free scientific research papers

Mathematics

• Mathematics ( math new , recent , search ) includes: (see detailed description ): Algebraic Geometry ; Algebraic Topology ; Analysis of PDEs ; Category Theory ; Classical Analysis and ODEs ; Combinatorics ; Commutative Algebra ; Complex Variables ; Differential Geometry ; Dynamical Systems ; Functional Analysis ; General Mathematics ; General Topology ; Geometric Topology ; Group Theory ; History and Overview ; Information Theory ; K-Theory and Homology ; Logic ; Mathematical Physics ; Metric Geometry ; Number Theory ; Numerical Analysis ; Operator Algebras ; Optimization and Control ; Probability ; Quantum Algebra ; Representation Theory ; Rings and Algebras ; Spectral Theory ; Statistics Theory ; Symplectic Geometry

Computer Science

• Computing Research Repository ( CoRR new , recent , search ) includes: (see detailed description ): Artificial Intelligence ; Computation and Language ; Computational Complexity ; Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science ; Computational Geometry ; Computer Science and Game Theory ; Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition ; Computers and Society ; Cryptography and Security ; Data Structures and Algorithms ; Databases ; Digital Libraries ; Discrete Mathematics ; Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing ; Emerging Technologies ; Formal Languages and Automata Theory ; General Literature ; Graphics ; Hardware Architecture ; Human-Computer Interaction ; Information Retrieval ; Information Theory ; Logic in Computer Science ; Machine Learning ; Mathematical Software ; Multiagent Systems ; Multimedia ; Networking and Internet Architecture ; Neural and Evolutionary Computing ; Numerical Analysis ; Operating Systems ; Other Computer Science ; Performance ; Programming Languages ; Robotics ; Social and Information Networks ; Software Engineering ; Sound ; Symbolic Computation ; Systems and Control

Quantitative Biology

• Quantitative Biology ( q-bio new , recent , search ) includes: (see detailed description ): Biomolecules ; Cell Behavior ; Genomics ; Molecular Networks ; Neurons and Cognition ; Other Quantitative Biology ; Populations and Evolution ; Quantitative Methods ; Subcellular Processes ; Tissues and Organs

Quantitative Finance

• Quantitative Finance ( q-fin new , recent , search ) includes: (see detailed description ): Computational Finance ; Economics ; General Finance ; Mathematical Finance ; Portfolio Management ; Pricing of Securities ; Risk Management ; Statistical Finance ; Trading and Market Microstructure
• Statistics ( stat new , recent , search ) includes: (see detailed description ): Applications ; Computation ; Machine Learning ; Methodology ; Other Statistics ; Statistics Theory

Electrical Engineering and Systems Science

• Electrical Engineering and Systems Science ( eess new , recent , search ) includes: (see detailed description ): Audio and Speech Processing ; Image and Video Processing ; Signal Processing ; Systems and Control
• Economics ( econ new , recent , search ) includes: (see detailed description ): Econometrics ; General Economics ; Theoretical Economics

About arXiv

• General information
• How to Submit to arXiv
• Membership & Giving

• Mission and history
• Platform features
• Library Advisory Group
• What’s in JSTOR
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Educators

Open and free content on JSTOR and Artstor

Our partnerships with libraries and publishers help us make content discoverable and freely accessible worldwide

Search open content on JSTOR

Explore our growing collection of Open Access journals

Early Journal Content , articles published prior to the last 95 years in the United States, or prior to the last 143 years if initially published internationally, are freely available to all

Even more content is available when you register to read – millions of articles from nearly 2,000 journals

Thousands of Open Access ebooks are available from top scholarly publishers, including Brill, Cornell University Press, University College of London, and University of California Press – at no cost to libraries or users.

This includes Open Access titles in Spanish:

• Collaboration with El Colegio de México
• Partnership with the Latin American Council of Social Sciences

Images and media

JSTOR hosts a growing number of public collections , including Artstor’s Open Access collections , from museums, archives, libraries, and scholars worldwide.

Research reports

A curated set of more than 34,000 research reports from more than 140 policy institutes selected with faculty, librarian, and expert input.

Resources for librarians

Open content title lists:

• Open Access Journals (xlsx)
• Open Access Books (xlsx)
• JSTOR Early Journal Content (xlsx)
• Research Reports (txt)

Open Access ebook resources for librarians

Library-supported collections

Shared Collections : We have a growing corpus of digital special collections published on JSTOR by our institutional partners.

Reveal Digital : A collaboration with libraries to fund, source, digitize and publish open access primary source collections from under-represented voices.

JSTOR Daily

JSTOR Daily is an online publication that contextualizes current events with scholarship. All of our stories contain links to publicly accessible research on JSTOR. We’re proud to publish articles based in fact and grounded by careful research and to provide free access to that research for all of our readers.

A free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature

• Thomas Devereaux
• Sigma Bonds
• Abyssal Plain

New & Improved API for Developers

Introducing semantic reader in beta.

Stay Connected With Semantic Scholar Sign Up What Is Semantic Scholar? Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at Ai2.

• Advanced search
• Peer review

Discover relevant research today

Advance your research field in the open

Reach new audiences and maximize your readership

ScienceOpen puts your research in the context of

Publications

For Publishers

ScienceOpen offers content hosting, context building and marketing services for publishers. See our tailored offerings

• For academic publishers  to promote journals and interdisciplinary collections
• For open access journals  to host journal content in an interactive environment
• For university library publishing  to develop new open access paradigms for their scholars
• For scholarly societies  to promote content with interactive features

For Institutions

ScienceOpen offers state-of-the-art technology and a range of solutions and services

• For faculties and research groups  to promote and share your work
• For research institutes  to build up your own branding for OA publications
• For funders  to develop new open access publishing paradigms
• For university libraries to create an independent OA publishing environment

For Researchers

Make an impact and build your research profile in the open with ScienceOpen

• Search and discover relevant research in over 97 million Open Access articles and article records
• Share your expertise and get credit by publicly reviewing any article
• Publish your poster or preprint and track usage and impact with article- and author-level metrics
• Create a topical Collection  to advance your research field

Create a Journal powered by ScienceOpen

Launching a new open access journal or an open access press? ScienceOpen now provides full end-to-end open access publishing solutions – embedded within our smart interactive discovery environment. A modular approach allows open access publishers to pick and choose among a range of services and design the platform that fits their goals and budget.

Continue reading “Create a Journal powered by ScienceOpen”   

What can a Researcher do on ScienceOpen?

ScienceOpen provides researchers with a wide range of tools to support their research – all for free. Here is a short checklist to make sure you are getting the most of the technological infrastructure and content that we have to offer. What can a researcher do on ScienceOpen? Continue reading “What can a Researcher do on ScienceOpen?”   

ScienceOpen on the Road

Upcoming events.

