behavioral science topics for research paper

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• A Research Guide
• Research Paper Topics
• 35 Human Behavior Research Topics & Questions

35 Human Behavior Research Topics & Questions

Useful information: Does a research paper need a thesis ?

• When human behaviour became human?
• What traits we consider typically human we can meet in animals?
• Nature versus nurture. To what extentthe natural behaviour can be corrected?
• The phenomenon of “Mowgli kids” and their behavior
• The stages of human development and their impact on behaviour patterns
• The impact of the family or parental substitutes on behaviour
• Mating rituals or chivalrous romance? How do people court their love interests?
• Habits and their development
• How advertising uses our typical behaviour patterns?
• The importance of happiness
• Games and behaviour. Why do we like to play so much?
• Cults and sects. How do people get involved?
• The psychology of the crowd. What happens to person inside the crowd?
• Does natural morality exist or is it a social construct?
• Sex, gender and behaviour
• Is it good or bad?
• The typical responses to danger: run, fight, hide. Are they hardwired into us?
• Nonverbal communication: is it international?
• Depression and its impact on human behaviour
• Do LGBTQ+ people have typical behavioural patterns?
• The impact of social media and Internet on behaviour
• Porn and sexual attractions
• What is bipolar disorder in terms of behaviour?
• Social hierarchy and behaviour
• Are behavioural patterns connected to self-esteem?
• Elderly people and changes in their behaviour
• Drugs that change behaviour
• IQ and EQ and their impact on behaviour
• Religion and behavioural norms
• Culture clash and behaviour of people of mixed origins
• Correcting dysfunctional behaviour
• Propaganda and behaviour
• Artificially created social groups and their behaviour
• Trauma, PTSD and behaviour
• Defensive behaviour

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50+ Topics of Psychology Research

How to Find Psychology Research Topics for Your Student Paper

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

Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Are you searching for a great topic for your psychology paper ? Sometimes it seems like coming up with topics of psychology research is more challenging than the actual research and writing. Fortunately, there are plenty of great places to find inspiration and the following list contains just a few ideas to help get you started.

Finding a solid topic is one of the most important steps when writing any type of paper. It can be particularly important when you are writing a psychology research paper or essay. Psychology is such a broad topic, so you want to find a topic that allows you to adequately cover the subject without becoming overwhelmed with information.

In some cases, such as in a general psychology class, you might have the option to select any topic from within psychology's broad reach. Other instances, such as in an  abnormal psychology  course, might require you to write your paper on a specific subject such as a psychological disorder.

As you begin your search for a topic for your psychology paper, it is first important to consider the guidelines established by your instructor.

Topics of Psychology Research Within Specific Branches

The key to selecting a good topic for your psychology paper is to select something that is narrow enough to allow you to really focus on the subject, but not so narrow that it is difficult to find sources or information to write about.

One approach is to narrow your focus down to a subject within a specific branch of psychology. For example, you might start by deciding that you want to write a paper on some sort of social psychology topic. Next, you might narrow your focus down to how persuasion can be used to influence behavior.

Other social psychology topics you might consider include:

• Prejudice and discrimination (i.e., homophobia, sexism, racism)
• Social cognition
• Person perception
• Social control and cults
• Persuasion , propaganda, and marketing
• Attraction, romance, and love
• Nonverbal communication
• Prosocial behavior

Psychology Research Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy

Exploring a psychological disorder or a specific treatment modality can also be a good topic for a psychology paper. Some potential abnormal psychology topics include specific psychological disorders or particular treatment modalities, including:

• Eating disorders
• Borderline personality disorder
• Seasonal affective disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Antisocial personality disorder
• Profile a  type of therapy  (i.e., cognitive behavioral therapy, group therapy, psychoanalytic therapy)

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Cognition

Some of the possible topics you might explore in this area include thinking, language, intelligence, and decision-making. Other ideas might include:

• False memories
• Speech disorders
• Problem-solving

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Development

In this area, you might opt to focus on issues pertinent to  early childhood  such as language development, social learning, or childhood attachment or you might instead opt to concentrate on issues that affect older adults such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Some other topics you might consider include:

• Language acquisition
• Media violence and children
• Learning disabilities
• Gender roles
• Child abuse
• Prenatal development
• Parenting styles
• Aspects of the aging process

Do a Critique of Publications Involving Psychology Research Topics

One option is to consider writing a critique paper of a published psychology book or academic journal article. For example, you might write a critical analysis of Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams or you might evaluate a more recent book such as Philip Zimbardo's  The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil .

Professional and academic journals are also great places to find materials for a critique paper. Browse through the collection at your university library to find titles devoted to the subject that you are most interested in, then look through recent articles until you find one that grabs your attention.

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Famous Experiments

There have been many fascinating and groundbreaking experiments throughout the history of psychology, providing ample material for students looking for an interesting term paper topic. In your paper, you might choose to summarize the experiment, analyze the ethics of the research, or evaluate the implications of the study. Possible experiments that you might consider include:

• The Milgram Obedience Experiment
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
• The Little Albert Experiment
• Pavlov's Conditioning Experiments
• The Asch Conformity Experiment
• Harlow's Rhesus Monkey Experiments

Topics of Psychology Research About Historical Figures

One of the simplest ways to find a great topic is to choose an interesting person in the  history of psychology  and write a paper about them. Your paper might focus on many different elements of the individual's life, such as their biography, professional history, theories, or influence on psychology.

While this type of paper may be historical in nature, there is no need for this assignment to be dry or boring. Psychology is full of fascinating figures rife with intriguing stories and anecdotes. Consider such famous individuals as Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Harry Harlow, or one of the many other  eminent psychologists .

Psychology Research Topics About a Specific Career

​Another possible topic, depending on the course in which you are enrolled, is to write about specific career paths within the  field of psychology . This type of paper is especially appropriate if you are exploring different subtopics or considering which area interests you the most.

In your paper, you might opt to explore the typical duties of a psychologist, how much people working in these fields typically earn, and the different employment options that are available.

Topics of Psychology Research Involving Case Studies

One potentially interesting idea is to write a  psychology case study  of a particular individual or group of people. In this type of paper, you will provide an in-depth analysis of your subject, including a thorough biography.

Generally, you will also assess the person, often using a major psychological theory such as  Piaget's stages of cognitive development  or  Erikson's eight-stage theory of human development . It is also important to note that your paper doesn't necessarily have to be about someone you know personally.

In fact, many professors encourage students to write case studies on historical figures or fictional characters from books, television programs, or films.

Psychology Research Topics Involving Literature Reviews

Another possibility that would work well for a number of psychology courses is to do a literature review of a specific topic within psychology. A literature review involves finding a variety of sources on a particular subject, then summarizing and reporting on what these sources have to say about the topic.

Literature reviews are generally found in the  introduction  of journal articles and other  psychology papers , but this type of analysis also works well for a full-scale psychology term paper.

Topics of Psychology Research Based on Your Own Study or Experiment

Many psychology courses require students to design an actual psychological study or perform some type of experiment. In some cases, students simply devise the study and then imagine the possible results that might occur. In other situations, you may actually have the opportunity to collect data, analyze your findings, and write up your results.

Finding a topic for your study can be difficult, but there are plenty of great ways to come up with intriguing ideas. Start by considering your own interests as well as subjects you have studied in the past.

Online sources, newspaper articles, books , journal articles, and even your own class textbook are all great places to start searching for topics for your experiments and psychology term papers. Before you begin, learn more about  how to conduct a psychology experiment .

A Word From Verywell

After looking at this brief list of possible topics for psychology papers, it is easy to see that psychology is a very broad and diverse subject. While this variety makes it possible to find a topic that really catches your interest, it can sometimes make it very difficult for some students to select a good topic.

If you are still stumped by your assignment, ask your instructor for suggestions and consider a few from this list for inspiration.

• Hockenbury, SE & Nolan, SA. Psychology. New York: Worth Publishers; 2014.
• Santrock, JW. A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New York: McGraw-Hill Education; 2016.

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

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• RIT Libraries
• Social/Behavioral Sciences Research Guide
• Finding a topic

This InfoGuide assists students starting their research proposal and literature review.

• Introduction
• Research Process
• Types of Research Methodology
• Data Collection Methods
• Anatomy of a Scholarly Article
• Identifying a Research Problem
• Problem Statement
• Research Question
• Research Design
• Search Strategies
• Psychology Database Limiters
• Literature Review Search
• Annotated Bibliography
• Writing a Literature Review
• Writing a Research Proposal

Finding a Topic

Choosing your  topic  is the first step in ensuring your research goes as smoothly as possible. When choosing a topic, it’s important to consider the following:

• Your institution and department’s requirements
• Your areas of knowledge and interest
• The scientific, social, or practical relevance
• The availability of data and resources
• The timeframe of your paper
• The relevance of your topic

Start by thinking about your areas of interest within the subject you’re studying. Examples of broad ideas include:

• College Students
• Social Media
• Health Issue

To get a more specific sense of the current state of research on your potential topic, skim through a few recent issues of the top journals in your field and encyclopedias. Be sure to check out their most-cited articles in particular. You can also search Google Scholar, subject-specific databases, and your university library’s resources.

As you read, note down any specific ideas that interest you and make a shortlist of possible topics. If you’ve written other papers, such as a 3rd-year paper or a conference paper, consider how those topics can be broadened into a research proposal.

After some initial reading, it’s time to start narrowing down options for your potential topic. This can be a gradual process and should get more and more specific as you go. For example, from the ideas above, you might narrow it down like this:

• College Students-Deaf College Students--Deaf College Students Perceptions of Online Courses
• Social Media-Generation Z and Social Media---Generation Z, Self-Image, and Social Media
• Health issue--Reproductive health----Deaf population---Deaf Women and Unintended Pregnancies (you may be thinking:  deaf women tend to have unintended pregnancies more often… because deaf young women don’t have access to sex education because of language barriers).

These topics are still broad enough to find many books and articles about them. Try to find a specific niche where you can make your mark, such as something not many people have researched yet, a question that’s still being debated, or a very current practical issue. If there’s already a lot of research and a strong consensus on your topic, it will be more difficult to justify the relevance of your work. However, you should also ensure enough literature to provide a strong basis for your research.

Your topic must be interesting to you, but you’ll also have to make sure it’s academically, socially, or practically relevant to your field.

• Academic relevance  means that the research can fill a knowledge gap or contribute to a scholarly debate in your field.
• Social relevance  means that the research can advance our understanding of society and inform social change.
• Practical relevance  means that the research can be applied to solve concrete problems or improve real-life processes.

The easiest way to make sure your research is relevant is to choose a topic that is connected to current issues or debates, either in society at large or in your academic discipline. The relevance must be clearly stated when you define your research problem.

Encyclopedias and Books

• The Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science
• Gale Social Science Books

Check journals in the discipline you are interested in for some topic ideas. For example, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. 

Check Google Scholar for ideas. Adjust your settings so your results link to our database articles if we have them. 

• Google Scholar Settings - Library links

Databases for Ideas

• CREDO Reference This link opens in a new window Ebook collection of reference works including encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographies and quotations.
• CQ Researcher Online This link opens in a new window Reporting & analysis of political & social issues, with topics in health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology & the U.S. economy.
• Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window Full text viewpoint essays and articles on current social and political issues. The NOVELNY program and its online resources (currently from Gale and Britannica) will cease on June 30, 2024.
• Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window Identifies Ph.D. dissertations from U.S. & Canadian universities since 1861. Abstracts from 1980. Master's theses from 1988. Many with full-text.
• Social Sciences Databases more... less... View more Social Sciences databases.

Need More Databases? Try These

• APA PsycArticles This link opens in a new window Full text articles in psychology, many published by the American Psychological Association.
• APA PsycINFO This link opens in a new window Identifies articles, books and dissertations in psychology and related subjects, many with links to full text.
• PubMed This link opens in a new window A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s.
• MEDLINE (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window Identifies articles in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences.
• << Previous: Anatomy of a Scholarly Article
• Next: Identifying a Research Problem >>

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Research Topics is a collection of previously published articles, features, and news stories. They are meant to serve as an information clearinghouse and represent some of APS’s most requested and publicly relevant subjects. Note: this content may reflect the accepted style and terminology of the date the articles were first published.

Trending Topics

Artificial intelligence (ai) and machine learning.

Developments in AI and machine learning herald unprecedented leaps in many applications, including human psychology itself. Algorithmic bias is just one issue of concern.

Myths and Misinformation

How does misinformation spread and how do we combat it? Psychological science sheds light on the mechanisms underlying misinformation and ‘fake news.’

Environment and Climate Change

Psychological scientists are studying how we’re all weathering a warming planet.

Disaster Response and Recovery

Disasters like Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Mangkhut draw massive media coverage, trauma interventions, and financial donations to victims. But psychological research shows the efforts don’t always yield the intended benefits.

For psychological scientists, exploring the less pleasant aspects of individual and social nature, like violence and aggression, is an occasional necessity.

Aggression and Violence

Research is showing that aging equals anything but cognitive decline and unhappiness.

