in the research line

Reference management. Clean and simple.

Getting started with your research paper outline

Levels of organization for a research paper outline

First level of organization, second level of organization, third level of organization, fourth level of organization, tips for writing a research paper outline, research paper outline template, my research paper outline is complete: what are the next steps, frequently asked questions about a research paper outline, related articles.

The outline is the skeleton of your research paper. Simply start by writing down your thesis and the main ideas you wish to present. This will likely change as your research progresses; therefore, do not worry about being too specific in the early stages of writing your outline.

A research paper outline typically contains between two and four layers of organization. The first two layers are the most generalized. Each layer thereafter will contain the research you complete and presents more and more detailed information.

The levels are typically represented by a combination of Roman numerals, Arabic numerals, uppercase letters, lowercase letters but may include other symbols. Refer to the guidelines provided by your institution, as formatting is not universal and differs between universities, fields, and subjects. If you are writing the outline for yourself, you may choose any combination you prefer.

This is the most generalized level of information. Begin by numbering the introduction, each idea you will present, and the conclusion. The main ideas contain the bulk of your research paper 's information. Depending on your research, it may be chapters of a book for a literature review , a series of dates for a historical research paper, or the methods and results of a scientific paper.

I. Introduction

II. Main idea

III. Main idea

IV. Main idea

V. Conclusion

The second level consists of topics which support the introduction, main ideas, and the conclusion. Each main idea should have at least two supporting topics listed in the outline.

If your main idea does not have enough support, you should consider presenting another main idea in its place. This is where you should stop outlining if this is your first draft. Continue your research before adding to the next levels of organization.

• A. Background information
• B. Hypothesis or thesis
• A. Supporting topic
• B. Supporting topic

The third level of organization contains supporting information for the topics previously listed. By now, you should have completed enough research to add support for your ideas.

The Introduction and Main Ideas may contain information you discovered about the author, timeframe, or contents of a book for a literature review; the historical events leading up to the research topic for a historical research paper, or an explanation of the problem a scientific research paper intends to address.

• 1. Relevant history
• 2. Relevant history
• 1. The hypothesis or thesis clearly stated
• 1. A brief description of supporting information
• 2. A brief description of supporting information

The fourth level of organization contains the most detailed information such as quotes, references, observations, or specific data needed to support the main idea. It is not typical to have further levels of organization because the information contained here is the most specific.

• a) Quotes or references to another piece of literature
• b) Quotes or references to another piece of literature

Tip: The key to creating a useful outline is to be consistent in your headings, organization, and levels of specificity.

• Be Consistent : ensure every heading has a similar tone. State the topic or write short sentences for each heading but avoid doing both.
• Organize Information : Higher levels of organization are more generally stated and each supporting level becomes more specific. The introduction and conclusion will never be lower than the first level of organization.
• Build Support : Each main idea should have two or more supporting topics. If your research does not have enough information to support the main idea you are presenting, you should, in general, complete additional research or revise the outline.

By now, you should know the basic requirements to create an outline for your paper. With a content framework in place, you can now start writing your paper . To help you start right away, you can use one of our templates and adjust it to suit your needs.

After completing your outline, you should:

• Title your research paper . This is an iterative process and may change when you delve deeper into the topic.
• Begin writing your research paper draft . Continue researching to further build your outline and provide more information to support your hypothesis or thesis.
• Format your draft appropriately . MLA 8 and APA 7 formats have differences between their bibliography page, in-text citations, line spacing, and title.
• Finalize your citations and bibliography . Use a reference manager like Paperpile to organize and cite your research.
• Write the abstract, if required . An abstract will briefly state the information contained within the paper, results of the research, and the conclusion.

An outline is used to organize written ideas about a topic into a logical order. Outlines help us organize major topics, subtopics, and supporting details. Researchers benefit greatly from outlines while writing by addressing which topic to cover in what order.

The most basic outline format consists of: an introduction, a minimum of three topic paragraphs, and a conclusion.

You should make an outline before starting to write your research paper. This will help you organize the main ideas and arguments you want to present in your topic.

• Consistency: ensure every heading has a similar tone. State the topic or write short sentences for each heading but avoid doing both.
• Organization : Higher levels of organization are more generally stated and each supporting level becomes more specific. The introduction and conclusion will never be lower than the first level of organization.
• Support : Each main idea should have two or more supporting topics. If your research does not have enough information to support the main idea you are presenting, you should, in general, complete additional research or revise the outline.

• Student Notebook

Ten Tips for Developing a Programmatic Line of Research

• Experimental Psychology
• Graduate School

“My research is about…” Many graduate students finish this sentence with a long, awkward pause and a deep sigh, followed by the admission that they have done a number of unrelated studies in order to fulfill their program requirements. However, as APS Past President Henry L. Roediger, III, wrote in a 2007 Observer article, “Early in one’s career, publishing a steady series of journal articles is how one builds a reputation.” A programmatic line of research on one topic helps young scientists transition from frantic graduate students to accomplished scientists. This column provides my ideas and suggestions, gathered from experience, for creating a coherent line of experimental research while in graduate school.

1. Start with a specific project. Entering graduate school, every student is wide-eyed and willing to learn everything about the field, from how the brain works to the secrets of successful social relationships. Limiting yourself to a specific topic is crucial at the beginning. The field of psychology is so large that new graduate students can waste precious time trying to find a topic. Look at the resources available in your lab and the research interests of your supervisors; these are great starting points for finding your own niche.

2.  Have a strong paradigm. It is important to have a paradigm that works. Do not shy away from investing time in pilot testing and modifying your research tools. A strong paradigm can help create your line of research. Developing a paradigm takes effort and can greatly affect the outcome of your research. Examine the instruments, paradigms, and tools already available and consider modifying them to answer your research questions. Some researchers publish their paradigms online (for example, a number of scripts for paradigms using Inquisit software are available at www.millisecond.com/download/library). I have also gained access to other research tools by just e-mailing the authors. Modifying these paradigms for your purposes will get you in the lab earlier and give you more time for follow-up studies.

3. Work with your supervisor. Your supervisor is as interested as you are in creating a good research program. Such a program will not only add a few articles to his or her list of publications, it will also provide the sense of satisfaction that comes with mentoring a good researcher. Your supervisor can also learn a thing or two from you. Since examining theory and published data with your supervisor can lead to new research ideas or theoretical breakthroughs, make sure you set aside time for those discussions. Certain supervisors might be more flexible than others, but all  of them want to conduct good research. Push your ideas, and the ones that are worth the effort will be given the green light.

4.  Look for inspiration. Once you have a good paradigm, start browsing literature that lies a bit outside of your specific topic. For example, if you are researching a phenomenon related to personality, look at clinical studies in which that phenomenon has been hypothesized to play a role. This process can help you see links between what you are examining in your current experiment and other research domains. Write down these ideas. Later, once you have finished your first experiment and are ready to continue, these ideas will be helpful. Finding time to read additional literature can prove difficult during graduate studies. However, browsing the titles of articles in specific journals, setting up automatic research alerts (e.g., Google Scholar Alerts), or following specific authors on social media (e.g., Twitter, ResearchGate) can help you stay informed.

5. Attend conferences and network. Conferences can not only inspire you but also help you further your programmatic research line. Both large, multidisciplinary conferences (e.g., APS) and more specialized meetings provide opportunities to network. You can use these conferences as a way to start collaborations, which will help you work more efficiently.

6. Spend time thinking about theoretical issues. Graduate students do not devote as much time to theory as they should. In order to design your own line of research, you should examine the empirical results available and consider what they mean for the theoretical framework of your research. Comparing empirical data with theoretical assumptions often opens up more questions than it answers. These questions are the ones you might want to tackle in your follow-up experiments. Knowing a theory inside and out and examining which of its tenets are already empirically supported is another way of finding your niche. Many researchers have made a career by  (dis)proving a theory and amending it to cover new empirical data.

7. Collaborate with students and research assistants. Undergraduate students can develop their own talent by helping with your research. Pilot-testing, data-gathering, and data-entry tasks give undergraduates first-hand laboratory experience. In addition, explaining your topic and your proposed research to student assistants who are still building their theoretical skills allows you to clarify your own ideas and can also serve as a source of inspiration.

8. Present your research as a narrative. Despite your  efforts, you might still think your experiments look disjointed and do not form a logical series. If that’s the case, stop, take two steps back and look at your studies. Are there any common themes? Are there any common research tools? Is there a theory that focuses on these phenomena? Think carefully about how you moved from one study to another and what story your data tell that might be important to the field.

9.  Be persistent but know when to quit. This is probably the hardest and vaguest tip of all. Don’t expect your first experiment to work perfectly. Be prepared for the disappointment that occurs in the life of every researcher. However, if after four or five experiments your effects are still small or elusive, consider changing gears. This doesn’t mean that your efforts will be lost; write the data up and try to publish. You might save trouble for a future graduate student.

10. Be a researcher. Even if you are unsure about staying in academia, identify yourself as a researcher as well as a student. Do not think about your experiments as something you need for your Master’s or PhD; consider research your personal goal. This viewpoint will increase your motivation to expand your scientific expertise and explore the boundary conditions of the phenomena you are interested in. You will no longer be satisfied by examining whether a mechanism is present: Clarifying when and how it operates and what its causes and effects are will become important topics you.

Students can create a programmatic research line during graduate school. The effort and persistence you invest in your research will be noticed and will help open doors to future success in academia.

Thanks for your comprehensive text. As a young researcher, your words hit home and were very handy to me. I’ll keep it as a reminder.

All the best, Paulo Uliana

Thank you, your ordered tips are helpful, very much so. I have to build a research department, and I am having trouble with getting the message across.

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About the Author

Inna Arnaudova is a last-year PhD student at University of Amsterdam under the supervision of Tom Beckers and Merel Kindt. Her research concentrates on the learning of approach-avoidance tendencies in ambiguous situations and how they transform into actual behavior.

Careers Up Close: Joel Anderson on Gender and Sexual Prejudices, the Freedoms of Academic Research, and the Importance of Collaboration

Joel Anderson, a senior research fellow at both Australian Catholic University and La Trobe University, researches group processes, with a specific interest on prejudice, stigma, and stereotypes.

Experimental Methods Are Not Neutral Tools

Ana Sofia Morais and Ralph Hertwig explain how experimental psychologists have painted too negative a picture of human rationality, and how their pessimism is rooted in a seemingly mundane detail: methodological choices. 

APS Fellows Elected to SEP

In addition, an APS Rising Star receives the society’s Early Investigator Award.

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13.1 Formatting a Research Paper

Learning objectives.

• Identify the major components of a research paper written using American Psychological Association (APA) style.
• Apply general APA style and formatting conventions in a research paper.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use APA style , the documentation and formatting style followed by the American Psychological Association, as well as MLA style , from the Modern Language Association. There are a few major formatting styles used in academic texts, including AMA, Chicago, and Turabian:

• AMA (American Medical Association) for medicine, health, and biological sciences
• APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the social sciences
• Chicago—a common style used in everyday publications like magazines, newspapers, and books
• MLA (Modern Language Association) for English, literature, arts, and humanities
• Turabian—another common style designed for its universal application across all subjects and disciplines

While all the formatting and citation styles have their own use and applications, in this chapter we focus our attention on the two styles you are most likely to use in your academic studies: APA and MLA.

If you find that the rules of proper source documentation are difficult to keep straight, you are not alone. Writing a good research paper is, in and of itself, a major intellectual challenge. Having to follow detailed citation and formatting guidelines as well may seem like just one more task to add to an already-too-long list of requirements.

Following these guidelines, however, serves several important purposes. First, it signals to your readers that your paper should be taken seriously as a student’s contribution to a given academic or professional field; it is the literary equivalent of wearing a tailored suit to a job interview. Second, it shows that you respect other people’s work enough to give them proper credit for it. Finally, it helps your reader find additional materials if he or she wishes to learn more about your topic.

