility that large undiscovered loads exist on Callisto’s surface. Additionally, Callisto may have had a large remnant bulge, such as the equatorial bulge of Iapetus, because of Callisto’s undifferentiated and inert interior.

Note for the calculation of the ejecta blanket

Many studies have focused on the shape of the ejecta blanket, which shows that the mass distribution of ejecta is strongly sensitive to the impact incidence angle and highly asymmetric 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 . Therefore, most naturally, the impact incidence angle is responsible for the asymmetric load to explain the location of the center of the furrow system. However, there could be various alternative explanations, as we described above.

It is not unnatural that a thick ejecta blanket would be superimposed on where the furrows lie because this is also the case in the Valhalla basin. The Valhalla basin can be divided into three distinct zones outward from the center: a central smooth zone ( r b  < 360 km, where r b is the distance from the basin center), an inner ridge and trough zone (360 km <  r b  < 950 km), and an outer graben zone (950 km <  r b  < 1900 km). The crater density in the central smooth zone and inner ridge and trough zone is 3.5 times lower than that in the adjacent unmodified cratered terrain, whereas the crater density in the outer graben zone is intermediate between that in the inner zones and unmodified cratered terrain and apparently increases linearly outward; moreover, the deficiency of craters is interpreted to be due to obliteration by continuous ejecta blankets 3 , 21 . If troughs and grabens were created first, they would be damaged by ejecta particles. Therefore, troughs and grabens were likely created after the accumulation of ejecta. Similarly, no structures older than the furrows have been found on the Ganymede surface, and no craters cut by the furrows have been found 3 . Therefore, all craters on Ganymede were likely created after furrow formation (perhaps, all ancient craters created before furrow formation were removed by ejecta). Compared with ejecta particles flying in a ballistic trajectory, the timing of furrow formation formed by the asthenospheric flow would be delayed.

The thickness of the ejecta blankets at the rim is 100 km in our calculation; however, this is unrealistic. This is mainly because our ejecta model does not consider any subsequent movement after the landing of ejecta particles, which creates a point of discontinuity in the thickness along the basin rim. In reality, some dispersion induced by mass wasting or re-ejection should occur. The ejecta volume at a point of discontinuity is not large; thus, we expect that it hardly affects our results. Nevertheless, we recalculated the ejecta distribution in the vicinity of the basin rim, assuming a realistic surface slope. Specifically, we removed ejecta steeper than a given slope ( \(\uplambda\) ) around the basin rim, calculated the moment of inertia tensor of the mass distribution of the ejecta blanket whose steep part was removed, and remapped the ejecta blanket after the most stable reorientation (Supplementary Fig.  1 ). Here, we assume that the removed ejecta do not create a mass anomaly. Although this calculation does not assume a particular geologic process, it is known that a portion of the ejecta rim moves into the basin floor due to lateral movement, such as mass wasting. Thus, the ejecta mass within the basin does not create a free-air gravity anomaly because we assume that isostasy is archived inside the basin. The 15 examples in this figure correspond to the 15 examples shown on the right side of Figs.  3 , 4 , and 5 . As a result, among the 15 examples, only #3 for \(\uplambda \le\) 20 degrees is different from the original example. For the rest, we find that almost the same principal axis rotation state is obtained. It is unclear how much gradient is actually allowed on Ganymede’s surface; however, this figure shows that the discontinuities around the basin rim hardly affect our results. This is mainly because the unrealistically thick ejecta rim is created by the accumulation of ejecta in a very small area, and the removed ejecta mass was approximately less than 10% of the total mass when \(\uplambda \ge\) 20 degrees and less than 20% when \(\uplambda =\) 5 degrees.