Psychological scientists have done extensive research on the aging brain, Alzheimer's Disease, different types of dementias, and much more.

Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias

How do pets influence our well-being? Why does the face of a puppy or the purr of a cat soothe us? Psychological research provides some insights.

Animal Behavior

Whether you're driving, studying, or listening to a business presentation, keeping focused can be a challenge when boredom and distractions compete for your focus. Research findings have identified the factors that keep our minds on task -- or off track.

Attention and Distraction

Psychological science on the effects of prejudice, and how to counter these beliefs.

Bias and Stigma

Learn what researchers have discovered about the factors that lead to bullying and the long-term consequences it can have.

The World Health Organization has added "burnout" to its International Classification of Diseases. Learn what psychological scientists have discovered about the possible causes and symptoms of burnout.

Psychological research reveals the long-lasting cognitive, social, and neurobiological consequences of stress and trauma experienced in childhood.

Childhood Adversity

A growing body of research connects various aspects of children's environments and their emotional well-being.

Childhood and Adolescent Mental Health

Psychological scientists have designed cognitive tests that can help identify everything from memory deficits to cultural heritage.

Cognitive Testing

A collection of studies shows that compassion gets stronger with training and this training can even change brain function.

It's a big-time showdown for France and Croatia in the upcoming FIFA World Cup final. Science reveals how players and fans alike handle the pressure of climactic competition.

Competition

From international wars to political arguments at the dinner table, conflict is an integral part of the human experience. Psychological scientists have uncovered a wealth of knowledge about the ways cooperation and acceptance can overpower those clashes.

Conflict and Conflict Resolution

What drives people to believe in vast conspiracies and dismiss facts as hoaxes? Psychological research identifies some motivations.

Conspiracy Theories

The criminal justice system was designed to find and punish perpetrators guilty of the crimes of which they are accused. Psychological science helps repair and maintain the public’s trust in the system and eliminate threats to equal justice.

Criminal Justice

How do people respond to increasing cultural diversity in their communities, cities, and countries? Researchers investigate.

Cultural Diversity

Being curious about the world around us can have benefits at school, work, and other contexts, studies show.

Psychological scientists are exploring how we use digital media and the consequences, both positive and negative, it can have in everyday life.

Digital Media

Disasters like Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Mangkhut draw massive media coverage, trauma interventions, and financial donations to victims. But psychological research shows the efforts don't always yield the intended benefits.

How do motorists develop the higher-order cognitive processes required to navigate safely? Research explores this and more.

Driving and Cars

Read what psychological researchers have discovered about the effects of eating on mood, behavior, and cognition.

Eating and Food

Psychological scientists are studying how we're all weathering a warming planet.

The psychology and science behind how individuals and groups respond to epidemics.

Epidemics and Public Health Behavior

Psychological scientists identify factors that prompt people to lie, cheat, bribe, and steal and strategies for addressing such unethical behavior.

What motivates us to exercise? And what effects does exercise have on mental function? Psychological scientists are exploring the ins and outs of physical activity.

Understanding the science behind eyewitness memory can have important implications for criminal justice procedures.

Eyewitness Memory

APS offers some scientific insights into family dynamics, which might look a little different this holiday season.

Family Relationships

Why are we scared of some things and not others? Psychological scientists are exploring the many facets of fear and the mechanisms that drive it.

Friendships are unique relationships that offer researchers a window into many aspects of life, including personality, longevity, health, and well-being.

Researchers explore the factors that perpetuate gender inequality and the effects that such bias can have on women in the workplace and beyond.

Gender and Bias

Learn about the mechanisms underlying our generous motivations and behaviors.

Effort, stamina, and purpose drive our accomplishments — science shows us what to do to keep motivation going.

Goals and Motivation

In some of the most famous cases of money laundering, corporate fraud, and tax evasion lies a relentless appetite for big profits and personal wealth. How does greed affect our sense of morality?

Greed and Corruption

Psychological scientists are leading the way in addressing the mental health issues resulting from traumatic events.

Grief and Trauma

Psychological science sheds light on happiness, from a personal to an economic level.

Learn how the human brain influences what our ears register - and what they don't.

As a new year begins, psychological science offers a variety of reasons to be hopeful about progress in science and the well-being of individuals and societies worldwide. Read about the most promising discoveries and advances of the past few years.

Learn about the research on what makes you laugh, why something you find funny is offensive to someone else, and more.

We’re averse to hypocrites because their disavowal of bad behavior sends a false signal about their true nature.

Unconscious bias can lurk below the level of conscious awareness, but researchers are working to uncover more effective methods of reducing these prejudices.

Implicit Bias

Psychological and educational interventions can make a positive difference in a person's trajectory or even their life. What factors influence how interventions either persist over the long term or fade out?

Interventions

Psychological science has played a leading role in busting misconceptions about sexual orientation and gender identity, and in changing people's attitudes toward individuals who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Psychology researchers are identifying how we build strong reading skills in early childhood and the factors that contribute to difficulty with reading comprehension.

Researchers explore the causes, impacts, and possible interventions for loneliness and social isolation.

Loneliness and Social Isolation

Frank Sinatra crooned that they go together like a horse and carriage, but in truth love and marital health can falter over time. Scientists have identified a number of factors that sustain love through better or worse.

Love and Attraction

Learn about the vast stores of memory research that psychological scientists have amassed in recent years.

Psychological scientists have amassed a vast amount of empirical knowledge on the causes of and best treatments for mental disorders.

Mental Health

Researchers explore how practices associated with mindfulness and meditation can affect decision-making and other cognitive processes.

Mindfulness and Meditation

Psychological scientists are identifying cognitive, developmental, and cultural aspects of music perception and the essential role that music plays in our everyday lives.

How does misinformation spread and how do we combat it? Psychological science sheds light on the mechanisms underlying misinformation and 'fake news.'

Scientists are increasingly busting some myths and making new discoveries about a dark personality trait.

Deal making at the international, business, and interpersonal levels involves a variety of emotional, social, and language factors that lead to a final agreement -- or a stalemate.

Negotiation

Read about the wealth of psychological studies on neurodiversity and the differences in learning, attention, and mood.

Neurodivergence

Psychological scientists are devoting an increasing amount of their research time examining the role of the brain in human behavior, emotion, and cognitive health.

Neuroscience

Recent news events have sparked a surge of interest in the Dunning-Kruger effect -- a distorted view of one's knowledge and ability. Learn how this cognitive bias can spark overconfidence among world leaders and corporate giants.

Overconfidence

Amid the epidemic of opioid addiction, psychological science has demonstrated that pain relief doesn't have to be pharmaceutical.

Pain Management

Personality tests are the center of countless psychological studies exploring targeted marketing, workplace dynamics, and different brain structures.

Personality Traits

Public trust in the police has remained flat for decades, a problem that has become especially salient due to recent events.

Policing and Law Enforcement

A scientific analysis upends the notion that people on the political right are more biased about their ideological views than are people on the left.

Political Differences

Why do we dawdle and delay, even on the most important tasks? Researchers explore the causes and consequences of procrastination.

Procrastination

Plenty of beliefs about human psychology are based on myth masquerading as facts. Psychological scientists have not only exposed the weak evidence for these notions, but can recommend strategies to help us to distinguish true science from bunk.

Pseudoscience

Psychological researchers are examining the complexities of racism and xenophobia at both the interpersonal and societal levels.

Racism and Discrimination

Psychological research explores how we evaluate, perceive, and choose whether to take risks.

Why does self-control fail, and how can we boost it? Researchers explore the mechanisms underlying this important ability and how it develops over time.

Self-Control

The #metoo movement has brought sexual harassment to the center of public consciousness, raising questions about the causes of predatory actions. Psychological research shows how feeling powerful relates to sexually coercive behavior.

Sexual Assault and Harassment

Insufficient sleep has been shown to have adverse effects at work, in driving, and even in court.

From the scent of flowers to the stench of hazardous chemicals, our sense of smell guides us through our environment and significantly influences our emotions, as scientists have discovered.

How does athletic engagement and competition affect our thoughts and behaviors? Learn what psychological science has uncovered.

New discoveries about the ill effects of psychological stress abound, but scientists are also learning about buffers to stress.

Psychological scientists delve into study strategies, math anxiety, reading comprehension, and more.

Studying and Learning

Research from APS on addiction and substance abuse.

Substance Abuse and Addiction

Scientists show how get-aways and enjoyable activities affect our work lives and relationships.

Taking a Break

Psychological research is fostering understanding of the important factors that contribute to effective teaching, from individual instruction to school climate.

The psychological mechanisms that lead us to have faith in certain people and be suspicious of others are vast. Learn what psychological researchers have discovered about interpersonal trust.

September 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day. Read about the steps that psychological scientists are taking to identify and help people at risk of taking their own lives.

Understanding and Preventing Suicide

Psychological science suggests that behavioral 'nudges' which aim to alter individuals' actions rather than their attitudes are essential to promoting vaccination against COVID-19 and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

Vaccination

The effects of playing video games on well-being seem to depend largely on why and how an individual chooses to partake.

Video Games

The way the brain and the human eye process visual stimuli, including illusions, is a thriving area of psychological science.

Researchers unravel the mystery of voting behavior, including why people vote in seemingly unpredictable or illogical ways.

How does weather, both ordinary and extreme, affect decision-making, behavior, and emotions?

Weather and Behavior

Research in psychological science reveals the causes and consequences of bullying behavior in the office.

Workplace Bullying

When done well, efforts to improve intergroup harmony at work can uplift individuals and lead entire organizations to perform at a higher level.

Workplace Diversity

Privacy overview.

TODAY'S HOURS:

Research Topic Ideas

Getting started, 1. brainstorming for a topic, 2. read general background information, 3. focus your topic, more research help.

• Area & Interdisciplinary Studies
• Behavioral & Social Sciences
• Business, Economics, & Management
• Current Events and Controversial Issues
• Education & Social Work
• Health Sciences
• Natural and Physical Sciences

This guide provides you with a list of topic ideas (by subject or academic discipline) which could be developed into a research paper or project. It is not an all-inclusive list, but a list developed over time with input from faculty and students.

It is intended to offer suggestions only.

This is NOT a guide to help you research a topic. It is only intended to provide ideas for a paper.

The ability to develop a good research topic is an important skill. An instructor may assign you a specific topic, but most often instructors require you to select your own topic of interest. When deciding on a topic, there are a few things that you will need to do:

• Brainstorm for ideas.
• Choose a topic that will enable you to read and understand the articles and books you find.
• Ensure that the topic is manageable and that material is available.
• Make a list of key words.
• Be flexible. You may have to broaden or narrow your topic to fit your assignment or the sources you find.

Selecting a good topic may not be easy. It must be narrow and focused enough to be interesting, yet broad enough to find adequate information. Before selecting your final topic, make sure you know what your final project should look like. Each class or instructor will likely require a different format or style of research project.

Choose a topic that interests you. Use the following questions to help generate topic ideas.

• Do you have a strong opinion on a current social or political controversy?
• Did you read or see a news story recently that has piqued your interest or made you angry or anxious?
• Do you have a personal issue, problem, or interest that you would like to know more about?
• Is there an aspect of a class that you are interested in learning more about?

Write down any key words or concepts that may be of interest to you. These terms can be helpful in your searching and used to form a more focused research topic.

Be aware of overused ideas when deciding a topic. You may wish to avoid topics such as abortion, gun control, teen pregnancy, or suicide unless you feel you have a unique approach to the topic. Ask the instructor for ideas if you feel you are stuck or need additional guidance.

Sometimes using a  Concept Map  can help you come up with directions to take your research.

• Topic Concept Map Download and print this PDF to create a concept map for your topic. Put your main topic in the middle circle and then put ideas related to your topic on the lines radiating from the circle.

Read a general encyclopedia article on the top two or three topics you are considering.

Reading a broad summary enables you to get an overview of the topic and see how your idea relates to broader, narrower, and related issues. It also provides a great source for finding words commonly used to describe the topic. These keywords may be very useful to your later research.

If you can't find an article on your topic, try using broader terms and ask for help from a librarian.

The databases listed below are good places to find general information. The library's print reference collection can also be useful and is located on the third floor of the library.

Authoritative coverage of thousands of topics in all areas of study.

Encyclopaedia Britannica's latest article database (including hundreds of articles not found in the print edition), Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, and the Britannica Book of the Year (1994-present), with thousands of web links selected by editors. Updated daily.

Fully indexed, cross-searchable database of over 400 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. Includes subject reference works in the humanities, social sciences, and science--both "Quick Reference" titles (concise dictionaries, etc.) and larger "Reference Library" titles (multi-volume encyclopedias, etc.).

Covers anthropology, communication, education, geography, health, history, law, management, politics, psychology, and sociology.

Concise introductions to a diverse range of subject areas in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities.

Keep it manageable and be flexible. If you start doing more research and not finding enough sources that support your thesis, you may need to adjust your topic.