Furthermore, producing a letter-perfect APA-style paper need not be burdensome. Yes, it requires careful attention to detail. However, you can simplify the process if you keep these broad guidelines in mind:

• Work ahead whenever you can. Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” includes tips for keeping track of your sources early in the research process, which will save time later on.
• Get it right the first time. Apply APA guidelines as you write, so you will not have much to correct during the editing stage. Again, putting in a little extra time early on can save time later.
• Use the resources available to you. In addition to the guidelines provided in this chapter, you may wish to consult the APA website at http://www.apa.org or the Purdue University Online Writing lab at http://owl.english.purdue.edu , which regularly updates its online style guidelines.

General Formatting Guidelines

This chapter provides detailed guidelines for using the citation and formatting conventions developed by the American Psychological Association, or APA. Writers in disciplines as diverse as astrophysics, biology, psychology, and education follow APA style. The major components of a paper written in APA style are listed in the following box.

These are the major components of an APA-style paper:

Body, which includes the following:

• Headings and, if necessary, subheadings to organize the content
• In-text citations of research sources
• References page

All these components must be saved in one document, not as separate documents.

The title page of your paper includes the following information:

• Title of the paper
• Author’s name
• Name of the institution with which the author is affiliated
• Header at the top of the page with the paper title (in capital letters) and the page number (If the title is lengthy, you may use a shortened form of it in the header.)

List the first three elements in the order given in the previous list, centered about one third of the way down from the top of the page. Use the headers and footers tool of your word-processing program to add the header, with the title text at the left and the page number in the upper-right corner. Your title page should look like the following example.

The next page of your paper provides an abstract , or brief summary of your findings. An abstract does not need to be provided in every paper, but an abstract should be used in papers that include a hypothesis. A good abstract is concise—about one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty words—and is written in an objective, impersonal style. Your writing voice will not be as apparent here as in the body of your paper. When writing the abstract, take a just-the-facts approach, and summarize your research question and your findings in a few sentences.

In Chapter 12 “Writing a Research Paper” , you read a paper written by a student named Jorge, who researched the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets. Read Jorge’s abstract. Note how it sums up the major ideas in his paper without going into excessive detail.

Write an abstract summarizing your paper. Briefly introduce the topic, state your findings, and sum up what conclusions you can draw from your research. Use the word count feature of your word-processing program to make sure your abstract does not exceed one hundred fifty words.

Depending on your field of study, you may sometimes write research papers that present extensive primary research, such as your own experiment or survey. In your abstract, summarize your research question and your findings, and briefly indicate how your study relates to prior research in the field.

Margins, Pagination, and Headings

APA style requirements also address specific formatting concerns, such as margins, pagination, and heading styles, within the body of the paper. Review the following APA guidelines.

Use these general guidelines to format the paper:

• Set the top, bottom, and side margins of your paper at 1 inch.
• Use double-spaced text throughout your paper.
• Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in a legible size (10- to 12-point).
• Use continuous pagination throughout the paper, including the title page and the references section. Page numbers appear flush right within your header.
• Section headings and subsection headings within the body of your paper use different types of formatting depending on the level of information you are presenting. Additional details from Jorge’s paper are provided.

Begin formatting the final draft of your paper according to APA guidelines. You may work with an existing document or set up a new document if you choose. Include the following:

• Your title page
• The abstract you created in Note 13.8 “Exercise 1”
• Correct headers and page numbers for your title page and abstract

APA style uses section headings to organize information, making it easy for the reader to follow the writer’s train of thought and to know immediately what major topics are covered. Depending on the length and complexity of the paper, its major sections may also be divided into subsections, sub-subsections, and so on. These smaller sections, in turn, use different heading styles to indicate different levels of information. In essence, you are using headings to create a hierarchy of information.

The following heading styles used in APA formatting are listed in order of greatest to least importance:

• Section headings use centered, boldface type. Headings use title case, with important words in the heading capitalized.
• Subsection headings use left-aligned, boldface type. Headings use title case.
• The third level uses left-aligned, indented, boldface type. Headings use a capital letter only for the first word, and they end in a period.
• The fourth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are boldfaced and italicized.
• The fifth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are italicized and not boldfaced.

Visually, the hierarchy of information is organized as indicated in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” .

Table 13.1 Section Headings

A college research paper may not use all the heading levels shown in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” , but you are likely to encounter them in academic journal articles that use APA style. For a brief paper, you may find that level 1 headings suffice. Longer or more complex papers may need level 2 headings or other lower-level headings to organize information clearly. Use your outline to craft your major section headings and determine whether any subtopics are substantial enough to require additional levels of headings.

Working with the document you developed in Note 13.11 “Exercise 2” , begin setting up the heading structure of the final draft of your research paper according to APA guidelines. Include your title and at least two to three major section headings, and follow the formatting guidelines provided above. If your major sections should be broken into subsections, add those headings as well. Use your outline to help you.

Because Jorge used only level 1 headings, his Exercise 3 would look like the following:

Citation Guidelines

In-text citations.

Throughout the body of your paper, include a citation whenever you quote or paraphrase material from your research sources. As you learned in Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , the purpose of citations is twofold: to give credit to others for their ideas and to allow your reader to follow up and learn more about the topic if desired. Your in-text citations provide basic information about your source; each source you cite will have a longer entry in the references section that provides more detailed information.

In-text citations must provide the name of the author or authors and the year the source was published. (When a given source does not list an individual author, you may provide the source title or the name of the organization that published the material instead.) When directly quoting a source, it is also required that you include the page number where the quote appears in your citation.

This information may be included within the sentence or in a parenthetical reference at the end of the sentence, as in these examples.

Epstein (2010) points out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Here, the writer names the source author when introducing the quote and provides the publication date in parentheses after the author’s name. The page number appears in parentheses after the closing quotation marks and before the period that ends the sentence.

Addiction researchers caution that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (Epstein, 2010, p. 137).

Here, the writer provides a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence that includes the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number separated by commas. Again, the parenthetical citation is placed after the closing quotation marks and before the period at the end of the sentence.

As noted in the book Junk Food, Junk Science (Epstein, 2010, p. 137), “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive.”

Here, the writer chose to mention the source title in the sentence (an optional piece of information to include) and followed the title with a parenthetical citation. Note that the parenthetical citation is placed before the comma that signals the end of the introductory phrase.

David Epstein’s book Junk Food, Junk Science (2010) pointed out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Another variation is to introduce the author and the source title in your sentence and include the publication date and page number in parentheses within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. As long as you have included the essential information, you can choose the option that works best for that particular sentence and source.

Citing a book with a single author is usually a straightforward task. Of course, your research may require that you cite many other types of sources, such as books or articles with more than one author or sources with no individual author listed. You may also need to cite sources available in both print and online and nonprint sources, such as websites and personal interviews. Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.2 “Citing and Referencing Techniques” and Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provide extensive guidelines for citing a variety of source types.

Writing at Work

APA is just one of several different styles with its own guidelines for documentation, formatting, and language usage. Depending on your field of interest, you may be exposed to additional styles, such as the following:

• MLA style. Determined by the Modern Languages Association and used for papers in literature, languages, and other disciplines in the humanities.
• Chicago style. Outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style and sometimes used for papers in the humanities and the sciences; many professional organizations use this style for publications as well.
• Associated Press (AP) style. Used by professional journalists.

References List

The brief citations included in the body of your paper correspond to the more detailed citations provided at the end of the paper in the references section. In-text citations provide basic information—the author’s name, the publication date, and the page number if necessary—while the references section provides more extensive bibliographical information. Again, this information allows your reader to follow up on the sources you cited and do additional reading about the topic if desired.

The specific format of entries in the list of references varies slightly for different source types, but the entries generally include the following information:

• The name(s) of the author(s) or institution that wrote the source
• The year of publication and, where applicable, the exact date of publication
• The full title of the source
• For books, the city of publication
• For articles or essays, the name of the periodical or book in which the article or essay appears
• For magazine and journal articles, the volume number, issue number, and pages where the article appears
• For sources on the web, the URL where the source is located

The references page is double spaced and lists entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. If an entry continues for more than one line, the second line and each subsequent line are indented five spaces. Review the following example. ( Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provides extensive guidelines for formatting reference entries for different types of sources.)

In APA style, book and article titles are formatted in sentence case, not title case. Sentence case means that only the first word is capitalized, along with any proper nouns.

Key Takeaways

• Following proper citation and formatting guidelines helps writers ensure that their work will be taken seriously, give proper credit to other authors for their work, and provide valuable information to readers.
• Working ahead and taking care to cite sources correctly the first time are ways writers can save time during the editing stage of writing a research paper.
• APA papers usually include an abstract that concisely summarizes the paper.
• APA papers use a specific headings structure to provide a clear hierarchy of information.
• In APA papers, in-text citations usually include the name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication.
• In-text citations correspond to entries in the references section, which provide detailed bibliographical information about a source.

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

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Research methods--quantitative, qualitative, and more: overview.

• Quantitative Research
• Qualitative Research
• Data Science Methods (Machine Learning, AI, Big Data)
• Text Mining and Computational Text Analysis
• Evidence Synthesis/Systematic Reviews
• Get Data, Get Help!

About Research Methods

This guide provides an overview of research methods, how to choose and use them, and supports and resources at UC Berkeley. 

As Patten and Newhart note in the book Understanding Research Methods , "Research methods are the building blocks of the scientific enterprise. They are the "how" for building systematic knowledge. The accumulation of knowledge through research is by its nature a collective endeavor. Each well-designed study provides evidence that may support, amend, refute, or deepen the understanding of existing knowledge...Decisions are important throughout the practice of research and are designed to help researchers collect evidence that includes the full spectrum of the phenomenon under study, to maintain logical rules, and to mitigate or account for possible sources of bias. In many ways, learning research methods is learning how to see and make these decisions."

The choice of methods varies by discipline, by the kind of phenomenon being studied and the data being used to study it, by the technology available, and more.  This guide is an introduction, but if you don't see what you need here, always contact your subject librarian, and/or take a look to see if there's a library research guide that will answer your question. 

Suggestions for changes and additions to this guide are welcome! 

START HERE: SAGE Research Methods

Without question, the most comprehensive resource available from the library is SAGE Research Methods.  HERE IS THE ONLINE GUIDE  to this one-stop shopping collection, and some helpful links are below:

• SAGE Research Methods
• Little Green Books  (Quantitative Methods)
• Little Blue Books  (Qualitative Methods)
• Dictionaries and Encyclopedias  
• Case studies of real research projects
• Sample datasets for hands-on practice
• Streaming video--see methods come to life
• Methodspace- -a community for researchers
• SAGE Research Methods Course Mapping

Library Data Services at UC Berkeley

Library Data Services Program and Digital Scholarship Services

The LDSP offers a variety of services and tools !  From this link, check out pages for each of the following topics:  discovering data, managing data, collecting data, GIS data, text data mining, publishing data, digital scholarship, open science, and the Research Data Management Program.

Be sure also to check out the visual guide to where to seek assistance on campus with any research question you may have!

Library GIS Services

Other Data Services at Berkeley

D-Lab Supports Berkeley faculty, staff, and graduate students with research in data intensive social science, including a wide range of training and workshop offerings Dryad Dryad is a simple self-service tool for researchers to use in publishing their datasets. It provides tools for the effective publication of and access to research data. Geospatial Innovation Facility (GIF) Provides leadership and training across a broad array of integrated mapping technologies on campu Research Data Management A UC Berkeley guide and consulting service for research data management issues

General Research Methods Resources

Here are some general resources for assistance:

• Assistance from ICPSR (must create an account to access): Getting Help with Data , and Resources for Students
• Wiley Stats Ref for background information on statistics topics
• Survey Documentation and Analysis (SDA) .  Program for easy web-based analysis of survey data.

Consultants

• D-Lab/Data Science Discovery Consultants Request help with your research project from peer consultants.
• Research data (RDM) consulting Meet with RDM consultants before designing the data security, storage, and sharing aspects of your qualitative project.
• Statistics Department Consulting Services A service in which advanced graduate students, under faculty supervision, are available to consult during specified hours in the Fall and Spring semesters.

