conclusion in historical research

Introductions & Conclusions

The introduction and conclusion serve important roles in a history paper.  They are not simply perfunctory additions in academic writing, but are critical to your task of making a persuasive argument.

A successful introduction will:

• draw your readers in
• culminate in a thesis statement that clearly states your argument
• orient your readers to the key facts they need to know in order to understand your thesis
• lay out a roadmap for the rest of your paper

A successful conclusion will:

• draw your paper together
• reiterate your argument clearly and forcefully
• leave your readers with a lasting impression of why your argument matters or what it brings to light

How to write an effective introduction:

Often students get slowed down in paper-writing because they are not sure how to write the introduction.  Do not feel like you have to write your introduction first simply because it is the first section of your paper.  You can always come back to it after you write the body of your essay.  Whenever you approach your introduction, think of it as having three key parts:

• The opening line
• The middle “stage-setting” section
• The thesis statement

“In a 4-5 page paper, describe the process of nation-building in one Middle Eastern state.  What were the particular goals of nation-building?  What kinds of strategies did the state employ?  What were the results?  Be specific in your analysis, and draw on at least one of the scholars of nationalism that we discussed in class.”

Here is an example of a WEAK introduction for this prompt:

“One of the most important tasks the leader of any country faces is how to build a united and strong nation.  This has been especially true in the Middle East, where the country of Jordan offers one example of how states in the region approached nation-building.  Founded after World War I by the British, Jordan has since been ruled by members of the Hashemite family.  To help them face the difficult challenges of founding a new state, they employed various strategies of nation-building.”

Now, here is a REVISED version of that same introduction:

“Since 1921, when the British first created the mandate of Transjordan and installed Abdullah I as its emir, the Hashemite rulers have faced a dual task in nation-building.  First, as foreigners to the region, the Hashemites had to establish their legitimacy as Jordan’s rightful leaders.  Second, given the arbitrary boundaries of the new nation, the Hashemites had to establish the legitimacy of Jordan itself, binding together the people now called ‘Jordanians.’  To help them address both challenges, the Hashemite leaders crafted a particular narrative of history, what Anthony Smith calls a ‘nationalist mythology.’  By presenting themselves as descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, as leaders of the Arab Revolt, and as the fathers of Jordan’s different tribal groups, they established the authority of their own regime and the authority of the new nation, creating one of the most stable states in the modern Middle East.”

The first draft of the introduction, while a good initial step, is not strong enough to set up a solid, argument-based paper.  Here are the key issues:

• This first sentence is too general.  From the beginning of your paper, you want to invite your reader into your specific topic, rather than make generalizations that could apply to any nation in any time or place.  Students often run into the problem of writing general or vague opening lines, such as, “War has always been one of the greatest tragedies to befall society.”  Or, “The Great Depression was one of the most important events in American history.”  Avoid statements that are too sweeping or imprecise.  Ask yourself if the sentence you have written can apply in any time or place or could apply to any event or person.  If the answer is yes, then you need to make your opening line more specific.
• Here is the revised opening line: “Since 1921, when the British first created the mandate of Transjordan and installed Abdullah I as its emir, the Hashemite rulers have faced a dual task in nation-building.”
• This is a stronger opening line because it speaks precisely to the topic at hand.  The paper prompt is not asking you to talk about nation-building in general, but nation-building in one specific place.
• This stage-setting section is also too general.  Certainly, such background information is critical for the reader to know, but notice that it simply restates much of the information already in the prompt.  The question already asks you to pick one example, so your job is not simply to reiterate that information, but to explain what kind of example Jordan presents.  You also need to tell your reader why the context you are providing matters.
• Revised stage-setting: “First, as foreigners to the region, the Hashemites had to establish their legitimacy as Jordan’s rightful leaders.  Second, given the arbitrary boundaries of the new nation, the Hashemites had to establish the legitimacy of Jordan itself, binding together the people now called ‘Jordanians.’  To help them address both challenges, the Hashemite rulers crafted a particular narrative of history, what Anthony Smith calls a ‘nationalist mythology.’”
• This stage-setting is stronger because it introduces the reader to the problem at hand.  Instead of simply saying when and why Jordan was created, the author explains why the manner of Jordan’s creation posed particular challenges to nation-building.  It also sets the writer up to address the questions in the prompt, getting at both the purposes of nation-building in Jordan and referencing the scholar of nationalism s/he will be drawing on from class: Anthony Smith.
• This thesis statement restates the prompt rather than answers the question.  You need to be specific about what strategies of nation-building Jordan’s leaders used.  You also need to assess those strategies, so that you can answer the part of the prompt that asks about the results of nation-building.
• Revised thesis statement: “By presenting themselves as descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, as leaders of the Arab Revolt, and as the fathers of Jordan’s different tribal groups, they established the authority of their regime and the authority of the new nation, creating one of the most stable states in the modern Middle East.”
• It directly answers the question in the prompt.  Even though you will be persuading readers of your argument through the evidence you present in the body of your paper, you want to tell them at the outset exactly what you are arguing.
• It discusses the significance of the argument, saying that Jordan created an especially stable state.  This helps you answer the question about the results of Jordan’s nation-building project.
• It offers a roadmap for the rest of the paper.  The writer knows how to proceed and the reader knows what to expect.  The body of the paper will discuss the Hashemite claims “as descendants from the Prophet Muhammad, as leaders of the Arab Revolt, and as the fathers of Jordan’s different tribal groups.”

If you write your introduction first, be sure to revisit it after you have written your entire essay.  Because your paper will evolve as you write, you need to go back and make sure that the introduction still sets up your argument and still fits your organizational structure.

How to write an effective conclusion:

Your conclusion serves two main purposes.  First, it reiterates your argument in different language than you used in the thesis and body of your paper.  Second, it tells your reader why your argument matters.  In your conclusion, you want to take a step back and consider briefly the historical implications or significance of your topic.  You will not be introducing new information that requires lengthy analysis, but you will be telling your readers what your paper helps bring to light.  Perhaps you can connect your paper to a larger theme you have discussed in class, or perhaps you want to pose a new sort of question that your paper elicits.  There is no right or wrong “answer” to this part of the conclusion: you are now the “expert” on your topic, and this is your chance to leave your reader with a lasting impression based on what you have learned.

Here is an example of an effective conclusion for the same essay prompt:

“To speak of the nationalist mythology the Hashemites created, however, is not to say that it has gone uncontested.  In the 1950s, the Jordanian National Movement unleashed fierce internal opposition to Hashemite rule, crafting an alternative narrative of history in which the Hashemites were mere puppets to Western powers.  Various tribes have also reasserted their role in the region’s past, refusing to play the part of “sons” to Hashemite “fathers.”  For the Hashemites, maintaining their mythology depends on the same dialectical process that John R. Gillis identified in his investigation of commemorations: a process of both remembering and forgetting.  Their myth remembers their descent from the Prophet, their leadership of the Arab Revolt, and the tribes’ shared Arab and Islamic heritage.  It forgets, however, the many different histories that Jordanians champion, histories that the Hashemite mythology has never been able to fully reconcile.”

This is an effective conclusion because it moves from the specific argument addressed in the body of the paper to the question of why that argument matters.  The writer rephrases the argument by saying, “Their myth remembers their descent from the Prophet, their leadership of the Arab Revolt, and the tribes’ shared Arab and Islamic heritage.”  Then, the writer reflects briefly on the larger implications of the argument, showing how Jordan’s nationalist mythology depended on the suppression of other narratives.

Introduction and Conclusion checklist

When revising your introduction and conclusion, check them against the following guidelines:

Does my introduction:

• draw my readers in?
• culminate in a thesis statement that clearly states my argument?
• orient my readers to the key facts they need to know in order to understand my thesis?
• lay out a roadmap for the rest of my paper?

Does my conclusion:

• draw my paper together?
• reiterate my argument clearly and forcefully?
• leave my readers with a lasting impression of why my argument matters or what it brings to light?

Download as PDF

6265 Bunche Hall Box 951473 University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA 90095-1473 Phone: (310) 825-4601

Other Resources

• UCLA Library
• Faculty Intranet
• Department Forms
• Office 365 Email
• Remote Help

Campus Resources

• Maps, Directions, Parking
• Academic Calendar
• University of California
• Terms of Use

Social Sciences Division Departments

• Aerospace Studies
• African American Studies
• American Indian Studies
• Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Asian American Studies
• César E. Chávez Department of Chicana & Chicano Studies
• Communication
• Conservation
• Gender Studies
• Military Science
• Naval Science
• Political Science

College of Arts and Sciences

History and American Studies

• What courses will I take as an History major?
• What can I do with my History degree?
• History 485
• History Resources
• What will I learn from my American Studies major?
• What courses will I take as an American Studies major?
• What can I do with my American Studies degree?
• American Studies 485
• For Prospective Students
• Student Research Grants
• Honors and Award Recipients
• Phi Alpha Theta

Alumni Intros

• Internships

Introduction and Conclusion

INTRODUCTIONS The introduction of a paper must introduce its thesis and not just its topic. Readers will lose some—if not much—of what the paper says if the introduction does not prepare them for what is coming (and tell them what to look for and how to evaluate it).

For example, an introduction that says, “The British army fought in the battle of Saratoga” gives the reader virtually no guidance about the paper’s thesis (i.e., what the paper concludes/argues about the British army at Saratoga).

History papers are not mystery novels. Historians WANT and NEED to give away the ending immediately. Their conclusions—presented in the introduction—help the reader better follow/understand their ideas and interpretations.

In other words, an introduction is a MAP that lays out “the trip the author is going to take [readers] on” and thus “lets readers connect any part of the argument with the overall structure. Readers with such a map seldom get confused or lost.”1

Introductions do four things:

attract the ATTENTION of the reader convince the reader that he/she NEEDS TO READ what the author has to say define the paper’s SPECIFIC TOPIC state and explain the paper’s THESIS Writing the introduction: Consider writing the introduction AFTER finishing your paper. By then, you will know what your paper says. You will have thought it through and provided arguments and supporting evidence; therefore, you will know what the reader needs to know—in brief form—in the introduction. (Always think of your initial introduction as “getting started” and as something that “won’t count.” It is for your eyes only; discard it when you know exactly what your paper says.) A common technique is to turn your conclusion into an introduction. It usually reflects what is in the paper—topic, thesis, arguments, evidence—and can be easily adjusted to be a clear and useful introduction.

Some types of introductions:

Quotation Historical overview (provides introduction to topic AND background so that fewer explanations are needed later in paper) Review of literature or a controversy Statistics or startling evidence Anecdote or illustration Question From general to specific OR specific to general Avoid:

“The purpose of this paper is . . .” OR “This paper is about . . . .” First person (e.g., “I will argue that”) Too many questions Dictionary definitions Length: There is no rule other than to be logical. Short papers require short introductions (e.g., a short paragraph); longer ones may require a page or more to provide all that a reader needs. Longer papers require ELABORATION of the thesis; a sentence is not sufficient to prepare the reader for the many pages of arguments and evidence that follow.

CONCLUSIONS Conclusions are the last thing that readers read; they define readers’ final impression of a paper. A flat, boring conclusion means a flat, boring (or, at least, disappointing) paper.

Conclusions should be a climax, not an anti-climax. They do not just restate what has already been said; they interpret, speculate, and provoke thinking.

Some types of conclusions:

Statement of subject’s significance Call for further research Recommendation or speculation Comparison of part to present Anecdote Quotation Questions (with or without answers) Avoid:

“In conclusion”; “finally”; “thus” Additional or new ideas that introduce a new paper First person Length: Again, there is no rule, although too short conclusions should definitely be avoided. Short conclusions leave the reader on the edge of a cliff with no directions on how to get down.

You are the expert – help your reader pull together and appreciate what he/she has read.

____________________________ 1Howard Becker, Writing for Social Scientists (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986).

How have History & American Studies majors built careers after earning their degrees? Learn more by clicking the image above.  

Recent Posts

• History and American Studies Symposium–April 26, 2024
• Fall 2024 Courses
• Fall 2023 Symposium – 12/8 – All Welcome!
• Spring ’24 Course Flyers
• Internship Opportunity – Chesapeake Gateways Ambassador
• Congratulations to our Graduates!
• History and American Studies Symposium–April 21, 2023
• View umwhistory’s profile on Facebook
• View umwhistory’s profile on Twitter

A Step-by-Step Guide to Doing Historical Research [without getting hysterical!] In addition to being a scholarly investigation, research is a social activity intended to create new knowledge. Historical research is your informed response to the questions that you ask while examining the record of human experience. These questions may concern such elements as looking at an event or topic, examining events that lead to the event in question, social influences, key players, and other contextual information. This step-by-step guide progresses from an introduction to historical resources to information about how to identify a topic, craft a thesis and develop a research paper. Table of contents: The Range and Richness of Historical Sources Secondary Sources Primary Sources Historical Analysis What is it? Who, When, Where, What and Why: The Five "W"s Topic, Thesis, Sources Definition of Terms Choose a Topic Craft a Thesis Evaluate Thesis and Sources A Variety of Information Sources Take Efficient Notes Note Cards Thinking, Organizing, Researching Parenthetical Documentation Prepare a Works Cited Page Drafting, Revising, Rewriting, Rethinking For Further Reading: Works Cited Additional Links So you want to study history?! Tons of help and links Slatta Home Page Use the Writing and other links on the lefhand menu I. The Range and Richness of Historical Sources Back to Top Every period leaves traces, what historians call "sources" or evidence. Some are more credible or carry more weight than others; judging the differences is a vital skill developed by good historians. Sources vary in perspective, so knowing who created the information you are examining is vital. Anonymous doesn't make for a very compelling source. For example, an FBI report on the antiwar movement, prepared for U.S. President Richard Nixon, probably contained secrets that at the time were thought to have affected national security. It would not be usual, however, for a journalist's article about a campus riot, featured in a local newspaper, to leak top secret information. Which source would you read? It depends on your research topic. If you're studying how government officials portrayed student activists, you'll want to read the FBI report and many more documents from other government agencies such as the CIA and the National Security Council. If you're investigating contemporary opinion of pro-war and anti-war activists, local newspaper accounts provide a rich resource. You'd want to read a variety of newspapers to ensure you're covering a wide range of opinions (rural/urban, left/right, North/South, Soldier/Draft-dodger, etc). Historians classify sources into two major categories: primary and secondary sources. Secondary Sources Back to Top Definition: Secondary sources are created by someone who was either not present when the event occurred or removed from it in time. We use secondary sources for overview information, to familiarize ourselves with a topic, and compare that topic with other events in history. In refining a research topic, we often begin with secondary sources. This helps us identify gaps or conflicts in the existing scholarly literature that might prove promsing topics. Types: History books, encyclopedias, historical dictionaries, and academic (scholarly) articles are secondary sources. To help you determine the status of a given secondary source, see How to identify and nagivate scholarly literature . Examples: Historian Marilyn Young's (NYU) book about the Vietnam War is a secondary source. She did not participate in the war. Her study is not based on her personal experience but on the evidence she culled from a variety of sources she found in the United States and Vietnam. Primary Sources Back to Top Definition: Primary sources emanate from individuals or groups who participated in or witnessed an event and recorded that event during or immediately after the event. They include speeches, memoirs, diaries, letters, telegrams, emails, proclamations, government documents, and much more. Examples: A student activist during the war writing about protest activities has created a memoir. This would be a primary source because the information is based on her own involvement in the events she describes. Similarly, an antiwar speech is a primary source. So is the arrest record of student protesters. A newspaper editorial or article, reporting on a student demonstration is also a primary source. II. Historical Analysis What is it? Back to Top No matter what you read, whether it's a primary source or a secondary source, you want to know who authored the source (a trusted scholar? A controversial historian? A propagandist? A famous person? An ordinary individual?). "Author" refers to anyone who created information in any medium (film, sound, or text). You also need to know when it was written and the kind of audience the author intend to reach. You should also consider what you bring to the evidence that you examine. Are you inductively following a path of evidence, developing your interpretation based on the sources? Do you have an ax to grind? Did you begin your research deductively, with your mind made up before even seeing the evidence. Historians need to avoid the latter and emulate the former. To read more about the distinction, examine the difference between Intellectual Inquirers and Partisan Ideologues . In the study of history, perspective is everything. A letter written by a twenty- year old Vietnam War protestor will differ greatly from a letter written by a scholar of protest movements. Although the sentiment might be the same, the perspective and influences of these two authors will be worlds apart. Practicing the " 5 Ws " will avoid the confusion of the authority trap. Who, When, Where, What and Why: The Five "W"s Back to Top Historians accumulate evidence (information, including facts, stories, interpretations, opinions, statements, reports, etc.) from a variety of sources (primary and secondary). They must also verify that certain key pieces of information are corroborated by a number of people and sources ("the predonderance of evidence"). The historian poses the " 5 Ws " to every piece of information he examines: Who is the historical actor? When did the event take place? Where did it occur? What did it entail and why did it happen the way it did? The " 5 Ws " can also be used to evaluate a primary source. Who authored the work? When was it created? Where was it created, published, and disseminated? Why was it written (the intended audience), and what is the document about (what points is the author making)? If you know the answers to these five questions, you can analyze any document, and any primary source. The historian doesn't look for the truth, since this presumes there is only one true story. The historian tries to understand a number of competing viewpoints to form his or her own interpretation-- what constitutes the best explanation of what happened and why. By using as wide a range of primary source documents and secondary sources as possible, you will add depth and richness to your historical analysis. The more exposure you, the researcher, have to a number of different sources and differing view points, the more you have a balanced and complete view about a topic in history. This view will spark more questions and ultimately lead you into the quest to unravel more clues about your topic. You are ready to start assembling information for your research paper. III. Topic, Thesis, Sources Definition of Terms Back to Top Because your purpose is to create new knowledge while recognizing those scholars whose existing work has helped you in this pursuit, you are honor bound never to commit the following academic sins: Plagiarism: Literally "kidnapping," involving the use of someone else's words as if they were your own (Gibaldi 6). To avoid plagiarism you must document direct quotations, paraphrases, and original ideas not your own. Recycling: Rehashing material you already know thoroughly or, without your professor's permission, submitting a paper that you have completed for another course. Premature cognitive commitment: Academic jargon for deciding on a thesis too soon and then seeking information to serve that thesis rather than embarking on a genuine search for new knowledge. Choose a Topic Back to Top "Do not hunt for subjects, let them choose you, not you them." --Samuel Butler Choosing a topic is the first step in the pursuit of a thesis. Below is a logical progression from topic to thesis: Close reading of the primary text, aided by secondary sources Growing awareness of interesting qualities within the primary text Choosing a topic for research Asking productive questions that help explore and evaluate a topic Creating a research hypothesis Revising and refining a hypothesis to form a working thesis First, and most important, identify what qualities in the primary or secondary source pique your imagination and curiosity and send you on a search for answers. Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive levels provides a description of productive questions asked by critical thinkers. While the lower levels (knowledge, comprehension) are necessary to a good history essay, aspire to the upper three levels (analysis, synthesis, evaluation). Skimming reference works such as encyclopedias, books, critical essays and periodical articles can help you choose a topic that evolves into a hypothesis, which in turn may lead to a thesis. One approach to skimming involves reading the first paragraph of a secondary source to locate and evaluate the author's thesis. Then for a general idea of the work's organization and major ideas read the first and last sentence of each paragraph. Read the conclusion carefully, as it usually presents a summary (Barnet and Bedau 19). Craft a Thesis Back to Top Very often a chosen topic is too broad for focused research. You must revise it until you have a working hypothesis, that is, a statement of an idea or an approach with respect to the source that could form the basis for your thesis. Remember to not commit too soon to any one hypothesis. Use it as a divining rod or a first step that will take you to new information that may inspire you to revise your hypothesis. Be flexible. Give yourself time to explore possibilities. The hypothesis you create will mature and shift as you write and rewrite your paper. New questions will send you back to old and on to new material. Remember, this is the nature of research--it is more a spiraling or iterative activity than a linear one. Test your working hypothesis to be sure it is: broad enough to promise a variety of resources. narrow enough for you to research in depth. original enough to interest you and your readers. worthwhile enough to offer information and insights of substance "do-able"--sources are available to complete the research. Now it is time to craft your thesis, your revised and refined hypothesis. A thesis is a declarative sentence that: focuses on one well-defined idea makes an arguable assertion; it is capable of being supported prepares your readers for the body of your paper and foreshadows the conclusion. Evaluate Thesis and Sources Back to Top Like your hypothesis, your thesis is not carved in stone. You are in charge. If necessary, revise it during the research process. As you research, continue to evaluate both your thesis for practicality, originality, and promise as a search tool, and secondary sources for relevance and scholarliness. The following are questions to ask during the research process: Are there many journal articles and entire books devoted to the thesis, suggesting that the subject has been covered so thoroughly that there may be nothing new to say? Does the thesis lead to stimulating, new insights? Are appropriate sources available? Is there a variety of sources available so that the bibliography or works cited page will reflect different kinds of sources? Which sources are too broad for my thesis? Which resources are too narrow? Who is the author of the secondary source? Does the critic's background suggest that he/she is qualified? After crafting a thesis, consider one of the following two approaches to writing a research paper: Excited about your thesis and eager to begin? Return to the primary or secondary source to find support for your thesis. Organize ideas and begin writing your first draft. After writing the first draft, have it reviewed by your peers and your instructor. Ponder their suggestions and return to the sources to answer still-open questions. Document facts and opinions from secondary sources. Remember, secondary sources can never substitute for primary sources. Confused about where to start? Use your thesis to guide you to primary and secondary sources. Secondary sources can help you clarify your position and find a direction for your paper. Keep a working bibliography. You may not use all the sources you record, but you cannot be sure which ones you will eventually discard. Create a working outline as you research. This outline will, of course, change as you delve more deeply into your subject. A Variety of Information Sources Back to Top "A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimension." --Oliver Wendell Holmes Your thesis and your working outline are the primary compasses that will help you navigate the variety of sources available. In "Introduction to the Library" (5-6) the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers suggests you become familiar with the library you will be using by: taking a tour or enrolling for a brief introductory lecture referring to the library's publications describing its resources introducing yourself and your project to the reference librarian The MLA Handbook also lists guides for the use of libraries (5), including: Jean Key Gates, Guide to the Use of Libraries and Information Sources (7th ed., New York: McGraw, 1994). Thomas Mann, A Guide to Library Research Methods (New York: Oxford UP, 1987). Online Central Catalog Most libraries have their holdings listed on a computer. The online catalog may offer Internet sites, Web pages and databases that relate to the university's curriculum. It may also include academic journals and online reference books. Below are three search techniques commonly used online: Index Search: Although online catalogs may differ slightly from library to library, the most common listings are by: Subject Search: Enter the author's name for books and article written about the author. Author Search: Enter an author's name for works written by the author, including collections of essays the author may have written about his/her own works. Title Search: Enter a title for the screen to list all the books the library carries with that title. Key Word Search/Full-text Search: A one-word search, e.g., 'Kennedy,' will produce an overwhelming number of sources, as it will call up any entry that includes the name 'Kennedy.' To focus more narrowly on your subject, add one or more key words, e.g., "John Kennedy, Peace Corps." Use precise key words. Boolean Search: Boolean Search techniques use words such as "and," "or," and "not," which clarify the relationship between key words, thus narrowing the search. Take Efficient Notes Back to Top Keeping complete and accurate bibliography and note cards during the research process is a time (and sanity) saving practice. If you have ever needed a book or pages within a book, only to discover that an earlier researcher has failed to return it or torn pages from your source, you understand the need to take good notes. Every researcher has a favorite method for taking notes. Here are some suggestions-- customize one of them for your own use. Bibliography cards There may be far more books and articles listed than you have time to read, so be selective when choosing a reference. Take information from works that clearly relate to your thesis, remembering that you may not use them all. Use a smaller or a different color card from the one used for taking notes. Write a bibliography card for every source. Number the bibliography cards. On the note cards, use the number rather than the author's name and the title. It's faster. Another method for recording a working bibliography, of course, is to create your own database. Adding, removing, and alphabetizing titles is a simple process. Be sure to save often and to create a back-up file. A bibliography card should include all the information a reader needs to locate that particular source for further study. Most of the information required for a book entry (Gibaldi 112): Author's name Title of a part of the book [preface, chapter titles, etc.] Title of the book Name of the editor, translator, or compiler Edition used Number(s) of the volume(s) used Name of the series Place of publication, name of the publisher, and date of publication Page numbers Supplementary bibliographic information and annotations Most of the information required for an article in a periodical (Gibaldi 141): Author's name Title of the article Name of the periodical Series number or name (if relevant) Volume number (for a scholarly journal) Issue number (if needed) Date of publication Page numbers Supplementary information For information on how to cite other sources refer to your So you want to study history page . Note Cards Back to Top Take notes in ink on either uniform note cards (3x5, 4x6, etc.) or uniform slips of paper. Devote each note card to a single topic identified at the top. Write only on one side. Later, you may want to use the back to add notes or personal observations. Include a topical heading for each card. Include the number of the page(s) where you found the information. You will want the page number(s) later for documentation, and you may also want page number(s)to verify your notes. Most novice researchers write down too much. Condense. Abbreviate. You are striving for substance, not quantity. Quote directly from primary sources--but the "meat," not everything. Suggestions for condensing information: Summary: A summary is intended to provide the gist of an essay. Do not weave in the author's choice phrases. Read the information first and then condense the main points in your own words. This practice will help you avoid the copying that leads to plagiarism. Summarizing also helps you both analyze the text you are reading and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses (Barnet and Bedau 13). Outline: Use to identify a series of points. Paraphrase, except for key primary source quotations. Never quote directly from a secondary source, unless the precise wording is essential to your argument. Simplify the language and list the ideas in the same order. A paraphrase is as long as the original. Paraphrasing is helpful when you are struggling with a particularly difficult passage. Be sure to jot down your own insights or flashes of brilliance. Ralph Waldo Emerson warns you to "Look sharply after your thoughts. They come unlooked for, like a new bird seen on your trees, and, if you turn to your usual task, disappear...." To differentiate these insights from those of the source you are reading, initial them as your own. (When the following examples of note cards include the researcher's insights, they will be followed by the initials N. R.) When you have finished researching your thesis and you are ready to write your paper, organize your cards according to topic. Notecards make it easy to shuffle and organize your source information on a table-- or across the floor. Maintain your working outline that includes the note card headings and explores a logical order for presenting them in your paper. IV. Begin Thinking, Researching, Organizing Back to Top Don't be too sequential. Researching, writing, revising is a complex interactive process. Start writing as soon as possible! "The best antidote to writer's block is--to write." (Klauser 15). However, you still feel overwhelmed and are staring at a blank page, you are not alone. Many students find writing the first sentence to be the most daunting part of the entire research process. Be creative. Cluster (Rico 28-49). Clustering is a form of brainstorming. Sometimes called a web, the cluster forms a design that may suggest a natural organization for a paper. Here's a graphical depiction of brainstorming . Like a sun, the generating idea or topic lies at the center of the web. From it radiate words, phrases, sentences and images that in turn attract other words, phrases, sentences and images. Put another way--stay focused. Start with your outline. If clustering is not a technique that works for you, turn to the working outline you created during the research process. Use the outline view of your word processor. If you have not already done so, group your note cards according to topic headings. Compare them to your outline's major points. If necessary, change the outline to correspond with the headings on the note cards. If any area seems weak because of a scarcity of facts or opinions, return to your primary and/or secondary sources for more information or consider deleting that heading. Use your outline to provide balance in your essay. Each major topic should have approximately the same amount of information. Once you have written a working outline, consider two different methods for organizing it. Deduction: A process of development that moves from the general to the specific. You may use this approach to present your findings. However, as noted above, your research and interpretive process should be inductive. Deduction is the most commonly used form of organization for a research paper. The thesis statement is the generalization that leads to the specific support provided by primary and secondary sources. The thesis is stated early in the paper. The body of the paper then proceeds to provide the facts, examples, and analogies that flow logically from that thesis. The thesis contains key words that are reflected in the outline. These key words become a unifying element throughout the paper, as they reappear in the detailed paragraphs that support and develop the thesis. The conclusion of the paper circles back to the thesis, which is now far more meaningful because of the deductive development that supports it. Chronological order A process that follows a traditional time line or sequence of events. A chronological organization is useful for a paper that explores cause and effect. Parenthetical Documentation Back to Top The Works Cited page, a list of primary and secondary sources, is not sufficient documentation to acknowledge the ideas, facts, and opinions you have included within your text. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers describes an efficient parenthetical style of documentation to be used within the body of your paper. Guidelines for parenthetical documentation: "References to the text must clearly point to specific sources in the list of works cited" (Gibaldi 184). Try to use parenthetical documentation as little as possible. For example, when you cite an entire work, it is preferable to include the author's name in the text. The author's last name followed by the page number is usually enough for an accurate identification of the source in the works cited list. These examples illustrate the most common kinds of documentation. Documenting a quotation: Ex. "The separation from the personal mother is a particularly intense process for a daughter because she has to separate from the one who is the same as herself" (Murdock 17). She may feel abandoned and angry. Note: The author of The Heroine's Journey is listed under Works Cited by the author's name, reversed--Murdock, Maureen. Quoted material is found on page 17 of that book. Parenthetical documentation is after the quotation mark and before the period. Documenting a paraphrase: Ex. In fairy tales a woman who holds the princess captive or who abandons her often needs to be killed (18). Note: The second paraphrase is also from Murdock's book The Heroine's Journey. It is not, however, necessary to repeat the author's name if no other documentation interrupts the two. If the works cited page lists more than one work by the same author, include within the parentheses an abbreviated form of the appropriate title. You may, of course, include the title in your sentence, making it unnecessary to add an abbreviated title in the citation. > Prepare a Works Cited Page Back to Top There are a variety of titles for the page that lists primary and secondary sources (Gibaldi 106-107). A Works Cited page lists those works you have cited within the body of your paper. The reader need only refer to it for the necessary information required for further independent research. Bibliography means literally a description of books. Because your research may involve the use of periodicals, films, art works, photographs, etc. "Works Cited" is a more precise descriptive term than bibliography. An Annotated Bibliography or Annotated Works Cited page offers brief critiques and descriptions of the works listed. A Works Consulted page lists those works you have used but not cited. Avoid using this format. As with other elements of a research paper there are specific guidelines for the placement and the appearance of the Works Cited page. The following guidelines comply with MLA style: The Work Cited page is placed at the end of your paper and numbered consecutively with the body of your paper. Center the title and place it one inch from the top of your page. Do not quote or underline the title. Double space the entire page, both within and between entries. The entries are arranged alphabetically by the author's last name or by the title of the article or book being cited. If the title begins with an article (a, an, the) alphabetize by the next word. If you cite two or more works by the same author, list the titles in alphabetical order. Begin every entry after the first with three hyphens followed by a period. All entries begin at the left margin but subsequent lines are indented five spaces. Be sure that each entry cited on the Works Cited page corresponds to a specific citation within your paper. Refer to the the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (104- 182) for detailed descriptions of Work Cited entries. Citing sources from online databases is a relatively new phenomenon. Make sure to ask your professor about citing these sources and which style to use. V. Draft, Revise, Rewrite, Rethink Back to Top "There are days when the result is so bad that no fewer than five revisions are required. In contrast, when I'm greatly inspired, only four revisions are needed." --John Kenneth Galbraith Try freewriting your first draft. Freewriting is a discovery process during which the writer freely explores a topic. Let your creative juices flow. In Writing without Teachers , Peter Elbow asserts that "[a]lmost everybody interposes a massive and complicated series of editings between the time words start to be born into consciousness and when they finally come off the end of the pencil or typewriter [or word processor] onto the page" (5). Do not let your internal judge interfere with this first draft. Creating and revising are two very different functions. Don't confuse them! If you stop to check spelling, punctuation, or grammar, you disrupt the flow of creative energy. Create; then fix it later. When material you have researched comes easily to mind, include it. Add a quick citation, one you can come back to later to check for form, and get on with your discovery. In subsequent drafts, focus on creating an essay that flows smoothly, supports fully, and speaks clearly and interestingly. Add style to substance. Create a smooth flow of words, ideas and paragraphs. Rearrange paragraphs for a logical progression of information. Transition is essential if you want your reader to follow you smoothly from introduction to conclusion. Transitional words and phrases stitch your ideas together; they provide coherence within the essay. External transition: Words and phrases that are added to a sentence as overt signs of transition are obvious and effective, but should not be overused, as they may draw attention to themselves and away from ideas. Examples of external transition are "however," "then," "next," "therefore." "first," "moreover," and "on the other hand." Internal transition is more subtle. Key words in the introduction become golden threads when they appear in the paper's body and conclusion. When the writer hears a key word repeated too often, however, she/he replaces it with a synonym or a pronoun. Below are examples of internal transition. Transitional sentences create a logical flow from paragraph to paragraph. Iclude individual words, phrases, or clauses that refer to previous ideas and that point ahead to new ones. They are usually placed at the end or at the beginning of a paragraph. A transitional paragraph conducts your reader from one part of the paper to another. It may be only a few sentences long. Each paragraph of the body of the paper should contain adequate support for its one governing idea. Speak/write clearly, in your own voice. Tone: The paper's tone, whether formal, ironic, or humorous, should be appropriate for the audience and the subject. Voice: Keep you language honest. Your paper should sound like you. Understand, paraphrase, absorb, and express in your own words the information you have researched. Avoid phony language. Sentence formation: When you polish your sentences, read them aloud for word choice and word placement. Be concise. Strunk and White in The Elements of Style advise the writer to "omit needless words" (23). First, however, you must recognize them. Keep yourself and your reader interested. In fact, Strunk's 1918 writing advice is still well worth pondering. First, deliver on your promises. Be sure the body of your paper fulfills the promise of the introduction. Avoid the obvious. Offer new insights. Reveal the unexpected. Have you crafted your conclusion as carefully as you have your introduction? Conclusions are not merely the repetition of your thesis. The conclusion of a research paper is a synthesis of the information presented in the body. Your research has led you to conclusions and opinions that have helped you understand your thesis more deeply and more clearly. Lift your reader to the full level of understanding that you have achieved. Revision means "to look again." Find a peer reader to read your paper with you present. Or, visit your college or university's writing lab. Guide your reader's responses by asking specific questions. Are you unsure of the logical order of your paragraphs? Do you want to know whether you have supported all opinions adequately? Are you concerned about punctuation or grammar? Ask that these issues be addressed. You are in charge. Here are some techniques that may prove helpful when you are revising alone or with a reader. When you edit for spelling errors read the sentences backwards. This procedure will help you look closely at individual words. Always read your paper aloud. Hearing your own words puts them in a new light. Listen to the flow of ideas and of language. Decide whether or not the voice sounds honest and the tone is appropriate to the purpose of the paper and to your audience. Listen for awkward or lumpy wording. Find the one right word, Eliminate needless words. Combine sentences. Kill the passive voice. Eliminate was/were/is/are constructions. They're lame and anti-historical. Be ruthless. If an idea doesn't serve your thesis, banish it, even if it's one of your favorite bits of prose. In the margins, write the major topic of each paragraph. By outlining after you have written the paper, you are once again evaluating your paper's organization. OK, you've got the process down. Now execute! And enjoy! It's not everyday that you get to make history. VI. For Further Reading: Works Cited Back to Top Barnet, Sylvan, and Hugo Bedau. Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: A Brief Guide to Argument. Boston: Bedford, 1993. Brent, Doug. Reading as Rhetorical Invention: Knowledge,Persuasion and the Teaching of Research-Based Writing. Urbana: NCTE, 1992. Elbow, Peter. Writing without Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. Gibladi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 4th ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 1995. Horvitz, Deborah. "Nameless Ghosts: Possession and Dispossession in Beloved." Studies in American Fiction , Vol. 17, No. 2, Autum, 1989, pp. 157-167. Republished in the Literature Research Center. Gale Group. (1 January 1999). Klauser, Henriette Anne. Writing on Both Sides of the Brain: Breakthrough Techniques for People Who Write. Philadelphia: Harper, 1986. Rico, Gabriele Lusser. Writing the Natural Way: Using Right Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers. Los Angeles: Houghton, 1983. Sorenson, Sharon. The Research Paper: A Contemporary Approach. New York: AMSCO, 1994. Strunk, William, Jr., and E. B. White. The Elements of Style. 3rd ed. New York: MacMillan, 1979. Back to Top This guide adapted from materials published by Thomson Gale, publishers. For free resources, including a generic guide to writing term papers, see the Gale.com website , which also includes product information for schools.