A topic will be very difficult to research if it is too broad or narrow. One way to narrow a broad topic such as "the environment" is to limit your topic. Some common ways to limit a topic are:

• by geographic area

Example: What environmental issues are most important in the Southwestern United States?

• by time frame:

Example: What are the most prominent environmental issues of the last 10 years?

• by discipline

Example: How does environmental awareness effect business practices today?

• by population group

Example: What are the effects of air pollution on senior citizens?

Remember that a topic may be too difficult to research if it is too:

• locally confined - Topics this specific may only be covered in local newspapers and not in scholarly articles.

Example: What sources of pollution affect the Genesee County water supply?

• recent - If a topic is quite recent, books or journal articles may not be available, but newspaper or magazine articles may. Also, websites related to the topic may or may not be available.
• broadly interdisciplinary - You could be overwhelmed with superficial information.

Example: How can the environment contribute to the culture, politics and society of the Western United States?

• popular - You will only find very popular articles about some topics such as sports figures and high-profile celebrities and musicians.

Putting your topic in the form of a question will help you focus on what type of information you want to collect.

If you have any difficulties or questions with focusing your topic, discuss the topic with your instructor, or with a librarian.

For more help with the research help, please see our Research Help Guides:

• Research Process by Liz Svoboda Last Updated Oct 31, 2023 19686 views this year
• Primary Sources for Historical Research: A Library Guide by Reference Librarians Last Updated Oct 30, 2023 170 views this year
• Understanding Journals: Peer-Reviewed, Scholarly, & Popular by Liz Svoboda Last Updated Oct 27, 2023 3307 views this year
• Identifying Information Sources by Liz Svoboda Last Updated Oct 30, 2023 5550 views this year
• Next: Area & Interdisciplinary Studies >>
• Last Updated: Oct 30, 2023 4:57 PM
• URL: https://libguides.umflint.edu/topics

Behavioral Science Research Paper Topics

Erin schreiner.

Students of behavioral science study the common -- and not so common -- ways in which humans behave. This topic has many applications in industries ranging from advertising to law enforcement. If seeking a topic upon which to compose a behavioral science research paper, consider the many industries to which the science can be applied as well as what segments of this complex study interest you the most.

Explore this article

• Behavioral Science in Law Enforcement
• Advertising and Consumer Buying Behavior
• Behavior Modification in Children
• Science Behind Cult Behavior
• Rewards and Punishments

1 Behavioral Science in Law Enforcement

Understanding how humans are likely to behave can be useful to those in law enforcement. Individuals in this industry use behavioral science for everything from establishing motive to criminal profiling. In your research paper, explore the specific uses of this subject in law enforcement, gathering information on how police officers and others in the industry are trained in the field as well as what careers specialized in behavioral science could find within law enforcement.

2 Advertising and Consumer Buying Behavior

Because advertisers want to influence human behavior, they often use knowledge of behavioral science when creating advertising campaigns. Gather information on ways in which buying behaviors can be influenced by effective advertising. Also, relate common advertising principles to principles of behavioral science, explaining how each practice is effective in accomplishing the desired task.

3 Behavior Modification in Children

Behavioral science doesn't only deal with the behaviors of adults, but also with the ways in which children act. Research the ways in which parents and other caregivers can modify children's behaviors, encouraging positive behaviors and extinguishing negative ones. In one section of your paper, discuss how behaviors of children differ from those of adults as well as how behavior modification would be different if the individual was trying to modify adult, not child, behavior.

4 Science Behind Cult Behavior

To many, cult behavior seems almost incomprehensible; however, there are many behavioral science-related reasons why someone may be prone to falling into a cult. Explore the studies that have been performed regarding cults, as well as why clannish behavior may prove popular. Relate cult behavior to the need for belonging, explaining how a cult could provide this place to fit in for an individual who felt that he did not have other forms of acceptance. In addition, discuss what factors may make someone more prone to falling into a cult than others.

5 Rewards and Punishments

Research the concept of rewards and punishments for your paper. Gather information on how punishment if an effective action deterrent and rewards are effective in promoting behavior. Include information on planned punishments, like workplace sanctions, as well as naturally occurring punishments, like gaining weight as the result of lack of exercise. Describe how humans feel when administered a reward or punishment to show how both could effectively influence human behavior.

About the Author

Erin Schreiner is a freelance writer and teacher who holds a bachelor's degree from Bowling Green State University. She has been actively freelancing since 2008. Schreiner previously worked for a London-based freelance firm. Her work appears on eHow, Trails.com and RedEnvelope. She currently teaches writing to middle school students in Ohio and works on her writing craft regularly.

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Exploring consumer behavior: Must-read Research Topics

Posted on November 2, 2023 by Frontiers Science Communications in Research topics // 0 Comments

Understanding consumer behavior can contribute to decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, one of the tasks set by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal #8: decent work and economic growth. 

In anticipation of the shopping season, we have curated a list of leading article collections that redefine our knowledge of consumer behavior. Accumulating over 500,000 views, scientists investigated patterns emerging from the online shopping era, the drivers of buying decisions, and the environmental impact of consumer purchases, including:

Consumers in the Internet era

37 articles | 180,000 views

Explaining how the Internet influences consumer behavior

Shopping in times of emergency

10 articles | 105,000 views

Exploring the different dimensions of panic buying

Consumer psychology in tourism

33 articles | 60,000 views

Focusing on consuming phenomena in tourism and hospitality

Consumer-brand relationships

16 articles | 54,000 views

Understanding the psychological facets of digital consumer behavior

Culture and consumer behaviors

26 articles | 64,000 views

Analyzing language and culture’s impact on organizations and consumers

Emotions and consumer behavior

12 articles | 25,000 views

Discovering the role of emotions in consumer behavior

Packaging labeling and food choices

10 articles | 21,000 views

Developing science-based approaches to front-of-pack labeling and nutrition

Travel industry and global emergencies

11 articles | 25,000 views

Investigating tourism consumption behavior in times of crisis

Consumption and the environment

10 articles | 19,000 views

Examining pro-environmental purchase intentions

Socially responsible consumption

10 articles | 12,000 views

Advancing research on consumers’ mental health

Shape the future of your field

Become a guest editor of an article collection around your own research theme. Benefit from increased impact and discoverability, a dedicated platform and support team, and rigorous peer review for every paper.

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189+ Best Social Science Research Paper Topics For Students

• Post author By Pooja Barman
• October 23, 2023
• No Comments on 189+ Best Social Science Research Paper Topics For Students

Social Science Research Paper Topics can be intriguing, insightful, and engaging, offering students an opportunity to explore a wide range of subjects that impact our society. Are you looking for the most interesting and good topics for a sociology research paper?

If yes, in this article, we will explore what Social Science Research Paper Topics are, provide guidance on how to choose and find them, and discuss why they are beneficial for students.

Additionally, we’ll present a comprehensive list of research paper topics across various social science fields.

Must Read: 125+ Most Creative Art Therapy Projects For Seniors

Table of Contents

What Are Social Science Research Paper Topics

Social Science Research Paper Topics are subjects, questions, or themes within the realm of social sciences that students investigate and write about in research papers. These topics cover a broad spectrum of disciplines, including sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, political science, and more.

They aim to shed light on various aspects of human behavior, society, and culture, offering valuable insights and understanding.

How to Choose and Find Social Science Research Paper Topics

Selecting an engaging and relevant social science research paper topic is crucial for a successful paper. Here are some tips on how to choose and find the right topic:

1. Identify Your Interests

Start by considering your personal interests within the social sciences. What subjects or issues captivate your attention? Choosing a topic you’re passionate about will make the research and writing process more enjoyable.

2. Review Course Material

Reflect on what you’ve learned in your social science courses. Often, your coursework can spark ideas for research topics based on your studies and readings.

3. Current Events and Trends

Stay informed about current events and societal trends. These can provide inspiration for research topics that are both timely and relevant.

4. Consult with Professors

Seek guidance from your professors or advisors. They can offer suggestions and help refine your topic ideas.

5. Consider Feasibility

Ensure that your chosen topic is manageable within the scope of your assignment. You should be able to find sufficient research material and complete the project within the given timeframe.

6. Narrow or Broaden Your Focus

Depending on the assignment’s length and requirements, you may need to narrow down a broad topic or expand on a more specific aspect of a larger subject.

Now, let’s dive into a comprehensive list of Social Science Research Paper Topics across various fields:

Sociology Research Paper Topics

• Income Inequality and Social Mobility
• The Impact of Immigration on Host Societies
• Gender Roles and Stereotypes in Society
• Social Isolation in the Digital Age
• Social Media’s Influence on Political Movements
• Social Media and Self-esteem: Impacts on Mental Health
• Gun Control Policies and Their Effects on Society
• The Sociology of Protests and Social Movements
• The Role of Religion in Social Cohesion
• Cultural Appropriation and Its Social Implications

Psychology Research Paper Topics

• The Psychology of Resilience in Adversity
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Disorders
• Effects of Childhood Trauma on Adult Mental Health
• Cross-Cultural Differences in Psychological Disorders
• The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination
• Positive Psychology and Well-being
• The Impact of Technology on Cognitive Abilities
• Child Development and Attachment Theory
• The Psychology of Prejudice in Online Communities
• Understanding and Addressing Teenage Depression

Anthropology Research Paper Topics

• Cultural Relativism and Ethical Dilemmas
• Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainability
• Human-Environment Interactions in Archaeology
• Anthropological Perspectives on Global Health
• Cultural Change and Adaptation in the Modern World
• Urban Anthropology and the Study of City Life
• Ethical Dilemmas in Anthropological Research
• Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Agriculture
• Anthropology of Food and Cultural Significance
• Archaeological Methods and Discoveries

Economics Research Paper Topics

• The Economic Impact of Natural Disasters
• Minimum Wage Policies and Their Consequences
• Behavioral Economics and Consumer Decision-Making
• The Gig Economy and Labor Market Trends
• The Economics of Healthcare and Insurance
• Global Economic Recession: Causes and Impacts
• Economic Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Economic Inequality and Social Unrest
• Behavioral Economics and Decision-Making in Investment

Political Science Research Paper Topics

• International Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution
• Political Polarization and Its Effects on Governance
• Comparative Analysis of Political Systems
• Global Governance and International Organizations
• Political Propaganda and Media Manipulation
• Women in Politics: Representation and Challenges
• Political Extremism and Counterterrorism Policies
• The Role of Soft Power in International Relations
• Political Populism and Its Rise in Contemporary Politics
• Environmental Policies and Political Will

Social Science Education Research Paper Topics

• Inclusive Education and Special Needs Programs
• Homeschooling: Trends and Outcomes
• The Impact of Standardized Testing on Students
• Teacher Training and Professional Development
• Education Funding and Equity
• The Impact of Technology in Classroom Learning
• Education and Socioeconomic Achievement Gap
• Teacher-Student Relationships and Academic Performance
• School Bullying Prevention and Interventions

Environmental Social Science Research Paper Topics

• Urbanization and Urban Planning for Sustainability
• The Role of Wetlands in Ecosystem Health
• Environmental Ethics and Conservation
• Environmental Justice and Marginalized Communities
• Renewable Energy Policies and Implementation
• Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Practices
• Soil Erosion and Agricultural Sustainability
• Wildlife Conservation and Biodiversity Preservation
• Environmental Education and its Role in Society
• Sustainable Urban Planning and Green Cities

History-Social Science Research Paper Topics

• The Historical Roots of Colonialism
• Decolonization Movements in the 20th Century
• The Impact of the Cold War on Global Politics
• Historical Perspectives on Women’s Rights
• The Cultural Significance of Historical Artifacts
• The Impact of the Renaissance on Art and Culture
• Historical Perspectives on the American Civil Rights Movement
• The Decline of Ancient Civilizations: Causes and Lessons
• Historical Analysis of Ancient Trade Routes
• Impact of Colonialism on Indigenous Peoples

Social Work Research Paper Topics

• Social Work in Crisis Intervention and Trauma Counseling
• Substance Abuse Treatment in Vulnerable Populations
• Child Protective Services and Family Welfare
• The Role of Social Workers in Healthcare
• Human Rights and Social Justice Advocacy
• Trauma-Informed Social Work Practice
• Homelessness and Social Services Interventions
• Social Work in Correctional Facilities
• Child Welfare and Family Reunification
• Human Rights and Advocacy in Social Work

Communication Research Paper Topics

• Crisis Communication in the Social Media Age
• The Impact of Fake News on Public Perception
• Visual Communication and its Influence
• Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges
• The Rhetoric of Political Speeches
• Digital Media and the Future of Journalism
• Intercultural Communication in a Globalized World
• Communication Technology and its Impact on Relationships
• Visual Communication and its Persuasive Power
• The Art of Public Speaking and Rhetoric

Criminology Research Paper Topics

• Cybersecurity and the Role of Law Enforcement
• Criminal Behavior and Psychological Profiles
• Recidivism and Rehabilitation Programs
• White-Collar Crime and Corporate Responsibility
• Policing Strategies and Community Relations
• Juvenile Justice and Rehabilitation Programs
• Cybersecurity and Law Enforcement Challenges
• Criminal Profiling and Offender Characteristics
• Hate Crimes and their Motivations
• The Effectiveness of Restorative Justice Programs

