language and literature research topics

Literature Research Paper Topics

This page provides a comprehensive guide to literature research paper topics , offering an extensive list divided into twenty categories, each with ten unique topics. Students can navigate the immense landscape of literature, including classical, contemporary, and multicultural dimensions, literary theory, specific authors’ studies, genre analyses, and historical contexts. From understanding how to choose the right topic to crafting an insightful literature research paper, this guide serves as a one-stop resource. Furthermore, iResearchNet’s writing services are presented, providing students with the opportunity to order a custom literature research paper with a range of impressive features, including expert writers, in-depth research, top-quality work, and guaranteed satisfaction. By exploring this page, students can find invaluable assistance and inspiration to embark on their literature research journey.

200 Literature Research Paper Topics

Literature is an expansive field that encompasses a multitude of subcategories. Below, we offer 200 literature research paper topics, neatly divided into twenty categories. Each of these themes presents a rich array of options to inspire your next research paper.

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The representation of heroism in Homer’s “Iliad”
The concept of fate in ancient Greek tragedies
Female characters in Sophocles’ plays
The importance of dialogue in Plato’s philosophical works
The depiction of Gods in “The Odyssey”
Tragic love in Virgil’s “Aeneid”
Prophecy and divination in ancient Greek literature
Wisdom in the works of Socrates
The portrayal of Athens in Aristophanes’ comedies
Stoicism in Seneca’s letters and essays
Christian symbolism in Dante’s “Divine Comedy”
The depiction of women in “The Canterbury Tales”
Heroism in “Beowulf”
The significance of dreams in medieval literature
Religious conflict in “The Song of Roland”
The concept of courtly love in “Tristan and Isolde”
The role of magic in Arthurian literature
The representation of chivalry in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”
Life and death in “The Book of the Dead”
The theme of rebellion in “The Decameron”
The influence of humanism in Shakespeare’s plays
Love and beauty in Petrarch’s sonnets
The representation of monarchy in “The Faerie Queene”
The depiction of the New World in “Utopia”
The power of speech in “Othello”
Metaphysical poetry and John Donne
Tragedy and revenge in “Hamlet”
Women in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
The concept of the ideal ruler in Machiavelli’s “The Prince”
Religion and superstition in “Macbeth”
The use of satire in Jonathan Swift’s works
Romantic love in “Pride and Prejudice”
The depiction of the bourgeoisie in “Candide”
The role of women in “Moll Flanders”
The critique of society in “Gulliver’s Travels”
The supernatural in “The Castle of Otranto”
Enlightenment principles in “Persuasion”
The concept of sensibility in “Sense and Sensibility”
The epistolary form in “Dangerous Liaisons”
The critique of colonialism in “Oroonoko”
Romanticism in the works of Wordsworth and Coleridge
The depiction of the working class in Dickens’ novels
The portrayal of women in the Brontë sisters’ works
The theme of isolation in “Frankenstein”
The symbolism in Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter”
The role of nature in Thoreau’s “Walden”
The representation of Paris in Hugo’s “Les Misérables”
The conflict between passion and reason in “Anna Karenina”
The exploration of the American South in Twain’s works
The representation of the Industrial Revolution in literature
The stream of consciousness technique in Joyce’s “Ulysses”
The fragmentation of identity in Eliot’s “The Waste Land”
The depiction of war in Hemingway’s works
The influence of psychoanalysis on Woolf’s novels
The depiction of the Lost Generation in Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”
The role of time in Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury”
The absurd in Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”
The theme of alienation in Hesse’s “Steppenwolf”
The exploration of gender in Barnes’ “Nightwood”
The use of free indirect discourse in Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary”
Metafiction in Calvino’s “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler”
The interplay of history and fiction in Pynchon’s “Gravity’s Rainbow”
The critique of consumer culture in DeLillo’s “White Noise”
The use of magic realism in Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude”
The postcolonial perspective in Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children”
The exploration of language in Barth’s “The Sot-Weed Factor”
The representation of postmodern society in Wallace’s “Infinite Jest”
The theme of power in Foucault’s works
The concept of the author in Barthes’ “The Death of the Author”
The fragmentation of narrative in Auster’s “New York Trilogy”
The theme of the American Dream in Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”
The use of dialect in Morrison’s “Beloved”
The influence of transcendentalism on Emerson’s essays
The theme of identity in Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”
The depiction of the Great Depression in Steinbeck’s works
The conflict between individualism and society in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”
The representation of the South in O’Connor’s stories
The influence of race and class in Baldwin’s “Go Tell It on the Mountain”
The exploration of freedom in Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”
The theme of disillusionment in Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”
The role of the supernatural in Shakespeare’s plays
The depiction of Victorian society in Austen’s novels
The exploration of morality in Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”
The theme of madness in Stoker’s “Dracula”
The influence of the Romantic Movement on Wordsworth’s poetry
The representation of London in Dickens’ novels
The critique of colonialism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”
The exploration of the human condition in Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse”
The theme of social class in Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights”
The use of symbolism in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
The exploration of existentialism in Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”
The theme of love and jealousy in Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”
The representation of the Russian Revolution in Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita”
The use of magical realism in Gogol’s “The Nose”
The depiction of war in Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”
The role of faith in Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov”
The exploration of freedom in Solzhenitsyn’s “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”
The theme of rebellion in Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons”
The representation of Siberia in Chekhov’s “Sakhalin Island”
The use of satire in Ilf and Petrov’s “The Twelve Chairs”
The portrayal of post-colonial society in Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”
The theme of identity in Coetzee’s “Disgrace”
The exploration of gender roles in Aidoo’s “Anowa”
The representation of apartheid in Gordimer’s “July’s People”
The use of folklore in Tutuola’s “The Palm-Wine Drinkard”
The depiction of urban life in Mwangi’s “Going Down River Road”
The theme of corruption in Soyinka’s “King Baabu”
The portrayal of women in Dangarembga’s “Nervous Conditions”
The influence of Islam in Salih’s “Season of Migration to the North”
The exploration of freedom in Ngugi’s “A Grain of Wheat”
The portrayal of family dynamics in Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club”
The exploration of historical memory in Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go”
The theme of spirituality in Tagore’s “Gitanjali”
The influence of political change in Ha Jin’s “Waiting”
The depiction of society in Murakami’s “Norwegian Wood”
The exploration of gender in Adichie’s “Purple Hibiscus”
The theme of alienation in Lahiri’s “The Namesake”
The representation of war in Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner”
The portrayal of tradition and change in Roy’s “The God of Small Things”
The exploration of culture and identity in Jin’s “A Free Life”
The use of magical realism in Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude”
The exploration of totalitarianism in Carpentier’s “The Lost Steps”
The theme of death in Rulfo’s “Pedro Paramo”
The influence of indigenous culture in Arguedas’ “Deep Rivers”
The depiction of urban life in Bolaño’s “The Savage Detectives”
The theme of revolution in Cortázar’s “Hopscotch”
The representation of family dynamics in Allende’s “The House of the Spirits”
The portrayal of political struggle in Neruda’s “Canto General”
The exploration of time and memory in Borges’ “Ficciones”
The influence of magical realism in Garcia Marquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera”
The exploration of gender roles in Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”
The theme of independence in Bronte’s “Jane Eyre”
The influence of society on women in Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own”
The depiction of family in Morrison’s “Beloved”
The representation of women’s rights in Chopin’s “The Awakening”
The portrayal of female resilience in Alcott’s “Little Women”
The exploration of women’s psyche in Plath’s “The Bell Jar”
The influence of feminism in Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”
The depiction of womanhood in Walker’s “The Color Purple”
The portrayal of female friendships in Wharton’s “The Age of Innocence”
The exploration of consciousness in Joyce’s “Ulysses”
The influence of war on society in Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms”
The representation of fragmented identity in Eliot’s “The Waste Land”
The influence of industrialization in Lawrence’s “Sons and Lovers”
The depiction of sexuality in Miller’s “Tropic of Cancer”
The exploration of existentialism in Kafka’s “The Trial”
The theme of individualism in Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway”
The portrayal of colonialism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”
The exploration of language in Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”
Marxist criticism in “The Grapes of Wrath”
Psychoanalytic criticism in “Hamlet”
Feminist criticism in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Postcolonial criticism in “Wide Sargasso Sea”
New Criticism and “The Road Not Taken”
Queer Theory and “Giovanni’s Room”
Structuralist criticism and “To the Lighthouse”
Reader-Response criticism and “Don Quixote”
Ecocriticism and “The Lorax”
Postmodern criticism and “Infinite Jest”
Existentialism in Camus’s “The Stranger”
Utilitarianism in Dickens’s “Hard Times”
Transcendentalism in Thoreau’s “Walden”
Stoicism in Aurelius’s “Meditations”
Nihilism in Dostoevsky’s “Notes from Underground”
Absurdism in Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros”
Idealism in Plato’s “The Republic”
Empiricism in Locke’s “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”
Pragmatism in James’s “Pragmatism”
Objectivism in Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”
The reflection of Victorian society in Dickens’s “Great Expectations”
Critique of American Dream in Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”
Race relations in Morrison’s “Beloved”
Exploration of societal norms in Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”
Portrayal of post-war society in Heller’s “Catch-22”
Examination of social class in Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights”
The influence of societal change in Orwell’s “1984”
Depiction of colonial society in Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”
Examination of gender roles in Chopin’s “The Awakening”
Exploration of rural life in Hardy’s “Far From The Madding Crowd”
The evolution of the fantasy genre in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”
The elements of mystery in Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes”
The origins of science fiction in Shelley’s “Frankenstein”
The use of horror elements in King’s “The Shining”
The definition of modern romance in Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”
The impact of dystopian genre in Orwell’s “1984”
The use of symbolism in the magical realism genre in Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude”
The elements of satire in Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”
The exploration of tragedy in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”
The structure of classic comedy in Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest”
The use of symbolism in works by Virginia Woolf
Examination of themes across the novels of Toni Morrison
Influence of historical context on the works of Charles Dickens
Exploration of narrative style in the works of Ernest Hemingway
Examination of William Shakespeare’s contribution to English literature
The influence of personal life on the works of Sylvia Plath
Comparison of themes across the poetry of Emily Dickinson
Analysis of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s exploration of human psychology
Examination of J.R.R. Tolkien’s creation and expansion of the fantasy genre
The influence of postmodernism on the works of Thomas Pynchon

With this comprehensive list of topics across 20 different categories, students can find an array of literature research paper topics that align with their interests and academic objectives.

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Literature and the Range of Research Paper Topics It Offers

Literature is an art form that has the power to convey emotions, evoke feelings, and bring about a change in society. This dynamic nature makes it an ideal subject for research as it encompasses an expansive array of genres, periods, themes, and techniques. In a literature research paper, one can delve into numerous facets of this intricate art form, leading to an extensive range of topics for exploration.

Literature comes in various forms, including novels, short stories, plays, and poems. Each of these forms has unique characteristics, providing ample research paper topics. For instance, one can study the evolution of the novel, the structures and styles of different kinds of poetry, or the distinct elements of drama. Moreover, one can analyze specific works or authors, examining the usage of literary devices, narrative techniques, or character development.

Furthermore, literature is closely tied to culture and history. As a result, it serves as a rich source of information about the societies in which it was created. A literature research paper can explore how different periods in history influenced the literature of the time. Topics in this category can encompass the exploration of themes in specific literary periods such as Romanticism, the Victorian Era, Modernism, or Postmodernism.

Literature also plays a pivotal role in shaping and reflecting societal norms, values, and beliefs. Therefore, one can conduct research on how literature addresses various social issues such as gender, race, class, or power dynamics. For instance, feminist readings of literature, analyses of postcolonial literature, or studies on representation in literature could all make excellent research paper topics.

Moreover, literature is a global phenomenon. Each region has its unique literary traditions, styles, and themes, leading to a wealth of research paper topics. For example, students might choose to study African American literature, Latin American literature, European literature, or Asian literature. They could examine how different cultures and societies influence the narrative structures, themes, and characters in these texts.

Another exciting aspect of literature is its ability to experiment with language and form. Avant-garde movements, such as surrealism or postmodernism, often push the boundaries of what literature can do. In this regard, one could study the evolution of literary styles, the use of innovative narrative structures, or the role of intertextuality in literature.

Not to forget, literature does not operate in isolation. It often interacts with other forms of art and media. For example, research could focus on the adaptation of novels into films, the influence of visual arts on poetry, or the intersection of literature and music.

Finally, theoretical approaches to literature offer a plethora of research paper topics. From structuralism, psychoanalysis, and deconstruction, to reader-response theory, feminist theory, and queer theory, these lenses provide different ways to interpret and understand literature.

In conclusion, the study of literature is vast, spanning across time, geography, forms, and themes. Whether one is interested in specific literary works, authors, themes, periods, or theoretical approaches, literature provides a wide array of research paper topics. Each topic is a gateway to understanding not just the text itself, but also the wider world around us. The study of literature, therefore, is not only an exploration of the text, but also an investigation into human nature, societal structures, and cultural phenomena.

How to Choose Literature Research Paper Topics

Choosing a literature research paper topic can be as intriguing as the study of literature itself. However, with such a vast array of options, it might also seem overwhelming. Here are some tips to guide you through the process of selecting the ideal topic that aligns with your interests and academic requirements.

Identify Your Area of Interest : Begin by identifying the aspect of literature that fascinates you the most. It could be a specific genre, literary period, author, literary technique, theme, or theoretical approach. Having an interest in your chosen area will fuel your curiosity, making the research process more enjoyable and engaging.
Familiarity with the Subject : Choose a topic that you are familiar with or willing to learn about. If you select a subject you know little about, make sure you’re ready to spend time understanding its intricacies before you start your research.
Scope of the Topic : Keep in mind the breadth and depth of the potential topic. While it should be narrow enough to manage within the constraints of your research paper, it should also be broad enough to provide ample material for research.
Check the Available Resources : Before finalizing the topic, ensure there are enough scholarly resources available for your research. This includes academic articles, books, critical essays, and other primary and secondary sources.
Relevance to Coursework : Your topic should align with the objectives of your coursework. It’s wise to reflect on what you have learned in your literature classes and try to incorporate that knowledge into your research.
Unique Perspective : The best research papers offer a fresh perspective or new insight into a text or topic. Try to formulate a topic that allows you to explore an unconventional viewpoint or an understudied aspect of the text.
Consider the Audience : Keep your audience in mind while choosing your topic. The level of complexity and the angle of your topic might vary depending on whether your audience comprises of your classmates, a panel of professors, or a broader academic community.
Adaptability : Your topic should be flexible enough to adapt as you delve deeper into your research. It’s common to refine or reframe your research question as you discover new information.
Interdisciplinary Approach : Consider topics that allow for an interdisciplinary approach. Literature frequently intersects with history, philosophy, psychology, and other disciplines, and these intersections often lead to enriching research.
Consult with Your Advisor : Always consult with your academic advisor or professor before finalizing your topic. They can provide valuable feedback, guide you towards useful resources, and help you refine your research question.

In conclusion, choosing a literature research paper topic is a thoughtful process that involves introspection, preliminary research, and consultation. Remember, the journey of research is just as important as the destination. The process of choosing your topic, thus, should ignite curiosity and prepare you for the intellectual adventure that is to come. With careful consideration and planning, you can choose a literature research paper topic that is engaging, manageable, and academically rewarding.

How to Write a Literature Research Paper

The journey of crafting a literature research paper is a significant part of a student’s academic voyage. It involves the exploration of themes, characters, contexts, and literary techniques that make up the literary world. Here are ten tips to help you navigate the process of writing a literature research paper:

Understanding the Assignment : Begin by thoroughly understanding your assignment. Note down the specific requirements regarding the length, format, citation style, and deadline. Make sure you understand the objective of the research paper and what is expected of you.
Choosing the Topic : As mentioned in the previous section, choosing the right topic is crucial. Make sure your topic aligns with your interest, has ample scholarly resources, and fits the scope of your assignment.
Preliminary Research and Thesis Statement : Conduct preliminary research to familiarize yourself with your topic. Based on your research, create a clear, concise, and arguable thesis statement. This will act as the backbone of your research paper, guiding your arguments and analysis.
Creating an Outline : An outline will help you organize your thoughts and arguments systematically. It typically includes an introduction, body paragraphs for each argument or point of analysis, and a conclusion.
In-Depth Research : Dig deeper into the topic, using a mix of primary and secondary sources. Primary sources in literature often refer to the text(s) you are analyzing, while secondary sources include scholarly articles, essays, and books that comment on these texts.
Close Reading and Analysis : Engage in a close reading of the primary text(s). Look for symbols, motifs, themes, character development, plot structure, and literary devices. Your analysis of these elements should support your thesis statement.
Writing the Draft : Start writing your paper based on the outline. Ensure each paragraph has a clear topic sentence and that your arguments are well-supported with evidence from the text(s). Use quotes sparingly and always explain their significance to your argument.
Citations and Formatting : Follow the citation style specified in your assignment. Properly citing your sources avoids plagiarism and gives credit to the scholars whose work you are building upon. Be consistent with formatting rules related to margins, font size, headers, and footnotes.
Revising and Editing : Always leave enough time for revising and editing. Revising involves looking at the overall structure, flow, clarity, and strength of your arguments. Editing involves fixing grammatical errors, punctuation, and spelling.
Peer Review and Feedback : Have a classmate, friend, or mentor review your paper. They can provide fresh insights, point out unnoticed errors, and suggest improvements.

In conclusion, writing a literature research paper is a process that requires patience, diligence, and creativity. While the process may seem daunting, it offers an opportunity to delve deeper into the realm of literature, strengthening your analytical skills and understanding of the text. Remember, writing is a process of exploration and discovery, and every step brings you closer to a rewarding academic achievement.

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100 Best Literature Research Paper Topics For Students

Literary research paper topics are among the most interesting to write about. Books are the best teachers for most learners. And, students love reading interesting literature books. But, when asked to write research papers, most students have difficulties choosing their topics. That’s because many issues can be investigated and written about.

For instance, literary topics can be about characters’ personalities in certain works. They can also be about particular characteristics of specific literary genres. Learners can also choose literary analysis topics that focus on the life story of famous writers or poets. But, regardless of what a learner opts to write about, they should choose interesting topics.

What are Interesting Literary Research Paper Topics?

Several factors make a topic interesting to write about. A topic for a research paper or a graduate thesis should generally be definite, specific, and innovative. Also, it should be interesting to research and write about. Here’s how to select interesting literature topics:

Think about something. Explore the idea to select a topic for which you can find sufficient research data from credible sources. Narrow down your subject if you find it too broad.

English literature topics can be classified into different categories. Here some of these categories and topics can be considered in each category.

Great World Literature Research Topics

Perhaps, you’ve been asked to write a literature research paper with a global perspective. Here are some of the literary analysis research paper topics that you can consider.

Explain how the supernatural and spirituality help in furthering the development of the plot in the Latin American literature of the early 20th century.
What themes are common in the Japanese poems of the early 20th century? How do they differ from those of the early 19th century?
Compare the early Chinese literary works and European literary works of the middle ages. How different or alike are they?
How were European literary works in the early 20th century shaped by the revolutionary works of Engels and Marx? What examples can demonstrate this influence?
Explain how the Muslim philosophers’ work of the 15th century led to new ideas and inventions across the globe.
Compare and contrast different anti-British works that originated in India in the 19th century with pro-colonialist works that came from England at the same time.
How did the nightmarish utopian future ideas of Aldous Huxley influence modern-day science fiction writers across the world?
Explain how the Antigone play by Sophocles deals with the conflict between the central characters while relating to the state laws and individual conscience.
How are the sentiments of the authors reflected in Animal Farm by George Orwell and concerns about the October Revolution?
Explain some of the examples of literary fiction pieces that have shaped cultures in the world. Have historic, societal, and cultural factors played some roles in shaping these literature pieces?
Being a prolific writer in the early and mid-19th century, Charles Dickens’s works were published in serialized forms. How and why has this approach become less fashionable?
Compare and contrast the early Japanese literature works and the early Chinese literature works. How do they differ in terms of values and culture?
Explain how comedy differs in literature across cultures. What comedy appeared in the early theatrical performances and it’s still present in modern literature?
Analyze chivalry and honor critically in the Green Knight and Sir Gawain. What are the qualities of these works from a similar period?
Compare and contrast the Odyssey and Iliad by Homer the Ancient Greek. Explain how cultures across the world have adapted the themes presented in the poem.

British Literature Research Paper Topics

Students have many topics to choose from when it comes to British literature essay topics. Here are some of the best literature topics from the works of British authors.

Discuss Victorian England’s picture with the works of Charles Dickens in mind
Discuss the theme of Orphans with the Oliver Twist character in mind
Explain how British Literature has influenced different cultures
Explain how British literature has addressed gender issues
Explain how King Lear highlights the differences between anti-heroes and villains
Explain William Shakespeare’s personality- Highlight facts and myths
Choose two famous British novels and then compare the characters in them
Explain the viewpoint of different writers about the Utopian civilization idea
With Harry Potter books in mind, explain why some literature books are considered classics
Explain how love and romantic love are presented in Charlotte Bronte’s works
Explain how modern literary works have been affected by the Victorian period works
Discuss the adultery theme in Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Who are the main characters in Lake Poets’ works?
Explain how violent imagery was used in World War I poetry
Explain talent as a theme in Milton’s on His Blindness
Explain innocence loss in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies
Explain the theme of individualism versus collectivism in Oliver Twist
Explain why the popularity of detective novels increased in the XIX century
What role did the supernatural play in Macbeth: a case study of three witches
Class demarcation in XVII century- The vengeance theme

American Literature Topics

Some teachers ask students to choose American literature research topics for certain reasons. If asked to write on such topics, here are some of the American literature research paper topics to consider.

Analyze key aspects of American ideology, particularly in the literature written before the 20th century.
Determine thematic concerns and literary styles of the major historical period of American literature between the colonial period and post-modernism.
Show the American identity uniqueness of texts
Propose connections between the American literature concerns and themes in the larger historical development and social issues that face the present world
Examine major concerns and themes that reappear across the American literature
Highlight the major themes in Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner
Explain the African American Experience with female authors like Alice Walker, Zora Neal Hurston, and Toni Morrison
Explain the predominant theme in The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Explain how Jonathan Edwards epitomizes Puritan definitions in his sermons
Explain the use of historical personalities and events by Washington Irving as the background for his works
The Crucible demonstrates how a community can be torn apart by hysteria. Explain
Explain how Sylvia Plath demonstrates the social pressure faced by women in the 1960s in the Bell Jar.
Explain how John Knowles demonstrates the impact of war on everyone
Explain the strong belief in the education power by Maya Angelou as depicted in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Explain how Thornton Wilder conveys life as a gift in Our Town
Discuss the themes of anger and pity in the Grapes of Wrath
Explain how Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck portrays the Great Depression struggles
Discuss the portrayal of the unconquerable spirit in Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
Plays by Eugene O’Neil are tragically realistic. Explain
God is humanized in The Creation poem by James Weldon Johnson. Explain

Some of the ideas here are great poetry topics. Nevertheless, they require careful research and analysis to write about.

High School Literary Essay Topics

Some topics in literature are ideal for high school essays. Here are examples of literary analysis paper topics for high school students.

Compare and contrast the major characters in your preferred book
Choose your favorite character in a book and explain your reasons for liking it
Please explain why the quality of a literature book is not determined by its length
Highlight the similarities of your favorite books
Discuss the top 4 authors in horror books
Explain why reading some books is more difficult than reading others
Explain what it takes to write a high-quality poem
Who is your favorite poet and why?
Explain what makes your favorite book interesting
Who is your favorite character in literary works and why?
What makes some literature books difficult to read?
Who are your favorite top 5 authors and why?
Should the age of readers be restricted to some books?
What is your favorite literary genre?
Explain why the author determines the quality of a book more than the story
Discuss the literary works of your favorite authors
Why is it important to captivate readers with the introductory chapter of a book?
Which book genre makes great movies?
Why is the work of Harry Potter so popular?
Explain why your favorite horror book is scary

Unique Research Topics in English Literature

Some literature research topics are unique and can be written about by learners at different study levels. Here are examples of such topics.

Analyze the use of literary devices in novels
Discuss the author’s autobiography
Analyze literary genres and the role played by an artist in them
Compare the works of a similar genre
Highlight the gender roles of characters in literary works
Social stratification and Harry Potter- Discuss
With Charles Dickens’ work in mind, explain the peculiarity of the bildungsroman genre.
Explain how The Lord of the Rings uses artificial language
Explain how the Sherlock Holmes image influences the world of detective fiction
Explain the war theme in the world literature

These are also great literary journalism topics. Nevertheless, they require extensive research to write about.

In a nutshell, students have many literary argument topics to consider. The most important thing is to choose an interesting topic that you can find sufficient data to write about. Also, don’t hesitate to check our history topics .

Literature Research Paper Topics: 250 Top Ideas

Speech Topics
Basics of Essay Writing
Essay Topics
Other Essays
Main Academic Essays
Basics of Research Paper Writing
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Chicago/ Turabian
Data & Statistics
Methodology
Admission Writing Tips
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Studying Tips
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Are you looking for an engaging literary research paper topic? Whether you're writing a college-level essay or a master's thesis, the right literature research paper topics can make all the difference. They range from exploring particular genres or authors to examining the use of language in literary works. By researching these topics, you will gain a greater understanding of the ideas, improve your critical thinking skills, and learn to appreciate the nuances. This article will explore such literature topics for research and open up endless possibilities for analysis and interpretation, ranging from classic to modern-day texts. Are you ready to choose a trending topic and write a paper that will win your professor’s heart?

What Are Literary Research Paper Topics?

Literary research paper topics focus on a particular literary work, such as a book, poem, novel, play, or story. They provide a great starting point for researching the specific aspect you're planning to explore for a better perception of the idea and help to eliminate any artificial facet. Literary research topics may analyze a single text, compare different writings by the same author, or contrast different authors' styles. Common literature topics for research papers comprise symbolism, characterization, themes, plot structure, historical context, point-of-view analysis, biographical contexts, and intertextual connections. These research paper topics may also focus on how an author has been interpreted or evaluated over time, analyzing the critical reception of their works and examining any changes within literary canonization. Additionally, these topics can explore how literary works intersect with other disciplines, such as philosophy, psychology, sociology, politics, or economics.

Characteristics of Good Literature Research Paper Topics

Literary research paper topics are usually considered good when they are:

Relevant They should be engaging, thought-provoking, and appropriate to the academic work.
Specific Similarly, good literature research topics must have a narrow focus and not be overly broad.
Interesting They should pique your interest and encourage you to explore and aspire to know more about the literary work.
Challenging Deep analysis, thoughtful reflection, and creative thinking are also vital.
Unique They should be memorable and offer new insights into academic work.

With these important characteristics of literary topics for research papers in mind, you're ready to start writing!

How to Choose a Literature Research Paper Topic?

Choosing a literature research paper topic can be daunting, but with careful thought and planning, you're sure to find the perfect one. In order to do this, you need to complete the following:

Brainstorm: First, start by brainstorming topics that interest you. Think about the works you've been studying, authors and genres you enjoy reading, and themes that have resonated with you.
Narrow it down: Once you've identified a few research topics that intrigue you, narrow them down to one that is most relevant and specific.
Research: Explore if it is relevant. This will guarantee that you have enough material to work with.
Refine: Once you have researched, refine your topic to ensure it is specific and engaging. Consider the most interesting aspects and how they can be explored further.
Choose: Finally, choose the title that best reflects your interests and passions for an enjoyable research experience!

With these tips, you can find the perfect literary research paper topic! Don’t have time for reading piles of books? Get professional help with research paper writing from StudyCrumb and have your study completed by a real pro.

List of Literature Research Paper Topics

A list of literature topics for research offers a wide range of literary-related issues that can be explored and studied for your project. It includes ideas that could spark your creativity and help you choose the best title. Whether you're interested in exploring the works of Shakespeare or examining modern literature, this list of literary research paper topics has something for everyone!

Use of symbolism in romantic poetry.
Importance of technology within cyberpunk genres.
Impact of fantasy on contemporary culture.
Representation of male or female authors as represented by classic literary works.
Postmodernist views of time and space in literature.
Representation of race and ethnicity within contemporary fiction.
Representation of LGBTQ characters in literary works.
The role of mythology during the era of ancient works.
Social media impact on modern texts.
Classic and contemporary literary criticism.

Interesting Literary Research Paper Topics

If you are interested in classic books or modern trends, these ideas can be a fascinating starting point for your project. They include theories, criticism, comparison, and specific authors or genres. Besides providing an analysis of the work, a literary research paper topic could also comprise examining different themes. Explore the following interesting literature topics for your project:

Literary influences of Jane Austen's works.
Symbolism as represented by gothic texts.
Relevance of classic mythology within contemporary fiction.
The role of magic or fantasy in children's literature.
The role of women in Victorian literature.
Representation of race and ethnicity in early 20th-century literature.
Themes of love and loss in romantic poetry.
The use of horror genres in contemporary fiction.
Postcolonialism's impact on literary works.
Nature in 19th-century literature .
Representation of LGBTQ characters as represented by contemporary fiction.
Technology's impact on modern literary works.
Classic and contemporary interpretations of gothic texts.
The role of magic and fantasy in modern literary works.
Representation of death and loss in 20th-century works.

Great Literature Research Paper Topics

A list of great literature research topics provides a variety of ideas related to literary works. These research topics in literature can offer an exciting starting point for your English paper:

Rebellion themes in Shakespeare's tragedies.
Class and economic status in Victorian texts.
Symbolism in romantic poetry.
Impact of British imperialism on literary fiction worldwide.
Gender and sexuality representation in early 20th-century writings.
Postcolonialism in 19th-century fiction.
The literary influence of WWII on modern writings.
Vampires' role in gothic literary texts.
Use of fantasy in childhood writings.
Technology's impact on contemporary literary works.
Race and ethnicity as represented by postmodern fiction.
Religion in romantic poetry.
Themes of love and loss in 20th-century texts.
Horror genres in literary fiction.
Postmodernism's impact on contemporary literary works.