Related Resourcex

• IRB / CPHS Qualitative research projects with human subjects often require that you go through an ethics review.
• OURS (Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarships) OURS supports undergraduates who want to embark on research projects and assistantships. In particular, check out their "Getting Started in Research" workshops
• Sponsored Projects Sponsored projects works with researchers applying for major external grants.
• Next: Quantitative Research >>
• Last Updated: Apr 25, 2024 11:09 AM
• URL: https://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/researchmethods

How to Develop a Research Paper Timeline

• Writing Research Papers
• Writing Essays
• English Grammar
• M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
• B.A., History, Armstrong State University

Research papers come in many sizes and levels of complexity. There is no single set of rules that fits every project, but there are guidelines you should follow to keep yourself on track throughout the weeks as you prepare, research, and write. You will complete your project in stages, so you must plan ahead and give yourself enough time to complete every stage of your work.

Your first step is to write down the due date for your paper on a big wall calendar , in your planner , and in an electronic calendar.

Plan backward from that due date to determine when you should have your library work completed. A good rule of thumb is to spend:

• Fifty percent of your time researching and reading
• Ten percent of your time sorting and marking your research
• Forty percent of your time writing and formatting

Timeline for Researching and Reading Stage

• 1 week for short papers with one or two sources
• 2-3 weeks for papers up to ten pages
• 2-3 months for a thesis

It’s important to get started right away on the first stage. In a perfect world, we would find all of the sources we need to write our paper in our nearby library. In the real world, however, we conduct internet queries and discover a few perfect books and articles that are absolutely essential to our topic—only to find that they are not available at the local library.

The good news is that you can still get the resources through an interlibrary loan. But that will take time. This is one good reason to do a thorough search early on with the help of a reference librarian .

Give yourself time to collect many possible resources for your project. You will soon find that some of the books and articles you choose don’t actually offer any useful information for your particular topic. You’ll need to make a few trips to the library. You won’t finish in one trip.

You’ll also discover that you will find additional potential sources in the bibliographies of your first selections. Sometimes the most time-consuming task is eliminating potential sources.

Timeline for Sorting and Marking Your Research

• 1 day for a short paper
• 3-5 days for papers up to ten pages
• 2-3 weeks for a thesis

You should read each of your sources at least twice. Read your sources the first time to soak in some information and to make notes on research cards.

Read your sources a second time more quickly, skimming through the chapters and putting sticky note flags on pages that contain important points or pages that contain passages that you want to cite. Write keywords on the sticky note flags.

Timeline for Writing and Formatting

• Four days for a short paper with one or two sources
• 1-2 weeks for papers up to ten pages
• 1-3 months for a thesis

You don’t really expect to write a good paper on your first attempt, do you?

You can expect to pre-write, write, and rewrite several drafts of your paper. You’ll also have to rewrite your thesis statement a few times, as your paper takes shape.

Don’t get held up writing any section of your paper—especially the introductory paragraph. It is perfectly normal for writers to go back and complete the introduction once the rest of the paper is completed.

The first few drafts don’t have to have perfect citations. Once you begin to sharpen your work and you’re heading toward a final draft, you should tighten your citations. Use a sample essay if you need to, just to get the formatting down.

Make sure your bibliography contains every source you’ve used in your research.

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Search term

The technique of academic research: on research lines and second brains.

• B. Akkermans

An important part of becoming a fully-fledged academic is the development and curation of a research line. A research line is the main research topic and the thread throughout (large parts of) a career. It could be law and technology in private law, globalisation in public law, human rights in criminal law, sustainability, or anything else.

It usually begins with a research project, designed by the research him- or herself or not, followed by usually decades of further research. It takes time to develop and substantially curate a research line and we sometimes use the 10.000 flight hour metaphor for this; suggesting it takes at least 10.000 flight hours to be able to properly fly an airplane in the same way as it takes 10.000 hours to be able to deliver high quality research outputs.

With about 1.600 hours of work in a year and the average of about 50% of available research time in a post-doctoral setting, absent of a postdoctoral fellowship, this will take at least 12 years to achieve. Incorporating a PhD project, which in the Netherlands generally comprises three years of full-time research (so 4800 hours), that leaves about 6,5 years of post-doctoral research time.

These are of course averages and sometimes it will take (much) less or (much) more than that. No person is the same as another. However, on average we assume this is what it takes to become a fully independent researcher regardless of the academic rank someone holds. This raises, amongst other, several important questions:

• How do we help young researchers on their way, both supervising their PhD-, but especially their postdoctoral work?
• How do we explain and especially assist young researchers in developing their own research lines?
• How can we make these 10.000 hours as useful for the young researchers as possible? In other words, how can this work fully include the research line already.

Moreover, in an academic world where there is every day more and more research to be found, where interdisciplinary research is more and more valued and where increasingly researchers are taking also including non-academic sources, such as information from newspapers, social media, books and articles of non-fiction, and even works of literature, the sheer volume of potential sources is ever more difficult to cope with. 

More experienced researchers are in an advantageous position compared to more junior researchers as they have a more fully developed research framework in their head allowing them to process more amounts of information more rapidly. They develop, out of necessity and by experience, what I would call a system of knowledge management.

In this respect we can learn from other fields. Academic research is a creative enterprise and learning from other creators and how they manage flow of information, can be very useful. I am thinking in this respect of entrepreneurs and content creators. There is a rising field of personal knowledge management (or PKM) that should also be of interest to academics.

Over the summer break I read Tiago Forte’s book Building a Second Brain and found it highly instructive. I gained a few - in my view very relevant - insights for academic researchers. Personal knowledge management involves continuously thinking about a system of knowledge management. This does not only involve a library of resources such as can be maintained with applications such as Endnote , Mendeley or (the open source) Zotero , but especially a system in which we can feed new ideas, develop thoughts and plan ahead.

Tiago Forte teaches us to use a system called CODE, which stands for Collect, Organize, Distill and Express. As academics we are great at collecting academic sources, but perhaps not at collecting non-academic sources or systematically collecting research ideas. Most of us organise our academic sources using reference software I mentioned above, but not these interesting YouTube videos, tweets, or newspaper clippings we stumble on.

The effect, Forte explains, is that once we save these elements, even when we don’t need them immediately, they become part of our system and we can search for them. We can when we collect all these aspects, create a vast library of sources and ideas that fill our ever-developing research line.

That means that any small idea we have is also worth saving, even when it’s just a couple of words. It may not be relevant for a current project, but it is relevant in the context of the research line. It may become relevant later, or in connection to another idea or source give rise to another idea that can become a new project. A vast number of applications, both free and paid, are available to effectively create these systems. For example, to help organise highlights from eBooks and articles into a library for notes (an app called Readwise ), or to organise notes and resources by project (an app called Notion ).

In my view these ideas (and apps) are worth further investigation, and I am curious to know how they are already used by follow academics. Most of all, I am interested in how we can help our young researchers to develop an effective personal academic knowledge management system. It will certainly help them establish and develop their own research lines. Insights, suggestions, and collaborations are more than welcome. We can certainly all learn from each other.

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Bram Akkermans is Professor of Property Law. Bram specialises in sustainability and property law and combines property theory with constitutional property and property doctrine to explore how property law can accommodate sustainable thinking. 

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Research Is a Spiral Process, Not a Straight Line

An earlier posting about the research process has triggered a boatload of questions—and a bit of frustration.

“I must not be doing something right,” sighed one friend of this page. “I faithfully read the peer-reviewed journals. I study their articles carefully. What I don’t get is how their research always seems so well-planned that it goes from Starting Point to Solution with no detours, no false leads, and absolutely no wandering off onto other tracks. I can’t do that. How do they?”

Ah, yes ... illusion vs. reality. When a product is marketed, we don’t see all the mistakes that went into its design and production processes. We only see the finished product. The research process works the same.

Research never happens in a straight line. Well-planned research is actually circular—or spiral, as the attached graphic show. In a best case scenario, a research process might consist of six steps:

1. Analyze known data. 2. Challenge prior assumptions. 3. Plan the research. 4. Do the research. 5. Evaluate the new findings against prior findings. 6. Reach a conclusion.

In reality, our “conclusion” is likely to be a conclusion that we still haven’t proved our case. That means, we have to repeat that process"

7. We do new research.  8. We correlate our new findings with prior findings 9. We make new analyses of the whole.  10. We try to disprove whatever theories take shape—which may start the research process all over again. 11. We resolve any and all contradictions—which may start the research process all over again.

Eventually, if we’re appropriately thorough and thoughtful, our spiral will finally tighten upon a conclusion that will stand the test of time.

NOTE The spiral nature of research is greatly expanded upon in EE’s QuickSheet: The Historical Biographer’s Guide to Cluster Research (the FAN Principle ), available in Kindle or print edition. tiny.cc/9xbx0y tiny.cc/twbx0y

HOW TO CITE: Elizabeth Shown Mills, "Research Is a Spiral Process, Not a Straight Line," blog post, QuickTips: The Blog @ Evidence Explained ( https://www.evidenceexplained.org/quicktips/research-is-a-spiral-process-not-straight-line : posted 12 November 2018).

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© Evidence Explained  2011-2024.

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The value and direction of innovation

• Published: 03 February 2020
• Volume 130 , pages 133–156, ( 2020 )

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• Kangoh Lee 1  

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This paper considers the allocation of innovators between two research lines that differ in their values of innovation and their probabilities of discovery. Innovators choose a research line to maximize their expected utility, and the high value research line may attract more or fewer innovators than the low value research line, depending on the difficulty of discovery. The equilibrium allocation is not efficient, as innovators ignore the effects of their choice of research lines on other innovators.

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Triple Helix or Quadruple Helix: Which Model of Innovation to Choose for Empirical Studies?

The impact of entrepreneurship research on other academic fields

Downstream new product development and upstream process innovation

For a recent survey of the literature on innovation, see, for example, Scotchmer ( 2004 ), Hall and Rosenberg ( 2010 ), and Cohen ( 2010 ).

Chen et al. ( 2018 ) study the allocation of R&D resources between a safe research line and a risky one, rather than between a high value line and a low value one, the focus of this paper.

It also affects the utility of an innovator in the low value research line, as discussed below.

In both Bryan and Lemus and this paper, the discovery of innovation is thus increasing in the number of innovators and the easiness at a decreasing rate.

Another difference is that firms allocate their innovators between research lines to maximize their profits in Bryan and Lemus, but individual innovators pursue a research line independently to maximize their utilities in this paper (Tandon 1983 ; Quirmbach 1993 ; Shapiro 2007 ).

For details, see two unnumbered equations on page 255 and two equations in Proposition  1 on page 257 of Bryan and Lemus.

\(\partial n_2^*/\partial p_2 = - v_2 \pi _p(p_2, n_2^*)/D > 0\) and \(\partial n_2^*/\partial v_2 = - \pi (p_2, n_2^*)/D > 0\) by Lemma  1 , where \(D = v_1 \pi _n(p_1, n_1^*) + v_2 \pi _n(p_2, n_2^*) < 0\)

An increase in \(p_2\) means that \(p_1\) is held fixed and only \(p_2\) increases. The same interpretation applies to an increase in \(v_2\) below.

As a tie-breaking rule, an innovator in research line 1 is assumed to stay if indifferent between staying with research line 1 and moving to research line 2.

( 10 ) is the same as ( 8 ), except ( 10 ) being evaluated at \((n_1^*, n_2^*).\)

An alternative interpretation of ( 10 ) is possible. When an innovator moves to research line 1 from research line 2, it decreases the utilities of incumbent innovators in research line 1 by \(n_1 U'(n_1) = n_1 \lambda _n(p, n_1) - U_1(n_1)\) , as in ( 11 ). The entry of the innovator adds her utility by \(U_1(n_1).\) Thus, the entry increases social welfare of research line 1 by \(v_1 \lambda _n(p, n_1).\) The opposite occurs to research line 2, and the entry decreases social welfare of research line 2 by \(v_2 \lambda _n(p, n_2).\) The sum of these two effects equals \(W'\) .