We performed similar numerical simulations for Pluto. The simulations are almost the same as those for Ganymede, other than the trajectories of the ejecta particles. The trajectories were solved via the equation of motion for the circular restricted three-body motion (Pluto, Charon, and an ejecta particle) 48 . Supplementary Fig.  2 shows a similar probability as a function of the transient crater radius, similar to that in Fig.  7 . The mean radius of the Sputnik Planitia is 550 km (ref. 13), which corresponds to a transient crater radius of 420 km. For this transient crater radius, the probability that the impact center is within 5° from the point that deviates poleward by 20° from the tidal axis is approximately 20–30%. Therefore, the center of the Sputnik Planitia of Pluto, which, together with the furrow system, deviates poleward by 20° from the tidal axis, can be explained by a similar model.

Code availability

The software for calculating ejecta blankets is available at GitHub ( https://github.com/naoyukihirata/ganymede-ejecta ).

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate Shunichi Kamata and Ren Ikeya for helpful comments. This study was partly supported by the JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Nos. 20K14538 and 20H04614) and Hyogo Science and Technology Association.

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An examination of the relationship between risk perceptions, cultural-religious beliefs and coping during COVID-19 pandemic control in South Asian countries: a systematic review

• Rakhshi Memon 1 ,
• Ayesha Khaliq 2 ,
• Veronica Ranieri 1 ,
• Muqaddas Asif 2 ,
• Mujeeb Masood Bhatti 3 ,
• Bilal Ahmad Khan 2 ,
• Nasim Chaudhry 2 , 7 ,
• Imran B. Chauhdry 2 , 4 , 5 , 7 ,
• Nusrat Husain 5 , 6 &
• Sarah J. L. Edwards 1  

BMC Psychology volume  12 , Article number:  461 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

Covid 19 was declared as a public health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO) due to its rapid spread and catastrophic effects on health. It affected around 119 M people with mortality rate of 0.27% worldwide, including South-Asians. This review aims to understand the risk perceptions, cultural religious beliefs and the coping mechanisms of South Asians during the Covid 19 pandemic.

We conducted a systematic review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The following search engines were used: Medline, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Web of Science. Included studies investigated perceptions and opinions of individuals on knowledge, risk and protective factors, native faith based practices, and attitudes towards the COVID-19 pandemic.

The database search produced 282 articles to screen. The final narrative synthesis included five studies comprising of 13,476 participants from Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Ten studies, comprising 7,893 participants, were eligible and included for meta-analysis. The overall pooled prevalence with maximum heterogeneity for correct knowledge of symptoms, hand washing or use of sanitizers, face masking use of herbal or traditional remedies and physical distancing or avoidance of contact was reported through meta-analysis.

The review brings forth a useful comparison of individual and cultural differences in KAP, risk perceptions and coping strategies. This review highlights the need for and importance of tailored information dissemination, culturally sensitive risk communication, targeted educational interventions, community engagement and empowerment, policy, and infrastructure improvements, as well as continued research and data collection. By addressing these implications, efforts to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 can be more effective and equitable across diverse populations.

Prospero registration

CRD42021246475.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

A novel coronavirus SARS-Cov-2 was first identified as a causal pathogen of COVID-19 disease in humans in December 2019 in Wuhan, China [ 1 ]. COVID-19 spread rapidly around the globe and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on March 11, 2020. Since it was first identified, SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 119 M individuals around the globe (WHO, 2020) with a mortality rate of 0.27% [ 2 ]. South Asian countries account for 10% of COVID-19 cases around the globe [ 2 ] with a Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 3.5% which is far less than that of economically developed countries (8.0%) [ 3 , 4 ] owing to the differences in the structure of age group [ 5 ]. Statistical trends indicate that, among South Asian countries, India has the highest number of reported COVID-19 cases and deaths whilst Bhutan has the lowest [ 6 ].

Containment of COVID-19 is heavily dependent on the precautionary measures taken by the masses [ 7 ] which are, in turn, dependent on risk perception [ 8 ] and health beliefs [ 9 ]. Risk perception is a subjective judgement or belief of an individual regarding the severity of potential harm and an important driving factor of protective behavior [ 10 , 11 ]. In addition to risk perception, health beliefs also play an important role in determining attitudes and behaviour towards the pandemic [ 12 ]. As per the Health Belief model, perceived benefits, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived barriers, and cue-to‐action influence such attitudes and behaviour [ 13 ].