Unique Literature Research Paper Topics

Unique literature topics for research papers can help students explore new concepts and gain a deeper understanding of their subject. Below are rare literature paper topics for you to review:

The role of jealousy in 17th-century literary works.
Gender identity as represented by reformist fiction.
Mythological figures as portrayed by Greek and Roman poetry.
The relationship between gender and power in Shakespeare's plays.
Themes of isolation in 20th-century British poetry.
Metaphors in the works of Gabriel García Márquez .
Themes of rebellion and revolution in African American literary texts.
The role of women in medieval romance literature.
Poverty representation in Victorian novels.
Themes of oppression and freedom in colonial Latin American texts.
Use of metaphor and allegory in Dante's divine comedy.
Influence of industrialization on 19th-century fiction.
Dystopian settings within modern literature.
Religion in contemporary fiction.

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Controversial Literary Research Paper Topics

Controversial literary research topics can provide students with an opportunity to explore complex and sometimes contentious issues related to literary texts. Find below a controversial literary research paper topic for your dream English project!

Racial stereotypes during 19th-century English literature.
Themes of sexuality and desire in ancient Greek poetry.
The relationship between political power and language in Shakespeare's plays.
Conflict representation during 20th-century English fiction.
English role in colonial Indian literature.
Gender and racial representations within African American autobiographies.
Themes of justice and control in Victorian English novels.
Themes of oppression and resistance in feminist texts.
The role of English in modern Japanese fiction.
Themes of identity and belonging in postcolonial Indian literature.
Censorship, free speech, and social responsibility in 19th-century English novels.
Politics and power representations in Latin American poetry.
Gender, race, and class representations in English renaissance drama.
English as a tool for political ideology within the works of George Orwell.
Language used to defy authority during modern fiction writing.

Fresh Literature Research Paper Ideas

Coming up with fresh ideas for literature research topics can be daunting. Students may want to look at the works they have studied or venture outside the traditional reading list and explore different authors and genres. Some literature research paper ideas comprise studying how certain authors influenced the literary movement, analyzing how language has been used throughout history, or examining gender, race, and class representations from a literary text. Here is a perfect list of fresh ideas!

Aesthetics as presented by postmodern fiction.
The theme of loss as portrayed by African authors .
Use of language throughout history.
Identity and belonging representation in contemporary young adult fiction.
The intersection between art and literature in modern poetry.
Themes of authority, rebellion, and revolution in medieval epic poetry.
Role of fantasy in horror fiction.
Gender, race, and class representations within British romanticism.
American literary realism and naturalism.
Influence of symbolism on French modernist poetry.
Construction of memory within African American autobiographies.
Representation of narrative time in Latin American fiction.
Social injustice theme during early 20th-century American drama.
The relationship between social identity and language during postcolonial fiction.
Values and beliefs representations as presented by ancient Greek mythology.

Literature Research Paper Topics for Students

For students looking for research topics in literature for study, there is a wide variety of options available. Depending on the level and course, they might focus on analyzing particular authors, literary movements, or genres, exploring the use of language throughout history, or examining representations of gender, race, and class in books. You also need to study literary devices and their effects on readers when exploring literary topics for a research paper . Below are examples of literature topics for different students:

Literature Research Paper Topics for High School

These are literature topics to research, specifically tailored to high school students. They involve exploring the influence of literary work on culture, analyzing a single author's literary movement or genre, or investigating language use throughout history. This list of research topics in literature for high school provides an original starting point for your literary project!

Racism as presented during early 20th-century works.
Social criticism within contemporary dystopian young adult fiction.
Folklore's impact on contemporary poetry.
Representation of nature in modern literature.
Spirituality as portrayed by reformist literature.
Social class representation within postmodern novels.
The theme of environment in romantic works.
Colonialism representation during postcolonial works.
Effects of pop culture on modern fiction.
Mental illness representation during 19th-century poetry.
The role of music and art in early 20th-century literary texts.
Literature's influence on identity building in minority cultures.
Family dynamics in postmodern poetry.
Family and community representations during gothic fiction.
Literature as a tool for social change.

Literature Research Paper Topics for College Students

These titles entail more serious and in-depth scrutiny than a high school literary paper. A college-level literary research paper topic provides students with a broader range of analysis. It encompasses looking at literature as a form of political commentary to get its relationship with other art forms. Below are literature research paper topics for college students:

Identity construction during postmodern poetry.
Alienation themes within modern fiction.
Gender role representations in Shakespearean tragedies.
The relationship between narrative and memory within Holocaust literature.
Nature's role in contemporary American fiction.
Authority and subversion themes during the early 20th-century drama.
Race, class, and gender representation within African American autobiographies.
Social media influence the literary language.
The relationship between social identity and language in postcolonial fiction.
Values as presented by ancient Greek mythology .
Psychological distress during 20th-century war narratives.
Attitudes towards mental illness as portrayed by gothic texts.
The relationship between science and literary imagination.
Social hierarchy within Victorian novels.
Religion's role in southern American literature.

Literary Research Paper Topics by Categories

Research paper topics for literature by category offer an exclusive and stimulating perspective on literary analysis worldwide. They can be grouped into literary movements, authors, and genres, as well as topics related to language and history. If you are interested in European, American, and English literature topics, these ideas will help you find the perfect literary research paper topic for your project.

World Literature Research Paper Topics

Research paper topics for world literature allow students to explore literary works from any part of the world, including texts written in English, Spanish, and other languages. Below is a list that provides original world literature research topics for any project:

Impact of colonialism on native literary traditions.
Gender representation within French literature.
Religion's role within literary works from Latin America.
Symbolism in English poetry from the 19th century.
Themes of nationalism within modern Russian fiction.
Power and politics in Spanish plays.
Conflict as portrayed by African literature.
The role of folklore within Chinese fiction.
Themes of cultural identity in Japanese drama.
Family ties in Italian poetry.
Symbolism in Arabic literature.
Social class representation in Indian novels.
Impact of globalization on middle eastern fiction.
Human rights themes by contemporary Australian poets.
Western representations of other cultures in modern literature.

American Literature Research Paper Topics

In research paper topics for American literature, you examine the works of early American writers and poets, as well as those from later periods. Here is a list of American literature topics for your paper!

Attitudes towards race in early American novels.
Colonialism during 19th-century poetry.
Freedom and rebellion themes within revolutionary literature.
The emergence of gothic horror in American fiction.
Impact of transcendentalism on American writing.
Gender representation during pre-civil war literature .
Themes of morality in post-World War II American fiction.
Role of religion during 19th-century American novels.
Slavery and its abolition by American poets.
Social class representation during early American drama.
Themes of identity in postmodern American fiction.
Industrialization of 20th-century literature.
War and conflict representation by contemporary American playwrights.
Racism in 20th-century American novels.
Assimilation and immigration themes in post-World War II American literature.

British Literature Research Paper Topics

In British literature research topics, you explore works from early British writers to contemporary authors. Ideally, research topics for British literature should encompass works written by authors from all eras, including Medieval, Renaissance, and modern. Here is a list of English literature research paper topics for your perfect essay!

Gender representation during medieval English literature.
Colonialism's effects on British literary works during the 18th century.
Influence of British writers on modern literature.
The role of nature in 18th-century British novels.
Interpretations of classic British literary works.
Social class representations during 19th-century British fiction.
Themes of love and romance within Victorian literature.
Industrialization's impact on 20th-century British novels.
Patriotism and nationalism during post-World War II literary work.
Multiculturalism representations in postmodern British fiction.
Effects of censorship on British authors during the 20th century.
Mental health representation in modern British poetry.
Representation of historical events in British works throughout time.
Technological representations in 21st-century British Novels.
Intersectionality by contemporary British playwrights.

Did you know that you can generate a bunch of title ideas using our Research Paper Topic Generator ?

European Literary Research Paper Topics

European literature research paper topics offer an excellent opportunity to explore the works of European authors. They allow you to study and analyze the academic traditions and cultures of some of Europe's most influential writers. You can find such literary research paper topic ideas in the list below:

Representations of the European monarchy in classic novels.
Censorship effects on European authors during the 20th century.
Impact of World War II on European authors.
Gender representations within Victorian poetry.
Literary works from different countries and cultures in Europe.
Use of language, symbolism, and imagery to explore themes in European texts.
Themes of nature and environment within German short stories.
Technology representations in late Victorian poetry.
Popular culture's influence on European literary movements from the 20th century to modern times.
Impact of European literary works on people's perceptions of other cultures.
Use of supernatural elements within European gothic writings from the 18th to 19th centuries.
Identity representations in French social realism texts.
Technology's impact on contemporary European literary works.
Family and community representations during post-war theater.
Themes of justice and injustice within European dystopian texts.

Literature Research Paper Ideas by Periods

You may aspire to find literature topics for research papers from different historical periods. This involves studying literature from various cultures or eras, such as ancient, medieval, or modern ones. These ideas also cover the examination of themes and symbols used in writings and scrutinizing characters and their development through various works. Other topics include the exploration of texts from a political perspective in relation to their historical contexts. These ideas contain some literary research topics from various periods:

Ancient Literary Research Paper Topics

There are many exciting options to consider if you're looking for ancient literature research paper topics. They can be studied with regard to history, culture, art, and philosophy. To gain more insight, you could explore the works of Homer, Henry James, Virgil, and the Mahabharata, or old Egyptian writings, such as The Iliad and Odyssey . Below is a list of ancient literature topics for research you can choose from.

Gender representations in epic poetry.
Role of mythology and religion in ancient texts.
Influence of philosophy on ancient literature.
Power representations in Greek tragedy.
Heroism by early epic authors.
Love and marriage in ancient texts.
Ancient narratives of war and conflict.
Slavery representations in Roman poetry.
The role of music and art in classical literature.
Nature representations in ancient texts.
Politics' influence on Greek comedy.
Family and community representations in roman narratives.
Characters' representation in epic poetry.
The role of technology in early literary works.
Representations of the divine in ancient texts.

Read more: History Research Topics for Students

Medieval Literature Research Paper Topics

The medieval literary study provides a unique opportunity to explore literature research topics of the Middle Ages. From Beowulf to The Canterbury Tales , these works offer insights into this era's cultural beliefs and values. Here are such literary topics for research papers to focus on:

Representations of medieval chivalry in literary works.
Religion's influence on medieval works.
Gender representation in medieval texts.
The role of magic in medieval narratives.
The impact of feudalism on medieval texts.
Honor and loyalty representations by chivalric texts.
The role of courtly love in medieval works.
Knights and warriors' representations in literary works.
Warfare representations in medieval texts.
The role of education and learning in medieval literature.

Renaissance Literary Research Paper Topics

The Renaissance literature research paper ideas explore works of literature during the Renaissance era, which spanned from the 14th to the 17th century. They focus on the themes, authors, and literature of this period to provide a better understanding of how literary works have evolved within this timeframe and their impact on our current literature. Some of the most influential figures who contributed immensely to writings during this era were William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes. If you are interested in researching this period, you can consider a literature research paper topic from the list below:

Love and romance representations in Renaissance texts.
Science and technology in 16th-century literature.
Class and social status representations in Renaissance literary works.
Classical mythology in Renaissance poetry.
Representations of family and community in Renaissance narratives.
Effects of humanism on Renaissance literature in Europe.
Imagery role by William Shakespeare .
Representations of art, music, and theater in Renaissance texts.
Politics' role in 16th-century literary texts.
Nature representation by John Milton or Torquato Tasso.
Exploration influence on Renaissance narratives.
Influence of Renaissance literature on modern writing.
Women's representation in literary texts by Anne Bradstreet or Aphra Behn.
Magic and supernatural representations in literary works of Renaissance.
Humanism and individualism themes within Renaissance literature.

Romantic Literature Research Paper Ideas

Romantic literature emerged during the late 18th century and flourished throughout the early 19th century in Europe. It is characterized by its focus on emotion and depictions of nature. This movement had a lasting impact on literary works and has been highly influential. Research topics in literature can explore the writings of authors such as Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Wordsworth. Here are some ideas related to romanticism:

Nature representations in Romantic texts.
The role of emotion as depicted in 19th-century literature.
Influence of Romantic authors on modern literature and culture.
Women's representation in Romantic narratives.
Industrialization impact on 19th-century texts.
Influence of religion and superstition in early Romantic texts.
Use of technology to discuss themes in Romantic texts from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
The role of education as portrayed by Romantic narratives.
Character analysis and plot structure in gothic fiction.
Nationalism and patriotism as represented by post-Napoleonic war poems.

Modernist Literary Research Paper Topics

Modern literature emerged during the early 20th century until the end of World War II. It is characterized by a rejection of traditional conventions and focused on experimentation with form. This movement had an unprecedented impact on literature research topics and is highly influential today. If you are looking for literary topics for research papers that focus on modernism, consider exploring the following:

Nature representations by modern texts.
Social inequality in 21st-century novels.
Modernism's influence on current literature and culture.
Climate change within contemporary fiction.
Impact of social injustice on 20th-century literary works.
Urbanization representations by modern literary texts.
Education's influence on modernist narratives.
Wealth and power in early modernist texts.
Themes of urban life by Ezra Pound or Wallace Stevens.
Modernism's impact on classical literature.
Globalization themes within postmodern poetry.
Multiculturalism themes in contemporary literary works.
Mental health representations in modern British novels.
Global conflict representation in modern fiction.
The influence of psychoanalysis on modernist literature.

Current Literature Research Paper Ideas

Current literature paper topics can look at the latest trends. They include exploring contemporary works such as Harry Potter by J.K Rowling and Stardust by Neil Gaiman. These topics may also involve analyzing social media's effects on literary writings. If you are looking for current literary topics for a research paper, consider the following:

Technological impact on literary works in the 21st century.
Art, music, and theater in modern texts.
Impact of conflict on recent literary works.
Social injustice in 21st-century narratives.
Racism, ethnicity, and slavery in contemporary texts.
Wealth and power in recent literary works.
Globalization themes in postmodern poetry.
Urbanization in modern writings.
Immigration within postmodern British novels.

In case you need more paper topics, feel free to browse our blog. We have a wide arsenal of ideas starting from philosophy research paper topics to education research paper topics .

Bottom Line on Literature Research Paper Topics

Literature topics for research can explore a wide range of themes and works. Whether you are looking for visionary ideas about poetry, fiction, or books from different eras, there is no shortage of literature paper topics to choose from. To narrow down your focus and find the best idea for your project, consider researching literary movements, reading widely, and thinking about the areas that interest you most. Literature topics for research papers should be chosen based on students' interests and areas of expertise. By conducting in-depth research, you will gain a greater appreciation for literary work and its impact on society. With this article as a guide, you can take the time to find a topic that speaks to you and create an engaging research paper.

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221 Awesome Literary Research Paper Topics To Choose From

Are you looking for the best literary research paper topic or wondering how to choose a topic for a literary research paper? You are at the right place. The hardest part of doing research is getting an ideal topic. Once, you get a great topic you are good to go.

We have a great number of best-rated expert writers that can provide well-done professional papers. As students in college, we understand that high payment rates can be frustrating, that’s why we offer cheap prices for high-quality work. We offer the best help with research papers to get top grades. Browse through this variety of topics to find the best fit for you.

Literature Research Topics

Getting an ideal literature research paper topic can consume a lot of time. In this category, you will get some of the best literature research topics.

Discuss the American dream in literature.
How do religion and literature correlate?
Discuss the “stream of consciousness” style of literature.
Examine artificial languages in literature.
How is mythology termed in literature?
Discuss why Harry Potter became that popular.
Is it advisable for literature to be gendered?
Evaluate between utopian and dystopian literature.
Discuss the work of Shakespeare.
How can you rate the feminist literature – does it have a ground?
Evaluate the impact of the work of Shakespeare.
Can fan fiction be considered an independent part of literature?
How do clichés work in literature
How are the Byronic characters in literature?
Discuss the good and evil of studying literature.
The literary work during WWI
Evaluate the portrayal of war and peace by George Orwell.

Interesting Literature Topics

Did you know that there are interesting literature topics? They deal with the evolution of literature and how it has grown till the present time. Thinking of literature topics for research paper is challenging, so here are some more options.

How can you term irony and sarcasm in literature?
How can literature be termed as an instrument of propaganda?
Discuss madness in literature.
The influence of trickster characters in literature.
Discuss travel writing in the 20 th century.
Evaluate narrative nature and verse since 1900.
How has city living changed since 1900?
Evaluate literature as part of modern culture.
How are social issues exposed in literature?
The relation between literature and psychology.
The influence of European culture in the Midwest literature.
The differences between the literature of different countries.
The effect of European culture on modern literature.
The impact of feminism on modern culture.
Evaluate Japanese literature in the 20 th century.

Literature Topics for a Research Paper

In this category, you will get a wide variety of literature topics that you can use for your research. A well-written research paper will help you get top grades.

What can you term as the cultural production of Latina writers?
Discuss the representation of Ethics in literature.
Evaluate the famous work of Ernest Hemingway.
Expound on the invented languages in literature.
Why do you think “Harry Potter” has become so popular?
How is the Image of death represented as a character in literature?
The impact of literature on kids.
Is there an appropriate gender in literature?
Evaluate the Victorian literature.
Elaborate on the complete work of William Shakespeare.
Discuss whether fanfiction is independent literature.
Which are the Byronic characters in literature.
Elaborate irony versus sarcasm in literature.
How can literature be used as an instrument of propaganda?

Literature Research Paper Topics

In this category of research paper topics, you get to relate one phenomenon with the other. They are also based on some well-known novels. When thinking of literary topics for research paper, consider your scope of knowledge and interest in the topic.

The correlation between psychology and literature.
How is the construction of social identity?
How can you describe the settler nationhood and the wilderness in North American poetry?
Why does place matters to a poet?
Evaluate travel writing in the 20 th century and 21 st century.
The influence of animals in children’s literature.
Evaluate the importance of humor in children’s literature.
Discuss the best children’s novels from 1900.
How does young adult literature represent disability?
How to read to under five years old children to develop relationships and imaginations?
Evaluate the modern novel and psychology.
Define the cross-disciplinary boundaries between archaeology and English literature.
Evaluate the 19 th -century novel and science.
Evaluate how history is important in deciphering modern literature.
How is philosophy important to literature.

English Literature Research Paper Topics

In English literature, it focuses on how various novels, classics, or books are written to explain a certain phenomenon. Here are some literature topics that you can start with:

Evaluate the methods of teaching English literature.
Investigate modern Indian literature in English translation.
Evaluate women writers and the survey of English literature.
Investigate the impact of the Bible on English literature.
Evaluate the impact of the Classics on Literature.
Define the scope of English literature in Educating people.
Explain the influence of Darwin on Literature.
Explain medieval English literature.
Examine Women studies and Feminism in India.
Evaluate the short history of the Norton Anthology of the English language.
Evaluate the English Renaissance study.
Investigate medieval feminism in middle English Studies.
Evaluate women in Indian English Literature.
Discuss feminism and modern Indian literature.
Discuss the evolution of English in North America.

Topics in Literature

Literature requires full concentration to get to the bottom of a certain phenomenon. We have simplified the topics to make it easier for you to do your assignment in college.

Discuss Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet based on Male melodrama.
How as black lives matter movement influenced black literature?
Evaluate the contemporary refuge literature.
Investigate post-colonialism and climate change in literature.
Discuss tradition and modernity through the lens of Tagore Gora.
Investigate the relation between pre-independence and post-independence in Indian literature.
The role of African literary responses to Racism.
The literature on homosexuality.
The significance of Literature in the modern world.
Feminism growth in the twentieth century.
The effects of fairy tales perceptions in the modern era.
Correlation between pre-independence and post-independence Indian literature.
Discuss the novel, “To kill a Mockingbird from 1960”.
The significance of Shakespeare in the world of Literature.
How did the artistry of writing novels start?
The character analysis of Emy and Rebecca in Vanity Fair.
The Depiction of vampires in the 19 th and 21 st -century literature.

Research Topics in English Literature

In this category, there are comparison topics that you can analyze for your research. These are based on well-known books and novels in English.

Evaluate the diversity of Chaucer’s genres in tales of Canterbury.
The accuracy of historical novels in the document happenings.
How has the role of a woman changed in twentieth-century literature?
What effect does Milton’s paradise lost have on 17 th -century literature?
How have James Joyce and William Burroughs done their novels?
What is our modern perspective about 19 th -century novels and the general public and similar perspectives when they were first published?
Evaluate the less-known work of well-known writers.
Examine why adults find Lord of the Rings appealing.
How does the work of Maya Angelou play a role in African literary responses to racism?
Recognizing the unconscious in modernist literature.
Evaluate the representation of Hindu and Buddhist thought in Modern Literature.
The representation of abortion in British Literature.
Profess poetry in terms of style and faith in Hopkins.
Evaluate the evolution of literature in the twentieth century.
Describe the writing nature in the age of chemical countryside.

Literature Topics for Research Papers

These are some of the best literature topics for research papers. They require minimal effort to submit a well-written research paper.

The roles of gender in modern literature.
The importance of having animals in children’s literature.
Analysis of the first world war.
How accurate is History as described in historical novels?
The difference between literature in the US and Great Britain.
Analyze the 19 th -century poetic imagination.
Examine the 19 th -century poetic imagination based on astronomy.
How is quantum physics applied in literature?
What is the most important work written by William Shakespeare?
The Female masculinities in old English Literature.
The difference between modernism and realism.
Critical analysis of First World War poetry.
The analysis of the meaning of fairy tales in literature.
The influence on literature during the renaissance era.
The historical analysis of children’s literature.
The idea of death in Renaissance literature.
The historical background of Duma’s novels.

Literary Topics for a Research Paper

Literary topics are diverse. This can make it hectic to choose an appropriate one for your research paper.

Discuss the most important work of Shakespeare.
Describe the gothic novel’s gender representation.
The effect of social media language on learners.
The travails of the African woman.
The utilization of language activities in teaching and learning of English Language.
Discuss women in nation-building and influence on literature.
The relevance of folktale in the learning of literature.
The significance of drama and poetry in literature.
Factors affecting the choice of language in a multilingual society.
Comparative study of morphological processes in English.
Comparative study of Achebe’s “Things fall apart”.
The significance of proverbs in literature.
The influence of politics in the building of literary texts.
The analysis of speech in literature.
The analysis of threat in literature.

Research Topics in Literature

These research topics are based on various societal aspects and impacts on the world. They also deal with people’s emotions and behaviors in different contexts.

The nativization of English in African literary texts.
An analysis of the Asian theatre and influence on modern literature.
The examination of leadership in literature.
The relevance of literature in the world.
What is the need to study literature?
Evaluate the evolution of literature from the start till now.
Analyze the methods used in creating styles in the literature.
What are some of the feminist criticism of some selected Feminist works?
The importance of fiction in literature.
The relevance of emotion and narration in novel writing in literature.
Discuss how conflicts are brought out in literary novels.
What is the effect of language diversity on the development of a country?
Discuss the relevance of music and revolution.
The challenges of language on national development.
What is the communication medium used in literature?

Literature Paper Topics

Here are some of the best literature paper topics that you can use for your research. As long as you narrow down the research topic, getting relevant information will be easy.

The difference between linguistic and grammatical theories.
The problems related to tenses in literature.
The evaluation of word formation in literature.
The significance of poems in literature.
The evolution and levels of modern literature.
The personal happiness versus societal norms in Victorian literature.
The sentence structure of English literature.
Does the native language of a person influence adoption of a second language?
An analysis of problems associated with learning a second language.
The manifestation of non-standard usage of English among University Students.
The influence of rituals, music, songs, and dances in literature.
The poetic language and influence on the expression.
How can literature be termed as the vehicle for social change?
The syntactic problems associated with English usage.
The influence of society on students’ performance in literature.
Teaching and learning strengths in literature.

American Literature Research Paper Topics

Finding an ideal research paper topic in America’s context can consume a lot of time. Here you will find simplified topics for your research paper.

Discuss contemporary American Literature.
The African Realism and influence in Literature.
How did colonization influence modern literature?
Define 20 th -century Latin American literature.
Evaluate African Americans and their fight for equality in American Literature.
Define realism, naturalism, and modernism in African American literature.
Evaluate Allen Ginsberg and American Protest literature.
Examine American literature and society.
Analyze American literature in Post-World War II.
American Literature in the 20 th and 21 st century.
American literature and religious ideologies.
Anne Bradstreet’s contribution to American Literature.
The influence of Asian American literature.
Evaluate the color interpretations in the great Gatsby.
The common themes in American Literature.

Literature Research Paper Topics for College Students

Are you a college student looking for an ideal literature research paper? Here are some topics for you!

Provide your understanding of censorship in American Literature.
Evaluate black American women writers and their influence on the world.
Architectural imagery in 20 th century African American literature.
How do characters lose their innocence in literature?
The different modes of communication in literature.
The conversation of American Sign Language in literature.
How are dialects and death shown in literature?
How does Literature portray American culture?
How does self-verification occur in African American Literature?
The generational divide and impact on modern literature.
The establishment of traditional excellence.
Explore the modern literature.
How can you define masculinity in literature?
The impact of World War I on American literature.
The significance of African American literature addressing the black experience.
The male and female characters in Beowulf.
The relationship between mother and daughter in Beloved.

Literature Review Topics Examples

Do you know how to do a literature review on various topics? Try any of this and see your proficiency in the sector.

A literature review on rational and rationality.
A literature review on dependence and development.
A literature review on resource scarcity in the modern world.
A literature review on pop culture.
A literature review on Feminist international relations.
A literature review on complex organizations and regimes.
A literature review on censorship in TV shows.
A literature review on global warming and its influence on mankind.
Literature review on why children’s books are popular.
A literature review on how authors choose writing styles.
The use of artificial language in literature.
How education affects literature per era.
The most effective villains in literature.
How does Shakespeare inspire modern authors?
Propaganda and literature in the modern world.
Toni Morrison’s views on the civil way
The concept of war in the book; a fable by Faulkner.

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200 Compelling Literary Research Paper Topics to Explore

Literary research holds the key to unlocking the power of knowledge and education. But what makes a research paper truly impactful? It all starts with selecting a fascinating topic. This blog post presents 300 handpicked Literary research paper topics that will ignite your scholarly pursuits. From cutting-edge trends to unexplored territories, these topics promise to fuel your intellectual curiosity and make you write like a professional writing services provider. So, let’s get started!

Table of Contents

Comprehensive Lists of Impressive Literary Research Paper Topics

Be it anything you want to research related to Literary, our comprehensive lists of topics have you covered. So, without further ado, let’s begin with our first list.

American Literature Topics for Research

Picking up a topic from this list will allow you to uncover hidden narratives, analyze iconic works, and more. Here you go with the list.

A Study of Domestic Gothic and postwar architectural culture in Shirley Jackson’s House Trilogy
Anti-racism Resistance in American Literature
Political and ideological agendas are reflected in American Literature
American Literature from a feminist point of View
Leonard Cohen’s Psalms or the demons of Tradition: the Book of Mercy and the Psalms of Leonard Cohen
An Overview of Spanish Literature Written in the United States
Correlations and contrasts between postmodernism and American Literature: A study of their relationship
Poetic Hybridity in American Poetry: existing and Resisting through Its Hybridity
Bram Stoker’s Dracula depicts vampires in what can be considered a realistic fashion
Comparison between Stephanie Meyer’s vampires vs. L.J. Smith’s vampires
How Bram Stoker’s Dracula differs from William Polidori’s The Vampire
Anne Rice vs. Stephanie Meyers: Different Approaches to writing supernatural Literature
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Evolution of the Character with Time in Literature and Movies
Illustrations of Nosferatu, the first vampire character to appear on a screen in Literature
The relation between intertextuality and social space
Depiction of La Lorna and other supernatural elements in American Literature
Contemporary literary figures of Orality: ruptures and Continuity
What is the fascination with supernatural imagery in American Literature and popular culture?
Writings in English about refugee camps in Contemporary Literature
Taking a comparative look at contemporary theater stages
Comparing The Crucible with the actual Salem witch trials

Literary Research Paper Topics Related to English Literature

Pick a topic from this list and brace yourself for an awe-inspiring journey, illuminating the profound impacts of English literature on our hearts. Here’s the list.

What is Shakespeare’s contribution to classic English Literature?
Comparison and contrast of Shakespeare and Marlowe
Shakespeare and Marlowe: busting myths
Historical and Political Analysis of English Literature during the Middle Ages
The Elizabethan Era and English Literature
An Understanding of Victorian Literature from a political perspective
Comparing Edwardian Literature with its predecessors, what makes it unique?
English Literature at its Zenith
Greek Influence on English Literature: the history of English Literature
Comparing women’s Literature to classical English literature in terms of literary and social issues
An Overview of British Fiction from the 19th Century
Women in Classic English Literature: their portrayal and Characterization
Arab civilizations influenced Literature in the early English period
A collective analysis of English Poetry from the 19th to the 20th Century
The Impact of Modernism on English Poetry
The Social and political history of Victorian England as Portrayed through English Literature
Literary explorations of British colonial slavery during the 18th and 19th centuries
Adaptation to postcolonial cultures, neo-Victorian Culture, and Postcolonial Literature
Literature of the postcolonial period versus Literature of the British period
The history of books and publishing in the 20th-21st Century in British fiction
Emotional expression and perception, semantics, lexical semantics
A History of Ideas and Literature from the 18th Century
An overview of the history of publishing and books
Aspects of Race and Ethnicity, popular culture, and Politics
Britain’s Revolutions and the Rise of Socialism: Literature that influenced them
Actors of Shakespeare’s time, the role of the Elizabethan theater
Literature’s contribution to understanding British politics and society today

Postcolonial Literary Research Paper Topics

Dig into stories that question the effects of colonialism and look into issues of identity, resistance, and decolonization. Get inspired by the captivating stories that are reshaping the history of colonialism with these topics.