• 15 June – Scheduled Server Maintenance, 13:00 – 01:00 CEST

Past Events

• 20 – 22 February – ResearcherToReader Conference
• 09 November – Webinar for the Discoverability of African Research
• 26 – 27 October – Attending the Workshop on Open Citations and Open Scholarly Metadata
• 18 – 22 October – ScienceOpen at Frankfurt Book Fair.
• 27 – 29 September – Attending OA Tage, Berlin .
• 25 – 27 September – ScienceOpen at Open Science Fair
• 19 – 21 September – OASPA 2023 Annual Conference .
• 22 – 24 May – ScienceOpen sponsoring Pint of Science, Berlin.
• 16-17 May – ScienceOpen at 3rd AEUP Conference.
• 20 – 21 April – ScienceOpen attending Scaling Small: Community-Owned Futures for Open Access Books .

What is ScienceOpen?

• Smart search and discovery within an interactive interface
• Researcher promotion and ORCID integration
• Open evaluation with article reviews and Collections
• Business model based on providing services to publishers

Live Twitter stream

Some of our partners:.

“The only truly modern academic research engine”

Oa.mg is a search engine for academic papers, specialising in open access. we have over 250 million papers in our index..

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Trending Articles

• Spatial transcriptomic landscape unveils immunoglobin-associated senescence as a hallmark of aging. Ma S, et al. Cell. 2024. PMID: 39500323
• The relationship between peer support and sleep quality among Chinese college students: the mediating role of physical exercise atmosphere and the moderating effect of eHealth literacy. Li J. Front Psychol. 2024. PMID: 39144583 Free PMC article.
• Point-of-Care Testing for Cardiovascular Disease: A Narrative Review. Liu X, et al. Curr Med Chem. 2024. PMID: 39354764
• Experimental feasibility of xenon-enhanced dual-energy radiography for imaging of lung function. Basharat F, et al. Phys Med Biol. 2022. PMID: 36395522
• Staphylococcus aureus in the house fly: temporospatial fate of bacteria and expression of the antimicrobial peptide defensin. Nayduch D, et al. J Med Entomol. 2013. PMID: 23427667 Free PMC article.

Latest Literature

• Br J Dermatol (2)
• Br J Surg (1)
• Clin Infect Dis (1)
• Crit Care (1)
• Eur J Clin Nutr (1)
• J Agric Food Chem (2)
• J Infect Dis (1)
• Nature (33)
• Pediatrics (3)
• Sci Rep (1)

NCBI Literature Resources

MeSH PMC Bookshelf Disclaimer

The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Unauthorized use of these marks is strictly prohibited.

Explore millions of high-quality primary sources and images from around the world, including artworks, maps, photographs, and more.

Explore migration issues through a variety of media types

• Part of Street Art Graphics
• Part of The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Winter 2020)
• Part of Cato Institute (Aug. 3, 2021)
• Part of University of California Press
• Part of Open: Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture
• Part of Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Winter 2012)
• Part of R Street Institute (Nov. 1, 2020)
• Part of Leuven University Press
• Part of UN Secretary-General Papers: Ban Ki-moon (2007-2016)
• Part of Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 12, No. 4 (August 2018)
• Part of Leveraging Lives: Serbia and Illegal Tunisian Migration to Europe, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Mar. 1, 2023)
• Part of UCL Press

Harness the power of visual materials—explore more than 3 million images now on JSTOR.

Enhance your scholarly research with underground newspapers, magazines, and journals.

Explore collections in the arts, sciences, and literature from the world’s leading museums, archives, and scholars.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Download 55 million PDFs for free

Explore our top research interests.

Engineering

Anthropology

• Earth Sciences

• Computer Science

• Mathematics

• Health Sciences

Join 276 million academics and researchers

Track your impact.

Share your work with other academics, grow your audience and track your impact on your field with our robust analytics

Discover new research

Get access to millions of research papers and stay informed with the important topics around the world

Publish your work

Publish your research with fast and rigorous service through Academia.edu Journals. Get instant worldwide dissemination of your work

Unlock the most powerful tools with Academia Premium

Work faster and smarter with advanced research discovery tools

Search the full text and citations of our millions of papers. Download groups of related papers to jumpstart your research. Save time with search alerts.

• Advanced Search
• PDF Packages of 37 papers
• Search Alerts

Share your work, track your impact, and grow your audience

Get notified when other academics mention you or cite your papers. Track your impact with in-depth analytics and network with members of your field.

• Mentions and Citations Tracking
• Advanced Analytics
• Publishing Tools

Real stories from real people

Used by academics at over 15,000 universities

Get started and find the best quality research

• Academia.edu Journals
•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Cognitive Science
• Academia ©2024

🇺🇦    make metadata, not war

A comprehensive bibliographic database of the world’s scholarly literature

The world’s largest collection of open access research papers, machine access to our vast unique full text corpus, core features, indexing the world’s repositories.

We serve the global network of repositories and journals

Comprehensive data coverage

We provide both metadata and full text access to our comprehensive collection through our APIs and Datasets

Powerful services

We create powerful services for researchers, universities, and industry

Cutting-edge solutions

We research and develop innovative data-driven and AI solutions

Committed to the POSI

Cost-free PIDs for your repository

OAI identifiers are unique identifiers minted cost-free by repositories. Ensure that your repository is correctly configured, enabling the CORE OAI Resolver to redirect your identifiers to your repository landing pages.

OAI IDs provide a cost-free option for assigning Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) to your repository records. Learn more.

Who we serve?

Enabling others to create new tools and innovate using a global comprehensive collection of research papers.

“ Our partnership with CORE will provide Turnitin with vast amounts of metadata and full texts that we can ... ” Show more

Gareth Malcolm, Content Partner Manager at Turnitin

Academic institutions.

Making research more discoverable, improving metadata quality, helping to meet and monitor open access compliance.

“ CORE’s role in providing a unified search of repository content is a great tool for the researcher and ex... ” Show more

Nicola Dowson, Library Services Manager at Open University

Researchers & general public.

Tools to find, discover and explore the wealth of open access research. Free for everyone, forever.

“ With millions of research papers available across thousands of different systems, CORE provides an invalu... ” Show more

Jon Tennant, Rogue Paleontologist and Founder of the Open Science MOOC

Helping funders to analyse, audit and monitor open research and accelerate towards open science.

“ Aggregation plays an increasingly essential role in maximising the long-term benefits of open access, hel... ” Show more

Ben Johnson, Research Policy Adviser at Research England

Our services, access to raw data.

Create new and innovative solutions.

Content discovery

Find relevant research and make your research more visible.

Managing content

Manage how your research content is exposed to the world.

Companies using CORE

Gareth Malcolm

Content Partner Manager at Turnitin

Our partnership with CORE will provide Turnitin with vast amounts of metadata and full texts that we can utilise in our plagiarism detection software.

Academic institution using CORE

Kathleen Shearer

Executive Director of the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR)

CORE has significantly assisted the academic institutions participating in our global network with their key mission, which is their scientific content exposure. In addition, CORE has helped our content administrators to showcase the real benefits of repositories via its added value services.

Partner projects

Ben Johnson

Research Policy Adviser

Aggregation plays an increasingly essential role in maximising the long-term benefits of open access, helping to turn the promise of a 'research commons' into a reality. The aggregation services that CORE provides therefore make a very valuable contribution to the evolving open access environment in the UK.