• University of Wisconsin–Madison
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Research Guides
• Introduction to Historical Research

Introduction to Historical Research : Home

• Archival sources
• Multimedia sources
• Newspapers and other periodicals
• Biographical Information
• Government documents

Subject-Specialist Librarians

There are librarians on campus that can help you with your specific area of research.

Subject Librarian Directory Subject-specialist/ liaison librarians are willing to help you with anything from coming up with research strategies to locating sources.

Ask a Librarian

or click for more options ...

This guide is an introduction to selected resources available for historical research.  It covers both primary sources (such as diaries, letters, newspaper articles, photographs, government documents and first-hand accounts) and secondary materials (such as books and articles written by historians and devoted to the analysis and interpretation of historical events and evidence).

"Research in history involves developing an understanding of the past through the examination and interpretation of evidence. Evidence may exist in the form of texts, physical remains of historic sites, recorded data, pictures, maps, artifacts, and so on. The historian’s job is to find evidence, analyze its content and biases, corroborate it with further evidence, and use that evidence to develop an interpretation of past events that holds some significance for the present.

Historians use libraries to

• locate primary sources (first-hand information such as diaries, letters, and original documents) for evidence
• find secondary sources (historians’ interpretations and analyses of historical evidence)
• verify factual material as inconsistencies arise"

( Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age, Fifth Edition, by Diana Hacker and Barbara Fister, Bedford/St. Martin, 2010)

This guide is meant to help you work through these steps.

Other helpful guides

This is a list of other historical research guides you may find helpful:

• Learning Historical Research Learning to Do Historical Research: A Primer for Environmental Historians and Others by William Cronon and his students, University of Wisconsin A website designed as a basic introduction to historical research for anyone and everyone who is interested in exploring the past.
• Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students by Patrick Rael, Bowdoin College Guide to all aspects of historical scholarship—from reading a history book to doing primary source research to writing a history paper.
• Writing Historical Essays: A Guide for Undergraduates Rutgers History Department guide to writing historical essays
• History Study Guides History study guides created by the Carleton College History Department

• Next: Books >>
• Last Updated: Mar 4, 2024 12:48 PM
• URL: https://researchguides.library.wisc.edu/introhist

The Princeton Guide to Historical Research

• Zachary Schrag

50% off with code FIFTY

Before you purchase audiobooks and ebooks

Please note that audiobooks and ebooks purchased from this site must be accessed on the Princeton University Press app. After you make your purchase, you will receive an email with instructions on how to download the app. Learn more about audio and ebooks .

Support your local independent bookstore.

• United States
• United Kingdom

The essential handbook for doing historical research in the twenty-first century

• Skills for Scholars

• Look Inside
• Request Exam Copy
• Download Cover

The Princeton Guide to Historical Research provides students, scholars, and professionals with the skills they need to practice the historian’s craft in the digital age, while never losing sight of the fundamental values and techniques that have defined historical scholarship for centuries. Zachary Schrag begins by explaining how to ask good questions and then guides readers step-by-step through all phases of historical research, from narrowing a topic and locating sources to taking notes, crafting a narrative, and connecting one’s work to existing scholarship. He shows how researchers extract knowledge from the widest range of sources, such as government documents, newspapers, unpublished manuscripts, images, interviews, and datasets. He demonstrates how to use archives and libraries, read sources critically, present claims supported by evidence, tell compelling stories, and much more. Featuring a wealth of examples that illustrate the methods used by seasoned experts, The Princeton Guide to Historical Research reveals that, however varied the subject matter and sources, historians share basic tools in the quest to understand people and the choices they made.

• Offers practical step-by-step guidance on how to do historical research, taking readers from initial questions to final publication
• Connects new digital technologies to the traditional skills of the historian
• Draws on hundreds of examples from a broad range of historical topics and approaches
• Shares tips for researchers at every skill level

Skills for Scholars: The new tools of the trade

Awards and recognition.

• Winner of the James Harvey Robinson Prize, American Historical Association
• A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year

• Introduction: History Is for Everyone
• History Is the Study of People and the Choices They Made
• History Is a Means to Understand Today’s World
• History Combines Storytelling and Analysis
• History Is an Ongoing Debate
• Autobiography
• Everything Has a History
• Narrative Expansion
• From the Source
• Public History
• Research Agenda
• Factual Questions
• Interpretive Questions
• Opposing Forces
• Internal Contradictions
• Competing Priorities
• Determining Factors
• Hidden or Contested Meanings
• Before and After
• Dialectics Create Questions, Not Answers
• Copy Other Works
• History Big and Small
• Pick Your People
• Add and Subtract
• Narrative versus Thematic Schemes
• The Balky Time Machine
• Local and Regional
• Transnational and Global
• Comparative
• What Is New about Your Approach?
• Are You Working in a Specific Theoretical Tradition?
• What Have Others Written?
• Are Others Working on It?
• What Might Your Critics Say?
• Primary versus Secondary Sources
• Balancing Your Use of Secondary Sources
• Sets of Sources
• Sources as Records of the Powerful
• No Source Speaks for Itself
• Languages and Specialized Reading
• Choose Sources That You Love
• Workaday Documents
• Specialized Periodicals
• Criminal Investigations and Trials
• Official Reports
• Letters and Petitions
• Institutional Records
• Scholarship
• Motion Pictures and Recordings
• Buildings and Plans
• The Working Bibliography
• The Open Web
• Limits of the Open Web
• Bibliographic Databases
• Full-Text Databases
• Oral History
• What Is an Archive?
• Archives and Access
• Read the Finding Aid
• Follow the Rules
• Work with Archivists
• Types of Cameras
• How Much to Shoot?
• Managing Expectations
• Duck, Duck, Goose
• Credibility
• Avoid Catastrophe
• Complete Tasks—Ideally Just Once, and in the Right Order
• Maintain Momentum
• Kinds of Software
• Word Processors
• Means of Entry
• A Good Day’s Work
• Word Count Is Your Friend
• Managing Research Assistants
• Research Diary
• When to Stop
• Note-Taking as Mining
• Note-Taking as Assembly
• Identify the Source, So You Can Go Back and Consult if Needed
• Distinguish Others’ Words and Ideas from Your Own
• Allow Sorting and Retrieval of Related Pieces of Information
• Provide the Right Level of Detail
• Notebooks and Index Cards
• Word Processors for Note-Taking
• Plain Text and Markdown
• Reference Managers
• Note-Taking Apps
• Relational Databases
• Spreadsheets
• Glossaries and Alphabetical Lists
• Image Catalogs
• Other Specialized Formats
• The Working Draft
• Variants: The Ten- and Thirty-Page Papers
• Thesis Statement
• Historiography
• Sections as Independent Essays
• Topic Sentences
• Answering Questions
• Invisible Bullet Points
• The Perils of Policy Prescriptions
• A Model (T) Outline
• Flexibility
• Protagonists
• Antagonists
• Bit Players
• The Shape of the Story
• The Controlling Idea
• Alchemy: Turning Sources to Stories
• Turning Points
• Counterfactuals
• Point of View
• Symbolic Details
• Combinations
• Speculation
• Is Your Jargon Really Necessary?
• Defining Terms
• Word Choice as Analysis
• Period Vocabulary or Anachronism?
• Integrate Images into Your Story
• Put Numbers in Context
• Summarize Data in Tables and Graphs
• Why We Cite
• Citation Styles
• Active Verbs
• People as Subjects
• Signposting
• First Person
• Putting It Aside
• Reverse Outlining
• Auditing Your Word Budget
• Writing for the Ear
• Conferences
• Social Media
• Coauthorship
• Tough, Fair, and Encouraging
• Manuscript and Book Reviews
• Journal Articles
• Book chapters
• Websites and Social Media
• Museums and Historic Sites
• Press Appearances and Op-Eds
• Law and Policy
• Graphic History, Movies, and Broadway Musicals
• Acknowledgments

"This volume is a complete and sophisticated addition to any scholar’s library and a boon to the curious layperson. . . . [A] major achievement."— Choice Reviews

"This book is quite simply a gem. . . . Schrag’s accessible style and comprehensive treatment of the field make this book a valuable resource."—Alan Sears, Canadian Journal of History

"A tour de force that will help all of us be more capable historians. This wholly readable, delightful book is packed with good advice that will benefit seasoned scholars and novice researchers alike."—Nancy Weiss Malkiel, author of "Keep the Damned Women Out": The Struggle for Coeducation

"An essential and overdue contribution. Schrag's guide offers a lucid breakdown of what historians do and provides plenty of examples."—Jessica Mack, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University

"Extraordinarily useful. If there is another book that takes apart as many elements of the historian's craft the way that Schrag does and provides so many examples, I am not aware of it."—James Goodman, author of But Where Is the Lamb?

"This is an engaging guide to being a good historian and all that entails."—Diana Seave Greenwald, Assistant Curator of the Collection, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

"Impressive and engaging. Schrag gracefully incorporates the voices of dozens, if not hundreds, of fellow historians. This gives the book a welcome conversational feeling, as if the reader were overhearing a lively discussion among friendly historians."—Sarah Dry, author of Waters of the World: The Story of the Scientists Who Unraveled the Mysteries of Our Oceans, Atmosphere, and Ice Sheets and Made the Planet Whole

"This is a breathtaking book—wide-ranging, wonderfully written, and extremely useful. Every page brims with fascinating, well-chosen illustrations of creative research, writing, and reasoning that teach and inspire."—Amy C. Offner, author of Sorting Out the Mixed Economy

historyprofessor.org website, maintained by Zachary M. Schrag, Professor of History at George Mason University

Stay connected for new books and special offers. Subscribe to receive a welcome discount for your next order. 

50% off sitewide with code FIFTY  |  May 7 – 31  |  Some exclusions apply. See our FAQ .

• ebook & Audiobook Cart

• USC Libraries
• Research Guides

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

• 9. The Conclusion
• Purpose of Guide
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Glossary of Research Terms
• Reading Research Effectively
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
• Academic Writing Style
• Applying Critical Thinking
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• Research Process Video Series
• Executive Summary
• The C.A.R.S. Model
• Background Information
• The Research Problem/Question
• Theoretical Framework
• Citation Tracking
• Content Alert Services
• Evaluating Sources
• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tiertiary Sources
• Scholarly vs. Popular Publications
• Qualitative Methods
• Quantitative Methods
• Insiderness
• Using Non-Textual Elements
• Limitations of the Study
• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Writing Concisely
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Footnotes or Endnotes?
• Further Readings
• Generative AI and Writing
• USC Libraries Tutorials and Other Guides
• Bibliography

The conclusion is intended to help the reader understand why your research should matter to them after they have finished reading the paper. A conclusion is not merely a summary of the main topics covered or a re-statement of your research problem, but a synthesis of key points derived from the findings of your study and, if applicable, where you recommend new areas for future research. For most college-level research papers, two or three well-developed paragraphs is sufficient for a conclusion, although in some cases, more paragraphs may be required in describing the key findings and their significance.

Conclusions. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Conclusions. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University.

Importance of a Good Conclusion

A well-written conclusion provides you with important opportunities to demonstrate to the reader your understanding of the research problem. These include:

• Presenting the last word on the issues you raised in your paper . Just as the introduction gives a first impression to your reader, the conclusion offers a chance to leave a lasting impression. Do this, for example, by highlighting key findings in your analysis that advance new understanding about the research problem, that are unusual or unexpected, or that have important implications applied to practice.
• Summarizing your thoughts and conveying the larger significance of your study . The conclusion is an opportunity to succinctly re-emphasize  your answer to the "So What?" question by placing the study within the context of how your research advances past research about the topic.
• Identifying how a gap in the literature has been addressed . The conclusion can be where you describe how a previously identified gap in the literature [first identified in your literature review section] has been addressed by your research and why this contribution is significant.
• Demonstrating the importance of your ideas . Don't be shy. The conclusion offers an opportunity to elaborate on the impact and significance of your findings. This is particularly important if your study approached examining the research problem from an unusual or innovative perspective.
• Introducing possible new or expanded ways of thinking about the research problem . This does not refer to introducing new information [which should be avoided], but to offer new insight and creative approaches for framing or contextualizing the research problem based on the results of your study.

Bunton, David. “The Structure of PhD Conclusion Chapters.” Journal of English for Academic Purposes 4 (July 2005): 207–224; Conclusions. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Kretchmer, Paul. Twelve Steps to Writing an Effective Conclusion. San Francisco Edit, 2003-2008; Conclusions. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Assan, Joseph. "Writing the Conclusion Chapter: The Good, the Bad and the Missing." Liverpool: Development Studies Association (2009): 1-8.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  General Rules

The general function of your paper's conclusion is to restate the main argument . It reminds the reader of the strengths of your main argument(s) and reiterates the most important evidence supporting those argument(s). Do this by clearly summarizing the context, background, and necessity of pursuing the research problem you investigated in relation to an issue, controversy, or a gap found in the literature. However, make sure that your conclusion is not simply a repetitive summary of the findings. This reduces the impact of the argument(s) you have developed in your paper.

When writing the conclusion to your paper, follow these general rules:

• Present your conclusions in clear, concise language. Re-state the purpose of your study, then describe how your findings differ or support those of other studies and why [i.e., what were the unique, new, or crucial contributions your study made to the overall research about your topic?].
• Do not simply reiterate your findings or the discussion of your results. Provide a synthesis of arguments presented in the paper to show how these converge to address the research problem and the overall objectives of your study.
• Indicate opportunities for future research if you haven't already done so in the discussion section of your paper. Highlighting the need for further research provides the reader with evidence that you have an in-depth awareness of the research problem but that further investigations should take place beyond the scope of your investigation.

Consider the following points to help ensure your conclusion is presented well:

• If the argument or purpose of your paper is complex, you may need to summarize the argument for your reader.
• If, prior to your conclusion, you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the end of your paper to describe your main points and explain their significance.
• Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration that returns the topic to the context provided by the introduction or within a new context that emerges from the data [this is opposite of the introduction, which begins with general discussion of the context and ends with a detailed description of the research problem]. 

The conclusion also provides a place for you to persuasively and succinctly restate the research problem, given that the reader has now been presented with all the information about the topic . Depending on the discipline you are writing in, the concluding paragraph may contain your reflections on the evidence presented. However, the nature of being introspective about the research you have conducted will depend on the topic and whether your professor wants you to express your observations in this way. If asked to think introspectively about the topics, do not delve into idle speculation. Being introspective means looking within yourself as an author to try and understand an issue more deeply, not to guess at possible outcomes or make up scenarios not supported by the evidence.

II.  Developing a Compelling Conclusion

Although an effective conclusion needs to be clear and succinct, it does not need to be written passively or lack a compelling narrative. Strategies to help you move beyond merely summarizing the key points of your research paper may include any of the following:

• If your essay deals with a critical, contemporary problem, warn readers of the possible consequences of not attending to the problem proactively.
• Recommend a specific course or courses of action that, if adopted, could address a specific problem in practice or in the development of new knowledge leading to positive change.
• Cite a relevant quotation or expert opinion already noted in your paper in order to lend authority and support to the conclusion(s) you have reached [a good source would be from your literature review].
• Explain the consequences of your research in a way that elicits action or demonstrates urgency in seeking change.
• Restate a key statistic, fact, or visual image to emphasize the most important finding of your paper.
• If your discipline encourages personal reflection, illustrate your concluding point by drawing from your own life experiences.
• Return to an anecdote, an example, or a quotation that you presented in your introduction, but add further insight derived from the findings of your study; use your interpretation of results from your study to recast it in new or important ways.
• Provide a "take-home" message in the form of a succinct, declarative statement that you want the reader to remember about your study.

III. Problems to Avoid

Failure to be concise Your conclusion section should be concise and to the point. Conclusions that are too lengthy often have unnecessary information in them. The conclusion is not the place for details about your methodology or results. Although you should give a summary of what was learned from your research, this summary should be relatively brief, since the emphasis in the conclusion is on the implications, evaluations, insights, and other forms of analysis that you make. Strategies for writing concisely can be found here .

Failure to comment on larger, more significant issues In the introduction, your task was to move from the general [the field of study] to the specific [the research problem]. However, in the conclusion, your task is to move from a specific discussion [your research problem] back to a general discussion framed around the implications and significance of your findings [i.e., how your research contributes new understanding or fills an important gap in the literature]. In short, the conclusion is where you should place your research within a larger context [visualize your paper as an hourglass--start with a broad introduction and review of the literature, move to the specific analysis and discussion, conclude with a broad summary of the study's implications and significance].

Failure to reveal problems and negative results Negative aspects of the research process should never be ignored. These are problems, deficiencies, or challenges encountered during your study. They should be summarized as a way of qualifying your overall conclusions. If you encountered negative or unintended results [i.e., findings that are validated outside the research context in which they were generated], you must report them in the results section and discuss their implications in the discussion section of your paper. In the conclusion, use negative results as an opportunity to explain their possible significance and/or how they may form the basis for future research.

Failure to provide a clear summary of what was learned In order to be able to discuss how your research fits within your field of study [and possibly the world at large], you need to summarize briefly and succinctly how it contributes to new knowledge or a new understanding about the research problem. This element of your conclusion may be only a few sentences long.

Failure to match the objectives of your research Often research objectives in the social and behavioral sciences change while the research is being carried out. This is not a problem unless you forget to go back and refine the original objectives in your introduction. As these changes emerge they must be documented so that they accurately reflect what you were trying to accomplish in your research [not what you thought you might accomplish when you began].

Resist the urge to apologize If you've immersed yourself in studying the research problem, you presumably should know a good deal about it [perhaps even more than your professor!]. Nevertheless, by the time you have finished writing, you may be having some doubts about what you have produced. Repress those doubts! Don't undermine your authority as a researcher by saying something like, "This is just one approach to examining this problem; there may be other, much better approaches that...." The overall tone of your conclusion should convey confidence to the reader about the study's validity and realiability.

Assan, Joseph. "Writing the Conclusion Chapter: The Good, the Bad and the Missing." Liverpool: Development Studies Association (2009): 1-8; Concluding Paragraphs. College Writing Center at Meramec. St. Louis Community College; Conclusions. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Conclusions. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Freedman, Leora  and Jerry Plotnick. Introductions and Conclusions. The Lab Report. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Leibensperger, Summer. Draft Your Conclusion. Academic Center, the University of Houston-Victoria, 2003; Make Your Last Words Count. The Writer’s Handbook. Writing Center. University of Wisconsin Madison; Miquel, Fuster-Marquez and Carmen Gregori-Signes. “Chapter Six: ‘Last but Not Least:’ Writing the Conclusion of Your Paper.” In Writing an Applied Linguistics Thesis or Dissertation: A Guide to Presenting Empirical Research . John Bitchener, editor. (Basingstoke,UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 93-105; Tips for Writing a Good Conclusion. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Kretchmer, Paul. Twelve Steps to Writing an Effective Conclusion. San Francisco Edit, 2003-2008; Writing Conclusions. Writing Tutorial Services, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Indiana University; Writing: Considering Structure and Organization. Institute for Writing Rhetoric. Dartmouth College.

Writing Tip

Don't Belabor the Obvious!

Avoid phrases like "in conclusion...," "in summary...," or "in closing...." These phrases can be useful, even welcome, in oral presentations. But readers can see by the tell-tale section heading and number of pages remaining that they are reaching the end of your paper. You'll irritate your readers if you belabor the obvious.

Assan, Joseph. "Writing the Conclusion Chapter: The Good, the Bad and the Missing." Liverpool: Development Studies Association (2009): 1-8.

Another Writing Tip

New Insight, Not New Information!

Don't surprise the reader with new information in your conclusion that was never referenced anywhere else in the paper. This why the conclusion rarely has citations to sources. If you have new information to present, add it to the discussion or other appropriate section of the paper. Note that, although no new information is introduced, the conclusion, along with the discussion section, is where you offer your most "original" contributions in the paper; the conclusion is where you describe the value of your research, demonstrate that you understand the material that you’ve presented, and position your findings within the larger context of scholarship on the topic, including describing how your research contributes new insights to that scholarship.

Assan, Joseph. "Writing the Conclusion Chapter: The Good, the Bad and the Missing." Liverpool: Development Studies Association (2009): 1-8; Conclusions. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina.

• << Previous: Limitations of the Study
• Next: Appendices >>
• Last Updated: May 18, 2024 11:38 AM
• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

4 Evaluating Evidence

One of the preeminent guidelines of historical analysis is that all historians evaluate their sources  to determine their quality and accuracy. Beyond determining whether a source is primary or secondary, it is imperative that historians use their knowledge to judge the nature of sources and how they should be used. Remember, each primary source carries with it the biases of its author. These biases alter the presentation of information, as many historical sources are written with clear purpose and intention. Take for example a newspaper editorial written in Atlanta during the American Civil War. Before even reading this document, we need to understand that such an editorial is most likely written from a pro-Confederate source and will therefore be presenting the best possible version of current situation in the war. This source is still very useful for revealing the attitudes of pro-Confederate actors, but information within it about Union troop movements or Union soldiers’ attitudes cannot be accepted as fact. The author’s bias and the historical context of the source’s creation should be noted up front by anyone looking to analyze such a document. We call this information “inherent bias” – in the activity below, you will be able to practice your critical thinking skills by finding inherent bias in a particular document/context.

With the understanding of what biases are likely to be present comes the realization that some claims by historical actors may not be entirely true; that is, they are not agreed upon, verifiable from multiple points of view. But again, just because they are not historical facts , they still offer value to those historians seeking to explain opinions and attitudes of a particular place and time.

Making historical Inferences and avoiding historical fallacies

A key element to the historical analysis process is making Historical inferences . Historians take a collection of facts and then infer larger understandings and conclusions. In order to answer the how and why questions of historical analysis and research, historians need to gather all the possible evidence, vet it for bias and authenticity, understand the larger picture presented by these facts, and then make logical conclusions based on what they have learned.

Historical fallacies come about due to false reasoning on the part of historians. Their arguments may be built upon shaky logic by not considering inherent biases or by using incomplete and corrupted evidence. Fallacies can come about by not considering multiple points of view or perspectives in gathering documetary evidence, or from lack of complexity when analyzing causality, or from imposing modern sensibilities upon actors in the past, or from not considering change over time.  Presented as rational and well supported conclusions, fallacies are incredibly dangerous as they actively spread misinformation and cover up objective historical arguments. Fallacies can be created both intentionally and unintentionally, depending on their authors, the subject matter, and the influence certain arguments can have. One powerful example of a historical fallacy is that the American Civil War was fought over the powers and rights bestowed upon individual states. This argument clouds the immense role that slavery played as the primary cause of the war. Certainly, the causes of the Civil War are complex, but by arguing that it was simply about states’ rights, one is presenting an overly simplistic and incorrect version of history that is damaging in countless ways.

Fallacy is incredibly dangerous in historical work as an established and believed fallacy can impede the proper and well-vetted historical analysis from being accepted, sometimes for generations. These historical fallacies can be weaponized and used for political purposes while always slowing the progress of solid historical work. If historians are constantly working to undo the entrenchment of fallacy, they are slowed in progressing their fields. A powerful historical fallacy can be used to motivate devastating events and have countless times in world history.

In order to avoid historical fallacy, we must be open-minded to proper historical analysis, understand and view multiple perspectives in any event, and focus on determining the difference between facts and biased opinions masquerading as such. By allowing the historical analysis process to take place in full, we as a society can push dangerous fallacy aside and arrive at objectively determined historical conclusions.

an indisputable statement of what happened

ideas and conclusions drawn from evidence and logic

How History is Made: A Student’s Guide to Reading, Writing, and Thinking in the Discipline Copyright © 2022 by Stephanie Cole; Kimberly Breuer; Scott W. Palmer; and Brandon Blakeslee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Conclusions

What this handout is about.

This handout will explain the functions of conclusions, offer strategies for writing effective ones, help you evaluate conclusions you’ve drafted, and suggest approaches to avoid.

About conclusions

Introductions and conclusions can be difficult to write, but they’re worth investing time in. They can have a significant influence on a reader’s experience of your paper.

Just as your introduction acts as a bridge that transports your readers from their own lives into the “place” of your analysis, your conclusion can provide a bridge to help your readers make the transition back to their daily lives. Such a conclusion will help them see why all your analysis and information should matter to them after they put the paper down.

Your conclusion is your chance to have the last word on the subject. The conclusion allows you to have the final say on the issues you have raised in your paper, to synthesize your thoughts, to demonstrate the importance of your ideas, and to propel your reader to a new view of the subject. It is also your opportunity to make a good final impression and to end on a positive note.

Your conclusion can go beyond the confines of the assignment. The conclusion pushes beyond the boundaries of the prompt and allows you to consider broader issues, make new connections, and elaborate on the significance of your findings.

Your conclusion should make your readers glad they read your paper. Your conclusion gives your reader something to take away that will help them see things differently or appreciate your topic in personally relevant ways. It can suggest broader implications that will not only interest your reader, but also enrich your reader’s life in some way. It is your gift to the reader.

Strategies for writing an effective conclusion

One or more of the following strategies may help you write an effective conclusion:

• Play the “So What” Game. If you’re stuck and feel like your conclusion isn’t saying anything new or interesting, ask a friend to read it with you. Whenever you make a statement from your conclusion, ask the friend to say, “So what?” or “Why should anybody care?” Then ponder that question and answer it. Here’s how it might go: You: Basically, I’m just saying that education was important to Douglass. Friend: So what? You: Well, it was important because it was a key to him feeling like a free and equal citizen. Friend: Why should anybody care? You: That’s important because plantation owners tried to keep slaves from being educated so that they could maintain control. When Douglass obtained an education, he undermined that control personally. You can also use this strategy on your own, asking yourself “So What?” as you develop your ideas or your draft.
• Return to the theme or themes in the introduction. This strategy brings the reader full circle. For example, if you begin by describing a scenario, you can end with the same scenario as proof that your essay is helpful in creating a new understanding. You may also refer to the introductory paragraph by using key words or parallel concepts and images that you also used in the introduction.
• Synthesize, don’t summarize. Include a brief summary of the paper’s main points, but don’t simply repeat things that were in your paper. Instead, show your reader how the points you made and the support and examples you used fit together. Pull it all together.
• Include a provocative insight or quotation from the research or reading you did for your paper.
• Propose a course of action, a solution to an issue, or questions for further study. This can redirect your reader’s thought process and help them to apply your info and ideas to their own life or to see the broader implications.
• Point to broader implications. For example, if your paper examines the Greensboro sit-ins or another event in the Civil Rights Movement, you could point out its impact on the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. A paper about the style of writer Virginia Woolf could point to her influence on other writers or on later feminists.

Strategies to avoid

• Beginning with an unnecessary, overused phrase such as “in conclusion,” “in summary,” or “in closing.” Although these phrases can work in speeches, they come across as wooden and trite in writing.
• Stating the thesis for the very first time in the conclusion.
• Introducing a new idea or subtopic in your conclusion.
• Ending with a rephrased thesis statement without any substantive changes.
• Making sentimental, emotional appeals that are out of character with the rest of an analytical paper.
• Including evidence (quotations, statistics, etc.) that should be in the body of the paper.