The maximization problem in this section differs from ( 8 ) due to effort, and it is desirable to use a different notation from \(({\hat{n}}_1, {\hat{n}}_2)\) , but to avoid cluttering up notations, \(({\hat{n}}_1, {\hat{n}}_2)\) is used. Analogous comments apply to other notations such as \((n_1^*, n_2^*)\) and \(p_2^*\) .

Since \(\pi (e_2p_2, n_2) = \lambda (e_2p_2, n_2)/n_2\) , the sign of \(1 - \lambda _n(e_2 p, n_2)/\pi (e_2p, n_2)\) is identical to that of \(\lambda (e_2p, n_2) - n_2\lambda _n(e_2p, n_2) > 0\) , because the last expression has the same sign as \(- \pi _n(e_2p, n_2) > 0.\)

As in ( 15 ), a condition for \(e^ip < 1\) is \(vp [\Pi _{j \ne i}(1-e^jp)]/n - (1/p) < 0\) . This condition is identical to ( 15 ), except that \(-e^i = - (1/p)\) replaces \(-1.\) In the symmetric case, \((1- e^ip) = (1 - e^jp) = 0\) , so the condition again holds automatically. Likewise, the condition for \(e^ip > 0\) is \(vp [\Pi _{j \ne i}(1-e^jp)]/n > 0\) , which is identical to ( 16 ), except that \(\partial e^j/\partial e^i = 0\) and \(-e^i = 0\) replaces \(-1\) . This condition also holds automatically, as \((1- e^ip) = (1 - e^jp) = 1\) in the symmetric case.

This of course does not say that the equilibrium effort is efficient, as the equilibrium allocation of innovators between research lines is not efficient.

Differentiation of FOC ( 23 ) gives \(\partial e^*/\partial n < 0\) , as in ( 59 ) of the “ Appendix ”.

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to two anonymous referees for their comments that improved this paper significantly.

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Proof of (ii) of Lemma 1

To determine the sign of \(\partial \pi (p, n)/\partial n\) , rewrite ( 2 ) as

where the arguments of \(\pi (p, n)\) are and will be suppressed when it does not create any confusion. Taking the natural log of both sides of ( 25 ),

Using ( 25 ) and ( 26 ),

The sign of \(\pi _n(p, n)\) coincides with the sign of the numerator of ( 27 ), and the numerator can be rewritten as

with \(x \equiv \pi \;n.\) Given ( 25 ), it must be that \(x \in (0, 1).\) \(\phi (x)\) has the following three properties. First, as x approaches zero,

Second, differentiation of \(\phi (x)\) gives

Third, as x approaches one,

which cannot be determined, as \(ln\;(0) = - \infty .\) However, using L’Hospital’s rule,

These three properties of \(\phi (x)\) imply that \(\phi (x) < 0\) for all \(x \in (0, 1)\) and hence \(\pi _n(p, n) < 0\) , establishing part (ii) of the lemma. \(\square\)

Proof of Proposition 1

For an interior case to occur, it must be that

Using the definition of \(\pi (p, n)\) in ( 2 ), \(\pi (p_i, {\overline{n}}) = [1 - (1 -p_i)^{{\overline{n}}}]/{\overline{n}}\) . However, \(\pi (p_i, 0) = [1 - 1]/0 = 0/0\) is not defined, and using L’Hospital’s rule,

Substitution of the expression of \(\pi (p_i, {\overline{n}})\) and that of \(\pi (p_i, 0)\) into ( 32 ) and ( 33 ) leads to the condition in the proposition. \(\square\)

Proof of Lemma 2

As \(v_2 > v_1\) , the equilibrium condition ( 4 ) implies \(\pi (p_2, n_2^*) < \pi (p_1, n_1^*).\) Since \(\pi _p(p, n) > 0\) from part (i) of Lemma  1 , and since \(p_2 \ge p_1\) by hypothesis, \(\pi (p_2, n_2^*) \ge \pi (p_1, n_2^*).\) The two inequalities imply

The first term in ( 35 ) and the last one have the same probability of discovery \(p_1\) , but the first one is smaller. As \(\pi (p, n)\) decreases in n by part (ii) of Lemma  1 , it must be that \(n_2^* > n_1^*\) , establishing the lemma. \(\square\)

Proof of Proposition 2

Since \(n_1^*(p_2, v_2) < n_2^*(p_2, v_2)\) when \(p_2 = p_1\) by Lemma  2 , and since \(\partial n_1^*(p_2, v_2)/\partial p_2 < 0\) by ( 7 ), there exists \(p_2^* \equiv p_2^*(p_1, v_1, v_2)\) such that \(n_1^*(p_2^*, v_2) = n_2^*(p_2^*, v_2)\) with \(p_2^* < p_1\) . In addition, due to the inequality in ( 7 ), \(n_1^*(p_2, v_2) < (>)\;n_2^*(p_2, v_2)\) for \(p_2 > (<)\; p_2^*,\) establishing the proposition. \(\square\)

Proof of Lemma 3

Evaluation of the planner’s FOC ( 8 ) at the equilibrium allocation \((n_1^*, n_2^*) = (n_1^*, {\overline{n}} - n_1^*)\) gives

where the first equality uses the equilibrium condition ( 4 ) and \(\eta (p, n)\) is defined as

Since \(p_2 \ge p_1\) and hence \(n_2^* > n_1^*\) by Lemma  2 , and since \(\eta (p, n)\) is decreasing in p and n , as shown below, ( 36 ) is positive. This implies \(n_1^* < {\hat{n}}_1\) and \(n_2^* > {\hat{n}}_2,\) establishing the lemma. \(\square\)

Proof of \(\eta _p(p, n) < 0\) and \(\eta _n(p, n) < 0\)

Ignoring \(1/[\pi (p, n)]^2,\) the sign of \(\eta _p(p, n)\) is identical to that of

Q ( p ) has three properties:

Thus, \(Q(p) < 0\) for all \(p > 0\) , and hence \(\eta _p(p, n) < 0\) in ( 38 ).

In a manner analogous to ( 38 ), it is straightforward to verify that

Proof of Proposition 3

Consider ( 36 ) in the proof of Lemma  3 . Since the sign of ( 36 ) coincides with that of the expression inside the pair of square brackets, and since the relationship between \(n_1^*\) and \(n_2^*\) depends on the magnitude of \(p_2\) by Lemma  2 , define

At \(p_2 = p_2^*\) and hence \(n_1^* = n_2^*\) by Lemma  2 , ( 44 ) becomes

as \(p_2^* < p_1\) by Lemma  2 and \(\eta (p, n)\) is decreasing in p . Next, at \(p_2 = p_1\) ,

because Lemma  3 holds when \(p_2 \ge p_1.\) Thus, there is \({\hat{p}}_2\) such that \(\Omega (p_2) > (=, <)\;0\) for \(p_2 > (=, <)\;{\hat{p}}_2,\) establishing the proposition. \(\square\)

Derivation of ( 21 )

where \((n_1, n_2) = (n_1^*, n_2^*)\) and \(e_i(n_i) = e_i^*(v_i, p, n_i)\) with the arguments \(v_i\) and p dropped. For a small \(\triangle ,\) dW reduces to \(W'\) in ( 21 ). \(W'\) includes \([v_1 \lambda _e(e_1(n_1 + \triangle ) p, n_1 + \triangle ) - (n_1+\triangle )]\; (\partial e(n_1+\triangle )/\partial (n_1+\triangle )) - [v_2 \lambda _e(e_2(n_2 - \triangle ) p, n_2 - \triangle ) - (n_2 -\triangle )]\; (\partial e(n_2-\triangle )/\partial (n_2-\triangle ))\) . The expression in each pair of square brackets becomes FOC ( 20 ) and hence zero for a small \(\triangle\) once divided by \(n_1 + \triangle\) and \(n_2 - \triangle\) , respectively.

Relationship between \(e_2^*\) and \(e_1^*\)

Solving ( 17 ) for e ,

To rule out negative effort, it is assumed that

(that is, \(v_1p_1 > 1\) and \(v_2p_2 > 1\) ). Total differentiation of equilibrium condition ( 19 ), along with ( 48 ), gives

Since \(U_1(n_1) = v_1 \pi (e_1(n_1)p_1, n_1) - e_1(n_1) = U_2(n_2) = v_2 \pi (e_2(n_2)p_2, n_2) - e_2(n_2)\) in equilibrium,

Differentiation of f (.), along with ( 48 ), yields

Since \(f(v_1, p_1: v_1, p_1) = 0, f(v_2, p_1: v_1, p_1) > 0,\) given \(v_2 > v_1.\) As \(f(v_2, p_2: v_1, p_1)\) is increasing in \(p_2, f(v_2, p_2: v_1, p_1) > 0\) for all \(p_2 \ge p_1.\) If \(p_2 < p_1\) , there is a critical value of \(p_2, {\tilde{p}}_2\) , such that \(f(v_2, p_2: v_1, p_1) > (=, <)\;0\) for \(p_2 > (=,<)\;{\tilde{p}}_2 < p_1\) . In summary,

Proof of Lemma 4

Evaluation of the planner’s FOC ( 20 ) at the equilibrium allocation \((n_1^*, n_2^*)\) gives

Letting \(z \equiv ep\) , \(\eta (z, n) \equiv \lambda _n(z, n)/\pi (z, n)\) is decreasing in z and n , as in ( 38 ) and ( 43 ). Since \(p_2 \ge p_1\) by hypothesis in Lemma  4 , \(e_2^* > e_1^*\) by ( 53 ) and hence \(e_2^* p_2 > e_1^*p_1\) . In addition, as \(p_2 \ge p_1,\) \(n_2^* > n_1^*\) by Lemma  2 . As a result, \(\eta (e_1^* p_1, n_1^*) > \eta (e_2^* p_2, n_2^*)\) in the second line of ( 54 ). Also, \(1 - \frac{\lambda _n(e_2^* p_2, n_2^*)}{\pi (e_2^*p_2, n_2^*)} > 0\) in the last line of ( 54 ), as explained in footnote 13. Thus, the inequality of ( 54 ) holds, establishing the lemma.