Gender Studies Research Paper Topics

• Toxic Masculinity in Popular Culture
• The Impact of #MeToo Movement
• Intersections of Gender and Race
• Transgender Rights and Healthcare Access
• The Influence of Gender in Language and Media
• Women’s Reproductive Rights and Policies
• Men’s Mental Health and Societal Expectations
• Gendered Violence and Prevention Strategies
• Gender Roles in Fairy Tales and Popular Culture
• The Role of Gender in Language and Linguistics

Social Policy Research Paper Topics

• Drug Policy and Harm Reduction Strategies
• Universal Basic Income and Poverty Alleviation
• Maternity and Paternity Leave Policies
• Aging Population and Social Security
• Immigration and Asylum Policies
• Universal Basic Income and Economic Equality
• Housing Policies and Affordable Housing Initiatives
• Youth and Social Services Programs
• Immigration and Family Reunification Policies
• Disability Rights and Social Inclusion

Health Science Research Paper Topics

• Healthcare Disparities in Underserved Communities
• Nutrition and Public Health Interventions
• The Opioid Epidemic and Prescription Drug Abuse
• Mental Health Services in Rural Areas
• Aging and Long-Term Care Services
• Mental Health Stigma in Healthcare
• The Impact of Social Determinants on Health Disparities
• Healthcare Access and Rural Communities
• Health Communication in Public Health Campaigns
• Healthcare Systems in Developing Countries

Family Studies Research Paper Topics

• The Impact of Divorce Mediation on Children
• Foster Care and Adoption Policies
• Sibling Relationships and Birth Order Effects
• Interethnic and Intercultural Marriages
• The Role of Grandparents in Child-Rearing
• The Effect of Divorce on Sibling Relationships
• Parental Involvement and Child Development
• Foster Care and Child Welfare Reforms
• Domestic Violence and Support Services
• Aging Parents and Caregiver Stress

Globalization and Development Research Paper Topics

• The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
• Humanitarian Aid and International Crisis Response
• Cultural Exchange Programs and Diplomacy
• Global Supply Chain and Labor Conditions
• Sustainable Tourism and Cultural Preservation
• The Role of Multinational Corporations in Developing Economies
• Indigenous Rights and Sustainable Development
• Microfinance and Poverty Alleviation
• Fair Trade and Ethical Consumerism
• Global Health Partnerships and Disease Prevention

Social Justice Research Paper Topics

• Environmental Racism and its Implications
• Disability Rights and Inclusion
• LGBTQ+ Refugees and Asylum Seekers
• Juvenile Justice and Restorative Practices
• Mass Incarceration and Prison Reform
• LGBTQ+ Rights and Global Advocacy
• Refugee Rights and Resettlement Challenges
• Disability Rights and Access to Healthcare
• Criminal Justice Reform and Social Equity
• Indigenous Land Rights and Environmental Justice

Sociology of Religion Research Paper Topics

• Religious Fundamentalism in Contemporary Society
• Religion and Healthcare Decision-Making
• Interfaith Dialogue and Understanding
• Cults and Their Social Impact
• Religion and Ethics in Bioengineering
• Religious Pluralism and Interfaith Dialogue
• Religious Radicalism and Terrorism
• Religion’s Influence on Political Policies
• The Role of Religion in Environmental Ethics
• Secularism and Non-religious Worldviews

Social Impact of Technology Research Paper Topics

• Online Privacy and Digital Surveillance
• Artificial Intelligence and Its Ethical Challenges
• E-Government and Online Civic Engagement
• Social Media Activism and Its Limitations
• Technology and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence
• The Digital Divide and Technological Inequities
• Social Media Activism and Online Movements
• Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Concerns
• Virtual Reality and Its Applications in Education

Social Movements and Activism Research Paper Topics

• Black Panther Party and its Legacy
• Disability Rights Movements
• Global Youth Activism and Climate Change
• The Arab Spring and Political Change
• Indigenous Rights Movements in Latin America
• Youth-Led Movements and Their Impact on Social Change
• Women’s Suffrage and the Fight for Voting Rights
• Environmental Activism and Conservation Efforts
• Indigenous Rights Movements in Asia

Why Social Science Research Paper Topics Are Beneficial for Students

Social Science Research Paper Topics offer several advantages for students:

• Critical Thinking : Researching and writing about social science topics fosters critical thinking skills. It encourages students to analyze, interpret, and evaluate information and arguments.
• Understanding Society : Social science research topics help students better understand the complexities of human society, culture, and behavior.
• Research Skills : Students develop valuable research skills, including finding and assessing sources, conducting surveys or interviews, and drawing meaningful conclusions.
• Communication Skills : Writing research papers hones students’ communication skills, including the ability to express complex ideas clearly and persuasively.
• Awareness of Social Issues : Exploring social science topics can raise awareness of pressing social issues and encourage students to engage with them more deeply.
• Preparation for Future Careers : Many careers in fields like sociology, psychology, and political science require strong research and analytical skills. Engaging in social science research prepares students for these roles.

Social Science Research Paper Topics provide students with an opportunity to explore, analyze, and contribute to our understanding of human society and its complexities. By following the guidance on selecting topics and recognizing their benefits, students can embark on research projects that are not only academically fulfilling but also socially relevant and impactful.

Whether you choose a topic from sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, political science, or any other social science field. With this extensive list of Social Science Research Paper Topics, students have a wide range of subjects to choose from, spanning sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, political science, and more.

These topics offer an opportunity to delve into critical societal issues, analyze their implications, and contribute to a deeper understanding of human behavior and society’s complexities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an example of a social science research question.

What are the sources of social inequality, and how does it relate to political institutions and social structures?

How do you write a good social science research paper?

The information should be detailed enough for someone to replicate the study, but it should also be concise.

What is social science research essay?

Social Science Research is the activity of gathering, analysing and interpreting information for a variety of social, economic, educational and political purposes.

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Organizational Behavior Research Paper Topics

This page provides a comprehensive list of 100 organizational behavior research paper topics that are divided into 10 categories, each containing 10 topics. These categories include communication and teamwork, organizational culture and climate, employee motivation and engagement, organizational leadership, diversity and inclusion, organizational communication, employee well-being and work-life balance, organizational change, human resource management, and organizational ethics and corporate social responsibility. In addition to the list of topics, the page also provides expert advice on how to choose a research topic and how to write an organizational behavior research paper. Finally, students can take advantage of iResearchNet’s writing services to order a custom organizational behavior research paper on any topic. With this page, students will be able to explore the wide range of topics in organizational behavior and excel in their academic pursuits.

Organizational Behavior Topics Guide

Organizational behavior is an important field of study that focuses on how individuals and groups behave in organizations. It is a multidisciplinary field that draws on insights from psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and management. Understanding organizational behavior is crucial for individuals who are interested in careers in management, human resources, or organizational development. Research papers are an important aspect of studying organizational behavior, as they allow students to explore various aspects of this field in-depth.

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The purpose of this page is to provide students with a comprehensive list of organizational behavior research paper topics that will help them choose a topic for their research paper. The page is divided into 10 categories, each containing 10 topics. The categories include communication and teamwork, organizational culture and climate, employee motivation and engagement, organizational leadership, diversity and inclusion, organizational communication, employee well-being and work-life balance, organizational change, human resource management, and organizational ethics and corporate social responsibility. By providing a wide range of topics, students can find one that aligns with their interests and career goals.

100 Organizational Behavior Research Paper Topics

Communication and Teamwork

1. Communication barriers in the workplace 2. Interpersonal communication and conflict resolution 3. The effects of technology on communication and teamwork 4. Cultural diversity and communication in global organizations 5. Communication strategies for effective leadership 6. Group dynamics and team performance 7. Decision-making processes in teams 8. Motivation and satisfaction in team-based work environments 9. Leadership styles and their impact on team effectiveness 10. Team training and development programs

Organizational Culture and Climate

1. The impact of organizational culture on employee behavior 2. The role of leadership in shaping organizational culture 3. Organizational change and resistance to change 4. Organizational culture and innovation 5. Ethical climates in organizations 6. Managing cultural diversity in organizations 7. The impact of organizational culture on employee well-being 8. Measuring and assessing organizational culture 9. The relationship between organizational culture and performance 10. The impact of organizational climate on employee motivation and job satisfaction

Employee Motivation and Engagement

1. Theories of employee motivation and their application in the workplace 2. The role of incentives and rewards in employee motivation 3. The impact of job design on employee motivation and engagement 4. The relationship between job satisfaction and employee motivation 5. Employee engagement and its impact on organizational performance 6. Employee empowerment and motivation 7. The role of leadership in employee motivation and engagement 8. The impact of organizational culture on employee motivation 9. Employee motivation and retention strategies 10. Employee motivation and its impact on organizational change

Organizational Leadership

1. Theories of leadership and their application in the workplace 2. Transformational leadership and its impact on organizational performance 3. Authentic leadership and its impact on organizational culture 4. Situational leadership and its effectiveness in different contexts 5. Servant leadership and its impact on employee well-being 6. The relationship between leadership and employee motivation 7. The impact of gender and cultural diversity on leadership 8. The role of emotional intelligence in leadership 9. The impact of leadership on organizational change 10. Developing effective leadership skills

Diversity and Inclusion

1. Defining diversity and inclusion in the workplace 2. The business case for diversity and inclusion 3. The relationship between diversity and innovation 4. Overcoming diversity challenges in global organizations 5. Managing diversity and inclusion through leadership 6. The impact of cultural diversity on team performance 7. Addressing diversity and inclusion in performance evaluations 8. The role of diversity and inclusion in employee retention 9. The impact of diversity and inclusion on organizational culture 10. Strategies for developing and implementing effective diversity and inclusion initiatives

Organizational Communication

1. The impact of communication on organizational effectiveness 2. Organizational communication strategies 3. Internal communication and its impact on employee engagement 4. The role of communication in change management 5. The impact of technology on organizational communication 6. The relationship between communication and organizational culture 7. The impact of communication on employee motivation and satisfaction 8. The role of nonverbal communication in organizational behavior 9. The impact of communication on organizational reputation 10. The role of feedback in organizational communication

Employee Well-being and Work-Life Balance

1. The impact of work-life balance on employee well-being 2. The relationship between stress and employee performance 3. Mental health in the workplace 4. Workplace wellness programs 5. The role of leadership in promoting employee well-being 6. The impact of job demands and resources on employee well-being 7. The impact of work schedule flexibility on employee well-being 8. The impact of job security on employee well-being 9. Burnout and its impact on employee well-being 10. Developing effective work-life balance policies

  Organizational Change

1. Theories of organizational change 2. Managing resistance to change 3. The role of leadership in organizational change 4. The impact of organizational culture on change management 5. The role of communication in change management 6. The impact of technology on organizational change 7. The impact of organizational change on employee motivation and satisfaction 8. The role of employee involvement in change management 9. Change management strategies for global organizations 10. The impact of organizational change on organizational performance

Human Resource Management

1. Recruitment and selection strategies 2. Performance management and appraisal 3. Training and development programs 4. The impact of compensation and benefits on employee motivation 5. The role of HR in promoting diversity and inclusion 6. The impact of technology on HRM 7. The impact of employee turnover on organizational performance 8. Employee retention strategies 9. HR metrics and analytics 10. HR strategy and its impact on organizational performance

Organizational Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

1. The importance of ethical behavior in organizations 2. Ethical decision-making processes in organizations 3. The impact of corporate social responsibility on organizational performance 4. The relationship between ethics and organizational culture 5. Ethical leadership and its impact on employee behavior 6. The role of codes of ethics in organizations 7. The impact of social media on organizational ethics 8. The impact of globalization on organizational ethics 9. The role of stakeholders in promoting ethical behavior 10. Developing ethical organizational policies

Choosing an Organizational Behavior Topic

Choosing a research topic can be a daunting task, especially when there are so many organizational behavior research paper topics to choose from. The key to choosing a successful topic is to select one that is relevant, interesting, and manageable. In this section, we provide expert advice on how to choose an organizational behavior research paper topic that will help students succeed in their academic pursuits.

The importance of choosing a relevant and interesting topic

The first step in choosing an organizational behavior research paper topic is to select a relevant and interesting topic. A relevant topic is one that aligns with the course curriculum and the student’s area of interest. An interesting topic is one that is engaging and will hold the student’s attention throughout the research and writing process. Choosing a relevant and interesting topic is important because it will make the research and writing process more enjoyable and fulfilling.

Tips for choosing a topic that aligns with the student’s interests and career goals

To choose a topic that aligns with the student’s interests and career goals, it is important to consider what topics are relevant to the student’s area of study and future career aspirations. Students should consider their personal interests, as well as the interests of potential employers. They should also consider the latest trends and developments in the field of organizational behavior, and choose a topic that is timely and relevant.