Four kinds of ineffective conclusions

• The “That’s My Story and I’m Sticking to It” Conclusion. This conclusion just restates the thesis and is usually painfully short. It does not push the ideas forward. People write this kind of conclusion when they can’t think of anything else to say. Example: In conclusion, Frederick Douglass was, as we have seen, a pioneer in American education, proving that education was a major force for social change with regard to slavery.
• The “Sherlock Holmes” Conclusion. Sometimes writers will state the thesis for the very first time in the conclusion. You might be tempted to use this strategy if you don’t want to give everything away too early in your paper. You may think it would be more dramatic to keep the reader in the dark until the end and then “wow” them with your main idea, as in a Sherlock Holmes mystery. The reader, however, does not expect a mystery, but an analytical discussion of your topic in an academic style, with the main argument (thesis) stated up front. Example: (After a paper that lists numerous incidents from the book but never says what these incidents reveal about Douglass and his views on education): So, as the evidence above demonstrates, Douglass saw education as a way to undermine the slaveholders’ power and also an important step toward freedom.
• The “America the Beautiful”/”I Am Woman”/”We Shall Overcome” Conclusion. This kind of conclusion usually draws on emotion to make its appeal, but while this emotion and even sentimentality may be very heartfelt, it is usually out of character with the rest of an analytical paper. A more sophisticated commentary, rather than emotional praise, would be a more fitting tribute to the topic. Example: Because of the efforts of fine Americans like Frederick Douglass, countless others have seen the shining beacon of light that is education. His example was a torch that lit the way for others. Frederick Douglass was truly an American hero.
• The “Grab Bag” Conclusion. This kind of conclusion includes extra information that the writer found or thought of but couldn’t integrate into the main paper. You may find it hard to leave out details that you discovered after hours of research and thought, but adding random facts and bits of evidence at the end of an otherwise-well-organized essay can just create confusion. Example: In addition to being an educational pioneer, Frederick Douglass provides an interesting case study for masculinity in the American South. He also offers historians an interesting glimpse into slave resistance when he confronts Covey, the overseer. His relationships with female relatives reveal the importance of family in the slave community.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Douglass, Frederick. 1995. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. New York: Dover.

Hamilton College. n.d. “Conclusions.” Writing Center. Accessed June 14, 2019. https://www.hamilton.edu//academics/centers/writing/writing-resources/conclusions .

Holewa, Randa. 2004. “Strategies for Writing a Conclusion.” LEO: Literacy Education Online. Last updated February 19, 2004. https://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/conclude.html.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

Get science-backed answers as you write with Paperpal's Research feature

How to Write a Conclusion for Research Papers (with Examples)

The conclusion of a research paper is a crucial section that plays a significant role in the overall impact and effectiveness of your research paper. However, this is also the section that typically receives less attention compared to the introduction and the body of the paper. The conclusion serves to provide a concise summary of the key findings, their significance, their implications, and a sense of closure to the study. Discussing how can the findings be applied in real-world scenarios or inform policy, practice, or decision-making is especially valuable to practitioners and policymakers. The research paper conclusion also provides researchers with clear insights and valuable information for their own work, which they can then build on and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field.

The research paper conclusion should explain the significance of your findings within the broader context of your field. It restates how your results contribute to the existing body of knowledge and whether they confirm or challenge existing theories or hypotheses. Also, by identifying unanswered questions or areas requiring further investigation, your awareness of the broader research landscape can be demonstrated.

Remember to tailor the research paper conclusion to the specific needs and interests of your intended audience, which may include researchers, practitioners, policymakers, or a combination of these.

Table of Contents

What is a conclusion in a research paper, summarizing conclusion, editorial conclusion, externalizing conclusion, importance of a good research paper conclusion, how to write a conclusion for your research paper, research paper conclusion examples.

• How to write a research paper conclusion with Paperpal? 

Frequently Asked Questions

A conclusion in a research paper is the final section where you summarize and wrap up your research, presenting the key findings and insights derived from your study. The research paper conclusion is not the place to introduce new information or data that was not discussed in the main body of the paper. When working on how to conclude a research paper, remember to stick to summarizing and interpreting existing content. The research paper conclusion serves the following purposes: 1

• Warn readers of the possible consequences of not attending to the problem.
• Recommend specific course(s) of action.
• Restate key ideas to drive home the ultimate point of your research paper.
• Provide a “take-home” message that you want the readers to remember about your study.

Types of conclusions for research papers

In research papers, the conclusion provides closure to the reader. The type of research paper conclusion you choose depends on the nature of your study, your goals, and your target audience. I provide you with three common types of conclusions:

A summarizing conclusion is the most common type of conclusion in research papers. It involves summarizing the main points, reiterating the research question, and restating the significance of the findings. This common type of research paper conclusion is used across different disciplines.

An editorial conclusion is less common but can be used in research papers that are focused on proposing or advocating for a particular viewpoint or policy. It involves presenting a strong editorial or opinion based on the research findings and offering recommendations or calls to action.

An externalizing conclusion is a type of conclusion that extends the research beyond the scope of the paper by suggesting potential future research directions or discussing the broader implications of the findings. This type of conclusion is often used in more theoretical or exploratory research papers.

Align your conclusion’s tone with the rest of your research paper. Start Writing with Paperpal Now!  

The conclusion in a research paper serves several important purposes:

• Offers Implications and Recommendations : Your research paper conclusion is an excellent place to discuss the broader implications of your research and suggest potential areas for further study. It’s also an opportunity to offer practical recommendations based on your findings.
• Provides Closure : A good research paper conclusion provides a sense of closure to your paper. It should leave the reader with a feeling that they have reached the end of a well-structured and thought-provoking research project.
• Leaves a Lasting Impression : Writing a well-crafted research paper conclusion leaves a lasting impression on your readers. It’s your final opportunity to leave them with a new idea, a call to action, or a memorable quote.

Writing a strong conclusion for your research paper is essential to leave a lasting impression on your readers. Here’s a step-by-step process to help you create and know what to put in the conclusion of a research paper: 2

• Research Statement : Begin your research paper conclusion by restating your research statement. This reminds the reader of the main point you’ve been trying to prove throughout your paper. Keep it concise and clear.
• Key Points : Summarize the main arguments and key points you’ve made in your paper. Avoid introducing new information in the research paper conclusion. Instead, provide a concise overview of what you’ve discussed in the body of your paper.
• Address the Research Questions : If your research paper is based on specific research questions or hypotheses, briefly address whether you’ve answered them or achieved your research goals. Discuss the significance of your findings in this context.
• Significance : Highlight the importance of your research and its relevance in the broader context. Explain why your findings matter and how they contribute to the existing knowledge in your field.
• Implications : Explore the practical or theoretical implications of your research. How might your findings impact future research, policy, or real-world applications? Consider the “so what?” question.
• Future Research : Offer suggestions for future research in your area. What questions or aspects remain unanswered or warrant further investigation? This shows that your work opens the door for future exploration.
• Closing Thought : Conclude your research paper conclusion with a thought-provoking or memorable statement. This can leave a lasting impression on your readers and wrap up your paper effectively. Avoid introducing new information or arguments here.
• Proofread and Revise : Carefully proofread your conclusion for grammar, spelling, and clarity. Ensure that your ideas flow smoothly and that your conclusion is coherent and well-structured.

Write your research paper conclusion 2x faster with Paperpal. Try it now!

Remember that a well-crafted research paper conclusion is a reflection of the strength of your research and your ability to communicate its significance effectively. It should leave a lasting impression on your readers and tie together all the threads of your paper. Now you know how to start the conclusion of a research paper and what elements to include to make it impactful, let’s look at a research paper conclusion sample.

How to write a research paper conclusion with Paperpal?

A research paper conclusion is not just a summary of your study, but a synthesis of the key findings that ties the research together and places it in a broader context. A research paper conclusion should be concise, typically around one paragraph in length. However, some complex topics may require a longer conclusion to ensure the reader is left with a clear understanding of the study’s significance. Paperpal, an AI writing assistant trusted by over 800,000 academics globally, can help you write a well-structured conclusion for your research paper. 

• Sign Up or Log In: Create a new Paperpal account or login with your details.  
• Navigate to Features : Once logged in, head over to the features’ side navigation pane. Click on Templates and you’ll find a suite of generative AI features to help you write better, faster.  
• Generate an outline: Under Templates, select ‘Outlines’. Choose ‘Research article’ as your document type.  
• Select your section: Since you’re focusing on the conclusion, select this section when prompted.  
• Choose your field of study: Identifying your field of study allows Paperpal to provide more targeted suggestions, ensuring the relevance of your conclusion to your specific area of research. 
• Provide a brief description of your study: Enter details about your research topic and findings. This information helps Paperpal generate a tailored outline that aligns with your paper’s content. 
• Generate the conclusion outline: After entering all necessary details, click on ‘generate’. Paperpal will then create a structured outline for your conclusion, to help you start writing and build upon the outline.  
• Write your conclusion: Use the generated outline to build your conclusion. The outline serves as a guide, ensuring you cover all critical aspects of a strong conclusion, from summarizing key findings to highlighting the research’s implications. 
• Refine and enhance: Paperpal’s ‘Make Academic’ feature can be particularly useful in the final stages. Select any paragraph of your conclusion and use this feature to elevate the academic tone, ensuring your writing is aligned to the academic journal standards. 

By following these steps, Paperpal not only simplifies the process of writing a research paper conclusion but also ensures it is impactful, concise, and aligned with academic standards. Sign up with Paperpal today and write your research paper conclusion 2x faster .  

The research paper conclusion is a crucial part of your paper as it provides the final opportunity to leave a strong impression on your readers. In the research paper conclusion, summarize the main points of your research paper by restating your research statement, highlighting the most important findings, addressing the research questions or objectives, explaining the broader context of the study, discussing the significance of your findings, providing recommendations if applicable, and emphasizing the takeaway message. The main purpose of the conclusion is to remind the reader of the main point or argument of your paper and to provide a clear and concise summary of the key findings and their implications. All these elements should feature on your list of what to put in the conclusion of a research paper to create a strong final statement for your work.

A strong conclusion is a critical component of a research paper, as it provides an opportunity to wrap up your arguments, reiterate your main points, and leave a lasting impression on your readers. Here are the key elements of a strong research paper conclusion: 1. Conciseness : A research paper conclusion should be concise and to the point. It should not introduce new information or ideas that were not discussed in the body of the paper. 2. Summarization : The research paper conclusion should be comprehensive enough to give the reader a clear understanding of the research’s main contributions. 3 . Relevance : Ensure that the information included in the research paper conclusion is directly relevant to the research paper’s main topic and objectives; avoid unnecessary details. 4 . Connection to the Introduction : A well-structured research paper conclusion often revisits the key points made in the introduction and shows how the research has addressed the initial questions or objectives. 5. Emphasis : Highlight the significance and implications of your research. Why is your study important? What are the broader implications or applications of your findings? 6 . Call to Action : Include a call to action or a recommendation for future research or action based on your findings.

The length of a research paper conclusion can vary depending on several factors, including the overall length of the paper, the complexity of the research, and the specific journal requirements. While there is no strict rule for the length of a conclusion, but it’s generally advisable to keep it relatively short. A typical research paper conclusion might be around 5-10% of the paper’s total length. For example, if your paper is 10 pages long, the conclusion might be roughly half a page to one page in length.

In general, you do not need to include citations in the research paper conclusion. Citations are typically reserved for the body of the paper to support your arguments and provide evidence for your claims. However, there may be some exceptions to this rule: 1. If you are drawing a direct quote or paraphrasing a specific source in your research paper conclusion, you should include a citation to give proper credit to the original author. 2. If your conclusion refers to or discusses specific research, data, or sources that are crucial to the overall argument, citations can be included to reinforce your conclusion’s validity.

The conclusion of a research paper serves several important purposes: 1. Summarize the Key Points 2. Reinforce the Main Argument 3. Provide Closure 4. Offer Insights or Implications 5. Engage the Reader. 6. Reflect on Limitations

Remember that the primary purpose of the research paper conclusion is to leave a lasting impression on the reader, reinforcing the key points and providing closure to your research. It’s often the last part of the paper that the reader will see, so it should be strong and well-crafted.

• Makar, G., Foltz, C., Lendner, M., & Vaccaro, A. R. (2018). How to write effective discussion and conclusion sections. Clinical spine surgery, 31(8), 345-346.
• Bunton, D. (2005). The structure of PhD conclusion chapters.  Journal of English for academic purposes ,  4 (3), 207-224.

Paperpal is a comprehensive AI writing toolkit that helps students and researchers achieve 2x the writing in half the time. It leverages 21+ years of STM experience and insights from millions of research articles to provide in-depth academic writing, language editing, and submission readiness support to help you write better, faster.  

Get accurate academic translations, rewriting support, grammar checks, vocabulary suggestions, and generative AI assistance that delivers human precision at machine speed. Try for free or upgrade to Paperpal Prime starting at US$19 a month to access premium features, including consistency, plagiarism, and 30+ submission readiness checks to help you succeed.  

Experience the future of academic writing – Sign up to Paperpal and start writing for free!  

Related Reads:

• 5 Reasons for Rejection After Peer Review
• Ethical Research Practices For Research with Human Subjects

7 Ways to Improve Your Academic Writing Process

• Paraphrasing in Academic Writing: Answering Top Author Queries

Preflight For Editorial Desk: The Perfect Hybrid (AI + Human) Assistance Against Compromised Manuscripts

You may also like, how to write a high-quality conference paper, academic editing: how to self-edit academic text with..., measuring academic success: definition & strategies for excellence, phd qualifying exam: tips for success , ai in education: it’s time to change the..., is it ethical to use ai-generated abstracts without..., what are journal guidelines on using generative ai..., quillbot review: features, pricing, and free alternatives, what is an academic paper types and elements , should you use ai tools like chatgpt for....

• Link to facebook
• Link to linkedin
• Link to twitter
• Link to youtube
• Writing Tips

How to Write a Conclusion for a Research Paper

3-minute read

• 29th August 2023

If you’re writing a research paper, the conclusion is your opportunity to summarize your findings and leave a lasting impression on your readers. In this post, we’ll take you through how to write an effective conclusion for a research paper and how you can:

·   Reword your thesis statement

·   Highlight the significance of your research

·   Discuss limitations

·   Connect to the introduction

·   End with a thought-provoking statement

Rewording Your Thesis Statement

Begin your conclusion by restating your thesis statement in a way that is slightly different from the wording used in the introduction. Avoid presenting new information or evidence in your conclusion. Just summarize the main points and arguments of your essay and keep this part as concise as possible. Remember that you’ve already covered the in-depth analyses and investigations in the main body paragraphs of your essay, so it’s not necessary to restate these details in the conclusion.

Find this useful?

Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox.

Highlighting the Significance of Your Research

The conclusion is a good place to emphasize the implications of your research . Avoid ambiguous or vague language such as “I think” or “maybe,” which could weaken your position. Clearly explain why your research is significant and how it contributes to the broader field of study.

Here’s an example from a (fictional) study on the impact of social media on mental health:

Discussing Limitations

Although it’s important to emphasize the significance of your study, you can also use the conclusion to briefly address any limitations you discovered while conducting your research, such as time constraints or a shortage of resources. Doing this demonstrates a balanced and honest approach to your research.

Connecting to the Introduction

In your conclusion, you can circle back to your introduction , perhaps by referring to a quote or anecdote you discussed earlier. If you end your paper on a similar note to how you began it, you will create a sense of cohesion for the reader and remind them of the meaning and significance of your research.

Ending With a Thought-Provoking Statement

Consider ending your paper with a thought-provoking and memorable statement that relates to the impact of your research questions or hypothesis. This statement can be a call to action, a philosophical question, or a prediction for the future (positive or negative). Here’s an example that uses the same topic as above (social media and mental health):

Expert Proofreading Services

Ensure that your essay ends on a high note by having our experts proofread your research paper. Our team has experience with a wide variety of academic fields and subjects and can help make your paper stand out from the crowd – get started today and see the difference it can make in your work.

Share this article:

Post A New Comment

Got content that needs a quick turnaround? Let us polish your work. Explore our editorial business services.

9-minute read

How to Use Infographics to Boost Your Presentation

Is your content getting noticed? Capturing and maintaining an audience’s attention is a challenge when...

8-minute read

Why Interactive PDFs Are Better for Engagement

Are you looking to enhance engagement and captivate your audience through your professional documents? Interactive...

7-minute read

Seven Key Strategies for Voice Search Optimization

Voice search optimization is rapidly shaping the digital landscape, requiring content professionals to adapt their...

4-minute read

Five Creative Ways to Showcase Your Digital Portfolio

Are you a creative freelancer looking to make a lasting impression on potential clients or...

How to Ace Slack Messaging for Contractors and Freelancers

Effective professional communication is an important skill for contractors and freelancers navigating remote work environments....

How to Insert a Text Box in a Google Doc

Google Docs is a powerful collaborative tool, and mastering its features can significantly enhance your...

Make sure your writing is the best it can be with our expert English proofreading and editing.

How to Write a Conclusion For a History Essay Step-by-Step

A historical essay is a short piece of writing that answers a question or addresses a topic.  It shows a student’s historical knowledge and ability to express themselves. The conclusion is a final summary that explains why the topic is significant. A well-written conclusion ends a historical essay on a strong note. It often is what the reader remembers the most.  

What Is A History Essay?

An essay is a short piece of writing that answers a question (“Who are the funniest presidents ”) discusses a subject (“What is Japanese feudalism ”), or addresses a topic (“ Causes and Effects of the Industrial Revolution ”).  A historical essay specifically addresses historical matters.

These essays are used to judge a student’s progress in understanding history. They also are used to teach and analyze a student’s ability to write and express their knowledge.  A person can know their stuff and still have problems expressing their knowledge.  

Skillful communication is an essential tool.  When you write your conclusion to a historical essay remember that both the information and how you express it are both very important.  

Final Chance To Impress 

The conclusion of a historical essay is the final paragraph.  

This is important.  It is the final thing that the reader reads.  It provides a final impression that can be the thing that is remembered the most.  It is one last chance to impress.

Conclusion Is A Summary 

The conclusion is a summary of your argument or topic.  This is an example of the importance of crisp writing.  The summary provides the reader with a final brief chance (do not ramble!) to know what you are trying to say.  Try not to be boring.  Do not write in the first person (“I”).

The summary does two basic things.  If your historical essay has a specific thesis, a question that you have to answer, you summarize your answer.  And, you summarize the main points of your essay.  In both cases, you do not just repeat what you said before.  

Conclusion Says Why It All Matters 

The conclusion should not provide new information to make your case.  That is what the body of the essay is for.  The conclusion does say why your topic matters.  

It provides the historical implications or significance of your topic.  It offers a final chance for the reader to think about the subject of your historical essay.  End on a strong note!  

Step-By-Step Guide To Writing A Conclusion 

Step 1:  restate your thesis statement.

A “thesis” is a fancy way of saying what you are trying to convince the reader is true.  It is your argument.  For instance, you might have to argue that Catherine the Great truly was impressive. You would start a conclusion with a one-sentence summary of your basic viewpoint.

For these reasons, Catherine the Great was an impressive monarch given the restraints she had to live under.  

If the historical essay does not answer a specific question, the opening statement can summarize the subject of the essay itself:

Donata Badoer , a Venetian noblewoman, married Marco Polo in 1300.  

The restatement sentence does not provide an explanation.  It simply summarizes your basic conclusion.  Note that the thesis sentence might have a qualifier, something that must be true for the argument to work.  Catherine was great “given the restraints” of the times.  

The restatement sentence also can include various words that signal to the reader that the essay is coming to a close. These “summary words” include: in summary, as a result, on the whole, for these reasons, this proves, overall, therefore, this study reveals, and the evidence shows.  

The appropriate words tend to be a matter of personal taste and judgment. They sometimes can be left out (“for these reasons” is a bit redundant) but are popular flourishes.  

Step 2: Restate Your Key Points 

This part of the conclusion summarizes the key points of your historical essay.  

Remember, you are not supposed to be introducing anything new. This is also not a long explanation of the topic.  You already did that.  

The restatement can be as short as one sentence.  It should not be much longer than two to three sentences.  This is a conclusion paragraph, not a separate chapter.

Catherine the Great rose from humble beginnings to lead a great empire, providing many benefits such as supporting women’s education, improving the country’s image, and promoting vaccination.  

Note that you are summarizing your main points without being vague (not just “many benefits” or “people say” but specific examples).  The reader has a crisp summary of your argument.

Step 3: Final Statement and Thoughts 

The conclusion ends with a statement on why this all matters.  

The reader learns how the topic fits into a wider historical context .  How did the topic affect the future, including the current day? Is there an unanswered question or something that can be a helpful subject of research?  The reader is left thinking and intrigued.  

For instance, a historical essay on new weapons in World War I can end thusly:

Those who fought in World I did manage to retain their humanity but the new weapons foreshadowed even more deadly battles and weapons in the future.

Again, the conclusion is a brief summary.  This final thought should be a sentence or two long.  

This section especially provides you some room to provide a bit of a personal touch.  A quotation or suggestion for further research can be added.  The reader is left wanting to learn more.  

Conclusion About Conclusions 

The conclusion of a historical essay ties everything together.  It reminds the reader what your argument is and why it matters.  A well-written conclusion is not just a cherry on top of the sundae.  It leaves the reader with a content feeling that they did not waste their time reading your essay.  They won’t be confused or bored.  They will be left content and intrigued for more.

Teach and Thrive

A Bronx, NY veteran high school social studies teacher who has learned most of what she has learned through trial and error and error and error.... and wants to save others that pain.

RELATED ARTICLES:

How to Write an Introduction For a History Essay Step-by-Step

An introduction of a historical essay acquaints the reader with the topic and how the writer will explain it. It is an important first impression. The introduction is a paragraph long and about five...

The Ultimate Guide to Crafting a Winning Historical Essay Body: Tips and Tricks for Success

A historical essay answers a question or addresses a specific topic. The format is like a sandwich: a body cushioned between the introduction and conclusion paragraphs. Each body paragraph is a...

• Privacy Policy

Home » Research Paper Conclusion – Writing Guide and Examples

Research Paper Conclusion – Writing Guide and Examples

Table of Contents

Research Paper Conclusion

Definition:

A research paper conclusion is the final section of a research paper that summarizes the key findings, significance, and implications of the research. It is the writer’s opportunity to synthesize the information presented in the paper, draw conclusions, and make recommendations for future research or actions.

The conclusion should provide a clear and concise summary of the research paper, reiterating the research question or problem, the main results, and the significance of the findings. It should also discuss the limitations of the study and suggest areas for further research.

Parts of Research Paper Conclusion

The parts of a research paper conclusion typically include:

Restatement of the Thesis

The conclusion should begin by restating the thesis statement from the introduction in a different way. This helps to remind the reader of the main argument or purpose of the research.

Summary of Key Findings

The conclusion should summarize the main findings of the research, highlighting the most important results and conclusions. This section should be brief and to the point.

Implications and Significance

In this section, the researcher should explain the implications and significance of the research findings. This may include discussing the potential impact on the field or industry, highlighting new insights or knowledge gained, or pointing out areas for future research.

Limitations and Recommendations

It is important to acknowledge any limitations or weaknesses of the research and to make recommendations for how these could be addressed in future studies. This shows that the researcher is aware of the potential limitations of their work and is committed to improving the quality of research in their field.

Concluding Statement

The conclusion should end with a strong concluding statement that leaves a lasting impression on the reader. This could be a call to action, a recommendation for further research, or a final thought on the topic.

How to Write Research Paper Conclusion

Here are some steps you can follow to write an effective research paper conclusion:

• Restate the research problem or question: Begin by restating the research problem or question that you aimed to answer in your research. This will remind the reader of the purpose of your study.
• Summarize the main points: Summarize the key findings and results of your research. This can be done by highlighting the most important aspects of your research and the evidence that supports them.
• Discuss the implications: Discuss the implications of your findings for the research area and any potential applications of your research. You should also mention any limitations of your research that may affect the interpretation of your findings.
• Provide a conclusion : Provide a concise conclusion that summarizes the main points of your paper and emphasizes the significance of your research. This should be a strong and clear statement that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.
• Offer suggestions for future research: Lastly, offer suggestions for future research that could build on your findings and contribute to further advancements in the field.

Remember that the conclusion should be brief and to the point, while still effectively summarizing the key findings and implications of your research.

Example of Research Paper Conclusion

Here’s an example of a research paper conclusion:

Conclusion :

In conclusion, our study aimed to investigate the relationship between social media use and mental health among college students. Our findings suggest that there is a significant association between social media use and increased levels of anxiety and depression among college students. This highlights the need for increased awareness and education about the potential negative effects of social media use on mental health, particularly among college students.

Despite the limitations of our study, such as the small sample size and self-reported data, our findings have important implications for future research and practice. Future studies should aim to replicate our findings in larger, more diverse samples, and investigate the potential mechanisms underlying the association between social media use and mental health. In addition, interventions should be developed to promote healthy social media use among college students, such as mindfulness-based approaches and social media detox programs.

Overall, our study contributes to the growing body of research on the impact of social media on mental health, and highlights the importance of addressing this issue in the context of higher education. By raising awareness and promoting healthy social media use among college students, we can help to reduce the negative impact of social media on mental health and improve the well-being of young adults.

Purpose of Research Paper Conclusion

The purpose of a research paper conclusion is to provide a summary and synthesis of the key findings, significance, and implications of the research presented in the paper. The conclusion serves as the final opportunity for the writer to convey their message and leave a lasting impression on the reader.

The conclusion should restate the research problem or question, summarize the main results of the research, and explain their significance. It should also acknowledge the limitations of the study and suggest areas for future research or action.

Overall, the purpose of the conclusion is to provide a sense of closure to the research paper and to emphasize the importance of the research and its potential impact. It should leave the reader with a clear understanding of the main findings and why they matter. The conclusion serves as the writer’s opportunity to showcase their contribution to the field and to inspire further research and action.

When to Write Research Paper Conclusion

The conclusion of a research paper should be written after the body of the paper has been completed. It should not be written until the writer has thoroughly analyzed and interpreted their findings and has written a complete and cohesive discussion of the research.

Before writing the conclusion, the writer should review their research paper and consider the key points that they want to convey to the reader. They should also review the research question, hypotheses, and methodology to ensure that they have addressed all of the necessary components of the research.

Once the writer has a clear understanding of the main findings and their significance, they can begin writing the conclusion. The conclusion should be written in a clear and concise manner, and should reiterate the main points of the research while also providing insights and recommendations for future research or action.

Characteristics of Research Paper Conclusion

The characteristics of a research paper conclusion include:

• Clear and concise: The conclusion should be written in a clear and concise manner, summarizing the key findings and their significance.
• Comprehensive: The conclusion should address all of the main points of the research paper, including the research question or problem, the methodology, the main results, and their implications.
• Future-oriented : The conclusion should provide insights and recommendations for future research or action, based on the findings of the research.
• Impressive : The conclusion should leave a lasting impression on the reader, emphasizing the importance of the research and its potential impact.
• Objective : The conclusion should be based on the evidence presented in the research paper, and should avoid personal biases or opinions.
• Unique : The conclusion should be unique to the research paper and should not simply repeat information from the introduction or body of the paper.

Advantages of Research Paper Conclusion

The advantages of a research paper conclusion include:

• Summarizing the key findings : The conclusion provides a summary of the main findings of the research, making it easier for the reader to understand the key points of the study.
• Emphasizing the significance of the research: The conclusion emphasizes the importance of the research and its potential impact, making it more likely that readers will take the research seriously and consider its implications.
• Providing recommendations for future research or action : The conclusion suggests practical recommendations for future research or action, based on the findings of the study.
• Providing closure to the research paper : The conclusion provides a sense of closure to the research paper, tying together the different sections of the paper and leaving a lasting impression on the reader.
• Demonstrating the writer’s contribution to the field : The conclusion provides the writer with an opportunity to showcase their contribution to the field and to inspire further research and action.

Limitations of Research Paper Conclusion

While the conclusion of a research paper has many advantages, it also has some limitations that should be considered, including:

• I nability to address all aspects of the research: Due to the limited space available in the conclusion, it may not be possible to address all aspects of the research in detail.
• Subjectivity : While the conclusion should be objective, it may be influenced by the writer’s personal biases or opinions.
• Lack of new information: The conclusion should not introduce new information that has not been discussed in the body of the research paper.
• Lack of generalizability: The conclusions drawn from the research may not be applicable to other contexts or populations, limiting the generalizability of the study.
• Misinterpretation by the reader: The reader may misinterpret the conclusions drawn from the research, leading to a misunderstanding of the findings.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

You may also like

How to Cite Research Paper – All Formats and...

Data Collection – Methods Types and Examples

Delimitations in Research – Types, Examples and...

Research Paper Format – Types, Examples and...

Research Process – Steps, Examples and Tips

Research Design – Types, Methods and Examples

HIST 300 - Introduction to Historical Studies: Historical Writing

• Getting Started
• Ask-a-Librarian
• Annotated Bibliography
• Spartanburg Community College Annotated Bibliography Examples
• Historiographic Essay (Literature Review)
• Types of Searches
• Developing Keywords and Related Ideas
• Evaluating Websites for Credibility
• Search Strategies for Books
• Specialized Reference Resources - Definitions
• Finding Credible Sources
• Online Statistical Resources
• Finding Articles from Citations
• Primary Sources for China scholarship
• Important Journals on Modern China
• U.K. Parliamentary Papers
• Historic Newspapers and Digital Newspaper Collections
• Objectivity and Bias - Newspapers
• How to Google for Primary Sources
• Using Google and Google Scholar
• Chicago Style Citation Basics
• New York Times - complimentary online access
• Library Session Online Evaluation Links

Historical Writing - An Overview

Academic writing within the discipline of history will primarily ask a student to participate first-hand in the historical research process, interpreting your findings to add new perspectives to an existing area of study or to answer a question about the past.  Research papers are one of the most commonly used methods for presenting this information in a history course.

Your GOALS when writing a historical research paper include the following:

• Choose a topic that asks a good historical question , and that allows an event to be understood or examined in a new or different way from previous historians.  
• Ensure that your topic is BROAD enough to find sufficient sources to support your research, but NARROW enough to prevent overloading yourself with unrelated or marginally-related results during the search phase.
• Focus on how your ideas and research connect to the work of previous historians.
• Make sure you have a clear, persuasive, well-organized thesis of your own .  
• Princeton University Historiography LibGuide

What is Historiography?

Definition of  historiography.

• a course in  historiography
• a survey of the country's  historiography

(retrieved from  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/historiography)

Essentially, historiography is the writing of history, or the writing of "the history of history" by historians .  For the purposes of this course, you need to know that a historiographic essay:

• summarizes the changing ideas and approaches to a particular topic of history 
• discusses why those ideas may have changed over time.    

Organizing Your Sources

There are different ways to organize sources.  One basic division is between non-written artifacts (remains, buildings, coins, statues, clothing, etc.), and written documents (records, diaries, newspapers, treaties, etc.).  For most courses, you will only need to understand written sources.

Among written sources, historians usually assign three levels of relevance:   Primary ,  Secondary  and  Tertiary .  These categories take their names from the Latin for one, two or three steps removed from the original event. 

Steps in Historical Writing

Historical writing follows a general pattern; by following this structure you will increase the strength of your research.  

• Was slavery the main cause of the American Civil War?
• Was Martin Luther a failure or a success?    
• Where do the arguments seem weak?
• How does this information make me react, and what questions does it leave unanswered?
• Are there other conclusions that could be drawn from this material that are left unstated?
• Have I stated my thesis quickly and concisely, ideally in the first paragraph?
• Have I provided examples as evidence for any and all assertions I make?
• Have I preemptively addressed counter-arguments and possible sources of contention within my paper?
•  An introduction that includes your thesis and the main argument that you will make.
• A systematic development of that argument that includes both evidence and your own analysis.
• A concise conclusion that ties all your ideas together.
• Complete citations for all the sources you use to support your arguments and ideas.
• comparing the past to the present, unless specifically asked to do so
• broad generalizations

something   or   someone   that   is   not   in   its   correct   historical   or  chronological  

time,   especially   a   thing   or   person   that   belongs  to   an  earlier   time:

an   error   in   chronology   in   which   a   person,   object,   event,   etc.,   is  assigned  

a   date   or   period   other   than   the   correct   one:

• << Previous: Ask-a-Librarian
• Next: Annotated Bibliography >>
• Last Updated: Feb 21, 2024 2:30 PM
• URL: https://uscupstate.libguides.com/hist300-historicalstudies

• PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
• EDIT Edit this Article
• EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
• Browse Articles
• Learn Something New
• Quizzes Hot
• This Or That Game
• Train Your Brain
• Explore More
• Support wikiHow
• About wikiHow
• Log in / Sign up
• Education and Communications
• College University and Postgraduate
• Academic Writing
• Research Papers

How to Write a Conclusion for a Research Paper

Last Updated: May 8, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 42 testimonials and 83% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 2,259,534 times.