In addition to risk perception and health beliefs, the ‘Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice’ (KAP) framework has also been used to identify how knowledge about diseases can affect attitude, practice, and disease burden associated with it [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. In the context of COVID-19, KAP refers to understanding people’s correct knowledge about the virus, their attitudes towards it, and their native faith based practices they adopt to prevent its spread. Knowledge about COVID-19 is relatively high among the general population and they hold a positive attitude towards protective measures such as wearing a mask, washing hands, and using hand sanitizer etc. [ 17 , 18 , 19 ]. However, the most common source of knowledge about COVID-19 is social media [ 20 , 21 ]. The KAP has been noted as above average among individuals with higher education, females, and healthcare professionals [ 22 ]. Similarly, females are more inclined towards taking precautionary measures than males [ 19 , 20 ].

High-risk perception and perceived severity of COVID-19 can have a direct impact on the mental health of the individual [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Commonly experienced mental disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Asian countries include nonpsychotic depression, anxiety, insomnia, alcohol-related disorder, and somatic concerns [ 23 , 25 ]. however, due to the strict adherence of most South Asian countries to religion, most inhabitants of these countries tend to turn towards religion and use religious coping mechanisms to deal with major life stressors [ 26 ]. Religiously framed behavioral, emotional, or cognitive responses to stressors are known as religious coping [ 27 ]. In other words, religious coping refers to help-seeking from religion – holy scriptures and therapy from religious leaders – in a stressful situation to reduce distressing thoughts and emotions [ 28 ]. Religious coping during COVID-19 has shown evidence to lower depressive symptoms [ 29 ] and stress [ 30 ], lesser loneliness [ 31 ] improve positive affect and life satisfaction [ 32 ]. Though literature examining risk perceptions, cultural-religious beliefs and coping during the covid-19 pandemic from many countries is available, a combined glance especially through the lens of a multicultural and multi-religious group like South Asia remains understudied to date. For example, a review of pandemic perceptions [ 33 ] found that different religious traditions hold differing beliefs (it’s a religious curse or only religion can save us) regarding infectious diseases. Therefore, the current systematic review aims to find out the KAP of South Asians toward COVID-19 and their coping mechanism for dealing with COVID-19, Which focuses on.

Knowledge: This refers to what South Asians know about COVID-19. It could include their correct understanding of the virus, its transmission, symptoms, preventive measures, available treatments, and vaccination.

Attitudes: This encompasses the beliefs, opinions, and perceptions that South Asians hold about COVID-19. It could include their level of concern, fear, trust in authorities or healthcare systems, perception of risk, and attitudes towards preventive measures such as mask-wearing, social distancing, and vaccination.

Practices: This refers to the actions and behaviors that South Asians adopt in response to COVID-19. It could include their adherence to preventive measures, such as wearing masks, practicing hand hygiene, maintaining social distance, avoiding large gatherings, and seeking healthcare when necessary.

Moreover, the systematic review aims to explore the native faith based practices employed by South Asians to deal with the challenges posed by COVID-19. Coping mechanisms are the strategies individuals use to manage stress, anxiety, and other negative emotions associated with the pandemic. These mechanisms could include seeking social support, engaging in positive activities, practicing mindfulness or relaxation techniques, maintaining routines, and accessing mental health services.

Protocol registration

A systematic review protocol was developed and registered online with PROSPERO (CRD42021246475). This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) reporting guidelines [ 34 ].

Databases and search strategy

The following electronic databases (Inception to 1st November 2020): Medline, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Web of Science, were searched using four concepts including knowledge and practices, culture, COVID-19, and South Asia. The overall search strings were: (Perception OR Knowledge OR Information OR Attitude* OR Awareness OR Practices OR Opinions OR Beliefs) AND (Religiou*) AND (COVID-19 OR COVID OR Coronavirus OR SARS-CoV-2) AND (Pakistan OR India OR Bangladesh OR Sri Lanka OR Nepal OR Bhutan OR Maldives OR Afghanistan OR South Asia*) ( See Table  1 ). A search update was run from 2nd November 2020 to 28th Feb 2024 in get all other potential eligible articles.