A Study of Heart of The Darkness from an analytical perspective
Heart of the Darkness: Conrad’s Treatment of Africans in the Story
Achebe’s stance against the design of Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness vs. Things Fall Apart: Comparisons and Contrasts
A Look at the Treatment of Africans in Things Fall Apart
Concept of native society in Things Fall Apart
A Study of the indigenous culture of Africa in Light of Things Fall Apart
Postcolonial Literature Compared to British Literature
Literature is written in the French language dealing with postcolonialism
The Analysis of Postcolonial Literature Written in India after the End of Colonialism
Ahmed Ali’s Works as Part of the postcolonial movement: a critical analysis
An Analysis of Twilight in Delhi as a postcolonial novel through the Lens of critical theory
Depiction of the colonized races in British Literature
Conrad’s treatment of negros and the accusation of racism
A Critique of Orientalism from the Perspective of Edward Said
Elements of Postcolonialism Twilight in Delhi
The elements belonging to the narrative framework of the postcolonial theory
Understanding Postcolonialism with Edward Said’s Orientalism
An Introduction to Postcolonial Theory: Concepts and Definitions
The Evolution of the Woman within Postcolonial Literature
An Overview of Algerian Postcolonial Literature
British Literature, with its treatment of African nations
Postcolonial and Feminine Resistance in Algerian and Sahrawi States
Postcolonialism: An Effort to search its history
Identity, alterity, and Hybridity in postcolonial states
Introduction to postcolonial theory

Arabic Topics in Literature

Discover the fascinating world of Arabic Literature and explore its cultural heritage, poetic stories, and social dynamics. Here you go with the list.

Literature of the Arab World and its Influence on French Literature
The Influence of Arab Culture on Middle Ages Literature
Hayy Bin Yaqzan is the first novel by modern criteria
A collection of poetry by Shafi’i and historical, literary Analysis
A Study of Religious Literature in Arabian Civilization
Islamic Golden Ages were characterized by more significant progress in theological Literature
Poetry from the Arab world is the foundation of modern global poetry
Literature related to Mahdism in Islam
Arab-Islamic culture is significant in the Literature written in Arabic
The Evolution of Arabic Poetry and Literature
The Poetry of the Arab Diaspora and Nature’s Aesthetics
Ghazali’s literary works and acknowledgment of divine essence
A study of the relationship between Arabic poetry and music and song
Al-Gazzal’s two doors of knowledge through the heart
Iberian expansion as a cause of Islamic culture’s influence on Western Literature
Music and poetry from the pre-Islamic period in Arabic
Arab Literature and social criticism in the modern era
Aristotelian Philosophy and Greek Mythology in Modern Arab Literature
The culture and civilization of the Ottoman Empire were influenced by Arabic poetry and music
Arabic Literature’s Depiction of Morality and Politics
A Study of Arab Literature by Christian Authors
The philosophy of Islam is expressed and explained through Arabic culture
An Introduction to the History and Literature of Islam

Existentialist Literary Research Topics

Dig into the deep thinking, self-examination, and emotions of uncertainty that come with exploring the works of important writers trying to figure out life, independence, and more. Here’s the list.

The post-war emergence of existentialism
War-torn human characters reflect existentialist Literature.
What is the character of Godot in Waiting For Godot? How does Beckett explain what he is saying?
Existentialist Drama into 21st-Century of Western Literature
How does Beckett become an existential absurdist?
Samuel Becket’s Life from a contemporary perspective
The Reasons and inspirations behind Sartre’s Existentialism
Waiting For Godot is interpreted in real time and real life.
Considering Jean-Paul Sartre’s works from different perspectives.
The Existentialist Literature: a critical analysis
Horrors of War and Existentialist Literature After and About the Vietnam War
A Comparison of Absurdism and Existentialism in Western Literature
Theater of absurdity representation of existentialism
A 21st-century Take on absurdist theater as a significant part of British Literature
Existentialism: Is it Here to Stay? Getting rid of absurdity in a changing world
Does the search for meaning transcend modern man?
Existentialism in British Literature
“There is infinite hope in the universe, not for us.” How do you see Kafka as an existentialist? How does he differ from the philosophers of his field?

Literary Research Topics Related to Poetry

Check out our great research paper topics and how powerful poems can be!

Pioneers of European Literature in the realm of poetry
Inspiration for John Keats’ poetry by Fanny Brawne
The difference between Keats and his contemporaries
Analyzing John Keats’ Works from a historical perspective
The poetry of social protest in the early Renaissance
What makes the poetry of the Renaissance the most outstanding?
An early role played by Midland poets in the development of English poetry
Literature of the Highlands and its Contribution to English cultural development
The challenges of the development of English poetry
Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry
Poetry as a Pillar of Modern Literature
The Importance of legal vocabulary in a poetic context
Thinking about poetry as a critique from the Renaissance era
The genre and meaning of Auden’s poem
Poetry of Robert Frost: A study
Research on the poetry of William Shakespeare
Wordsworth as a pioneer of modern Literature
Poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson: a historical analysis
A general study of the Poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A Look and Study of the Aubreys of Innocence by William Blake
Prose versus poetry in the early Renaissance
Story of Love and Death, by Edgar Allan Poe.
Emily Dickinson is one of America’s most famous poets
Maya Angelo’s struggle for civil rights and using poetry as a vector of fight

Literary Research Topics Related to Novel

Go deep into the story, getting to know the characters and thinking about the themes to unlock the timeless charm of this popular type of writing. Here’s the list.

A Study of the Gothic Novel in the British Isles
Publishing Literature the modern novel: conditions and Sources of Innovation
History and Fiction in African-American Women’s Literature
Toni Morrison is one of the pioneers of the American novel
Covenant: An American Novel of South African History
James Michener’s works in novels and different aspects of modern American society
Modern Literature in the Film and tv industry
Novels of Thomas Hardy, a critical analysis
What is the significance of Jane Austen as a pioneer of English literature? What are your thoughts on this?
A Comparison and Contrast of American dystopian novels
Supernatural novelists of English literature, between William Polidori and Bram Stoker
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is the first supernatural novel in the history of English literature
Children’s Literature written in British territories
Postcolonial novels from a 21st-century perspective
The Vampire Diaries, the pioneering novel for gen-z supernatural fascinations
Anne Rice vs. Stephanie Meyers: what is different and what is similar
Knowledge, Power, and Authority in Contemporary Fantasy
Tensions and Expression in the Modern American Novel
Political Depiction of Christianity in American Novels and Movies

Literary Research Topics Related to Drama

Check out these cool topics to write an amazing research paper your teacher is expecting of you.

Shakespearean Drama from historical practices
Plagiarism allegations about Shakespeare
William Shakespeare vs. Christopher Marlowe: Contrasts and Comparisons
An overview of Shakespeare’s plays and how they formed modern theater and cinema
Waiting For Godot by Beckett, from a directorial and cinematic perspective
Elizabethan vs. Jacobean Drama: What makes them different?
Oscar Wilde as a playwright, from a modern perspective
Shakespeare as a pioneer of the European literature boom
Role of Queen Elizabeth I in the Promotion of English Drama and Theater
Stages of Transformation: at the Crossroads of Theater and abolitionist movements
Role of Drama in European Literature
The Drama of the 21st Century and how it differs from the Classics
Greek tragedy compared to Shakespearean tragedy
Greek Tragedy vs. Classical English Drama
Modern vs. Classical tragedy, essential comparative elements
Was European Literature initially focused on Drama? Why or why not?
The Importance of Being Earnest is one of the most beloved plays. Why?
Oscar Wild as a dramatist
Literature formed Freudianism, a psychoanalytical analysis of the plays that inspired Sigmund Freud
Mourning Becomes Electra and Oedipus Rex, how two tragedies formed the Basis of modern psychology
Literary Analysis of the Supernatural in the Plays of Marlowe
Classic vs. Modern Literature in the Area of Tragedy and Drama
Edward Bond, a playwright of hope or despair?
When does British Literature portray elements of World war
Literary devices used in early British literary works and Renaissance literature
Language diversity in historical novels in the Victorian literature era
European culture depicted in early American Literature
American literature contribution to Studies on Classical Literature
Literary Argument on literary works of the Renaissance in Comparison with Indian Literature

Interesting Literature Topics

These literary research topics can spark your interest, challenge your views, and help you appreciate Literature even more.

Travel writing for college students living the American dream
Use of poetic language and literary devices in Japanese literary works
Social identity in dystopian Literature that World War II inspired
Male and female characters in African American Literature
Literary novels in the genre of young adult literature
Literature paper on Japanese Literature depicting Post World War II modern culture
Literary Analysis of artificial language in Utopian and Dystopian Literature
The modern culture depicted in American and Asian culture
Literary Analysis of Harry Potter and novel writing for university students
Harry Potter is a significant literature contribution opening new doors to literary research.
Comparative Literary Analysis of travel writing vs. literary journalism
Literary Analysis of travel writing in Indian Literature
African literary responses to American Literature on world war in the Twentieth Century
How American Literature Differs from Modern Chinese Literature: Form and evaluate literature response on Written Literature

Hopefully, these lists of good topics for research papers have helped you pick a suitable subject and make a real difference in literary research. Remember that a good topic always plays a pivotal role in the paper’s success. If you are still trying to figure out how to proceed with your assignment , count on the professional expertise of our writers .

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Language and Literature

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Language and Literature is an invaluable international peer-reviewed journal that covers the latest research in stylistics, defined as the study of style in literary and non-literary language. We publish theoretical, empirical and experimental research that aims to make a contribution to our understanding of style and its effects on readers. Topics covered by the journal include (but are not limited to) the following: the stylistic analysis of literary and non-literary texts, cognitive approaches to text comprehension, corpus and computational stylistics, the stylistic investigation of multimodal texts, pedagogical stylistics, the reading process, software development for stylistics, and real-world applications for stylistic analysis. We welcome articles that investigate the relationship between stylistics and other areas of linguistics, such as text linguistics, sociolinguistics and translation studies. We also encourage interdisciplinary submissions that explore the connections between stylistics and such cognate subjects and disciplines as psychology, literary studies, narratology, computer science and neuroscience. Language and Literature is essential reading for academics, teachers and students working in stylistics and related areas of language and literary studies.

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211 Research Topics in Linguistics To Get Top Grades

Many people find it hard to decide on their linguistics research topics because of the assumed complexities involved. They struggle to choose easy research paper topics for English language too because they think it could be too simple for a university or college level certificate.

All that you need to learn about Linguistics and English is sprawled across syntax, phonetics, morphology, phonology, semantics, grammar, vocabulary, and a few others. To easily create a top-notch essay or conduct a research study, you can consider this list of research topics in English language below for your university or college use. Note that you can fine-tune these to suit your interests.

Linguistics Research Paper Topics

If you want to study how language is applied and its importance in the world, you can consider these Linguistics topics for your research paper. They are:

An analysis of romantic ideas and their expression amongst French people
An overview of the hate language in the course against religion
Identify the determinants of hate language and the means of propagation
Evaluate a literature and examine how Linguistics is applied to the understanding of minor languages
Consider the impact of social media in the development of slangs
An overview of political slang and its use amongst New York teenagers
Examine the relevance of Linguistics in a digitalized world
Analyze foul language and how it’s used to oppress minors
Identify the role of language in the national identity of a socially dynamic society
Attempt an explanation to how the language barrier could affect the social life of an individual in a new society
Discuss the means through which language can enrich cultural identities
Examine the concept of bilingualism and how it applies in the real world
Analyze the possible strategies for teaching a foreign language
Discuss the priority of teachers in the teaching of grammar to non-native speakers
Choose a school of your choice and observe the slang used by its students: analyze how it affects their social lives
Attempt a critical overview of racist languages
What does endangered language means and how does it apply in the real world?
A critical overview of your second language and why it is a second language
What are the motivators of speech and why are they relevant?
Analyze the difference between the different types of communications and their significance to specially-abled persons
Give a critical overview of five literature on sign language
Evaluate the distinction between the means of language comprehension between an adult and a teenager
Consider a native American group and evaluate how cultural diversity has influenced their language
Analyze the complexities involved in code-switching and code-mixing
Give a critical overview of the importance of language to a teenager
Attempt a forensic overview of language accessibility and what it means
What do you believe are the means of communications and what are their uniqueness?
Attempt a study of Islamic poetry and its role in language development
Attempt a study on the role of Literature in language development
Evaluate the Influence of metaphors and other literary devices in the depth of each sentence
Identify the role of literary devices in the development of proverbs in any African country
Cognitive Linguistics: analyze two pieces of Literature that offers a critical view of perception
Identify and analyze the complexities in unspoken words
Expression is another kind of language: discuss
Identify the significance of symbols in the evolution of language
Discuss how learning more than a single language promote cross-cultural developments
Analyze how the loss of a mother tongue affect the language Efficiency of a community
Critically examine how sign language works
Using literature from the medieval era, attempt a study of the evolution of language
Identify how wars have led to the reduction in the popularity of a language of your choice across any country of the world
Critically examine five Literature on why accent changes based on environment
What are the forces that compel the comprehension of language in a child
Identify and explain the difference between the listening and speaking skills and their significance in the understanding of language
Give a critical overview of how natural language is processed
Examine the influence of language on culture and vice versa
It is possible to understand a language even without living in that society: discuss
Identify the arguments regarding speech defects
Discuss how the familiarity of language informs the creation of slangs
Explain the significance of religious phrases and sacred languages
Explore the roots and evolution of incantations in Africa

Sociolinguistic Research Topics

You may as well need interesting Linguistics topics based on sociolinguistic purposes for your research. Sociolinguistics is the study and recording of natural speech. It’s primarily the casual status of most informal conversations. You can consider the following Sociolinguistic research topics for your research:

What makes language exceptional to a particular person?
How does language form a unique means of expression to writers?
Examine the kind of speech used in health and emergencies
Analyze the language theory explored by family members during dinner
Evaluate the possible variation of language based on class
Evaluate the language of racism, social tension, and sexism
Discuss how Language promotes social and cultural familiarities
Give an overview of identity and language
Examine why some language speakers enjoy listening to foreigners who speak their native language
Give a forensic analysis of his the language of entertainment is different to the language in professional settings
Give an understanding of how Language changes
Examine the Sociolinguistics of the Caribbeans
Consider an overview of metaphor in France
Explain why the direct translation of written words is incomprehensible in Linguistics
Discuss the use of language in marginalizing a community
Analyze the history of Arabic and the culture that enhanced it
Discuss the growth of French and the influences of other languages
Examine how the English language developed and its interdependence on other languages
Give an overview of cultural diversity and Linguistics in teaching
Challenge the attachment of speech defect with disability of language listening and speaking abilities
Explore the uniqueness of language between siblings
Explore the means of making requests between a teenager and his parents
Observe and comment on how students relate with their teachers through language
Observe and comment on the communication of strategy of parents and teachers
Examine the connection of understanding first language with academic excellence

Language Research Topics

Numerous languages exist in different societies. This is why you may seek to understand the motivations behind language through these Linguistics project ideas. You can consider the following interesting Linguistics topics and their application to language:

What does language shift mean?
Discuss the stages of English language development?
Examine the position of ambiguity in a romantic Language of your choice
Why are some languages called romantic languages?
Observe the strategies of persuasion through Language
Discuss the connection between symbols and words
Identify the language of political speeches
Discuss the effectiveness of language in an indigenous cultural revolution
Trace the motivators for spoken language
What does language acquisition mean to you?
Examine three pieces of literature on language translation and its role in multilingual accessibility
Identify the science involved in language reception
Interrogate with the context of language disorders
Examine how psychotherapy applies to victims of language disorders
Study the growth of Hindi despite colonialism
Critically appraise the term, language erasure
Examine how colonialism and war is responsible for the loss of language
Give an overview of the difference between sounds and letters and how they apply to the German language
Explain why the placement of verb and preposition is different in German and English languages
Choose two languages of your choice and examine their historical relationship
Discuss the strategies employed by people while learning new languages
Discuss the role of all the figures of speech in the advancement of language
Analyze the complexities of autism and its victims
Offer a linguist approach to language uniqueness between a Down Syndrome child and an autist
Express dance as a language
Express music as a language
Express language as a form of language
Evaluate the role of cultural diversity in the decline of languages in South Africa
Discuss the development of the Greek language
Critically review two literary texts, one from the medieval era and another published a decade ago, and examine the language shifts

Linguistics Essay Topics

You may also need Linguistics research topics for your Linguistics essays. As a linguist in the making, these can help you consider controversies in Linguistics as a discipline and address them through your study. You can consider:

The connection of sociolinguistics in comprehending interests in multilingualism
Write on your belief of how language encourages sexism
What do you understand about the differences between British and American English?
Discuss how slangs grew and how they started
Consider how age leads to loss of language
Review how language is used in formal and informal conversation
Discuss what you understand by polite language
Discuss what you know by hate language
Evaluate how language has remained flexible throughout history
Mimicking a teacher is a form of exercising hate Language: discuss
Body Language and verbal speech are different things: discuss
Language can be exploitative: discuss
Do you think language is responsible for inciting aggression against the state?
Can you justify the structural representation of any symbol of your choice?
Religious symbols are not ordinary Language: what are your perspective on day-to-day languages and sacred ones?
Consider the usage of language by an English man and someone of another culture
Discuss the essence of code-mixing and code-switching
Attempt a psychological assessment on the role of language in academic development
How does language pose a challenge to studying?
Choose a multicultural society of your choice and explain the problem they face
What forms does Language use in expression?
Identify the reasons behind unspoken words and actions
Why do universal languages exist as a means of easy communication?
Examine the role of the English language in the world
Examine the role of Arabic in the world
Examine the role of romantic languages in the world
Evaluate the significance of each teaching Resources in a language classroom
Consider an assessment of language analysis
Why do people comprehend beyond what is written or expressed?
What is the impact of hate speech on a woman?
Do you believe that grammatical errors are how everyone’s comprehension of language is determined?
Observe the Influence of technology in language learning and development
Which parts of the body are responsible for understanding new languages
How has language informed development?
Would you say language has improved human relations or worsened it considering it as a tool for violence?
Would you say language in a black populous state is different from its social culture in white populous states?
Give an overview of the English language in Nigeria
Give an overview of the English language in Uganda
Give an overview of the English language in India
Give an overview of Russian in Europe
Give a conceptual analysis on stress and how it works
Consider the means of vocabulary development and its role in cultural relationships
Examine the effects of Linguistics in language
Present your understanding of sign language
What do you understand about descriptive language and prescriptive Language?

List of Research Topics in English Language

You may need English research topics for your next research. These are topics that are socially crafted for you as a student of language in any institution. You can consider the following for in-depth analysis:

Examine the travail of women in any feminist text of your choice
Examine the movement of feminist literature in the Industrial period
Give an overview of five Gothic literature and what you understand from them
Examine rock music and how it emerged as a genre
Evaluate the cultural association with Nina Simone’s music
What is the relevance of Shakespeare in English literature?
How has literature promoted the English language?
Identify the effect of spelling errors in the academic performance of students in an institution of your choice
Critically survey a university and give rationalize the literary texts offered as Significant
Examine the use of feminist literature in advancing the course against patriarchy
Give an overview of the themes in William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”
Express the significance of Ernest Hemingway’s diction in contemporary literature
Examine the predominant devices in the works of William Shakespeare
Explain the predominant devices in the works of Christopher Marlowe
Charles Dickens and his works: express the dominating themes in his Literature
Why is Literature described as the mirror of society?
Examine the issues of feminism in Sefi Atta’s “Everything Good Will Come” and Bernadine Evaristos’s “Girl, Woman, Other”
Give an overview of the stylistics employed in the writing of “Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernadine Evaristo
Describe the language of advertisement in social media and newspapers
Describe what poetic Language means
Examine the use of code-switching and code-mixing on Mexican Americans
Examine the use of code-switching and code-mixing in Indian Americans
Discuss the influence of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” on satirical literature
Examine the Linguistics features of “Native Son” by Richard Wright
What is the role of indigenous literature in promoting cultural identities
How has literature informed cultural consciousness?
Analyze five literature on semantics and their Influence on the study
Assess the role of grammar in day to day communications
Observe the role of multidisciplinary approaches in understanding the English language
What does stylistics mean while analyzing medieval literary texts?
Analyze the views of philosophers on language, society, and culture

English Research Paper Topics for College Students

For your college work, you may need to undergo a study of any phenomenon in the world. Note that they could be Linguistics essay topics or mainly a research study of an idea of your choice. Thus, you can choose your research ideas from any of the following:

The concept of fairness in a democratic Government
The capacity of a leader isn’t in his or her academic degrees
The concept of discrimination in education
The theory of discrimination in Islamic states
The idea of school policing
A study on grade inflation and its consequences
A study of taxation and Its importance to the economy from a citizen’s perspectives
A study on how eloquence lead to discrimination amongst high school students
A study of the influence of the music industry in teens
An Evaluation of pornography and its impacts on College students
A descriptive study of how the FBI works according to Hollywood
A critical consideration of the cons and pros of vaccination
The health effect of sleep disorders
An overview of three literary texts across three genres of Literature and how they connect to you
A critical overview of “King Oedipus”: the role of the supernatural in day to day life
Examine the novel “12 Years a Slave” as a reflection of servitude and brutality exerted by white slave owners
Rationalize the emergence of racist Literature with concrete examples
A study of the limits of literature in accessing rural readers
Analyze the perspectives of modern authors on the Influence of medieval Literature on their craft
What do you understand by the mortality of a literary text?
A study of controversial Literature and its role in shaping the discussion
A critical overview of three literary texts that dealt with domestic abuse and their role in changing the narratives about domestic violence
Choose three contemporary poets and analyze the themes of their works
Do you believe that contemporary American literature is the repetition of unnecessary themes already treated in the past?
A study of the evolution of Literature and its styles
The use of sexual innuendos in literature
The use of sexist languages in literature and its effect on the public
The disaster associated with media reports of fake news
Conduct a study on how language is used as a tool for manipulation
Attempt a criticism of a controversial Literary text and why it shouldn’t be studied or sold in the first place

Finding Linguistics Hard To Write About?

With these topics, you can commence your research with ease. However, if you need professional writing help for any part of the research, you can scout here online for the best research paper writing service.

There are several expert writers on ENL hosted on our website that you can consider for a fast response on your research study at a cheap price.

As students, you may be unable to cover every part of your research on your own. This inability is the reason you should consider expert writers for custom research topics in Linguistics approved by your professor for high grades.

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English language and literature research guide: home.

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Welcome to the English Language and Literature Research Guide. Please note this guide is using the tabs above to help organize the content. I hope this is helpful and if you need assistance please don't hesitate to contact me using my profile on the right!

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These databases are useful for finding articles, essays, and book chapters on language, literature, linguistics, and related topics.

Search for journal articles on most topics. This multi-disciplinary database is a good place to start if you don't know where else to begin. (EBSCO)

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Literature Topics and Research

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

This handout provides examples and description about writing papers in literature. It discusses research topics, how to begin to research, how to use information, and formatting.

What kinds of topics are good ones?

The best topics are ones that originate out of your own reading of a work of literature, but here are some common approaches to consider:

A discussion of a work's characters: are they realistic, symbolic, historically-based?
A comparison/contrast of the choices different authors or characters make in a work
A reading of a work based on an outside philosophical perspective (Ex. how would a Freudian read Hamlet ?)
A study of the sources or historical events that occasioned a particular work (Ex. comparing G.B. Shaw's Pygmalion with the original Greek myth of Pygmalion)
An analysis of a specific image occurring in several works (Ex. the use of moon imagery in certain plays, poems, novels)
A "deconstruction" of a particular work (Ex. unfolding an underlying racist worldview in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness )
A reading from a political perspective (Ex. how would a Marxist read William Blake's "London"?)
A study of the social, political, or economic context in which a work was written — how does the context influence the work?

How do I start research?

Once you have decided on an interesting topic and work (or works), the best place to start is probably the Internet. Here you can usually find basic biographical data on authors, brief summaries of works, possibly some rudimentary analyses, and even bibliographies of sources related to your topic.

The Internet, however, rarely offers serious direct scholarship; you will have to use sources found in the library, sources like journal articles and scholarly books, to get information that you can use to build your own scholarship-your literary paper. Consult the library's on-line catalog and the MLA Periodical Index. Avoid citing dictionary or encyclopedic sources in your final paper.

How do I use the information I find?

The secondary sources you find are only to be used as an aid. Your thoughts should make up most of the essay. As you develop your thesis, you will bring in the ideas of the scholars to back up what you have already said.

For example, say you are arguing that Huck Finn is a Christ figure ; that's your basic thesis. You give evidence from the novel that allows this reading, and then, at the right place, you might say the following, a paraphrase:

According to Susan Thomas, Huck sacrifices himself because he wants to set Jim free (129).

If the scholar states an important idea in a memorable way, use a direct quote.

"Huck's altruism and feelings of compassion for Jim force him to surrender to the danger" (Thomas 129).

Either way, you will then link that idea to your thesis.

College of Education and Human Development

Department of Educational Psychology

Research topics: Language, literacy and reading

Investigating how children learn to communicate and read from an early age.

Reading is one of the most complex and uniquely human cognitive activities, and one that is essential for adequate functioning in our society. For these reasons, we study how children acquire language and other developmental recursors, how they learn reading skills, how to identify children who are at-risk for reading difficulties, how best to teach and assess reading skills, and how best to assess and teach language and early literacy. We address these questions from a variety of perspectives and methodological paradigms, ranging from laboratory to classroom and community.

Panayiota Kendeou

Kendeou (psychological foundations of education) investigates the development of higher-order language and cognitive skills that support reading comprehension. She also conducts lab-based studies investigating how people learn new knowledge and revise pre-existing knowledge during their reading experiences.

Jennifer McComas

McComas (special education) focuses primarily on students who need intensive individualized support in reading. For those students, she conducts brief experimental analyses (BEA) to identify an instructional strategy that proves to be an effective approach for improving student performance in accuracy, fluency, or comprehension of written text. Based on the results of the BEA, she supports extended implementation of the intervention.

Kristen McMaster

McMaster (special education) collaborates with colleagues in cognitive psychology and school psychology to develop theory-based assessments and interventions to improve the reading comprehension and early writing skills of children identified as at risk or with disabilities. She also develops systems and supports to promote teachers’ use of data-based decision making and evidence-based instruction.

Alisha Wackerle-Hollman

Wackerle-Hollman (school psychology) researches early literacy development and assessment, the transition of research to practice, community-based participatory research, children's literature and school readiness.

Related labs and projects

The Early Writing Project
Inference Galaxy
Reading + Learning Lab
Research/Lab: Kristen McMaster

Publications
Email Updates

Supporting Research in Languages and Literature

Executive summary, introduction, core text, physical text, research workflows, research outputs, recommendations, appendix 1. research teams and local reports, appendix 2. semi-structured interview guide.

We at the Modern Language Association are proud to have sponsored the research for Ithaka S+R’s report, Supporting Research in Languages and Literature . Research tools have shifted tremendously in recent years, and this report gives college and university libraries, faculty members, and publishers a comprehensive look at the research processes used by today’s faculty members. The in-depth interviews and incisive analysis in this report paint a picture not only of how scholars pursue research in the humanities but also of the ways research tools and processes need to change to meet new conditions.

As the publishers of the MLA International Bibliography , we naturally were interested in scholars’ discovery processes and in finding out ways we could meet the changing needs in the profession. We were delighted, however, at how much more we learned from the research on this project. What the report presents is a picture of the entire research workflow for a range of different kinds of scholars, with special attention to considerations of diversity and equity. How does the availability of certain kinds of tools affect choice of topic? Are language and literature faculty members working collaboratively? How much are they pursuing topics in public humanities versus traditional disciplinary research topics? The report draws on the perspectives of researchers from different types of institutions, from regional public colleges to private doctoral universities.

Perhaps the most exciting result of this project for us is the series of recommendations at the end of the report. Rather than a frozen-in-amber summary of the state of the matter at the moment the interviews were conducted, the report is a forward-looking document, using current findings to indicate future directions and to point to the kinds of changes we in scholarly publishing and research libraries need to make to give the scholars of today and tomorrow the support they will need to move the humanities ahead.

I thank Ithaka S+R, and especially Danielle Cooper, Cate Mahoney, and Rebecca Springer, for working with us on this project and for their support of quality research in the humanities. Thank you too to the research teams that conducted these interviews. We’re especially grateful to the MLA members who gave their time as project advisors: Howard Rambsy II, Roopika Risam, Patricia Simpson, Dana Williams, and Arielle Zibrak, as well as to the MLA staff members who worked so hard on the project. Humanities research is essential for understanding the world in which we live, in its political, environmental, and even medical complexities. Work such as this report gives us the context we need to support that research both now and in the future.

Paula Krebs, Executive Director, Modern Language Association of America

Ithaka S+R’s Research Support Services program investigates how the research support needs of scholars vary by discipline. From 2018 to early 2020, Ithaka S+R examined the changing research methods and practices of language and literature scholars in the United States with the goal of identifying services to better support them. The goal of this report is to provide actionable findings for the organizations, institutions, and professionals who support the research processes of language and literature scholars.

This project was undertaken collaboratively with research teams at fourteen US academic libraries. [1] We are delighted to have the Modern Language Association (MLA) as project partner and sponsor for the project, and Paula Krebs, MLA executive director, as project advisor. MLA also furnished a fifteenth research team which focused on scholars at regional comprehensive colleges and universities in the United States. The project also relied on scholars who are leaders in the field to engage in an advisory capacity. We thank Howard Rambsy II (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), Roopika Risam (Salem State University), Patricia Simpson (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), Dana Williams (Howard University) and Arielle Zibrak (University of Wyoming) for their thoughtful contributions.