The conclusion of a research paper needs to summarize the content and purpose of the paper without seeming too wooden or dry. Every basic conclusion must share several key elements, but there are also several tactics you can play around with to craft a more effective conclusion and several you should avoid to prevent yourself from weakening your paper's conclusion. Here are some writing tips to keep in mind when creating a conclusion for your next research paper.

Sample Conclusions

Writing a basic conclusion.

• Do not spend a great amount of time or space restating your topic.
• A good research paper will make the importance of your topic apparent, so you do not need to write an elaborate defense of your topic in the conclusion.
• Usually a single sentence is all you need to restate your topic.
• An example would be if you were writing a paper on the epidemiology of infectious disease, you might say something like "Tuberculosis is a widespread infectious disease that affects millions of people worldwide every year."
• Yet another example from the humanities would be a paper about the Italian Renaissance: "The Italian Renaissance was an explosion of art and ideas centered around artists, writers, and thinkers in Florence."

• A thesis is a narrowed, focused view on the topic at hand.
• This statement should be rephrased from the thesis you included in your introduction. It should not be identical or too similar to the sentence you originally used.
• Try re-wording your thesis statement in a way that complements your summary of the topic of your paper in your first sentence of your conclusion.
• An example of a good thesis statement, going back to the paper on tuberculosis, would be "Tuberculosis is a widespread disease that affects millions of people worldwide every year. Due to the alarming rate of the spread of tuberculosis, particularly in poor countries, medical professionals are implementing new strategies for the diagnosis, treatment, and containment of this disease ."

• A good way to go about this is to re-read the topic sentence of each major paragraph or section in the body of your paper.
• Find a way to briefly restate each point mentioned in each topic sentence in your conclusion. Do not repeat any of the supporting details used within your body paragraphs.
• Under most circumstances, you should avoid writing new information in your conclusion. This is especially true if the information is vital to the argument or research presented in your paper.
• For example, in the TB paper you could summarize the information. "Tuberculosis is a widespread disease that affects millions of people worldwide. Due to the alarming rate of the spread of tuberculosis, particularly in poor countries, medical professionals are implementing new strategies for the diagnosis, treatment, and containment of this disease. In developing countries, such as those in Africa and Southeast Asia, the rate of TB infections is soaring. Crowded conditions, poor sanitation, and lack of access to medical care are all compounding factors in the spread of the disease. Medical experts, such as those from the World Health Organization are now starting campaigns to go into communities in developing countries and provide diagnostic testing and treatments. However, the treatments for TB are very harsh and have many side effects. This leads to patient non-compliance and spread of multi-drug resistant strains of the disease."

• Note that this is not needed for all research papers.
• If you already fully explained what the points in your paper mean or why they are significant, you do not need to go into them in much detail in your conclusion. Simply restating your thesis or the significance of your topic should suffice.
• It is always best practice to address important issues and fully explain your points in the body of your paper. The point of a conclusion to a research paper is to summarize your argument for the reader and, perhaps, to call the reader to action if needed.

• Note that a call for action is not essential to all conclusions. A research paper on literary criticism, for instance, is less likely to need a call for action than a paper on the effect that television has on toddlers and young children.
• A paper that is more likely to call readers to action is one that addresses a public or scientific need. Let's go back to our example of tuberculosis. This is a very serious disease that is spreading quickly and with antibiotic-resistant forms.
• A call to action in this research paper would be a follow-up statement that might be along the lines of "Despite new efforts to diagnose and contain the disease, more research is needed to develop new antibiotics that will treat the most resistant strains of tuberculosis and ease the side effects of current treatments."

• For example, if you are writing a history paper, then you might discuss how the historical topic you discussed matters today. If you are writing about a foreign country, then you might use the conclusion to discuss how the information you shared may help readers understand their own country.

Making Your Conclusion as Effective as Possible

• Since this sort of conclusion is so basic, you must aim to synthesize the information rather than merely summarizing it.
• Instead of merely repeating things you already said, rephrase your thesis and supporting points in a way that ties them all together.
• By doing so, you make your research paper seem like a "complete thought" rather than a collection of random and vaguely related ideas.

• Ask a question in your introduction. In your conclusion, restate the question and provide a direct answer.
• Write an anecdote or story in your introduction but do not share the ending. Instead, write the conclusion to the anecdote in the conclusion of your paper.
• For example, if you wanted to get more creative and put a more humanistic spin on a paper on tuberculosis, you might start your introduction with a story about a person with the disease, and refer to that story in your conclusion. For example, you could say something like this before you re-state your thesis in your conclusion: "Patient X was unable to complete the treatment for tuberculosis due to severe side effects and unfortunately succumbed to the disease."
• Use the same concepts and images introduced in your introduction in your conclusion. The images may or may not appear at other points throughout the research paper.

• Include enough information about your topic to back the statement up but do not get too carried away with excess detail.
• If your research did not provide you with a clear-cut answer to a question posed in your thesis, do not be afraid to indicate as much.
• Restate your initial hypothesis and indicate whether you still believe it or if the research you performed has begun swaying your opinion.
• Indicate that an answer may still exist and that further research could shed more light on the topic at hand.

• This may not be appropriate for all types of research papers. Most research papers, such as one on effective treatment for diseases, will have the information to make the case for a particular argument already in the paper.
• A good example of a paper that might ask a question of the reader in the ending is one about a social issue, such as poverty or government policy.
• Ask a question that will directly get at the heart or purpose of the paper. This question is often the same question, or some version of it, that you may have started with when you began your research.
• Make sure that the question can be answered by the evidence presented in your paper.
• If desired you can briefly summarize the answer after stating the question. You could also leave the question hanging for the reader to answer, though.

• Even without a call to action, you can still make a recommendation to your reader.
• For instance, if you are writing about a topic like third-world poverty, you can various ways for the reader to assist in the problem without necessarily calling for more research.
• Another example would be, in a paper about treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis, you could suggest donating to the World Health Organization or research foundations that are developing new treatments for the disease.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

• These sayings usually sound stiff, unnatural, or trite when used in writing.
• Moreover, using a phrase like "in conclusion" to begin your conclusion is a little too straightforward and tends to lead to a weak conclusion. A strong conclusion can stand on its own without being labeled as such.

• Always state the main argument or thesis in the introduction. A research paper is an analytical discussion of an academic topic, not a mystery novel.
• A good, effective research paper will allow your reader to follow your main argument from start to finish.
• This is why it is best practice to start your paper with an introduction that states your main argument and to end the paper with a conclusion that re-states your thesis for re-iteration.

• All significant information should be introduced in the body of the paper.
• Supporting evidence expands the topic of your paper by making it appear more detailed. A conclusion should narrow the topic to a more general point.
• A conclusion should only summarize what you have already stated in the body of your paper.
• You may suggest further research or a call to action, but you should not bring in any new evidence or facts in the conclusion.

• Most often, a shift in tone occurs when a research paper with an academic tone gives an emotional or sentimental conclusion.
• Even if the topic of the paper is of personal significance for you, you should not indicate as much in your paper.
• If you want to give your paper a more humanistic slant, you could start and end your paper with a story or anecdote that would give your topic more personal meaning to the reader.
• This tone should be consistent throughout the paper, however.

• Apologetic statements include phrases like "I may not be an expert" or "This is only my opinion."
• Statements like this can usually be avoided by refraining from writing in the first-person.
• Avoid any statements in the first-person. First-person is generally considered to be informal and does not fit with the formal tone of a research paper.

Community Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/724/04/
• ↑ http://www.crlsresearchguide.org/18_Writing_Conclusion.asp
• ↑ http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/PlanResearchPaper.html#conclusion
• ↑ http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/conclusions/
• ↑ http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/conclude.html

About This Article

To write a conclusion for a research paper, start by restating your thesis statement to remind your readers what your main topic is and bring everything full circle. Then, briefly summarize all of the main points you made throughout your paper, which will help remind your readers of everything they learned. You might also want to include a call to action if you think more research or work needs to be done on your topic by writing something like, "Despite efforts to contain the disease, more research is needed to develop antibiotics." Finally, end your conclusion by explaining the broader context of your topic and why your readers should care about it, which will help them understand why your topic is relevant and important. For tips from our Academic co-author, like how to avoid common pitfalls when writing your conclusion, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No

• Send fan mail to authors

Reader Success Stories

Ummay Aimen

Sep 30, 2016

Did this article help you?

Oct 22, 2017

Sally Larrin

Mar 17, 2018

Maya Loeven

Jun 4, 2017

Sep 26, 2016

Featured Articles

Trending Articles

Watch Articles

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell or Share My Info
• Not Selling Info

Don’t miss out! Sign up for

wikiHow’s newsletter

History, Evolution, and Milestones in Cancer Research and Treatment

• Reference work entry
• First Online: 15 May 2024
• Cite this reference work entry

• Indu Sharma   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9846-9787 4 ,
• Anuradha Sharma   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5975-1456 4 ,
• Reena Tomer   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1133-763X 4 ,
• Neha Negi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1902-7081 4 &
• R. C. Sobti 5  

The historical findings of patients with cancer from ancient Egyptian and Greek civilizations support the millennium long medical history of cancer. However, the disease at that time was mostly treated with not so effective radical surgery and cautery, making death the ultimate outcome of cancer patients. Over the centuries, various breakthrough discoveries have not only reformed the cancer detection but also contributed to the development of more effective therapeutic approaches. The most significant of them was the unearthing of cytotoxic antitumor drugs and the inception of chemotherapy. Since then, an exponential progress has been witnessed over the time about new cancer drugs. Another revolution in the field of oncology was targeted therapy with the development of specific drugs for some molecular targets involved in vital neoplastic processes. Collectively, chemotherapy and targeted therapy have definitely enhanced not only the survival rate but also the quality of life of cancer patients. In present times, genetic engineering studies have amplified the further advancements of cancer biology by utilizing monoclonal antibodies and immune checkpoint inhibitors specifically for advanced or metastatic tumors. Hence, cancer research has continuously grown with an intend to develop newer and better therapeutic approaches for cancer. Most recent, artificial intelligence and precision medicine are certainly going to bring a new revolution in the field of medical oncology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Alverson DC, Krupinski EA, Erps KA, Rowe NS, Weinstein RS (2019) The third national telemedicine & telehealth service provider showcase conference. Telemed J E Health 25(4):332–340. https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2018.0096

American Cancer Society. www.cancer.org | 1.800.227.2345

Amiri-Kordestani L, Blumenthal GM, Xu QC, Zhang L, Tang SW, Ha L, Weinberg WC, Chi B, Candau-Chacon R, Hughes P, Russell AM, Miksinski SP, Chen XH, McGuinn WD, Palmby T, Schrieber SJ, Liu Q, Wang J, Song P, Mehrotra N et al (2014) FDA approval: ado-trastuzumab emtansine for the treatment of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Clin Cancer Res 20(17):4436–4441. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-14-0012

Article   CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Andriole GL, Bostwick DG, Brawley OW, Gomella LG, Marberger M, Montorsi F, Pettaway, CA, Tammela TL, Teloken C, Tindall DJ, Somerville MC, Wilson TH, Fowler IL, Rittmaster RS, & REDUCE Study Group (2010) Effect of dutasteride on the risk of prostate cancer. N Engl J Med 362(13):1192–1202. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa0908127

Azike JE (2009) A review of the history, epidemiology and treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the scrotum. Rare Tumors 1(1):47–49

Article   Google Scholar  

Bagnardi V, Blangiardo M, La Vecchia C, Corrao G (2001) A meta-analysis of alcohol drinking and cancer risk. Br J Cancer 85(11), 1700–1705. https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2001.2140

Bakkalci D, Jia Y, Winter JR, Lewis JE, Taylor GS, Stagg HR (2020) Risk factors for Epstein Barr virus-associated cancers: a systematic review, critical appraisal, and mapping of the epidemiological evidence. J Glob Health 10(1):010405. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010405

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Basu A, Kuziemsky C, de Araújo Novaes M, Kleber A, Sales F, Al-Shorbaji N, Flórez-Arango JF, Gogia SB, Ho K Hunter, I Iyengar, S John, O John, S Kulatunga G Rajput, VK Ranatunga P, Udayasankaran JG (2021) Telehealth and the COVID-19 Pandemic: International Perspectives and a Health Systems Framework for Telehealth Implementation to Support Critical Response. Yearb Med Inform 30(1):126–133. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0041-1726484

Bayat Mokhtari R, Homayouni TS, Baluch N, Morgatskaya E, Kumar S, Das B, Yeger H (2017) Combination therapy in combating cancer. Oncotarget 8(23):38022–38043. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.16723

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Baysal BE, Ferrell RE, Willett-Brozick JE, Lawrence EC, Myssiorek D, Bosch A, van der Mey A, Taschner PE, Rubinstein WS, Myers EN, Richard CW 3rd, Cornelisse CJ, Devilee P, Devlin B (2000) Mutations in SDHD, a mitochondrial complex II gene, in hereditary paraganglioma. Science (New York, N.Y.) 287(5454):848–851. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.287.5454.848

Berger MF, Mardis ER (2018) The emerging clinical relevance of genomics in cancer medicine. Nature reviews. Clin Oncol 15(6):353–365. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-018-0002-6

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Bergljung L (2005) Sir Geoffrey Keynes 1887–1982. Kirurgisk pionjär, medicinhistoriker, humanist [Sir Geoffrey Keynes 1887–1982. Surgical pioneer, medical historian, humanist]. Svensk medicinhistorisk tidskrift 9(1):147–153

PubMed   Google Scholar  

Blumberg BS, Larouzé B, London WT, Werner B, Hesser JE, Millman I, Saimot G, Payet M (1975) The relation of infection with the hepatitis B agent to primary hepatic carcinoma. Am J Pathol 81(3):669–682. PMID: 174434 PMCID: PMC2032339

Google Scholar  

Burd EM (2003) Human papillomavirus and cervical cancer. Clin Microbiol Rev 16(1):1–17. https://doi.org/10.1128/CMR.16.1.1-17.2003

Article   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Burns MC, O’Donnell A, Puzanov I (2016) Pembrolizumab for the treatment of advanced melanoma. Expert Opin Orphan Drugs 4(8):867–873. https://doi.org/10.1080/21678707.2016.1191348

Calle EE, Rodriguez C, Walker-Thurmond K, Thun MJ (2003) Overweight, obesity, and mortality from cancer in a prospectively studied cohort of U.S. adults N Engl J Med 348(17):1625–1638. https://doi.org/10.1056

Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network (2008) Comprehensive genomic characterization defines human glioblastoma genes and core pathways. Nature 455(7216):1061–1068. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07385

Chang MH (2011) Hepatitis B virus and cancer prevention. Recent results in cancer research. Fortschritte der Krebsforschung. Progres dans les recherches sur le cancer 188:75–84. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10858-7_6

Chen Y, Jia Y, Song W, Zhang L (2018) Therapeutic potential of nitrogen mustard based hybrid molecules. Front Pharmacol 9:1453

Cheng L, Wang Y, Du J (2020) Human papillomavirus vaccines: an updated review. Vaccines 8(3):391. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines8030391

Clarke MJ (1998) Ovarian ablation in breast cancer, 1896 to 1998: milestones along hierarchy of evidence from case report to Cochrane review. BMJ 317(7167):1246–1248. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.317.7167.1246

Colapietro A, Mancini A, D’Alessandro AM, Festuccia C (2019) Crocetin and crocin from saffron in cancer chemotherapy and chemoprevention. Anti-Cancer Agents Med Chem 19(1):38–47. https://doi.org/10.2174/1871520619666181231112453

Collins FS, Morgan M, Patrinos A (2003) The Human Genome Project: lessons from large-scale biology. Science (New York, NY) 300(5617):286–290. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1084564

Connell PP, Hellman S (2009) Advances in radiotherapy and implications for the next century: a historical perspective. Cancer Res 69(2):383–392

Cornejo CM, Jambusaria-Pahlajani A, Willenbrink TJ, Schmults CD, Arron ST, Ruiz ES (2020) Field cancerization: treatment. J Am Acad Dermatol 83(3):719–730. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2020.03.127

Cragg GM, Newman DJ (2013) Natural products: a continuing source of novel drug leads. Biochimica et biophysica acta 1830(6):3670–3695. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagen.2013.02.008

Crawford ED (2004) Hormonal therapy in prostate cancer: historical approaches. Rev Urol 6(Suppl 7):S3–S11

PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Dang L, White DW, Gross S, Bennett BD, Bittinger MA, Driggers EM, Fantin VR, Jang HG, Jin S, Keenan MC, Marks KM, Prins RM, Ward PS, Yen KE, Liau LM, Rabinowitz JD, Cantley LC, Thompson CB, Vander Heiden MG, Su SM (2009) Cancer-associated IDH1 mutations produce 2-hydroxyglutarate. Nature 462(7274):739–744. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08617

DeVita VT Jr, Chu E (2008) A history of cancer chemotherapy. Cancer Res 68(21):8643–8653

Dillard RS, Hampton CM, Strauss JD, Ke Z, Altomara D, Guerrero-Ferreira RC, Kiss G, Wright ER (2018) Biological Applications at the Cutting Edge of Cryo-Electron Microscopy. Microscopy and microanalysis: Microsc Microanal 24(4):406–419. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927618012382

Dotan E, Aggarwal C, Smith MR (2010) Impact of rituximab (Rituxan) on the treatment of B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. P & T 35(3):148–157

D’Souza G, Kreimer AR, Viscidi R et al (2007) Case-control study of human papillomavirus and oropharyngeal cancer. N Engl J Med 356:1944–1956

Dunn DB (2020) Larotrectinib and entrectinib: TRK inhibitors for the treatment of pediatric and adult patients with NTRK gene fusion. J Adv Pract Oncol 11(4):418–423. https://doi.org/10.6004/jadpro.2020.11.4.9

Elemento O (2021) The road from Rous sarcoma virus to precision medicine. J Exp Med 218(4)

Elion GB, Singer S, Hitchings GH (1954) Antagonists of nucleic acid derivatives. VIII. Synergism in combinations of biochemically related antimetabolites. J Biol Chem 208:477–488

Fisher B, Costantino JP, Wickerham DL, Redmond CK, Kavanah M, Cronin WM, Vogel V, Robidoux A, Dimitrov N, Atkins J, Daly M, Wieand S, Tan-Chiu E, Ford L, Wolmark N (1998) Tamoxifen for prevention of breast cancer: report of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project P-1 Study. J Natl Cancer Inst 90(18):1371–1388. https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/90.18.1371

Fröman N (1996) Marie and Pierre Curie and the discovery of polonium and radium. Palestra na royal swedish academy of sciences, em Estocolmo, Suécia

Gilchrest BA (2021) Actinic keratoses: reconciling the biology of field cancerization with treatment paradigms. J Investig Dermatol 141(4):727–731. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2020.09.002

Gompel A (2019) Hormones et cancers du sein [Hormone and breast cancer]. Presse medicale (Paris, France: 1983) 48(10):1085–1091. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lpm.2019.09.021

Graziani G, Tentori L, Navarra P (2012) Ipilimumab: a novel immunostimulatory monoclonal antibody for the treatment of cancer. Pharmacol Res 65(1):9–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phrs.2011.09.002

Graziani G, Lisi L, Tentori L, Navarra P (2022) Monoclonal Antibodies to CTLA-4 with Focus on Ipilimumab. Exp Suppl 113:295–350. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91311-3_10

Guallar-Garrido S, Julián E (2020) Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) therapy for bladder cancer: an update. ImmunoTargets Ther 9:1–11. https://doi.org/10.2147/ITT.S202006

Gutierrez C, Schiff R (2011) HER2: biology, detection, and clinical implications. Arch Pathol Lab Med 135(1):55–62. https://doi.org/10.5858/2010-0454-RAR.1

Hammerstrom AE, Cauley DH, Atkinson BJ, Sharma P (2011) Cancer immunotherapy: sipuleucel-T and beyond. Pharmacotherapy 31(8):813–828. https://doi.org/10.1592/phco.31.8.813

Hansford S, Huntsman DG (2014) Boveri at 100: Theodor Boveri and genetic predisposition to cancer. J Pathol 234(2):142–145. https://doi.org/10.1002/path.4414

Hansson N, Moll F, Schultheiss D, Krischel M (2016) Remembering Charles B. Huggins’ Nobel Prize for Hormonal Treatment of Prostatic Cancer at its 50th Anniversary. Eur Uro 69(6):971–972. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2016.01.030

Hitchings GH, Elion GB (1954) The chemistry and biochemistry of purine analogs. Ann NY Acad Sci 60:195–199

Hodi FS, Chesney J, Pavlick AC, Robert C, Grossmann KF, McDermott DF, Linette GP, Meyer N, Giguere JK, Agarwala SS, Shaheen M, Ernstoff MS, Minor DR, Salama AK, Taylor MH, Ott PA, Horak C, Gagnier P, Jiang J, Wolchok JD, Postow MA (2016) Combined nivolumab and ipilimumab versus ipilimumab alone in patients with advanced melanoma: 2-year overall survival outcomes in amulticentre, randomised, controlled, phase 2 trial. Lancet Oncol 17(11):1558–1568. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(16)30366-7

Howard NP, Troggio M, Durel CE, Muranty H, Denancé C, Bianco L, Tillman J, van de Weg E (2021) Integration of Infinium and Axiom SNP array data in the outcrossing species Malus × domestica and causes for seemingly incompatible calls. BMC genomics 22(1):246. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-021-07565-7

Howard KK, Makki H, Novotny NM, Mi M, Nguyen N (2022) Value of robotic surgery simulation for training surgical residents and attendings: a systematic review protocol. BMJ open 12(6):e059439. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059439

Hunter B, Hindocha S, Lee RW (2022) The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Early Cancer Diagnosis. Cancers 14(6):1524. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14061524

Hurwitz H, Fehrenbacher L, Novotny W, Cartwright T, Hainsworth J, Heim W, Berlin J, Baron A, Griffing S, Holmgren E, Ferrara N, Fyfe G, Rogers B, Ross R, Kabbinavar F (2004) Bevacizumab plus irinotecan, fluorouracil, and leucovorin for metastatic colorectal cancer. N Engl J Med 350(23):2335–342. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa032691

ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium (2020) Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes. Nature 578(7793):82–93. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-1969-6

Iqbal N, Iqbal N (2014a) Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in cancers: overexpression and therapeutic implications. Mol Biol Int 2014:852748. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/852748

Iqbal N, Iqbal N (2014b) Imatinib: a breakthrough of targeted therapy in cancer. Chemother Res Pract 2014:357027. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/357027

Jensen G (2010) Cryo-EM, Part C: analyses, interpretation, and case studies Academic Press

Yang JE, Larson MR, Sibert BS, Shrum, S, Wright ER (2021) CorRelator: Interactive software for real-time high precision cryo-correlative light and electron microscopy. J Struct Biol 213(2):107709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsb.2021.107709

Jeyakumar A, Younis T (2012) Trastuzumab for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer: clinical and economic considerations. Clinical medicine insights. Oncology 6:179–187. https://doi.org/10.4137/CMO.S6460

Jones OT, Calanzani N, Saji S, Duffy SW, Emery J, Hamilton W, Singh H, de Wit NJ, Walter FM (2021) Artificial Intelligence Techniques That May Be Applied to Primary Care Data to Facilitate Earlier Diagnosis of Cancer: Systematic Review. J Med Internet Res 23(3):23483. https://doi.org/10.2196/23483

Jordan VC (2014) Tamoxifen as the first targeted long-term adjuvant therapy for breast cancer. Endocr Relat Cancer 21(3):R235–R246. https://doi.org/10.1530/ERC-14-0092

Kaminskas E, Farrell A, Abraham S, Baird A, Hsieh LS, Lee SL, Leighton JK, Patel H, Rahman A, Sridhara R, Wang YC, Pazdur R, FDA (2005) Approval summary: azacitidine for treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome subtypes. Clinical cancer research : Clin Cancer Res 11(10): 3604–3608. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-04-2135

Kamps R, Brandão RD, Bosch BJ, Paulussen AD, Xanthoulea S, Blok MJ, Romano A (2017) Next-generation sequencing in oncology: genetic diagnosis, risk prediction and cancer classification. Int J Mol Sci 18(2):308. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms18020308

Kang TW, Yevsa T, Woller N, Hoenicke L, Wuestefeld T, Dauch D, Hohmeyer A, Gereke M, Rudalska R, Potapova A, Iken M, Vucur M, Weiss S, Heikenwalder M, Khan S, Gil J, Bruder D, Manns M, Schirmacher P, Tacke F, Zender L (2011) Senescence surveillance of pre-malignant hepatocytes limits liver cancer development. Nature 479(7374):547–551. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10599

Kaufman KD, Dawber RP (1999) Finasteride, a Type 2 5alpha-reductase inhibitor, in the treatment of men with androgenetic alopecia. Expert Opin Investig Drugs 8(4):403–415. https://doi.org/10.1517/13543784.8.4.403

Khatami M (2018) Cancer; an induced disease of twentieth century! Induction of tolerance, increased entropy and ‘Dark Energy’: loss of biorhythms (Anabolism v. Catabolism). Clin Trans Med 7:20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40169-018-0193-6

Kramer BS, Berg CD, Aberle DR, Prorok PC (2011) Lung cancer screening with low-dose helical CT: results from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). J Med Screen 18(3):109–111. https://doi.org/10.1258/jms.2011.011055

Lamm DL, Blumenstein BA, Crawford ED et al (1991) A randomized trial of intravesical doxorubicin and immunotherapy with bacille Calmette-Guerin for transitional-cell carcinoma of the bladder. N Engl J Med 325:1205–1209

Langner E, Rzeski W (2012) Dietary derived compounds in cancer chemoprevention. Contemp Oncol (Poznan, Poland) 16(5):394–400. https://doi.org/10.5114/wo.2012.31767

Lechner M, Liu J, Masterson L, Fenton TR (2022) HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer: epidemiology, molecular biology and clinical management. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 19(5):306–327. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-022-00603-7

Li MC, Hertz R, Bergenstal DM (1958) Therapy of choriocarcinoma and related trophoblastic tumors with folic acid and purine antagonists. N Engl J Med 259:66–74

Lin R, Tripuraneni P (2011) Radiation therapy in early-stage invasive breast cancer. Indian J Surg Oncol 2(2):101–111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13193-011-0048-8

Liu C-J, Chen P-J (2020) Elimination of Hepatitis B in highly endemic settings: lessons learned in Taiwan and challenges ahead. Viruses 12(8):815. https://doi.org/10.3390/v12080815

Mansoori B, Mohammadi A, Davudian S, Shirjang S, Baradaran B (2017) The different mechanisms of cancer drug resistance: a brief review. Adv Pharmaceut Bull 7(3):339–348. https://doi.org/10.15171/apb.2017.041

Milani M, Jha G, Potter DA (2009) Anastrozole use in early stage breast cancer of post-menopausal women. Clin Med Ther 1:141–156. https://doi.org/10.4137/cmt.s9

Milani A, Basirnejad M, Shahbazi S, Bolhassani A (2017) Carotenoids: biochemistry, pharmacology and treatment. Br J Pharmacol 174(11):1290–1324. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.13625

Miller EA, Pinsky PF, Schoen RE, Prorok PC, Church TR (2019) Effect of flexible sigmoidoscopy screening on colorectal cancer incidence and mortality: long-term follow-up of the randomised US PLCO cancer screening trial. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol 4(2):101–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(18)30358-3

Monie A, Hung CF, Roden R, Wu TC (2008) Cervarix: a vaccine for the prevention of HPV 16, 18-associated cervical cancer. Biol Targets Ther 2(1):97–105

Monteiro AN, Waizbort R (2007) The accidental cancer geneticist: hilario de gouvea and hereditary retinoblastoma. Cancer Biol Ther 6(5):811–813

Nadel MR, Berkowitz Z, Klabunde CN, Smith RA, Coughlin SS, White MC (2010) Fecal occult blood testing beliefs and practices of U.S. primary care physicians: serious deviations from evidence-based recommendations. J Gen Intern Med 25(8):833–839. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-010-1328-7

Newman DJ, Cragg GM (2020) Natural products as sources of new drugs over the nearly four decades from 01/1981 to 09/2019. J Nat Prod 83(3):770–803. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.9b01285

Nowell PC (2007) Discovery of the Philadelphia chromosome: a personal perspective. J Clin Investig 117(8):2033–2035. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI31771

Maddocks OD, Berkers CR, Mason SM, Zheng L, Blyth K, Gottlieb E, Vousden KH (2013) Serine starvation induces stress and p53-dependent metabolic remodelling in cancer cells. Nature 493(7433):542–546. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11743

Marcus L, Lemery SJ, Keegan P, Pazdur R (2019) FDA Approval Summary: Pembrolizumab for the Treatment of Microsatellite Instability-High Solid Tumors. Clinical cancer research : Clin Cancer Res 25(13):3753–3758. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-18-4070

Martincorena I, Roshan A, Gerstung M, Ellis P, Van Loo P, McLaren S, Wedge DC, Fullam A, Alexandrov LB, Tubio JM, Stebbings L, Menzies A, Widaa S, Stratton MR, Jones PH, Campbell PJ (2015) Tumor evolution. High burden and pervasive positive selection of somatic mutations in normal human skin. Science (New York, N.Y.) 348(6237):880–886. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa6806

McLaughlin JR, Risch HA, Lubinski J, Moller P, Ghadirian P, Lynch H, Karlan B, Fishman D, Rosen B, Neuhausen SL, Offit K, Kauff N, Domchek S, Tung N, Friedman E, Foulkes W, Sun P, Narod SA, Hereditary Ovarian Cancer Clinical Study Group (2007) Reproductive risk factors for ovarian cancer in carriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations: a case-control study. Lancet Oncol 8(1):26–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(06)70983-4

Medical Advisory Secretariat (2010) Robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery for gynecologic and urologic oncology: an evidence-based analysis. Ont Health Technol Assess Ser 10(27):1–118 PMID: 23074405 PMCID: PMC3382308

Mizuki H, Shimoyama Y, Ishikawa T, Sasaki M (2022) A genomic sequence of the type II-A clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated system in Mycoplasma salivarium strain ATCC 29803. J Oral Microbiol 14(1):2008153. https://doi.org/10.1080/20002297.2021.2008153

Panahi B, Majidi M, Hejazi MA (2022) Genome mining approach reveals the occurrence and diversity pattern of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated systems in lactobacillus brevis strains. Front Microbiol 13:911706. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.911706

Paul A, Paul S (2014) The breast cancer susceptibility genes (BRCA) in breast and ovarian cancers. Frontiers in bioscience (Landmark edition) 19(4):605–618. https://doi.org/10.2741/4230

Pérez-Herrero E, Fernández-Medarde A (2015) Advanced targeted therapies in cancer: drug nanocarriers, the future of chemotherapy. Eur J Pharmaceut Biopharmaceut 93:52–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpb.2015.03.018

Plesca M, Bordea C, El Houcheimi B, Ichim E, Blidaru A (2016) Evolution of radical mastectomy for breast cancer. J Med Life 9(2):183

CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Raje N, Berdeja J, Lin Y, Siegel D, Jagannath S, Madduri D, Liedtke M, Rosenblatt J, Maus MV, Turka A, Lam LP, Morgan RA, Friedman K, Massaro M, Wang J, Russotti G, Yang Z, Campbell T, Hege K, Petrocca F, Kochenderfer JN (2019) Anti-BCMA CAR T-Cell Therapy bb2121 in Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma. N Engl J Med 380(18):1726–1737. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1817226

Ramalingam SS, Khuri FR (2021) The National Cancer Act of 1971: a seminal milestone in the fight against cancer. Cancer 127(24):4532–4533. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.34001

Ramsköld D, Luo S, Wang YC, Li R, Deng Q, Faridani OR, Daniels GA, Khrebtukova I, Loring JF, Laurent LC, Schroth GP, Sandberg R (2012) Full-length mRNA-Seq from single-cell levels of RNA and individual circulating tumorcells. Nat Biotechnol 30(8):777–782. https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2282

Redman MW, Tangen CM, Goodman PJ, Lucia MS, Coltman CA Jr, Thompson IM (2008) Finasteride does not increase the risk of high-grade prostate cancer: a bias-adjusted modeling approach. Cancer Prev Res (Philadelphia, PA) 1:174–181