How to narrow down a broad topic into a manageable research question

Once a broad topic has been selected, it is important to narrow it down into a manageable research question. This can be done by breaking the topic down into smaller, more manageable sub-topics. Students should consider the scope of the topic and the available resources, and choose a research question that is focused and manageable.

Examples of how to brainstorm ideas for research topics

Brainstorming is an effective way to generate ideas for research topics. Students can start by listing the topics that interest them and then narrowing down the list to the most relevant and interesting topics. They can also read academic journals and textbooks to identify current trends and issues in organizational behavior. Finally, they can talk to their instructors or peers to get ideas and feedback.

How to conduct preliminary research

Before choosing a research topic, it is important to conduct preliminary research to ensure that the topic is feasible and has enough available resources. Students can start by conducting a literature review to identify the latest research on the topic. They can also use online databases and search engines to find relevant articles and publications. Finally, they can consult with their instructors or academic advisors to get advice on the available resources and potential research topics.

Choosing the right organizational behavior research paper topic is essential for success in academic pursuits. By following these expert tips and advice, students can choose a relevant and interesting topic, narrow it down into a manageable research question, and conduct preliminary research to ensure the topic is feasible and has enough available resources.

How to Write an Organizational Behavior Research Paper

Once a research topic has been chosen, the next step is to write the research paper. Writing an organizational behavior research paper can be a challenging task, but with the right guidance and strategies, it can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience. In this section, we provide expert advice on how to write an organizational behavior research paper.

The structure and format of a research paper

The structure and format of an organizational behavior research paper should follow the standard guidelines for academic research papers. It should include an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, and discussion sections. The introduction should provide an overview of the research topic and the purpose of the study. The literature review should summarize the relevant research on the topic. The methodology section should describe the research design, sample, and data collection methods. The results section should present the findings of the study, and the discussion section should interpret the results and provide conclusions and recommendations.

How to conduct research and gather sources

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How to write an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, and discussion sections

Each section of an organizational behavior research paper has a specific purpose and format. The introduction should provide an overview of the research topic and the purpose of the study. The literature review should summarize the relevant research on the topic. The methodology section should describe the research design, sample, and data collection methods. The results section should present the findings of the study, and the discussion section should interpret the results and provide conclusions and recommendations. Students should use clear and concise language and support their arguments with relevant sources and research findings.

How to properly cite sources and format the paper

Properly citing sources and formatting the paper is essential for academic integrity and professionalism. Students should follow the guidelines for the appropriate citation style, such as APA or MLA. They should also ensure that the paper is formatted according to the guidelines provided by their instructor or academic institution. This includes proper margins, headings, and references.

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Revising and editing the organizational behavior research paper is an important step in the writing process. Students should read the paper carefully and revise it for clarity, coherence, and organization. They should also check for spelling and grammar errors and ensure that the paper meets the requirements and guidelines provided by their instructor or academic institution.

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• Open access
• Published: 01 June 2023

SciSciNet: A large-scale open data lake for the science of science research

• Zihang Lin   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4262-6354 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ,
• Yian Yin   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3018-4544 1 , 2 , 3 , 5 ,
• Lu Liu 1 , 2 , 3 &
• Dashun Wang   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7054-2206 1 , 2 , 3 , 5  

Scientific Data volume  10 , Article number:  315 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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• Scientific community

The science of science has attracted growing research interests, partly due to the increasing availability of large-scale datasets capturing the innerworkings of science. These datasets, and the numerous linkages among them, enable researchers to ask a range of fascinating questions about how science works and where innovation occurs. Yet as datasets grow, it becomes increasingly difficult to track available sources and linkages across datasets. Here we present SciSciNet, a large-scale open data lake for the science of science research, covering over 134M scientific publications and millions of external linkages to funding and public uses. We offer detailed documentation of pre-processing steps and analytical choices in constructing the data lake. We further supplement the data lake by computing frequently used measures in the literature, illustrating how researchers may contribute collectively to enriching the data lake. Overall, this data lake serves as an initial but useful resource for the field, by lowering the barrier to entry, reducing duplication of efforts in data processing and measurements, improving the robustness and replicability of empirical claims, and broadening the diversity and representation of ideas in the field.

Background & Summary

Modern databases capturing the innerworkings of science have been growing exponentially over the past decades, offering new opportunities to study scientific production and use at larger scales and finer resolution than previously possible. Fuelled in part by the increasing availability of large-scale datasets, the science of science community turns scientific methods on science itself 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , helping us understand in a quantitative fashion a range of important questions that are central to scientific progress—and of great interest to scientists themselves—from the evolution of individual scientific careers 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 to collaborations 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 and science institutions 26 , 27 , 28 to the evolution of science 2 , 3 , 5 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 to the nature of scientific progress and impact 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , – 55 .

Scholarly big data have flourished over the past decade, with several large-scale initiatives providing researchers free access to data. For example, CiteSeerX 56 , one of the earliest digital library search engines, offers a large-scale scientific library focusing on the literature in computer and information science. Building on a series of advanced data mining techniques, AMiner 57 indexes and integrates a wide range of data about academic social networks 58 . Crossref ( https://www.crossref.org/ ) 59 , as well as other initiatives in the open metadata community, have collected metadata such as Digital Object Identifier (DOI) in each publication record and linked them to a broad body of event data covering scholarly discussions. OpenAlex ( https://openalex.org/ ) 60 , based on Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG) 61 , 62 , 63 , aims to build a large-scale open catalog for the global research system, incorporating scholarly entities and their connections across multiple datasets. In addition to data on scientific publications and citations capturing within-science dynamics, researchers have also tracked interactions between science and other socioeconomic spheres by tracing, for example, how science is referenced in patented inventions 64 , 65 , 66 , regarding both front-page and in-text citations from patents to publications 67 , 68 . Table  1 summarizes several exemplary datasets commonly used in the science of science literature, with information on their coverage and accessibility.

The rapid growth of the science of science community 69 , 70 , 71 , combined with its interdisciplinary nature, raises several key challenges confronting researchers in the field. First, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of available datasets and their potential linkages across disparate sources, raising the question of whether there are research questions that are underexplored simply due to a lack of awareness of the data. Second, as data and their linkages become more complex, there are substantial data pre-processing steps involved prior to analyses. Many of these steps are often too detailed to document in publications, with researchers making their own analytical choices when processing the data. Third, as tools and techniques used in the science of science grow in sophistication, measurements on these datasets can be computationally involved, requiring substantial investment of time and resources to compute these measures.

All these challenges highlight the need for a common data resource designed for research purposes, which could benefit the community in several important ways. First, it provides a large-scale empirical basis for research, helping to strengthen the level of evidence supporting new findings as well as increase the replicability and robustness of these findings. Second, it helps to reduce duplication of efforts across the community in data preprocessing and common measurements. Third, by compiling various datasets, linkages, and measurements, the data resource significantly lowers the barrier to entry, hence has the potential to broaden the diversity and representation of new ideas in the field.

To support these needs in the community, we present SciSciNet, a large-scale open data lake for the science of science research. The data lake not only incorporates databases that capture scientific publications, researchers, and institutions, but also tracks their linkages to related entities, ranging from upstream funding sources like NIH and NSF to downstream public uses, including references of scientific publications in patents, clinical trials, and media and social media mentions (see Fig.  1 and Table  2 for more details of entities and their relationships). Building on this collection of linked databases, we further calculate a series of commonly used measurements in the science of science, providing benchmark measures to facilitate further investigations while illustrating how researchers can further contribute collectively to the data lake. Finally, we validate the data lake using multiple approaches, including internal data validation, cross-database verification, as well as reproducing canonical results in the literature.

The entity relationship diagram of SciSciNet. SciSciNet includes “SciSciNet_Papers” as the main data table, with linkages to other tables capturing data from a range of sources. For clarity, here we show a subset of the tables (see Data Records section for a more comprehensive view of the tables). PK represents primary key, and FK represents foreign key.

The data lake, SciSciNet, is freely available at Figshare 72 . At the core of the data lake is the Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG) dataset 61 , 62 , 63 . The MAG data is one of the largest and most comprehensive bibliometrics data in the world, and a popular dataset for the science of science research. However, MAG was sunset by Microsoft at the end of 2021. Since then, there have also been several important efforts in the community to ensure the continuity of data and services. For example, there are mirror datasets 73 available online for MAG, and the OpenAlex ( https://openalex.org ) initiative builds on the MAG data, and not only makes it open to all but also provides continuous updates 60 . While these efforts have minimized potential disruptions, the sunsetting of MAG has also accelerated the need to construct open data resources designed for research purposes. Indeed, large-scale systematic datasets for the science of science mostly come in the form of raw data, which requires further data pre-processing and filtering operations to extract fine-grained research data with high quality. It usually takes substantial efforts and expertise to clean the data, and many of these steps are often too detailed to document in publications, with researchers making their own analytical choices. It thus suggests that there is value in constructing an open data lake, which aims to continue to extend the usefulness of MAG, with substantial data pre-processing steps documented. Moreover, the data lake links together several disparate sources and pre-computed measures commonly used in the literature, serving as an open data resource for researchers interested in the quantitative studies of science and innovation.

Importantly, the curated data lake is not meant to be exhaustive; rather it represents an initial step toward a common data resource to which researchers across the community can collectively contribute. Indeed, as more data and measurements in the science of science become available, researchers can help to contribute to the continuous improvement of this data lake by adding new data, measurements, and linkages, thereby further increasing the utility of the data lake. For example, if a new paper reports a new measurement, the authors could publish a data file linking the new measurement with SciSciNet IDs, which would make it much easier for future researchers to build on their work.

Data selection and curation from MAG

The Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG) dataset 61 , 62 , 63 covers a wide range of publication records, authors, institutions, and citation records among publications. MAG has a rich set of prominent features, including the application of advanced machine learning algorithms to classify fields of study in large-scale publication records, identify paper families, and disambiguate authors and affiliations. Here we use the edition released on December 6 th , 2021 by MAG, in total covering 270,694,050 publication records.

The extensive nature of the MAG data highlights a common challenge. Indeed, using the raw data for research often requires substantial pre-processing and data-cleaning steps to arrive at a research-ready database. For example, one may need to perform a series of data selection and curation operations, including the selection of scientific publications with reliable sources, aggregation of family papers, and redistribution of citation and reference counts. After going through these steps, one may generate a curated publication data table, which serves as the primary scientific publication data table in SciSciNet (Table  3 , “SciSciNet_Papers”). However, each of these steps requires us to make specific analytical choices, but given the detailed nature of these steps, the specific choices made through these steps have remained difficult to document through research publications.

Here we document in detail the various procedures we took in constructing the data lake. From the original publication data in MAG, we use MAG Paper ID as the primary key, and consider a subset of main attributes, including DOI (Digital Object Identifier), document type and publication year. As we are mainly interested in scientific publications within MAG, we first remove paper records whose document type is marked as patent. We also remove those with neither document type nor DOI information. Each scientific publication in the database may be represented by different entities (e.g., preprint and conference), indicated as a paper “family” in MAG. To avoid duplication, we aggregate all papers in the same family into one primary paper. We also do not include retracted papers in the primary paper table in SciSciNet. Instead, we include records of retracted papers and affiliated papers in paper families in another data table “SciSciNet_PaperDetails” (Table  8 ) linked to the primary paper table, recording information of DOIs, titles, original venue names, and original counts for citations and references in MAG. Following these steps, the primary data table “SciSciNet_Papers” contains 134,129,188 publication records with unique primary paper ids, including 90,764,813 journal papers, 4,629,342 books, 3,932,366 book chapters, 5,123,597 conference papers, 145,594 datasets, 3,083,949 repositories, 5,998,509 thesis papers, and 20,451,018 other papers with DOI information.

For consistency, we recalculate the citation and reference counts within the subset of 134 M primary papers, such that each citation or reference record is also included in this subset and can be found in “SciSciNet_PaperReferences” (Table  5 ). For papers in the same family, we aggregate their citations and references into the primary paper and drop duplicated citation pairs. Building on the updated citations, we recalculate the number of references and citations for each primary paper.

MAG also contains information of authors, institutions, and fields. While author disambiguation 58 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 remains a major challenge, we adopt the author disambiguation method from MAG and create an author table, which offers a baseline for future studies of individual careers. We also supplement the author table with empirical name-gender associations to support gender research 80 , drawing from work by Van Buskirk et al . 80 ; this allows us to build “SciSciNet_Authors_Gender” (Table  9 ) with 134,197,162 author records including their full names.

For fields, we use the fields of study records from MAG and focus on the records related to the selected primary papers (19 Level-0 fields and 292 Level-1 fields, Table  6 ). We incorporate this information into two tables, the “SciSciNet_PaperAuthorAffiliations” (Table  4 ) and “SciSciNet_PaperFields” (Table  7 ), with 413,869,501 and 277,494,994 records, respectively.