For the subsequent analysis, it is also necessary to compare \(e_2^*p_2\) and \(e_1^*p_1\) . \(\square\)

Relationship between \(e_2^*p_2\) and \(e_1^*p_1\)

Since \(f(.) = e_2 - e_1\) and hence \(e_2 = e_1 + f(.)\) ,

Since \(f(.) > 0\) for \(p_2 \ge p_1\) by ( 53 ), \(g(.) > 0\) for \(p_2 \ge p_1.\) In addition, \(f(v_2, {\tilde{p}}_2: v_1, p_1) = 0\) by ( 53 ), and \({\tilde{p}}_2 < p_1\) , so \(g(v_2, {\tilde{p}}_2: v_1, p_1) < 0.\) Therefore, there is a critical value, denoted \(p_2' \in ({\tilde{p}}_2, p_1)\) , such that \(g(v_2, p_2: v_1, p_1) \ge 0\) for \(p_2 \ge p_2'.\) Unlike \(f(v_2, p_2: v_1, p_1), g(v_2, p_2: v_1, p_1)\) is not necessarily a monotonic function of \(p_2\) , so there may be multiple values of \(p_2\) that makes \(g(v_2, p_2': v_1, p_1) = 0\) , and it is sufficient to choose the maximum of such values of \(p_2\) for \(g(v_2, p_2: v_1, p_1) \ge 0\) when \(p_2 \ge p_2'\) . In summary,

As \(f(.) = e_2(n_2) - e_1(n_1) \le 0\) for \(p_2 \le {\tilde{p}}_2\) and \({\tilde{p}}_2 < p_1\) in ( 53 ),

Proof of Proposition 5

A sufficient condition for ( 54 ) to continue to hold is \(e_2^*p_2 \ge e_1^*p_1, n_2^* \ge n_1^*\) and \(e_2^* \ge e_1^*.\) Since each inequality holds for \(p_2 \ge p_2', p_2 \ge p_2^*\) and \(p_2 \ge {\tilde{p}}_2\) , ( 54 ) holds and \(W' \ge 0\) for \(p_2 \ge p_2^o \equiv\) max \(\{p_2', p_2^*, {\tilde{p}}_2\} =\) max \(\{p_2', p_2^*\},\) because \(p_2' > {\tilde{p}}_2.\)

A sufficient condition for the inequality of ( 54 ) to be reversed is \(e_2^*p_2 \le e_1^*p_1, n_2^* \le n_1^*\) and \(e_2^* \le e_1^*.\) Since the first and the third inequalities hold for \(p_2 \le {\tilde{p}}_2\) in ( 57 ), all three hold for \(p_2 \le {\tilde{p}}_2\) and \(p_2 \le p_2^*\) . Thus, \(W' \le 0\) for \(p_2 \le p_2^{oo} \equiv\) min \(\{p_2^*, {\tilde{p}}_2\}.\)

The sign of the third line of ( 24 )

The last equality uses FOC ( 23 ). Differentiation of the FOC gives

Substituting ( 58 ) and ( 59 ) into the first term of the third line of ( 24 ) with research line subscript i omitted,

Differentiation of ( 60 ) can show

if \(n \ge 2\) and \((1 - 2ep) \ge 0.\) Since \(n_2 > n_1\) in equilibrium and \(e_2 > e_1\) by hypothesis, \(g(n_1, e_1) > g(n_2, e_2)\) and hence the third line of ( 24 ) is positive. \(\square\)

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Lee, K. The value and direction of innovation. J Econ 130 , 133–156 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00712-020-00691-y

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s00712-020-00691-y

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Last Reviewed: February 5, 2024

Meet the Placemakers

NEW WONDERS FOR THE WORLD

THE FUTURE OF URBAN LIVING

A cognitive city stretching across 170 kilometers, from the epic mountains of NEOM across inspirational desert valleys to the beautiful Red Sea. A mirrored architectural masterpiece towering 500 meters above sea level, but a land-saving 200 meters wide. THE LINE redefines the concept of urban development and what cities of the future will look like. 

No roads, cars or emissions, it will run on 100% renewable energy and 95% of land will be preserved for nature. People's health and wellbeing will be prioritized over transportation and infrastructure, unlike traditional cities.

THE LINE will eventually accommodate 9 million people and will be built on a footprint of just 34 square kilometers. This will mean a reduced infrastructure footprint, creating never-before-seen efficiencies in city functions. The ideal climate all-year-round will ensure that residents can enjoy the surrounding nature. Residents will also have access to all daily essentials within a five-minute walk, in addition to high-speed rail – with an end-to-end transit of 20 minutes.

A REVOLUTION IN CIVILIZATION

THE LINE AT MIPIM 2024

NEOM was showcased at MIPIM 2024 – the world's premier real estate event. Find out more about our immersive exhibition space and discover how we are disrupting the traditional real estate mindset by redefining livability and conservation.

"THE LINE will tackle the challenges facing humanity in urban life today and will shine a light on alternative ways to live. We cannot ignore the livability and environmental crises facing our world’s cities, and NEOM is at the forefront of delivering new and imaginative solutions to address these issues. NEOM is leading a team of the brightest minds in architecture, engineering and construction to make the idea of building upwards a reality." His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Chairman of the NEOM Company Board of Directors

WORLD-CLASS QUALITY OF LIFE

A PLACE TO PROTOTYPE BUSINESSES

ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTION TO URBANISM

A COMMUNITY INVENTING THE FUTURE

Hear from the experts

Giles Pendleton

Executive Director

• Could you map out where THE LINE sits in the grand vision for NEOM and how integral it is to the success of the project, plus the world first you are working on? To a degree, THE LINE is NEOM. It is the epicenter for all activities – the primary home for residents, as a vertical city with all the activities that will be there – from opera houses and libraries to stadiums and universities. Nearly nine million people will live on THE LINE when complete, most of the population of NEOM in fact. This will be the very first vertical city with mobility built into its very core. This has never been attempted before, we're taking an entire city and putting it on a footprint that's 200 meters wide. As a resident or visitor, you’ll have the ability to travel easily between modules [communities of 80,000 people] horizontally. So if you're in module 40 and you need to go to the football match in module 44, you don't have to go down to go across to go up. You can just go directly across at whatever height to the stadium. It will also be the first city in the world to be completely run by renewable energy – with a zero-carbon footprint. This is not just stacking everything on top of each other, we are reinventing things that exist in a conventional horizontal realm for a vertical close-proximity landscape. The goal is to ensure people are only ever five minutes away from everything they want in the world because all will be directly below or above you.
• How will this change the game for the world of work, living and sustainability? The expensive thing about starting a city is infrastructure. How do you reduce that massive sunk cost? Because that's a central cost that any government has to pay. The government has to put in the roads, the pipes, the cables, the airports, bridges and somehow tackle pollution and urban sprawl. What we are achieving with 34 square kilometers of space through vertical urbanism would take 1,600 square kilometers in London, for example. By default, it's a more efficient way of doing things. And there’s no need for a car when you live on the 80th floor and everything is easily reachable, cars disappear when causes disappear. In terms of tackling urban sprawl, our vertical urbanism approach will mean that land is given back to nature. And that natural desert will be improved through rewilding – to reintroduce native species, both fauna and flora – and the rehabilitation of land. The idea is to tread lightly, there are no eight-lane freeways or massive car parks. We will create a perfectly symmetrical balance between nature and humans, but on a large scale the likes of which you can’t find anywhere else – whether it’s London, New York, Paris or Seoul. Plus we want to deliver equitable living. The idea is that irrespective of what you do for a living or what you earn, you share the same amenities in the same close proximity to you as everyone else.
• The combination of architectural excellence, natural beauty, walkability and next-level technology on THE LINE is compelling. Why has nobody ever done this before? There hasn't been a need. If you look at the 20th century cities, most were settlements that became villages, towns and then cities – with an evolution over hundreds of years. They were based around vehicle mobility and eventually large road networks. THE LINE aims to do a number of things. To deal with the population growth that Saudi Arabia is expecting, Jeddah and Riyadh can only absorb so many people before the infrastructure is maxed out. Therefore, you need a brand new city; without the pollution, congestion, inefficiency, urban sprawl and inequality that traditional cities suffer from. The world is urbanizing at an incredible rate, with people flocking to existing global cities. This is causing rapid urban sprawl and people are getting further and further away from where they need to work. Spending more money on transport and putting extra buses on the road just creates additional pollution. It's a never ending cycle. Some of those cities around the world are also at risk of flooding. If we can solve all of those issues with one solution, why would you build something that looks like what everybody else has already got? This is the way the Kingdom is addressing its responsibility on all of those issues.
• In terms of the landmark assets planned for each module, could you perhaps tell us a bit more about those – the university, the stadium, the opera house, water park, convention center and so on? The city is a growth model. We're not building this all at once, but it will be rolled out between now and 2045. So you don't build all your stadiums in one go. You build them to meet whatever population they serve. In the masterplan, which is the 170 kilometers of THE LINE that houses 9 million people, we've proportionately mapped out how many football stadiums, opera houses, theaters, cinemas, police stations, schools, hospitals and so on that we need as the timeline plays out. Everything in the construction relates to a population matrix. We are building a university in the first module because we want to anchor the launch around innovation and education. Every single thing you can think of in any city in the world will be on THE LINE at some point, but it may not be in the very first module; just when it makes sense from a population perspective. We do want to create a world-class waterpark, for instance, but only when the time is right.
• What will the mobility landscape look like in terms of short, medium and long distances for residents – and how will renewable energy and water feature? It's a hierarchical system of mobility and the nice thing about that is that everything goes in the same direction. Whether it's water, it goes up and then it goes across, it doesn't spread out like a spiderweb. People will do the same thing because everything runs in a dead straight line, you can run everything adjacent and as efficiently, and fast, as possible. For example, The Spine which is our high-speed rail network that will link the international airport to the Gulf of Aqaba on the coast in four stops. A metro system will allow local travel from module-to-module. Plus there will be horizontal transport corridors at four different heights that might well be pods, light rail or even horizontal elevators – we are still deciding on that particular solution. If you're on the 50th floor and you want to go two kilometers to the stadium to watch the NEOM Football Club play Barcelona, for instance, you would jump on one of the various systems. It'll either be 10 floors above you or 10 floors below that you will be able to catch it. Whereas if you were in a 50-storey building in New York and you wanted to catch a train, you actually have to go to the ground floor, leave the building and find a train. Then you've got to go in a roundabout way because subway systems don't run in a perfect straight line. We're trying to cut down on people's commutes. The more time we can give back to the individual to declutter their lives, the better. The city will also run on a net-zero basis, which means our energy is derived from renewable resources – wind, solar, green hydrogen and other technologies that will evolve. There's no other city in the world that can say the same thing. To use London as an example again, 25% of the water that is sent to London is lost through leaks you can’t see. Every other city in the world suffers exactly the same thing. Some pipes are 200 years old. In a vertical system, you will very quickly see if there's a leak because everything is highly visible and accessible. We're starting with legacy-free infrastructure. We don’t have to retrofit and so we can meter energy and water at every point of the system. And we plan to use remineralized desalinated water.
• People will ask how is it possible to build a new city of nine million people from scratch in such a short period of time – that is a huge challenge isn’t it, when you consider that other new-world cities like Singapore took 50 years? We'd like to see close to a million people living on THE LINE in 2030. How do we do that? We've got to build quite a lot of real estate in a short space of time. Well, we're not actually building THE LINE. We're assembling it from a series of modular pieces that are pre-engineered and predetermined as to what they do. So we're using a lot of artificial intelligence to design through a digital twin backbone. For example, we will have one door-lock system. But if we need 100 million of them, then it's easier for us to set up a factory and create exactly the same block 100 million times. We will create a very simple process with optimized, standardized and industrialized production whereby things are made in factories in large-scale volumes within NEOM – so that we don’t have to transport them far. Think of it like a giant assembly kit. The great thing about pre-engineered parts is that you can control quality and you can control dimensions, so that things connect.
• As a cognitive city, how important will population data be to the success of THE LINE – and how will you balance convenience with data privacy? Data allows you to map behavior and create predictability with patterns of people, what they do and what they want. If the cognitive system can see that every morning at 8.15am, there are a large amount of people that want the lift on the 50th floor to go to the 60th floor then you are able to make the lives of those people easier by ensuring the elevator is waiting there for them – rather than a predetermined system that means them having to press a button and wait for it to arrive down from the 100th floor. It's actually a human-centric approach, using machines to process large volumes of data to come up with optimal solutions. And it's a virtuous circle because the more the system learns, the bigger the data pool and the more accurate the algorithms become.
• What is the legacy you want to leave for future generations – and what is the timeline for the delivery of your goals and objectives on THE LINE? I come from a sustainability and real estate background. Real estate contributes 40% of the world's carbon emissions now and has been an industry that takes more than it gives back to the planet. NEOM has the vision to do something about it. We're not ideologues here, but there is a better way and we want to lead it. We have the opportunity to rethink solutions to all of the problems related to city-building. In mid 2026 you'll be able to fly into the new international airport, jump on a high-speed train and get to any part of NEOM. Before that, there will be a tourism uptake and the first residents in other regions in NEOM, like Trojena. The plan is to have one million people living on THE LINE in 2030 and then nearly nine million by 2045.
• Why are the walls mirrored – is it for reasons related to harnessing solar power, to blend in with the natural environment, to create striking architecture or something else? And can you tell us all about the hidden marina? The most important thing for us is that we're building a very large structure in a pristine part of the world. If the building was black, it would stand out. With a mirrored facade, wherever you are looking you will see the land behind you, which will be a natural environment. It will blend in perfectly with the surrounding environment. THE LINE becomes part of its environment, at one with nature. There are, of course, other benefits in relation to integrating solar panels into the southern wall and so on. And to the hidden marina, it is one of the large activation points of the project – a large marina for all sorts of boats in the leisure and recreational segments. There won't be any cargo ships, but there will be cruise ships. It will be a cruise hub like Fort Lauderdale in Florida or Montenegro in the Mediterranean. The Red Sea is a fantastic boating area. And we don't have tornadoes, we don't have hurricanes. It’s very stable with great weather and beautiful crystal clear waters. Plus, in terms of access, we are on the doorstep of Europe.
• With such a high structure, towering 500 meters high, how will you mitigate against dark shaded spaces? And how easy will it be to grow greenery in shaded areas? The mirrored facade will be penetrated by natural light and the canyon [inside of the structure] has been scientifically modeled in a way that makes the most of the sun’s high arc in summer and low arc in winter. In terms of the vegetation, the things that need light would be where the light is. But not all plants want total daylight. A lot of plants prefer shade or semi-shaded areas. They will be chosen accordingly for where they sit within the plan.
• Are you able to talk about the international airport at this stage and how that will fit into the blueprint for THE LINE as time goes on? The airport will be a large gateway into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia integrated into THE LINE. Usually, a conventional airport is a long way from everybody and you go through the boring process of going through immigration, waiting for your bags and then carrying those bags to your destination. Imagine if you pre-clear, go through a biometric scanner and your bag is transported to your destination for you. This artificial intelligence approach is something we are looking at. An airport is your first experience of a place, so you don’t want it to destroy a good vibe on arrival. It should be a pleasant customer experience, that is what we are trying to reimagine with a holistic approach.
• How will the approach to the public realm be different from other cities around the world? And would it be fair to say that THE LINE will have the best quality of living on the planet? The idea is that our public realm is very open and accessible. If you need to get from A to B, then you go through the public realm. Therefore, it can't be narrow passages. It can't be dark. Green spaces and parks will be integrated. Perhaps the public realm goes right through the middle of a university. And as you walk through the university, all the laboratories are glass-fronted. You see the students learning, you see the robots working. Maybe in the culinary school you walk past, you see the open kitchen. So it gives you community from the visibility and transparency. So we may have glass walls next to 3D printers making things. The public realm then becomes more than just a walkway from A to B, it becomes part of the fabric of the city. Our objective is to have the best quality of life on the planet. Different people have different values as to what makes their lives enjoyable. In the annual rankings, it's normally the usual suspects of Vienna, Copenhagen, Adelaide or Vancouver that tend to come out on top. There are various measures that are applied to the formula like class sizes in schools or short waiting times in hospitals. We want to surpass those, we are trying to improve on the best cities in the world from a livability point of view. Livability generally is about health, wellness, commutes, pollution, green spaces, access to X, Y and Z. They're the basic building blocks of what makes a city livable.
• Do you have an idea of what the population will look like in terms of demographics, nationalities, socio-economic status and so on? THE LINE is a living experiment for how people can live well in the future. It will tick a lot of boxes for people who believe in what we're doing in terms of sustainability and leaving a smaller footprint in the world. The project will have a very strong technology, biomedical and educational focus – so if you would naturally end up in the ecosystems at M.I.T, Silicon Valley or Stanford, for instance, then THE LINE is going to appeal to you as a new honeypot city. It's going to have the best of everything in the world, which will lead to an ecosystem of incubation and a proliferation of ideas and inspiration. Silicon Valley doesn't exist with only four companies, there are 40,000 interconnected companies and a community there. So people will start to see THE LINE as an alternative. One without commutes and the humidity of Singapore, the pollution of London, the poor weather of Paris or the tax of Silicon Valley – just to use real-world examples to illustrate the point.
• THE LINE is in a seismic zone. What challenges does that present? We resolved that early on with smart engineering solutions and global best practice. We’re not the only city in the world in a seismic zone. For example, San Francisco has buildings over 300 meters tall and it’s on a fault line. Tokyo too has buildings more than 500 meters high. So it was actually one of the easier challenges to navigate.
• THE LINE will amplify the chance of bumping into friends and family. Some people will love that serendipity. But some want to escape and to be remote from others – how will you cater for that small group in society? I think that the idea then would be to live in a different module or a different part of THE LINE. Just because we’re creating a vertical city, it doesn't mean we won't have districts and suburbs. So if you want to, you can live 100 kilometers apart from your family – but be only 20 minutes away by train. Of course, you will not just be inside the city at all times. As with any other building, you can go to the ground floor and go outside to the beach, the desert or the mountains. All of this will be on your doorstep.
• In terms of the key numbers: Why 500 meters high and 200 meters wide? And why 170 kilometers long? We need a city that can accommodate nine million people, taking Saudi Arabia towards its 2050 population goal, and we need to do that efficiently – with the smallest possible footprint and the optimal livability for residents. So, 200 meters wide by 500 meters tall – and 170 kilometers in length – was the best engineered solution. It wasn’t random. These numbers are driven by research and science – when it comes to elements such as the depth of light, air circulation and so on.
• When it comes to the microclimate, the benefits of such stability and pleasant year-round temperatures are obvious. How does the canyon in the middle of THE LINE deal with weather extremes like summer heat and winter winds? Micro-climate principles are well understood. You can create a tropical jungle in Moscow inside a glass dome quite easily, for instance. It’s all about how the air and light enters the space. And THE LINE is scientifically engineered to make the most of that knowledge. The arc of the sun will mean that the outdoor spaces will not be getting sun for all 10 hours of the day because of the blade effects of the tall structures. This mitigates against heat build-up. And in terms of winds, the blades will buffer the outer skin, leaving the canyon completely free of issues relating to wind and dust. Meanwhile, the top of THE LINE will be open so that the canyon can breathe. On top of that, we won’t have pollution like other big cities – so you will be able to enjoy the outdoors to the max.
• The world received news of THE LINE in a hugely positive way, but there are a small percentage of naysayers. What would you say to those who have yet to be convinced? Even in the world's most livable cities – places like Vancouver, Adelaide, Auckland, Copenhagen and Vienna – there are people who think they are not great. You can’t make everybody happy all of the time, but for us the proof will be in the product. We have to now deliver and we will. It will certainly appeal to a large number of people in the world – from the digital nomads to the emerging tech and gaming sectors here in Saudi Arabia, for example. THE LINE will be hugely attractive to those drawn to tech, research, education and the environment. We are designing for the greater good.
• Saudi Arabia is now one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with a young population and a visionary leader looking to position NEOM at the forefront of growth. How exciting is it to be a part of this new future? It's very exciting to have that blank canvas. I've been in this industry a long time working with real estate, smart tech and sustainability – but here we are creating something that has never been done before. We have a visionary leader, who has enabled us to do it. Elsewhere in the world you might have political constraints, financial constraints or technical constraints. But with blue-sky thinking, we are creating this new future and we will succeed.
• Could you tell us a bit more about your own profile and career – and why you decided to join NEOM? My background is construction, project management and development. I’ve been the supplier and the client so I’ve seen it from both sides. Having started 20 years ago in my native Australia, I’ve seen two decades of evolution in this industry – with green real estate, net-zero and decarbonization. Personally, I want to leave a smaller footprint on the world so that’s what drives me. And NEOM provides the opportunity to achieve that. It’s about a holistic and preventative approach. You just think about things in a different way and ask questions like – why do we want lifts that only go up and down, rather than horizontally? Did we have that wrong for the last 100 years? Why do you need to leave the building to go and play sports, rather than having a stadium or facility within the building? The idea of no cars, commutes, congestion or pollution – and a circular economy with little or no waste in a cognitive city set against a backdrop of thriving nature. That is compelling for anyone. What I find inspiring here at NEOM is that there are some of the best minds in the world, all in the same place at the same time working on different parts of the project. I really enjoy that camaraderie and community. We work very hard, but it’s also fun and we are well looked after.