Rivlin N, Brosh R, Oren M, Rotter V (2011) Mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene: important milestones at the various steps of tumorigenesis. Genes Cancer 2(4):466–474. https://doi.org/10.1177/1947601911408889

Rock CL, Thomson CA, Sullivan KR, Howe CL, Kushi LH, Caan BJ, Neuhouser ML, Bandera EV, Wang Y, Robien K, Basen-Engquist KM, Brown JC, Courneya KS, Crane TE, Garcia DO, Grant BL, Hamilton KK, Hartman SJ, Kenfield SA, Martinez ME et al (2022) American Cancer Society nutrition and physical activity guideline for cancer survivors. CA 72(3):230–262. https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21719

Samadi AK, Bilsland A, Georgakilas AG, Amedei A, Amin A, Bishayee A et al (2015) A multi-targeted approach to suppress tumor-promoting inflammation. In: Semin Cancer Biol, vol 35. Academic, pp S151–S184

Sato T, Vries RG, Snippert HJ, van de Wetering M, Barker N, Stange DE, van Es JH, Abo A, Kujala P, Peters PJ, Clevers H (2009) Single Lgr5 stem cells build crypt-villus structures in vitro without a mesenchymal niche. Nature 459(7244):262–265. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07935

Schrijver LH, Olsson H, Phillips KA, Terry MB, Goldgar DE, Kast K, Engel C, Mooij TM, Adlard J, Barrowdale D, Davidson R, Eeles R, Ellis S, Evans DG, Frost D, Izatt L, Porteous ME, Side LE, Walker L, Berthet P et al (2018) Oral contraceptive use and breast cancer risk: retrospective and prospective analyses from a BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carrier Cohort Study. JNCI Cancer Spect 2(2):pky023. https://doi.org/10.1093/jncics/pky023

Slaughter DP, Southwick HW, Smejkal W (1953) Field cancerization in oral stratified squamous epithelium; clinical implications of multicentric origin. Cancer 6(5):963–968. https://doi.org/10.1002/10970142(195309)6:5-963::aid-cncr2820060515>3.0.co;2-q

Sottoriva A, Kang H, Ma Z, Graham TA, Salomon MP, Zhao J, Marjoram P, Siegmund K, Press MF, Shibata D, Curtis C (2015) A Big Bang model of humancolorectal tumor growth. Nat Genet 47(3):209–216. https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3214

Spain PD, Kadan-Lottick N (2012) Observations of unprecedented remissions following novel treatment for acute leukemia in children in 1948. J R Soc Med 105(4):177–181. https://doi.org/10.1258/jrsm.2012.12k013

Sporn MB, Dunlop NM, Newton DL, Smith JM (1976) Prevention of chemical carcinogenesis by vitamin A and its synthetic analogs (retinoids). Fed Proc 35(6):1332–1338. PMID: 770206

Stehelin D, Varmus HE, Bishop JM, Vogt PK (1976) DNA related to the transforming gene(s) of avian sarcoma viruses is present in normal avian DNA. Nature 260(5547):170–173. https://doi.org/10.1038/260170a0

Stein EM, DiNardo CD, Pollyea DA, Fathi AT, Roboz GJ, Altman JK, Stone RM, DeAngelo DJ, Levine RL, Flinn IW, Kantarjian HM, Collins R, Patel MR, Frankel AE, Stein A, Sekeres MA, Swords RT, Medeiros BC, Willekens C, Vyas P, Tallman MS (2017) Enasidenib in mutant IDH2 relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia. Blood 130(6):722–731. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2017-04-779405

Stellman SD (2006) Ernst Wynder: a remembrance. Prev Med 43(4):239–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2006.08.007

Tacklind J, Fink HA, Macdonald R (2010) Finasteride for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 10:601–615

Tan SY, Tatsumura Y (2015) George Papanicolaou (1883–1962): discoverer of the Pap smear. Singap Med J 56(10):586–587. https://doi.org/10.11622/smedj.2015155

Teh AL, Pan H, Lin X, Lim YI, Patro CP, Cheong CY, Gong M, MacIsaac JL, Kwoh CK, Meaney MJ, Kobor MS, Chong YS, Gluckman PD, Holbrook JD, Karnani N (2016) Comparison of Methyl-capture Sequencing vs. Infinium 450K methylation array for methylome analysis in clinical samples. Epigenetics 11(1):36–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/15592294.2015.1132136

Thompson IM, Klein EA, Lippman SM, Coltman CA, Djavan B (2003) Prevention of prostate cancer with finasteride: US/European perspective. Eur Urol 44(6):650–655. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2003.11.001

Tian J, Lai D, Zhou L (2017) Secondary metabolites from Acremonium fungi: diverse structures and bioactivities. Mini Rev Med Chem 17(7):603–632. https://doi.org/10.2174/1389557516666160914194134

Timbang MR, Sim MW, Bewley AF, Farwell DG, Mantravadi A, Moore MG (2019) HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer: a review on burden of the disease and opportunities for prevention and early detection. Hum Vaccin Immunother 15(7–8):1920–1928. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2019.1600985

Timoneda J, Rodríguez-Fernández L, Zaragozá R, Marín MP, Cabezuelo MT, Torres L, Viña JR, Barber T (2018) Vitamin A deficiency and the lung. Nutrients 10(9):1132. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10091132

Tubiana M (1996) Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen and the discovery of X-rays. Bulletin de l’Académie nationale de médecine 180(1):97–108

CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Ullah MF, Usmani S, Shah A, Abuduhier FM (2022) Dietary molecules and experimental evidence of epigenetic influence in cancer chemoprevention: an insight. Semin Cancer Biol 83:319–334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semcancer.2020.10.011

Vogel VG, Costantino JP, Wickerham DL, Cronin WM, Cecchini RS, Atkins JN, Bevers TB, Fehrenbacher L, Pajon ER Jr, Wade JL 3rd, Robidoux A, Margolese RG, James J, Lippman SM, Runowicz CD, Ganz PA, Reis SE, McCaskill-Stevens W, Ford LG, Jordan VC et al (2006) Effects of tamoxifen vs raloxifene on the risk of developing invasive breast cancer and other disease outcomes: the NSABP Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR) P-2 trial. JAMA 295(23):2727–2741. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.295.23.joc60074

Waldman AD, Fritz JM, Lenardo MJ (2020) A guide to cancer immunotherapy: from T cell basic science to clinical practice. Nat Rev Immunol 20(11):651–668

Wang JJ, Lei KF, Han F (2018) Tumor microenvironment: recent advances in various cancer treatments. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 22(12):3855–3864. https://doi.org/10.26355/eurrev_201806_15270

Wattenberg LW (1966) Chemoprophylaxis of carcinogenesis: a review. Cancer Res 26:1520–1526

Weinstein IB, Case K (2008) The history of Cancer Research: introducing an AACR Centennial series. Cancer Res 68(17):6861–6862

Yang Y, Arseni D, Zhang W, Huang M, Lövestam S, Schweighauser M, Kotecha A, Murzin AG, Peak-Chew SY, Macdonald J, Lavenir I, Garringer HJ, Gelpi E, Newell KL, Kovacs GG, Vidal R, Ghetti B, Ryskeldi-Falcon B, Scheres SHW, Goedert M (2022) Cryo-EM structures of amyloid-β 42 filaments from human brains. Science (New York, N.Y.) 375(6577):167–172. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abm7285

Zhang N, Yin Y, Xu SJ, Chen WS (2008) 5-Fluorouracil: mechanisms of resistance and reversal strategies. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) 13(8):1551–1569. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules13081551

Zhao L, Cao YJ (2019) Engineered T Cell Therapy for Cancer in theClinic. Front Immunol 10:2250. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2019.02250

Zhou Y, Zhou W, Zhou J, Yan J, Xu D, Zheng X, Zong S, Jiang P, Tian S, Han J, Qu D (2022) The Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats-Associated System and Its Relationship With Mobile Genetic Elements in Klebsiella. Front Microbiol 12:790673. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.790673

Zhu YS, Tang K, Lv J (2021) Peptide-drug conjugate-based novel molecular drug delivery system in cancer. Trends Pharmacol Sci 42(10):857–869. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tips.2021.07.001

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Zoology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

Indu Sharma, Anuradha Sharma, Reena Tomer & Neha Negi

Department of Biotechnology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

R. C. Sobti

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Indu Sharma .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Dept. Biotechnology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, Chandigarh, India

NCR Biotech Science Cluster, Translational Health Sci & Tech Inst, Faridabad, Haryana, India

Nirmal K. Ganguly

Cancer Research Institute, Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences, Swami Rama Himalayan University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

Rakesh Kumar

Section Editor information

Ranbir Chander Sobti

Swami Rama Himalayan University, Dehradun, Kerala, India

NCR Biotech Science Cluster, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad, India

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this entry

Cite this entry.

Sharma, I., Sharma, A., Tomer, R., Negi, N., Sobti, R.C. (2024). History, Evolution, and Milestones in Cancer Research and Treatment. In: Sobti, R.C., Ganguly, N.K., Kumar, R. (eds) Handbook of Oncobiology: From Basic to Clinical Sciences. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6263-1_2

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6263-1_2

Published : 15 May 2024

Publisher Name : Springer, Singapore

Print ISBN : 978-981-99-6262-4

Online ISBN : 978-981-99-6263-1

eBook Packages : Biomedical and Life Sciences Reference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

Share this entry

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

• Student Opportunities

About Hoover

Located on the campus of Stanford University and in Washington, DC, the Hoover Institution is the nation’s preeminent research center dedicated to generating policy ideas that promote economic prosperity, national security, and democratic governance. 

• The Hoover Story
• Hoover Timeline & History
• Mission Statement
• Vision of the Institution Today
• Key Focus Areas
• About our Fellows
• Research Programs
• Annual Reports
• Hoover in DC
• Fellowship Opportunities
• Visit Hoover
• David and Joan Traitel Building & Rental Information
• Newsletter Subscriptions
• Connect With Us

Hoover scholars form the Institution’s core and create breakthrough ideas aligned with our mission and ideals. What sets Hoover apart from all other policy organizations is its status as a center of scholarly excellence, its locus as a forum of scholarly discussion of public policy, and its ability to bring the conclusions of this scholarship to a public audience.

• Scott Atlas
• Thomas Sargent
• Stephen Kotkin
• Michael McConnell
• Morris P. Fiorina
• John F. Cogan
• China's Global Sharp Power Project
• Economic Policy Group
• History Working Group
• Hoover Education Success Initiative
• National Security Task Force
• National Security, Technology & Law Working Group
• Middle East and the Islamic World Working Group
• Military History/Contemporary Conflict Working Group
• Renewing Indigenous Economies Project
• State & Local Governance
• Strengthening US-India Relations
• Technology, Economics, and Governance Working Group
• Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region

Books by Hoover Fellows

Economics Working Papers

Hoover Education Success Initiative | The Papers

• Hoover Fellows Program
• National Fellows Program
• Student Fellowship Program
• Veteran Fellowship Program
• Congressional Fellowship Program
• Media Fellowship Program
• Silas Palmer Fellowship
• Economic Fellowship Program

Throughout our over one-hundred-year history, our work has directly led to policies that have produced greater freedom, democracy, and opportunity in the United States and the world.

• Determining America’s Role in the World
• Answering Challenges to Advanced Economies
• Empowering State and Local Governance
• Revitalizing History
• Confronting and Competing with China
• Revitalizing American Institutions
• Reforming K-12 Education
• Understanding Public Opinion
• Understanding the Effects of Technology on Economics and Governance
• Energy & Environment
• Health Care
• Immigration
• International Affairs
• Key Countries / Regions
• Law & Policy
• Politics & Public Opinion
• Science & Technology
• Security & Defense
• State & Local
• Books by Fellows
• Published Works by Fellows
• Working Papers
• Congressional Testimony
• Hoover Press
• PERIODICALS
• The Caravan
• China's Global Sharp Power
• Economic Policy
• History Lab
• Hoover Education
• Global Policy & Strategy
• National Security, Technology & Law
• Middle East and the Islamic World
• Military History & Contemporary Conflict
• Renewing Indigenous Economies
• State and Local Governance
• Technology, Economics, and Governance

Hoover scholars offer analysis of current policy challenges and provide solutions on how America can advance freedom, peace, and prosperity.

• China Global Sharp Power Weekly Alert
• Email newsletters
• Hoover Daily Report
• Subscription to Email Alerts
• Periodicals
• California on Your Mind
• Defining Ideas
• Hoover Digest
• Video Series
• Uncommon Knowledge
• Battlegrounds
• GoodFellows
• Hoover Events
• Capital Conversations
• Hoover Book Club
• AUDIO PODCASTS
• Matters of Policy & Politics
• Economics, Applied
• Free Speech Unmuted
• Secrets of Statecraft
• Pacific Century
• Libertarian
• Library & Archives

Support Hoover

Learn more about joining the community of supporters and scholars working together to advance Hoover’s mission and values.

What is MyHoover?

MyHoover delivers a personalized experience at  Hoover.org . In a few easy steps, create an account and receive the most recent analysis from Hoover fellows tailored to your specific policy interests.

Watch this video for an overview of MyHoover.

Log In to MyHoover

Forgot Password

Don't have an account? Sign up

Have questions? Contact us

• Support the Mission of the Hoover Institution
• Subscribe to the Hoover Daily Report
• Follow Hoover on Social Media

Make a Gift

Your gift helps advance ideas that promote a free society.

• About Hoover Institution
• Meet Our Fellows
• Focus Areas
• Research Teams
• Library & Archives

Library & archives

Events, news & press.

“The End of Everything,” with Victor Davis Hanson

Classicist Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history and essays on contemporary culture.

“The End of Everything,” With Victor Davis Hanson

Classicist Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history and essays on contemporary culture. He has written or edited twenty-four books, the latest of which is The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation . The book—and this conversation—charts how and why some societies choose to utterly destroy their foes and warns that similar wars of obliteration are possible in our time. Hanson provides a warning to current societies not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

To view the full transcript of this episode, read below:

Peter Robinson: It may not happen often, but sometimes, sometimes, entire civilizations die in a single day. Historian Victor Davis Hanson on Uncommon Knowledge Now. Welcome to Uncommon Knowledge.

Peter Robinson: I'm Peter Robinson, a fellow at the Hoover Institution here at Stanford. Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and military historian. Dr. Hanson has published more than two dozen major works of history, including A War Like No Other, his classic work on the Peloponnesian Wars. Victor Davis Hanson's newest book, The End of Everything, How Wars Descend into Annihilation. Victor, thanks for joining me.

Victor Davis Hanson: Thank you for having me, Peter.

Peter Robinson: First question, The Destruction of Thebes by Alexander the Great, The Obliteration of Carthage by the Romans, The Defeat of Constantinople by the Turks, and The Destruction of the Aztecs by Cortez. Those are your four case studies in this book. All those happened a while ago. Why write this book now?

Victor Davis Hanson: I was curious, most of my career, I've been curious why Thebes, or I can go into the details, but why these...

Peter Robinson: We'll come to it.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes, we'll come to it.

Victor Davis Hanson: Why these civilizations were not just defeated, but were annihilated. And there were others. I had, there's a wide array in the ancient world, the island of Milos, towns in the Peloponnesian war like Schioni, et cetera. And this is very different than natural disasters like the Mycenaeans, et cetera. But I was wondering if there was a typology, a repeating pattern, and if it would be applicable to any of the value. And I found that there was, both on the part of the attacker, certain a mindset, and on the part of the defender, and that those situations that we think could not happen today, because we're supposedly a postmodern moral world.

Peter Robinson: We're more advanced than they were, Victor.

Victor Davis Hanson: That's what we think. And it's there...So in the epilogue, I just did a brief survey. Well, not a brief survey, but I did a survey of countries that are very vulnerable as described, either in the nature of their enemies and the intent of their enemies, or the neighborhood in which they reside, or their size, or their limits. So for example, there's only 12 million Greeks in the world.

Peter Robinson: Right.

Victor Davis Hanson: There's Cypriots, but Greeks, and they have a lot, they have a bad neighborhood, and they have been existentially threatened by the Turks, especially the present government. Israel is another example. The Kurds are an example. The Armenians are still an example. And all of them have had a history where at times people thought they would be existentially gone, because that was the intent. And yet, we feel that today when somebody threatens to wipe somebody out, either with nuclear weapons or with conventional weapons, we discount that. That can't happen.

Peter Robinson: It's mere hyperbole.

Victor Davis Hanson: In the epilogue, I think I mentioned maybe a half a dozen, or maybe even a dozen direct threats by various Turkish figures, Russian, Chinese, where they actually threaten to destroy and wipe out, whether it's Ukraine or Taiwan, or the Armenians, or Greeks, or Israel.

Peter Robinson: And the argument is, take that possibility seriously, because every so often it really does happen.

Victor Davis Hanson: Maybe so often the exception that nobody thinks, the unimaginable, or what people think it can't happen here does happen here.

Peter Robinson: The end of everything presents almost 300 pages of your usual approach, which is meticulous, thorough, and engrossing historical writing.This is television.We can't go into it that deeply.But I would like to touch on these case studies at least briefly, because even put in some reform, my feeling was as I went through the book, even in some reform, every one of them is just fascinating and surprising in some way. All right. Thebes, the end of everything, I'm quoting you. In 335 BC, the Thebans not only revolted against the Macedonian occupation of Greece, but defiantly dared Alexander the Great to take the legendary city, that is to take Thebes itself. He did just that. All right. Briefly, the significance of Thebes, it was a major city. Who were the Macedonians? Set it up. Who were the Macedonians? And who is this brilliant figure who arises as a very young man, Alexander the Great?

Victor Davis Hanson: Well for 20 years prior to 335, Philip II of Macedon...

Peter Robinson: Alexander's father.

Victor Davis Hanson: Alexander's father had taken a backwater area that was deprecated as uncivilized by Greeks.

Peter Robinson: The northern mountainous region.

Victor Davis Hanson: The mountainous region of today is parts of northern Greece and the autonomous state of so-called Macedon, Macedonia. And he had forged a imperial power. He borrowed...he was a hostage at Thebes when he was a young man himself and he learned from the great master of Pamanondas about Greek military tactics. He lengthened the Sarissa. He did all of his military war.

Peter Robinson: The Sarissa is..

Victor Davis Hanson: Pike. So he innovated and improved on Greek phalanx warfare, fighting in Colum. And it was a juggernaut and he came from the north and he conquered at the Battle of Carinea three years prior to this. He destroyed Greek freedom by this...basically it was an army of Thebans and Athenians and a few other city states and they were conquered and they were occupied and there was no longer a truly consensual government in these cities, 1500 city states.

And he had a plan or an agenda that said, "I will unite you and even though you think I'm semi-barbarous..." Macedonian, it was sort of hard to understand. You could understand it, the language and the tradition. But it had no culture, the Greeks thought, but we're going to unite and take Persia and pay them back for a century of slights and get rich in the process.

And the Greeks revolted in 335. He died, he was assassinated and he had his 21-year-old son who had been at the Battle of Carinea at 18 and had been spectacular in defeating the Theban and they didn't take him seriously.

Peter Robinson: The Thebans or the Greek city states in general?

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes, they thought, "You know what?"

Peter Robinson: He's a kid.

Victor Davis Hanson: And who's going to take over from Philip II? He was a genius and he's got bastard children here and concubines there and he's got this one guy named Alexander and it's, "Don't take him, we're going to revolt." And everybody said, "Well, we hear about him and he's kind of fanatic, be careful, but we're willing to revolt if you revolt first." And Thebes was at this time legendary because it's the legendary home of Oedipus and Antigone. It's the fountain of Greek mythology. It has kind of a dark history because bad things happen at Thebes like Oedipus kills his father or Antigone is executed.

Peter Robinson: Not a lot of cheerful stories.

Victor Davis Hanson: In Euripides' Bacchae, it's under the shadows of Mount Cthyrum. But the point is that it had been under a Pamanondas, a Pythagorean, enlightened society. The first really expansive democracy was trying to democratize the Peloponnese. So it was the moral leader at this point. It happened to be...

Peter Robinson: Roughly how big a population is.

Victor Davis Hanson: It was small. It was somewhere between 15 and 25,000 citizens and maybe at most 5 or 10,000 residents. But it was the capital of what we would call today in English a province called Boeotia. And that probably had somewhere around 150 to 250 and it was the capital that subjugated that.

Peter Robinson: Okay.

Victor Davis Hanson: But it has separate dialect, Theban dialect was different than the Boeotian dialect and it was the stellar city. So Alexander then says, "If you revolt, we're going to come down." So he eliminates his enemies. He starts to march. The Athenians are egging the Thebans on and said, "Don't worry, we'll come." And the Spartans are going to come, both of them in decline. And the long and the short of it is he arrives there. The Thebans mock him. They think we can replay the Battle of Carinea, we'll win. And all of a sudden, when he shows up, they have no idea who he is. They don't know what he's intending. Had they studied his career, they would see he's a killer and he's a genius and he's about ready to conquer the Persian Empire. And he needs to have a solid home front and he means business and he doesn't play by the rules. And the rules of Greek warfare, except for the Peloponnese, you don't destroy your enemy. You don't, even Athens as it lost the Peloponnesian War, they did not destroy Athens. The Spartans and the Thebans. So Spartans say they're going to come, the Athenians are going to help them, they egg them on, they revolt, they kill the Macedonian garrison, are they imprison them? And Alexander pulls up with this huge army. You can't get 200 miles from the north in 10 days. You can if you're Alexander. You march at 20 plus miles a day. He pulls up, they build siegecraft and...

Peter Robinson: Is it fair to say he's a little bit like Napoleon?

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes.

Peter Robinson: He's shocking.

Victor Davis Hanson: He's quick, or Caesar, quickness of Caesar and Napoleon, audacity, it's like Donton. And the Spartans dissipate and the Athenians dissipate.

Peter Robinson: You're on your own.

Victor Davis Hanson: You're on your own and they think, this is the seven gates of Thebes, the magnificent walls of Thebes. We've only been broached once after the Persian War. We can endure, we're on the defensive, we've got this wonderful army, we'll go out in front of the...and they're defeated. And they think...

Peter Robinson: But not just defeated.

Victor Davis Hanson: Not defeated. They think they can negotiate, I think. And he says, "I'm gonna kill every single person that's over the age of 16. I'm gonna enslave every woman and child." But you know what? I will save the descendants of Pindar, the poet, his house, and maybe some religious shrines and he levels the city down to the foundations and there are no more Thebans. Later the Macedoians will take the site and bring in other people, other Greeks.

And so there is no longer a Theban who have been there for two millennia. They're gone.

Peter Robinson: They have their own culture, their own history. It is recognized as such by the entire Greek-speaking world and they even have their own, not quite their own language, but their own dialect. And it just ends.

Victor Davis Hanson: And some of the surrounding Vyoshan villages, of course, don't like them so they join Alexander and they haul off the marble columns, they haul off the roof tiles, they level it. After Alexander's death, some two decades later, they think it's be good propaganda to refound Thebes and they call it Thebes, which is the modern city today, but it's not the same culture.

Peter Robinson: Okay, that's example number one. By the way, do we have, from contemporary sources, who would have written about that? What effect did that event have? It shocked all the other Greek city states into total submission?

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes, they could not believe it. They completely folded and it was...

Peter Robinson: So he got the stable home base he wanted that permitted him to advance into...

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes. And it became, even among the Macedonians, it became shameful that Alexander had destroyed this legacy city, the fountain, as I said, of Greek mythology and of Paminondas, the great liberator, his legacy Pythagoras, the Pythagorean group there, and he'd wipe them out and they regretted it later. But at the time, nobody came to their aid. They were very confident. They didn't think anybody would ever do that and they were shocked. It was something that had not happened before.

Peter Robinson: Carthage.

Peter Robinson: Rome and Carthage, The End of Everything, your book, the three centuries long growth of the Roman Republic, this is BC, we're not at Caesar, we're certainly not close to Augustus, we're seeing Rome grow from a city to the dominant force in the Mediterranean. The three centuries long growth of the Roman Republic was often stalled or checked by its formidable Mediterranean rival Carthage on the other side of the Mediterranean, at the northern tip of, northern edge of Africa. The competition between Rome and Carthage involved antithetical civilizations.

Peter Robinson: Explain that.

Victor Davis Hanson: Carthage was founded about the same time as Rome was, but it was... We use the word, they use, it's an ancient word, Punic, and all that is, is a Phoenician transliteration for Phoenician culture that would be today where Gaza is along that area. This was a colony, colonists founded under the mythical Dido at what is modern Tunisia, right? Just 90 miles opposite, it's the narrowest point of the Mediterranean. 90 miles opposite Sicily.

Peter Robinson: 90 miles..thats Sicily, yes.

Victor Davis Hanson: And they were a Punic-Semitic culture, so their language was not linguistically related to Greek or Latin. They did things that classical culture abhorred such as child sacrifice. However, they did, were heavily influenced by Greek constitutional history, so they actually had a constitutional system. They learned about Western warfare from Spartan taskmasters. And so they fought these series, what we call the Punic War, first and second.

Unfortunately for Rome, they were confronted with an authentic Alexander Napoleon-like figure in Hannibal who took the war home.

Peter Robinson: Second Punic War, he goes across into what is now Spain.

Peter Robinson: And goes behind the Roman line, so to speak, famously taking elephants up over the Alps and then wreaking havoc.

Victor Davis Hanson: From 219 to 202, this war went on.

Peter Robinson: In Italy itself.

Victor Davis Hanson: In a series of battles at the river Caecanius, Trebia, Lake Trasimone and Canai, he killed or wounded a quarter million Italians. And he ran wild for over a decade in Italy until Scipio Africanus invaded Tunisia and forced him to come home. But when I'm getting it.

Peter Robinson: To defend his home.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes, and he lost the Battle of Zama. He was exiled. But that was such a trauma or wound in the Italian mind. It was always Hannibal ad Portis. They scared little kids with, "Hannibals at the gates." And they were traumatized. So they had given a very punitive piece to the Carthaginians and they said, "You're going to pay this huge fine and you can never make war without our permission. You're going to surrender all of your European and Sicilian colonies. You're going to have it and you're going to be largely confined to the city of Carthage and some satellite villages."

Peter Robinson: So the Romans, I'm thinking now of a phrase that was used by Madeleine Albright to describe what we had done to Saddam Hussein.The Romans had Carthage in a box.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes. That was the idea.

Peter Robinson: So may I set up the third Punic War here, which brings us to the event to which this chapter is dedicated. I'm quoting the end of everything. After the first two Punic Wars, there was no call at Rome to level a defeated Carthage and yet Rome attacks Carthage again. Why?

Victor Davis Hanson: Well, it's very ironic and tragic because they paid the identity off early.

Peter Robinson: The Carthaginians did.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes. They were Carthaginians and they discovered that without these overseas colonies and given their prime location in North Africa. I've got to remember that this time North Africa was the most fertile part of the Mediterranean, much more fertile than the shores of Europe, southern shores. And so they sent a delegation three years earlier to Carthage to inspect what was going on and how did they pay the fine off and they were astounded. The city had somewhat 500,000 to 600,000 people in it. It was booming. It was lush. The countryside was lush. They were confident and unfortunately for them...

Peter Robinson: And they had one of the great ports of the ancient world.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes, it was the part of Carthage. It's about 20 miles from modern Tunis today. Was starting to rival Rome again and yet they professed no bellicosity at all. They said, "You know, we have no problem with you."

Peter Robinson: We've learned our lesson.

Victor Davis Hanson: We learned our lesson. We're just a mercantile. They were sort of re-fashioning themselves from an imperial power to something like Singapore or Hong Kong.

Victor Davis Hanson: And Rome unfortunately was in this expansionary mood. They had now consolidated Spain. They had consolidated Italy. They consolidated much of Greece and soon would conquer all of Greece and Macedon and they had Cato the Elder and he got up, you know, legendarily and say, "Carthage must be destroyed as the epithet of every speech." So there was...

After the inspectors came back, they said, "These people are insidious. They may not have Hannibal but they're going to rival us again."

Peter Robinson: They're doing too well.

Victor Davis Hanson: They're doing too well and we've got all... There were people in the Roman Senate that said, "No, no, don't do that." They don't pose a threat and actually they're good for us because the more that they're there they put us on guard and they don't...we don't get luck. The Romans had this idea that affluence and leisure make you decadent. So just the fact that they're right across the Mediterranean means it will always be vigilant.

Peter Robinson: The competition is good for us, Cato.

Victor Davis Hanson:  Yes. Kind of what Americans used to think, 19th century. So unfortunately they decided that they would present Carthage with a series of demands that could not possibly be met and still be autonomous. So they sent a group from the Senate down to consuls. Consular army was rare but they brought two consuls in an army and they landed them there and they said to them, "You're going to move your city at least 15 miles from the ocean. You're not going to be a sea power." If you get mad about it, we're the same way. We're Rome, we have Ostia, we're from the end. No problem. But you're going to destroy this ancient city and then you're going to have to move lock, stock and barrel. And by the way, we want all of your arms. We want your elephants, your famous elephants. They have personal names even. We want your elephants, we want your siege craft, we want your armor, we want everything.

Peter Robinson: You’ll live.

Victor Davis Hanson:  And if you're willing to do that, we'll consider that the city can live.And they were willing to do that. Not to move. They sent a delegation. They said, "Okay, here's our catapults, here's our body armor and we'll negotiate about the rest." They went back and they think, "I think we're okay." And then they went back the next time and the Romans who were camped away with this huge army said, "You know..."

Peter Robinson: You said that the Romans took an army across the Mediterranean.

Victor Davis Hanson: It's in Utica, right near them, about 20 miles away.

Peter Robinson: That was bigger than the landing force in the invasion of Normandy.

Victor Davis Hanson:  Yes.

Peter Robinson: It was a vast force.

Victor Davis Hanson: Our sources are somewhat in disagreement but it could have been anywhere from 70 to 90 to 100,000 people. It took us all day to land 135,000, us being the British and the Americans. But the Americans themselves did not have as many people as the Romans landed at Utica. And so the Romans then told all of the Carthaginian allies on the North Coast, "Are you with us or against us? Because if you're with us, we're going to destroy them and you're going to be a favored colony. You're going to get to share in the spoils. We won't tax you. You'll be the guys that run North Africa for it." If you're with them, we're going to do to them what you...And so most of them, not all defect. And then the legates come back and they tell the Carthaginians, "We blew it. They're going to kill us. And now we have no weapons because they're going to make us move." We thought if we turned in our weapons, they might not make us move. So they bring out of retirement, Hasrbal, who's this fanatic, not the famous Hasrbal, father of Hannibal, but another named Hasrbal. And he's a complete maniac and they had not trusted him. And he says, "Kill all the legates. Anybody who was an appeaser, we're in full moor. We're going to rearm." And they do. They get all the women's hair, they make catapults and they go crazy and then they put a siege around the city. The problem the Romans have is these walls are, until Constantinople, they are the greatest walls in the ancient world, 27 miles of fortifications. Carthage is on a peninsula and it's kind of like a round circle with a corridor. And they've got that all area walled and they have a fleet still and it's very hard to take that city and the Romans are not known for their siege craft and they can't take it. And they lose, lose, lose and they get the Numidian allies to join them. And suddenly, after two years, they've lost probably 20 or 30,000 Romans. Sometimes they break into the suburbs but not the main walls and it looks like it is an ungodly disaster. And they are very confident and then just in the case of Alexander, they don't know who they're dealing with. They bring out of this obscurity, Scipio Emilianus and he is the adopted nephew, grand nephew of Scipio Africanus, the famous one. And he is a philosopher like Alexander the Great. He's a man of letters. He wouldn't do such a thing. He has a Scipionic circle, playwrights, terrains. He's a friend of Polybius the Great historian just like Alexander has the student of Aristotle. So he comes and he's a legate and he's been there and he keeps saying the consuls are incompetent and they don't know what they're doing and I should be it but he's a lowly young guy. And they said, "You take over." So he comes, he gives a big lecture and says, "You guys are pathetic, his soldiers. You're lazy. This is what's going to happen." He has discipline. They build a counter wall and over the next year he turns out to be an authentic military genius. He cuts off the city. He cuts off the corridor. He cuts off all the allies supplying them and he besieges them and they will not surrender but they still have a hope that he's a man of principle and he will negotiate with them and he will give them terms and he is a killer. And he does not give them terms and he systematically breaks for the first time and only time in history the great walls of Carthage. He gets into the city and then over a two-week period he systematically kills every single person that the Romans. In fact, the descriptions are horrific.