Get Scholarly Articles for Free

Harvard Library has paid for your access to hundreds of websites — from the New York Review of Books to the Oxford English Dictionary to the journal Nature: Chemical Biology . You just need to connect via HarvardKey.

The library offers many tools to quickly check if you have free online access. Each tool has features that you may find helpful at different times. Most people mix and match for different purposes. Find the one that's right for you.

Google Scholar

Get access directly from Google Scholar results.

• Adds the "Try Harvard Library" link to your Google Scholar results
• Selects the best access point for you

Browser Extensions

Adding a browser extension is a way to get articles Harvard Library pays for - no matter what website you're using.

Lean Library

Install the Lean Library plugin to automate access.

• Checks every website that you visit and reloads via Harvard Key automatically
• Notifies you if an ebook or online article is available via Harvard
• No action required: Lean Library is always working in the background
• May sign you out of personally subscribed accounts

Check Harvard Library Bookmarklet

Get one-click access with the Check Harvard Library Bookmark.

• Works on most browsers, including on your phone
• Reloads the page you're on via Harvard Key
• You're in control: use the bookmark when you want to check for access

Check Harvard Library Bookmark

Stay current with your favorite academic journals, preview the table of contents, and never miss a new article. Harvard Library offers free accounts.

Library Access via VPN

Harvard vpn.

Don't want to keep logging in using HarvardKey? Searching for articles while abroad? You can get the same access as a campus computer by installing and configuring a Harvard VPN.

• Generally removes the need to log in to Harvard Key
• Some sites won't recognize VPN, some sites only work on VPN
• Can be helpful for access outside of the United States

Instructions on how to install the VPN client (via HUIT)

Ask a Librarian

Looking for another type of access or free articles? Find answers to commonly asked questions and ask your own. Library staff members are also available via chat during posted hours.

Reference management. Clean and simple.

The top list of academic search engines

1. Google Scholar

4. science.gov, 5. semantic scholar, 6. baidu scholar, get the most out of academic search engines, frequently asked questions about academic search engines, related articles.

Academic search engines have become the number one resource to turn to in order to find research papers and other scholarly sources. While classic academic databases like Web of Science and Scopus are locked behind paywalls, Google Scholar and others can be accessed free of charge. In order to help you get your research done fast, we have compiled the top list of free academic search engines.

Google Scholar is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only lets you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free but also often provides links to full-text PDF files.

• Coverage: approx. 200 million articles
• Abstracts: only a snippet of the abstract is available
• Related articles: ✔
• References: ✔
• Cited by: ✔
• Links to full text: ✔
• Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, RIS, BibTeX

BASE is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany. That is also where its name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

• Coverage: approx. 136 million articles (contains duplicates)
• Abstracts: ✔
• Related articles: ✘
• References: ✘
• Cited by: ✘
• Export formats: RIS, BibTeX

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open-access research papers. For each search result, a link to the full-text PDF or full-text web page is provided.

• Coverage: approx. 136 million articles
• Links to full text: ✔ (all articles in CORE are open access)
• Export formats: BibTeX

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need anymore to query all those resources separately!

• Coverage: approx. 200 million articles and reports
• Links to full text: ✔ (available for some databases)
• Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX (available for some databases)

Semantic Scholar is the new kid on the block. Its mission is to provide more relevant and impactful search results using AI-powered algorithms that find hidden connections and links between research topics.

• Coverage: approx. 40 million articles
• Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX

Although Baidu Scholar's interface is in Chinese, its index contains research papers in English as well as Chinese.

• Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 100 million articles
• Abstracts: only snippets of the abstract are available
• Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX

RefSeek searches more than one billion documents from academic and organizational websites. Its clean interface makes it especially easy to use for students and new researchers.

• Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 1 billion documents
• Abstracts: only snippets of the article are available
• Export formats: not available

Consider using a reference manager like Paperpile to save, organize, and cite your references. Paperpile integrates with Google Scholar and many popular databases, so you can save references and PDFs directly to your library using the Paperpile buttons:

Google Scholar is an academic search engine, and it is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only let's you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free, but also often provides links to full text PDF file.

Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature developed at the Allen Institute for AI. Sematic Scholar was publicly released in 2015 and uses advances in natural language processing to provide summaries for scholarly papers.

BASE , as its name suggest is an academic search engine. It is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany and that's where it name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open access research papers. For each search result a link to the full text PDF or full text web page is provided.

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need any more to query all those resources separately!

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

10 Free Research and Journal Databases

• 3-minute read
• 6th April 2019

Finding good research can be tough, especially when so much of it is locked behind paywalls . But there are free resources out there if you know where to look. So to help out, we’ve compiled a list of ten free academic search engines and databases that you should check out.

1. Google Scholar

Even if you’ve not used Google Scholar before, you’ll know Google. And, thus, you can probably guess that Google Scholar is a search engine dedicated to academic work. Not everything listed on Google Scholar will be freely available in full. But it is a good place to start if you’re looking for a specific paper, and many papers can be downloaded for free.

CORE is an open research aggregator. This means it works as a search engine for open access research published by organizations from around the world, all of which is available for free. It is also the world’s largest open access aggregator , so it is a very useful resource for researchers!

3. Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE)

Another dedicated academic search engine, BASE offers access to more than 140 million documents from more than 6,000 sources. Around 60% of these documents are open access, and you can filter results to see only research that is available for free online.

4. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a database that lists around 12,000 open access journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social science, and the humanities.

PubMed is a search engine maintained by the NCBI, part of the United States National Library of Medicine. It provides access to more than 29 million citations of biomedical research from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. The NCBI runs a similar search engine for research in the chemical sciences called PubChem , too, which is also free to use.

Find this useful?

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

6. E-Theses Online Service (EThOS)

Run by the British Library, EThOS is a database of over 500,000 doctoral theses. More than half of these are available for free, either directly via EThOS or via a link to a university website.

7. Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

SSRN is a database for research from the social sciences and humanities, including 846,589 research papers from 426,107 researchers across 30 disciplines. Most of these are available for free, although you may need to sign up as a member (also free) to access some services.

8. WorldWideScience

WorldWideScience is a global academic search engine, providing access to national and international scientific databases from across the globe. One interesting feature is that it offers automatic translation, so users can have search results translated into their preferred language.

9. Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is an “intelligent” academic search engine. It uses machine learning to prioritize the most important research, which can make it easier to find relevant literature. Or, in Semantic Scholar’s own words, it uses influential citations, images, and key phrases to “cut through the clutter.”

10. Public Library of Science (PLOS)

PLOS is an open-access research organization that publishes several journals. But as well as publishing its own research, PLOS is a dedicated advocate for open-access learning. So if you appreciate the search engines and databases we’ve listed here, check out the rest of the PLOS site to find out more about their campaign to enable access to knowledge.

Share this article:

Post A New Comment

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

5-minute read

Free Email Newsletter Template

Promoting a brand means sharing valuable insights to connect more deeply with your audience, and...

6-minute read

How to Write a Nonprofit Grant Proposal

If you’re seeking funding to support your charitable endeavors as a nonprofit organization, you’ll need...

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...