Eligibility criteria and selection of studies

This review looked for studies with any quantitative data including but not limited to cross-sectional, cohort studies, case-control studies, interrupted time series or mixed methods research. No restrictions were placed on participants’ characteristics about age, morbidity, or socio-economic status. Included studies investigating perceptions and opinions of individuals on knowledge, risk and protective factors, practices, cultural traditions, and attitudes towards the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies reporting findings only from South Asian countries in the English language were considered for inclusion. Title/ abstract and full-text screening were performed by two reviewers independently (AK, VR). Any discrepancies were resolved through discussion with third reviewer arbitration (RM).

The following PECO* framework explains the eligibility criteria more precisely.

• PECO* (P = Population, E = Exposure, C = Comparison and O = Outcome)

Data extraction

Extracted data included study details (author, date, study location), study design information (type of design, recruitment method), participant characteristics (target sample, age, gender), measures used, and results of analyses. Studies reporting knowledge or practices in mean or median were not included in quantitative synthesis. Two independent reviewers (AK, MA) carried out the data extraction for each study, and then compared, with discrepancies resolved through discussion.

Risk of bias assessment

The quality of the included studies was evaluated using a Risk of Bias (ROB) assessment of Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) for prevalence data studies tool. This tool assesses ROB over nine domains, including participant recruitment, sample size and calculation, study subjects, measurement tools and appropriateness of analysis methods (see Table  2 ). Ratings were made independently by two reviewers (MA, VR) and any conflicts were resolved through third reviewer arbitration (AK). Funnel plots along with egger test value was reported for potential publication bias. Updated searches were screened and extracted by two independent researchers (BA, AK).

Data synthesis

Narrative synthesis and meta-analysis were utilized for data synthesis. We decided to perform a meta-analysis if at least 3 studies were provided with homogenous characteristics allowing meaningful interpretation of pooled estimates. We set this minimum criterion because our review was based in South Asia, and we wanted to make use of available data. A recent review of the meta-analysis indicated that meta-analysis with three studies is common in medical literature. Studies reporting percentages or observed events were included in the meta-analysis. Overall polled prevalence/ proportions with a 95% confidence interval of knowledge, attitude and practices were generated using double arcsine transformation (Freeman-Tukey transformation) with random effects. To investigate any potential heterogeneity, I 2 statistics were utilised. Studies reporting overall mean, or medians were not included in the meta-analysis and were summarised in the narrative synthesis [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. In addition, the study participants, outcomes, settings, and findings were also summarised in the narrative synthesis. The study’s characteristics are presented in Table  3 .

Study characteristics

A total of 282 articles were retrieved from Medline, Cochrane Library, PsychINFO, CINAHL, and Web of Science since inception till 28th Feb, 2024. After duplication removal, 248 articles were included from title and abstract screening, out of which only 18 met the criteria at full length screening. Reference lists of all included articles were also searched for any additional eligible article to be included. 3 articles couldn’t be found in full length as a result a total of 15 articles were included in this review ( See Fig.  1 ).

PRISMA flow chart

The review provided a narrative synthesis and meta-analysis of the included studies, which is in line with PRISMA guidelines for reporting systematic reviews. The paper screened 282 articles and included 10 studies for meta-analysis with a total of 7,893 participants from South Asian countries, demonstrating a systematic approach. Meta-synthesis was conducted on five studies with 13,476 participants, indicating a qualitative synthesis as recommended by PRISMA.

Meta-analysis

Most questionnaires and reported statistics in the studies were heterogenous therefore only ( N  = 10) a few studies were included in the quantitative synthesis of frequency rates and total sample size. However, in all included studies separate rates were given for each item targeting any specific knowledge area or practice hence the overall prevalence of knowledge or practice was either meaningless or not reported.