The field of languages and literatures embraces a broad range of interdisciplinary influences, languages and regions studied, and “texts”—in forms ranging from books to newspapers to video games—studied. Yet it has a distinctive flavor among other humanities disciplines. Language and literature scholars share a tendency to center research on core texts, and the field is deeply invested in the physicality of texts both as research tools and as objects of research. These unique qualities inform the workflows of language and literature scholars in navigating archives, identifying relevant scholarly literature, using algorithm-powered discovery tools, and engaging with colleagues. Scholars’ practices are also significantly shaped by the forms research outputs take. As in other fields, the monograph and peer-reviewed article remain the paramount modes of scholarly communication, shored up by tenure and promotion incentives that favor traditional formats. Digital humanities and public humanities approaches remain on the margins—for now.

This report highlights opportunities for those invested in fostering the language and literature research endeavor—university administrators, librarians and archivists, publishers, research tool providers, and scholars themselves—to support the changing research practices of language and literature scholars. We offer recommendations for providing training in foundational research skills, accelerating the discovery of archival and scholarly resources, helping scholars connect with peers, and paving the way for new research directions.

The research that underlies this report was conducted prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we believe our findings resonate now more than ever. Perhaps no field of scholarship is as attuned to the interpretive and expressive power of context —the settings, modes, and mindsets in which we interact with texts—as the field of languages and literature. COVID-19 has set the context of academic research in flux. In describing the enduring importance of physical texts and the emergence of digital scholarship horizons, this report sheds light on the pandemic’s disruption of “research as usual” and points toward future possibilities.

Through its Research Support Services program, Ithaka S+R conducts in-depth qualitative analysis of the research practices and associated support needs of scholars by discipline. Our previous projects in the program studied scholars in history, chemistry, art history, religious studies, Asian studies, agriculture, public health, civil and environmental engineering, and Indigenous studies. [2] A scholar-centered approach to understanding research in higher education is crucial to developing information services and spaces. By studying different disciplines, we gain a better understanding of how research activity functions across the academy.

The establishment of the Modern Language Association in 1883 marked the emergence of the academic study of modern languages (languages other than classical Greek and Latin) and literature at American universities. [3] Departments of English literature and modern languages expanded with rising university enrolment after the second world war. [4] During that time, the discipline shifted its focus away from philology and the historical progression of the literary canon, and a distinction emerged between literary criticism—an attempt to assess the merits of works of literature—and literary studies, an academic investigation of literature as a way of understanding its cultural context. [5] The latter orientation enabled the discipline to adopt new interpretive lenses, including feminist, Marxist, postcolonial, and queer theories, and to acknowledge a greater diversity of literary voices. Language and literature scholars have also embraced an increasingly global outlook, with growing numbers of scholars focusing their research outside Europe and North America.

Today, the discipline of languages and literature is at a crossroads. Undergraduate enrollments in English and modern languages have been declining, [6] and recent PhDs’ chances of attaining a tenure-track job were low even before the COVID-19 pandemic spurred widespread hiring freezes. [7] At the same time, digital methodologies, nontraditional forms of scholarly communication, and alternative career paths present exciting new opportunities to engage wider audiences. [8] The pandemic has also prompted renewed calls for humanistic scholars to contribute to societal dialogues on pressing subjects including collective responsibility, scientific authority, and inequality, including through translational or “public humanities” scholarship. [9]

It is important to understand the support needs of language and literature scholars at this critical juncture. This report explores their information activities over the entirety of the research lifecycle—from identifying a research topic to publicizing findings—as well as their perceptions of the key issues facing the discipline and what those issues mean for the evolution of language and literature research. We share our findings and recommendations in order to highlight opportunities for a variety of stakeholders to better support their scholarship.

This project is part of Ithaka S+R’s ongoing program to conduct research on scholarly information practices by discipline through collaboration with higher education institutions. [10] Conversations with leaders in the field informed the decision to frame the project around “languages and literature,” as well as the key issues the research would address. We thank Paula Krebs (MLA), Howard Ramsby (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), Roopika Risam (Salem State University), Patricia Simpson (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), Dana Williams (Howard University) and Arielle Zibrak (University of Wyoming) for their thoughtful contributions.

Participation in the project was open to any academic libraries of US higher education institutions able to conform to the project specifications, such as timeline and research capacity. Fourteen institutions, listed in Appendix 1, participated in the project. The Modern Language Association (MLA) fielded an additional research team, which conducted telephone interviews with scholars at a variety of institutions across the United States and US territories. Reflecting a desire to include the perspectives of scholars at a variety of types of institutions, the MLA team recruited only scholars from regional comprehensive colleges and universities, including several minority serving institutions. [11] Further research is needed to illuminate how researchers’ needs vary by institution type.

Each research team consisted of one to four members who, following a training workshop designed and led by Danielle Cooper, collected the qualitative data that Ithaka S+R analyzed for this report. The research teams at the participating institutions primarily comprised subject librarians but also included participants in other roles, such as assessment librarians. Each team conducted research with approximately fifteen language and literature scholars at their institution through semi-structured interviews that followed the arc of the research process (see Appendix 2 for the interview guide).

Teams developed their own analysis from the data they collected at their respective institutions with the option of either creating an internal whitepaper or a publicly available local report. The publicly available local reports, which provide a complement to this capstone report, are listed and linked in Appendix 1. In what follows, insights from and resonances with local reports are indicated in footnotes.

Ithaka S+R collected anonymized transcripts from the 192 interviews conducted across the participating institutions. We selected 40 of these transcripts as a representative sample based on the research subfields delineated below, academic title (lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor, professor), and institution. Figure 1 summarizes this sample. This study does not purport be statistically representative nor are the recommendations meant to be prescriptive; rather, the report and its recommendations are intended to be suggestive of areas for further investigation. The sampled transcripts were analyzed through a grounded approach to coding utilizing NVivo software, with additional keyword-based analysis conducted across the entire body of transcripts. The interviewees remain unidentified in this report to protect anonymity. We thank the interviewees for their participation.

Table 1. Representation of Professional Rank and Research Area among Interviewees

Defining the Language and Literature Scholar

This report focuses on the research practices and needs of language and literature scholars at higher education institutions. Because the aim of this project was to illuminate research practices, we hold teaching practices and pedagogical research out of scope and “scholars” as individuals who are employed by their institutions with research as a significant component of their job responsibilities, as opposed to those who exclusively teach. This means that language instruction is excluded from the scope of this project, even though it is an important function of language and literature departments. Additionally, graduate students were not included in this study.

The field of language and literature is characterized by its breadth and interdisciplinarity, with scholars in English and modern language departments borrowing research methodologies from history, musicology, art history, film and theater studies, cultural studies, philosophy, anthropology, and linguistics. Language and literature researchers may define their purview of study according to any number of categories, including country or region (e.g. Italy, Latin America, the postcolonial world); time period; methodology (e.g. archival, ethnographic, cultural history); genre or media (e.g. novels, film/television, theater/performance, poetry, music, cultural productions, video games); specific languages or linguistic phenomena; specific authors; or themes (e.g. secularism, book burning, kinship). An additional, overlapping category with which some language and literature scholars identify is the “digital humanities,” which refers to scholarship characterized by technology-enabled methods of research, analysis and communication.

For the purposes of scoping this project, we grouped the scholarship of languages and literature into three broad categories:

Area studies. The study of literature and other cultural products in a particular language (e.g. English, Chinese) or originating in a particular area of the world (e.g. Latin America), including research that crosses multiple languages or geographic areas.

Cultural studies . The study of cultures in relation to systems of power, informed by critical theory (e.g. African American studies, gender studies).

Writing studies . The study of the production, consumption, and circulation of writing (e.g. rhetoric, genre studies, publishing studies).

However, in practice, it is often difficult to identify a language and literature scholar’s research with only one of these categories; scholars often define their work according to both geographical boundaries and theoretical orientations, for instance. In the analysis that follows, other, less formal distinctions—such as researchers who work in archives within versus outside the United States, or researchers who place greater or lesser prioritization on public engagement with their work—often take precedence.

It is not a mere cliché to assert that the field of languages and literature is populated by scholars who love books. Even as research workflows become increasingly digitized, language and literature scholars still gravitate toward practices of scholarship that center the book as a physical object, whether annotating a text in the margins, browsing bookstore shelves, or studying the material culture of books. Zooming out from research processes to the scope of language and literature research itself, we find that scholars tend to build their research projects around one or more core text(s), broadly defined. The centrality of the physical book and the core text have important implications for how scholars discover and work with research materials.

Paratextuality and the Physical Book

Today, the research of language and literature scholars is largely conducted using digital tools, as will be discussed below. However, for language and literature scholars, the “book as object” remains extremely important. The French literary theorist Gérard Genette coined the term “paratext” to describe all the aspects of a book outside and surrounding the body text itself. [12] This report uses paratextuality as a way to understand language and literature scholars’ interest in the physicality and the physical contexts of literary texts, both as research tools and as objects of research.

Many language and literature scholars, regardless of career stage, place a high value on owning print copies of books. [13] This stems in part from simple affection for the physical object. “If there’s only one thing that I love to own, it’s a book,” explained one interviewee. Another motivation for owning books is the ability to annotate them extensively by hand—a byproduct, perhaps, of the discipline’s enduring orientation toward the close reading of core texts (see “Text-Centered Workflows” below). One scholar gave a hierarchy of formats for annotation: “I would rank owning the book first, digital access second, and then physical library copy third.” Interviewees described annotating by hand in books they own, using annotation software to mark up e-books (“in the way I used to do it on paper,” one scholar remarked), and taking notes separate from the text in annotation software for physical library copies. A smaller number of scholars prefer working with e-books and annotation software such as iAnnotate to using physical copies, presumably because this allows them to carry extensive digital “libraries” with them. Tablets are seen as preferable to laptops for reading and annotating digital copies of texts.

“If there’s one thing I love to own, it’s a book.”

Language and literature scholars accumulate their own personal “libraries” of print literary texts and scholarly literature by purchasing books online, subscribing to journals or magazines, and visiting bookstores and publishers’ booths at conferences. [14] Scholars also save money by looking for second-hand copies on Amazon or AbeBooks. Additionally, the opportunity to find hard-to-come-by texts published outside the United States is an incentive to research travel: interviewees waxed lyrical about browsing through family-owned bookstores in Iceland or librarie vendors in African markets. It is important to note, however, that the ability to experience such novelties requires research leave and access to travel funding, a luxury that many early career researchers and faculty members at less resourced institutions do not enjoy.

This notion of “browsing” through physical copies of texts—whether in bookstores, archives, or libraries—was mentioned repeatedly by interviewees. [15] Language and literature scholars relish what feels like serendipitous discovery. (Of course, the arrangement of books in these contexts is often highly intentional. [16] ) “It’s still indispensable to go to the [library] stacks just to see the texts that are adjacent and have a moment where I encounter the book I didn’t even think to look for electronically,” one scholar explained. “I don’t want to be too tidy when I’m looking for unexpected connections.” Embracing the unexpected allows language and literature scholars to alight on unique research topics and novel perspectives. It is also a product of the discipline’s propensity to value interesting scholarly conversations over exhaustive coverage of the secondary literature (see “Engaging the Scholarly Community” below). In other words, language and literature scholars are not just searching for everything that may be relevant—they are searching for compelling dialogues among texts.

The influence of material culture studies within the discipline has also made the physicality of books—particularly historical books—a critical aspect of research. [17] For instance, one interviewee explained that when reading a particular eighteenth-century poet’s work in modern editions, “about 60 percent of the meaning behind and encoded in the poem is lost” if the format of the original printing is not also studied. The desire of many language and literature scholars to experience and examine objects in person resonates with the practices of art historians, although language and literature scholars are probably more amenable to working with digital surrogates overall. [18] While high-quality digitization or reproduction are considered acceptable substitutes—and often greatly facilitate access—for many scholars, the opportunity to “get into archives and just handle” materials is also important. Language and literature scholars’ uses of archives is discussed below in the “Working with Archives” section.

Text-Centered Workflows

Most research projects undertaken by language and literature scholars focus on a core text or corpus of texts, broadly defined. Under the influence of cultural studies, the very notion of what a “text” is has been expanded to include other types of cultural objects which carry meaning or discourse, from films and video games to architectural spaces and performances. [19] As one scholar put it, “anything’s a text for us to study now.” Interviewees described coming across promising “core texts” through a variety of avenues, including related earlier projects, the scholarly literature, archival research or conversations with archivists, interactions with colleagues, and even teaching experiences. [20]

After identifying the core text(s), the researcher typically searches for a unique angle—an aspect of the text or its context that has not been fleshed out in the scholarship. This search typically involves a combination of archival work and/or investigation of related texts with a review of the scholarly literature, as the researcher asks questions and follows hunches to decide whether they merit further study. One scholar put it succinctly: “we begin with what we know, and then we think, and then we go to the library to find things that we don’t know.” When identifying an angle, novelty is value: one scholar described searching exhaustively in libraries, bookstores, and the internet to verify the “newness” of an idea before proceeding to search for a theoretical angle in the scholarly literature. [21] Research then proceeds through iterative stages of reading and writing; as described in the “Research Outputs” section below, most projects culminate in one or more scholarly publications.

The discipline’s orientation toward centering research on core texts influences how scholars search for information.

The discipline’s orientation toward centering research on core texts influences how scholars search for information . They usually approach archives and libraries looking for materials related to a particular text or author. However, it is also important to note that not all research in the discipline conforms to this pattern. Although the core text—however defined—remains central to the workflows of language and literature scholars, interviewees also described defining research topics in relation to theory-driven questions or historical phenomena. [22] Scholars embarking on theory-oriented projects may scope their projects using the scholarly literature before proceeding to identify relevant texts to focus on, while more historical or anthropological projects often begin with wide-ranging archival research. “I would say that I tend to go to a library and work there for an extended period of time,” remarked one interviewee, “and there, through secondary bibliography or consultation with the curators, I find more texts to work on.” Language and literature scholars’ discovery practices are explored in greater depth in the next section.

“Workflow” means the sequence by which scholars move through a research project, from start to finish. [23] Although the research practices of language and literature scholars vary according to methodological orientation, source type, output type, and personal preference, some important patterns can be discerned. This section discusses how language and literature scholars discover and access various types of information, the extent to which they consider and understand the discovery tools they use, and how they engage with colleagues throughout the research lifecycle.

Working with Archives

A majority of language and literature scholars interviewed for this project use archives or special collections material, or expect to do so for future projects. (In what follows, we use the term “archives” to refer to both archives and special collections departments.) Unsurprisingly, a number of interviewees reported that the increase in availability of archival materials online—either through institutional websites or through generalist repositories like HathiTrust—means they spend less time visiting archives than they did a decade or two ago. Like their colleagues in other humanities fields, language and literature scholars generally make use of digital surrogates whenever they are available “in order to save the cost of going and examining it, and the time.” [24] As discussed in the “Paratextuality and the Physical Book” section above, they may still make an effort to visit materials in person if there is “a really compelling reason to examine the material object.”

Language and literature scholars also spend considerable time in archives consulting materials that have not been digitized. Simply identifying potentially relevant items or collections can be challenging. Many scholars prioritize building working relationships with archivists, who can often suggest materials of interest that would not be apparent from searching catalogs or finding aids. A few interviewees reported that archivists had reached out to them following a visit to share additional relevant materials or to alert them to new acquisitions that had not yet been processed and cataloged: “You wouldn’t know about if you didn’t talk.”

Scholars prioritize building working relationships with archivists.

Other interviewees voiced frustration around communicating with archivists and navigating archival collections. The task of searching for relevant material is made more laborious for collections that have undergone minimal processing, [25] although interviewees were sympathetic to archives’ limited resources. One scholar discussed the archival trend toward “MPLP” (more product, less process) —organizing and listing materials in larger groups in order to make them available to researchers sooner. [26] “I’m not against that because I like to promote the idea of access,” they explained. “But the time that archivists are no longer taking to . . . give those item-level details is now switched back on the researchers.”

The access policies of specific archives, especially archives outside the United States, also arose as a pain point in scholars’ research workflows. Interviewees related stories of limited access to finding aids, intensive permissions processes, and bureaucratic headaches. At some archives, digital photography is not allowed, and scholars must take notes and transcribe documents by hand. A few interviewees spoke of more intangible barriers to using archives. “It’s really important to be able to convince [archivists] of the seriousness of your project and … of you as a person” in order to access materials, one explained. Another noted that researchers who are people of color may feel “a little bit out of place” in archives. “Archives tend to be spaces that you don’t see that many non-white people. It’s still a very exclusive space.”

Working with Scholarly Literature

Like their colleagues in other humanities fields, language and literature scholars rely on a mix of discovery tools to help them find relevant scholarly literature. They search using Google, Google Scholar, WorldCat, their library’s catalog, and the MLA Bibliography. Databases such as EBSCO, JSTOR, Project Muse, and ProQuest are also frequent starting points for research. Notably, although many language and literature scholars report using Google Scholar, that search engine is not as predominant in this field as it is in STEM disciplines. [27] One scholar commented that Google Scholar doesn’t have “a very good inventory of humanities research.” In addition to keyword searching, language and literature scholars also rely on algorithmically-generated recommendations available through Academia.edu and Amazon. [28] (Interviewees did not report using nonprofit academic networking sites like Humanities Commons for this purpose.) They also value the ability to search the full text of online resources, such as through Google Books. A few interviewees expressed a desire for improved optical character recognition (OCR) in digitized texts. Foreign language texts, especially texts written in languages which do not use the Roman alphabet, pose a particular challenge. [29]

A few interviewees described how liaison librarians who were familiar with their research project had proactively helped them identify useful resources. [30] These close working relationships, however, may be exceptional. A few other interviewees said they did not know whom they could contact for help at their libraries. [31] Many explained that they generally do not ask library staff for help in finding materials, either because they do not feel they need assistance or because they believe that their research is so specialized that a librarian would not be able to help them. [32]

Algorithm Agnostic

Public concern over the algorithmic bias of search engines is growing. [33] However, this public discourse has generally not included critiques of the algorithm-enabled ways in which academics discover scholarly literature and other research materials. Asked whether they understood how the search engines they use to conduct their research work, most interviewees responded with confusion. Many expressed that they were content with not being able to understand how search engines work as long as they could find what they need. [34] “I would say I don’t know how things work exactly, but I care less about that than the fact that I’m getting what I want,” one scholar explained. Others suggested that search algorithms could be improved to make keyword searching more effective: “I think sometimes algorithms don’t get it.”

“I would say I don’t know how search engines work exactly, but I care less about that than getting what I want.”

Many other interviewees, when asked to comment on how search engines work, said they had never thought about this issue with regards to their scholarship. [35] Interviewees did not express concerns that they were missing relevant content due to the algorithms used in digital discovery tools. [36] Several did express a vague sense that search engines like Google are “super opaque.” Nevertheless, the ease and effectiveness of Google and Google Scholar compared to other search tools means that scholars continue to utilize them despite their unease:

It places me at the mercy of a giant corporation. And so I wish I had more responsible tools. . . . I wish [the library’s discovery tool] was as good algorithmically as Google and was doing the same things, but Google has billions of dollars and we here at [our university] do not have billions of dollars.”

Finally, an additional concern raised by scholars was the Western bias of online databases, metadata, and digitized materials. [37]

Tools and Training

Like scholars in many other fields, language and literature scholars have personalized and idiosyncratic ways of organizing their research materials, notes, and writing. Most utilize a limited range of basic workflow tools. For instance, use of the citation management software Zotero—or, less frequently, EndNote or RefWorks—is relatively common. The organization of primary source material often poses the greatest challenge. Like many historians, some language and literature scholars take large numbers of photographs when they visit archive. [38] As one interviewee put it, when visiting an archive, “I just take photos of everything.” Interviewees reported they do not have a good way to organize, annotate, or label these photographs, and none mentioned Tropy, a tool designed for this purpose. [39] (This may be due to the fact that Tropy is only available for desktop computer use, whereas many scholars use their mobile phones to take photographs in the archive.) Language and literature scholars also store large quantities of primary source material—either copied and pasted from online archives, or transcribed themselves—in Microsoft Word or Google Docs files.

Like their colleagues in other humanistic disciplines, most language and literature scholars have not received formal training in searching for archival or scholarly materials or managing their research workflows. [40] In graduate school, “it was sort of like, ‘Well, if you have what it takes, you’ll be able to figure this out,’” one interviewee revealed. Language and literature scholars who have obtained tenure-track or tenured positions may be reticent to admit that they still need training in research skills. One scholar declared that faculty should “no longer need a workshop [on working with discovery tools], because hopefully by the time you become faculty you have learned all of that.”

In spite of their own graduate school experiences—or lack thereof—with research methods training, language and literature scholars believe that current graduate students would benefit from instruction in this area. Many language and literature scholars opined that bibliographic skills have eroded with the rise of “one box” search engines. They expressed a desire for students to “tame the library” —or to embrace the labor of searching across multiple platforms, databases, catalogs and collections, including by visiting libraries and archives physically. This desire seems motivated partially by the discipline’s orientation toward physical texts and browsing in person, and partially by concerns about information literacy and even work ethic. Some interviewees believe, rightly or wrongly, that students are reluctant to engage with research beyond the Google search box.

Engaging the Scholarly Community

Most research in languages and literature is conducted by a single researcher. “In the humanities, we tend to be more of a solo act,” one interviewee quipped. Language and literature scholars do receive significant help from librarians, archivists, publishers, editors, and occasionally students, but do not describe them as collaborators. That term is generally reserved for coauthors, as is true in other humanities as well as STEM fields. [41] “Every article that gets published has been worked on by me, by maybe four different reviewers, by three different editorial assistants, and a managing editor,” one scholar explained, “but that’s not collaboration.” True project collaboration and coauthorship are relatively rare, with the notable exception of digital humanities and public humanities projects, which are frequently collaborative. Specifically, language and literature scholars often seek out collaborators with stronger information technology skillsets when embarking on projects with a significant web development or quantitative analysis components. Finally, scholarly outputs other than traditional monographs and articles are more likely to be undertaken collaboratively; such projects described by interviewees included an anthology and a manuscript catalog.

Although collaboration in the strict sense is relatively rare, language and literature scholars do benefit from engaging with their colleagues throughout the research process. The nature of that engagement, and the tools with which it is carried out, vary across the lifespan of a research project. Figure 1 simplifies the research process into four phases and lists some common ways scholars engage with their colleagues—other than through scholarly publications—at each phase.

Figure 1. Engaging Peers throughout the Scholarly Workflow

As discussed above, language and literature scholars often identify potential new research topics individually, by following leads or additional questions raised by previous research. However, a few interviewees described how research projects had arisen through extended conversations with their colleagues. “My collaborator and I went through graduate school together and we’ve always been thinking together about the history of our discipline and the way it’s narrated,” one scholar explained.

Engaging with colleagues becomes more important once the scholar begins to dig into a research project. In particular, language and literature scholars lean on their colleagues to help them find scholarly literature relevant to a particular topic or theoretical conversation. Although many scholars are wary using Facebook for professional (or even personal) networking, others reported posting on Facebook in order to pose research questions to trusted peers. [42] “I’ve had a couple experiences lately where a Facebook thread has produced a richer bibliography than I could produce on my own,” one scholar remarked. “Sometimes the searching that you do feels like it pales in comparison to that, in part because these are folks that I know and trust.” Scholars may start these questions by posting to their news feeds or within closed groups. Interviewees did not mention using the nonprofit networking site Humanities Commons for this purpose, even though it supports group discussion and collaborative bibliography functionalities.

“I’ve had a couple experiences lately where a Facebook thread has produced a richer bibliography than I could produce on my own.”

Many interviewees also use listservs in a similar way. [43] One scholar described posing a question to a listserv about films on a specific theme: “Immediately hundreds of people will chime in with obscure films that you haven’t heard of, in another language. Right? So, that’s . . . it’s a mind hive. It’s wonderful.” Listservs are often scoped around a language, a time period, or a thematic subfield; they are hosted by professional societies, publishers, and organizations like H-Net. One interviewee suggested that listservs are a convenient way to gather information because “when I open email it’s there. . . . I have a quick glance and I’m done with it.”

This emphasis on socially curated discovery is an important way in which language and literature scholars differ in their discovery practices from their colleagues in other disciplines. Scholars in other disciplines, such as history and chemistry, [44] commented on the difficulty of “keeping up” with the increasing volume of scholarly publication. While this anxiety was reported by some language and literature scholars as well, others described a more selective approach. “I don’t have time [to do a systematic literature review]—it’s not worth it for me to emphasize making sure that I’ve found everything that was written,” one scholar explained. Another commented, “You have to accept that you’re only going to see a small part of it, and [decide that] this is the area that strikes you as being the most promising.” The proliferation of scholarly outputs and discovery tools has made it more important for language and literature researchers to lean on their peers to decide “whose voice matters” within the scholarly conversation. [45]

The proliferation of scholarly outputs and discovery tools has made it more important for researchers to lean on their peers to decide “whose voice matters.”

As a research project approaches completion, a scholar in languages and literature will typically present initial findings at one or more conferences. These presentations can be a prestigious way to gain visibility for a project, but they function as a sort of first draft before writing a full-fledged article or book chapter for publication. Comments and discussion that arise are often incorporated into the final product. While interviewees also characterized conferences as opportunities to stay abreast of current developments in their subfields, this “workshopping” function appears to be the most important way in which language and literature scholars incorporate conference attendance into their research workflows. In addition to presenting works-in-progress at conferences, a few scholars also use personal blogs to air work that they are considering publishing as formal research projects within their scholarly communities. Unlike in some STEM disciplines, there is little culture of sharing and commenting on preprints of articles online in languages and literature.

The final stage in the research process, dissemination, is discussed at greater length in the “Research Outputs” section below. Here, we observe that scholars share their recent publications on several social media platforms. Although some scholars object to Academia.edu’s for-profit business model, [46] it is relatively common for language and literature scholars to maintain Academia.edu profiles as personal repositories of their work. [47] (ResearchGate, a similar website dominant in STEM fields, is not widely used by languages and literature scholars. [48] ) A smaller number announce their recent publications via Twitter or their Facebook profile, and only a few mentioned ORCID in the context of linking all their research outputs online.

Language and literature scholars have a variety of motivations for publicizing their work online. One interviewee suggested that publishers encourage scholars to promote their work on social media because, according to the publishers, “it’s good for marketing.” Others attributed some importance to maintaining a “digital footprint” when applying for tenure-track jobs or, once hired, seeking tenure or promotion. “I do get a sense it matters in this fuzzier, social sense,” one explained, even if tenure and promotion committees do not evaluate candidates’ online presences formally. Another interviewee asserted that engagement online is most important for graduate students seeking academic jobs: “I think that’s actually essential to their livelihood in the profession.”

On the whole, language and literature scholars’ online engagement at the dissemination phase is more public and less community-driven than earlier in the research process. This is likely because incentives for social-professional engagement shift over the course of a research project. At earlier stages, scholars turn to relatively closed groups of peers, such as listservs, to ask questions and get advice. At the end of a research project, however, they tend to advertise their polished research outputs on more open and impersonal platforms such as Academia.edu and Twitter, using these platforms like a “beacon” to project their research out to wider academic audiences. Facebook, with its ability to publish content to an individual’s curated list of “friends” as well as to closed groups, straddles both functions.

The predominance of Facebook, Twitter, and Academia.edu in comparison with other online networking tools cannot be overestimated. These “big three,” alongside listservs, account for the vast majority of language and literature scholars’ online networking and discussion; both awareness and use tail off sharply outside this group. It is also important to note that many language and literature scholars do not engage professionally through social media or online networking sites at all, or only engage haphazardly. Like their colleagues in other disciplines, [49] interviewees for this project primarily pointed to the hazard of potentially wasting time as their reason for abstaining, with privacy and the perceived coarseness of online discourse secondary concerns. [50]

When asked to describe the trajectory of their own research, language and literature scholars often narrated their work as a progression of projects leading to specific research outputs—traditional scholarly publications or, less commonly, digital humanities or public humanities projects. [51] In other words, language and literature scholars shape their research around anticipated outputs. This means that tenure and promotion incentives—which continue to favor a narrow range of traditional, peer-reviewed outputs—strongly influence what types of research scholars prioritize, and at what career stage they do so. It also means that fundamental questions remain about how to assess work produced within the digital humanities and public humanities movements.

Traditional Publications

As in other humanities disciplines, the primary modes of scholarly communication in languages and literature are monographs and peer-reviewed articles. Other traditional scholarly outputs, such as contributions to edited collections and critical editions, are also important. [52] There is a general consensus that languages and literature remains a “book field,” meaning that monographs are generally perceived to be the most significant and desirable publications. [53]

Like their colleagues in other disciplines, language and literature scholars decide where to publish books and articles based on subject fit and the perceived prestige of the press or journal. [54] This sense of prestige is understood implicitly within the scholarly community; quantitative measures popular in STEM fields, such as the journal “impact factors,” [55] are not important within languages and literature departments, despite moves by some university administrators to impose them. In general, language and literature scholars do not prioritize publishing in open access journals and are reluctant to pay article processing charges (APCs) to make their articles in hybrid journals open access. A few subfields, such as video game studies and digital humanities, have many open access journals and may represent exceptions to this trend.

Numerous interviewees expressed positive sentiments around the idea of their research being openly available, although they often conflated “open access”—free access to published, peer-reviewed articles—with other forms of online dissemination, such as digital archives and Academia.edu. However, these interviewees usually did not report having taken concrete actions to make their research open access. The pressure to publish in prestige journals—which are usually not open access—and the cost of article processing charges [56] contravenes any desire to make their work open. [57] As one unusually well-informed interviewee explained, “I would like [my work] to be copyrighted under a Creative Commons [open access copyright license] and I have absolutely no way of doing that because of the tenure system. . . . After I get tenure I’ll start to try to push that forward.” This resonates with findings from the Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2018, which showed that younger faculty members across disciplines place less of a priority on publishing in open access journals than older faculty members. [58]

The continuing supremacy of the monograph within the field of languages and literature may also contribute to scholars’ ambivalence toward open access publishing, since the open access movement broadly focuses on journal articles. Although some publishers are experimenting with open access monographs—at least one interviewee reported having published a book both in print and in a free online version—this was not a priority for the scholars interviewed for this project.