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

Librarians/Admins

• EBSCOhost Collection Manager
• EBSCO Experience Manager
• EBSCO Connect
• Start your research
• EBSCO Mobile App

Clinical Decisions Users

• DynaMed Decisions
• Dynamic Health
• Waiting Rooms
• NoveList Blog
• All Resources

Free Databases

EBSCO provides free research databases covering a variety of subjects for students, researchers and librarians.

Exploring Race in Society

This free research database offers essential content covering important issues related to race in society today. Essays, articles, reports and other reliable sources provide an in-depth look at the history of race and provide critical context for learning more about topics associated with race, ethnicity, diversity and inclusiveness.

EBSCO Open Dissertations

EBSCO Open Dissertations is a collaboration between EBSCO and BiblioLabs to increase traffic and discoverability of ETD research. You can join the movement and add your theses and dissertations to the database, making them freely available to researchers everywhere.

GreenFILE is a free research database covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. 

Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts

Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA) is a free research database for library and information science studies. LISTA provides indexing and abstracting for hundreds of key journals, books, research reports. It is EBSCO's intention to provide access to this resource on a continual basis.

Teacher Reference Center

A complimentary research database for teachers,  Teacher Reference Center  (TRC) provides indexing and abstracts for more than 230 peer-reviewed journals.

European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750

European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750 is a free archive of indexed publications related to the Americas and written in Europe before 1750. It includes thousands of valuable primary source records covering the history of European exploration as well as portrayals of Native American peoples.

Recommended Reading

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock Locked padlock icon ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

• Publications
• Account settings
• Advanced Search
• Journal List

The Extraordinary Importance of Sleep

The Detrimental Effects of Inadequate Sleep on Health and Public Safety Drive an Explosion of Sleep Research

Susan L Worley

• Copyright and License information

New sleep deprivation studies confirm the relationship between inadequate sleep and a wide range of disorders, such as hypertension, obesity and type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, impaired immune functioning, and more.

In the inaugural issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (2005), a feature article 1 traced early milestones in the developing field of sleep medicine, which slowly emerged from the older field of sleep research during the 1970s and 1980s. Sleep medicine, the article noted, was closely linked with and made possible by the discovery of electrical activity in the brain. The examination of electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns that occur during sleep led to the classification of stages of sleep, which in turn created an important foundation for probing human sleep, discerning abnormalities, and discovering significant relationships between sleep and health. By 2005, scientists and clinicians had not only identified and clearly defined a large number of sleep disorders but had discovered that many of them were highly prevalent.

The pace of research and discovery has only accelerated since 2005, and the number of peer-reviewed sleep journals has more than tripled. Today, researchers are more deeply probing the cellular and subcellular effects of disrupted sleep, as well as the effects of sleep deprivation on metabolism, hormone regulation, and gene expression. Newer studies are strengthening known and suspected relationships between inadequate sleep and a wide range of disorders, including hypertension, 2 obesity and type-2 diabetes, 3 impaired immune functioning, 4 cardiovascular disease and arrhythmias, 5 , 6 mood disorders, 7 neurodegeneration and dementia, 8 , 9 and even loneliness. 10

Research findings continue to underscore early concerns about public safety that were first raised when major industrial disasters such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill were linked to inadequate sleep. 11 Related research sponsored by major organizations, including the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has helped to inspire national initiatives aimed at improving public safety and health. However, despite the astounding acceleration in research during the past few decades, inadequate sleep due to sleep disorders, work schedules, and chaotic lifestyles continues to threaten both health and safety.

“Pushing against the wave of accelerated growth in the field has been a shoreline of indifference,” says David F. Dinges, PhD, Professor and Chief of the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. “Modern industrial pressures to use time 24 hours a day have led to shiftwork and a world in which virtually everything—law Susan L. Worley is a freelance medical writer who resides in Pennsylvania. enforcement, airports and all kinds of transportation, industrial operations, and hospitals—operates 24/7. People have come to value time so much that sleep is often regarded as an annoying interference, a wasteful state that you enter into when you do not have enough willpower to work harder and longer.”

David F. Dinges, PhD

It has become increasingly clear, however, that no matter how hectic our lives may be, we can no longer afford to ignore what research is telling us about the importance of sleep for our safety and mental and physical well-being.

Impact on Attention, Cognition, and Mood

While scientists are still working to identify and clarify all of the functions of sleep, 12 decades of studies—many of which have used the method of disrupting sleep and examining the consequences—have confirmed that sleep is necessary for our healthy functioning and even survival.

“We know for sure that sleep serves multiple functions,” says Dr. Dinges. “Nature tends to be very parsimonious in that it often uses a single system or biology in multiple ways to optimize the functioning of an organism. We know, for example, that sleep is critical for waking cognition—that is, for the ability to think clearly, to be vigilant and alert, and sustain attention. We also know that memories are consolidated during sleep, and that sleep serves a key role in emotional regulation.”

Studies conducted by Dr. Dinges and other scientists have shown that cognitive performance and vigilant attention begin to decline fairly quickly after more than 16 hours of continuous wakefulness, and that sleep deficits from partial sleep deprivation can accumulate over time, resulting in a steady deterioration in alertness. The widely used psychomotor vigilance test (PVT), a simple neurocognitive test developed by Dr. Dinges and colleagues that assesses an individual’s ability to sustain attention and respond to signals in a timely manner, has proven to be an exceptionally sensitive tool for capturing dose–response effects of sleep loss on neurobehavioral functioning. 13 The PVT also reliably detects sleep deficits caused by disrupted or fragmented sleep, and/or poorly timed sleep, which is important because a growing body of evidence suggests that the continuity and timing (or circadian alignment) of sleep may be as important as the total amount of time spent sleeping.

“We know that sleep is much more restorative of waking functions and health when it is consolidated and not fragmented,” explains Dr. Dinges. “That is, when sleep goes through the appropriate physiological sequences of non-REM (rapid eye movement) and REM states at night, and occurs when human sleep is temporally programmed by our circadian clock to occur. Such consolidated sleep is typically of a longer duration and better sleep quality than sleep taken at other times of the day, such as that which occurs with nightshift work, jet lag, and other conditions of circadian misalignment.”

Dr. Dinges and his colleagues have found that people whose daily sleep duration is inadequate, or repeatedly disrupted (e.g., by obstructive sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, pain or stress, or shiftwork or jet lag), often are not aware of their accumulating sleep deficits or the toll that these deficits can take on their waking cognitive functions, including their performance, working memory, cognitive speed, and accuracy. Inadequate sleep also can take a toll on psychological well-being, significantly affecting our emotional and psychosocial interpretation of events and exacerbating our stress levels. Studies have indicated that changes in mood may be due in part to the effects of sleep deprivation on the processing of emotional memory—in other words, our tendency to select and remember negative memories after inadequate sleep. 14

In one study conducted by Dr. Dinges and colleagues, participants’ mood was observed after they were confronted with “high” and “low” performance demands, following varying degrees of sleep deprivation. 15

“To our surprise, those who were sleep-deprived responded to low stressors in much the same way that people without any sleep deprivation tended to respond to high stressors,” said Dr. Dinges. “In other words, we tend to become much more sensitive emotionally and socially when we are sleep-deprived. That is what I like to call the ‘who was at my desk or who touched my coffee cup?’ phenomenon. I think we all have experienced having an extreme reaction or a very negative emotional response to a mild stressor when we have not had enough sleep.”