A total of ten studies reported the prevalence of three or more than three of the following: (i) correct knowledge about symptoms (7 studies), (ii) hand washing or use of sanitizer (9 studies), (iii) use of the face mask (9 studies), (iv) herbal and traditional remedies (3 studies) and (v) physical distancing (10 studies). By combining all ten studies, our meta-analysis is based on a total of 7877 participants. Separate pooled prevalence rates were estimated for knowledge of symptoms, handwashing or sanitizing practices, use of masks, any herbal remedies and physical distancing.

The pooled prevalence for correct knowledge of symptoms and various practices was generally high with a ceiling effect (except for herbal and traditional remedies) along with high heterogeneity. The overall pooled prevalence for (1) correct knowledge of symptoms = 0.86 (95% CI: LLCI = 0.76; ULCI = 0.94) with high heterogeneity (I 2  = 98.75%) ( See Figs.  2 ), (2) hand washing or use of sanitizers = 0.89 (95% CI: LLCI = 0.79; ULCI = 0.97) with maximum heterogeneity (I 2  = 99.34%) ( See Figs.  3 ), (3) Face Masking = 0.85 (95% CI: LLCI = 0.75; ULCI = 0.92) with maximum heterogeneity (I 2  = 99.10%) ( See Figs.  4 ), (4) use of herbal or traditional remedies = 0.20 (95% CI: LLCI = 0.07; ULCI = 0.37) and high heterogeneity (I 2  = 98.90%) ( See Figs.  5 ) and (5) physical distancing or avoidance of contact = 0.80 (95% CI: LLCI = 0.65 ULCI = 0.92) and high heterogeneity (I 2  = 99.56%) ( See Fig.  6 ).

Pooled prevalence of correct knowledge about symptoms

Pooled prevalence of hand washing or use of sanitizers

Pooled prevalence of use of face mask

Pooled prevalence of herbal and traditional remedies

Pooled prevalence of practicing physical distancing or avoiding contact

All pooled prevalence estimates were associated with very high heterogeneity. Given the limited number of studies, subgroup analysis wasn’t appropriate. However, one of the potential reasons for high heterogeneity was the high sample sizes in studies with lower standard error, increasing the power of test statistics to detect heterogeneity.

Additionally, the funnel plot indicated a potential risk of bias by demonstrating a diagonal spread of studies either clustered in the lower right or upper left of the plot indicating asymmetry and a potential risk of publication bias ( see Fig.  7 ). We also conducted sensitivity analysis by removing studies at high risk of bias, however no major effect on estimates was observed.

Funnel plot for reporting publication bias

Narrative synthesis

The narrative synthesis included five studies comprising of 13,476 participants from Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. In general, participants exhibited adequate knowledge of COVID-19, positive attitudes toward combating the pandemic and adopted preventative measures, such as social distancing, to avoid the spread of the virus. Notably, participants mentioned the role of religion and culture in coping with the pandemic in seven out of eleven studies. Participants in several studies reported that religious behaviour such as prayer helped them cope with COVID-19 fear [ 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Moreover, Haque et al. (2021) reported that people would like religious leaders to help them cope with covid-19 [ 38 ]. In addition, several studies reported the use of traditional methods to treat COVID-19 symptoms [ 16 , 37 , 38 ].

People’s KAP towards COVID-19 and their coping strategies

Most studies showed that people were aware of the symptoms and effects of COVID-19, as well as their route of transmission [ 16 , 38 , 39 , 40 ]. An average of over 70% of the participants were aware of the correct definition of COVID-19 [ 16 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ], apart from the Mamun et al. (2021) where the average correct knowledge score was 57.4% [ 43 ]. The respondents knew that COVID-19 is a deadly disease but with early and proper treatment, recovery is possible. Haq et al. (2020) found that the urban population was more knowledgeable than the rural residents [ 16 ], whereas Noreen’s (2020) study, reported that females had greater knowledge of COVID-19 compared to males.