We further use the information of “PaperExtendedAttributes” table from MAG to construct high-quality linkages between MAG Paper ID and PubMed Identifier (PMID). We drop duplicate links by only keeping the MAG primary paper record (if one PMID was linked to multiple MAG Paper IDs) or the latest updated PubMed record (if one MAG Paper ID was linked to multiple PMIDs), obtaining 31,230,206 primary MAG Paper ID-PMID linkages (95.6% of the original records) to further support linkage with external sources.

Together, the resulting SciSciNet includes 134,129,188 publications (Table  3 ), 134,197,162 authors (Table  9 ), 26,998 institutions (Table  10 ), 49,066 journals (Tables  21 ), 4,551 conference series (Tables  22 ), 19 top-level fields of study, 292 subfields (Table  6 ), and the internal links between them, including 1,588,739,703 paper-references records (Table  5 ), 413,869,501 paper-author-affiliations records (Table  4 ), and 277,494,994 paper-fields records (Table  7 ).

Linking publication data with external sources

While the main paper table captures citation relationships among scientific publications, there has been growing interest in studying how science interacts with other socioeconomic institutions 35 , 36 , 41 , 55 , 81 , 82 . Here, we further trace references of scientific publications in data sources that go beyond publication datasets, tracking the linkage between papers to their upstream funding supports and downstream uses in public domains. Specifically, here we link papers to the grants they acknowledge in NSF and NIH, as well as public uses of science by tracking references of scientific publications in patents, clinical trials, and news and social media.

NIH funding

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the largest public funder for biomedical research in the world. The recent decade has witnessed increasing interest in understanding the role of NIH funding for the advancement of biomedicine 81 , 82 and its impact on individual career development 83 , 84 . NIH ExPORTER provides bulk NIH RePORTER ( https://report.nih.gov/ ) data on research projects funded by the NIH and other major HHS operating divisions. The database also provides link tables (updated on May 16, 2021) that connects funded projects with resulting publications over the past four decades.

To construct the funded project-paper linkages between SciSciNet Paper ID and NIH Project Number, we use the PMID of MAG papers (from our previously curated “PaperExtendedAttributes” table based on MAG) as the intermediate key, matching more than 98.9% of the original NIH link table records to primary Paper ID in SciSciNet. After dropping duplicate records, we end up with a collection of 6,013,187 records (Table  11 ), linking 2,636,061 scientific papers (identified by primary MAG Paper IDs) to 379,014 NIH projects (identified by core NIH-funded project numbers).

NSF funding

Beyond biomedical research, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funds approximately 25% of all federally supported basic research conducted by the United States’ colleges and universities across virtually all fields of science and engineering. NSF provides downloadable information on research projects it has funded, including awardee, total award amount, investigator, and so forth, but no information on funded research publications. While Federal RePORTER offers downloadable files on NSF awards with links to supported publications (662,072 NSF award-publication records by 2019), it only covers a limited time period and has been retired by March 2022. To obtain a more comprehensive coverage of records linking NSF awards to supported papers, we crawl the webpages of all NSF awards to retrieve information on their resulting publications. In particular, we first created a comprehensive list of all NSF award numbers from https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download.jsp . We then iterate over this list to download the entire webpage document of each NSF award (from the URL https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID  = [Award number]), and use “Publications as a result of this research” column to identify scientific publications related to this award. We then extract paper titles and relevant information provided by using the Python library ElementTree to navigate and parse the webpage document structurally. We end up collecting 489,446 NSF awards since 1959 (Table  20 ), including linkages between 131,545 awards and 1,350,915 scientific publications.

To process information crawled from NSF.gov, which is presented as raw text strings, we design a text-based multi-level matching process to link NSF awards to SciSciNet scientific publications:

For records with DOI information in the raw texts of funded research publications, we perform an exact match with SciSciNet primary papers through DOI. If the DOI in an NSF publication record matched that of one primary paper, we create a linkage between the NSF Award Number and the primary Paper ID. We matched 458,463 records from NSF awards to SciSciNet primary papers, where each DOI appeared only once in the entire primary paper table, thus enabling association with a unique Paper ID (exact match). After dropping duplicates where the same DOI appears repeatedly in the same NSF award, we yield 350,611 records (26.0%) from NSF awards to SciSciNet primary papers.

To process the rest of the records, we then use the title information of each article for further matching. After extracting the title from NSF records and performing a standardization procedure (e.g., converting each letter into lowercase and removing punctuation marks, extra spaces, tabs, and newline characters), our exact matches between paper titles in the NSF award data and SciSciNet primary paper data yield 246,701 unique matches (18.3% in total) in this step.

We further develop a search engine for records that have not been matched in the preceding steps. Here we use Elasticsearch, a free and open search and analytics engine, to index detailed information (paper title, author, journal or conference name, and publication year) of all SciSciNet primary papers. We then feed raw texts of the crawled NSF publications into the system and obtain results with the top two highest scores associated with the indexed primary papers. Similar to a previous study 55 , we use scores of the second matched primary papers as a null model, and then identify the first matched primary paper as a match if its score is significantly higher than the right-tail cutoff of the second score distribution ( P  = 0.05). Following this procedure, we match the remaining 467,159 records (34.6%) from the two previous steps with significantly higher scores (Fig.  2a ). Note that this procedure likely represents a conservative strategy that prioritizes precision over recall. Manually inspecting the rest of potential matchings, we find that those with large differences between the top two Z-scores (Fig.  2b ) are also likely to be correct matches. To this end, we also include these heuristic links, together with the difference of their Z-scores, as fuzzy matching linkages between SciSciNet papers and NSF awards.

Matching NSF reference string to MAG records. ( a ) Distribution of Z-scores for papers matched in ElasticSearch with the first and second highest scores. The vertical red line denotes the right-tail cutoff of the second score distribution ( P  = 0.05). ( b ) Distribution of pairwise Z-score differences for papers matched in search engine but with the first score no higher than the right-tail cutoff of the second score distribution ( P  = 0.05).

We further supplement these matchings with information from Crossref data dump, an independent dataset that links publications to over 30 K funders including NSF. We collect all paper-grant pairs where the funder is identified as NSF. We then use the raw grant number from Crossref and link paper records between Crossref and SciSciNet using DOIs. We obtain 305,314 records after cleaning, including 196,509 SciSciNet primary papers with DOIs matching to 83,162 NSF awards.

By combining records collected from all these steps, we collect 1,130,641 unique linkages with high confidence levels and 178,877 additional possible linkages from fuzzy matches (Table  12 ). Together these links connect 148,148 NSF awards and 929,258 SciSciNet primary papers.

Patent citations to science

The process in which knowledge transfers from science to marketplace applications has received much attention in science and innovation literature 35 , 41 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 . The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) makes patenting activity data publicly accessible, with the PatentsView platform providing extensive metadata including as related to patent assignees, inventors, and lawyers, along with patents’ internal citations and full-text information. The European Patent Office (EPO) also provides open access to patent data containing rich attributes.

Building on recent advances in linking papers to patents 35 , 67 , 68 , Marx and Fuegi developed a large-scale dataset of over 40 M citations from USPTO and EPO patents to scientific publications in MAG. Using this corpus (Version v34 as of December 24, 2021), we merge 392 K patent citation received by affiliated MAG papers to their respective primary IDs in the same paper family. Dropping possible duplicate records with the same pair of primary Paper ID and Patent ID results in 38,740,313 paper-patent citation pairs between 2,360,587 patents from USPTO and EPO and 4,627,035 primary papers in SciSciNet (Table  15 ).

Clinical trials citations to science

Understanding bench-to-bed-side translation is essential for biomedical research 81 , 89 . ClinicalTrials.gov provides publicly available clinical study records covering 50 U.S. states and 220 countries, sourced from the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI) makes available clinical trials data through a database for Aggregate Analysis of ClinicalTrials.gov (AACT), an aggregated relational database helping researchers better study drugs, policies, publications, and other related items to clinical trials.

Overall, the data covers 686,524 records linking clinical trials to background or result papers (as of January 26th, 2022). We select 480,893 records with papers as reference background supporting clinical trials, of which 451,357 records contain 63,281 unique trials matching to 345,797 reference papers with PMIDs. Similar to the process of linking scientific publications to NIH-funded projects, we again establish linkages between SciSciNet primary Paper ID and NCT Number (National Clinical Trial Number) via PMID, aided by the curated “PaperExtendedAttributes” table as the intermediary. After standardizing the data format of the intermediate index PMID to merge publications and clinical trials, we obtain 438,220 paper-clinical linkages between 61,447 NCT clinical trials and 337,430 SciSciNet primary papers (Table  13 ).

News and social mentions of science

Understanding how science is mentioned in media has been another important research direction in the science of science community 44 , 90 . The Newsfeed mentions in Crossref Event Data link scientific papers in Crossref 59 with DOIs to news articles or blog posts in RSS and Atom feeds, providing access to the latest scientific news mentions from multiple sources, including Scientific American , The Guardian , Vox , The New York Times , and others. Also, Twitter mentions in Crossref Event Data link scientific papers to tweets created by Twitter users, offering an opportunity to explore scientific mentions in Twitter.

We use the Crossref Event API to collect 947,160 records between 325,396 scientific publications and 387,578 webpages from news blogs or posts (from April 5 th , 2017 to January 16 th , 2022) and 59,593,281 records between 4,661,465 scientific publications and 58,099,519 tweets (from February 7 th , 2017 to January 17 th , 2022).

For both news media and social media mentions, we further link Crossref’s publication records to SciSciNet’s primary papers. To do so, we first normalize the DOI format of these data records and converted all alphabetic characters to lowercase. We use normalized DOI as the intermediate index, as detailed below:

For news media mentions, we construct linkages between primary Paper ID and Newsfeed Object ID (i.e., the webpage of news articles or blog posts) by inner joining normalized DOIs. We successfully link 899,323 records from scientific publications to news webpages in the Newsfeed list, accounting for 94.9% of the total records. The same news mention may be collected multiple times. After removing duplicate records, we end up with 595,241 records, linking 307,959 papers to 370,065 webpages from Newsfeed (Table  17 ).

Similarly, for social media mentions, we connect primary Paper IDs with Tweet IDs through inner joining normalized DOIs, yielding 56,121,135 records, more than 94% of the total records. After dropping duplicate records, we keep 55,846,550 records, linking 4,329,443 papers to 53,053,505 tweets (Table  16 ).

We also provide metadata of paper-news linkages, including the mention time and the detailed mention information in Newsfeed, to better support future research on this topic (Table  18 ). Similarly, we also offer the metadata of paper-tweet links, including the mention time and the original collected Tweet ID so that interested researchers can merge with further information from Twitter using the Tweet ID (Table  19 ).

Nobel Prize data from the dataset of publication records for Nobel laureates

We integrate a recent dataset by Li et al . 91 in the data lake, containing the publication records of Nobel laureates in science from 1900 to 2016, including both Nobel prize-winning works and other papers produced in their careers. After mapping affiliated MAG Paper IDs to primary ones, we obtain 87,316 publication records of Nobel laureates in SciSciNet primary paper Table (20,434 in physics, 38,133 in chemistry, and 28,749 in physiology/medicine, Table  14 ).

Calculation of commonly used measurements

Using the constructed dataset, we further calculate a range of commonly used measurements of scientific ideas, impacts, careers, and collaborations. Interested readers can find more details and validations of these measurements in the literature 15 , 19 , 20 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 .

Publication-level

The number of researchers and institutions in a scientific paper.

Building on team science literature 19 , 27 , we calculate the number of authors and the number of institutions for each paper as recorded in our data lake. We group papers by primary Paper ID in the selected “SciSciNet_PaperAuthorAffiliations” table and aggregate the unique counts of Author IDs and Affiliation IDs as the number of researchers (team size) and institutions, respectively.

Five-year citations ( c 5 ), ten-year citations ( c 10 ), normalized citation ( c f ), and hit paper

The number of citations of a paper evolves over time 46 , 48 , 99 , 100 . Here we calculate c 5 and c 10 , defined as the number of citations a paper received within 5 years and 10 years of publication, respectively. For the primary papers, we calculate c 5 for all papers published up to 2016 (As the last version of MAG publication data is available until 2021) by counting the number of citation pairs with time difference less than or equal to 5 years. Similarly, we calculate c 10 for all papers published up to 2011.

To compare citation counts across disciplines and time, Radicchi et al . 48 proposed the relative citation indicator c f , as the total number of citations c divided by the average number of citations c 0 in the same field and the same year. Here we calculate the normalized citation indicator for each categorized paper in both top-level fields and subfields, known as Level-0 fields (19 in total) and Level-1 fields (292 in total) categorized by MAG, respectively. Note that each paper may be associated with multiple fields, hence here we report calculated normalized citations for each paper-field pair in the “SciSciNet_PaperFields” data table.

Another citation-based measure widely used in the science of science literature 16 , 19 , 83 is “hit papers”, defined as papers in the top 5% of citations within the same field and year. Similar to our calculation of c f , we use the same grouping by fields and years, and identify all papers with citations greater than the top 5% citation threshold. We also perform similar operations for the top 1% and top 10% hit papers.