Only a few interviewees reported that they had uploaded preprints of their articles to their campus repositories. Many scholars simply do not understand that they are able to do this or why they should. Others are confused about whether and how the copyright terms of their own work allow them to share it on platforms outside the publisher’s website. [59] Several interviewees reported that they share PDFs of their articles on Academia.edu, Facebook groups, or, less commonly, their personal websites; only some of these scholars mentioned paying attention to the copyright status of their work when doing so.

Digital Humanities

Although only a handful of interviewees for the project were actively engaged in digital humanities projects or were self-described digital humanists, many weighed in on the role of the digital humanities in the discipline of languages and literature. As discussed below, some language and literature scholars use the term “digital humanities” to refer to any research project which results in digital outputs, whereas others reserve the phrase for projects involving computational methodologies and digital theories. In this report, we discuss digital humanities as part of the “Research Outputs” section because the former interpretation was significantly more common among language and literature scholars interviewed.

Digital humanities is now several decades old, yet confusion about how to define the field still abounds. Many scholars associate the digital humanities with particular ways of disseminating scholarship or making primary sources available online. Numerous interviewees used “digital humanities” as a shorthand for digital archives and exhibitions, while others spoke of public-facing websites that make primary sources available in translation or allow users to explore interactive maps. In a few extreme cases, interviewees appeared to conflate digital humanities with open access, the online publication of traditional journals, or the evaluation of scholarship using quantitative indicators such as the Journal Impact Factor. Still other interviewees reserved the term “digital humanities” for projects employing data science methodologies, such as text mining. [60] And only a few identified the digital humanities with a theoretical orientation. “I have an interest in the digital self, and in performances and displays of the digital self,” mused one scholar. “I think that the way that my work ties into the digital humanities is that I don’t make a distinction between an analog or a digital body.”

This ambiguity appears to have significant implications for how language and literature scholars perceive and evaluate digital humanities research. [61] Several interviewees drew a distinction between digital humanities projects that involved, in their view, the less intellectually demanding work of making sources available online, and those that used digital methods to approach a more traditional research question. Said one scholar, “Digital humanities depends, really, on what we mean by it. If it’s just the making available of texts online, that’s not . . . a research accomplishment, per se.” Another interviewee even expressed reservations about the rigor of their own digital project:

I am currently engaged in a project that some people might classify as digital humanities, although I don’t think it is digital humanities, honestly. I sort of agree that it shouldn’t count for tenure. I don’t feel like this is unfair, because ultimately the part of the project that is real rigorous intellectual work is still the old fashioned article writing type.

Although digital humanities projects are proliferating, their place within the discipline remains undetermined. “In conferences there are lots of digital humanities people presenting. I can’t really assess whether they’re all good,” said one scholar. Many scholars remain committed to the idea that the traditional peer review process serves an important “gatekeeping” function for serious scholarly work. As a result, tenure and processes generally do not reward digital humanities projects. [62] “We see either graduate students or . . . tenured faculty branching into fairly deep digital projects, but not people who are right up against tenure track,” one scholar explained. Digital humanities proponents are frustrated by the slow pace of progress: “It’s starting to become silly for us not to know how to deal with” evaluating digital humanities projects for tenure and evaluation, one interviewee lamented.

“We see either graduate students or tenured faculty branching into fairly deep digital projects, but not people who are right up against the tenure track.”

Overall, the prevailing attitude toward the digital humanities of scholars interviewed for this project was one of curiosity—from a safe distance. Most interviewees who were prompted to speak about the digital humanities either pivoted to mention the work of a colleague or graduate student they knew, or mused that they had thought about embarking on a digital humanities project, but had never actually done so. A few said that digital humanities methods were not relevant to or appropriate for their research. However, many interviewees who were not themselves engaged in digital humanities still raised evaluation of digital projects as an unsolved issue in the tenure and evaluation process, suggesting that awareness of the uncertain status of the digital humanities within the field is high.

Finally, although ambivalence predominates, a few scholars expressed negative attitudes toward the digital humanities. One interviewee criticized “the kind of claims that are made for the digital humanities in terms of their ability to read through reams of data and produce insights. . . . I haven’t seen one article that has been convincing.” Another admitted that they don’t “see the point” of a colleague’s computational research, since “you could have come up with those generalizations without knowing the data.” A common thread in such critiques is the perception that the digital humanities privileges tools and methods which ultimately distract from the “real” work of the discipline. “I could collect so-called data,” said one interviewee. “It’s still a question of coming up with . . . the right words, asking the right questions . . . so what difference does it make whether it’s in an electronic format or a print format?”

Public Humanities

The field of language and literature is also coming to grips with another nontraditional research orientation: public humanities. [63] Like “digital humanities,” “public humanities” is a loose term denoting a variety of theoretical and methodological research approaches as well as forms of research output. At a basic level, public humanities aims to engage people who are not academics with humanistic research; it is an umbrella term that connects a range of disciplinary approaches to this engagement. Historians share a long tradition of reaching out to wider audiences through the practice of “public history,” with a strong bent toward illuminating cultural heritage artifacts and sites. [64] Some religious studies scholars’ research outputs are shaped by both scholarship and faith-based practice. [65] And social scientists have developed “participatory research” methodologies, which aim shift the locus of power from the scholar to the community with which they are engaging throughout the research process. [66] The language and literature scholars interviewed for this project usually responded to questions about “public humanities” by describing work falling into one of three broad categories: creating public-facing online research outputs such as websites; taking on the role of a “public intellectual”; and conducting community-engaged research.

When asked whether they had an interest in public humanities, many interviewees focused on research dissemination, discussing their willingness—or unwillingness—to create nontraditional, online outputs such as project websites. For example, one scholar discussed a public-facing website that translates Italian-language primary sources into English. In this way, language and literature scholars’ conceptions of public humanities and digital humanities research intersect. Most interviewees who spoke about public humanities in relation to digital outputs did not articulate a vision for how they would measure or promote public engagement with these outputs, other than making them available. It is also important to note that language and literature scholars generally do not view open access publishing as a proxy for public engagement; there is an implicit sense that traditional scholarly research outputs are inappropriate for wider audiences.

Other language and literature scholars implicitly equate public humanities work with taking on the role of a “public intellectual” (although one interviewee balked at that term, citing its origins in the work of Lionel Trilling). This role includes activities such as writing magazine article and op-ed columns, giving public talks, and appearing as a “talking head” in documentary films. The London Review of Books, New York Review of Books, and Los Angeles Review of Books were frequently cited venues for this type of engagement. It also includes publishing books destined for mass-market readerships. One interviewee characterized the role of a public intellectual as an ambition that scholars must choose whether to pursue: “These are people who will kind of want to self-promote themselves, right? Or they want to be on CNN or NPR. And, if that’s what you aspire to, then wonderful. But if not, most people are probably not going to come across your website.”

Finally, a few scholars associated public humanities with the growing movement of community-engaged scholarship. [67] Scholars practicing these methods strive not to simply conduct research about communities, but to conduct research with them and for their benefit. For one interviewee, this meant purchasing extra copies of their own published scholarship, giving them to the communities with which they worked when conducting research, and asking for feedback. “I have a whole community of friends, young scholars and also community activists,” this interviewee explained. “I believe that I’m a scholar and an advocate for social justice.” This resonates with the practices of Indigenous Studies scholars, who often seek input on draft publications from the Indigenous communities with which their research engaged. [68] Another observed that the “push toward engaged scholarship” has engendered an interest in humanistic fieldwork, especially among younger scholars. “It’s humanities research that involves the lived experience of people who are the objects of study,” they explained. “Certainly, we have a lot of grad students who are interested in that kind of work.”

“I believe that I’m a scholar and an advocate for social justice.”

Scholars’ expressed motivations for engaging in public humanities work often rested on convictions about the inherent value of language and literature research in public discourse—and on a sense of urgency in making that value known. Some spoke of an “obligation,” others of wanting to do work that is “satisfying” and “rewarding.” “We should be able to get people interested in literature, to show them what’s in it for them,” one interviewee stated. Another mused, “I think the university and the humanities departments have been grappling with their relevance.” Simply achieving a larger readership is a motivation sufficient for some scholars to want to write for more general audiences: “I don’t think we entered the field to speak to ten people.” [69]

However, even some interviewees who expressed positive feelings about engaging the broader public in humanities research sounded notes of caution. Several expressed fears of research being oversimplified or vulgarized. “It doesn’t mean that we should turn ourselves into entertainers,” one said. Another scholar, describing the opportunity to write a “popular history” book, added the caveat that such work should not be “trashy or anything.” The perception that “the bestseller is not academically strong” has important implications for how scholars choose to allocate their time. Like digital humanities projects, public humanities outputs are significantly less valuable for tenure and review evaluations than traditional, peer-reviewed publications. [70] “I’d love to have readers for my work whenever I can find them,” one interviewee explained. “The problem is you don’t know that your institution is going to care about that kind of stuff.” A partial exception to this rule is that some institutions reward scholars for securing research grants, including grants to fund public humanities work.

“It doesn’t mean we should turn ourselves into entertainers.”

As a result of this ambiguity, significant engagement in public humanities work among language and literature scholars remains relatively rare. Many respondents indicated that they would like to write public-facing outputs “in theory,” but cited time constraints as reasons for not doing so. A few expressed hesitation because they felt they lacked the skills needed to communicate in public forums. One scholar said they would like training in “how to write a sexy blog post about my research,” while another simply said, “I’m a little too shy.” In the end, language and literature scholars are simply not incentivized to overcome these barriers. “There are moments where I wonder, do I need to get on that bandwagon or not?” one interviewee explained. “And then in the end I’m reminded, OK, I think I have my ducks in a row for what I need for tenure and that’s fine.”

Although language and literature scholars share many research practices and challenges with their colleagues in other humanities disciplines, this report has identified three key themes that set the field apart—and point the way toward significant transformation on the horizon. Below, we summarize these findings toward offering recommendations for how academic libraries, archives, academic departments, professional societies, and software and platform providers can support scholarship in languages and literature. We also discuss how our findings resonate in the COVID-19 era.

The Language and Literature Scholar’s Unique Workflow

At first glance, a language and literature scholar’s approach to carrying out their research may appear similar to, say, a history scholar’s [71] —they read articles and books, visit archives, search multiple online databases and catalogs, and browse the stacks. On further examination, however, nuances emerge. Most language and literature scholars focus their research on a core text or corpus of core texts—with “texts” broadly defined as artifacts of human discourse. Investigations into historical context, theoretical frameworks, and literary comparisons flow from their curiosity about these texts.

This methodological approach has important implications. On the most basic level, the focused scrutiny and annotation of texts—ideally in physical formats, as discussed below —is critical. The pattern of core-text-focused research also informs the ways in which language and literature scholars go about searching for relevant materials. In the early phases of research they dip in and out of the archives and scholarly literature, following questions and leads raised by their core texts in search of fruitful research avenues. Rather than seeking an exhaustive view of the relevant material, they identify the theoretical conversations and contextual details that best illuminate their texts, often guided by the advice of their peers. This is a process that favors discretion—the ability to sniff out materials that resonate—over comprehensiveness. It is also a laborious and haphazard one. Language and literature scholars seem to embrace or even relish the labor of discovery, and want their graduate students to do the same.

Physical and Digital, in Tension and Harmony

Research in languages and literature increasingly straddles the material and digital—both in terms of scholars’ workflows and their objects and methods of study. In this discipline, attitudes toward materiality and the digital are complex and at times paradoxical. Today, digitization and the proliferation of online search tools allow scholars to engage with texts that were previously inaccessible—yet scholars continue to value, or even romanticize, the serendipitous discovery of physical texts. Language and literature scholars take pride in their personal “libraries” of hand-annotated print copies while also amassing large digital collections of PDFs and eBooks. And the influence of material culture studies, with its emphasis on the book as a physical object, has now been joined by new strains of scholarly discourse focused on theorizing the digital realm. The ambivalence of most language and literature scholars toward the specter of algorithmic bias is also important to note.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would have been reasonable to predict that language and literature scholars would not easily follow their STEM colleagues in adopting almost fully digital workflows. Of course, this is no longer a safe bet. The slashing of library print collection budgets [72] and simultaneous scurry to make more academic materials available online; [73] the long-term disruption of travel; and widespread closures of physical libraries and archives are likely to jolt at least some scholars into digital work habits . [74] But the field’s bent toward serendipitous and selective discovery demands unique technological solutions that mirror analogue experiences. It is also possible that language and literature’s unapologetic love of close reading and the physical object will distance its practitioners from institutional leaders inclined to measure a department’s value by metrics such as the number of students who take a class, minor in a language, or find employment based on language-based skills—particularly in a climate of extreme fiscal uncertainty.

Another important area of disruption is engagement within the scholarly community. At the time of data collection for this project, perspectives on the value of online networking varied significantly among interviewees. Now it appears that the COVID-19 pandemic may nudge more scholars to join their peers in leveraging digital networking tools such as Facebook groups, listservs, and Twitter to communicate with their peers, crowdsourcing bibliographies and announcing their latest publications. As language and literature scholars increasingly recognize the benefits of online engagement, a strong “digital footprint” is being added to the implicit list of must-haves for graduate students vying for academic jobs.

These digital trends—in combination with growing concerns about equity and environmental impact—were already threatening the role of in-person conferences as venues for networking among scholars. With in-person conferences out of the question for at least the near-term future, many have proclaimed the death of the traditional conference as we know it. [75] It remains to be seen whether technological affordances, ranging from “matchmaking” apps [76] to 3D virtual reality conferences, [77] will preserve the conference’s function as a networking venue—or whether asynchronous forms of digital engagement will suffice to fill the gap. By contrast, one aspect of conference-going that appears relatively easy to adapt to remote formats is the opportunity to get focused feedback on work in progress from interested peers.

New Methods in Old Systems

While a minority of scholars have embraced digital humanities and public humanities methodologies, most remain cautiously curious—appreciative of their colleagues’ innovative projects but unmotivated to embark on similar work themselves. Reasons for this conservatism include a lack of digital or public communication skills and contentment with traditional research methods. However, by far the greatest barrier to embracing digital and public humanities work is the incentive structures of academic hiring, tenure and promotion. In an environment of fierce competition for academic jobs, it is usually in a scholar’s best interest to focus on producing prestigious monographs and journal articles—even in a context where any work which makes new materials available online has taken on outsized importance. For this reason, graduate students and tenured professors are the most ambitious practitioners of digital humanities and public humanities.

Nevertheless, there are indications that the tide may be turning. There is a sense among language and literature scholars that the formal recognition and evaluation of digital humanities projects for tenure and promotion is long overdue. As one scholar put it, “Everybody’s talking about, ‘we really need to get away from the book and article,’ but it feels like one of those things where everybody’s waiting until Harvard does it, or something like that.” The importance of online pedagogy in the pandemic context may also favor those candidates who can demonstrate the most dynamic digital engagement strategies; perhaps digital humanities researchers will have a leg up in securing what few jobs remain. However, the continued importance of peer review in the eyes of scholars means that digital projects are unlikely to play a prominent role in tenure and evaluation assessments until they can be formally assessed through a comparable process.

By contrast, the move toward public humanities has been fueled by rhetoric around convincing the public of the value of the humanities and, more concretely, some scholars’ sense of ethical obligation to the communities they research. The COVID-19 pandemic and renewed attention to systemic racism in the United States have added new dimensions to these important conversations. Our interviews, conducted prior to the pandemic and the death of George Floyd, returned few indications that public humanities research would occupy more than a supplementary place in tenure and promotion processes in the near future. Whether recent events will spur language and literature faculties to materially shift this trajectory remains to be seen.

The future of the discipline?

When asked about digital humanities and public humanities, interviewees frequently talked about graduate students’ projects. While the career aspirations and research practices of graduate students themselves lie outside the scope of this report, it is clear that language and literature scholars are observing a transformation in modes of scholarship among the next generation of scholars. Many believe that it is more important for graduate students to acquire digital and public communication skills than for established researchers. For example, digital humanities skills are increasingly listed as criteria in tenure-track job descriptions posted to the MLA Job List. [78]

Although digital humanities and public humanities are closely related in many language and literature scholars’ minds, it is important to note differences in the positionality of the two movements. Graduate students’ enthusiasm for digital humanities work—and the corresponding need for graduate training in digital skills—was often mentioned by interviewees in the context of academic careers. In other words, scholars implicitly predict that digital methods, outputs, and theories will continue to gain currency in the discipline.

By contrast, some scholars believe that public humanities training and research would particularly benefit graduate students exploring “alt-ac” career paths, or careers outside the academy. [79] “More and more we need to think about, okay, what else can our students do because there are only so many jobs available in our field. . . . I mean sometimes they can’t even write for an audience that’s bigger than five people,” one scholar mused. In recession conditions, graduate students are likely to increasingly demand transferrable skills, [80] even as leaders within the discipline call for universities and funders to retain the current generation of academic talent by supporting adjunct faculty, preserving tenure-track positions and creating new postdoctoral fellowships. [81] The discipline of languages and literature may be facing a bifurcation, in which digital humanities research is accepted as mainstream scholarly discourse while public humanities research is used to equip students for careers outside the ivory tower.

Accelerating Discovery

Center discovery on core texts. Most language and literature scholars search for archival materials and scholarly literature that are relevant to their core text(s), rather than the other way around. Providers of discovery platforms and catalogs should build tools that create links between authors or titles and thematic keywords. On the analog side, liaison librarians should keep track of what texts and authors scholars in their departments are working on.

Activate liaison relationships. A few language and literature scholars sing the praises of librarians alerting them to new materials unprompted. For academic libraries to make these fruitful relationships the rule rather than the exception, liaisons must proactively reach out to faculty members. And they must do so with even greater intentionality in fully or hybrid remote work contexts.

Prioritize diverse collections. The discipline of languages and literature is increasingly taking a global outlook. However, non-Western collections are both less available online and harder to locate. As deep learning engineers improve OCR in non-Roman alphabets, archives should direct resources toward digitization projects and finding aids for these collections. Embracing new crowdsourcing tools such as Sourcery may further improve access. [82]

Make discovery social and (seemingly) serendipitous. Language and literature scholars don’t conduct exhaustive literature reviews—instead, they trust their peers and their own instincts to help them identify the scholarly conversations that matter most, often serendipitously. Providers of discovery tools and peer-to-peer research sharing platforms should continue to improve recommendation algorithms, including by analyzing the browsing activities of similar users. Software providers should also consider integrating crowd-sourced bibliographies, such as those currently hosted by Zotero.

Recognize that scholars prioritize effectiveness. Issues around algorithmic bias in search engines are not on most language and literature scholars’ radar. By default, they will continue to use the search tools that most easily return the best results—including Google—although many also have a vague sense of unease around for-profit business models. Discovery platform providers should recognize that the current demand is for tools that work well and, if possible, are not implicated in corporate profiteering. To the extent that educating scholars about algorithmic bias is a priority for librarians , they must seek novel strategies for demonstrating its importance to scholars.

Building Research Skills

Leverage peer-to-peer education. Language and literature faculty members are unlikely to engage with library instructional programs for research skills because they believe they don’t—or shouldn’t—need instruction at all. Educational initiatives in which faculty “ambassadors” champion new tools or spread awareness among their peers are more likely to produce results.

Teach copyright and licensing basics. Many language and literature scholars are confused about what rights they have to reproduce and disseminate published versions of their own work, particularly on online platforms. Librarians should seize this opportunity to step in as advisors on copyright and licensing basics.

Train graduate students in bibliography. When surveying scholarly literature, language and literature scholars prioritize deciding “whose voice matters” over achieving exhaustive coverage. Libraries should partner with academic departments to train graduate students how to use catalogs, databases, archives, and the scholarly literature discerningly to find the resources they need.

Connecting Scholars

Build social tools to engage on a variety of scales . . . Although language and literature scholars typically work individually, they rely on peer networks for ideas, advice, and publicity. Moreover, they engage with these peer networks on different platforms at different points in the research lifecycle. If software providers want to displace juggernauts like Facebook and Academia.edu in this space, they should focus on specific functions, such as peer discussion groups, closed-group “workshopping” of works in progress, or wide-audience advertising of finished products.

. . . and integrate into existing workflows. It is also noteworthy that listservs, the networking tool favored by many language and literature scholars, are both low-tech and fully embedded in the routine of checking email. Software providers must ensure that offerings for language and literature scholars enhance existing workflows, rather than attempting to create new ones.

Shape conferences to facilitate work-in-progress discussions . The future of academic conferences is uncertain. Our data suggests that language and literature scholars think of conferences as opportunities to publicize and obtain feedback on research findings before attempting to publish. Professional societies seeking to determine the role of the conference in the pandemic context should shore up this function by experimenting with online formats that encourage constructive feedback.

Fostering New Directions

Pioneer new peer review processes . There is a growing impatience among language and literature scholars with the discipline’s inability to systematically assess and recognize digital humanities projects. At the same time, peer review appears unlikely to cede its place as the gatekeeping mechanism for academic work. Professional societies should take the lead in building frameworks and processes for peer review of digital humanities scholarship—which academic departments should then advocate to adopt in their tenure and promotion processes.

Systematically assess public humanities engagement. Tenure and promotion criteria have created a discrepancy between language and literature scholars’ rhetoric about the importance of engaging people outside the academy and their reluctance to spend time on non-traditional outputs. Academic departments should close this gap by advocating for assessment mechanisms for rewarding public humanities work consistently. In order to do this effectively, the discipline must create consensus around the thorny issue of measuring research “impact,” [83] or adopt other assessment criteria. Again, professional societies are well placed to lead these efforts.

Equip students with digital and public engagement skills. Language and literature scholars believe that graduate students who aim to join the academic ranks will increasingly need to leverage digital skillsets, while those entering the broader workforce benefit from communicating with wide audiences. Academic departments must ensure that their graduate programs are equipping students for both academic and alt-ac futures.

Brown University Ashley Champagne, Heather Cole, Sarah Evelyn, and Patricia Figueroa, “Supporting Modern Language and Literature Research in the 21 st Century,” 2019, DOI: 10.26300/931m-f710 .

Columbia University Ian G. Beilin, Nancy E. Friedland, Pamela M. Graham, Jeremiah R. Mercurio, Sócrates Silva, John L. Tofanelli, and Sarah S. Witte, “Research Support Services for Modern Languages and Literatures: Columbia University Libraries Local Report,” 2019, DOI: 10.7916/d8-bkjj-rn70 .

Georgetown University Emily Guhde, Melissa Jones, and Jade Madrid, “Georgetown University Library Modern Languages & Literatures Study,” 2019, http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1057012 .

Haverford College Semyon Khokhlov and Margaret Schaus, “Research Practices among Literature and Languages Faculty at Haverford College,” 2019, http://hdl.handle.net/10066/21922 .

Indiana University Bloomington Catherine J. Minter, Luis A. González, and Angela Courtney, “Supporting Scholars in Literature and Culture at Indiana University Bloomington,” 2019, http://hdl.handle.net/2022/24639 .

Johns Hopkins University Margaret Burri, Heidi Herr, and Jessica Keyes, “Supporting Research in Modern Languages and Literature,” 2019, http://jhir.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/62107 .

Kansas State University Team: Sara Kearns and Ellen Urton. Report not made public.

Modern Language Association Anne Donlon, Angela Ecklund, Julian Haller, and Julie Frick Wade, “Language and Literature Research in Regional Comprehensive Institutions: A Report by the Modern Language Association,” 2020, http://www.mla.org/Research-Regional .

New York University Amanda Watson, Guy Burak, and Alla Roylance, “Supporting Scholars in Literature and Writing Studies at New York University,” 2019, http://hdl.handle.net/2451/60898 .

Rutgers University Triveni Kuchi, James P. Niessen, and Jonathan Sauceda, “Research Practices of Scholars in Literatures, Writing, and Cultural Studies: A Qualitative Study of Faculty at Rutgers University–New Brunswick,” 2019, DOI: 10.7282/t3-2ydq-5h89 .

Swarthmore College Roberto Vargas and Pamela Harris, “Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Scholars across English Literature and Modern Languages and Literatures at Swarthmore College,” 2019, DOI: 10.24968/2476-2458.libr.82 .

University of Illinois at Chicago Carl Lehnen and Glenda Insua, “Research Practices of Literature, Culture, and Writing Scholars: A Local Report at the University of Illinois at Chicago,” 2019, https://hdl.handle.net/10027/23911 .

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Matthew Roberts and Paula Mae Carns, “UIUC Library Findings: Ithaka S+R/MLA Modern Languages and Literatures Report 2019,” 2019, http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105501 .

University of Pennsylvania Katie Rawson, Charles J. Cobine, and Samantha Kirk, “Supporting Changing Research Practices of Language and Literature Scholars at the University of Pennsylvania,” 2019, https://repository.upenn.edu/library_papers/116/ .

University of Utah Darby Fanning, Robert Behra, Marie Paiva, and Lis Pankl, “Research Practices and Support Needs of Language and Literature Faculty at the University of Utah,” 2019, https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6c871s2 .

Research Focus and Methods

Describe the research project(s) you are currently working on.

Tell me a bit more about how the research for the project has unfolded step-by-step [choose one project if multiple were listed above], e.g. developing the topic, identifying and working with the information needed for the research, plans for sharing the results.
How does this project and process of researching relate to how you’ve done work in the past?
How does this project relate to the work typically done in your department(s) and field(s) you are affiliated with?

Working with Archives and Other Special Collections

Do you typically rely on material collected in archives or other special collections [e.g. rare books, unpublished documents, museum artifacts]? If so,

How do you find this information? How did you learn how to do this? Does anyone ever help you?
Where do you access this information [e.g. on-site, digitally]?
How and when do you work with this information? [E.g. do you use any specific approaches or tools?]
Have you encountered any challenges in the process of finding, accessing or working with this kind of information? If so, describe.
To what extent do you understand and/or think it is important to understand how the tools that help you find and access this information work? [E.g. finding aides, online museum catalogs; “Do you understand how database x decides which content surfaces first in your searches?” and, “Do you care to understand?”]
Are there any resources, services or other supports that would help you more effectively work with this kind of information?

Working with Secondary Content

What kinds of secondary source content to do you typically rely on do your research [e.g. scholarly articles or monographs]?

How do you find this information? How did you learn to do this? Does anyone ever help you?
Have you encountered any challenges in the process of finding, accessing or working with secondary sources? If so, describe.
To what extent do you understand and/or think it is important to understand how the tools that help you find and access this information work? [E.g. algorithmic bias, processes for creating and applying keywords; “Do you understand how Google Scholar decides which articles surface first in your searches?” and, “Do you care to understand?”]
Are there any resources, services or other supports that would help you more effectively locate or work with secondary sources?

Scholarly Communications and Evaluating Impact

How are your scholarly outputs [e.g. books, peer reviewed journal articles] evaluated by your institution and to what ends [e.g. tenure and promotion process, frequency of evaluations]?

Have you observed any trends and/or changes over time in how scholarly outputs are being evaluated [e.g. shift in emphasis between books and articles, shift in emphasis in the extent to which the prestige or impact factor of a publication is considered]?
Beyond tenure and promotion, does your institution evaluate your scholarly outputs towards any other ends [e.g. benchmarking your/your departments performance using analytics software]? If so, how, and to what ends?
What have been your experiences of being evaluated in this way?
Have you observed these kinds of processes having a larger effect on your department and/or institutional culture?

To what extent do you engage with or have an interest in any mechanisms for sharing your work beyond traditional publishing in peer reviewed journals or monographs? To what ends? [E.g. posting in preprint archives to share with peers, creating digital maps or timelines for students, creating outputs for wider audiences.]

Do you engage with any forms of social networking, including academic social networking, as a mechanism for sharing and/or engaging with other scholars? If no, why not? If so,

Describe the platform(s) you currently use and how.
What do you like best about the platform(s) you currently use and what do you like least?
Are there any other ways the platform(s) could be improved to best meet your needs?

Beyond the information you have already shared about your scholarly communications activities and needs, is there anything else you think would be helpful for me to know about your experiences?

Research Training and Wrapping Up

Looking back at your experiences as a researcher, are there any forms of training that were particularly useful? Conversely, are there any forms of training you wish you had gotten and/or would still like to get? Why?

Considering evolving trends in how research is conducted and evaluated, is there any form of training that would be most beneficial to graduate students and/or scholars more widely?

Is there anything else from your experiences and perspectives as a researcher, or on the topic of research more broadly, that you think would be helpful to share with me that has not yet been discussed in this conversation?