The overall attitude towards COVID-19 was optimistic and positive. Participants believed that the disease is combatable, and it would be controlled eventually [ 40 , 41 , 42 ]. In terms of preventing the spread of the virus, a trend towards favouring strict measures was seen [ 37 , 38 , 39 ] Although, attitudes towards the pandemic were generally positive, participants also reported a few negative reactions i.e., not taking COVID-19 as a serious problem. Most participants experienced fear at some point during the pandemic [ 16 , 35 , 36 , 38 , 43 ]. In one study, 63% reported mistrust towards the government in controlling the disease [ 38 ]. The virus brought with it great concern for the public as they were at high risk of being infected [ 38 ]. Strict measures were taken by the government, for example, travelers had to quarantine, and educational institutes switched to online teaching. The use of print and digital media was reported to spread awareness and news about the virus. The majority had a positive attitude, but some studies showed that females were more hopeful that the spread of COVID-19 can be controlled [ 41 , 42 ].

Coping with Covid-19

Different ways and coping strategies were adopted by people to prevent themselves from getting infected by the virus. Maheshwari et al. (2020) found, isolation and treatment were efficient ways to stop the virus from spreading, and that people should isolate for at least two weeks after coming into contact with an infected person [ 39 ]. Most of the studies highlighted that people took greater precautions and hygienic practices such as hand sanitizing/hand washing, face covering and social distancing [ 16 , 39 , 40 , 42 ]. Notably, participants mentioned the role of religion and culture in coping with the pandemic in seven out of eleven studies. It was believed that praying and religious activities are most effective in critical, unpleasant circumstances [ 36 , 41 ]. On the other hand, some believed that there is no specific cure for COVID-19, yet they still turned to medications for recovery [ 37 ].

All studies with the exception of three provided comprehensive details on participants’ recruitment, sample size, study settings, measurements tools, and data analysis and response rate. Three studies (Khan et al., 2020; Bhawaneshwari et al. 2020; Basu et al.2020) lacked details pertaining to recruitment of participants, study settings, psychometric properties of measurement tools and justification for data analysis and were subsequently removed from synthesis (See Table  2 ).

The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis highlighted a high level of heterogeneity in the true knowledge of COVID-19 among included studies. Despite the observed heterogeneity, the findings demonstrated that most of the participants (over 70% in most cases) from included studies possessed correct knowledge of COVID-19. This finding is supported by a recent meta-analysis in China [ 44 ] and a cross-sectional survey from Ethiopia [ 45 ] that reported over 70% of participants possess adequate knowledgeable about coronavirus. However, it is important to acknowledge the presence of outliers, such as a study [ 43 ] reporting a minimum average knowledge level of 57.4%. Similarly, to previous studies, our review also highlighted that participants in urban settings were more knowledgeable about COVID-19 than those living in rural settings [ 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ]. This disparity might be due to various factors including poorer access to electricity, mobile networks and digital literacy in rural settings [ 50 , 51 ]. The limited access to internet connections, digital media platforms and linguistic barriers could be among the factors creating knowledge gap, limiting awareness efforts and impeding the dissemination of information about COVID-19 prevention and treatment in rural areas of South Asia.

Although, information is becoming more accessible online [ 50 ], it is not easily accessible in some rural areas, in part due to different education levels and the non-availability of dialect in the local language [ 51 ]. The lack of access to the internet, television, or other digital media platforms in rural South Asia can contribute to lower knowledge levels about COVID-19. This knowledge gap may result in limited understanding of preventive measures, symptoms, and treatment options for the disease. Consequently, the overall findings of the study may not accurately represent the knowledge levels of the entire population.

The review also revealed significant gender differences in COVID-19 knowledge, with females having greater knowledge of COVID-19. Similarly, Sultana et al. (2022) reported significant gender differences regarding knowledge of COVID-19 where females had more knowledge. Social media use in females [ 52 ] as a significant link between sources of information and knowledge has been highlighted by various studies [ 17 , 53 , 54 ]. Social media platforms became crucial sources of information during the pandemic therefore; this increased exposure may lead to greater engagement with COVID-19 related content leading to increased knowledge levels. Further, in most cultures, women generally have the role of looking after the family and the household. Since women often play a central role in healthcare decisions for their family, this may serve as a motivation to stay informed and seek out reliable information. More time at home may also provide more opportunities for social media use which as a result may raise awareness and better knowledge [ 55 ]. In contrast to this, male participants from a study [ 56 ] conducted in Lebanon scored high on some questions about knowledge of COVID-19 including questions related to the cause and symptoms as compared to females. This can be explained in light of previous research from various countries consistently reporting an advantage of males over females in general knowledge as well as biologically differentiated interests [ 57 ].