Citation dynamics

A model developed by Wang, Song, and Barabási (the WSB model) 46 captures the long-term citation dynamics of individual papers after incorporating three fundamental mechanisms, including preferential attachment, aging, and fitness. The model predicts the cumulative citations received by paper i at time t after publication: \({c}_{i}^{t}=m\left[{e}^{{{\rm{\lambda }}}_{i}\Phi \left(\frac{lnt-{{\rm{\mu }}}_{i}}{{{\rm{\sigma }}}_{i}}\right)}-1\right]\) , where Φ ( x ) is the standard cumulative normal distribution of x , m captures the average number of references per paper, and μ i , σ i , and λ i indicate the immediacy, longevity, and fitness parameters characterizing paper i , respectively.

We implement the WSB model with prior for papers published in the fields of math and physics. Following the method proposed by Shen et al . 92 , we adopt the Bayesian approach to calculate the conjugate prior, which follows a gamma distribution. The method allows us to better predict the long-term impact through the posterior estimation of λ i , while helping to avoid potential overfitting problems. Fitting this model to empirical data, we compute the immediacy μ i , the longevity σ i , and the ultimate impact \({c}_{{\rm{i}}}^{\infty }={\rm{m}}\left[{e}^{{{\rm{\lambda }}}_{i}}-1\right]\) for all math and physics papers with at least 10 citations within 10 years after publication (published no later than 2011). To facilitate research on citation dynamics across different fields 48 , we have also used the same procedure to fit the citation sequences for papers that have received at least 10 citations within 10 years across all fields of study from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Sleeping beauty coefficient

Sometimes it may take years or even decades for papers to gain attention from the scientific community, a phenomenon known as the “Sleeping Beauty” in science 93 . The sleeping beauty coefficient B is defined as \({\rm{B}}={\sum }_{t=0}^{{t}_{m}}\frac{\frac{{c}_{{t}_{m}}-{c}_{0}}{{t}_{m}}\cdot t+{c}_{0}-{c}_{t}}{{\rm{\max }}\left(1,{c}_{t}\right)}\) , where the paper receives its maximum yearly citation \({c}_{{t}_{m}}\) in year t m and c 0 in the year of publication. Here we calculate the sleeping beauty coefficient from yearly citation records of a paper. We match the publication years for each citing-cited paper pair published in journals and then aggregate yearly citations since publication for each cited paper. Next, we group the “SciSciNet_PaperReferences” table by each cited paper and compute the coefficient B , along with the awakening time. As a result, we obtain 52,699,363 records with sleeping beauty coefficients for journal articles with at least one citation.

Novelty and conventionality

Research shows that the highest-impact papers in science tend to be grounded in exceptionally conventional combinations of prior work yet simultaneously feature an intrusion of atypical combinations 47 . Here following this work 47 , we calculate the novelty and conventionality score of each paper by computing the Z-score for each combination of journal pairs. We further calculate the distribution of journal pair Z-scores by traversing all possible duos of references cited by a particular paper. A paper’s median Z-score characterizes the median conventionality of the paper, whereas a paper’s 10 th percentile Z-score captures the tail novelty of the paper’s atypical combinations.

More specifically, we first use the information of publication years for each citing-cited paper pair both published in journals and shuffle the reference records within the citing-cited year group to generate 10 randomized citation networks, while controlling the naturally skewed citation distributions. We then traverse each focal paper published in the same year. We further aggregate the frequency of reference journal pairs for papers in the real citation network and 10 randomized citation networks, calculating the Z-score of each reference journal pair for papers published in the same year. Finally, for each focal paper, we obtain its 10 th percentile and median of the Z-scores distribution, yielding 44,143,650 publication records with novelty and conventionality measures for journal papers from 1950 to 2021.

Disruption score

Disruption index quantifies the extent to which a paper disrupts or develops the existing literature 20 , 51 . Disruption, or D , is calculated through citation networks. For a given paper, one can separate its future citations into two types. One type only cites the focal paper itself while ignoring all the references that the paper builds upon, and the other is to cite both the focal paper and its references. D is expressed as: \({\rm{D}}={{\rm{p}}}_{{\rm{i}}}-{{\rm{p}}}_{{\rm{j}}}=\frac{{n}_{i}-{n}_{j}}{{n}_{i}+{n}_{j}+{n}_{k}}\) , where n i is the number of subsequent works that only cite the focal paper, n j is the number of subsequent works that cite both the focal paper and its references, and n k is the number of subsequent works that cite the references of the focal paper only. Following this definition, we calculate the disruption scores for all the papers that have at least one forward and backward citation (48,581,274 in total).

The number of NSF and NIH supporting grants

For external linkages from scientific publications to upstream supporting funding sources, we calculate the number of NSF/NIH grants associated with each primary paper in SciSciNet.

The number of patent citations, Newsfeed mentions, Twitter mentions, and clinical trial citations

For external linkages from scientific publications to downstream public uses of science, we also calculate the number of citations each primary paper in SciSciNet received from domains that go beyond science, including patents from USPTO and EPO, news and social media mentions from Newsfeed and Twitter, and clinical trials from ClinicalTrials.gov.

Individual- and Institutional-level measures

Productivity.

Scientific productivity is a widely used measure for quantifying individual careers 9 , 15 . Here we aggregate the unique primary Paper ID in SciSciNet, after grouping the records in the “SciSciNet_PaperAuthorAffiliations” data table by Author ID or Affiliation ID and calculate the number of publications produced by the same author or affiliation.

H-index is a popular metric to estimate a researcher’s career impact. The index of a scientist is h , if h of her papers have at least h citations and each of the remaining papers have less than h citations 94 , 101 . Here we compile the full publication list associated with each author, sort these papers by their total number of citations in descending order, and calculate the maximum value that satisfies the condition above as the H-index. By repeating the same procedure on each research institution, we also provide an institution-level H-index as well.

Scientific impact

Building on our c 10 measure at the paper level, here we further calculate the average c 10 (< c 10 >) for each author and affiliation, which offers a proxy to individual and institutional level scientific impact. Similarly, we calculate the average log c 10 (<log c 10 >), which is closely related to the Q parameter 15 of individual scientific impact.

Here we group by Author and Affiliation ID in the “PaperAuthorAffiliations” table, and then aggregate c 10 and log c 10 (pre-calculated at the paper level) of all papers published by the same id. Following previous works 15 , 16 , 102 , to avoid taking logarithm of zeros, we increase c 10 by one when calculating the <log c 10 >.

Name-gender associations

The availability of big data also enables a range of studies focusing on gender disparities, ranging from scientific publications and careers 17 , 103 , 104 , 105 , 106 to collaboration patterns 25 , 107 and the effects of the pandemic on women scientists 45 , 108 , 109 , 110 . Here we apply the method from a recent statistical model 80 to infer author gender based on their first names in the original author table. The method feeds unique author names into a cultural consensus model of name-gender associations incorporating 36 separate sources across over 150 countries. Note that for all the 134,197,162 authors, 23.26% of the authors (31,224,458) have only the first initials, which are excluded from the inference. By fine-tuning the annotated names from these data sources following the original method, we obtain 409,809 unique names with max uncertainty threshold set to 0.26 and 85% of the sample classified. Finally, we merge these name-gender inference records into the original SciSciNet_Authors table, resulting a SciSciNet_Authors_Gender table, which contains 86,286,037 authors with inferred probability that indicates a name belongs to an individual gendered female, denoted as P(gf), as well as the number of inference source datasets and empirical counts. Together, by combining new statistical models with our systematic authorship information, this new table provides name-gender information, useful in studying gender-related questions. It is important to note that such name-based gender inference algorithms, including the one used here as well as other popular tools such as genderize.io , have limitations and are necessarily imperfect. The limitations should be considered carefully when applying these methods 96 .

Data Records

The data lake, SciSciNet, is freely available at Figshare 72 .

Data structure

Table  2 presents the size and descriptions of these data files.

Table  3 contains information about “SciSciNet_Papers”, which is the data lake’s primary paper table, containing information on the primary scientific publications, including Paper ID, DOI, and others, along with the Journal ID or Conference Series ID, which can link papers to corresponding journals or conference series that take place regularly. The short description in each data field includes the corresponding explanation of that field.

Tables  4 – 22 include the data fields and corresponding descriptions of each data table. Each data field specified is clear from its index name. An ID of the data field in a data table can be linked, if this field has the same ID name as another field in another table. Further, the data link tables provide linkages from scientific publications to external socioeconomic institutions. For example, the paper with primary “PaperID” as “246319838”, which studied the hereditary spastic paraplegia 111 , lead to three core NIH project number “R01NS033645”, “R01NS036177”, and “R01NS038713” in the Table  11 “SciSciNet_Link_NIH”. We can not only extract detailed information and metrics of the paper in the data lake (e.g., title from Table  8 “SciSciNet_PaperDetails”, or citation counts from the primary paper Table  3 “SciSciNet_Papers”) but also obtain further information of the funded-projects, such as the total funding amount, from NIH RePORTER ( https://report.nih.gov ).

Descriptive statistics

Next, we present a set of descriptive statistics derived from the data lake. Figure  3a–c show the distribution of papers across 19 top-level fields, the exponential growth of scientific publications in SciSciNet over time, and the average team size of papers by field over time.

Summary statistics of scientific publications in SciSciNet. ( a ) The number of publications in 19 top-level fields. For clarity we aggregated the field classification into the top level (e.g., a paper is counted as a physics paper if it is associated with physics or any other subfields of physics). ( b ) The exponential growth of science over time. ( c ) Average team size by field from 1950 to 2020. The bold black line is for papers in all the 19 top-level fields. Each colored line indicates each of the 19 fields (color coded according to (a)).

Building on the external linkages we constructed, Fig.  4a–f show the distribution of paper-level upstream funding sources from NIH and NSF, and downstream applications and mentions of science, including USPTO/EPO patents, clinical trials, news mentions from Newsfeed, and social media mentions from Twitter.

Linking scientific publications with socioeconomic institutions. Panels ( a, b and d, e ) show the distribution of paper-level downstream applications ( a : Twitter mentions; b : Newsfeed mentions; d : Patents; e : Clinical trials). Panels ( c and f ) show the distribution of supporting scientific grants from NIH ( c ) and NSF ( f ).

Figure  5 presents the probability distributions of various commonly used metrics in the science of science using our data lake, which are broadly consistent with the original studies in the literature.

Commonly used metrics in SciSciNet. ( a ) The distribution of disruption score for 48,581,274 papers 20 (50,000 bins in total). ( b ) Cumulative distribution function (CDF) of 44,143,650 journal papers’ 10 th percentile and median Z-scores 47 . ( c ) Distribution of \({e}^{{\rm{\langle }}log{c}_{\mathrm{10}}{\rm{\rangle }}}\) for scholars 15 with at least 10 publications in SciSciNet. The red line corresponds to a log-normal fit with μ = 2.14 and σ  = 1.14. ( d ) Survival distribution function of sleeping beauty coefficients 93 for 52,699,363 papers, with a power-law fit: exponent α  = 2.40. ( e ) Data collapse for a selected subset of papers with more than 30 citations within 30 years across journals in physics in the 1960s, based on WSB model 46 . The red line corresponds to the cumulative distribution function of the standard normal distribution.

Technical Validation

Validation of publication and citation records.

As we select the primary papers from the original MAG dataset, we have re-counted the citations and references within the subset of primary papers. To test the reliability of updated citation and reference counts in SciSciNet, here we compare the two versions (i.e., raw MAG counts and redistributed SciSciNet counts), by calculating the Spearman correlation coefficients for both citations and references. The Spearman correlation coefficients are 0.991 for citations and 0.994 for references, indicating that these metrics are highly correlated before and after the redistribution process.

We also examine the coverage of our publication data through a cross-validation with an external dataset, Dimensions 112 . By using DOI as a standardized identifier, we find that the two databases contain a similar number of papers, with 106,517,016 papers in Dimensions and 98,795,857 papers in SciSciNet associated with unique DOIs. We further compare the overlap of the two databases, finding the two data sources share a vast majority of papers in common (84,936,278 papers with common DOIs, accounting for 79.74% of Dimensions and 85.97% of SciSciNet).

Further, the citation information recorded by the two datasets appears highly consistent. Within the 84.9 M papers we matched with common DOIs, SciSciNet records a similar, yet slightly higher number of citations on average (16.75), compared with Dimensions (14.64). Our comparison also reveals a high degree of consistency in paper-level citation counts between the two independent corpora, with a Spearman correlation coefficient 0.946 and a concordance coefficient 98 , 113 of 0.940. Together, these validations provide further support for the coverage of the data lake.

Validation of external data linkages

We further perform additional cross-validation to understand the reliability of data linkages from scientific publications to external data sources. Here we focus more on the NSF-SciSciNet publications linkages we created from raw data collection to final data linkage. We also use the same approach to validate the NIH-SciSciNet publications linkages.