Aiming for the Sweet Spot

How much sleep is enough? After decades of investigation, it appears that scientists have gathered enough evidence to begin to answer that question. 16

“When duration of sleep drops below seven hours, and especially when it starts to move toward six and half hours or less, a number of different disorders begin to increase in prevalence,” says Dr. Dinges. “Most experts would agree that there is a kind of sweet spot that most people should aim for, and for the average healthy adult that zone is ideally somewhere between 7 and 7 and a half hours. That is what the consensus evaluations of more than a thousand scientific articles have yielded—the consensus of evaluations conducted by the AASM (American Academy of Sleep Medicine) and Sleep Research Society jointly.”

Numerous large U.S. surveys—beginning with a 1982 survey by the American Cancer Society—have been used to estimate the number of hours that most people spend sleeping. Many surveys have identified a worrisome prevalence of “short” sleepers (people who sleep 6 hours or less) among respondents, and a general trend toward decreasing sleep duration between 1975 and 2006. More recently, however, an analysis of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), spearheaded by Mathias Basner, MD, PhD, at the University of Pennsylvania 17 , has suggested that there may be cause for optimism.

“The analysis shows that there is a slight but steady increase in sleep time that stretches back to about 2003 or 2004,” says Dr. Dinges. “We think this increase, which is modest—at most a minute or two more per year—is due in part to the development of the field of sleep medicine, and public and scientific reports in the media about sleep loss contributing to accidents and catastrophes, and so forth. Ever so slowly, the message that it is important not to get sleep deprived, and to get help if you have a sleep disorder, has begun to penetrate to the public.”

The analysis notes that one sign of greater interest in sleep on the part of the public has been a significant increase in Google searches containing the word “sleep” since 2004. Data from the ATUS also suggest that over time, people have been willing to trade some of their daily activities in exchange for more sleep. It is important to note, says Dr. Dinges, that self-reports of time spent sleeping are not always accurate—they can be off by a half an hour or more, usually with people tending to estimate that they slept more than they did. He also notes that there is still a fairly large population sleeping 6 hours or less.

“Although there are signs that sleep time is increasing, it is not happening at nearly the dramatic rate that most experts would like to see,” says Dr. Dinges. “This is especially true for vulnerable populations. There is concern about school start times and bus times affecting the sleep of children and adolescents, and about extracurricular activities at the end of the school day sometimes leading to a delay in bed times for teenagers. All of this is an ongoing, evolving picture, with more research results coming out all the time, and with consequent changes in recommendations, to make sure that at least our most vulnerable populations are getting adequate sleep.”

Interindividual Differences in Vulnerability to Sleep Loss

While it is well established that the effects of sleep loss accumulate over time, with repeated exposure to inadequate, fragmented, or disrupted sleep, the degree to which individuals demonstrate adverse effects of inadequate sleep can vary considerably. 18

“We have learned that there are astonishingly mysterious phenotypes, or trait-like differences, in how vulnerable people are to sleep loss,” says Dr. Dinges. “This is still a relatively new area of research, and it has only been in the past few years that scientists have begun to replicate early findings regarding these phenotypic differences in vulnerability to the negative neurobehavioral effects of sleep loss. The interindividual differences that have been observed so far raise some extremely provocative scientific questions. We may find that there is something in waking biology that can substitute for, or somehow reduce, the impact of sleep loss on waking functioning, but thus far there is no evidence as to what that might be.”

Differences among individuals exist with regard to both the effects of sleep loss and the ability to recover from the effects of sleep loss. Differences in performance also have been shown to be task-dependent, suggesting that people who are vulnerable to the effects of sleep loss in one or more cognitive or neurobehavioral domains may be resistant to the effects of sleep loss in others. To better understand interindividual variability, scientists are investigating possible genetic mechanisms that may underlie complex interactions between circadian and sleep homeostatic systems—the systems that affect our drive for sleep as well as our alertness and performance during waking hours. A current goal is to discover biomarkers that may help predict individual performance after varying degrees of sleep loss. 19 And one hope is that biomarkers—ideally in the form of a simple “roadside” test such as a breathalyzer—may eventually be used to detect sleep loss-related impairment in drivers or in individuals responsible for operating sophisticated equipment or machinery. To date, no viable candidates have been found.

Investigators also are shedding light on the role that age may play in resilience to sleep loss. The results of one recent study indicate that younger adults are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of chronic sleep loss and recurring circadian disruption than older adults. 20 Although the neurobiological basis for these age-related differences is not yet understood, such findings may help to inform new approaches to the prevention of drowsy driving and related motor-vehicle accidents among young drivers.

Dr. Dinges emphasizes that findings regarding interindividual differences in response to sleep loss and in recovery from sleep loss should not diminish the message that adequate sleep is critical for everyone.

“Research has shown us that sleep is not an optional activity,” says Dr. Dinges. “There is no question that sleep is fundamentally conserved across species and across lifespans, and that any effort to eliminate it has been unsuccessful. We must plan our lives in the time domain with a serious consideration for sleep—planning when to sleep, ensuring that we get adequate sleep, and making sure that our sleep is not disturbed by disorders or diseases, whether or not they are sleep-related.”

Addressing Sleep Disorders

As connections between sleep disruption and both disease and mortality have become more firmly established, accurate and efficient diagnosis and management of sleep disorders (see Table 1 ) have become increasingly critical. Recent directions in the field of sleep medicine include a move toward patient-centered care, greater collaboration between specialists and primary care physicians, and the incorporation of new tools—including home-based diagnostic tests and novel electronic questionnaires—in the effort to create a comprehensive yet more personalized approach to assessment and treatment.

ICSD-3 Major Diagnostic Sections *

Table courtesy of Michael J. Sateia, MD

A chief goal is to improve the diagnosis of sleep disorders. Although approximately 70 million people in the U.S. have at least one sleep disorder, experts estimate that up to 80% of sleep disorders may go undetected or undiagnosed. One major challenge that clinicians face during the initial assessment of people with sleep disorders is the process of identifying and sorting out comorbidities. Untangling the causes and effects in bidirectional comorbidities can be particularly difficult. For example, insomnia—by far the most common sleep disorder—often is complicated by the presence of another sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome.

“Some experts have even suggested that all cases of insomnia coexist with, or are caused by, another sleep disorder, most commonly sleep apnea,” says Clete A. Kushida, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, and Division Chief and Medical Director of Stanford Sleep Medicine. “I’m not sure I would go quite that far, but certainly bidirectional comorbidities among individuals who experience sleep disorders are common. For example, pain syndromes—including back pain and limb pain, especially among older patients—are common comorbidities in patients with insomnia. Mood disorders also frequently occur in patients who experience insomnia.”

Comorbidities can complicate treatment and often require sleep specialists to collaborate with not only primary care physicians but also specialists in other therapeutic areas.