See Appendix 1 for a full list of participating institutions. ↑
Jennifer Rutner and Roger C. Schonfeld, “Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Historians,” Ithaka S+R , Dec. 7, 2012, https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.22532 ; Matthew Long and Roger C. Schonfeld, “Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Chemists,” Ithaka S+R , Feb. 25, 2013, https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.22561 ; Matthew Long and Roger C. Schonfeld, “Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Art Historians,” Ithaka S+R , April 30, 2014, https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.22833 ; Danielle Cooper et al., “Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Religious Studies Scholars,” Ithaka S+R , Feb. 8, 2017, https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.294119 ; Danielle Cooper et al., “Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Agriculture Scholars,” Ithaka S+R , June 7, 2017, https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.303663 ; Danielle Cooper et al., “Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Public Health Scholars,” Ithaka S+R , Dec. 14, 2017, https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.305867 ; Danielle Cooper et al., “Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Asian Studies Scholars,” Ithaka S+R , June 21, 2018, https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.307642 ; Danielle Cooper et al., “Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Civil and Environmental Engineers,” Ithaka S+R , Jan. 16, 2019, https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.310885 ; Danielle Cooper et al., “When Research Is Relational: Supporting the Research Practices of Indigenous Studies Scholars,” Ithaka S+R , April 11, 2019, https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.311240 . ↑
“The History of the MLA’s Mission,” Modern Language Association , https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1Nf-R_bG0Vj48Nem5UE9-jx0ZzaoEhcUB3JEe3Jd8nlU&font=Default&lang=en&hash_bookmark=true&initial_zoom=2&height=675#event-the-history-of-the-mlas-mission . ↑
M.H. Abrams, “The Transformation of English Studies: 1930-1995,” Daedalus 126, no.1 (1997): 105-31, at 105, www.jstor.org/stable/20027411 ; Gerald Graff, Professing Literature: an Institutional History (Chicago, 1987). ↑
Timothy Abury, “The Paradoxical Politics of Literary Criticism,” The New Republic , Oct. 12, 2017, https://newrepublic.com/article/145265/paradoxical-politics-literary-criticism . ↑
“Report to the Teagle Foundation on the Undergraduate Major in Language and Literature,” Modern Language Association , Feb. 2009, https://www.mla.org/content/download/3207/81182/2008_mla_whitepaper.pdf ; Dennis Looney and Natalia Lusin, “Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Summer 2016 and Fall 2016: Final Report,” Modern Language Association , June 2019, https://www.mla.org/content/download/110154/2406932/2016-Enrollments-Final-Report.pdf . ↑
Eric Hayot, “The Sky Is Falling,” MLA Profession , May 2018, https://profession.mla.org/the-sky-is-falling/ ; Jonathan Kramnick, “The Humanities after COVID-19,” July 23, 2020, Chronicle of Higher Education , https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-humanities-after-covid-19 . ↑
“Connected Academics: Preparing Doctoral Students of Language and Literature for a Variety of Careers,” MLA Commons , https://connect.mla.hcommons.org/doctoral-student-career-planning-faculty-toolkit ; “Report of the MLA Task Force on Doctoral Study in Modern Language and Literature,” May 2014, https://www.mla.org/content/download/25437/1164354/taskforcedocstudy2014.pdf . ↑
Matthew Reisz, “What Can the Humanities offer in the Covid Era?” Times Higher Education , July 2, 2020, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/what-can-humanities-offer-covid-era ; Kirsten Ostherr, “Humanities as Essential Services,” Inside Higher Ed , May 21, 2020, https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/05/21/how-humanities-can-be-part-front-line-response-pandemic-opinion . ↑
Research for our previous reports on the research support needs of scholars in art history, chemistry, and history was conducted exclusively by Ithaka S+R staff. ↑
For more details on the interviews conducted by the MLA team and their findings on the research support needs of language and literature scholars at regional comprehensives, see their report: Anne Donlon, Angela Ecklund, Julian Haller, and Julie Frick Wade, “Language and Literature Research in Regional Comprehensive Institutions: A Report by the Modern Language Association,” 2020, http://www.mla.org/Research-Regional . ↑
Gérard Genette, Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation (Cambridge, 1997). ↑
Related local report findings: Ashley Champagne, Heather Cole, Sarah Evelyn, and Patricia Figueroa, “Supporting Modern Language and Literature Research in the 21 st Century,” 2019, DOI: 10.26300/931m-f710 , 3; Margaret Burri, Heidi Herr, and Jessica Keyes, “Supporting Research in Modern Languages and Literature,” 2019, http://jhir.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/62107 , 7. ↑
Related local report findings: Catherine J. Minter, Luis A. González, and Angela Courtney, “Supporting Scholars in Literature and Culture at Indiana University Bloomington,” 2019, http://hdl.handle.net/2022/24639 , 4. ↑
Related local report findings: Minter, González, and Courtney, “Supporting,” 4. ↑
See Patrick L. Carr, “Serendipity in the Stacks: Libraries, Information Architecture, and the Problems of Accidental Discovery,” College & Research Libraries , 76, no. 6 (2015): 831-42, DOI: 10.5860/crl.76.6.831 . ↑
Related local report findings: Burri, Herr, and Keyes, “Supporting,” 5. ↑
Long and Schonfeld, “Art Historians,” 10-12. ↑
Related local report findings: Minter, González, and Courtney, “Supporting,” 2. ↑
Related local report findings: Emily Guhde, Melissa Jones, and Jade Madrid, “Georgetown University Library Modern Languages & Literatures Study,” 2019, http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1057012 , 3. ↑
Related local report findings: Carl Lehnen and Glenda Insua, “Research Practices of Literature, Culture, and Writing Scholars: A Local Report at the University of Illinois at Chicago,” 2019, https://hdl.handle.net/10027/23911 , 3. ↑
Related local report findings: Guhde, Jones, and Madrid, “Georgetown,” 3. ↑
See Roger Schonfeld, “What Is Researcher Workflow?”, Ithaka S+R , Dec. 13, 2017, https://sr.ithaka.org/blog/what-is-researcher-workflow/ . ↑
Rutner and Schonfeld, “Historians,” 9-10; Cooper, Daniel, et al., “Asian Studies,” 12-13. ↑
Rutner and Schonfeld, “Historians,” 9; Cooper and Daniel, “Asian Studies Scholars,” 10-11; Cooper, “Indigenous Studies Scholars,” 17. ↑
See Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner, “More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing,” The American Archivist 68 (Fall/Winter 2005): 208-63, DOI: 10.17723/aarc.68.2.c741823776k65863 . ↑
Cooper and Springer, “Engineering Scholars,” 21. Related local report findings: Darby Fanning, Robert Behra, Marie Paiva, and Lis Pankl, “Research Practices and Support Needs of Language and Literature Faculty at the University of Utah,” 2019, https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6c871s2 , 4. ↑
Related local report findings: Champagne, Cole, Evelyn, and Figueroa, “Supporting,” 11. ↑
Rutner and Schonfeld, “Historians,” 18; Cooper et al., “Religious Studies Scholars,” 15-16; Cooper et al., “Asian Studies Scholars,” 9; Fanning, Behra, Paiva, and Pankl, “Research,” 4. For current work in this area, see for example the development of OCR for Kuzushiji writing by the Japan’s ROIS-DS Center for Open Data in the Humanities, https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2019/05/20/japanese-texts-ai/?utm_source=dancohen&utm_medium=email , and David Smith and Ryan Cordell, “A Research Agenda for Historical and Multilingual Optical Character Recognition,” 2017, https://ocr.northeastern.edu/report/ . ↑
Related local report findings: Champagne, Cole, Evelyn, and Figueroa, “Supporting,” 3. ↑
Related local report findings: Matthew Roberts and Paula Mae Carns, “UIUC Library Findings: Ithaka S+R/MLA Modern Languages and Literatures Report 2019,” 2019, http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105501 , 6. ↑
Related local report findings: Fanning, Behra, Paiva, and Pankl, “Research,” 6; Roberto Vargas and Pamela Harris, “Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Scholars across English Literature and Modern Languages and Literatures at Swarthmore College,” 2019, DOI: 10.24968/2476-2458.libr.82 , 5. ↑
See, for instance, the important book by Safiya Umoja Noble, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (New York, 2018). ↑
Related local report findings: Amanda Watson, Guy Burak, and Alla Roylance, “Supporting Scholars in Literature and Writing Studies at New York University,” 2019, http://hdl.handle.net/2451/60898 , 10. ↑
Related local report findings: Triveni Kuchi, James P. Niessen, and Jonathan Sauceda, “Research Practices of Scholars in Literatures, Writing, and Cultural Studies: A Qualitative Study of Faculty at Rutgers University–New Brunswick,” 2019, DOI: 10.7282/t3-2ydq-5h89 , 7; Katie Rawson, Charles J. Cobine, and Samantha Kirk, “Supporting Changing Research Practices of Language and Literature Scholars at the University of Pennsylvania,” 2019, https://repository.upenn.edu/library_papers/116/ ,12. ↑
This is in spite of recent research demonstrating the limitations of search engines like Google Scholar for systematic literature review: Michael Gusenbauer and Neal R. Haddaway, “Which Academic Search Systems Are Suitable for Systematic Reviews or Meta-Analyses? Evaluating Retrieval Qualities of Google Scholar, PubMed, and 26 Other Resources,” Research Synthesis Methods , Oct. 15, 2019, DOI: 10.1002/jrsm.1378. ↑
Related local report findings: Watson, Burak, and Roylance, “Supporting,” 7, 10; Burri, Herr, and Keyes, “Supporting,” 5. ↑
Related local report findings: Rutner and Schonfeld, “Historians,” 8; Ian Milligan, “Becoming a Desk(top) Profession: Digital Photography and the Changing Landscape of Archival Research,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, New York, NY, Jan. 5, 2020, https://www.ianmilligan.ca/talk/aha-2020/ . ↑
See https://tropy.org/ . ↑
Related local report findings: Watson, Burak, and Roylance, “Supporting,” 11; Lehnen and Insua, “Research,” 9-10. ↑
Cooper, Springer et al., “Engineering Scholars,” 8. ↑
Related local report findings: Semyon Khokhlov and Margaret Schaus, “Research Practices among Literature and Languages Faculty at Haverford College,” 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10066/21922 , 2. ↑
Related local report findings: Minter, González, and Courtney, “Supporting,” 7-8. ↑
Rutner and Schonfeld, “Historians,” 14; Long and Schonfeld, “Chemists,” 22-24. ↑
Related local report findings: Lehnen and Insua, “Research,” 7-8. ↑
Related local report findings: Fanning, Behra, Paiva, and Pankl, “Research,” 9. ↑
Related local report findings: Ian G. Beilin, Nancy E. Friedland, Pamela M. Graham, Jeremiah R. Mercurio, Sócrates Silva, John L. Tofanelli, and Sarah S. Witte, “Research Support Services for Modern Languages and Literatures: Columbia University Libraries Local Report,” 2019, DOI: 10.7916/d8-bkjj-rn70 , 15. ↑
Cooper and Springer, “Engineering Scholars,” 10, 21, 31, 36. ↑
Cooper, Springer et al., “Engineering Scholars,” 31. ↑
Related local report findings: Kuchi, Niessen, and Sauceda, “Research,” 9; Beilin, Friedland, Graham, Mercurio, Silva, Tofanelli, and Witte, “Research,” 15. ↑
Related local report findings: Guhde et al., “Georgetown,” 8; Minter, González, and Courtney, “Supporting,” 6. ↑
Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press: “Researchers’ Perspectives on the Purpose and Value of the Monograph: Survey Results 2019,” https://global.oup.com/academic/pdf/perspectives-on-the-value-and-purpose-of-the-monograph . ↑
Related local report findings: Roberts and Carns, “UIUC,” 6; Rawson, Cobine, and Kirk, “Supporting,” 6-7. ↑
See, for instance, https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php . ↑
APCs are fees paid to journals by authors to make their articles open access. ↑
Related local report findings: Roberts and Carns, “UIUC,” 7. ↑
Melissa Blankstein and Christine Wolff-Eisenberg, “Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2018,” April 12, 2019, https://sr.ithaka.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/SR-Report-US-Faculty-Survey-2018-04122019.pdf , 39. ↑
Related local report findings: Beilin, Friedland, Graham, Mercurio, Silva, Tofanelli, and Witte, “Research,” 16-17; see also Rina Elster Pantalony and Roger Schonfeld, “Copyright Education in Libraries, Archives, and Museums: A 21 st Century Approach: A Summary Report of Roundtable Discussions at Columbia University,” Jan. 22, 2020, http://sr.ithaka.org/?p=312596 . ↑
On data science and the humanities, see Barbara McGillivray et al., “The Challenges and Prospects of the Intersection of the Humanities and Data Science: A White Paper from The Alan Turing Institute,” 2020, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12732164 . ↑
Related local report findings: Champagne, Cole, Evelyn, and Figueroa, “Supporting,” 8. ↑
Related local report findings: Kuchi, Niessen, and Sauceda, “Research,” 9. ↑
Public humanities research and education is currently a priority area for major humanities funders such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: https://mellon.org/grants/grants-database/grants/american-academy-of-arts-and-sciences/1905-06797/ . ↑
Rutner and Schonfeld, “Historians,” 35; see also, for instance, the National Council on Public History, this year celebrating forty years: https://ncph.org/ . ↑
Cooper and Schonfeld, “Religious Studies Scholars,” 35. ↑
Andrea Cornwall and Rachel Jewkes, “What Is Participatory Research?” Social Science & Medicine 41, no. 12 (Dec. 1995): 1667-76, DOI: 10.1016/0277-9536(95)00127-S . ↑
Related local report findings: Khokhlov and Schaus, “Research,” 3-4. ↑
Cooper et al., “Indigenous Studies Scholars,” 20. ↑
Related local report findings: Vargas and Harris, “Supporting,” 5-6; Rawson, Cobine, and Kirk, “Supporting,” 7. ↑
Related local report findings: Beilin, Friedland, Graham, Mercurio, Silva, Tofanelli, and Witte, “Research,” 13; Khokhlov and Schaus, “Research,” 4. ↑
Rutner and Schonfeld, “Historians.” ↑
Roger Schonfeld, “Academic Libraries at a Pivotal Moment,” The Scholarly Kitchen , April 6, 2020, https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2020/04/06/academic-libraries-pivotal-moment/ . ↑
“Provider Response to COVID-19,” Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, https://ulib.iupui.edu/disaster-recovery/coronavirus/vendor_response , accessed Aug. 7, 2020. ↑
For closures of US academic libraries see Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe and Christine Wolff-Eisenberg, “First This, Now That: A Look at 10-Day Trends in Academic Library Response to COVID19,” Ithaka S+R , Mar. 24, 2020, https://sr.ithaka.org/blog/first-this-now-that-a-look-at-10-day-trends-in-academic-library-response-to-covid19/ . ↑
Amy K. Jo, “On the Future of Academic Conferences,” May 1, 2020, https://medium.com/bits-and-behavior/on-the-future-of-academic-conferences-c0a54f027423 ; Kevin Stark, “Conference Travel and Carbon Emissions: In the Midst of COVID-19, Some People Are Doing the Math,” June 19, 2020, https://www.kqed.org/science/1966164/covid-19-is-pushing-scientific-conferences-online-maybe-thats-where-they-belong . ↑
Sami Benchekroun, “Coronavirus is a Wakeup Call for Academic Conferences. Here’s Why,” The Scholarly Kitchen , Mar. 25, 2020, https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2020/03/25/guest-post-coronavirus-is-a-wakeup-call-for-academic-conferences-heres-why/. ↑
Luciana Löberg, “Is the Future of Science Conferences a Virtually Different One?” Engineering and Technology , Aug. 5, 2020, https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/08/is-the-future-of-science-conferences-a-virtually-different-one/ . ↑
See https://www.mla.org/Resources/Career/Job-List . ↑
Related local report findings: Champagne, Cole, Evelyn, and Figueroa, “Supporting,” 9. ↑
Christopher L. Caterine, “Mass Exodus,” Inside Higher Ed , Apr. 30, 2020, https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/04/30/pandemic-threatens-force-more-phds-leave-academia-ever-and-they-will-need-career . ↑
Modern Language Association, “Statement on COVID-19 and Academic Labor,” https://www.mla.org/About-Us/Governance/Executive-Council/Executive-Council-Actions/2020/Statement-on-COVID-19-and-Academic-Labor , accessed Aug. 10, 2020; Kramnick, “Humanities.” ↑
See https://sourceryapp.org/ . ↑
Paul Benneworth and Julia Olmos Peñuela, “Future Impact – How Can We Rationally Evaluate Impact Statements?” Impact of Social Sciences , Jan. 27, 2020, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2020/01/27/future-impact-how-can-we-rationally-evaluate-impact-statements/ . ↑

Extended Essay: Language and Literature

Step 1 - Choosing a Subject
Step 2 - Choosing a Topic
Step 3 - Draft a Research Question
Step 4 - Finding Sources
Step 5 - Evaluating Information
Step 6 - Bibliography & Citation
Step 7 - Organizing Information
The Arts: Visual Arts
Individuals & Societies: Business Management
Individuals & Societies: History
Individuals & Societies: Psychology
Language Acquisition

Language and Literature

Sciences: Biology
Sciences: Sports, Exercise, and Health Sciences
Interdisciplinary Papers: World Studies
Assessment Criteria

Extended Essays in Language and Literature

Choosing a topic.

Categories 1 & 2

Categories 1 & 2

***Category 2 essays are the same as category 1, but they analyze works not written in English***

Language and Literature papers in categories 1 and 2 are focused on one or more literary works and can focus on original literary analysis, a particular literary topic, and/or established literary criticism.

NB: When investigating a film in category 2, the film must be analyzed for its literary value, not filmic. Filmic analysis is allowed in category 3.

Category 3 papers also analyze works, however they are not restricted to literary works! Topics in Category 3 emphasize the production and reception of texts in social, historical and/or cultural contexts. Essays that simply offer a general overview of a topic are not appropriate.

Approaches to Research

Categories 1 and 2

**Category 2 essays are the same as category 1, but analyze works not written in English**

Primary research in Language and Literature may require close reading of one or more texts. Secondary research may also be necessary for information like historical context, biographical information, and established literary criticism. Students should consider things like the effect of the work, the devices it uses, or the way it is written.

Students should give a focused analysis of the texts being considered. The approach should be balanced, coherently argued, use relevant examples to illustrated the point.

Examples of language in a cultural context

Examples of language and mass communication

Language and Literature Sources

Even students doing primary research will still need to reference secondary sources. These may include established literary interpretations or criticisms, biographical and/or historical information.

Essay Types

An extended essay in language and literature gives students an opportunity to do independent research into a topic of special interest to them within the subject. It is intended to promote advanced research and writing skills, intellectual discovery and creativity.

The essay is open to students who are writing in a language that they would be capable of offering as a language A

Studies in language and literature EEs are divided into three categories:

Assessed Student Work

An exploration of an aspect of the narrative voice in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita
How did the World State government in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World impact the individuality of the citizens residing in it?
<< Previous: Language Acquisition
Next: Sciences: Biology >>
Last Updated: Dec 10, 2022 12:51 PM
URL: https://k497.libguides.com/extendedessay

Harvard Library
Research Guides
Faculty of Arts & Sciences Libraries

Literary Research in Harvard Libraries

Foreign language literatures.

Get Organized
Find Background
Where to Search
Search Vocabulary
Obscure/Recent Topics
Literary Journalism Search (under construction!)
Find Primary or Archival Material
Literary Theory
Distant Reading, Close Reading

Start with the MLA International Bibliography

The MLA International Bibliography is both international and multilingual, making it a great general tool for research in literary scholarship. You can use the drop-down list to specify a Subject Literature by nation or region (Scottish, North African, etc.).
Since the MLA is based in the U.S., though, there's a natural bias toward anglophone literature and toward works by American scholars. To find databases and bibliographies specific to your subject literature, please ask me (Odile) for recommendations. You're also welcome to explore Harvard's Databases list .

Think in Terms of Language Families and Geographical Region

Use multiple kinds of search terms, nouns and adjectives:.

Pro tip: also add adjectival forms for languages: Lusophone, Sinophone
East Asian, Pacific, Iberian, Latin America

Dialects and cultures

Hwanghae, Latino, Chicano

Language families

Romance, Slavic, Nilo-Saharan.

Pro tip : learn the MARC codes for your languages of interest , for catalog searching (e.g. in HOLLIS Advanced Search )

Find the Language Filter

Language : most search interfaces allow you to filter by language, and/or have a "language" option on the Advanced Search page
Place of publication : it is also often possible to filter or search by place of publication

For Non-Roman Scripts, Search Multiple Variations

Cataloging practices and system capabilities have changed significantly over time - you will need to try multiple search methods. Expect some hiccups in your searching no matter what you do.

Get expert advice: if you're doing extensive searching in a vernacular script, a cataloging expert can alert you to tiny variations that make a big difference in your results.
Search in the original script : many systems can now accept non-Latin character sets, and current best practice is for items to be cataloged by their original titles, in the original script. HOLLIS does accept non-Latin scripts.
ALA-LC Romanization Tables - these tables define current best practice in the U.S. Note that there are many different romanization schemes in use around the world.
Tips for romanizing Arabic, Persian, and Hebrew (Harvard guide for Middle East and Islamic Studies Library Resources)
Tips for romanizing Cyrillic script (Slavic and Eurasian Studies at Harvard: Library and Archival Resources Slavic Studies Research Guide)
Try your search with and without diacritics: every search system is different. Some ignore diacritical marks, some require them. Remember that the same accented letters can be represented with different unicode blocks. HOLLIS generally ignores diacritics.

Contact an Expert

There is likely a Harvard librarian who specializes in the language families and geographical regions of interest to you. (Write to Ask a Librarian to find out who!) Our library experts are available via email or by in-person consultations. They can recommend top databases and help you navigate Harvard's collections. Many also maintain online research guides like the one you're reading right now. Please get in touch!

Explore Harvard's Collections

There is non-Anglophone material throughout Harvard's library collections, but several libraries specialize in a particular cultural tradition or geographic area. Many of the collections below rank among the world's best.

In Cambridge:

Harvard-Yenching Library - East Asian
Slavic Collections (Widener)
Fung Library - 20th-century social-science collections on Eurasia, Japan, and China
Middle Eastern Collection (Widener)
Judaica Collection (Widener)

Beyond Massachusetts:

Center for Hellenic Studies - Greek and Byzantine
Biblioteca Berenson - Medieval Italian

Explore Beyond Harvard's Collections

Pro Tip : use InterLibrary Loan to request material from outside of Harvard's Collections

Union Catalogs

WorldCat - a global union catalog that aggregates library catalogs from across the country and the world
Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog - a union catalog for European libraries that includes many records not found in WorldCat

National Libraries

National library catalogs are usually open to search, no log-in required
If you don't find a national library, try to find what other institutions might have the biggest libraries in the country, such as a prominent university, museum, cultural heritage center, or branch of government
<< Previous: Literary Theory
Next: Distant Reading, Close Reading >>

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Published: 20 March 2024

Persistent interaction patterns across social media platforms and over time

Michele Avalle ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0007-4934-2326 1 na1 ,
Niccolò Di Marco 1 na1 ,
Gabriele Etta 1 na1 ,
Emanuele Sangiorgio ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0003-1024-3735 2 ,
Shayan Alipour 1 ,
Anita Bonetti 3 ,
Lorenzo Alvisi 1 ,
Antonio Scala 4 ,
Andrea Baronchelli 5 , 6 ,
Matteo Cinelli ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3899-4592 1 &
Walter Quattrociocchi ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4374-9324 1

Nature ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Growing concern surrounds the impact of social media platforms on public discourse 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 and their influence on social dynamics 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , especially in the context of toxicity 10 , 11 , 12 . Here, to better understand these phenomena, we use a comparative approach to isolate human behavioural patterns across multiple social media platforms. In particular, we analyse conversations in different online communities, focusing on identifying consistent patterns of toxic content. Drawing from an extensive dataset that spans eight platforms over 34 years—from Usenet to contemporary social media—our findings show consistent conversation patterns and user behaviour, irrespective of the platform, topic or time. Notably, although long conversations consistently exhibit higher toxicity, toxic language does not invariably discourage people from participating in a conversation, and toxicity does not necessarily escalate as discussions evolve. Our analysis suggests that debates and contrasting sentiments among users significantly contribute to more intense and hostile discussions. Moreover, the persistence of these patterns across three decades, despite changes in platforms and societal norms, underscores the pivotal role of human behaviour in shaping online discourse.

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The advent and proliferation of social media platforms have not only transformed the landscape of online participation 2 but have also become integral to our daily lives, serving as primary sources for information, entertainment and personal communication 13 , 14 . Although these platforms offer unprecedented connectivity and information exchange opportunities, they also present challenges by entangling their business models with complex social dynamics, raising substantial concerns about their broader impact on society. Previous research has extensively addressed issues such as polarization, misinformation and antisocial behaviours in online spaces 5 , 7 , 12 , 15 , 16 , 17 , revealing the multifaceted nature of social media’s influence on public discourse. However, a considerable challenge in understanding how these platforms might influence inherent human behaviours lies in the general lack of accessible data 18 . Even when researchers obtain data through special agreements with companies like Meta, it may not be enough to clearly distinguish between inherent human behaviours and the effects of the platform’s design 3 , 4 , 8 , 9 . This difficulty arises because the data, deeply embedded in platform interactions, complicate separating intrinsic human behaviour from the influences exerted by the platform’s design and algorithms.

Here we address this challenge by focusing on toxicity, one of the most prominent aspects of concern in online conversations. We use a comparative analysis to uncover consistent patterns across diverse social media platforms and timeframes, aiming to shed light on toxicity dynamics across various digital environments. In particular, our goal is to gain insights into inherently invariant human patterns of online conversations.

The lack of non-verbal cues and physical presence on the web can contribute to increased incivility in online discussions compared with face-to-face interactions 19 . This trend is especially pronounced in online arenas such as newspaper comment sections and political discussions, where exchanges may degenerate into offensive comments or mockery, undermining the potential for productive and democratic debate 20 , 21 . When exposed to such uncivil language, users are more likely to interpret these messages as hostile, influencing their judgement and leading them to form opinions based on their beliefs rather than the information presented and may foster polarized perspectives, especially among groups with differing values 22 . Indeed, there is a natural tendency for online users to seek out and align with information that echoes their pre-existing beliefs, often ignoring contrasting views 6 , 23 . This behaviour may result in the creation of echo chambers, in which like-minded individuals congregate and mutually reinforce shared narratives 5 , 24 , 25 . These echo chambers, along with increased polarization, vary in their prevalence and intensity across different social media platforms 1 , suggesting that the design and algorithms of these platforms, intended to maximize user engagement, can substantially shape online social dynamics. This focus on engagement can inadvertently highlight certain behaviours, making it challenging to differentiate between organic user interaction and the influence of the platform’s design. A substantial portion of current research is devoted to examining harmful language on social media and its wider effects, online and offline 10 , 26 . This examination is crucial, as it reveals how social media may reflect and amplify societal issues, including the deterioration of public discourse. The growing interest in analysing online toxicity through massive data analysis coincides with advancements in machine learning capable of detecting toxic language 27 . Although numerous studies have focused on online toxicity, most concentrate on specific platforms and topics 28 , 29 . Broader, multiplatform studies are still limited in scale and reach 12 , 30 . Research fragmentation complicates understanding whether perceptions about online toxicity are accurate or misconceptions 31 . Key questions include whether online discussions are inherently toxic and how toxic and non-toxic conversations differ. Clarifying these dynamics and how they have evolved over time is crucial for developing effective strategies and policies to mitigate online toxicity.

Our study involves a comparative analysis of online conversations, focusing on three dimensions: time, platform and topic. We examine conversations from eight different platforms, totalling about 500 million comments. For our analysis, we adopt the toxicity definition provided by the Perspective API, a state-of-the-art classifier for the automatic detection of toxic speech. This API considers toxicity as “a rude, disrespectful or unreasonable comment likely to make someone leave a discussion”. We further validate this definition by confirming its consistency with outcomes from other detection tools, ensuring the reliability and comparability of our results. The concept of toxicity in online discourse varies widely in the literature, reflecting its complexity, as seen in various studies 32 , 33 , 34 . The efficacy and constraints of current machine-learning-based automated toxicity detection systems have recently been debated 11 , 35 . Despite these discussions, automated systems are still the most practical means for large-scale analyses.

Here we analyse online conversations, challenging common assumptions about their dynamics. Our findings reveal consistent patterns across various platforms and different times, such as the heavy-tailed nature of engagement dynamics, a decrease in user participation and an increase in toxic speech in lengthier conversations. Our analysis indicates that, although toxicity and user participation in debates are independent variables, the diversity of opinions and sentiments among users may have a substantial role in escalating conversation toxicity.

To obtain a comprehensive picture of online social media conversations, we analysed a dataset of about 500 million comments from Facebook, Gab, Reddit, Telegram, Twitter, Usenet, Voat and YouTube, covering diverse topics and spanning over three decades (a dataset breakdown is shown in Table 1 and Supplementary Table 1 ; for details regarding the data collection, see the ‘Data collection’ section of the Methods ).

Our analysis aims to comprehensively compare the dynamics of diverse social media accounting for human behaviours and how they evolved. In particular, we first characterize conversations at a macroscopic level by means of their engagement and participation, and we then analyse the toxicity of conversations both after and during their unfolding. We conclude the paper by examining potential drivers for the emergence of toxic speech.

Conversations on different platforms

This section provides an overview of online conversations by considering user activity and thread size metrics. We define a conversation (or a thread) as a sequence of comments that follow chronologically from an initial post. In Fig. 1a and Extended Data Fig. 1 , we observe that, across all platforms, both user activity (defined as the number of comments posted by the user) and thread length (defined as the number of comments in a thread) exhibit heavy-tailed distributions. The summary statistics about these distributions are reported in Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 .

a , The distributions of user activity in terms of comments posted for each platform and each topic. b , The mean user participation as conversations evolve. For each dataset, participation is computed for the threads belonging to the size interval [0.7–1] (Supplementary Table 2 ). Trends are reported with their 95% confidence intervals. The x axis represents the normalized position of comment intervals in the threads.

Consistent with previous studies 36 , 37 our analysis shows that the macroscopic patterns of online conversations, such as the distribution of users/threads activity and lifetime, are consistent across all datasets and topics (Supplementary Tables 1 – 4 ). This observation holds regardless of the specific features of the diverse platforms, such as recommendation algorithms and moderation policies (described in the ‘Content moderation policies’ of the Methods ), as well as other factors, including the user base and the conversation topics. We extend our analysis by examining another aspect of user activity within conversations across all platforms. To do this, we introduce a metric for the participation of users as a thread evolves. In this analysis, threads are filtered to ensure sufficient length as explained in the ‘Logarithmic binning and conversation size’ section of the Methods .