THIS IS THE LINE

DESIGNED TO DELIVER NEW WONDERS

ENHANCED HUMAN LIVABILITY

VERTICAL URBANISM

MIRRORED DESIGN BLENDING IN WITH NATURE

A MODEL FOR NATURE PRESERVATION

IDEAL CLIMATE ALL-YEAR-ROUND

REDUCED INFRASTRUCTURE FOOTPRINT

EVERYTHING YOU NEED WITHIN 5 MINUTES

ALTERNATIVE WAYS FOR HUMANITY TO LIVE

ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION & MANUFACTURING

UNMATCHED BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

A 20-MINUTE JOURNEY END-TO-END

HIGH-SPEED LINEAR MOBILITY

SOLUTIONS TO ENVIRONMENTAL CRISES

95% OF LAND & SEA PROTECTED FOR NATURE

Bringing value to the world through

Work-life balance

Legacy-free urbanism

Enhanced livability

Leisure and sports

Vertical living

Next-gen architecture

Walkable communities

Environmental solutions

How would Manhattan look with the vertical urbanism being adopted for THE LINE?

How would Riyadh look with the vertical urbanism being adopted for THE LINE?

How would Kensington look with the vertical urbanism being adopted for THE LINE?

NEOM VOICES

HEAR FROM OUR LEADERS

Imagine then a whole city within a 500-meter tall and 200 meter-wide building, stretching 170 kilometers across the coast, desert and mountains of Northeast Saudi Arabia. A place housing nine million people within 34 square kilometers. Well, that’s what we are building with THE LINE, the ultimate sidescraper. by Giles Pendleton Executive Director

THE LINE’s world-leading experts are creating a civilizational revolution, by redefining the concept of urban development and the city of the future.

Denis Hickey

Chief Development Officer

With more than 25 years of experience across real estate development, investment and construction industries, Denis Hickey has a strong track record creating and delivering complex projects – from concept to completion. As CDO for THE LINE, he will ensure total delivery of NEOM’s flagship project

With a background in project development and management, Giles Pendleton has delivered first-class solutions driven by sustainability. Passionate about architecture, he drives NEOM’s multidisciplinary development effort to ensure that THE LINE becomes a global best-practice example for cities.

Mark Dickinson

Executive Director Development

Mark Dickinson has extensive international property development experience, leading diverse businesses in the United Kingdom, Australia and America; including the Athletes Village for the 2012 Olympic Games. He is a chartered civil engineer and was an officer in the British Army.

With 25 years in luxury hotel and branded residential developments, Irene Hoek has expanded global hospitality portfolios through her expertise in deal structuring and concept development.

Tarek Qaddumi

THE LINE DESIGN Group Executive Director

With over than 25 years' practice in award-winning architecture firms, including as Morphosis Architects regional director, Tarek Qaddumi now leads the NEOM Urban Planning team – including The LINE. He has undergraduate and master of architecture degrees from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Meriem Tamarzizt

Head of Strategy

Meriem Tamarzizt is a corporate and business transformation strategist. She honed her skills in a 20-year career spanning multinationals, Gulf conglomerates and start-ups she co-founded. A London School of Economics graduate, she is now working strategically to make THE LINE a reality.

Nicholas Hodson

Landscapes of The LINE Executive Director

Nicholas Hodson has 30 years of major mixed-use property development experience across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Responsible for THE LINE landscapes, his passion is delivering environments that focus around people, wellbeing and experiences.

Paul Jessup

Head of Sales and Marketing

With more than 25 years of professional experience in real estate sales, leasing and marketing Paul Jessup has worked across large-scale development projects around the world – including in Qatar, Oman, Spain and the United Kingdom. He studied at the London School of Economics and also holds an MBA.

Michael Vavakis

Head of Business Operations

Michael Vavakis has more than 30 years of experience in transforming global businesses, from Silicon Valley multinationals to global development companies. He has held c-suite and leadership roles. He’s also a University of Melbourne faculty of business and economics fellow.

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The Asch Conformity Experiments

What These Experiments Say About Group Behavior

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Emily is a board-certified science editor who has worked with top digital publishing brands like Voices for Biodiversity, Study.com, GoodTherapy, Vox, and Verywell.

What Is Conformity?

Factors that influence conformity.