“If, for example, a person with insomnia also has been diagnosed with depression by a psychiatrist,” says Dr. Kushida, “our goal is to work hand in hand with the psychiatrist to find the right medication. There are both sedating and alerting antidepressants, and a patient may need to try one medication for a couple of weeks to months, slowly increasing the dose to a therapeutic level, until the effect on both the depression and the patient’s sleep can be determined. For some individuals, an alerting antidepressant can cause poor sleep, which in turn can exacerbate the depression. The process of achieving the right dose of the right medication can be complex, and benefits from a collaboration between specialists.”

Undetected obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with chronic pain, or other serious illnesses, can result in potentially dangerous comorbidities. Opioids, for example, are known to have adverse effects on respiration, and can lead to central sleep apnea (CSA)—shallow and irregular or interrupted breathing and sustained hypoventilation—a potentially lethal condition that can intensify the consequences of OSA. These risks underscore the need to improve methods for identifying and properly diagnosing the estimated 23.5 million U.S. adults with OSA. Public education and advocacy efforts are already helping to improve detection—in part by helping to address misconceptions about OSA.

“One of the biggest misconceptions is that only people who are significantly overweight experience sleep apnea,” says Dr. Kushida. “In fact, only up to 67% of people who have OSA are overweight, the rest are of normal weight. OSA also can be caused by craniofacial dysmorphism, or a defect of the airway that occurs during development. A narrow airway caused by deficient growth of the craniofacial skeleton, particularly the jaws, can become narrower and more prone to collapse with age, leading to sleep apnea.”

Treating Insomnia: The Value of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Insomnia, the most prevalent sleep disorder, affects approximately one third of all adults and is the most common condition that family and primary-care physicians encounter. According to the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD-3), chronic insomnia is the inability to attain sufficient sleep (despite adequate opportunity) for at least three nights per week for three months or longer, with negative daytime consequences. For most people, the disorder is transient, but for approximately 10% to 15% of those who experience insomnia (around 30 million people) it becomes chronic. Although pharmacologic treatments for insomnia ( Table 2 ) can be effective, most experts now recommend against the long-term use of pharmacotherapy.

Selected Pharmaceutical Treatments for Insomnia 21 , 27

“If a person has been diagnosed with chronic insomnia, the only treatment that has been shown to have long-term benefit is cognitive behavioral therapy, “says Dr. Kushida. “Medications really should be considered short-term treatments, because patients tend to develop dependence on, or tolerance to, hypnotic drugs. In our clinic, we commonly see that, over time, medications stop having an effect, and that means that patients may try higher doses of a medication, or keep switching to different medications. So, medications are a temporary solution—they just put a Band-Aid on the problem of insomnia, whereas cognitive behavioral therapy targets one of the pathways toward success.”

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which involves techniques that work in part by reducing cognitive and somatic arousal, is estimated to be effective in approximately 70% to 80% of people who experience chronic insomnia. Dr. Kushida notes that while drugs can sometimes be useful in the treatment of acute insomnia, they become problematic after acute insomnia transitions to chronic insomnia.

“A person might be an OK sleeper for several years, and then suddenly experience a traumatic event, such as the loss of a job, a divorce, or the death of a loved one, resulting in very poor sleep,” says Dr. Kushida. “Down the road, that person might obtain a better job, overcome grief, or find a new relationship, but continue to experience insomnia. We think in some cases the transition from acute insomnia to chronic insomnia occurs because the behavioral event triggers something in the person’s physiology that may lead to long-term changes. Once they are in a chronic insomnia phase, we tell patients that CBT is the only truly effective intervention.”

If a patient is already taking hypnotics, Dr. Kushida says that he will gradually wean the patient off medications while introducing CBT. He notes that often it is necessary for sleep specialists to manage the expectations of chronic sufferers.

Clete A. Kushida, MD, PhD

“We sometimes have to let patients with chronic insomnia know that we may never get them back to where they were when they had optimal sleep,” Dr. Kushida explains. “The behavioral methods we use work well, and usually we can get patients to the point where the insomnia is having less of an impact on their quality of life. Our inability to completely restore the patient’s ability to sleep well may partly be explained by as yet unidentified changes in his or her neurophysiology or neurochemistry. Some patients with chronic insomnia can begin to sleep normally again, but for the vast majority, we aim to make insomnia less of a burden on a patient’s daily life.”

Improving Clinical Research

In the field of sleep medicine, as in many other therapeutic areas, future directions in clinical trial research will place an emphasis on patient engagement and patient-centered outcomes.

“Perhaps the most important aim these days when developing and implementing any type of large-scale clinical research study is to incorporate the patient’s perspective,” says Dr. Kushida, who is currently analyzing the results of a comparative effectiveness sleep study sponsored by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). 22 The study, designed and conducted by a team at Stanford, introduced a new model of patient-centered, coordinated care and tested it against conventional outpatient treatment for sleep disorders.

“The patient’s perspective is so invaluable in guiding the success of a study that ideally it should be incorporated right at the inception of a research question or idea,” says Dr. Kushida. “When you are designing an especially complicated trial, for example, it is easy to incorporate a lot of tests and measures without being aware of the burden these can place on the participants. It’s critical to learn from patients whether they are overwhelmed by the number of tests, or whether travel time or the amount of time they need to take off from work may be impractical.”

Other efforts to improve clinical research include those focused on correcting for and/or eliminating several confounding variables that tend to plague sleep research. The surprising power of the placebo effect, 23 the related disconnect between objective and subjective evaluations of sleep loss and recovery from sleep loss, variable adherence to treatments, and, more recently, deceptive practices among clinical trial participants, are a few examples.

The placebo effect, which refers to any outcome that may be attributable to the expectations of clinical trial participants rather than to the drug or device being tested, can be especially problematic in experimental protocols that involve self-reports of sleep quality.

“Clinical trials involving patients with disorders such as insomnia or RLS that rely solely on subjective measures, or ratings of severity based on patient report, are particularly vulnerable to the placebo effect,” says Dr. Kushida. “It has been demonstrated that when these patients believe that they are receiving the study drug or device the likelihood of their experiencing a positive effect can increase significantly. There have been efforts to develop or introduce new objective endpoints in these studies, which may help with this problem.”

Achieving the right balance of subjective and objective measures of sleep is an important goal in both research and clinical practice. The current gold standard for objective assessment of sleep is polysomnography (PSG), which includes electrophysiological recordings of brain activity (EEG), muscle activity (EMG), and eye movements (EOG). A valuable, non-invasive method for determining sleep continuity and sleep architecture, PSG has been an indispensable objective endpoint in clinical trials, but it is expensive and not always practical. Novel approaches to objective measurement, including actigraphy, which may be used to help minimize recall bias and complement subjective measures of sleep (e.g., sleep logs or diaries), still have drawbacks. 24

“The problem with wearable devices right now,” says Dr. Kushida, “is that they tend to overestimate sleep, sometimes by as much as an hour. They also are not yet capable of accurately detecting different stages of sleep, such as non-REM and REM sleep. Because of our proximity to Silicon Valley, our laboratory tests a lot of these new devices, and often by the time we have finished testing one prototype, new ones have emerged. The product cycles are rapid, and the companies keep incorporating newer and newer technology. So, down the road, within about five to ten years, I think these devices will likely estimate sleep and detect sleep stages with precision.”

