research paper highlights

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Education and Communications

How to Write Highlights for a Paper

Last Updated: March 20, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was reviewed by Gerald Posner and by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 56,170 times.

The highlights for a scientific paper make it easier for people to find it using a search engine. Ideally, your highlights serve as a sort of "elevator pitch" for your paper, describing the results and any new methods you used. Although it depends on the publisher, the highlights for a paper will usually be no more than 3 or 4 bullet-point phrases. You typically don't need to worry about your highlights until the final editing stages before your paper is published. However, strong highlights can get your paper noticed online more quickly, which can give your research a tremendous advantage. [1] X Research source

Drafting the Highlights for Your Paper

An essay open on a laptop with the main elements highlighted.

Conversely, good highlights also keep a potential reader from wasting their time. If your paper doesn't cover information that they need to know or are interested in, highlights let them know immediately so they don't have to read through half your paper before they find that out.

Step 2 Use active voice to keep your writing concise.

For example, you would write "UV rays affect skin's overall health" rather than "skin's overall health is affected by sun exposure."
Research papers often use passive voice, which is more wordy and difficult to understand. Because highlights have a strict length requirement, using active voice allows you to stay within the character limits while including the most important information from your article. For example, you might write: "Prolonged exposure to light damages skin cells."

Step 3 Revise for a general audience rather than your peers.

Use the simplest words possible, even if they aren't technically accurate. For example, instead of referring to "squamous cells," you could say "skin cells" or simply "skin." Your paper will get into the specific cells studied.

Tip: If you know a child or teenager, read your highlights to them and ask if they can understand what your paper is about. If they don't, ask them what they didn't understand and keep revising.

One method of proofreading is to read your highlights backward, moving word by word. This encourages you to focus on each individual word rather than the phrase as a whole.
It's also a good idea to let someone else give your highlights a read-through. Someone completely unfamiliar with your highlights or your paper might notice errors you've repeatedly overlooked because you know what you meant to say.

Using Proper Formatting for Your Highlights

Step 1 Ask the publisher what type of document to use for your highlights.

For example, the National Science Foundation wants each highlight on an individual Microsoft PowerPoint slide.
Highlights were introduced by the publisher Elsevier and many journals and publishers use similar procedures. If the journal or publisher tells you to use Elsevier's requirements, you can get those at https://www.elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/highlights .

If you're providing your highlights in bullet points, the bullet point itself typically isn't considered a character. However, all other spaces and punctuation are.
Some journals or publishers may also have a minimum length. Even if a specific minimum length isn't given, having a highlight that's only 2 or 3 words typically doesn't provide enough information to a potential reader to be helpful.

Tip: You can typically adjust the settings of your word processing program to count characters rather than words. This will make it easier, as you're revising, to ensure your highlights stay within the length requirements.

Step 3 Complete any required forms to grant permission to use highlights.

Double-check to make sure you've met all the publisher's requirements before you submit your highlights. Violations of the publisher's protocol could delay the publication of your paper.