The Asch conformity experiments were a series of psychological experiments conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1950s. The experiments revealed the degree to which a person's own opinions are influenced by those of a group . Asch found that people were willing to ignore reality and give an incorrect answer in order to conform to the rest of the group.

At a Glance

The Asch conformity experiments are among the most famous in psychology's history and have inspired a wealth of additional research on conformity and group behavior. This research has provided important insight into how, why, and when people conform and the effects of social pressure on behavior.

Do you think of yourself as a conformist or a non-conformist? Most people believe that they are non-conformist enough to stand up to a group when they know they are right, but conformist enough to blend in with the rest of their peers.

Research suggests that people are often much more prone to conform than they believe they might be.

Imagine yourself in this situation: You've signed up to participate in a psychology experiment in which you are asked to complete a vision test.

Seated in a room with the other participants, you are shown a line segment and then asked to choose the matching line from a group of three segments of different lengths.

The experimenter asks each participant individually to select the matching line segment. On some occasions, everyone in the group chooses the correct line, but occasionally, the other participants unanimously declare that a different line is actually the correct match.

So what do you do when the experimenter asks you which line is the right match? Do you go with your initial response, or do you choose to conform to the rest of the group?

Conformity in Psychology

In psychological terms, conformity refers to an individual's tendency to follow the unspoken rules or behaviors of the social group to which they belong. Researchers have long been been curious about the degree to which people follow or rebel against social norms.

Asch was interested in looking at how pressure from a group could lead people to conform, even when they knew that the rest of the group was wrong. The purpose of the Asch conformity experiment was to demonstrate the power of conformity in groups.

Methodology of Asch's Experiments

Asch's experiments involved having people who were in on the experiment pretend to be regular participants alongside those who were actual, unaware subjects of the study. Those that were in on the experiment would behave in certain ways to see if their actions had an influence on the actual experimental participants.

In each experiment, a naive student participant was placed in a room with several other confederates who were in on the experiment. The subjects were told that they were taking part in a "vision test." All told, a total of 50 students were part of Asch’s experimental condition.

The confederates were all told what their responses would be when the line task was presented. The naive participant, however, had no inkling that the other students were not real participants. After the line task was presented, each student verbally announced which line (either 1, 2, or 3) matched the target line.

Critical Trials

There were 18 different trials in the experimental condition , and the confederates gave incorrect responses in 12 of them, which Asch referred to as the "critical trials." The purpose of these critical trials was to see if the participants would change their answer in order to conform to how the others in the group responded.

During the first part of the procedure, the confederates answered the questions correctly. However, they eventually began providing incorrect answers based on how they had been instructed by the experimenters.

Control Condition

The study also included 37 participants in a control condition . In order to ensure that the average person could accurately gauge the length of the lines, the control group was asked to individually write down the correct match. According to these results, participants were very accurate in their line judgments, choosing the correct answer 99% of the time.

Results of the Asch Conformity Experiments

Nearly 75% of the participants in the conformity experiments went along with the rest of the group at least one time.

After combining the trials, the results indicated that participants conformed to the incorrect group answer approximately one-third of the time.

The experiments also looked at the effect that the number of people present in the group had on conformity. When just one confederate was present, there was virtually no impact on participants' answers. The presence of two confederates had only a tiny effect. The level of conformity seen with three or more confederates was far more significant.

Asch also found that having one of the confederates give the correct answer while the rest of the confederates gave the incorrect answer dramatically lowered conformity. In this situation, just 5% to 10% of the participants conformed to the rest of the group (depending on how often the ally answered correctly). Later studies have also supported this finding, suggesting that having social support is an important tool in combating conformity.

At the conclusion of the Asch experiments, participants were asked why they had gone along with the rest of the group. In most cases, the students stated that while they knew the rest of the group was wrong, they did not want to risk facing ridicule. A few of the participants suggested that they actually believed the other members of the group were correct in their answers.

These results suggest that conformity can be influenced both by a need to fit in and a belief that other people are smarter or better informed.

Given the level of conformity seen in Asch's experiments, conformity can be even stronger in real-life situations where stimuli are more ambiguous or more difficult to judge.

Asch went on to conduct further experiments in order to determine which factors influenced how and when people conform. He found that:

• Conformity tends to increase when more people are present . However, there is little change once the group size goes beyond four or five people.
• Conformity also increases when the task becomes more difficult . In the face of uncertainty, people turn to others for information about how to respond.
• Conformity increases when other members of the group are of a higher social status . When people view the others in the group as more powerful, influential, or knowledgeable than themselves, they are more likely to go along with the group.
• Conformity tends to decrease, however, when people are able to respond privately . Research has also shown that conformity decreases if people have support from at least one other individual in a group.

Criticisms of the Asch Conformity Experiments

One of the major criticisms of Asch's conformity experiments centers on the reasons why participants choose to conform. According to some critics, individuals may have actually been motivated to avoid conflict, rather than an actual desire to conform to the rest of the group.

Another criticism is that the results of the experiment in the lab may not generalize to real-world situations.

Many social psychology experts believe that while real-world situations may not be as clear-cut as they are in the lab, the actual social pressure to conform is probably much greater, which can dramatically increase conformist behaviors.

Asch SE. Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority . Psychological Monographs: General and Applied . 1956;70(9):1-70. doi:10.1037/h0093718

Morgan TJH, Laland KN, Harris PL. The development of adaptive conformity in young children: effects of uncertainty and consensus . Dev Sci. 2015;18(4):511-524. doi:10.1111/desc.12231

Asch SE. Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgments . In: Guetzkow H, ed.  Groups, Leadership and Men; Research in Human Relations. Carnegie Press. 1951:177–190.

Britt MA. Psych Experiments: From Pavlov's Dogs to Rorschach's Inkblots . Adams Media. 

Myers DG. Exploring Psychology (9th ed.). Worth Publishers.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Solomon Asch Conformity Line Experiment Study

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

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Solomon Asch experimented with investigating the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform .

He believed the main problem with Sherif’s (1935) conformity experiment was that there was no correct answer to the ambiguous autokinetic experiment.  How could we be sure that a person conformed when there was no correct answer?

Asch (1951) devised what is now regarded as a classic experiment in social psychology, whereby there was an obvious answer to a line judgment task.

If the participant gave an incorrect answer, it would be clear that this was due to group pressure.

Experimental Procedure

Asch used a lab experiment to study conformity, whereby 50 male students from Swarthmore College in the USA participated in a ‘vision test.’

Using a line judgment task, Asch put a naive participant in a room with seven confederates/stooges. The confederates had agreed in advance what their responses would be when presented with the line task.

The real participant did not know this and was led to believe that the other seven confederates/stooges were also real participants like themselves.

Each person in the room had to state aloud which comparison line (A, B or C) was most like the target line. The answer was always obvious.  The real participant sat at the end of the row and gave his or her answer last.

At the start, all participants (including the confederates) gave the correct answers. However, after a few rounds, the confederates started to provide unanimously incorrect answers.

There were 18 trials in total, and the confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 trials (called the critical trials).  Asch was interested to see if the real participant would conform to the majority view.

Asch’s experiment also had a control condition where there were no confederates, only a “real participant.”

Asch measured the number of times each participant conformed to the majority view. On average, about one third (32%) of the participants who were placed in this situation went along and conformed with the clearly incorrect majority on the critical trials.

Over the 12 critical trials, about 75% of participants conformed at least once, and 25% of participants never conformed.

In the control group , with no pressure to conform to confederates, less than 1% of participants gave the wrong answer.

Why did the participants conform so readily?  When they were interviewed after the experiment, most of them said that they did not really believe their conforming answers, but had gone along with the group for fear of being ridiculed or thought “peculiar.

A few of them said that they did believe the group’s answers were correct.

Apparently, people conform for two main reasons: because they want to fit in with the group ( normative influence ) and because they believe the group is better informed than they are ( informational influence ).

Critical Evaluation

One limitation of the study is that is used a biased sample. All the participants were male students who all belonged to the same age group. This means that the study lacks population validity and that the results cannot be generalized to females or older groups of people.

Another problem is that the experiment used an artificial task to measure conformity – judging line lengths. How often are we faced with making a judgment like the one Asch used, where the answer is plain to see?

This means that the study has low ecological validity and the results cannot be generalized to other real-life situations of conformity. Asch replied that he wanted to investigate a situation where the participants could be in no doubt what the correct answer was. In so doing he could explore the true limits of social influence.

Some critics thought the high levels of conformity found by Asch were a reflection of American, 1950’s culture and told us more about the historical and cultural climate of the USA in the 1950s than then they did about the phenomena of conformity.

In the 1950s America was very conservative, involved in an anti-communist witch-hunt (which became known as McCarthyism) against anyone who was thought to hold sympathetic left-wing views.

Perrin and Spencer

Conformity to American values was expected. Support for this comes from studies in the 1970s and 1980s that show lower conformity rates (e.g., Perrin & Spencer, 1980).

Perrin and Spencer (1980) suggested that the Asch effect was a “child of its time.” They carried out an exact replication of the original Asch experiment using engineering, mathematics, and chemistry students as subjects. They found that in only one out of 396 trials did an observer join the erroneous majority.

Perrin and Spencer argue that a cultural change has taken place in the value placed on conformity and obedience and in the position of students.

In America in the 1950s, students were unobtrusive members of society, whereas now, they occupy a free questioning role.

However, one problem in comparing this study with Asch is that very different types of participants are used. Perrin and Spencer used science and engineering students who might be expected to be more independent by training when it came to making perceptual judgments.

Finally, there are ethical issues : participants were not protected from psychological stress which may occur if they disagreed with the majority.

Evidence that participants in Asch-type situations are highly emotional was obtained by Back et al. (1963) who found that participants in the Asch situation had greatly increased levels of autonomic arousal.

This finding also suggests that they were in a conflict situation, finding it hard to decide whether to report what they saw or to conform to the opinion of others.

Asch also deceived the student volunteers claiming they were taking part in a “vision” test; the real purpose was to see how the “naive” participant would react to the behavior of the confederates. However, deception was necessary to produce valid results.

The clip below is not from the original experiment in 1951, but an acted version for television from the 1970s.

Factors Affecting Conformity

In further trials, Asch (1952, 1956) changed the procedure (i.e., independent variables) to investigate which situational factors influenced the level of conformity (dependent variable).

His results and conclusions are given below:

Asch (1956) found that group size influenced whether subjects conformed. The bigger the majority group (no of confederates), the more people conformed, but only up to a certain point.

With one other person (i.e., confederate) in the group conformity was 3%, with two others it increased to 13%, and with three or more it was 32% (or 1/3).

Optimum conformity effects (32%) were found with a majority of 3. Increasing the size of the majority beyond three did not increase the levels of conformity found. Brown and Byrne (1997) suggest that people might suspect collusion if the majority rises beyond three or four.

According to Hogg & Vaughan (1995), the most robust finding is that conformity reaches its full extent with 3-5 person majority, with additional members having little effect.

Lack of Group Unanimity / Presence of an Ally

The study also found that when any one individual differed from the majority, the power of conformity significantly decreased.

This showed that even a small dissent can reduce the power of a larger group, providing an important insight into how individuals can resist social pressure.

As conformity drops off with five members or more, it may be that it’s the unanimity of the group (the confederates all agree with each other) which is more important than the size of the group.

In another variation of the original experiment, Asch broke up the unanimity (total agreement) of the group by introducing a dissenting confederate.

Asch (1956) found that even the presence of just one confederate that goes against the majority choice can reduce conformity by as much as 80%.

For example, in the original experiment, 32% of participants conformed on the critical trials, whereas when one confederate gave the correct answer on all the critical trials conformity dropped to 5%.

This was supported in a study by Allen and Levine (1968). In their version of the experiment, they introduced a dissenting (disagreeing) confederate wearing thick-rimmed glasses – thus suggesting he was slightly visually impaired.

Even with this seemingly incompetent dissenter, conformity dropped from 97% to 64%. Clearly, the presence of an ally decreases conformity.