The participation metric, defined over different conversation intervals (that is, 0–5% of the thread arranged in chronological order, 5–10%, and so on), is the ratio of the number of unique users to the number of comments in the interval. Considering a fixed number of comments c , smaller values of participation indicate that fewer unique users are producing c comments in a segment of the conversation. In turn, a value of participation equal to 1 means that each user is producing one of the c comments, therefore obtaining the maximal homogeneity of user participation. Our findings show that, across all datasets, the participation of users in the evolution of conversations, averaged over almost all considered threads, is decreasing, as indicated by the results of Mann–Kendall test—a nonparametric test assessing the presence of a monotonic upward or downward tendency—shown in Extended Data Table 1 . This indicates that fewer users tend to take part in a conversation as it evolves, but those who do are more active (Fig. 1b ). Regarding patterns and values, the trends in user participation for various topics are consistent across each platform. According to the Mann–Kendall test, the only exceptions were Usenet Conspiracy and Talk, for which an ambiguous trend was detected. However, we note that their regression slopes are negative, suggesting a decreasing trend, even if with a weaker effect. Overall, our first set of findings highlights the shared nature of certain online interactions, revealing a decrease in user participation over time but an increase in activity among participants. This insight, consistent across most platforms, underscores the dynamic interplay between conversation length, user engagement and topic-driven participation.

Conversation size and toxicity

To detect the presence of toxic language, we used Google’s Perspective API 34 , a state-of-the-art toxicity classifier that has been used extensively in recent literature 29 , 38 . Perspective API defines a toxic comment as “A rude, disrespectful, or unreasonable comment that is likely to make people leave a discussion”. On the basis of this definition, the classifier assigns a toxicity score in the [0,1] range to a piece of text that can be interpreted as an estimate of the likelihood that a reader would perceive the comment as toxic ( https://developers.perspectiveapi.com/s/about-the-api-score ). To define an appropriate classification threshold, we draw from the existing literature 39 , which uses 0.6 as the threshold for considering a comment as toxic. A robustness check of our results using different threshold and classification tools is reported in the ‘Toxicity detection and validation of employed models’ section of the Methods , together with a discussion regarding potential shortcomings deriving from automatic classifiers. To further investigate the interplay between toxicity and conversation features across various platforms, our study first examines the prevalence of toxic speech in each dataset. We then analyse the occurrence of highly toxic users and conversations. Lastly, we investigate how the length of conversations correlates with the probability of encountering toxic comments. First of all, we define the toxicity of a user as the fraction of toxic comments that she/he left. Similarly, the toxicity of a thread is the fraction of toxic comments it contains. We begin by observing that, although some toxic datasets exist on unmoderated platforms such as Gab, Usenet and Voat, the prevalence of toxic speech is generally low. Indeed, the percentage of toxic comments in each dataset is mostly below 10% (Table 1 ). Moreover, the complementary cumulative distribution functions illustrated in Extended Data Fig. 2 show that the fraction of extremely toxic users is very low for each dataset (in the range between 10 −3 and 10 −4 ), and the majority of active users wrote at least one toxic comment, as reported in Supplementary Table 5 , therefore suggesting that the overall volume of toxicity is not a phenomenon limited to the activity of very few users and localized in few conversations. Indeed, the number of users versus their toxicity decreases sharply following an exponential trend. The toxicity of threads follows a similar pattern. To understand the association between the size and toxicity of a conversation, we start by grouping conversations according to their length to analyse their structural differences 40 . The grouping is implemented by means of logarithmic binning (see the ‘Logarithmic binning and conversation size’ section of the Methods ) and the evolution of the average fraction of toxic comments in threads versus the thread size intervals is reported in Fig. 2 . Notably, the resulting trends are almost all increasing, showing that, independently of the platform and topic, the longer the conversation, the more toxic it tends to be.

The mean fraction of toxic comments in conversations versus conversation size for each dataset. Trends represent the mean toxicity over each size interval and their 95% confidence interval. Size ranges are normalized to enable visual comparison of the different trends.

We assessed the increase in the trends by both performing linear regression and applying the Mann–Kendall test to ensure the statistical significance of our results (Extended Data Table 2 ). To further validate these outcomes, we shuffled the toxicity labels of comments, finding that trends are almost always non-increasing when data are randomized. Furthermore, the z -scores of the regression slopes indicate that the observed trends deviate from the mean of the distributions resulting from randomizations, being at least 2 s.d. greater in almost all cases. This provides additional evidence of a remarkable difference from randomness. The only decreasing trend is Usenet Politics. Moreover, we verified that our results are not influenced by the specific number of bins as, after estimating the same trends again with different intervals, we found that the qualitative nature of the results remains unchanged. These findings are summarized in Extended Data Table 2 . These analyses have been validated on the same data using a different threshold for identifying toxic comments and on a new dataset labelled with three different classifiers, obtaining similar results (Extended Data Fig. 5 , Extended Data Table 5 , Supplementary Fig. 1 and Supplementary Table 8 ). Finally, using a similar approach, we studied the toxicity content of conversations versus their lifetime—that is, the time elapsed between the first and last comment. In this case, most trends are flat, and there is no indication that toxicity is generally associated either with the duration of a conversation or the lifetime of user interactions (Extended Data Fig. 4 ).

Conversation evolution and toxicity

In the previous sections, we analysed the toxicity level of online conversations after their conclusion. We next focus on how toxicity evolves during a conversation and its effect on the dynamics of the discussion. The common beliefs that (1) online interactions inevitably devolve into toxic exchanges over time and (2) once a conversation reaches a certain toxicity threshold, it would naturally conclude, are not modern notions but they were also prevalent in the early days of the World Wide Web 41 . Assumption 2 aligns with the Perspective API’s definition of toxic language, suggesting that increased toxicity reduces the likelihood of continued participation in a conversation. However, this observation should be reconsidered, as it is not only the peak levels of toxicity that might influence a conversation but, for example, also a consistent rate of toxic content. To test these common assumptions, we used a method similar to that used for measuring participation; we select sufficiently long threads, divide each of them into a fixed number of equal intervals, compute the fraction of toxic comments for each of these intervals, average it over all threads and plot the toxicity trend through the unfolding of the conversations. We find that the average toxicity level remains mostly stable throughout, without showing a distinctive increase around the final part of threads (Fig. 3a (bottom) and Extended Data Fig. 3 ). Note that a similar observation was made previously 41 , but referring only to Reddit. Our findings challenge the assumption that toxicity discourages people from participating in a conversation, even though this notion is part of the definition of toxicity used by the detection tool. This can be seen by checking the relationship between trends in user participation, a quantity related to the number of users in a discussion at some point, and toxicity. The fact that the former typically decreases while the latter remains stable during conversations indicates that toxicity is not associated with participation in conversations (an example is shown in Fig. 3a ; box plots of the slopes of participation and toxicity for the whole dataset are shown in Fig. 3b ). This suggests that, on average, people may leave discussions regardless of the toxicity of the exchanges. We calculated the Pearson’s correlation between user participation and toxicity trends for each dataset to support this hypothesis. As shown in Fig. 3d , the resulting correlation coefficients are very heterogeneous, indicating no consistent pattern across different datasets. To further validate this analysis, we tested the differences in the participation of users commenting on either toxic or non-toxic conversations. To split such conversations into two disjoint sets, we first compute the toxicity distribution T i of long threads in each dataset i , and we then label a conversation j in dataset i as toxic if it has toxicity t ij ≥ µ ( T i ) + σ ( T i ), with µ ( T i ) being mean and σ ( T i ) the standard deviation of T i ; all of the other conversations are considered to be non-toxic. After splitting the threads, for each dataset, we compute the Pearson’s correlation of user participation between sets to find strongly positive values of the coefficient in all cases (Fig. 3c,e ). This result is also confirmed by a different analysis of which the results are reported in Supplementary Table 8 , in which no significant difference between slopes in toxic and non-toxic threads can be found. Thus, user behaviour in toxic and non-toxic conversations shows almost identical patterns in terms of participation. This reinforces our finding that toxicity, on average, does not appear to affect the likelihood of people participating in a conversation. These analyses were repeated with a lower toxicity classification threshold (Extended Data Fig. 5 ) and on additional datasets (Supplementary Fig. 2 and Supplementary Table 11 ), finding consistent results.

a , Examples of a typical trend in averaged user participation (top) and toxicity (bottom) versus the normalized position of comment intervals in the threads (Twitter news dataset). b , Box plot distributions of toxicity ( n = 25, minimum = −0.012, maximum = 0.015, lower whisker = −0.012, quartile 1 (Q1) = − 0.004, Q2 = 0.002, Q3 = 0.008, upper whisker = 0.015) and participation ( n = 25, minimum = −0.198, maximum = −0.022, lower whisker = −0.198, Q1 = − 0.109, Q2 = − 0.071, Q3 = − 0.049, upper whisker = −0.022) trend slopes for all datasets, as resulting from linear regression. c , An example of user participation in toxic and non-toxic thread sets (Twitter news dataset). d , Pearson’s correlation coefficients between user participation and toxicity trends for each dataset. e , Pearson’s correlation coefficients between user participation in toxic and non-toxic threads for each dataset.

Controversy and toxicity

In this section, we aim to explore why people participate in toxic online conversations and why longer discussions tend to be more toxic. Several factors could be the subject matter. First, controversial topics might lead to longer, more heated debates with increased toxicity. Second, the endorsement of toxic content by other users may act as an incentive to increase the discussion’s toxicity. Third, engagement peaks, due to factors such as reduced discussion focus or the intervention of trolls, may bring a higher share of toxic exchanges. Pursuing this line of inquiry, we identified proxies to measure the level of controversy in conversations and examined how these relate to toxicity and conversation size. Concurrently, we investigated the relationship between toxicity, endorsement and engagement.

As shown previously 24 , 42 , controversy is likely to emerge when people with opposing views engage in the same debate. Thus, the presence of users with diverse political leanings within a conversation could be a valid proxy for measuring controversy. We operationalize this definition as follows. Exploiting the peculiarities of our data, we can infer the political leaning of a subset of users in the Facebook News, Twitter News, Twitter Vaccines and Gab Feed datasets. This is achieved by examining the endorsement, for example, in the form of likes, expressed towards news outlets of which the political inclinations have been independently assessed by news rating agencies (see the ‘Polarization and user leaning attribution’ section of the Methods ). Extended Data Table 3 shows a breakdown of the datasets. As a result, we label users with a leaning score l ∈ [−1, 1], −1 being left leaning and +1 being right leaning. We then select threads with at least ten different labelled users, in which at least 10% of comments (with a minimum of 20) are produced by such users and assign to each of these comments the same leaning score of those who posted them. In this setting, the level of controversy within a conversation is assumed to be captured by the spread of the political leaning of the participants in the conversation. A natural way for measuring such a spread is the s.d. σ ( l ) of the distribution of comments possessing a leaning score: the higher the σ ( l ), the greater the level of ideological disagreement and therefore controversy in a thread. We analysed the relationship between controversy and toxicity in online conversations of different sizes. Figure 4a shows that controversy increases with the size of conversations in all datasets, and its trends are positively correlated with the corresponding trends in toxicity (Extended Data Table 3 ). This supports our hypothesis that controversy and toxicity are closely related in online discussions.

a , The mean controversy ( σ ( l )) and mean toxicity versus thread size (log-binned and normalized) for the Facebook news, Twitter news, Twitter vaccines and Gab feed datasets. Here toxicity is calculated in the same conversations in which controversy could be computed (Extended Data Table 3 ); the relative Pearson’s, Spearman’s and Kendall’s correlation coefficients are also provided in Extended Data Table 3 . Trends are reported with their 95% confidence interval. b , Likes/upvotes versus toxicity (linearly binned). c , An example (Voat politics dataset) of the distributions of the frequency of toxic comments in threads before ( n = 2,201, minimum = 0, maximum = 1, lower whisker = 0, Q1 = 0, Q2 = 0.15, Q3 = 0.313, upper whisker = 0.769) at the peak ( n = 2,798, minimum = 0, maximum = 0.8, lower whisker = 0, Q1 = 0.125, Q2 = 0.196, Q3 = 0.282, upper whisker = 0.513) and after the peak ( n = 2,791, minimum = 0, maximum = 1, lower whisker = 0, Q1 = 0.129, Q2 = 0.200, Q3 = 0.282, upper whisker = 0.500) of activity, as detected by Kleinberg’s burst detection algorithm.

As a complementary analysis, we draw on previous results 43 . In that study, using a definition of controversy operationally different but conceptually related to ours, a link was found between a greater degree of controversy of a discussion topic and a wider distribution of sentiment scores attributed to the set of its posts and comments. We quantified the sentiment of comments using a pretrained BERT model available from Hugging Face 44 , used also in previous studies 45 . The model predicts the sentiment of a sentence through a scoring system ranging from 1 (negative) to 5 (positive). We define the sentiment attributed to a comment c as its weighted mean \(s(c)=\sum _{i=1.5}{x}_{i}{p}_{i}\) , where x i ∈ [1, 5] is the output score from the model and p i is the probability associated to that value. Moreover, we normalize the sentiment score s for each dataset between 0 and 1. We observe the trends of the mean s.d. of sentiment in conversations, \(\bar{\sigma }(s)\) , and toxicity are positively correlated for moderated platforms such as Facebook and Twitter but are negatively correlated on Gab (Extended Data Table 3 ). The positive correlation observed in Facebook and Twitter indicates that greater discrepancies in sentiment of the conversations can, in general, be linked to toxic conversations and vice versa. Instead, on unregulated platforms such as Gab, highly conflicting sentiments seem to be more likely to emerge in less toxic conversations.

As anticipated, another factor that may be associated with the emergence of toxic comments is the endorsement they receive. Indeed, such positive reactions may motivate posting even more comments of the same kind. Using the mean number of likes/upvotes as a proxy of endorsement, we have an indication that this may not be the case. Figure 4b shows that the trend in likes/upvotes versus comments toxicity is never increasing past the toxicity score threshold (0.6).

Finally, to complement our analysis, we inspect the relationship between toxicity and user engagement within conversations, measured as the intensity of the number of comments over time. To do so, we used a method for burst detection 46 that, after reconstructing the density profile of a temporal stream of elements, separates the stream into different levels of intensity and assigns each element to the level to which it belongs (see the ‘Burst analysis’ section of the Methods ). We computed the fraction of toxic comments at the highest intensity level of each conversation and for the levels right before and after it. By comparing the distributions of the fraction of toxic comments for the three intervals, we find that these distributions are statistically different in almost all cases (Fig. 4c and Extended Data Table 4 ). In all datasets but one, distributions are consistently shifted towards higher toxicity at the peak of engagement, compared with the previous phase. Likewise, in most cases, the peak shows higher toxicity even if compared to the following phase, which in turn is mainly more toxic than the phase before the peak. These results suggest that toxicity is likely to increase together with user engagement.

Here we examine one of the most prominent and persistent characteristics online discussions—toxic behaviour, defined here as rude, disrespectful or unreasonable conduct. Our analysis suggests that toxicity is neither a deterrent to user involvement nor an engagement amplifier; rather, it tends to emerge when exchanges become more frequent and may be a product of opinion polarization. Our findings suggest that the polarization of user opinions—intended as the degree of opposed partisanship of users in a conversation—may have a more crucial role than toxicity in shaping the evolution of online discussions. Thus, monitoring polarization could indicate early interventions in online discussions. However, it is important to acknowledge that the dynamics at play in shaping online discourse are probably multifaceted and require a nuanced approach for effective moderation. Other factors may influence toxicity and engagement, such as the specific subject of the conversation, the presence of influential users or ‘trolls’, the time and day of posting, as well as cultural or demographic aspects, such as user average age or geographical location. Furthermore, even though extremely toxic users are rare (Extended Data Fig. 2 ), the relationship between participation and toxicity of a discussion may in principle be affected also by small groups of highly toxic and engaged users driving the conversation dynamics. Although the analysis of such subtler aspects is beyond the scope of this Article, they are certainly worth investigating in future research.

However, when people encounter views that contradict their own, they may react with hostility and contempt, consistent with previous research 47 . In turn, it may create a cycle of negative emotions and behaviours that fuels toxicity. We also show that some online conversation features have remained consistent over the past three decades despite the evolution of platforms and social norms.

Our study has some limitations that we acknowledge and discuss. First, we use political leaning as a proxy for general leaning, which may capture only some of the nuances of online opinions. However, political leaning represents a broad spectrum of opinions across different topics, and it correlates well with other dimensions of leaning, such as news preferences, vaccine attitudes and stance on climate change 48 , 49 . We could not assign a political leaning to users to analyse controversies on all platforms. Still, those considered—Facebook, Gab and Twitter—represent different populations and moderation policies, and the combined data account for nearly 90% of the content in our entire dataset. Our analysis approach is based on breadth and heterogeneity. As such, it may raise concerns about potential reductionism due to the comparison of different datasets from different sources and time periods. We acknowledge that each discussion thread, platform and context has unique characteristics and complexities that might be diminished when homogenizing data. However, we aim not to capture the full depth of every discussion but to identify and highlight general patterns and trends in online toxicity across platforms and time. The quantitative approach used in our study is similar to numerous other studies 15 and enables us to uncover these overarching principles and patterns that may otherwise remain hidden. Of course, it is not possible to account for the behaviours of passive users. This entails, for example, that even if toxicity does not seem to make people leave conversations, it could still be a factor that discourages them from joining them. Our study leverages an extensive dataset to examine the intricate relationship between persistent online human behaviours and the characteristics of different social media platforms. Our findings challenge the prevailing assumption by demonstrating that toxic content, as traditionally defined, does not necessarily reduce user engagement, thereby questioning the assumed direct correlation between toxic content and negative discourse dynamics. This highlights the necessity for a detailed examination of the effect of toxic interactions on user behaviour and the quality of discussions across various platforms. Our results, showing user resilience to toxic content, indicate the potential for creating advanced, context-aware moderation tools that can accurately navigate the complex influence of antagonistic interactions on community engagement and discussion quality. Moreover, our study sets the stage for further exploration into the complexities of toxicity and its effect on engagement within online communities. Advancing our grasp of online discourse necessitates refining content moderation techniques grounded in a thorough understanding of human behaviour. Thus, our research adds to the dialogue on creating more constructive online spaces, promoting moderation approaches that are effective yet nuanced, facilitating engaging exchanges and reducing the tangible negative effects of toxic behaviour.

Through the extensive dataset presented here, critical aspects of the online platform ecosystem and fundamental dynamics of user interactions can be explored. Moreover, we provide insights that a comparative approach such as the one followed here can prove invaluable in discerning human behaviour from platform-specific features. This may be used to investigate further sensitive issues, such as the formation of polarization and misinformation. The resulting outcomes have multiple potential impacts. Our findings reveal consistent toxicity patterns across platforms, topics and time, suggesting that future research in this field should prioritize the concept of invariance. Recognizing that toxic behaviour is a widespread phenomenon that is not limited by platform-specific features underscores the need for a broader, unified approach to understanding online discourse. Furthermore, the participation of users in toxic conversations suggests that a simple approach to removing toxic comments may not be sufficient to prevent user exposure to such phenomena. This indicates a need for more sophisticated moderation techniques to manage conversation dynamics, including early interventions in discussions that show warnings of becoming toxic. Furthermore, our findings support the idea that examining content pieces in connection with others could enhance the effectiveness of automatic toxicity detection models. The observed homogeneity suggests that models trained using data from one platform may also have applicability to other platforms. Future research could explore further into the role of controversy and its interaction with other elements contributing to toxicity. Moreover, comparing platforms could enhance our understanding of invariant human factors related to polarization, disinformation and content consumption. Such studies would be instrumental in capturing the drivers of the effect of social media platforms on human behaviour, offering valuable insights into the underlying dynamics of online interactions.

Data collection

In our study, data collection from various social media platforms was strategically designed to encompass various topics, ensuring maximal heterogeneity in the discussion themes. For each platform, where feasible, we focus on gathering posts related to diverse areas such as politics, news, environment and vaccinations. This approach aims to capture a broad spectrum of discourse, providing a comprehensive view of conversation dynamics across different content categories.

We use datasets from previous studies that covered discussions about vaccines 50 , news 51 and brexit 52 . For the vaccines topic, the resulting dataset contains around 2 million comments retrieved from public groups and pages in a period that ranges from 2 January 2010 to 17 July 2017. For the news topic, we selected a list of pages from the Europe Media Monitor that reported the news in English. As a result, the obtained dataset contains around 362 million comments between 9 September 2009 and 18 August 2016. Furthermore, we collect a total of about 4.5 billion likes that the users put on posts and comments concerning these pages. Finally, for the brexit topic, the dataset contains around 460,000 comments from 31 December 2015 to 29 July 2016.

We collect data from the Pushshift.io archive ( https://files.pushshift.io/gab/ ) concerning discussions taking place from 10 August 2016, when the platform was launched, to 29 October 2018, when Gab went temporarily offline due to the Pittsburgh shooting 53 . As a result, we collect a total of around 14 million comments.

Data were collected from the Pushshift.io archive ( https://pushshift.io/ ) for the period ranging from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2022. For each topic, whenever possible, we manually identified and selected subreddits that best represented the targeted topics. As a result of this operation, we obtained about 800,000 comments from the r/conspiracy subreddit for the conspiracy topic. For the vaccines topic, we collected about 70,000 comments from the r/VaccineDebate subreddit, focusing on the COVID-19 vaccine debate. We collected around 400,000 comments from the r/News subreddit for the news topic. We collected about 70,000 comments from the r/environment subreddit for the climate change topic. Finally, we collected around 550,000 comments from the r/science subreddit for the science topic.

We created a list of 14 channels, associating each with one of the topics considered in the study. For each channel, we manually collected messages and their related comments. As a result, from the four channels associated with the news topic (news notiziae, news ultimora, news edizionestraordinaria, news covidultimora), we obtained around 724,000 comments from posts between 9 April 2018 and 20 December 2022. For the politics topic, instead, the corresponding two channels (politics besttimeline, politics polmemes) produced a total of around 490,000 comments between 4 August 2017 and 19 December 2022. Finally, the eight channels assigned to the conspiracy topic (conspiracy bennyjhonson, conspiracy tommyrobinsonnews, conspiracy britainsfirst, conspiracy loomeredofficial, conspiracy thetrumpistgroup, conspiracy trumpjr, conspiracy pauljwatson, conspiracy iononmivaccino) produced a total of about 1.4 million comments between 30 August 2019 and 20 December 2022.

We used a list of datasets from previous studies that includes discussions about vaccines 54 , climate change 49 and news 55 topics. For the vaccines topic, we collected around 50 million comments from 23 January 2010 to 25 January 2023. For the news topic, we extend the dataset used previously 55 by collecting all threads composed of less than 20 comments, obtaining a total of about 9.5 million comments for a period ranging from 1 January 2020 to 29 November 2022. Finally, for the climate change topic, we collected around 9.7 million comments between 1 January 2020 and 10 January 2023.

We collected data for the Usenet discussion system by querying the Usenet Archive ( https://archive.org/details/usenet?tab=about ). We selected a list of topics considered adequate to contain a large, broad and heterogeneous number of discussions involving active and populated newsgroups. As a result of this selection, we selected conspiracy, politics, news and talk as topic candidates for our analysis. For the conspiracy topic, we collected around 280,000 comments between 1 September 1994 and 30 December 2005 from the alt.conspiracy newsgroup. For the politics topics, we collected around 2.6 million comments between 29 June 1992 and 31 December 2005 from the alt.politics newsgroup. For the news topic, we collected about 620,000 comments between 5 December 1992 and 31 December 2005 from the alt.news newsgroup. Finally, for the talk topic, we collected all of the conversations from the homonym newsgroup on a period that ranges from 13 February 1989 to 31 December 2005 for around 2.1 million contents.

We used a dataset presented previously 56 that covers the entire lifetime of the platform, from 9 January 2018 to 25 December 2020, including a total of around 16.2 million posts and comments shared by around 113,000 users in about 7,100 subverses (the equivalent of a subreddit for Voat). Similarly to previous platforms, we associated the topics to specific subverses. As a result of this operation, for the conspiracy topic, we collected about 1 million comments from the greatawakening subverse between 9 January 2018 and 25 December 2020. For the politics topic, we collected around 1 million comments from the politics subverse between 16 June 2014 and 25 December 2020. Finally, for the news topic, we collected about 1.4 million comments from the news subverse between 21 November 2013 and 25 December 2020.

We used a dataset proposed in previous studies that collected conversations about the climate change topic 49 , which is extended, coherently with previous platforms, by including conversations about vaccines and news topics. The data collection process for YouTube is performed using the YouTube Data API ( https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3 ). For the climate change topic, we collected around 840,000 comments between 16 March 2014 and 28 February 2022. For the vaccines topic, we collected conversations between 31 January 2020 and 24 October 2021 containing keywords about COVID-19 vaccines, namely Sinopharm, CanSino, Janssen, Johnson&Johnson, Novavax, CureVac, Pfizer, BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Moderna. As a result of this operation, we gathered a total of around 2.6 million comments to videos. Finally, for the news topic, we collected about 20 million comments between 13 February 2006 and 8 February 2022, including videos and comments from a list of news outlets, limited to the UK and provided by Newsguard (see the ‘Polarization and user leaning attribution’ section).

Content moderation policies

Content moderation policies are guidelines that online platforms use to monitor the content that users post on their sites. Platforms have different goals and audiences, and their moderation policies may vary greatly, with some placing more emphasis on free expression and others prioritizing safety and community guidelines.

Facebook and YouTube have strict moderation policies prohibiting hate speech, violence and harassment 57 . To address harmful content, Facebook follows a ‘remove, reduce, inform’ strategy and uses a combination of human reviewers and artificial intelligence to enforce its policies 58 . Similarly, YouTube has a similar set of community guidelines regarding hate speech policy, covering a wide range of behaviours such as vulgar language 59 , harassment 60 and, in general, does not allow the presence of hate speech and violence against individuals or groups based on various attributes 61 . To ensure that these guidelines are respected, the platform uses a mix of artificial intelligence algorithms and human reviewers 62 .

Twitter also has a comprehensive content moderation policy and specific rules against hateful conduct 63 , 64 . They use automation 65 and human review in the moderation process 66 . At the date of submission, Twitter’s content policies have remained unchanged since Elon Musk’s takeover, except that they ceased enforcing their COVID-19 misleading information policy on 23 November 2022. Their policy enforcement has faced criticism for inconsistency 67 .

Reddit falls somewhere in between regarding how strict its moderation policy is. Reddit’s content policy has eight rules, including prohibiting violence, harassment and promoting hate based on identity or vulnerability 68 , 69 . Reddit relies heavily on user reports and volunteer moderators. Thus, it could be considered more lenient than Facebook, YouTube and Twitter regarding enforcing rules. In October 2022, Reddit announced that they intend to update their enforcement practices to apply automation in content moderation 70 .

By contrast, Telegram, Gab and Voat take a more hands-off approach with fewer restrictions on content. Telegram has ambiguity in its guidelines, which arises from broad or subjective terms and can lead to different interpretations 71 . Although they mentioned they may use automated algorithms to analyse messages, Telegram relies mainly on users to report a range of content, such as violence, child abuse, spam, illegal drugs, personal details and pornography 72 . According to Telegram’s privacy policy, reported content may be checked by moderators and, if it is confirmed to violate their terms, temporary or permanent restrictions may be imposed on the account 73 . Gab’s Terms of Service allow all speech protected under the First Amendment to the US Constitution, and unlawful content is removed. They state that they do not review material before it is posted on their website and cannot guarantee prompt removal of illegal content after it has been posted 74 . Voat was once known as a ‘free-speech’ alternative to Reddit and allowed content even if it may be considered offensive or controversial 56 .

Usenet is a decentralized online discussion system created in 1979. Owing to its decentralized nature, Usenet has been difficult to moderate effectively, and it has a reputation for being a place where controversial and even illegal content can be posted without consequence. Each individual group on Usenet can have its own moderators, who are responsible for monitoring and enforcing their group’s rules, and there is no single set of rules that applies to the entire platform 75 .

Logarithmic binning and conversation size

Owing to the heavy-tailed distributions of conversation length (Extended Data Fig. 1 ), to plot the figures and perform the analyses, we used logarithmic binning. Thus, according to its length, each thread of each dataset is assigned to 1 out of 21 bins. To ensure a minimal number of points in each bin, we iteratively change the left bound of the last bin so that it contains at least N = 50 elements (we set N = 100 in the case of Facebook news, due to its larger size). Specifically, considering threads ordered in increasing length, the size of the largest thread is changed to that of the second last largest one, and the binning is recalculated accordingly until the last bin contains at least N points.

For visualization purposes, we provide a normalization of the logarithmic binning outcome that consists of mapping discrete points into coordinates of the x axis such that the bins correspond to {0, 0.05, 0.1, ..., 0.95, 1}.

To perform the part of the analysis, we select conversations belonging to the [0.7, 1] interval of the normalized logarithmic binning of thread length. This interval ensures that the conversations are sufficiently long and that we have a substantial number of threads. Participation and toxicity trends are obtained by applying to such conversations a linear binning of 21 elements to a chronologically ordered sequence of comments, that is, threads. A breakdown of the resulting datasets is provided in Supplementary Table 2 .