Also, objective tools are needed for addressing problems with adherence to treatment. One important current aim is to detect and correct for non-obvious factors that result in failure to adhere to treatment, whether unintended or deliberate, to ensure that trial outcomes accurately reflect the efficacy of a drug, medical device, or behavioral intervention. 25 A related problem is deliberate deception by trial participants. As part of a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)-supported study focused on detecting and correcting for adherence problems, Dr. Kushida and colleagues began to explore the prevalence of deceptive practices among clinical trial participants. 26

“We found that deception among clinical trial participants is pretty common and that there is quite a range of deceptive practices, “says Dr. Kushida. “They include underreported drug holidays, fabrication or withholding of medical histories, pill dumping, exaggerated symptoms, and falsification of current health status. It’s important that we find a way to address these deceptive practices because both the integrity of research data and the safety of participants are at risk.”

Dr. Kushida adds that newer tools, such as electronic monitoring of pill dispensing and statistical predictive adherence models, may uncover and remedy pressing problems related to adherence and deceptive practices. “It already takes about 12 years for a new drug to be approved, and about three to five years for a new device to be approved. When deceptive practices are discovered too late, it can lead to the invalidation of research findings and further delays in approving much-needed treatments.”

Enhancing clinical research in the field will require a cooperative, international effort focused on advancing knowledge about sleep, circadian rhythms, and sleep disorders worldwide. During Dr. Kushida’s tenure as inaugural president of the World Sleep Society (WSS), he led an initiative to create international sleep fellowships to prepare physicians and scientists from various countries for future leadership roles in basic and/or clinical sleep research. He also oversaw the development of an International Sleep Research Network, designed to help sleep scientists and clinicians find collaborators with similar clinical/research interests. As the WSS continues to offer new services and expand its programs, it will be with an awareness of the needs of disadvantaged populations and the importance of access to appropriate treatment.

“One initiative of the WSS involves reviewing current published guidelines in various countries, to determine whether they meet international standards,” says Dr. Kushida. “Many guidelines are region-specific and list only medications approved in specific countries or regions. As we review the guidelines, we endorse them with caveats; we may note that particular treatments for insomnia are recommended, and when these are not available we recommend acceptable substitutes. The goal is to ensure that specialists can use practice guidelines in whichever country they practice sleep medicine, and that patients are receiving the best possible treatment available.”

• 1. Shepard JW, Buysse DJ, Chesson AL, et al. History of the development of sleep medicine in the United States. J Clin Sleep Med. 2005;1(1):61–82. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 2. Grandner M, Mullington JM, Hashmi SD, et al. Sleep duration and hypertension: Analysis of > 700,000 adults by age and sex. J Clin Sleep Med. 2018;14(6):1031–1039. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.7176. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 3. Reutrakul S, Van Cauter E. Sleep influences on obesity, insulin resistance, and risk of type 2 diabetes [published online March 3, 2018] Metabolism. 2018;84:56–86. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2018.02.010. [ DOI ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 4. Watson NF, Buchwald D, Delrow JJ, et al. Transcriptional signatures of sleep duration discordance in monozygotic twins. Sleep. 2017;40(1) doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsw019. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 5. Gottlieb DJ, Somers VK, Punjabi NM, Winkelman JW. Restless legs syndrome and cardiovascular disease: a research roadmap [published online October 27, 2016] Sleep Med. 2017;31:10–17. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2016.08.008. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 6. May AM, Van Wagoner DR, Mehra R. OSA and cardiac arrhythmogenesis: mechanistic insights [published online September 29, 2016] Chest. 2017;151(1):225–241. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2016.09.014. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 7. Lyall LM, Wyse CA, Graham N, et al. Association of disrupted circadian rhythmicity with mood disorders, subjective wellbeing, and cognitive function: a cross-sectional study of 91 105 participants from the UK Biobank [published online May 15, 2018] Lancet Psychiatry. 2018;5(6):507–514. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(18)30139-1. [ DOI ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 8. Pillai JA, Leverenz JB. Sleep and neurodegeneration: a critical appraisal [published online January 10, 2017] Chest. 2017;151(6):1375–1386. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2017.01.002. [ DOI ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 9. Sprecher KE, Koscik RL, Carlsson CM, et al. Poor sleep is associated with CSF biomarkers of amyloid pathology in cognitively normal adults [published online July 5, 2017] Neurology. 2017;89(5):445–453. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000004171. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 10. Ben Simon E, Walker MP. Sleep loss causes social withdrawal and loneliness. Nature Communications. 2018;9:3146. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05377-0. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05377-0 . [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 11. Dinges DF. An overview of sleepiness and accidents. J Sleep Res. 1995;4(S2):4–14. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2869.1995.tb00220.x. [ DOI ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 12. Cirelli C, Tononi G. The sleeping brain [published online May 1, 2017] Cerebrum. 2017. pp. cer-07–17. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5501041/ [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ]
• 13. Basner M, Dinges DF. Maximizing sensitivity of the psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) to sleep loss. Sleep. 2011;34(5):581–591. doi: 10.1093/sleep/34.5.581. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3079937/ . [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 14. Stickgold R, Walker MP. Sleep-dependent memory triage: evolving generalization through selective processing [published online January 28, 2013] Nat Neurosci. 2013;16(2):139–145. doi: 10.1038/nn.3303. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 15. Minkel JD, Banks S, Htaik O, et al. Sleep deprivation and stressors: evidence for elevated negative affect in response to mild stressors when sleep deprived [published online February 6, 2012] Emotion. 12(5):1015–1020. doi: 10.1037/a0026871. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 16. Watson NF, Badr MS, Belenky G, et al. Recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: a joint consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society. Sleep. 2015;38(6):843–844. doi: 10.5665/sleep.4716. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 17. Basner M, Dinges DF. Sleep duration in the United States 2003–2016 first signs of success in the fight against sleep deficiency? Sleep. 2018;41(4) doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsy012. [ DOI ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 18. Tkachenko O, Dinges D. Interindividual variability in neurobehavioral response to sleep loss: a comprehensive review [published online March 18, 2018] Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2018;89:29–48. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.03.017. [ DOI ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 19. Goel N. Neurobehavioral effects and biomarkers of sleep loss in healthy adults [published online September 25, 2017] Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2017;17(11):89. doi: 10.1007/s11910-017-0799-x. [ DOI ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 20. Zitting KM, Münch MY, Cain SW, et al. Young adults are more vulnerable to chronic sleep deficiency and recurrent circadian disruption than older adults [published online July 23, 2018] Sci Rep. 2018;8(1):11052. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-29358-x. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 21. Sateia MJ, Buysse DJ, Krystal AD, et al. Clinical practice guideline for the pharmacologic treatment of chronic insomnia in adults: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline. J Clin Sleep Med. 2017;13(2):307–349. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.6470. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 22. Kushida CA, Nichols DA, Holmes TH, et al. SMART DOCS: a new patient-centered outcomes and coordinated-care management approach for the future practice of sleep medicine. Sleep. 2015;38(2):315–326. doi: 10.5665/sleep.4422. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 23. Yeung V, Sharpe L, Glozier N, et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis of placebo versus no treatment for insomnia symptoms [published online April 3, 2017] Sleep Med Rev. 2018;38:17–27. doi: 10.1016/j.smrv.2017.03.006. [ DOI ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 24. Smith MT, McCrae CS, Cheung J, et al. Use of actigraphy for the evaluation of sleep disorders and circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine systematic review, meta-analysis, and GRADE assessment. J Clin Sleep Med. 2018;14(7):1209–1230. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.7228. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 25. Holmes TH, Kushida CA. Adherence to continuous positive airway pressure improves attention/psychomotor function and sleepiness: a bias-reduction method with further assessment of APPLES [published online July 14, 2017] Sleep Med. 2017 Sep;37:130–134. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2017.06.022. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 26. Lee CP, Holmes T, Neri E, Kushida CA. Deception in clinical trials and its impact on recruitment and adherence of study participants [published online August 21, 2018] Contemp Clin Trials. 2018;72:146–157. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2018.08.002. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 27. Herring WJ, Roth T, Krystal AD, Michelson D. Orexin receptor antagonists for the treatment of insomnia and potential treatment of other neuropsychiatric indications [published online October 18, 2018] J Sleep Res. 2018 doi: 10.1111/jsr.12782. [ DOI ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• PDF (684.5 KB)
• Collections