Peter Robinson: Now, are we still dealing with half a million people or have men haven't fled by now?

Peter Robinson: No, no, it's still densely possible.

Victor Davis Hanson: They have nowhere to go. They're stuck and they're starving now. And he's...

Peter Robinson: So this is an act of butchery. Like Slaughtering and cattle or sheep.

Victor Davis Hanson: Well, our sources, we have accounts in Diodorus and somewhat in Libya, Polybius fragments here and there. We're told that the Roman army has to scrape off the bodies because they've killed so many people because they're in...it's like Gaza or Fallujah or Mosul.

It's fighting in block by block and they're destroying...to get rid of the Carthaginian defenders, they're destroying the buildings and they topple and then the bodies are there and then the army can't move. So they go, go, go until they get to the pinnacle, the capital. And there is Hasrbal and his wife and of course he flips and cuts a deal with...

Peter Robinson: And on your side now, boys.

Victor Davis Hanson: He leaves his wife and they burn themselves up. And then he goes...he ends up in retirement in Italy, one of the few people who is...endures a Roman triumph and humiliated in the parade and they let him live.

Peter Robinson: and they let him live. 

Victor Davis Hanson: And then they wipe it out. I don't think it's accurate to say they sowed the ground with salt as myth goes, but they did completely declare it an inhospitable place and it was sacrosanct to even get near it. They took it down to the foundation. There is no more formal Punic center of knowledge. They had a very rich agriculture, agronomy literature. It's gone. What happens? It's remnants of people who in Augustine's time in the fifth century AD, there are still people who they claim speak Punic, very few of them. And Romans under Caesar then they make something called Carthago Nova, a new city, but it's a Roman city built on the...somewhat near the old city.

Peter Robinson: So it's gone.

Victor Davis Hanson: It's gone.

Peter Robinson: It's just disappeared.

Victor Davis Hanson: Gone. Caput.

Peter Robinson: All right. I want to get two more stories, but probably don't have time to go into as much detail.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yeah, I won't break it. Yeah, I won't go into it.

Peter Robinson: But well, these become a little bit more modern, so maybe we know a little bit more about them. I mean, maybe your listeners will know more. Constantinople. The end of everything. Quote, "The most infamous of wartime extinction was the destruction of Byzantine Constantinople on May 29, 1453." Let me just set this up to go to so I can do this set up, kind of condense the material a little bit. We have the Emperor Constantine in the very early fourth century moves the capital of the empire from Rome to this city in what is now Turkey.

It's been called Byzantium. He refounds the capital as Constantinople. Walls get erected.

It remains, it becomes a Christian, Greek speaking empire that lasts a thousand years.

Victor Davis Hanson: Beyond the West, when the West falls. A thousand years.

Peter Robinson: A thousand years after Rome itself falls. Eighth century AD, we have the rise of Islam. And now pressure begins to be brought on the Christian Byzantine empire century after century after century after century. And in 1453, on May 29th, what happens?

Victor Davis Hanson: Black Tuesday. I lived in Greece and on Black Tuesday I was awakened by my landlord to make sure that I went to mass or Greek Orthodox services to lament that the Emperor Constantine had been marbleized and saved by the archangels. And he was going to come one day and free Constantinople. So around noon, the Ottomans under Met that had brought this.

Peter Robinson: Sultan.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes, Sultan. And he had, his father and everybody had said they're declining. The empire of 20 million is now shrunk down to about a million. And there's only the city of a million people because of the fourth crusade where Christians, Western Christians sacked it. It's in decline. All we have to do is wait. And it's very lucrative because it's still a beacon of Western culture in our area. So Venetians come in, Genovese come in, they bring in crossbows, they bring in gunpowder. It's very—

Peter Robinson: It's in trade with these people.

Victor Davis Hanson: Exactly. So most Sultans had let it live. And there was actually Turkish people within the city. This amendment, the great says, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am 19. I'm going to destroy this. And he systematically fortifies the Hell's Point, the entrance in the Black Sea. And he takes the Dardanelles, you can't go in or out. And he squeezes it. And when he surrounds the city, there's only about 7,000 to 8,000 actual combatants of a city that's no more than 50,000. And he thinks it's going to be easy. But the walls of Constantinople, the so-called built by the emperor Theodosus, are, they remain the most impressive walls in the world. They were a tripart system.

Peter Robinson: When you say remain, you mean today.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes. You can vote you— Yes, you can see them today. Yes, you can see it.

Peter Robinson: There was a-- Istanbul, and go ahead.

Victor Davis Hanson: There's a mound, there was a moat, another mound, and then the so-called outer wall. And then with turrets, 20 to 30 feet high. And then in between a killing space of a plaza where there's nowhere to hide, and then the massive inner walls of 40 feet, and gates where they could retreat in. And no one had ever taken that. The Fourth Crusade came in through a fluke on the seaside. But no army had ever. It was like a triangle. So there was sea on the Golden Horn, sea on the sea of Marmara. And then the exposed land had the Theodosian walls, five to six miles. And they camp out there, and they cannot take it. And with this reduce, they have these brilliant Genovese that are fighting for them, some mercenary. They call to Christendom, "Help us. We're your Christian brotherhood." And they said, "Nah, you're orthodox, and we're not going to help you." They said they were.

Peter Robinson: How many forces has Mehmet got?

Victor Davis Hanson: It's debatable, but he's probably got 250,000 and probably at least 100,000.

Peter Robinson: On land?

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes. The whole force is 250,000 and probably 100,000 on land. And he's got at least 10,000 cracked Janissaries, the mercenary elite. And they can't take the city.

Peter Robinson: So it says something about those walls, that 7,000 defenders can hold off 100,000.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes. And they have a massive, the so-called Hungarian cannon that was built by a Hungarian. And they have these huge cannon, and they knock down holes on the walls. At night, the civilians are all mobilized. And then Gustiani, the famous Genovese merchant, gets wounded. And he is the—

Peter Robinson: The leader of the defenders.

Victor Davis Hanson: And he, even though he's Italian, he's the spiritual anchor. And he, for some reason, they withdraw the contingent. And people say, "Oh my God, he's withdrawing." And they panic. And when they leave the outer wall, they don't do it in order to get into the inner wall. They leave the gates open. And then it's every man for themselves. And it's one of the most heart-wrenching descriptions in Byzantine literature. We have about 11 different sources in Italian, Turkish, Byzantine Greek. And it's a free-for-all. And they slaughter everybody. And 7,000 go into the great church that you can go to today at Hagia Sophia. They think the archangel is going to come down and save them. He doesn't. The Janissaries break in. And it's three days of absolute slaughter, wreckage, sort of like the Fourth Crusade. But the—

Peter Robinson: More deadly. These are being-- Civilians are being slaughtered.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes. And so at the end, after three days, Mehmet and the Sultan, his entourage, realized that we need somebody to run this city because we're not going to destroy it like Carthage or Thebes. We're going to take a new DNA and use it because it's a beautiful city. And we'll put Menoroth.

Peter Robinson: We could use those walls. We could use that church.

Victor Davis Hanson: We could use those walls. It's got the best location in the world. We need menorets on Hagia Sophia. We'll turn it into a mosque. So they get a few there. And within 50 years, they have wiped out what had one time been 20 million Byzantine Christian Greek speakers. In the ancient home, the Seljuk Turks who became Ottomans were not indigenous to that area. Something Mr. Erlian today does not understand. This was from time memorial a Greek-speaking area way back. Now it never would be again.

Peter Robinson: Cardinal-- St. John Henry Newman referred in this history, he referred to the Turks as the people who had destroyed half the civilized world. He was very conscious that Byzantine culture represented half of Christendom up until it was gone. Okay. But what is the legend that you referred to at the very beginning?

Victor Davis Hanson: Constantine didn't die.

Peter Robinson: That the last emperor—

Peter Robinson: - was turned into marble.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes, he's marbleized. And he went into a secret chamber in Hagia Sophia. And he was lifted up into heaven. And he's in suspended animation. And in 1928-21, there was the Megala Iida, the idea that after World War I, Greeks had bet on the winning side and Turks had been on the losing side and they were going to reform. And they got almost to Ankara. And then—

Peter Robinson: The Greeks did.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes. And maybe he was going to come out of marbleization and they would have Constantinople as the spiritual, political, religious home of Hellenism again. And then, of course, they were betrayed by the Europeans. They cut off and they were slaughtered.

Peter Robinson: So we have-- and that is an extinction. Well, I suppose the most dramatic way of describing how completely it ended, we still have Orthodox. We still have the Orthodox Church.We still have devout Greeks who remember that day and shake young Victor awake and saying, you must remember this day with us. You must go to Orthodox Mass. But Hagia Sophia, which was for centuries the largest church in Christendom, is now a mosque.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yeah. And today, if you or I were to walk along Ionia and see the ancient-- the richest part of Hellenism, the ancient-- or the pre-Socratic philosophers, the lyric poets were if we went to Didama or Pergamum or Ephesus or Miletus, it's Ottoman Muslim culture, Turkish. If we went to Constantinople, especially under Mr. Erdogan, it's—

Peter Robinson: There's no current leader of Turkey.

Victor Davis Hanson: There are Christian churches are being shut down. And this was a UN historical site, Hagia Sophia, the great cathedral. And now it is a mosque again under his leadership.

Peter Robinson: Well, it was a museum and now it's back to being a—

Victor Davis Hanson: He took it away from its UN status and made it into a mosque. And there are no Greeks to speak of who speak Greek and openly are Christian in all of what was a 20 million person. There is no such thing as Hellenism or Greek speakers outside of Cyprus and Greece except the diaspora, say, in Europe, the United States. He extinguished it.

Peter Robinson: This brings us to the last of these four, which I'm going to try to-- this is like turning an ox into a bullion cube here. We're engaging in an act of compression victory. Hernán Cortés lands in Mexico in 1519. He has 500 soldiers, about 100 sailors. The sailors climb out of their ships and march with him. He has 600 men, some horses, some guns. And two years later, he destroys the Aztec capital, 1521. And well, let me quote you. "Although they had become familiar with Aztec civilization over the prior two years, the Spanish almost immediately sought to obliterate its religion, race, and culture. In their view, they had more than enough reasons to destroy the Aztec empire." Close quote. Now, the book describes the way Cortés does-- he's a politician as well as a general. And he discovers that many of the subject tribes in the area hate the Aztecs. So he assembles a force that he can use against the Aztecs. The history here is rich and fascinating. It is an astonishing story of how this small Spanish force conquers Mexico.

But what I want to get to-- the Spaniards had more than enough reasons to destroy the Aztec empire. Could you explain that a little bit? This was not just raw hunger for land. It wasn't just gold lust. What else was going on?

Victor Davis Hanson: Unfortunately, for the Az-- Tenochtitlán, the historic capital, they had an empire of four million people. And they-- this was 1492 to 1519 was only 30 years, not even that. So they didn't really know what-- the Westerners didn't know what was in Mexico. They'd heard of this legendary—

Peter Robinson: 1492 being Columbus' first encounters, the new one.

Victor Davis Hanson: And Cortés was a minor official. He wasn't a general. He wasn't-- he was just-- he was an entrepreneur. And he got it in his head that he got temporary permission from the governor of Cuba to form this tiny force and go explore. But he knew that he wanted to do more than that. So he goes in, he marches, and he's entertained. They cannot-- they think he's-- it's debatable whether they really think he's a god. But they've never seen people with white skin. They've never seen people with armor. They think the horses and the man are one person. They're centaurs. They think the dogs are-- they've never seen these mass-steeped dogs before. They've never heard gunpowder before. They have no idea what steel is. Steel. They use obsidian blades. They don't know what Toledo steel is. They have no idea what the wheel is. They've never seen-- except in toys. So these guys come and they think they're gods. And then the more they see, they like to eat, they like to drink, they like to have sex. They bleed and they start to get wary. So there's a faction. And on the Nochetriste, the sad night of sorrows, they almost get completely slaughtered. And they're chased out. They come back with more soldiers. Never at one time did he ever have in one place more than 1,500 soldiers. Unfortunately for the Aztecs, they were not dealing with Plymouth Rock and pilgrims. They were dealing with the most warlike, deadly Europeans in the world. They were dealing with the Spanish who had just finished the Reconquista and fought for 300 years against Islam. They had been fighting during the Reformation field. They had been in Italy.

Peter Robinson: By the way, both of those are religious wars.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes. And the people who came with Cortez were some of the most brilliant-- Pedro Alvarado, people like that-- some of the most skilled soldiers. And they had horses. And they loved to fight. And they were accompanied by a zeal that was in reaction. It was just the very beginning of the Counter-Reformation. And they felt that their religion was going to be questioned unless they got souls. They come here and they say, oh my God, 25,000 people are being sacrificed, human sacrifices, on the Great Pyramid.

Peter Robinson: Now this, by the way, this has become a matter that intrudes into political correctness.

Peter Robinson: And Lord knows I'm not an expert on this. But in my little lifetime, we were taught that the Aztecs engaged in widespread human sacrifice. Then we have a revisionist school that says, well, no, wait a minute. The only authority we have on that is the Spanish documents. And they clearly overstated what was taking-- And now it's my understanding that the archaeologists are discovering more and more and more evidence that it was indeed not just occasional human sacrifice, but a regular feature, a daily feature of-- I mean, it's almost as if in the island of Manhattan every single day there were some human sacrifices at the top of the Empire State Building. Is that right?

Victor Davis Hanson: No, it's absent.

Peter Robinson: And you insist on that in this book.

Victor Davis Hanson: You look at contemporary archaeological reports that confirm what Bernal Diaz said or Prescott said in the 19th century great historian. But more importantly, there are pictorial skull racks that can be-- that they have numerical records. And we know that the lake that surrounds-- it's an island civilization, Tenochtitlán, was polluted because of a festival where they may have sacrificed 20,000 or 30,000 or 40,000 within a four-day period. It was something like Auschwitz. And they threw the bodies into the-- so I don't think anybody-- what they challenge is there are anthropologists that say, well, there was no large herbivores. So there was no source of protein for the sophisticated, systematic, centrally planned economy. And they were very architecturally advanced. And they needed, in this very urban society of a quarter million people. And the Spanish said it was more impressive than Venice. Venice at its height. It had a very sophisticated system of law.

Peter Robinson: But the Spanish are not saying these people are barbarians.

Victor Davis Hanson: No, they're not. They're saying that they are very sophisticated people, which means that we have-- they're even more dangerous because they have spread three or four things that we think are terrible. They're cannibals, and we know that they did eat portions of the sacrificial. They engage in ritual sodomy, which we don't think is permissible. And they sacrifice humans. And so it's our duty as emissaries of Christianity, defined as Catholicism of the Spanish Reconquista period, to kill people to save them. We've got to kill the people who are doing this. And then we're going to surround all of the people around the lake of the empire who resent being harvested. When they lose-- war is not fought to take land. War is fought to get captives, so-called flower wars. So you don't try to kill somebody. You knock them down and tie them up. And you drag them. And then the guy that has the most captives is very famous. And then they're brought up to Tempo Major, and they're sacrificed. And the Spanish find this horrific, but they also discover that it's in their interest, because they're not-- when you get Spanish Toledo steel, male helmet, especially if you're mounted, Toledo blade, arquebus, gunpowder—

Peter Robinson: They can't capture you.

Victor Davis Hanson: And they're trying to capture you. They're not trying to-- if they would just swarm them and cut their throat, they might have won. But they're trying to knock them down and tie. And then the final thing about it is they don't know who Cortez is. He's more gifted than Alexander in some ways. He's more gifted than Mehmet. He's probably more gifted than even Scipio. And nobody knows that he's never had any experience in this. And it turns out he is a natural military genius. And every time they should have been extinguished, they lose, they've got-- they're sick. He comes out.

Peter Robinson: He finds a way out.

Victor Davis Hanson: And he finds a way out. He's a military genius. And he's ruthless. And he—

Peter Robinson: So, Victor, on the Spaniards, wipe out the Aztecs. To what extent-- I'm just trying to think, to what extent is that an annihilation of the kind that takes place in the other examples? We have-- I have a Mexican friend who said, well, just look around Mexico City. You see very few people of Spanish descent and millions of people of Indian or Aztec descent. They didn't destroy them.

Victor Davis Hanson:  Aztec is a key word.

Peter Robinson: Oh, is that so? And then the other thing is there is-- I checked on this. I went online. There is still a duke de Montezuma in Spain today. They took the grandchildren of the last emperor of the Aztecs back to Spain.

Victor Davis Hanson:  They did.

Peter Robinson: And honored them by making-- ennobling them. OK, so what gets destroyed? What is ended?

Victor Davis Hanson:  Nahutul, the language exists in Mexico today. I have been in my hometown where people who have come from Mexico and Spanish speakers cannot understand them. So-- but Aztecs as a city, as a unique culture among indigenous people is destroyed. So when you talk to somebody and you say, well, if somebody says to you, the San Diego Aztecs, they never say to San Diego-- you know, the sports team, college team, they never say to San Diego Tlaxcalans or Toltecs. Why do they not do that?

Peter Robinson: They couldn't spell it apart from anything else.

Victor Davis Hanson:  Because first of all, we have a chronicle of this majestic civilization and how advanced they were, as I said, in architecture, town planning, sanitation, very sophisticated. But they don't want to talk about the downside of cannibalism, human sacrifice. But the point is, if we were transported to 1521, Cortes would have never been able to defeat them without the help of the Tlaxcalans. He had-- and their allies, he must have had at least-- he drew on an army of-- over that two and a half year period of over 200,000. And they probably lost—

Peter Robinson: Because the surrounding tribes are tired of being raided for captives who would be sacrificed.

Victor Davis Hanson: As soon as the word got out that Cortes was back again, that he was not annihilated, he came back. And this time he had brigandines or boats. And he would navigate in a combined amphibious and land attack on the causeways and by land. And he figured out how to beat them. And he gave them an ultimatum that I want to save your city and make it the capital of New Spain. But if you don't, I'm going to destroy it. That word went out. And all of a sudden, these fickle allies that sometimes had helped them, they-- they masked. I said, my God, you're going to destroy—

Peter Robinson: We have a moment here.

Victor Davis Hanson: And I can pay them back for all the things they did. And they ran wild. And in fact, he says in his letters and so does contemporary sources that he regretted that once he unleashed these people, they butchered and butchered and butchered and they destroyed Aztec's central civilization. So yes, there are people who survived the Holocaust, and that's what it was, but centrally planned civilization with a precinct class, an urban center, an-- no, it's now Spain and sp-- the Spanish build on top of it, right on top of Tenochtitlan. They used the very foundations of the destroy-- they destroyed it down to the foundations. It's gone. And there is no formal Aztec culture. There are indigenous people, of course, because they form about 1% of the population in what is Mexico, the Spanish.

Peter Robinson: And you can go to the Socoló in Mexico City today. And on the very side of the Templo Mayor, the great Aztec pyramid is a gigantic Spanish cathedral which says among any-- among other things what it says is, we won, we lost.

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes. They were-- they were actually given special-- there were concessions given from the Spanish to the Flaxcawans, and they honored them. In other words, that you are not going to be subject to the same degree of subservience, of the scattered remnants of anybody who fought for the Aztecs.

Peter Robinson: I see. Last questions. You've got a number of themes of relevance to us today. One theme here is the capacity of the doomed for self-delusions. The Thebans failed to grasp the military revolution that's taking place under Philip. They failed to grasp, even though they have some intelligence, they have reasons to question their own judgment of Alexander's ability, they say no. The Carthaginians failed to grasp the change in Roman power and determination over two centuries. The Byzantines cannot bring themselves to imagine that a city that has lasted a thousand years could fall, let alone fall in a day. The end of everything, I'm quoting you, the gullibility and indeed ignorance of contemporary leaders about the intent, hatred, ruthlessness, and capability of their enemies are not surprising given unchanging human nature. At the beginning of the program, you talked about the plight of the Greeks, you talked about threats against Israel. What are Americans to make of this?

Victor Davis Hanson: Well, I think we should take these lessons very seriously, both from the point of the attacker and the attack, because you mentioned some of the commonalities. At the end of the book, I give you a kind of a common denominator blueprint. People who have not been defeated or accustomed to a position of superiority culturally, militarily, they think that they're invulnerable forever and they're not aware of insidious decline. The things that Alexander took is not the themes of the Pamanandas and yet the walls look as stout as they ever were and the people are the same, they think. Same thing with Carthage, the same thing with Constantinople. Nobody's ever, they said nobody's ever going to get through the walls. They tried just early, you know, 50 years early, they couldn't do it. We're invulnerable and people said, "Well, we're not the same people." They don't think that anybody would ever dream of extinguishing them. We've been here a thousand years. We're the children of Oedipus. To note, Shitlan, we've been here, this is the pinnacle of our civilization, etc. Constantinople, this is the city of Constantine and Justinian. We can't fall. So there's an unreality and then they have no idea who they're facing. They have no idea what's in the mind of Cortez. They have no idea.

Peter Robinson: Do we have any idea what's in the mind of Xi Jinping, of Vladimir Putin?

Victor Davis Hanson: We have no idea. We think that he, we think that Xi thinks as I think George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, all bipartisan. They all thought that he is so impressed with Western civilization. He's globalizing, he's changed his economy. Yes, he's rough around their edges but our leisure, our affluence, globalization will acculturate them and China will take their place among the family of nations.

Peter Robinson: Because of course they want to be like us.

Victor Davis Hanson: They don't understand that that is exactly what the Byzantines said about the Ottomans, that's exactly what people said about Alexander, that's exactly what they said about the Carthage. And these people don't understand, so in our, whether it's Putin, so when Putin says I'm going to use nuclear weapons if I lose. And there's been about 17 threats from high members of the Russian military, high members of the Russian parliament such as it is and Putin himself, tactical, nuclear, even. We say this is crazy. They would never do that. We never say, well if I was going to lose and be humiliated or if I wanted Ukraine the breadbasket of the old Soviet Union and ports on the Black Sea and a window right under Europe I'd be willing to do a lot of stuff for it. And I've done, so there's an unreality and then on the part of the attacker they need to understand what the attacker is capable of. I just add one quick thing. I also mentioned the serial threats that China has given Taiwan. And they even made a brief film about nuking Japan if it interfered, called in the war criminal.

Peter Robinson: The Chinese have.

Victor Davis Hanson: Chinese commerce.

Peter Robinson: And they've distributed that in China.

Victor Davis Hanson: And just like Er And just like Er Israel, he said I'm going to do the same thing to the Armenians and he just ethnically cleansed 100,000 of them. I'm going to do the same thing as my grandfathers. They had the solution. So these people are serious when they say this. But I had one line in the epilogue to that effect of what China and that's a very big market, the Chinese market. And I've had a lot of success with other books.

Peter Robinson: Victor, one other of the... But anyway, just to... Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry.

Victor Davis Hanson: I was given notice by the Chinese publisher. I had to take out that line or there would be no book sales and everything would be cancelled, no Chinese translation in the epilogue.

Peter Robinson: So they are serious.

Victor Davis Hanson: So I didn't do it and there's not going to be a book in China. That book will never be in China.

Peter Robinson: Oh, well, all right. Yes. You don't think somebody will... Okay. That's a good conversation. Another of the themes that strikes me here, war changes things. I'm quoting you again, the end of everything. Once Alexander grasped the full extent of Theban hatred, he concluded that only destroying the city rather than merely capturing it would end Greek opposition to Macedonia. Cortes decided there was no way to root out the imperial system without knocking the Aztecs' infrastructure down upon them. Such revised decisions are common throughout military history. Near the end of World War II, US Army Air Corps General Curtis LeMay decided the only way to destroy Japan's dispersed manufacturing, which was deeply embedded within the neighborhoods of Tokyo, was to ignite the city and we get the fire bombing of Tokyo. Again, war changes things. So we are supplying the Ukrainians with weapons and materiel. We have two carrier groups in the Eastern Mediterranean to support the Israelis and we have our forces disposed, our naval forces disposed in the Pacific. We don't know where our attack submarines are because there's no reporting on that and there shouldn't be, but we're concerned about Taiwan. We're very concerned about Taiwan. What are the lessons of the end of everything for Americans as we face trouble, military challenges on three fronts?

Victor Davis Hanson: If we would look at ourselves dispassionately and not say we're Americans, we're always numbered countries. We would say the following. We've never had in terms of the percentage of GDP debt or in actual numbers except for a brief period in World War II, $35 trillion we owe and we are borrowing $1 trillion every hundred days. It's completely unsustainable. We've never had the military admit to us that it is short 40,000 troops and they don't know where to get them at a time when the American population has never been larger. We have ...

Peter Robinson: The Army missed its recruiting goals last year by 10%.

Peter Robinson: And that was not the first year.

Victor Davis Hanson: We have had a porous border. We have never had no border at all. It ceased to exist. We've had 10 million people walk across without audit. We've never seen anything like it. We have the largest number of foreign-born residents, both in numbers, 50 million and in percentages of the resident population, 13. We've ever had at a time when we haven't lost confidence in the melting pot. Okay. We've had high crime areas before, high crime periods. We've never had a period in American history where our elites say that crime is not crime. It's a social construct and you have to let somebody, a violent criminal out the same day that he's arrested. That's a new theory, critical legal theory. Okay. We're a multiracial society and we're the only successful multiracial democracy. We know that it depends on relegating your tribal affiliations to the general idea of being an American. We are regressing into tribalism. So when you look at all of these challenges and you look at the symptoms, we have never done anything like Afghanistan. Just completely flee and leave $50 billion in weaponry to the terrorist organization that's selling all over the globe. Never had that before. We have never had since World War II a Verdun. We have passed the numbers of dead and wounded in Verdun. We're above 700,000 wounded, missing or killed Russians and Ukrainians and we're headed to Somme territory and nobody has any idea how to stop this. Russia is not going to be able to take all of Ukraine and we are not going to be able to get back the Donbass in Crimea. So it's going to continue. Nobody has an answer. Nobody takes serious that the Chinese would be crazy enough to go across the Taiwanese Strait and try to take that city. They say they can do it. So my point is, never have we been faced with such existential challenges in the post-war period. At a period when we are so weak, or at least we're not naturally weak, our constitution is there, our natural resources, we lead the world. But when you look at crime, when you look at debt, when you look at the border, when you look at our universities, which were the envy of the world, they were the engine that drove American culture and power and technology and they're in crisis. Science is in crisis.

Peter Robinson: So we're like the Thebans. We're not the same people.

Victor Davis Hanson: We're not the same people. We're not the same people that maybe we have it in us. We're not the same people who stormed Omaha Beach when the first 2,000 people were mowed down. They just kept coming.

Peter Robinson: Victor, I want to play a brief video excerpt.

Video Excerpt:

-You both work here.

-You're among the intellectuals who are offstage, the members of Congress are on stage, but they're always turning around saying, Blumenthal, did I get that right?

-Bridge, what about this?

-Is this town serious?

-Do you feel a sense of seriousness descending that is adequate to the moment?

-Absolutely not.

-Absolutely.

-We're in a world of warfare and we're not on a war footing.

Peter Robinson: Victor, Washington is, there's no sense of seriousness in Washington.

Victor Davis Hanson: No. We think that the most important thing is counseling student debt or inaugurating new woke programs, but it's going to take us seven years to replace the javelin anti-tank weapons. We're short 155 millimeter. That was our signature. We were the biggest producer of shells in the world.

Peter Robinson: Victor, can I ask one, the book is called The End of Everything and you describe four episodes, all of which take place, the most recent of which takes place about four centuries before the invention of nukes. So let me quote if I may, here's a quotation from Clausewitz, who saw the Napoleonic Wars as a young Prussian officer and meditated on military theory and the rest of his life. Here's Clausewitz. This has always bothered me. “If one side uses force without compunction, that side will force the other to follow suit. Even the most civilized of peoples can be fired with passionate hatred of each other. The thesis must be repeated. War is an act of force and there is no logical limit to the application of that force.” Thebes wiped out. Carthage leveled.

Constantinople civilization blotted out. His text gone. And now we have nuclear weapons.

Victor Davis Hanson: Among other things, we have AI, we have bio weapons apparently, an accidental release from the Wuhan lab.

Peter Robinson: So what I'm desperate to do here is to end on an upbeat if I can find one anywhere. Should we take encouragement from the long period of the Cold War? When we had nuclear weapons but managed to defeat Soviet communism without any use, without warfare, without a major war, without a major confrontation, should we be cheered by that?

Victor Davis Hanson: We should learn—

Peter Robinson: Or are we doomed?

Victor Davis Hanson: No, we're not doomed. We need to learn from wise men like Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, even to an extent Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and the rest of them.

Peter Robinson: They all had one thing-- You mentioned Ronald Reagan?

Victor Davis Hanson: Yeah, I'm getting to him.

Peter Robinson: Oh, all right.

Victor Davis Hanson: And in a period of doubt where people had questioned their so-called Neanderthal approach to human nature that they believed that deterrence and not dialogue or the UN kept the peace, along came Ronald Reagan. And he said-- he basically said the degree which we are safe is the degree to which we help our friends and tell our enemies to be careful because we will defend us and we're going to have the capability to do it. Deterrence, deterrence, deterrence, which is just a Latin word to scare somebody off from doing something stupid. And if you don't believe in deterrence, then as Vegeta said, if you want peace, prepare for war. If you want war, prepare for peace.

Peter Robinson: Victor, will you close our conversation by reading a passage from-- Victor Davis Hanson, the author of The End of Everything, reading a passage from The End of Everything.

Victor Davis Hanson: Well, thank you. I'm going to give you the degree that I can read well.

“The fate of the Thebans, Carthaginians, Byzantines, and Aztecs remind us that what cannot possibly happen can indeed on occasion occur when war unleashes timeless human passions and escalation rather than reduction in violence becomes a role of conflict.”

“In this regard, we should remind ourselves that we really do not know the boundaries of what may follow from the dispute in the Ukraine or a standoff over Taiwan or strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran.”

“Like their predecessors, modern attackers will on occasions insist on impossible turn.

They will sometimes become further enraged by prolonged and toxic resistance.”

“The targeted will believe that doom resistance may not be so impossible, that their defenses are underestimated while their enemies' powers are exaggerated, and that reason rules war.”

“And so they will hope that even their own defeat cannot possibly entail the end of everything.”

Peter Robinson: Victor Davis Hanson, author of The End of Everything. Thank you.

Victor Davis Hanson: Thank you very much for having me.

Peter Robinson: For Uncommon Knowledge, the Hoover Institution, and Fox Nation, I'm Peter Robinson.

View the discussion thread.

Join the Hoover Institution’s community of supporters in ideas advancing freedom.

• Future Students
• Current Students
• Faculty/Staff

News and Media

• News & Media Home
• Research Stories
• School's In
• In the Media

You are here

70 years after brown v. board of education, new research shows rise in school segregation.

As the nation prepares to mark the 70th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education , a new report from researchers at Stanford and USC shows that racial and economic segregation among schools has grown steadily in large school districts over the past three decades — an increase that appears to be driven in part by policies favoring school choice over integration.

Analyzing data from U.S. public schools going back to 1967, the researchers found that segregation between white and Black students has increased by 64 percent since 1988 in the 100 largest districts, and segregation by economic status has increased by about 50 percent since 1991.

The report also provides new evidence about the forces driving recent trends in school segregation, showing that the expansion of charter schools has played a major role.  

The findings were released on May 6 with the launch of the Segregation Explorer , a new interactive website from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University. The website provides searchable data on racial and economic school segregation in U.S. states, counties, metropolitan areas, and school districts from 1991 to 2022. 

“School segregation levels are not at pre- Brown levels, but they are high and have been rising steadily since the late 1980s,” said Sean Reardon , the Professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education at Stanford Graduate School of Education and faculty director of the Educational Opportunity Project. “In most large districts, school segregation has increased while residential segregation and racial economic inequality have declined, and our findings indicate that policy choices – not demographic changes – are driving the increase.” 