Finally, to assess the equality of the growth rates of participation values in toxic and non-toxic threads (see the ‘Conversation evolution and toxicity’ section), we implemented the following linear regression model:

where the term β 2 accounts for the effect that being a toxic conversation has on the growth of participation. Our results show that β 2 is not significantly different from 0 in most original and validation datasets (Supplementary Tables 8 and 11 )

Toxicity detection and validation of the models used

The problem of detecting toxicity is highly debated, to the point that there is currently no agreement on the very definition of toxic speech 64 , 76 . A toxic comment can be regarded as one that includes obscene or derogatory language 32 , that uses harsh, abusive language and personal attacks 33 , or contains extremism, violence and harassment 11 , just to give a few examples. Even though toxic speech should, in principle, be distinguished from hate speech, which is commonly more related to targeted attacks that denigrate a person or a group on the basis of attributes such as race, religion, gender, sex, sexual orientation and so on 77 , it sometimes may also be used as an umbrella term 78 , 79 . This lack of agreement directly reflects the challenging and inherent subjective nature of the concept of toxicity. The complexity of the topic makes it particularly difficult to assess the reliability of natural language processing models for automatic toxicity detection despite the impressive improvements in the field. Modern natural language processing models, such as Perspective API, are deep learning models that leverage word-embedding techniques to build representations of words as vectors in a high-dimensional space, in which a metric distance should reflect the conceptual distance among words, therefore providing linguistic context. A primary concern regarding toxicity detection models is their limited ability to contextualize conversations 11 , 80 . These models often struggle to incorporate factors beyond the text itself, such as the participant’s personal characteristics, motivations, relationships, group memberships and the overall tone of the discussion 11 . Consequently, what is considered to be toxic content can vary significantly among different groups, such as ethnicities or age groups 81 , leading to potential biases. These biases may stem from the annotators’ backgrounds and the datasets used for training, which might not adequately represent cultural heterogeneity. Moreover, subtle forms of toxic content, like indirect allusions, memes and inside jokes targeted at specific groups, can be particularly challenging to detect. Word embeddings equip current classifiers with a rich linguistic context, enhancing their ability to recognize a wide range of patterns characteristic of toxic expression. However, the requirements for understanding the broader context of a conversation, such as personal characteristics, motivations and group dynamics, remain beyond the scope of automatic detection models. We acknowledge these inherent limitations in our approach. Nonetheless, reliance on automatic detection models is essential for large-scale analyses of online toxicity like the one conducted in this study. We specifically resort to the Perspective API for this task, as it represents state-of-the-art automatic toxicity detection, offering a balance between linguistic nuance and scalable analysis capabilities. To define an appropriate classification threshold, we draw from the existing literature 64 , which uses 0.6 as the threshold for considering a comment to be toxic. This threshold can also be considered a reasonable one as, according to the developer guidelines offered by Perspective, it would indicate that the majority of the sample of readers, namely 6 out of 10, would perceive that comment as toxic. Due to the limitations mentioned above (for a criticism of Perspective API, see ref. 82 ), we validate our results by performing a comparative analysis using two other toxicity detectors: Detoxify ( https://github.com/unitaryai/detoxify ), which is similar to Perspective, and IMSYPP, a classifier developed for a European Project on hate speech 16 ( https://huggingface.co/IMSyPP ). In Supplementary Table 14 , the percentages of agreement among the three models in classifying 100,000 comments taken randomly from each of our datasets are reported. For Detoxify we used the same binary toxicity threshold (0.6) as used with Perspective. Although IMSYPP operates on a distinct definition of toxicity as outlined previously 16 , our comparative analysis shows a general agreement in the results. This alignment, despite the differences in underlying definitions and methodologies, underscores the robustness of our findings across various toxicity detection frameworks. Moreover, we perform the core analyses of this study using all classifiers on a further, vast and heterogeneous dataset. As shown in Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2 , the results regarding toxicity increase with conversation size and user participation and toxicity are quantitatively very similar. Furthermore, we verify the stability of our findings under different toxicity thresholds. Although the main analyses in this paper use the threshold value recommended by the Perspective API, set at 0.6, to minimize false positives, our results remain consistent even when applying a less conservative threshold of 0.5. This is demonstrated in Extended Data Fig. 5 , confirming the robustness of our observations across varying toxicity levels. For this study, we used the API support for languages prevalent in the European and American continents, including English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Swedish and Russian. Detoxify also offers multilingual support. However, IMSYPP is limited to English and Italian text, a factor considered in our comparative analysis.

Polarization and user leaning attribution

Our approach to measuring controversy in a conversation is based on estimating the degree of political partisanship among the participants. This measure is closely related to the political science concept of political polarization. Political polarization is the process by which political attitudes diverge from moderate positions and gravitate towards ideological extremes, as described previously 83 . By quantifying the level of partisanship within discussions, we aim to provide insights into the extent and nature of polarization in online debates. In this context, it is important to distinguish between ‘ideological polarization’ and ‘affective polarization’. Ideological polarization refers to divisions based on political viewpoints. By contrast, affective polarization is characterized by positive emotions towards members of one’s group and hostility towards those of opposing groups 84 , 85 . Here we focus specifically on ideological polarization. The subsequent description of our procedure for attributing user political leanings will further clarify this focus. On online social media, the individual leaning of a user toward a topic can be inferred through the content produced or the endorsement shown toward specific content. In this study, we consider the endorsement of users to news outlets of which the political leaning has been evaluated by trustworthy external sources. Although not without limitations—which we address below—this is a standard approach that has been used in several studies, and has become a common and established practice in the field of social media analysis due to its practicality and effectiveness in providing a broad understanding of political dynamics on these online platforms 1 , 43 , 86 , 87 , 88 . We label news outlets with a political score based on the information reported by Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) ( https://mediabiasfactcheck.com ), integrating with the equivalent information from Newsguard ( https://www.newsguardtech.com/ ). MBFC is an independent fact-checking organization that rates news outlets on the basis of the reliability and the political bias of the content that they produce and share. Similarly, Newsguard is a tool created by an international team of journalists that provides news outlet trust and political bias scores. Following standard methods used in the literature 1 , 43 , we calculated the individual leaning of a user l ∈ [−1, 1] as the average of the leaning scores l c ∈ [−1, 1] attributed to each of the content it produced/shared, where l c results from a mapping of the news organizations political scores provided by MBFC and Newsguard, respectively: [left, centre-left, centre, centre-right, right] to [−1, − 0.5, 0, 0.5, 1], and [far left, left, right, far right] to [−1, −0.5, 0.5, 1]). Our datasets have different structures, so we have to evaluate user leanings in different ways. For Facebook News, we assign a leaning score to users who posted a like at least three times and commented at least three times under news outlet pages that have a political score. For Twitter News, a leaning is assigned to users who posted at least 15 comments under scored news outlet pages. For Twitter Vaccines and Gab, we consider users who shared content produced by scored news outlet pages at least three times. A limitation of our approach is that engaging with politically aligned content does not always imply agreement; users may interact with opposing viewpoints for critical discussion. However, research indicates that users predominantly share content aligning with their own views, especially in politically charged contexts 87 , 89 , 90 . Moreover, our method captures users who actively express their political leanings, omitting the ‘passive’ ones. This is due to the lack of available data on users who do not explicitly state their opinions. Nevertheless, analysing active users offers valuable insights into the discourse of those most engaged and influential on social media platforms.

Burst analysis

We used the Kleinberg burst detection algorithm 46 (see the ‘Controversy and toxicity’ section) to all conversations with at least 50 comments in a dataset. In our analysis, we randomly sample up to 5,000 conversations, each containing a specific number of comments. To ensure the reliability of our data, we exclude conversations with an excessive number of double timestamps—defined as more than 10 consecutive or over 100 within the first 24 h. This criterion helps to mitigate the influence of bots, which could distort the patterns of human activity. Furthermore, we focus on the first 24 h of each thread to analyse streams of comments during their peak activity period. Consequently, Usenet was excluded from our study. The unique usage characteristics of Usenet render such a time-constrained analysis inappropriate, as its activity patterns do not align with those of the other platforms under consideration. By reconstructing the density profile of the comment stream, the algorithm divides the entire stream’s interval into subintervals on the basis of their level of intensity. Labelled as discrete positive values, higher levels of burstiness represent higher activity segments. To avoid considering flat-density phases, threads with a maximum burst level equal to 2 are excluded from this analysis. To assess whether a higher intensity of comments results in a higher comment toxicity, we perform a Mann–Whitney U -test 91 with Bonferroni correction for multiple testing between the distributions of the fraction of toxic comments t i in three intensity phases: during the peak of engagement and at the highest levels before and after. Extended Data Table 4 shows the corrected P values of each test, at a 0.99 confidence level, with H1 indicated in the column header. An example of the distribution of the frequency of toxic comments in threads at the three phases of a conversation considered (pre-peak, peak and post-peak) is reported in Fig. 4c .

Toxicity detection on Usenet

As discussed in the section on toxicity detection and the Perspective API above, automatic detectors derive their understanding of toxicity from the annotated datasets that they are trained on. The Perspective API is predominantly trained on recent texts, and its human labellers conform to contemporary cultural norms. Thus, although our dataset dates back to no more than the early 1990s, we provide a discussion on the viability of the application of Perspective API to Usenet and validation analysis. Contemporary society, especially in Western contexts, is more sensitive to issues of toxicity, including gender, race and sexual orientation, compared with a few decades ago. This means that some comments identified as toxic today, including those from older platforms like Usenet, might not have been considered as such in the past. However, this discrepancy does not significantly affect our analysis, which is centred on current standards of toxicity. On the other hand, changes in linguistic features may have some repercussions: there may be words and locutions that were frequently used in the 1990s that instead appear sparsely in today’s language, making Perspective potentially less effective in classifying short texts that contain them. We therefore proceeded to evaluate the impact that such a possible scenario could have on our results. In light of the above considerations, we consider texts labelled as toxic as correctly classified; instead, we assume that there is a fixed probability p that a comment may be incorrectly labelled as non-toxic. Consequently, we randomly designate a proportion p of non-toxic comments, relabel them as toxic and compute the toxicity versus conversation size trend (Fig. 2 ) on the altered dataset across various p . Specifically, for each value, we simulate 500 different trends, collecting their regression slopes to obtain a null distribution for them. To assess if the probability of error could lead to significant differences in the observed trend, we compute the fraction f of slopes lying outside the interval (−| s |,| s |), where s is the slope of the observed trend. We report the result in Supplementary Table 9 for different values of p . In agreement with our previous analysis, we assume that the slope differs significantly from the ones obtained from randomized data if f is less than 0.05.

We observed that only the Usenet Talk dataset shows sensitivity to small error probabilities, and the others do not show a significant difference. Consequently, our results indicate that Perspective API is suitable for application to Usenet data in our analyses, notwithstanding the potential linguistic and cultural shifts that might affect the classifier’s reliability with older texts.

Toxicity of short conversations

Our study focuses on the relationship between user participation and the toxicity of conversations, particularly in engaged or prolonged discussions. A potential concern is that concentrating on longer threads overlooks conversations that terminate quickly due to early toxicity, therefore potentially biasing our analysis. To address this, we analysed shorter conversations, comprising 6 to 20 comments, in each dataset. In particular, we computed the distributions of toxicity scores of the first and last three comments in each thread. This approach helps to ensure that our analysis accounts for a range of conversation lengths and patterns of toxicity development, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics at play. As shown in Supplementary Fig. 3 , for each dataset, the distributions of the toxicity scores display high similarity, meaning that, in short conversations, the last comments are not significantly more toxic than the initial ones, indicating that the potential effects mentioned above do not undermine our conclusions. Regarding our analysis of longer threads, we notice here that the participation quantity can give rise to similar trends in various cases. For example, high participation can be achieved because many users take part in the conversation, but also with small groups of users in which everyone is equally contributing over time. Or, in very large discussions, the contributions of individual outliers may remain hidden. By measuring participation, these and other borderline cases may not be distinct from the statistically highly likely discussion dynamics but, ultimately, this lack of discriminatory power does not have any implications on our findings nor on the validity of the conclusions that we draw.

Reporting summary

Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article.

Data availability

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube data are made available in accordance with their respective terms of use. IDs of comments used in this work are provided at Open Science Framework ( https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/fq5dy ). For the remaining platforms (Gab, Reddit, Telegram, Usenet and Voat), all of the necessary information to recreate the datasets used in this study can be found in the ‘Data collection’ section.

Code availability

The code used for the analyses presented in the Article is available at Open Science Framework ( https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/fq5dy ). The repository includes dummy datasets to illustrate the required data format and make the code run.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Samory for discussions; T. Quandt and Z. Zhang for suggestions during the review process; and Geronimo Stilton and the Hypnotoad for inspiring the data analysis and result interpretation. The work is supported by IRIS Infodemic Coalition (UK government, grant no. SCH-00001-3391), SERICS (PE00000014) under the NRRP MUR program funded by the EU NextGenerationEU project CRESP from the Italian Ministry of Health under the program CCM 2022, PON project ‘Ricerca e Innovazione’ 2014-2020, and PRIN Project MUSMA for Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) through the PRIN 2022CUP G53D23002930006 and EU Next-Generation EU, M4 C2 I1.1.

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These authors contributed equally: Michele Avalle, Niccolò Di Marco, Gabriele Etta

Authors and Affiliations

Department of Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Michele Avalle, Niccolò Di Marco, Gabriele Etta, Shayan Alipour, Lorenzo Alvisi, Matteo Cinelli & Walter Quattrociocchi

Department of Social Sciences and Economics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Emanuele Sangiorgio

Department of Communication and Social Research, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Anita Bonetti

Institute of Complex Systems, CNR, Rome, Italy

Antonio Scala

Department of Mathematics, City University of London, London, UK

Andrea Baronchelli

The Alan Turing Institute, London, UK

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Contributions

Conception and design: W.Q., M.A., M.C., G.E. and N.D.M. Data collection: G.E. and N.D.M. with collaboration from M.C., M.A. and S.A. Data analysis: G.E., N.D.M., M.A., M.C., W.Q., E.S., A. Bonetti, A. Baronchelli and A.S. Code writing: G.E. and N.D.M. with collaboration from M.A., E.S., S.A. and M.C. All of the authors provided critical feedback and helped to shape the research, analysis and manuscript, and contributed to the preparation of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Matteo Cinelli or Walter Quattrociocchi .

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended data fig. 1 general characteristics of online conversations..

a . Distributions of conversation length (number of comments in a thread). b . Distributions of the time duration (days) of user activity on a platform for each platform and each topic. c . Time duration (days) distributions of threads. Colour-coded legend on the side.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Extremely toxic authors and conversations are rare.

a . Complementary cumulative distribution functions (CCDFs) of the toxicity of authors who posted more than 10 comments. Toxicity is defined as usual as the fraction of toxic comments over the total of comments posted by a user. b . CCDFs of the toxicity of conversations containing more than 10 comments. Colour-coded legend on the side.

Extended Data Fig. 3 User toxicity as conversations evolve.

Mean fraction of toxic comments as conversations progress. The x-axis represents the normalized position of comment intervals in the threads. For each dataset, toxicity is computed in the thread size interval [0.7−1] (see main text and Tab. S 2 in SI). Trends are reported with their 95% confidence interval. Colour-coded legend on the side.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Toxicity is not associated with conversation lifetime.

Mean toxicity of a . users versus their time of permanence in the dataset and b . threads versus their time duration. Trends are reported with their 95% confidence interval and they are reported using a normalized log-binning. Colour-coded legend on the side.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Results hold for a different toxicity threshold.

Core analyses presented in the paper repeated employing a lower (0.5) toxicity binary classification threshold. a . Mean fraction of toxic comments in conversations versus conversation size, for each dataset (see Fig. 2 ). Trends are reported with their 95% confidence interval. b . Pearson’s correlation coefficients between user participation and toxicity trends for each dataset. c . Pearson’s correlation coefficients between users’ participation in toxic and non-toxic thread sets, for each dataset. d . Boxplot of the distribution of toxicity ( n = 25, min = −0.016, max = 0.020, lower whisker = −0.005, Q 1 = − 0.005, Q 2 = 0.004, Q 3 = 0.012, upper whisker = 0.020) and participation ( n = 25, min = −0.198, max = −0.022, lower whisker = −0.198, Q 1 = − 0.109, Q 2 = − 0.070, Q 3 = − 0.049, upper whisker = −0.022) trend slopes for all datasets, as resulting from linear regression. The results of the relative Mann-Kendall tests for trend assessment are shown in Extended Data Table 5 .

Supplementary information

Supplementary information.

Supplementary Information 1–4, including details regarding data collection for validation dataset, Supplementary Figs. 1–3, Supplementary Tables 1–17 and software and coding specifications.

Reporting Summary

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Avalle, M., Di Marco, N., Etta, G. et al. Persistent interaction patterns across social media platforms and over time. Nature (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07229-y

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Title: uni-smart: universal science multimodal analysis and research transformer.

Abstract: In scientific research and its application, scientific literature analysis is crucial as it allows researchers to build on the work of others. However, the fast growth of scientific knowledge has led to a massive increase in scholarly articles, making in-depth literature analysis increasingly challenging and time-consuming. The emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) has offered a new way to address this challenge. Known for their strong abilities in summarizing texts, LLMs are seen as a potential tool to improve the analysis of scientific literature. However, existing LLMs have their own limits. Scientific literature often includes a wide range of multimodal elements, such as molecular structure, tables, and charts, which are hard for text-focused LLMs to understand and analyze. This issue points to the urgent need for new solutions that can fully understand and analyze multimodal content in scientific literature. To answer this demand, we present Uni-SMART (Universal Science Multimodal Analysis and Research Transformer), an innovative model designed for in-depth understanding of multimodal scientific literature. Through rigorous quantitative evaluation across several domains, Uni-SMART demonstrates superior performance over leading text-focused LLMs. Furthermore, our exploration extends to practical applications, including patent infringement detection and nuanced analysis of charts. These applications not only highlight Uni-SMART's adaptability but also its potential to revolutionize how we interact with scientific literature.

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April brings three online launches to nfb.ca and a wealth of arts and science topics

From: National Film Board

News release

More NFB productions and co-productions than ever, from regions across the country, will be available for free streaming on nfb.ca in April.

March 28, 2024 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

More NFB productions and co-productions than ever, from regions across the country , will be available for free streaming on nfb.ca in April . They include three compelling new films that are getting their online launches : Karsten Wall’s short documentary Modern Goose , which reveals how the mysteries of the natural world persist despite continual urbanization ; Nisreen Baker’s feature-length doc Arab Women Say What?! , sharing the provocative perspectives of a group of Arab women living in Canada ; and Monique LeBlanc’s feature The Geographies of DAR , a film about renowned author David Adams Richards and his connection to Miramichi , New Brunswick, one of Canada’s most overlooked yet breathtaking regions.

The April offering also includes various themed days , including Earth Day , with six channels exploring topics in the arts and science . In total, nfb.ca now features more than 6,500 online films and a collection of more than 100 interactive works .

Starting April 1

Modern Goose by Karsten Wall (2023, NFB) – ONLINE LAUNCH Documentary short (22 min 41 s) Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/moderngoose

Able to navigate by reading the Earth’s magnetic field, at home on land, air and water, geese straddle the territory between ancient instincts and the contemporary world . Combining beauty , humour and profound empathy , Winnipeg director Karsten Wall ’s exquisitely observed film essay embeds in the daily life of these iconic animals to reveal a deeper message of continuity and connection . The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and was selected to screen at several festivals in Canada , the US and around the world .

Starting April 10, to mark the end of Ramadan

Arab Women Say What?! by Nisreen Baker (2022, NFB) – ONLINE LAUNCH Feature documentary (82 min) Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/arab-women-say-what With unadulterated truth and complexity , Arab Women Say What?! paints an unparalleled portrait of Arab women living in Canada . Directed by Edmonton-based Egyptian-Canadian filmmaker Nisreen Baker , the film offers a counter-mainstream narrative that embraces the unique experiences and perspectives of eight Arab women sharing their insights, cuisine and laughter. Amid the rhythm of poetry and music, they tackle issues of feminism , politics , exile and the yearning for a sense of belonging . The film was selected for several Canadian festivals . It follows the director’s earlier Things Arab Men Say (NFB, 2016).
Arab communities in Canada Channel: nfb.ca/channels/arab-communities-in-canada Discover a selection of films that explores the rich contributions of Arab Canadians to the national fabric of society, including Me and the Mosque by Zarqa Nawaz and Maisonneuve by Jean-Martin Gagnon.

Celebrating Earth Day, April 22

Green Channel: nfb.ca/channels/the_green_channel

Our planet is precious! This channel presents nearly 65 documentaries and animated films on environmental topics, selected from the many fascinating productions about these subjects in the NFB’s collection. Watch recent films like Kevin McMahon’s Borealis or classics like Bill Mason’s Cry of the Wild .

Starting April 24

The Geographies of DAR by Monique LeBlanc (2023, CinImage Productions/NFB) – ONLINE LAUNCH Feature-length film (75 min) Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/the-geographies-of-dar Directed by Acadian filmmaker Monique LeBlanc , The Geographies of DAR is a captivating film that explores the life and literary works of David Adams Richards . Through stunning visuals, insightful interviews and excerpts from his writings, the film uncovers the profound connection between Richards and Miramichi , New Brunswick . It has screened at multiple festivals across Canada and was named Best Documentary Feature at the Silver Wave Film Festival in Fredericton, as well as Best Canadian Film at the International Festival of Films on Art ( FIFA ) in Montreal.
Canadian writers Channel: nfb.ca/channels/canadian-writers A selection of 19 films about some of the most important figures in Canadian literature, including Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen and Hugh McLennan.

The NFB @ Hot Docs – April 25 to May 5

Channel: nfb.ca/channels/the-nfb-hot-docs

Explore a rich and wide-ranging collection of NFB films that have been honoured at Hot Docs , which has been celebrating the art of documentary filmmaking since it was founded in 1993. Watch Charles Officer’s Unarmed Verses and Kitra Cahana’s Perfecting the Art of Longing , among others.

Marking International Dance Day, April 29

Channel: nfb.ca/channels/dance-films

This channel celebrates dance, whether it be classical, modern, folk or popular. It includes almost 25 documentary and animated films, including Christine Chevarie Lessard’s feature A Delicate Balance .

Marking International Jazz Day, April 30

Channel: nfb.ca/channels/jazz

A selection of nearly 20 films on jazz or with a jazzy flavour, from the animated shorts Oscar by Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre and Street Musique by Ryan Larkin to the documentary Liberty Street Blues by André Gladu.

Learn more about the NFB’s filmmakers and its collection :

nfb.ca/blog/category/curators-perspective
nfb.ca/blog/category/directors-notes

Stay Connected

About the NFB

Jennifer Mair NFB Publicist - Toronto C.: 416-436-0105 [email protected] | @NFB_Jennifer

Katja De Bock NFB Publicist C.: 778-628-4890 - Vancouver [email protected] | @NFB_Katja

Lily Robert Director, Communications and Public Affairs, NFB C.: 514-296-8261 [email protected]

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Read our research on: Abortion | Podcasts | Election 2024

Regions & Countries

Americans’ use of chatgpt is ticking up, but few trust its election information.

It’s been more than a year since ChatGPT’s public debut set the tech world abuzz . And Americans’ use of the chatbot is ticking up: 23% of U.S. adults say they have ever used it, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in February, up from 18% in July 2023.

The February survey also asked Americans about several ways they might use ChatGPT, including for workplace tasks, for learning and for fun. While growing shares of Americans are using the chatbot for these purposes, the public is more wary than not of what the chatbot might tell them about the 2024 U.S. presidential election. About four-in-ten adults have not too much or no trust in the election information that comes from ChatGPT. By comparison, just 2% have a great deal or quite a bit of trust.

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans’ use of ChatGPT and their attitudes about the chatbot. For this analysis, we surveyed 10,133 U.S. adults from Feb. 7 to Feb. 11, 2024.

Everyone who took part in the survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way, nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and the survey methodology .

Below we’ll look more closely at:

Which U.S. adults have used ChatGPT
How Americans are using it
How much Americans trust ChatGPT’s election information

Who has used ChatGPT?

A line chart showing that chatGPT use has ticked up since July, particularly among younger adults.

Most Americans still haven’t used the chatbot, despite the uptick since our July 2023 survey on this topic . But some groups remain far more likely to have used it than others.

Differences by age

Adults under 30 stand out: 43% of these young adults have used ChatGPT, up 10 percentage points since last summer. Use of the chatbot is also up slightly among those ages 30 to 49 and 50 to 64. Still, these groups remain less likely than their younger peers to have used the technology. Just 6% of Americans 65 and up have used ChatGPT.

Differences by education

Highly educated adults are most likely to have used ChatGPT: 37% of those with a postgraduate or other advanced degree have done so, up 8 points since July 2023. This group is more likely to have used ChatGPT than those with a bachelor’s degree only (29%), some college experience (23%) or a high school diploma or less (12%).

How have Americans used ChatGPT?

Since March 2023, we’ve also tracked three potential reasons Americans might use ChatGPT: for work, to learn something new or for entertainment.

Line charts showing that the share of employed Americans who have used ChatGPT for work has risen by double digits in the past year.

The share of employed Americans who have used ChatGPT on the job increased from 8% in March 2023 to 20% in February 2024, including an 8-point increase since July.

Turning to U.S. adults overall, about one-in-five have used ChatGPT to learn something new (17%) or for entertainment (17%). These shares have increased from about one-in-ten in March 2023.

Line charts showing that about a third of employed Americans under 30 have now used ChatGPT for work.

Use of ChatGPT for work, learning or entertainment has largely risen across age groups over the past year. Still, there are striking differences between these groups (those 18 to 29, 30 to 49, and 50 and older).

For example, about three-in-ten employed adults under 30 (31%) say they have used it for tasks at work – up 19 points from a year ago, with much of that increase happening since July. These younger workers are more likely than their older peers to have used ChatGPT in this way.

Adults under 30 also stand out in using the chatbot for learning. And when it comes to entertainment, those under 50 are more likely than older adults to use ChatGPT for this purpose.

A third of employed Americans with a postgraduate degree have used ChatGPT for work, compared with smaller shares of workers who have a bachelor’s degree only (25%), some college (19%) or a high school diploma or less (8%).

Those shares have each roughly tripled since March 2023 for workers with a postgraduate degree, bachelor’s degree or some college. Among workers with a high school diploma or less, use is statistically unchanged from a year ago.

Using ChatGPT for other purposes also varies by education level, though the patterns are slightly different. For example, a quarter each of postgraduate and bachelor’s degree-holders have used ChatGPT for learning, compared with 16% of those with some college experience and 11% of those with a high school diploma or less education. Each of these shares is up from a year ago.

ChatGPT and the 2024 presidential election

With more people using ChatGPT, we also wanted to understand whether Americans trust the information they get from it, particularly in the context of U.S. politics.

A horizontal stacked bar chart showing that about 4 in 10 Americans don’t trust information about the election that comes from ChatGPT.

About four-in-ten Americans (38%) don’t trust the information that comes from ChatGPT about the 2024 U.S. presidential election – that is, they say they have not too much trust (18%) or no trust at all (20%).

A mere 2% have a great deal or quite a bit of trust, while 10% have some trust.

Another 15% aren’t sure, while 34% have not heard of ChatGPT.

Distrust far outweighs trust regardless of political party. About four-in-ten Republicans and Democrats alike (including those who lean toward each party) have not too much or no trust at all in ChatGPT’s election information.

Notably, however, very few Americans have actually used the chatbot to find information about the presidential election: Just 2% of adults say they have done so, including 2% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents and 1% of Republicans and GOP leaners.

These survey findings come amid growing national attention on chatbots and misinformation. Several tech companies have recently pledged to prevent the misuse of artificial intelligence – including chatbots – in this year’s election. But recent reports suggest chatbots themselves may provide misleading answers to election-related questions .

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and the survey methodology .

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Many Americans think generative AI programs should credit the sources they rely on

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About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

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Drawing upon the philosophical theories of language—that the meaning and inference of a word is dependent on its use—we argue that the context in which use of the term patient occurs is ...
Supporting Research in Languages and Literature
Ithaka S+R's Research Support Services program investigates how the research support needs of scholars vary by discipline. From 2018 to early 2020, Ithaka S+R examined the changing research methods and practices of language and literature scholars in the United States with the goal of identifying services to better support them. The goal of this report is to provide actionable findings for ...
LibGuides: Extended Essay: Language and Literature
Language and Literature papers in categories 1 and 2 are focused on one or more literary works and can focus on original literary analysis, a particular literary topic, and/or established literary criticism. ... An extended essay in language and literature gives students an opportunity to do independent research into a topic of special interest ...
Foreign Language Literatures
Tips for doing research on literary topics. Start with the MLA International Bibliography. The MLA International Bibliography is both international and multilingual, making it a great general tool for research in literary scholarship. You can use the drop-down list to specify a Subject Literature by nation or region (Scottish, North African, etc.).
Persistent interaction patterns across social media platforms ...
A substantial portion of current research is devoted to examining harmful language on social media and its wider effects, online and offline 10,26. This examination is crucial, as it reveals how ...
Language and Literature
Book Review: Translation and Style (second version) Wen Yongchao. Guo Qi. Restricted access Book review First published February 28, 2024 pp. 104-108. xml GET ACCESS. Table of contents for Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics, 33, 1, Feb 01, 2024.
Uni-SMART: Universal Science Multimodal Analysis and Research Transformer
In scientific research and its application, scientific literature analysis is crucial as it allows researchers to build on the work of others. However, the fast growth of scientific knowledge has led to a massive increase in scholarly articles, making in-depth literature analysis increasingly challenging and time-consuming. The emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) has offered a new way to ...
April brings three online launches to nfb.ca and a wealth of arts and
The April offering also includes various themed days, including Earth Day, with six channels exploring topics in the arts and science. In total, nfb.ca now features more than 6,500 online films and a collection of more than 100 interactive works. Starting April 1. Modern Goose by Karsten Wall (2023, NFB) - ONLINE LAUNCH Documentary short (22 ...
How Hispanic Americans Get Their News
The terms Hispanic and Latino are used interchangeably in this report.. Hispanic/Latino Americans, Hispanic/Latino adults, and Hispanics/Latinos are used interchangeably in this report to refer to survey respondents who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino in the United States.They include those who say their race is White, Black, Asian or some other race and those who identify as multiracial.
What the data says about abortion in the U.S.
About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions.
Americans increasingly using ChatGPT, but few ...
Research Topics . All Publications Methods Short Reads Tools & Resources Experts About. ... And Americans' use of the chatbot is ticking up: 23% of U.S. adults say they have ever used it, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in February, up from 18% in July 2023. ... How we used large language models to identify guests on ...

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