Although the review unveiled a positive attitude of participants towards measures to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, there were also some instances of negative attitude. Participants reported fear [ 16 , 35 , 36 , 38 , 58 ], and a high risk of being infected [ 38 ]. In a previous study [ 59 ], participants across different cohorts among Asian countries were found to be more fearful. This is important as such fear has been linked to mental health difficulties such as depression, anxiety, and stress [ 1 ]. The review also reported mistrust towards the government in controlling the disease [38] however the role of important predictive factors such as the adoption of health behaviours, prosocial behaviours [ 59 ], education, and media freedom [ 60 ] has not been explored [ 60 ].

Regarding coping strategies, along with preventive measures against COVID-19 [ 16 , 39 , 40 , 42 ] participants also highlighted the role of religious coping such as praying and religious activities to combat COVID-19 [ 36 , 41 ]. Similarly, Bentzen’s study [ 61 ] which used daily searched data records of Google from 95 countries and demonstrated increased Google searches for prayer to the highest ever recorded level during the COVID-19 crisis. Additionally, the study established that more than half of the world population had prayed to end the coronavirus. Many people have strong religious beliefs, providing them an anchor and consequently helping people cope. Religious coping might act as a potential tool for managing stress during illnesses and challenging situations like the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as improving physical and mental health outcomes [ 62 , 63 , 64 ].

The review has several strengths and highlighted differences in KAP among genders as well as differences in information distribution in rural setting and urban settings and different cultures. The review enhanced our understanding of the socio-cultural influences on pandemic responses. The positive attitudes towards measures and use of religious coping strategies across studies indicated that SAs possess a strong societal willingness to engage in preventive measures. These findings could be useful to tailor public health interventions for individuals in diverse settings. However, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of the review such as heterogeneity and potential biases among included studies, which may affect the generalizability of findings. Future research should address these limitations and further explore the socio-cultural determinants of COVID-19 knowledge and behaviour. Addressing these gaps could enhance the effectiveness and cultural sensitivity of preventive interventions.

The insights gained from this review offer valuable guidance for future pandemic preparedness and response efforts. The review emphasizes the complex socio-cultural factors that influence responses to the pandemic, including risk perceptions and coping strategies. Policymakers, healthcare professionals along with other potential stakeholders such as community representatives and gatekeepers can create more effective and targeted interventions to improve community resilience and promote public health and well-being by customizing interventions to address differences in individual and cultural KAP related to the future pandemics.

Data availability

The data and materials used in this systematic review are available upon request by email to the corresponding author [email protected].

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We would like to acknowledge Joe Firth, who provided support throughout the review process.

This systematic review was supported by Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning under PROSPERO registration number CRD42021246475.

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Rakhshi Memon, Veronica Ranieri & Sarah J. L. Edwards

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RM and SE were involved in conceptualisation, management, supervision, design, and planning of the review and literature searches.VR was involved in screening, data extraction, and quality checking. MA was involved in data extraction, quality checking and write-up. MMB was involved in data synthesis and analysis. AK was involved in screening, data extraction, quality checking, evaluation, and write-up. BA was involved in updating the search and screening the additional articles. NC, IBC, and NH provided scrutiny and edits to the manuscript. All authors reviewed and make significant contributions to the manuscript.Acknowledgements: We would like to acknowledge Mr Joe Firth, who provided support throughout the review process.

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Memon, R., Khaliq, A., Ranieri, V. et al. An examination of the relationship between risk perceptions, cultural-religious beliefs and coping during COVID-19 pandemic control in South Asian countries: a systematic review. BMC Psychol 12 , 461 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01963-8

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