“There’s a tendency to attribute segregation in schools to segregation in neighborhoods,” said Ann Owens , a professor of sociology and public policy at USC. “But we’re finding that the story is more complicated than that.”

Assessing the rise

In the Brown v. Board decision issued on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and established that “separate but equal” schools were not only inherently unequal but unconstitutional. The ruling paved the way for future decisions that led to rapid school desegregation in many school districts in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Though segregation in most school districts is much lower than it was 60 years ago, the researchers found that over the past three decades, both racial and economic segregation in large districts increased. Much of the increase in economic segregation since 1991, measured by segregation between students eligible and ineligible for free lunch, occurred in the last 15 years.

White-Hispanic and white-Asian segregation, while lower on average than white-Black segregation, have both more than doubled in large school districts since the 1980s. 

Racial-economic segregation – specifically the difference in the proportion of free-lunch-eligible students between the average white and Black or Hispanic student’s schools – has increased by 70 percent since 1991. 

School segregation is strongly associated with achievement gaps between racial and ethnic groups, especially the rate at which achievement gaps widen during school, the researchers said.  

“Segregation appears to shape educational outcomes because it concentrates Black and Hispanic students in higher-poverty schools, which results in unequal learning opportunities,” said Reardon, who is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and a faculty affiliate of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . 

Policies shaping recent trends 

The recent rise in school segregation appears to be the direct result of educational policy and legal decisions, the researchers said. 

Both residential segregation and racial disparities in income declined between 1990 and 2020 in most large school districts. “Had nothing else changed, that trend would have led to lower school segregation,” said Owens. 

But since 1991, roughly two-thirds of districts that were under court-ordered desegregation have been released from court oversight. Meanwhile, since 1998, the charter sector – a form of expanded school choice – has grown.

Expanding school choice could influence segregation levels in different ways: If families sought schools that were more diverse than the ones available in their neighborhood, it could reduce segregation. But the researchers found that in districts where the charter sector expanded most rapidly in the 2000s and 2010s, segregation grew the most. 

The researchers’ analysis also quantified the extent to which the release from court orders accounted for the rise in school segregation. They found that, together, the release from court oversight and the expansion of choice accounted entirely for the rise in school segregation from 2000 to 2019.

The researchers noted enrollment policies that school districts can implement to mitigate segregation, such as voluntary integration programs, socioeconomic-based student assignment policies, and school choice policies that affirmatively promote integration. 

“School segregation levels are high, troubling, and rising in large districts,” said Reardon. “These findings should sound an alarm for educators and policymakers.”

Additional collaborators on the project include Demetra Kalogrides, Thalia Tom, and Heewon Jang. This research, including the development of the Segregation Explorer data and website, was supported by the Russell Sage Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.   

More Stories

⟵ Go to all Research Stories

Get the Educator

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Stanford Graduate School of Education

482 Galvez Mall Stanford, CA 94305-3096 Tel: (650) 723-2109

• Contact Admissions
• GSE Leadership
• Site Feedback
• Web Accessibility
• Career Resources
• Faculty Open Positions
• Explore Courses
• Academic Calendar
• Office of the Registrar
• Cubberley Library
• StanfordWho
• StanfordYou

Improving lives through learning

• Stanford Home
• Maps & Directions
• Search Stanford
• Emergency Info
• Terms of Use
• Non-Discrimination
• Accessibility

© Stanford University , Stanford , California 94305 .

Cultural Relativity and Acceptance of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Article sidebar.

Main Article Content

There is a debate about the ethical implications of using human embryos in stem cell research, which can be influenced by cultural, moral, and social values. This paper argues for an adaptable framework to accommodate diverse cultural and religious perspectives. By using an adaptive ethics model, research protections can reflect various populations and foster growth in stem cell research possibilities.

INTRODUCTION

Stem cell research combines biology, medicine, and technology, promising to alter health care and the understanding of human development. Yet, ethical contention exists because of individuals’ perceptions of using human embryos based on their various cultural, moral, and social values. While these disagreements concerning policy, use, and general acceptance have prompted the development of an international ethics policy, such a uniform approach can overlook the nuanced ethical landscapes between cultures. With diverse viewpoints in public health, a single global policy, especially one reflecting Western ethics or the ethics prevalent in high-income countries, is impractical. This paper argues for a culturally sensitive, adaptable framework for the use of embryonic stem cells. Stem cell policy should accommodate varying ethical viewpoints and promote an effective global dialogue. With an extension of an ethics model that can adapt to various cultures, we recommend localized guidelines that reflect the moral views of the people those guidelines serve.

Stem cells, characterized by their unique ability to differentiate into various cell types, enable the repair or replacement of damaged tissues. Two primary types of stem cells are somatic stem cells (adult stem cells) and embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells exist in developed tissues and maintain the body’s repair processes. [1] Embryonic stem cells (ESC) are remarkably pluripotent or versatile, making them valuable in research. [2] However, the use of ESCs has sparked ethics debates. Considering the potential of embryonic stem cells, research guidelines are essential. The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) provides international stem cell research guidelines. They call for “public conversations touching on the scientific significance as well as the societal and ethical issues raised by ESC research.” [3] The ISSCR also publishes updates about culturing human embryos 14 days post fertilization, suggesting local policies and regulations should continue to evolve as ESC research develops. [4]  Like the ISSCR, which calls for local law and policy to adapt to developing stem cell research given cultural acceptance, this paper highlights the importance of local social factors such as religion and culture.

I.     Global Cultural Perspective of Embryonic Stem Cells

Views on ESCs vary throughout the world. Some countries readily embrace stem cell research and therapies, while others have stricter regulations due to ethical concerns surrounding embryonic stem cells and when an embryo becomes entitled to moral consideration. The philosophical issue of when the “someone” begins to be a human after fertilization, in the morally relevant sense, [5] impacts when an embryo becomes not just worthy of protection but morally entitled to it. The process of creating embryonic stem cell lines involves the destruction of the embryos for research. [6] Consequently, global engagement in ESC research depends on social-cultural acceptability.

a.     US and Rights-Based Cultures

In the United States, attitudes toward stem cell therapies are diverse. The ethics and social approaches, which value individualism, [7] trigger debates regarding the destruction of human embryos, creating a complex regulatory environment. For example, the 1996 Dickey-Wicker Amendment prohibited federal funding for the creation of embryos for research and the destruction of embryos for “more than allowed for research on fetuses in utero.” [8] Following suit, in 2001, the Bush Administration heavily restricted stem cell lines for research. However, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005 was proposed to help develop ESC research but was ultimately vetoed. [9] Under the Obama administration, in 2009, an executive order lifted restrictions allowing for more development in this field. [10] The flux of research capacity and funding parallels the different cultural perceptions of human dignity of the embryo and how it is socially presented within the country’s research culture. [11]

b.     Ubuntu and Collective Cultures

African bioethics differs from Western individualism because of the different traditions and values. African traditions, as described by individuals from South Africa and supported by some studies in other African countries, including Ghana and Kenya, follow the African moral philosophies of Ubuntu or Botho and Ukama , which “advocates for a form of wholeness that comes through one’s relationship and connectedness with other people in the society,” [12] making autonomy a socially collective concept. In this context, for the community to act autonomously, individuals would come together to decide what is best for the collective. Thus, stem cell research would require examining the value of the research to society as a whole and the use of the embryos as a collective societal resource. If society views the source as part of the collective whole, and opposes using stem cells, compromising the cultural values to pursue research may cause social detachment and stunt research growth. [13] Based on local culture and moral philosophy, the permissibility of stem cell research depends on how embryo, stem cell, and cell line therapies relate to the community as a whole. Ubuntu is the expression of humanness, with the person’s identity drawn from the “’I am because we are’” value. [14] The decision in a collectivistic culture becomes one born of cultural context, and individual decisions give deference to others in the society.

Consent differs in cultures where thought and moral philosophy are based on a collective paradigm. So, applying Western bioethical concepts is unrealistic. For one, Africa is a diverse continent with many countries with different belief systems, access to health care, and reliance on traditional or Western medicines. Where traditional medicine is the primary treatment, the “’restrictive focus on biomedically-related bioethics’” [is] problematic in African contexts because it neglects bioethical issues raised by traditional systems.” [15] No single approach applies in all areas or contexts. Rather than evaluating the permissibility of ESC research according to Western concepts such as the four principles approach, different ethics approaches should prevail.

Another consideration is the socio-economic standing of countries. In parts of South Africa, researchers have not focused heavily on contributing to the stem cell discourse, either because it is not considered health care or a health science priority or because resources are unavailable. [16] Each country’s priorities differ given different social, political, and economic factors. In South Africa, for instance, areas such as maternal mortality, non-communicable diseases, telemedicine, and the strength of health systems need improvement and require more focus. [17] Stem cell research could benefit the population, but it also could divert resources from basic medical care. Researchers in South Africa adhere to the National Health Act and Medicines Control Act in South Africa and international guidelines; however, the Act is not strictly enforced, and there is no clear legislation for research conduct or ethical guidelines. [18]

Some parts of Africa condemn stem cell research. For example, 98.2 percent of the Tunisian population is Muslim. [19] Tunisia does not permit stem cell research because of moral conflict with a Fatwa. Religion heavily saturates the regulation and direction of research. [20] Stem cell use became permissible for reproductive purposes only recently, with tight restrictions preventing cells from being used in any research other than procedures concerning ART/IVF.  Their use is conditioned on consent, and available only to married couples. [21] The community's receptiveness to stem cell research depends on including communitarian African ethics.

c.     Asia

Some Asian countries also have a collective model of ethics and decision making. [22] In China, the ethics model promotes a sincere respect for life or human dignity, [23] based on protective medicine. This model, influenced by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), [24] recognizes Qi as the vital energy delivered via the meridians of the body; it connects illness to body systems, the body’s entire constitution, and the universe for a holistic bond of nature, health, and quality of life. [25] Following a protective ethics model, and traditional customs of wholeness, investment in stem cell research is heavily desired for its applications in regenerative therapies, disease modeling, and protective medicines. In a survey of medical students and healthcare practitioners, 30.8 percent considered stem cell research morally unacceptable while 63.5 percent accepted medical research using human embryonic stem cells. Of these individuals, 89.9 percent supported increased funding for stem cell research. [26] The scientific community might not reflect the overall population. From 1997 to 2019, China spent a total of $576 million (USD) on stem cell research at 8,050 stem cell programs, increased published presence from 0.6 percent to 14.01 percent of total global stem cell publications as of 2014, and made significant strides in cell-based therapies for various medical conditions. [27] However, while China has made substantial investments in stem cell research and achieved notable progress in clinical applications, concerns linger regarding ethical oversight and transparency. [28] For example, the China Biosecurity Law, promoted by the National Health Commission and China Hospital Association, attempted to mitigate risks by introducing an institutional review board (IRB) in the regulatory bodies. 5800 IRBs registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry since 2021. [29] However, issues still need to be addressed in implementing effective IRB review and approval procedures.

The substantial government funding and focus on scientific advancement have sometimes overshadowed considerations of regional cultures, ethnic minorities, and individual perspectives, particularly evident during the one-child policy era. As government policy adapts to promote public stability, such as the change from the one-child to the two-child policy, [30] research ethics should also adapt to ensure respect for the values of its represented peoples.

Japan is also relatively supportive of stem cell research and therapies. Japan has a more transparent regulatory framework, allowing for faster approval of regenerative medicine products, which has led to several advanced clinical trials and therapies. [31] South Korea is also actively engaged in stem cell research and has a history of breakthroughs in cloning and embryonic stem cells. [32] However, the field is controversial, and there are issues of scientific integrity. For example, the Korean FDA fast-tracked products for approval, [33] and in another instance, the oocyte source was unclear and possibly violated ethical standards. [34] Trust is important in research, as it builds collaborative foundations between colleagues, trial participant comfort, open-mindedness for complicated and sensitive discussions, and supports regulatory procedures for stakeholders. There is a need to respect the culture’s interest, engagement, and for research and clinical trials to be transparent and have ethical oversight to promote global research discourse and trust.

d.     Middle East

Countries in the Middle East have varying degrees of acceptance of or restrictions to policies related to using embryonic stem cells due to cultural and religious influences. Saudi Arabia has made significant contributions to stem cell research, and conducts research based on international guidelines for ethical conduct and under strict adherence to guidelines in accordance with Islamic principles. Specifically, the Saudi government and people require ESC research to adhere to Sharia law. In addition to umbilical and placental stem cells, [35] Saudi Arabia permits the use of embryonic stem cells as long as they come from miscarriages, therapeutic abortions permissible by Sharia law, or are left over from in vitro fertilization and donated to research. [36] Laws and ethical guidelines for stem cell research allow the development of research institutions such as the King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, which has a cord blood bank and a stem cell registry with nearly 10,000 donors. [37] Such volume and acceptance are due to the ethical ‘permissibility’ of the donor sources, which do not conflict with religious pillars. However, some researchers err on the side of caution, choosing not to use embryos or fetal tissue as they feel it is unethical to do so. [38]

Jordan has a positive research ethics culture. [39] However, there is a significant issue of lack of trust in researchers, with 45.23 percent (38.66 percent agreeing and 6.57 percent strongly agreeing) of Jordanians holding a low level of trust in researchers, compared to 81.34 percent of Jordanians agreeing that they feel safe to participate in a research trial. [40] Safety testifies to the feeling of confidence that adequate measures are in place to protect participants from harm, whereas trust in researchers could represent the confidence in researchers to act in the participants’ best interests, adhere to ethical guidelines, provide accurate information, and respect participants’ rights and dignity. One method to improve trust would be to address communication issues relevant to ESC. Legislation surrounding stem cell research has adopted specific language, especially concerning clarification “between ‘stem cells’ and ‘embryonic stem cells’” in translation. [41] Furthermore, legislation “mandates the creation of a national committee… laying out specific regulations for stem-cell banking in accordance with international standards.” [42] This broad regulation opens the door for future global engagement and maintains transparency. However, these regulations may also constrain the influence of research direction, pace, and accessibility of research outcomes.

e.     Europe

In the European Union (EU), ethics is also principle-based, but the principles of autonomy, dignity, integrity, and vulnerability are interconnected. [43] As such, the opportunity for cohesion and concessions between individuals’ thoughts and ideals allows for a more adaptable ethics model due to the flexible principles that relate to the human experience The EU has put forth a framework in its Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being allowing member states to take different approaches. Each European state applies these principles to its specific conventions, leading to or reflecting different acceptance levels of stem cell research. [44]

For example, in Germany, Lebenzusammenhang , or the coherence of life, references integrity in the unity of human culture. Namely, the personal sphere “should not be subject to external intervention.” [45]  Stem cell interventions could affect this concept of bodily completeness, leading to heavy restrictions. Under the Grundgesetz, human dignity and the right to life with physical integrity are paramount. [46] The Embryo Protection Act of 1991 made producing cell lines illegal. Cell lines can be imported if approved by the Central Ethics Commission for Stem Cell Research only if they were derived before May 2007. [47] Stem cell research respects the integrity of life for the embryo with heavy specifications and intense oversight. This is vastly different in Finland, where the regulatory bodies find research more permissible in IVF excess, but only up to 14 days after fertilization. [48] Spain’s approach differs still, with a comprehensive regulatory framework. [49] Thus, research regulation can be culture-specific due to variations in applied principles. Diverse cultures call for various approaches to ethical permissibility. [50] Only an adaptive-deliberative model can address the cultural constructions of self and achieve positive, culturally sensitive stem cell research practices. [51]

II.     Religious Perspectives on ESC

Embryonic stem cell sources are the main consideration within religious contexts. While individuals may not regard their own religious texts as authoritative or factual, religion can shape their foundations or perspectives.

The Qur'an states:

“And indeed We created man from a quintessence of clay. Then We placed within him a small quantity of nutfa (sperm to fertilize) in a safe place. Then We have fashioned the nutfa into an ‘alaqa (clinging clot or cell cluster), then We developed the ‘alaqa into mudgha (a lump of flesh), and We made mudgha into bones, and clothed the bones with flesh, then We brought it into being as a new creation. So Blessed is Allah, the Best of Creators.” [52]

Many scholars of Islam estimate the time of soul installment, marked by the angel breathing in the soul to bring the individual into creation, as 120 days from conception. [53] Personhood begins at this point, and the value of life would prohibit research or experimentation that could harm the individual. If the fetus is more than 120 days old, the time ensoulment is interpreted to occur according to Islamic law, abortion is no longer permissible. [54] There are a few opposing opinions about early embryos in Islamic traditions. According to some Islamic theologians, there is no ensoulment of the early embryo, which is the source of stem cells for ESC research. [55]

In Buddhism, the stance on stem cell research is not settled. The main tenets, the prohibition against harming or destroying others (ahimsa) and the pursuit of knowledge (prajña) and compassion (karuna), leave Buddhist scholars and communities divided. [56] Some scholars argue stem cell research is in accordance with the Buddhist tenet of seeking knowledge and ending human suffering. Others feel it violates the principle of not harming others. Finding the balance between these two points relies on the karmic burden of Buddhist morality. In trying to prevent ahimsa towards the embryo, Buddhist scholars suggest that to comply with Buddhist tenets, research cannot be done as the embryo has personhood at the moment of conception and would reincarnate immediately, harming the individual's ability to build their karmic burden. [57] On the other hand, the Bodhisattvas, those considered to be on the path to enlightenment or Nirvana, have given organs and flesh to others to help alleviate grieving and to benefit all. [58] Acceptance varies on applied beliefs and interpretations.

Catholicism does not support embryonic stem cell research, as it entails creation or destruction of human embryos. This destruction conflicts with the belief in the sanctity of life. For example, in the Old Testament, Genesis describes humanity as being created in God’s image and multiplying on the Earth, referencing the sacred rights to human conception and the purpose of development and life. In the Ten Commandments, the tenet that one should not kill has numerous interpretations where killing could mean murder or shedding of the sanctity of life, demonstrating the high value of human personhood. In other books, the theological conception of when life begins is interpreted as in utero, [59] highlighting the inviolability of life and its formation in vivo to make a religious point for accepting such research as relatively limited, if at all. [60] The Vatican has released ethical directives to help apply a theological basis to modern-day conflicts. The Magisterium of the Church states that “unless there is a moral certainty of not causing harm,” experimentation on fetuses, fertilized cells, stem cells, or embryos constitutes a crime. [61] Such procedures would not respect the human person who exists at these stages, according to Catholicism. Damages to the embryo are considered gravely immoral and illicit. [62] Although the Catholic Church officially opposes abortion, surveys demonstrate that many Catholic people hold pro-choice views, whether due to the context of conception, stage of pregnancy, threat to the mother’s life, or for other reasons, demonstrating that practicing members can also accept some but not all tenets. [63]

Some major Jewish denominations, such as the Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist movements, are open to supporting ESC use or research as long as it is for saving a life. [64] Within Judaism, the Talmud, or study, gives personhood to the child at birth and emphasizes that life does not begin at conception: [65]

“If she is found pregnant, until the fortieth day it is mere fluid,” [66]

Whereas most religions prioritize the status of human embryos, the Halakah (Jewish religious law) states that to save one life, most other religious laws can be ignored because it is in pursuit of preservation. [67] Stem cell research is accepted due to application of these religious laws.

We recognize that all religions contain subsets and sects. The variety of environmental and cultural differences within religious groups requires further analysis to respect the flexibility of religious thoughts and practices. We make no presumptions that all cultures require notions of autonomy or morality as under the common morality theory , which asserts a set of universal moral norms that all individuals share provides moral reasoning and guides ethical decisions. [68] We only wish to show that the interaction with morality varies between cultures and countries.

III.     A Flexible Ethical Approach

The plurality of different moral approaches described above demonstrates that there can be no universally acceptable uniform law for ESC on a global scale. Instead of developing one standard, flexible ethical applications must be continued. We recommend local guidelines that incorporate important cultural and ethical priorities.

While the Declaration of Helsinki is more relevant to people in clinical trials receiving ESC products, in keeping with the tradition of protections for research subjects, consent of the donor is an ethical requirement for ESC donation in many jurisdictions including the US, Canada, and Europe. [69] The Declaration of Helsinki provides a reference point for regulatory standards and could potentially be used as a universal baseline for obtaining consent prior to gamete or embryo donation.

For instance, in Columbia University’s egg donor program for stem cell research, donors followed standard screening protocols and “underwent counseling sessions that included information as to the purpose of oocyte donation for research, what the oocytes would be used for, the risks and benefits of donation, and process of oocyte stimulation” to ensure transparency for consent. [70] The program helped advance stem cell research and provided clear and safe research methods with paid participants. Though paid participation or covering costs of incidental expenses may not be socially acceptable in every culture or context, [71] and creating embryos for ESC research is illegal in many jurisdictions, Columbia’s program was effective because of the clear and honest communications with donors, IRBs, and related stakeholders.  This example demonstrates that cultural acceptance of scientific research and of the idea that an egg or embryo does not have personhood is likely behind societal acceptance of donating eggs for ESC research. As noted, many countries do not permit the creation of embryos for research.

Proper communication and education regarding the process and purpose of stem cell research may bolster comprehension and garner more acceptance. “Given the sensitive subject material, a complete consent process can support voluntary participation through trust, understanding, and ethical norms from the cultures and morals participants value. This can be hard for researchers entering countries of different socioeconomic stability, with different languages and different societal values. [72]

An adequate moral foundation in medical ethics is derived from the cultural and religious basis that informs knowledge and actions. [73] Understanding local cultural and religious values and their impact on research could help researchers develop humility and promote inclusion.

IV.     Concerns

Some may argue that if researchers all adhere to one ethics standard, protection will be satisfied across all borders, and the global public will trust researchers. However, defining what needs to be protected and how to define such research standards is very specific to the people to which standards are applied. We suggest that applying one uniform guide cannot accurately protect each individual because we all possess our own perceptions and interpretations of social values. [74] Therefore, the issue of not adjusting to the moral pluralism between peoples in applying one standard of ethics can be resolved by building out ethics models that can be adapted to different cultures and religions.

Other concerns include medical tourism, which may promote health inequities. [75] Some countries may develop and approve products derived from ESC research before others, compromising research ethics or drug approval processes. There are also concerns about the sale of unauthorized stem cell treatments, for example, those without FDA approval in the United States. Countries with robust research infrastructures may be tempted to attract medical tourists, and some customers will have false hopes based on aggressive publicity of unproven treatments. [76]

For example, in China, stem cell clinics can market to foreign clients who are not protected under the regulatory regimes. Companies employ a marketing strategy of “ethically friendly” therapies. Specifically, in the case of Beike, China’s leading stem cell tourism company and sprouting network, ethical oversight of administrators or health bureaus at one site has “the unintended consequence of shifting questionable activities to another node in Beike's diffuse network.” [77] In contrast, Jordan is aware of stem cell research’s potential abuse and its own status as a “health-care hub.” Jordan’s expanded regulations include preserving the interests of individuals in clinical trials and banning private companies from ESC research to preserve transparency and the integrity of research practices. [78]

The social priorities of the community are also a concern. The ISSCR explicitly states that guidelines “should be periodically revised to accommodate scientific advances, new challenges, and evolving social priorities.” [79] The adaptable ethics model extends this consideration further by addressing whether research is warranted given the varying degrees of socioeconomic conditions, political stability, and healthcare accessibilities and limitations. An ethical approach would require discussion about resource allocation and appropriate distribution of funds. [80]

While some religions emphasize the sanctity of life from conception, which may lead to public opposition to ESC research, others encourage ESC research due to its potential for healing and alleviating human pain. Many countries have special regulations that balance local views on embryonic personhood, the benefits of research as individual or societal goods, and the protection of human research subjects. To foster understanding and constructive dialogue, global policy frameworks should prioritize the protection of universal human rights, transparency, and informed consent. In addition to these foundational global policies, we recommend tailoring local guidelines to reflect the diverse cultural and religious perspectives of the populations they govern. Ethics models should be adapted to local populations to effectively establish research protections, growth, and possibilities of stem cell research.

For example, in countries with strong beliefs in the moral sanctity of embryos or heavy religious restrictions, an adaptive model can allow for discussion instead of immediate rejection. In countries with limited individual rights and voice in science policy, an adaptive model ensures cultural, moral, and religious views are taken into consideration, thereby building social inclusion. While this ethical consideration by the government may not give a complete voice to every individual, it will help balance policies and maintain the diverse perspectives of those it affects. Embracing an adaptive ethics model of ESC research promotes open-minded dialogue and respect for the importance of human belief and tradition. By actively engaging with cultural and religious values, researchers can better handle disagreements and promote ethical research practices that benefit each society.

This brief exploration of the religious and cultural differences that impact ESC research reveals the nuances of relative ethics and highlights a need for local policymakers to apply a more intense adaptive model.

[1] Poliwoda, S., Noor, N., Downs, E., Schaaf, A., Cantwell, A., Ganti, L., Kaye, A. D., Mosel, L. I., Carroll, C. B., Viswanath, O., & Urits, I. (2022). Stem cells: a comprehensive review of origins and emerging clinical roles in medical practice.  Orthopedic reviews ,  14 (3), 37498. https://doi.org/10.52965/001c.37498

[2] Poliwoda, S., Noor, N., Downs, E., Schaaf, A., Cantwell, A., Ganti, L., Kaye, A. D., Mosel, L. I., Carroll, C. B., Viswanath, O., & Urits, I. (2022). Stem cells: a comprehensive review of origins and emerging clinical roles in medical practice.  Orthopedic reviews ,  14 (3), 37498. https://doi.org/10.52965/001c.37498

[3] International Society for Stem Cell Research. (2023). Laboratory-based human embryonic stem cell research, embryo research, and related research activities . International Society for Stem Cell Research. https://www.isscr.org/guidelines/blog-post-title-one-ed2td-6fcdk ; Kimmelman, J., Hyun, I., Benvenisty, N.  et al.  Policy: Global standards for stem-cell research.  Nature   533 , 311–313 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/533311a

[4] International Society for Stem Cell Research. (2023). Laboratory-based human embryonic stem cell research, embryo research, and related research activities . International Society for Stem Cell Research. https://www.isscr.org/guidelines/blog-post-title-one-ed2td-6fcdk

[5] Concerning the moral philosophies of stem cell research, our paper does not posit a personal moral stance nor delve into the “when” of human life begins. To read further about the philosophical debate, consider the following sources:

Sandel M. J. (2004). Embryo ethics--the moral logic of stem-cell research.  The New England journal of medicine ,  351 (3), 207–209. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp048145 ; George, R. P., & Lee, P. (2020, September 26). Acorns and Embryos . The New Atlantis. https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/acorns-and-embryos ; Sagan, A., & Singer, P. (2007). The moral status of stem cells. Metaphilosophy , 38 (2/3), 264–284. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24439776 ; McHugh P. R. (2004). Zygote and "clonote"--the ethical use of embryonic stem cells.  The New England journal of medicine ,  351 (3), 209–211. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp048147 ; Kurjak, A., & Tripalo, A. (2004). The facts and doubts about beginning of the human life and personality.  Bosnian journal of basic medical sciences ,  4 (1), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.17305/bjbms.2004.3453

[6] Vazin, T., & Freed, W. J. (2010). Human embryonic stem cells: derivation, culture, and differentiation: a review.  Restorative neurology and neuroscience ,  28 (4), 589–603. https://doi.org/10.3233/RNN-2010-0543

[7] Socially, at its core, the Western approach to ethics is widely principle-based, autonomy being one of the key factors to ensure a fundamental respect for persons within research. For information regarding autonomy in research, see: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, & National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research (1978). The Belmont Report. Ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects of research.; For a more in-depth review of autonomy within the US, see: Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (1994). Principles of Biomedical Ethics . Oxford University Press.

[8] Sherley v. Sebelius , 644 F.3d 388 (D.C. Cir. 2011), citing 45 C.F.R. 46.204(b) and [42 U.S.C. § 289g(b)]. https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/6c690438a9b43dd685257a64004ebf99/$file/11-5241-1391178.pdf

[9] Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, H. R. 810, 109 th Cong. (2001). https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/hr810/text ; Bush, G. W. (2006, July 19). Message to the House of Representatives . National Archives and Records Administration. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060719-5.html

[10] National Archives and Records Administration. (2009, March 9). Executive order 13505 -- removing barriers to responsible scientific research involving human stem cells . National Archives and Records Administration. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/removing-barriers-responsible-scientific-research-involving-human-stem-cells

[11] Hurlbut, W. B. (2006). Science, Religion, and the Politics of Stem Cells.  Social Research ,  73 (3), 819–834. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40971854

[12] Akpa-Inyang, Francis & Chima, Sylvester. (2021). South African traditional values and beliefs regarding informed consent and limitations of the principle of respect for autonomy in African communities: a cross-cultural qualitative study. BMC Medical Ethics . 22. 10.1186/s12910-021-00678-4.

[13] Source for further reading: Tangwa G. B. (2007). Moral status of embryonic stem cells: perspective of an African villager. Bioethics , 21(8), 449–457. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2007.00582.x , see also Mnisi, F. M. (2020). An African analysis based on ethics of Ubuntu - are human embryonic stem cell patents morally justifiable? African Insight , 49 (4).

[14] Jecker, N. S., & Atuire, C. (2021). Bioethics in Africa: A contextually enlightened analysis of three cases. Developing World Bioethics , 22 (2), 112–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12324

[15] Jecker, N. S., & Atuire, C. (2021). Bioethics in Africa: A contextually enlightened analysis of three cases. Developing World Bioethics, 22(2), 112–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12324

[16] Jackson, C.S., Pepper, M.S. Opportunities and barriers to establishing a cell therapy programme in South Africa.  Stem Cell Res Ther   4 , 54 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/scrt204 ; Pew Research Center. (2014, May 1). Public health a major priority in African nations . Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2014/05/01/public-health-a-major-priority-in-african-nations/

[17] Department of Health Republic of South Africa. (2021). Health Research Priorities (revised) for South Africa 2021-2024 . National Health Research Strategy. https://www.health.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/National-Health-Research-Priorities-2021-2024.pdf

[18] Oosthuizen, H. (2013). Legal and Ethical Issues in Stem Cell Research in South Africa. In: Beran, R. (eds) Legal and Forensic Medicine. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32338-6_80 , see also: Gaobotse G (2018) Stem Cell Research in Africa: Legislation and Challenges. J Regen Med 7:1. doi: 10.4172/2325-9620.1000142

[19] United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. (1998). Tunisia: Information on the status of Christian conversions in Tunisia . UNHCR Web Archive. https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20230522142618/https://www.refworld.org/docid/3df0be9a2.html

[20] Gaobotse, G. (2018) Stem Cell Research in Africa: Legislation and Challenges. J Regen Med 7:1. doi: 10.4172/2325-9620.1000142

[21] Kooli, C. Review of assisted reproduction techniques, laws, and regulations in Muslim countries.  Middle East Fertil Soc J   24 , 8 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43043-019-0011-0 ; Gaobotse, G. (2018) Stem Cell Research in Africa: Legislation and Challenges. J Regen Med 7:1. doi: 10.4172/2325-9620.1000142

[22] Pang M. C. (1999). Protective truthfulness: the Chinese way of safeguarding patients in informed treatment decisions. Journal of medical ethics , 25(3), 247–253. https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.25.3.247

[23] Wang, L., Wang, F., & Zhang, W. (2021). Bioethics in China’s biosecurity law: Forms, effects, and unsettled issues. Journal of law and the biosciences , 8(1).  https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsab019 https://academic.oup.com/jlb/article/8/1/lsab019/6299199

[24] Wang, Y., Xue, Y., & Guo, H. D. (2022). Intervention effects of traditional Chinese medicine on stem cell therapy of myocardial infarction.  Frontiers in pharmacology ,  13 , 1013740. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2022.1013740

[25] Li, X.-T., & Zhao, J. (2012). Chapter 4: An Approach to the Nature of Qi in TCM- Qi and Bioenergy. In Recent Advances in Theories and Practice of Chinese Medicine (p. 79). InTech.