The absence of group unanimity lowers overall conformity as participants feel less need for social approval of the group (re: normative conformity).

Difficulty of Task

When the (comparison) lines (e.g., A, B, C) were made more similar in length it was harder to judge the correct answer and conformity increased.

When we are uncertain, it seems we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task, the greater the conformity.

Answer in Private

When participants were allowed to answer in private (so the rest of the group does not know their response), conformity decreased.

This is because there are fewer group pressures and normative influence is not as powerful, as there is no fear of rejection from the group.

Frequently Asked Questions

How has the asch conformity line experiment influenced our understanding of conformity.

The Asch conformity line experiment has shown that people are susceptible to conforming to group norms even when those norms are clearly incorrect. This experiment has significantly impacted our understanding of social influence and conformity, highlighting the powerful influence of group pressure on individual behavior.

It has helped researchers to understand the importance of social norms and group dynamics in shaping our beliefs and behaviors and has had a significant impact on the study of social psychology.

What are some real-world examples of conformity?

Examples of conformity in everyday life include following fashion trends, conforming to workplace norms, and adopting the beliefs and values of a particular social group. Other examples include conforming to peer pressure, following cultural traditions and customs, and conforming to societal expectations regarding gender roles and behavior.

Conformity can have both positive and negative effects on individuals and society, depending on the behavior’s context and consequences.

What are some of the negative effects of conformity?

Conformity can have negative effects on individuals and society. It can limit creativity and independent thinking, promote harmful social norms and practices, and prevent personal growth and self-expression.

Conforming to a group can also lead to “groupthink,” where the group prioritizes conformity over critical thinking and decision-making, which can result in poor choices.

Moreover, conformity can spread false information and harmful behavior within a group, as individuals may be afraid to challenge the group’s beliefs or actions.

How does conformity differ from obedience?

Conformity involves adjusting one’s behavior or beliefs to align with the norms of a group, even if those beliefs or behaviors are not consistent with one’s personal views. Obedience , on the other hand, involves following the orders or commands of an authority figure, often without question or critical thinking.

While conformity and obedience involve social influence, obedience is usually a response to an explicit request or demand from an authority figure, whereas conformity is a response to implicit social pressure from a group.

What is the Asch effect?

The Asch Effect is a term coined from the Asch Conformity Experiments conducted by Solomon Asch. It refers to the influence of a group majority on an individual’s judgment or behavior, such that the individual may conform to perceived group norms even when those norms are obviously incorrect or counter to the individual’s initial judgment.

This effect underscores the power of social pressure and the strong human tendency towards conformity in group settings.

What is Solomon Asch’s contribution to psychology?

Solomon Asch significantly contributed to psychology through his studies on social pressure and conformity.

His famous conformity experiments in the 1950s demonstrated how individuals often conform to the majority view, even when clearly incorrect.

His work has been fundamental to understanding social influence and group dynamics’ power in shaping individual behaviors and perceptions.

Allen, V. L., & Levine, J. M. (1968). Social support, dissent and conformity. Sociometry , 138-149.

Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgment. In H. Guetzkow (ed.) Groups, leadership and men . Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press.

Asch, S. E. (1952). Group forces in the modification and distortion of judgments.

Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority. Psychological monographs: General and applied, 70(9) , 1-70.

Back, K. W., Bogdonoff, M. D., Shaw, D. M., & Klein, R. F. (1963). An interpretation of experimental conformity through physiological measures. Behavioral Science, 8(1) , 34.

Bond, R., & Smith, P. B. (1996). Culture and conformity : A meta-analysis of studies using Asch’s (1952b, 1956) line judgment task.  Psychological bulletin ,  119 (1), 111.

Longman, W., Vaughan, G., & Hogg, M. (1995). Introduction to social psychology .

Perrin, S., & Spencer, C. (1980). The Asch effect: a child of its time? Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 32, 405-406.

Sherif, M., & Sherif, C. W. (1953). Groups in harmony and tension . New York: Harper & Row.

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What are lines of research? Linhas de pesquisa: o que são realmente?

Editorial - year2013 - volume28 - issue 1.

Fábio Xerfan Nahas

Fats and Cholesterol

When it comes to dietary fat, what matters most is the type of fat you eat. Contrary to past dietary advice promoting low-fat diets , newer research shows that healthy fats are necessary and beneficial for health.

• When food manufacturers reduce fat, they often replace it with carbohydrates from sugar, refined grains, or other starches. Our bodies digest these refined carbohydrates and starches very quickly, affecting blood sugar and insulin levels and possibly resulting in weight gain and disease. ( 1-3 )
• Findings from the Nurses’ Health Study ( 4 ) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study ( 5 ) show that no link between the overall percentage of calories from fat and any important health outcome, including cancer, heart disease, and weight gain.

Rather than adopting a low-fat diet, it’s more important to focus on eating beneficial “good” fats and avoiding harmful “bad” fats. Fat is an important part of a healthy diet. Choose foods with “good” unsaturated fats, limit foods high in saturated fat, and avoid “bad” trans fat.

• “Good” unsaturated fats — Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats — lower disease risk. Foods high in good fats include vegetable oils (such as olive, canola, sunflower, soy, and corn), nuts, seeds, and fish.
• “Bad” fats — trans fats — increase disease risk, even when eaten in small quantities. Foods containing trans fats are primarily in processed foods made with trans fat from partially hydrogenated oil. Fortunately, trans fats have been eliminated from many of these foods.
• Saturated fats , while not as harmful as trans fats, by comparison with unsaturated fats negatively impact health and are best consumed in moderation. Foods containing large amounts of saturated fat include red meat, butter, cheese, and ice cream. Some plant-based fats like coconut oil and palm oil are also rich in saturated fat.
• When you cut back on foods like red meat and butter, replace them with fish, beans, nuts, and healthy oils instead of refined carbohydrates.

Read more about healthy fats in this “Ask the Expert” with HSPH’s Dr. Walter Willett and Amy Myrdal Miller, M.S., R.D., formerly of The Culinary Institute of America

1. Siri-Tarino, P.W., et al., Saturated fatty acids and risk of coronary heart disease: modulation by replacement nutrients. Curr Atheroscler Rep, 2010. 12(6): p. 384-90.

2. Hu, F.B., Are refined carbohydrates worse than saturated fat? Am J Clin Nutr, 2010. 91(6): p. 1541-2.

3. Jakobsen, M.U., et al., Intake of carbohydrates compared with intake of saturated fatty acids and risk of myocardial infarction: importance of the glycemic index. Am J Clin Nutr, 2010. 91(6): p. 1764-8.

4. Hu, F.B., et al., Dietary fat intake and the risk of coronary heart disease in women. N Engl J Med, 1997. 337(21): p. 1491-9.

5. Ascherio, A., et al., Dietary fat and risk of coronary heart disease in men: cohort follow up study in the United States. BMJ, 1996. 313(7049): p. 84-90.

6. Hu, F.B., J.E. Manson, and W.C. Willett, Types of dietary fat and risk of coronary heart disease: a critical review. J Am Coll Nutr, 2001. 20(1): p. 5-19.

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Respondents felt that high-profile cases such as that of former TV presenter Brand have done little to “shift the dial,” Bectu said, with only 14% saying these incidences have improved employers’ responses to sexual harassment in the creative sector. Brand has been investigated by the police, the BBC, Channel 4 and Banijay. He vehemently denies all allegations and claims against him and says all relationships were consensual.

Around 84% said the sector “needs an independent body to investigate, report and prevent harassment,” which has recently been forged in the form of the newly-established Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA). Only 13% of UK creative workers were confident that the industry is taking effective action to deter unwanted behaviours at work. Approximately 85% of those surveyed had experienced or witnessed an incident of sexual harassment in their place of work, and for half of those surveyed, incidents had occurred at a work-related social event.

The alarming research comes as Bectu calls on all broadcasters, studios, streamers, production companies and other creative industry bodies and employers to financially back CIISA, although a number already have.

A number of freelancers spoke anonymously for the survey. One said they had been “raped on a film by the director,” “been shown pornography by a presenter” and “seen a man from the crew masturbating in the compound women’s loos.”

Another said “a senior manager witnessed another colleague forcibly kissing me during a work social event” but this colleague, a “known offender,” was subsequently given a “full-time position.”

The research comes as Bectu rolls out a helpline for members who experience sexual harassment at work. Members can use the service to record their experiences and so help the union to track problem areas. They also have the option of talking to a trained staff member and, if they wish, discussing any next steps they may wish to take, for example raising the issue formally.

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Tight race to represent Ward 7 on D.C. Council nears finish line

T he retirement of Vincent Gray has left a power vacuum in Ward 7, with 10 candidates clamoring for the job and a gush of spending and campaigning until the finish line.

Why it matters: The ward's next council member will confront generational challenges — and be a key player in the city's biggest project-in-waiting, the 190-acre transformation of RFK Stadium .

The big picture: Ward 7 is home to many working and middle-class neighborhoods of rowhouses, stretching from Benning Road NE to the border with Prince George's County. It's also the flipside of Washington's decade-plus resurgence.

• Nearly one-in-four live in poverty . Development here, where most live east of the Anacostia River, has trailed other city corridors. For 89,000 residents, there are only three grocery stores and few sit-down restaurants.

"There's a lot of opportunity, " says candidate Eboni-Rose Thompson, a member of D.C.'s board of education. "There is not one stat that sums up Ward 7."

• With the promise of new amenities, she says, "we also have to balance how good people who live here are able to stay here [and] benefit from those things."

A map of Ward 7's food desert. Data: Axios research; Map: Axios Visuals

What I'm hearing: Four candidates have the most momentum.

• Wendell Felder , a neighborhood commissioner, has a mix of labor and business-friendly groups supporting him — and also Gray.
• Ebony Payne is a neighborhood commissioner representing the entire RFK land with backing from some civic leaders and members of Congress.
• Eboni-Rose Thompson is a longtime public schools advocate in her first term on the education board. She aligns with many progressive causes and is a former neighborhood commissioner.
• Veda Rasheed is a former staffer of the D.C. Attorney General's Office who ran for the seat four years ago. She has the endorsement of charter-friendly and big campaign spender D.C. Democrats for Education Reform.

Reality check: Without much public polling, the outcome could be a wildcard. The rest of the candidates are Kelvin Brown , Ebbon Allen , Villareal 'VJ' Johnson , Denise Reed , Nate Fleming , and Roscoe Grant .

"It's overwhelming," Laura Padin, a mother of three, said about the big field. Felder was recently doorknocking in her Hill East neighborhood, where some have anti-stadium lawn signs, like "No billionaire's playground."

• Padin doesn't want a stadium, but she's open to compromise, especially if the public field where her son gets to play soccer is retained.

Felder keeps the door open. "If residents want the stadium, then I'm for it," Felder later tells me.

• Would he support public funding for it? "I'm not 110% sold on it. I would have to see the deal."

Payne is staunchly "opposed to a new NFL stadium."

• "Anything that increases traffic is a concern," she tells me. "One place we all agree is everyone wants to see mixed-use development."

Zoom out: Crime is the first thing most voters talk about. Over the past 12 months, the ward has recorded 20% of all of the violent crime incidents that have occurred in D.C., a disproportionate share.

• "Every parent wants to make sure every child is going to and from school safely," says Rasheed.

Follow the money: Opportunity D.C., a group well-represented by the city's downtown business set, joined Gray in endorsing Felder.

• Meanwhile, D.C. Democrats for Education Reform endorsed Rasheed because, per the group's director Jessica Giles, she is "aligned with us," including on improving behavioral health support in schools.
• Both well-funded groups have Super PAC-esque affiliates, which in previous elections have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to boost their candidates.

What's ahead: A close finish is expected, and the winner of the June 4 primary is heavily favored to win the November general election.

💭 To go deeper into the candidates, read the Washington Post's very good voter guide . Town Talker is a weekly column about local politics and power. Send me tips: [email protected].

Get the rundown of the biggest stories of the day with Axios Daily Essentials.