Here we compare the distribution and coverage of paper-grants linkages between SciSciNet and Dimensions—one of the state-of-the-art commercial databases in publication-grant linkages 112 . Figure  6a,b present the distribution of the number of papers matched to each NSF award and NIH grant, showing that our open-source approach offers a comparable degree of coverage. We further perform individual grant level analysis, by comparing the number of papers matched to each grant reported by the two sources (Fig.  6c,d ), again finding high degrees of consistency (Spearman correlation coefficient: 0.973 for NIH grants and 0.714 for NSF grants).

Validation of data linkages between SciSciNet and Dimensions. Panels ( a, b ), The distribution of number of papers matched to each NIH and NSF grant, respectively. Panels ( c, d ), The number of papers matched to each NIH and NSF grant, respectively. All panels are based on data in a 20-year period (2000–2020).

We further calculate the confusion matrices of linkage from SciSciNet and Dimensions. By connecting the two datasets through paper DOIs and NSF/NIH grant project numbers, we compare their overlaps and differences in grant-paper pairs. For NSF, the confusion matrix is shown in Table  23 . The two datasets provide a similar level of coverage, with Dimensions containing 670,770 pairs and SciSciNet containing 632,568 pairs. 78.9% pairs in Dimensions (and 83.7% pairs in SciSciNet) can be found in the other dataset, documenting a high degree of consistency between the two sources. While there are data links contained in Dimensions that are not in SciSciNet, we also find that there exists a similar amount of data records in SciSciNet but not in Dimensions. Table  24 shows the confusion matrix of NIH grant-paper pairs between the two datasets. Again, the two datasets share a vast majority of grant-paper pairs in common, and 95.3% pairs in Dimensions (and 99.7% pairs in SciSciNet) can also be found in the other dataset. These validations further support the overall quality and coverage of data linkages in SciSciNet.

Validation of calculations of commonly used measurements

We also seek to validate the calculated metrics included in SciSciNet. In addition to manual inspection of independent data samples during data processing, along with presenting the corresponding distributions of indicators in the Descriptive statistics section, which capture general patterns, we further double-check the calculation results of these popular measurements in SciSciNet by reproducing canonical results in the science of science under a series of standardized and transparent processes.

For disruption scores, we plot the median disruption percentile and average citations on different team sizes for 48,581,274 publications with at least one citation and reference record in SciSciNet. As shown in Fig.  7a , when team size increases, the disruption percentile decreases while the average citations increase, which is consistent with the empirical findings that small teams disrupt whereas large teams develop 20 . In addition, the probability of being among the top 5% disruptive publications is negatively correlated with the team size, while the probability of being among the most impactful publications increases is positively correlated with the team size (Fig.  7b ). These results demonstrate the consistency with results obtained in the literature.

Calculating commonly used measurements in the science of science literature. ( a, b ), Small teams disrupt while large teams develop in SciSciNet. ( c ), The cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) of proportion of external citations for papers with high (top 10,000, B > 307.55), medium (from 10,001 st to top 2% SBs, 33< B < = 307.55); and low (B < = 33) sleeping beauty indexes. ( d ), The probability of a 5% hit paper, conditional on novelty and conventionality for all journal articles in SciSciNet from 1950 to 2000.

The combinations of conventional wisdom and atypical knowledge tend to predict a higher citation impact 47 . Here we repeat the original analysis by categorizing papers based on (1) median conventionality: whether the median score of a paper is in the upper half and (2) tail novelty: whether the paper is within the top 10 th percentile of novelty score. We then identified hit papers (within the subset of our analysis), defined as papers rank in the top 5% of ten-year citations within the same top-level field and year. The four quadrants in Fig.  7d suggest that papers with high median conventionality and high tail novelty present a higher hit rate of 7.32%, within the selection of SciSciNet papers published from 1950 to 2000. Also, papers with high median conventionality but low tail novelty show a hit rate of 4.18%, roughly similar to the baseline rate of 5%, while those with low median conventionality but high tail novelty display a hit rate of 6.48%. Meanwhile, papers with both low median conventionality and low tail novelty exhibit a hit rate of 3.55%. These results are broadly consistent with the canonical results reported in 47 .

In Fig.  5e , we select 36,802 physics papers published in the 1960s with more than 30 citations within 30 years of publication. By rescaling their citation dynamics using the fitted parameters, we find a remarkable collapse of rescaled citation dynamics which appears robust across fields and decades. We further validate the predictive power of the model with prior based on Shen et al . 92 , by calculating the out-of-sample prediction accuracy. We find that with a training period of 15 years, the predictive accuracy (defined as a strict absolute tolerance threshold of 0.1) stays above 0.65 for 10 years after the training period, and the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) is less than 0.1. The MAPE stays less than 0.15 for 20 years after the training period.

Sleeping beauty

We first fit the distribution of the sleeping beauty coefficients in SciSciNet (Fig.  5d ) to a power-law form using maximum likelihood estimation 114 , obtaining a power-law exponent α  = 2.40 and minimum value B m  = 23.59. By using fine-grained subfield information provided by MAG, we further calculate the proportion of external citations. Consistent with the original study 93 , we find that papers with high B scores are more likely to have a higher proportion of external citations from other fields (Fig.  7c ).

Usage Notes

Note that, recognizing the recent surge of interest in quantitative understanding of science 95 , 97 , 98 , 115 , 116 , the measurements currently covered in the data lake are not meant to be comprehensive; rather they serve as examples to illustrate how researchers from the broader community can collectively contribute and enrich the data lake. There are also limitations of the data lake that readers should keep in mind when using the data lake. For example, our grant-publication linkage is focused on scientific papers supported by NSF and NIH; patent-publication linkage is limited to citations from USPTO and EPO patents; clinical trial-publication linkage is derived from clinitrials.gov (where the geographical distribution may be heterogenous across countries, Table  25 ); and media-publication linkage is based on sources tracked by Crossref. Further, while our data linkages are based on state-of-the-art methods of data extraction and cleaning, as with any matching, the methods are necessarily imperfect and may be further improved through integration with complementary commercial products such as Altmetric and Dimensions. Finally, our data inherently represents a static snapshot, drawing primarily from the final edition of MAG (Dec 2021 version). While this snapshot is already sufficient in answering many of the research questions that arise in the field, future work may engage in continuous improvement and update of the data lake to maximize its potential.

Overall, this data lake serves as an initial step for serving the community in studying publications, funding, and broader impact. At the same time, there are also several promising directions for future work expanding the present effort. For example, the rapid development in natural language processing (NLP) models and techniques, accompanied by the increasing availability of text information from scientific articles, offers new opportunities to collect and curate more detailed content information. For example, one can link SciSciNet to other sources such as OpenAlex or Semantic Scholar to analyze large-scale data of abstract, full-text, or text-based embeddings. Such efforts will not only enrich the metadata associated with each paper, but also enable more precise identification and linkage of bio/chemical entities studied in these papers 117 . Further, although platforms like MAG have implemented advanced algorithms for name disambiguation and topic/field classification at scale, these algorithms are inherently imperfect and not necessarily consistent across datasets, hence it is essential to further validate and improve the accuracy of name disambiguation and topic classifications 118 . Related, in this paper we primarily focus on paper-level linkages across different datasets. Using these linkages as intermediary information, one can further construct and enrich individual-level profiles, allowing us to combine professional information (e.g., education background, grants, publications, and other broad impact) of researchers with important demographic dimensions (e.g., gender, age, race, and ethnicity). Finally, the data lake could contribute to an ecosystem for the collective community of the science of science. For example, there are synergies with the development of related programming packages, such as pySciSci 119 . By making the data lake fully open, we also hope it inspires other researchers to contribute to the data lake and enrich its coverage. For example, when a research team publishes a new measure, they could put out a data file that computes their measure based on SciSciNet, effectively adding a new column to the data lake. Lastly, science forms a complex social system and often offers an insightful lens to examine broader social science questions, suggesting that the SciSciNet may see greater utility by benefiting adjacent fields such as computational social science 120 , 121 , network science 122 , 123 , complex systems 124 , and more 125 .

Code availability

The source code for data selection and curation, data linkage, and metrics calculation is available at https://github.com/kellogg-cssi/SciSciNet .

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Alanna Lazarowich, Krisztina Eleki, Jiazhen Liu, Huawei Shen, Benjamin F. Jones, Brian Uzzi, Alex Gates, Daniel Larremore, YY Ahn, Lutz Bornmann, Ludo Waltman, Vincent Traag, Caroline Wagner, and all members of the Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI) at Northwestern University for their help. This work is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under award number FA955017-1-0089 and FA9550-19-1-0354, National Science Foundation grant SBE 1829344, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation G-2019-12485, and Peter G. Peterson Foundation 21048. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

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Lin, Z., Yin, Y., Liu, L. et al. SciSciNet: A large-scale open data lake for the science of science research. Sci Data 10 , 315 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02198-9

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fMRI study finds correlated shifts in brain connectivity associated with overthinking in adolescents

A new study from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine, University of Utah and University of Exeter (UK) substantiates previous groundbreaking research that rumination (overthinking) can be reduced through an intervention called Rumination-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (RF-CBT). In addition, the use of fMRI technology allowed researchers to observe correlated shifts in the brain connectivity associated with overthinking.

Study findings are published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science.

"We know adolescent development is pivotal. Their brains are maturing, and habits are forming. Interventions like RF-CBT can be game-changers, steering them towards a mentally healthy adulthood. We were particularly excited that the treatment seemed developmentally appropriate and was acceptable and accessible via telehealth during the early pandemic," said corresponding author Scott Langenecker, PhD, vice chair of research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Ohio State, who started this project while at the University of Utah.

RF-CBT is a promising approach pioneered by Ed Watkins, PhD, professor of experimental and applied Clinical Psychology at the University of Exeter. It has been shown to be effective among adults with recurrent depression.

"We wanted to see if we could adapt it for a younger population to prevent the ongoing burden of depressive relapse," said Rachel Jacobs, PhD, adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University who conducted the pilot study in 2016.

"As a clinician, I continued to observe that standard CBT tools such as cognitive restructuring didn't give young people the tools to break out of the painful mental loops that contribute to experiencing depression again. If we could find a way to do that, maybe we could help young people stay well as they transition to adulthood, which has become even more important since we've observed the mental health impact of COVID-19," Jacobs said.

In the just published trial, 76 teenagers, ages 14-17, with a history of depression were randomly assigned to 10-14 sessions of RF-CBT, while controls were allowed and encouraged to receive any standard treatment. Teens reported ruminating significantly less if they received RF-CBT. Even more intriguing, fMRI illustrated shifts in brain connectivity, marking a change at the neural level.

Specifically, there was a reduction in the connection between the left posterior cingulate cortex and two other regions; the right inferior frontal gyrus and right inferior temporal gyrus. These zones, involved in self-referential thinking and emotional stimuli processing, respectively, suggest RF-CBT can enhance the brain's ability to shift out of the rumination habit. Notably, this work is a pre-registered replication; it demonstrates the same brain and clinical effects in the Utah sample in 2023 that was first reported in the Chicago sample in 2016.

"For the first time, this paper shows that the version of rumination-focused CBT we have developed at the University of Exeter leads to changes in connectivity in brain regions in adolescents with a history of depression relative to treatment as usual. This is exciting, as it suggests the CBT either helps patients to gain more effortless control over rumination or makes it less habitual. We urgently need new ways to reduce rumination in this group in order to improve the mental health of our young people," Watkins said.

Next, the researchers will focus on demonstrating the efficacy of RF-CBT in a larger sample with an active treatment control, including continued work at Ohio State, Nationwide Children's Hospital, University of Exeter, University of Utah and the Utah Center for Evidence Based Treatment. Future directions include bolstering access to teens in clinical settings and enhancing the ways we can learn about how this treatment helps youth with similar conditions.

"Our paper suggests a science-backed method to break the rumination cycle and reinforces the idea that it's never too late or too early to foster healthier mental habits. Our research team thanks the youths and families who participated in this study for their commitment and dedication to reducing the burden of depression through science and treatment, particularly during the challenges of a global pandemic," Langenecker said.

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health and funds from the Huntsman Mental Health Institute and is dedicated to researcher Kortni K. Meyers and others who have lost their lives to depression.

• Mental Health
• Child Psychology
• Intelligence
• Disorders and Syndromes
• Child Development
• Functional neuroimaging
• Cognitive neuroscience
• Evolutionary psychology
• Psycholinguistics
• Animal cognition

Story Source:

Materials provided by Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Scott A. Langenecker, Mindy Westlund Schreiner, Katie L. Bessette, Henrietta Roberts, Leah Thomas, Alina Dillahunt, Stephanie L. Pocius, Daniel A. Feldman, Dave Jago, Brian Farstead, Myah Pazdera, Erin Kaufman, Jennica A. Galloway, Patricia K. Kerig, Amanda Bakian, Robert C. Welsh, Rachel H. Jacobs, Sheila E. Crowell, Edward R. Watkins. Rumination-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Reduces Rumination and Targeted Cross-network Connectivity in Youth With a History of Depression: Replication in a Preregistered Randomized Clinical Trial . Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science , 2024; 4 (1): 1 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2023.08.012

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