[26] Luo, D., Xu, Z., Wang, Z., & Ran, W. (2021). China's Stem Cell Research and Knowledge Levels of Medical Practitioners and Students.  Stem cells international ,  2021 , 6667743. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6667743

[27] Luo, D., Xu, Z., Wang, Z., & Ran, W. (2021). China's Stem Cell Research and Knowledge Levels of Medical Practitioners and Students.  Stem cells international ,  2021 , 6667743. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6667743

[28] Zhang, J. Y. (2017). Lost in translation? accountability and governance of Clinical Stem Cell Research in China. Regenerative Medicine , 12 (6), 647–656. https://doi.org/10.2217/rme-2017-0035

[29] Wang, L., Wang, F., & Zhang, W. (2021). Bioethics in China’s biosecurity law: Forms, effects, and unsettled issues. Journal of law and the biosciences , 8(1).  https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsab019 https://academic.oup.com/jlb/article/8/1/lsab019/6299199

[30] Chen, H., Wei, T., Wang, H.  et al.  Association of China’s two-child policy with changes in number of births and birth defects rate, 2008–2017.  BMC Public Health   22 , 434 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-12839-0

[31] Azuma, K. Regulatory Landscape of Regenerative Medicine in Japan.  Curr Stem Cell Rep   1 , 118–128 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40778-015-0012-6

[32] Harris, R. (2005, May 19). Researchers Report Advance in Stem Cell Production . NPR. https://www.npr.org/2005/05/19/4658967/researchers-report-advance-in-stem-cell-production

[33] Park, S. (2012). South Korea steps up stem-cell work.  Nature . https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2012.10565

[34] Resnik, D. B., Shamoo, A. E., & Krimsky, S. (2006). Fraudulent human embryonic stem cell research in South Korea: lessons learned.  Accountability in research ,  13 (1), 101–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/08989620600634193 .

[35] Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia. BMC medical ethics, 21(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6

[36] Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies.  https://www.aabb.org/regulatory-and-advocacy/regulatory-affairs/regulatory-for-cellular-therapies/international-competent-authorities/saudi-arabia

[37] Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: Interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia.  BMC medical ethics ,  21 (1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6

[38] Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: Interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia. BMC medical ethics , 21(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6

Culturally, autonomy practices follow a relational autonomy approach based on a paternalistic deontological health care model. The adherence to strict international research policies and religious pillars within the regulatory environment is a great foundation for research ethics. However, there is a need to develop locally targeted ethics approaches for research (as called for in Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia. BMC medical ethics, 21(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6), this decision-making approach may help advise a research decision model. For more on the clinical cultural autonomy approaches, see: Alabdullah, Y. Y., Alzaid, E., Alsaad, S., Alamri, T., Alolayan, S. W., Bah, S., & Aljoudi, A. S. (2022). Autonomy and paternalism in Shared decision‐making in a Saudi Arabian tertiary hospital: A cross‐sectional study. Developing World Bioethics , 23 (3), 260–268. https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12355 ; Bukhari, A. A. (2017). Universal Principles of Bioethics and Patient Rights in Saudi Arabia (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/124; Ladha, S., Nakshawani, S. A., Alzaidy, A., & Tarab, B. (2023, October 26). Islam and Bioethics: What We All Need to Know . Columbia University School of Professional Studies. https://sps.columbia.edu/events/islam-and-bioethics-what-we-all-need-know

[39] Ababneh, M. A., Al-Azzam, S. I., Alzoubi, K., Rababa’h, A., & Al Demour, S. (2021). Understanding and attitudes of the Jordanian public about clinical research ethics.  Research Ethics ,  17 (2), 228-241.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016120966779

[40] Ababneh, M. A., Al-Azzam, S. I., Alzoubi, K., Rababa’h, A., & Al Demour, S. (2021). Understanding and attitudes of the Jordanian public about clinical research ethics.  Research Ethics ,  17 (2), 228-241.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016120966779

[41] Dajani, R. (2014). Jordan’s stem-cell law can guide the Middle East.  Nature  510, 189. https://doi.org/10.1038/510189a

[42] Dajani, R. (2014). Jordan’s stem-cell law can guide the Middle East.  Nature  510, 189. https://doi.org/10.1038/510189a

[43] The EU’s definition of autonomy relates to the capacity for creating ideas, moral insight, decisions, and actions without constraint, personal responsibility, and informed consent. However, the EU views autonomy as not completely able to protect individuals and depends on other principles, such as dignity, which “expresses the intrinsic worth and fundamental equality of all human beings.” Rendtorff, J.D., Kemp, P. (2019). Four Ethical Principles in European Bioethics and Biolaw: Autonomy, Dignity, Integrity and Vulnerability. In: Valdés, E., Lecaros, J. (eds) Biolaw and Policy in the Twenty-First Century. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 78. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05903-3_3

[44] Council of Europe. Convention for the protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (ETS No. 164) https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list?module=treaty-detail&treatynum=164 (forbidding the creation of embryos for research purposes only, and suggests embryos in vitro have protections.); Also see Drabiak-Syed B. K. (2013). New President, New Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Policy: Comparative International Perspectives and Embryonic Stem Cell Research Laws in France.  Biotechnology Law Report ,  32 (6), 349–356. https://doi.org/10.1089/blr.2013.9865

[45] Rendtorff, J.D., Kemp, P. (2019). Four Ethical Principles in European Bioethics and Biolaw: Autonomy, Dignity, Integrity and Vulnerability. In: Valdés, E., Lecaros, J. (eds) Biolaw and Policy in the Twenty-First Century. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 78. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05903-3_3

[46] Tomuschat, C., Currie, D. P., Kommers, D. P., & Kerr, R. (Trans.). (1949, May 23). Basic law for the Federal Republic of Germany. https://www.btg-bestellservice.de/pdf/80201000.pdf

[47] Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Germany . Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-germany

[48] Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Finland . Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-finland

[49] Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Spain . Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-spain

[50] Some sources to consider regarding ethics models or regulatory oversights of other cultures not covered:

Kara MA. Applicability of the principle of respect for autonomy: the perspective of Turkey. J Med Ethics. 2007 Nov;33(11):627-30. doi: 10.1136/jme.2006.017400. PMID: 17971462; PMCID: PMC2598110.

Ugarte, O. N., & Acioly, M. A. (2014). The principle of autonomy in Brazil: one needs to discuss it ...  Revista do Colegio Brasileiro de Cirurgioes ,  41 (5), 374–377. https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-69912014005013

Bharadwaj, A., & Glasner, P. E. (2012). Local cells, global science: The rise of embryonic stem cell research in India . Routledge.

For further research on specific European countries regarding ethical and regulatory framework, we recommend this database: Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Europe . Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-europe   

[51] Klitzman, R. (2006). Complications of culture in obtaining informed consent. The American Journal of Bioethics, 6(1), 20–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265160500394671 see also: Ekmekci, P. E., & Arda, B. (2017). Interculturalism and Informed Consent: Respecting Cultural Differences without Breaching Human Rights.  Cultura (Iasi, Romania) ,  14 (2), 159–172.; For why trust is important in research, see also: Gray, B., Hilder, J., Macdonald, L., Tester, R., Dowell, A., & Stubbe, M. (2017). Are research ethics guidelines culturally competent?  Research Ethics ,  13 (1), 23-41.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016116650235

[52] The Qur'an  (M. Khattab, Trans.). (1965). Al-Mu’minun, 23: 12-14. https://quran.com/23

[53] Lenfest, Y. (2017, December 8). Islam and the beginning of human life . Bill of Health. https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2017/12/08/islam-and-the-beginning-of-human-life/

[54] Aksoy, S. (2005). Making regulations and drawing up legislation in Islamic countries under conditions of uncertainty, with special reference to embryonic stem cell research. Journal of Medical Ethics , 31: 399-403.; see also: Mahmoud, Azza. "Islamic Bioethics: National Regulations and Guidelines of Human Stem Cell Research in the Muslim World." Master's thesis, Chapman University, 2022. https://doi.org/10.36837/ chapman.000386

[55] Rashid, R. (2022). When does Ensoulment occur in the Human Foetus. Journal of the British Islamic Medical Association , 12 (4). ISSN 2634 8071. https://www.jbima.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2-Ethics-3_-Ensoulment_Rafaqat.pdf.

[56] Sivaraman, M. & Noor, S. (2017). Ethics of embryonic stem cell research according to Buddhist, Hindu, Catholic, and Islamic religions: perspective from Malaysia. Asian Biomedicine,8(1) 43-52.  https://doi.org/10.5372/1905-7415.0801.260

[57] Jafari, M., Elahi, F., Ozyurt, S. & Wrigley, T. (2007). 4. Religious Perspectives on Embryonic Stem Cell Research. In K. Monroe, R. Miller & J. Tobis (Ed.),  Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical, and Political Issues  (pp. 79-94). Berkeley: University of California Press.  https://escholarship.org/content/qt9rj0k7s3/qt9rj0k7s3_noSplash_f9aca2e02c3777c7fb76ea768ba458f0.pdf https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520940994-005

[58] Lecso, P. A. (1991). The Bodhisattva Ideal and Organ Transplantation.  Journal of Religion and Health ,  30 (1), 35–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27510629 ; Bodhisattva, S. (n.d.). The Key of Becoming a Bodhisattva . A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. http://www.buddhism.org/Sutras/2/BodhisattvaWay.htm

[59] There is no explicit religious reference to when life begins or how to conduct research that interacts with the concept of life. However, these are relevant verses pertaining to how the fetus is viewed. (( King James Bible . (1999). Oxford University Press. (original work published 1769))

Jerimiah 1: 5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee…”

In prophet Jerimiah’s insight, God set him apart as a person known before childbirth, a theme carried within the Psalm of David.

Psalm 139: 13-14 “…Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…”

These verses demonstrate David’s respect for God as an entity that would know of all man’s thoughts and doings even before birth.

[60] It should be noted that abortion is not supported as well.

[61] The Vatican. (1987, February 22). Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation Replies to Certain Questions of the Day . Congregation For the Doctrine of the Faith. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19870222_respect-for-human-life_en.html

[62] The Vatican. (2000, August 25). Declaration On the Production and the Scientific and Therapeutic Use of Human Embryonic Stem Cells . Pontifical Academy for Life. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdlife/documents/rc_pa_acdlife_doc_20000824_cellule-staminali_en.html ; Ohara, N. (2003). Ethical Consideration of Experimentation Using Living Human Embryos: The Catholic Church’s Position on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology . Retrieved from https://article.imrpress.com/journal/CEOG/30/2-3/pii/2003018/77-81.pdf.

[63] Smith, G. A. (2022, May 23). Like Americans overall, Catholics vary in their abortion views, with regular mass attenders most opposed . Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/05/23/like-americans-overall-catholics-vary-in-their-abortion-views-with-regular-mass-attenders-most-opposed/

[64] Rosner, F., & Reichman, E. (2002). Embryonic stem cell research in Jewish law. Journal of halacha and contemporary society , (43), 49–68.; Jafari, M., Elahi, F., Ozyurt, S. & Wrigley, T. (2007). 4. Religious Perspectives on Embryonic Stem Cell Research. In K. Monroe, R. Miller & J. Tobis (Ed.),  Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical, and Political Issues  (pp. 79-94). Berkeley: University of California Press.  https://escholarship.org/content/qt9rj0k7s3/qt9rj0k7s3_noSplash_f9aca2e02c3777c7fb76ea768ba458f0.pdf https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520940994-005

[65] Schenker J. G. (2008). The beginning of human life: status of embryo. Perspectives in Halakha (Jewish Religious Law).  Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics ,  25 (6), 271–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-008-9221-6

[66] Ruttenberg, D. (2020, May 5). The Torah of Abortion Justice (annotated source sheet) . Sefaria. https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/234926.7?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en

[67] Jafari, M., Elahi, F., Ozyurt, S. & Wrigley, T. (2007). 4. Religious Perspectives on Embryonic Stem Cell Research. In K. Monroe, R. Miller & J. Tobis (Ed.),  Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical, and Political Issues  (pp. 79-94). Berkeley: University of California Press.  https://escholarship.org/content/qt9rj0k7s3/qt9rj0k7s3_noSplash_f9aca2e02c3777c7fb76ea768ba458f0.pdf https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520940994-005

[68] Gert, B. (2007). Common morality: Deciding what to do . Oxford Univ. Press.

[69] World Medical Association (2013). World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. JAMA , 310(20), 2191–2194. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.281053 Declaration of Helsinki – WMA – The World Medical Association .; see also: National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. (1979).  The Belmont report: Ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects of research . U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/belmont-report/read-the-belmont-report/index.html

[70] Zakarin Safier, L., Gumer, A., Kline, M., Egli, D., & Sauer, M. V. (2018). Compensating human subjects providing oocytes for stem cell research: 9-year experience and outcomes.  Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics ,  35 (7), 1219–1225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-018-1171-z https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6063839/ see also: Riordan, N. H., & Paz Rodríguez, J. (2021). Addressing concerns regarding associated costs, transparency, and integrity of research in recent stem cell trial. Stem Cells Translational Medicine , 10 (12), 1715–1716. https://doi.org/10.1002/sctm.21-0234

[71] Klitzman, R., & Sauer, M. V. (2009). Payment of egg donors in stem cell research in the USA.  Reproductive biomedicine online ,  18 (5), 603–608. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1472-6483(10)60002-8

[72] Krosin, M. T., Klitzman, R., Levin, B., Cheng, J., & Ranney, M. L. (2006). Problems in comprehension of informed consent in rural and peri-urban Mali, West Africa.  Clinical trials (London, England) ,  3 (3), 306–313. https://doi.org/10.1191/1740774506cn150oa

[73] Veatch, Robert M.  Hippocratic, Religious, and Secular Medical Ethics: The Points of Conflict . Georgetown University Press, 2012.

[74] Msoroka, M. S., & Amundsen, D. (2018). One size fits not quite all: Universal research ethics with diversity.  Research Ethics ,  14 (3), 1-17.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016117739939

[75] Pirzada, N. (2022). The Expansion of Turkey’s Medical Tourism Industry.  Voices in Bioethics ,  8 . https://doi.org/10.52214/vib.v8i.9894

[76] Stem Cell Tourism: False Hope for Real Money . Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI). (2023). https://hsci.harvard.edu/stem-cell-tourism , See also: Bissassar, M. (2017). Transnational Stem Cell Tourism: An ethical analysis.  Voices in Bioethics ,  3 . https://doi.org/10.7916/vib.v3i.6027

[77] Song, P. (2011) The proliferation of stem cell therapies in post-Mao China: problematizing ethical regulation,  New Genetics and Society , 30:2, 141-153, DOI:  10.1080/14636778.2011.574375

[78] Dajani, R. (2014). Jordan’s stem-cell law can guide the Middle East.  Nature  510, 189. https://doi.org/10.1038/510189a

[79] International Society for Stem Cell Research. (2024). Standards in stem cell research . International Society for Stem Cell Research. https://www.isscr.org/guidelines/5-standards-in-stem-cell-research

[80] Benjamin, R. (2013). People’s science bodies and rights on the Stem Cell Frontier . Stanford University Press.

Mifrah Hayath

SM Candidate Harvard Medical School, MS Biotechnology Johns Hopkins University

Olivia Bowers

MS Bioethics Columbia University (Disclosure: affiliated with Voices in Bioethics)

Article Details

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

How the romantic institution props-up a racialized dating landscape

In 2020, a Pew Research Center report found that nearly 50% of U.S. adults said that dating had gotten harder in recent years, with participants noting dissatisfaction with their relationship history as well as their prospects for the future. So what’s happening? Is it the end of romantic “love”? 

As it turns out, yep, it sure is. That's according to UC Santa Barbara Professor of Black studies Sabrina Strings, whose new book “The End of Love: Racism, Sexism, and the Death of Romance” (Beacon Press, 2024) addresses the growing trend of “situationships” and why it hurts Black women and other non-elite and non-white women most.    

“Romance had a beginning,” said Strings. “Romance is an old white cultural institution that began in the Middle Ages.” One of the very first examples of a romantic story is Lancelot and Guinevere, she pointed out, which is about the trials of a man from a lower station who sets out to prove he is worthy of a higher class European Christian woman. “Love is very much about generosity but romance is very much about what you can get from somebody, especially if you’re a man who is social climbing,” Strings said.

In “The End of Love,” Strings blends historical research, personal anecdotes and cultural criticism to consider the demise of romantic partnerships, emphasizing how racism and anti-feminist ideology have been the driving forces behind it. By interrogating how ideas about contemporary love came about, Strings shows how the romance narrative served as a blueprint for a racialized dating landscape. 

Sabrina Strings

Sabrina Strings, Ph.D. is Professor and North Hall Chair of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was a recipient of the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship with a joint appointment in the School of Public Health and Department of Sociology.

From romance’s origins to its contemporary impact on women — especially Black and “insufficiently white” women — Strings, the North Hall Chair of Black Studies, traces its evolution from slavery to pornography. “Romance is white supremist,” she asserted. “The promise of romance is that women who are not peak white or are 'insufficiently white' are subject deservedly to deceit, manipulation, assault and rape.”   

Offering a wide-spanning cultural critique, Strings covers questions from how colonization and slavery conspired to prevent Black women from being considered viable long term romantic partners to how changes brought forward during the Civil Rights era resulted in Black men distancing themselves from Black and “insufficiently white” women and aligning themselves with white men in order to pursue a rise in personal status. From the rise and fall of the Black is Beautiful movement to how Black music, including hip hop, abandoned its message about Black beauty and love once it took on a more white, more male fanbase. 

In the book, Strings also examines the rise of coded negative language for Black women, including terms like “ho’s” and “Golddiggers;” the invention of the “Fuckboy” and the whorification of Black women, which, she notes, grew in part out of the backlash against the growing feminist movement in the mid-to-late 20th century; how men’s media counseled its audience to be wary of women’s intentions, narrowly selective in their choice of partners or to avoid marriage all together; the influence of white male media creators on Black male artists, from Playboy to Jay Z; the problematic portrayal of Black women in popular culture; and how the widespread availability of porn online has influenced sexual relationships and men’s expectations for partners.

In addition to her intellectual exploration of these issues, Strings also brings her personal experiences into play, sharing difficult stories of her own challenges, abuses and disappointments in romance. “I am only one of the millions of Gen X-to-Gen Z women who have endured a seemingly endless array of miserable relationships with men,” she writes in her book, challenging readers to accept the end of love as they know it and to embrace more queer and feminist ideas of love, equity and partnership.

Debra Herrick Associate Editorial Director (805) 893-2191 [email protected]

Share this article

About UC Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara is a leading research institution that also provides a comprehensive liberal arts learning experience. Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration from the beauty and resources of our extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Related Stories

May 15, 2024

The state of State

May 3, 2024

Researchers find that a new mother’s immune status varies with her feeding strategy

May 2, 2024

Historian Jeffrey Stewart elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences for his work in the visual arts

April 8, 2024

Why do kids outperform their parents in this rural California town? A sociologist looks for answers.

A Simple Technique for Removing Microplastics from Drinking Water Revealed by Research

A s microplastic fragments increasingly infiltrate our systems, largely through consumption of contaminated food and drink, scientists are seeking effective solutions to combat this issue.

Researchers from China’s Guangzhou Medical University and Jinan University have discovered a straightforward method to extract these tiny plastic pieces from water.

The team experimented with both softened water and mineral-rich hard tap water , introducing nanoplastics and microplastics (NMPs) to the samples, following which they boiled and subsequently filtered the mixture to remove the remaining solids.

In some experiments, this boiling and filtering process successfully eliminated up to 90 percent of the NMPs, depending on the nature of the water being treated. This technique is especially convenient since it can be carried out using common kitchen equipment.

The research team states, “This uncomplicated boiling strategy can ‘decontaminate’ NMPs from household tap water, potentially reducing human consumption of NMPs from drinking water,” in their published work .

Hard water, well-known for its tendency to develop limescale, or calcium carbonate , upon heating, showed greater NMP removal. The kettle’s familiar white deposits capture the microplastics as the calcium carbonate separates from the water during boiling.

The method proved effective even with softened water, which contains less calcium carbonate—approximately one-quarter of the NMPs were caught in this case. Trapped within a calcium carbonate layer, these plastic particles were then filtered out using a simple tool, such as a thin stainless steel mesh typical for tea-straining, according to the researchers.

Previous research has detected traces of various plastics like polystyrene and polyethylene in drinking water, leading to routine ingestion. To test their solution further, the researchers introduced an excess of nanoplastics, which subsequently saw a reduced presence.

As stated by the researchers, “Drinking boiled water appears to be a feasible long-term solution for diminishing worldwide NMP exposure,” despite the fact that this practice is not common globally and is mostly traditional in a few regions. [source]

The study aims to encourage the habit of water boiling prior to consumption, especially with microplastic contamination on the rise globally.

While the exact health implications of microplastic ingestion remain to be fully understood, there is increasing concern regarding its contribution to disturbance of gut microbiota and antibiotic resistance in humans.

The authors of this study express a need for further exploration into the role of boiled water in preventing the introduction of synthetic materials into our systems and mitigating the alarming impacts of microplastics.

“Our outcomes affirm a highly practical approach to minimize human NMP exposure and contribute to the groundwork for conducting broader investigations involving a much larger sample collection,” the team shares .

The research was detailed in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters .

FAQ Section:

Q: What are microplastics?

A: Microplastics are small plastic fragments typically less than five millimeters in size, resulting from the breakdown of larger plastic debris or from manufactured products such as microbeads in personal care items.

Q: How do microplastics end up in drinking water?

A: Microplastics enter water systems through various sources, including industrial runoff, waste water discharge, and the breakdown of larger plastics in the environment. They have been found in both tap and bottled water.

Q: Is boiling water an effective way to remove microplastics?

A: Yes, according to the study by researchers from Guangzhou Medical University and Jinan University, boiling water and then filtering it can remove a significant portion of microplastics from drinking water.

Q: Are there health risks associated with consuming microplastics?

A: The health effects of consuming microplastics are not yet fully understood, but there is concern that they can lead to changes in the gut microbiome and increased antibiotic resistance.

Q: How can the average person remove microplastics from their drinking water at home?

A: Based on the study, individuals can boil their tap water and use a household filter, such as one made of stainless steel mesh typically used for straining tea, to remove any trapped microplastics.

Conclusion:

Microplastic contamination in drinking water is a growing concern with potential health implications. However, the study from Guangzhou Medical University and Jinan University offers a practical solution for individuals looking to reduce their exposure to microplastics. By boiling and filtering their water, people can take an active step toward limiting their intake of these synthetic particles. As research continues, there is a collective hope for broader acceptance of this water purification practice and a deeper understanding of the impacts of microplastics on human health.

Why businesses need explainable AI—and how to deliver it

Businesses increasingly rely on artificial intelligence (AI) systems to make decisions that can significantly affect individual rights, human safety, and critical business operations. But how do these models derive their conclusions? What data do they use? And can we trust the results?

Addressing these questions is the essence of “explainability,” and getting it right is becoming essential. While many companies have begun adopting basic tools to understand how and why AI models render their insights, unlocking the full value of AI requires a comprehensive strategy. Our research finds that companies seeing the biggest bottom-line returns from AI —those that attribute at least 20 percent of EBIT to their use of AI—are more likely than others to follow best practices that enable explainability. 1 “ The state of AI in 2021 ,” McKinsey, December 8, 2021. Further, organizations that establish digital trust among consumers through practices such as making AI explainable are more likely to see their annual revenue and EBIT grow at rates of 10 percent or more. 2 Jim Boehm, Liz Grennan, Alex Singla, and Kate Smaje, “ Why digital trust truly matters ,” McKinsey, September 12, 2022.

Even as explainability gains importance, it is becoming significantly harder. Modeling techniques that today power many AI applications, such as deep learning and neural networks, are inherently more difficult for humans to understand. For all the predictive insights AI can deliver, advanced machine learning engines often remain a black box. The solution isn’t simply finding better ways to convey how a system works; rather, it’s about creating tools and processes that can help even the deep expert understand the outcome and then explain it to others.

To shed light on these systems and meet the needs of customers, employees, and regulators, organizations need to master the fundamentals of explainability. Gaining that mastery requires establishing a governance framework, putting in place the right practices, and investing in the right set of tools.

What makes explainability challenging

Explainability is the capacity to express why an AI system reached a particular decision, recommendation, or prediction. Developing this capability requires understanding how the AI model operates and the types of data used to train it. That sounds simple enough, but the more sophisticated an AI system becomes, the harder it is to pinpoint exactly how it derived a particular insight. AI engines get “smarter” over time by continually ingesting data, gauging the predictive power of different algorithmic combinations, and updating the resulting model. They do all this at blazing speeds, sometimes delivering outputs within fractions of a second.

Disentangling a first-order insight and explaining how the AI went from A to B might be relatively easy. But as AI engines interpolate and reinterpolate data, the insight audit trail becomes harder to follow.

Complicating matters, different consumers of the AI system’s data have different explainability needs. A bank that uses an AI engine to support credit decisions will need to provide consumers who are denied a loan with a reason for that outcome. Loan officers and AI practitioners might need even more granular information to help them understand the risk factors and weightings used in rendering the decision to ensure the model is tuned optimally. And the risk function or diversity office may need to confirm that the data used in the AI engine are not biased against certain applicants. Regulators and other stakeholders also will have specific needs and interests.

Would you like to learn more about QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey ?

Five ways explainable ai can benefit organizations.

Mastering explainability helps technology, business, and risk professionals in at least five ways (exhibit):

• Increasing productivity. Techniques that enable explainability can more quickly reveal errors or areas for improvement, making it easier for machine learning operations (MLOps) teams tasked with supervising AI systems to monitor and maintain AI systems efficiently. As an example, understanding the specific features that lead to the model output helps technical teams confirm whether patterns identified by the model are broadly applicable and relevant to future predictions or instead reflect one-off or anomalous historical data.
• Building trust and adoption. Explainability is also crucial to building trust. Customers, regulators, and the public at large all need to feel confident that the AI models rendering consequential decisions are doing so in an accurate and fair way. Likewise, even the most cutting-edge AI systems will gather dust if intended users don’t understand the basis for the recommendations being supplied. Sales teams, for instance, are more apt to trust their gut over an AI application whose suggested next-best actions seem to come from a black box. Knowing why an AI application made its recommendation increases sales professionals’ confidence in following it.
• Surfacing new, value-generating interventions. Unpacking how a model works can also help companies surface business interventions that would otherwise remain hidden. In some cases, the deeper understanding into the why of a prediction can lead to even more value than the prediction or recommendation itself. For example, a prediction of customer churn in a certain segment can be helpful by itself, but an explanation of why the churn is likely can reveal the most effective ways for the business to intervene. For one auto insurer, using explainability tools such as SHAP values revealed how greater risk was associated with certain interactions between vehicle and driver attributes. The company used these insights to adjust its risk models, after which its performance improved significantly.
• Ensuring AI provides business value. When the technical team can explain how an AI system functions, the business team can confirm that the intended business objective is being met and spot situations where something was lost in translation. This ensures that an AI application is set up to deliver its expected value.
• Mitigating regulatory and other risks. Explainability helps organizations mitigate risks. AI systems that run afoul of ethical norms, even if inadvertently, can ignite intense public, media, and regulatory scrutiny. Legal and risk teams can use the explanation provided by the technical team, along with the intended business use case, to confirm the system complies with applicable laws and regulations and is aligned with internal company policies and values. In some sectors, explainability is a requirement. For example, a recent bulletin issued by the California Department of Insurance requires insurers to explain adverse actions taken based on complex algorithms. 3 California Insurance Commission, “Allegations of racial bias and unfair discrimination in marketing, rating, underwriting, and claims practices by the insurance industry,” Bulletin 2022-5, June 30, 2022. As use of AI grows, organizations can expect more rules concerning explainability. New regulations, such as the draft EU AI regulation , may contain specific explainability compliance steps. Even when not specifically mandated, companies will need to confirm that any tool used to render actions such as credit determinations comply with applicable antidiscrimination laws, as well as laws prohibiting unfair or deceptive practices.

Why digital trust truly matters

How businesses can make ai explainable.

Organizations that build a framework for explainability and acquire the right enabling tools will be better positioned to capture the full value of deep learning and other AI advances. We suggest organizations start by including explainability as one of the key principles within their responsible AI guidelines. Then organizations can operationalize this principle by establishing an AI governance  committee to set standards and guidance for AI development teams, including guidelines for use-case-specific review processes, and by investing in the right talent, technology, research, and training.

Establish an AI governance committee to guide AI development teams

Establishment of an AI governance committee includes recruiting its members and defining the scope of work. The explainability and risk assessment of AI use cases may be complex, requiring an understanding of the business objective, the intended users, the technology, and any applicable legal requirements. For this reason, organizations will want to convene a cross-functional set of experienced professionals, including business leaders, technical experts, and legal and risk professionals. Bringing in diverse points of view internally and externally can also help the company test whether the explanations developed to support an AI model are intuitive and effective for different audiences.

A key function of the committee will be setting standards for AI explainability. As part of the standards-setting process, effective AI governance committees often establish a risk taxonomy that can be used to classify the sensitivity of different AI use cases. The taxonomy links to guidance that outlines expectations and standards with respect to different use cases. For example, is an explanation necessary to comply with regulatory requirements, or is the goal simply to provide an overview of functionality to aid adoption? The taxonomy also clarifies when escalation to a review board or legal may be required.

Because each AI use case can present a different set of risks and legal requirements related to explainability, organizations should establish a process for model development teams to assess each use case. This process better positions the organization to manage these risks and capture value from AI. Tracking the outcome of these assessments within a central inventory helps ensure the organization can monitor the use of AI systems for compliance with law and adherence to responsible AI principles.

As part of the review process, teams will need to consider whether to go beyond the basic explainability requirements, based on the potential value resulting from, for example, greater trust, adoption, or productivity. In some cases, a trade-off may exist between explainability and accuracy. For example, simplifying an AI model’s mechanics might improve user trust, but in some—not all—cases, a shift might make the model less accurate. When trade-offs exist, teams will need to weigh the competing considerations, including any regulatory requirements, and escalate to leadership as necessary.

Teams may be able to address these trade-offs themselves. Sometimes they can reverse-engineer the factors driving predictive outcomes for advanced AI models by tracking model performance and discerning patterns. They can then try to replicate the complex model using simpler and better-understood statistical methods such as logistic regression. In some cases, the result will be an equally high-performing model with outputs that are inherently explainable.

Invest in the right talent, explainability technology, research, and training

The rapid pace of technological and legal change within the area of explainability makes it urgent for companies to hire the right talent, invest in the right set of tools, engage in active research, and conduct ongoing training.

High-performing organizations develop a talent strategy to support AI governance across the enterprise. These companies seek to retain legal and risk colleagues who can actively and meaningfully engage with both the business and technologists to navigate applicable regulations, meet consumer expectations, and “future-proof” core products (including features and data sets) as the law evolves. Similarly, companies are well served to hire technologists familiar with legal issues or focused on technology ethics.

Investment in explainability technology should aim to acquire appropriate tools for meeting the needs identified by development teams during the review process. For example, more advanced tooling may provide a robust explanation in a context that would otherwise require teams to sacrifice accuracy. Although the up-front cost of bespoke solutions may be higher, it sometimes pays off in the long run because they can take into account the context in which the model is being deployed, including the intended users and any legal or regulatory requirements. Companies considering off-the-shelf and open-source tools should understand any limitations of these options. For example, some explainability tools rely on post-hoc explanations that deduce the relevant factors based only on a review of the system output. If this limited approach yields a less-than-accurate explanation of the causal factors driving the outcome, users’ confidence in the system output might be unwarranted.

Research is an ongoing requirement because legal and regulatory requirements, as well as consumer expectations and industry norms, are changing rapidly. AI governance committees will want to actively monitor and, where possible, conduct their own research in this space to ensure continual learning and knowledge development. The committee should also establish a training program to ensure employees across the organization understand and are able to apply the latest developments in this space.

People use what they understand and trust. This is especially true of AI. The businesses that make it easy to show how their AI insights and recommendations are derived will come out ahead, not only with their organization’s AI users, but also with regulators and consumers—and in terms of their bottom lines.

Liz Grennan is an associate partner in McKinsey’s Stamford office, Andreas Kremer is a partner in the Berlin office, Alex Singla is a senior partner in the Chicago office, and Peter Zipparo is associate general counsel, based in the New York office.

Explore a career with us

Related articles.

Data ethics: What it means and what it takes

The state of AI in 2021

Getting to know—and manage—your biggest AI risks