Similar articles

Cited by other articles, links to ncbi databases.

• Download .nbib .nbib
• Format: AMA APA MLA NLM

Add to Collections

• Work & Careers
• Life & Arts
• Currently reading: Research paper downloads act as proxy for academics’ real-world influence
• The (carbon) price of progress on climate change
• Chicago Booth top school for research with most impact on management
• Business school and the pursuit of rigour, resonance and relevance
• New tools aim for nuanced analysis of academic research citations
• How real-world cases work as business school teaching tools
• Business authors struggle to win recognition for work

Research paper downloads act as proxy for academics’ real-world influence

• Research paper downloads act as proxy for academics’ real-world influence on x (opens in a new window)
• Research paper downloads act as proxy for academics’ real-world influence on facebook (opens in a new window)
• Research paper downloads act as proxy for academics’ real-world influence on linkedin (opens in a new window)
• Research paper downloads act as proxy for academics’ real-world influence on whatsapp (opens in a new window)

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

In the world of academia, the impact of a research paper is often measured by its publication in prestigious journals and the number of citations it receives from fellow scholars.

However, broader measures of influence are emerging, including the number of times research papers are downloaded by non-academic readers: industry leaders, policymakers and curious professionals.

Downloads reflect real-world interest and application, demonstrating the potential for business research to inform practice, shape decisions and spark innovation in the global marketplace.

So, with the help of SSRN , a free online platform that allows users to access and share scholarly research, we have compiled a table showing the most downloaded recent papers authored or co-authored by business school academics. We analyse the subset of papers downloaded by governments, companies and other credible non-academic users, which serve as a proxy for the wider reach and impact of business school research.

Bridging the gap between research and publication

SSRN aims to help business school academics share their research with the wider world by offering a platform that enables early-stage work to be immediately accessible to a broad audience — not just academics but professionals, corporations and government bodies. It believes they can benefit from cutting-edge research before it goes through traditional peer review processes.

According to Michael Magoulias, director of operations, a key feature of SSRN is that it provides access to research without any fees, making it available to anyone, including those outside academia.

In fields such as finance, economics and political science, there can often be a long gap between submission to a journal and publication. SSRN helps bridge this gap, says Magoulias. “Authors would like their work to be known earlier rather than later, if only to receive constructive feedback or to spur new conversations with colleagues who share their interests,” he says.

The platform provides insights through metrics such as download counts, which give researchers and the public a real-time sense of which topics are gaining the most interest. “Having a critical mass of readership activity outside of academia and the immediacy of versions available online before being published in journals gives a solid and timely indication of what’s preoccupying those directly involved in shaping the economy and setting public policy,” Magoulias adds.

Interest rates bite back

Topping our list of downloaded papers is “ Monetary tightening and US bank fragility in 2023: mark-to-market losses and uninsured depositor runs? ” This study found that the recent rise in interest rates in the US has caused many banks to lose money on their long-term investments, which makes them risky, especially if they have a lot of uninsured deposits. This situation can lead to panic among depositors, as was seen last year with Silicon Valley Bank, where people rushed to withdraw their money because they were worried the bank might fail.

Authors Erica Xuewei Jiang of USC Marshall School of Business , Gregor Matvos of Kellogg School of Management , Tomasz Piskorski of Columbia Business School , and Amit Seru of Stanford concluded that regulatory intervention is critical to prevent widespread bank failures, especially as uninsured depositors tend to withdraw en masse, leading to liquidity crises.

“We were hoping to influence the academic community that was working on issues of financial intermediation and communicate to them how we thought they should think about the current events and also, more broadly, about bank stability,” explains Matvos. “But, then, we also wanted to communicate to policymakers, regulators and the broader public, who would be critical for shaping the response that was to come.”

Not all business school research needs to have a direct impact to be influential in the long run, argues Matvos. “Some work I do is targeted to a narrow set of people who work on the academic frontier, and I hope that the academic frontier eventually filters into the world.

“Because such impact is diffuse and hard to measure, I have to take it on faith that such work will eventually matter in a broad sense. So, there’s something very satisfying when the impact of the work is so direct that you can see it in real time.”

AI at the center of business

The second ranked paper examines artificial intelligence (AI) — specifically: “ Navigating the jagged technological frontier: field experimental evidence of the effects of AI on knowledge worker productivity and quality ” . It asks whether the technology can help workers do their jobs faster and better, particularly when the tasks are suited to it. However, it concludes that, if the tasks are too complicated for the AI, it can make things worse, causing workers to struggle more and get less done.

Authors Fabrizio Dell’Acqua, Edward McFowland of Harvard Business School , Ethan Mollick of Wharton et al conducted their research in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group, surveying 758 consultants who were assigned to three conditions: no AI access, AI access via GPT-4, or GPT-4 with prompt engineering support.

Results showed that consultants using AI completed 12 per cent more tasks and were 25 per cent faster, producing quality improvements exceeding 40 per cent. Lower-performing consultants benefited the most, increasing their output by 43 per cent, compared with a mere 17 per cent for higher performers. Conversely, for tasks deemed beyond AI’s frontier, those using AI were 19 percentage points less likely to achieve correct solutions. 

“We thought companies and organisations integrating AI into their knowledge work would be the primary beneficiaries of our research, so the number of downloads of our paper has been incredibly encouraging,” says Dell’Acqua. “In other work, I’ve developed the concept of ‘falling asleep at the wheel’, where workers become overly reliant on high-performing AI and disengage from critical thinking, mindlessly following recommendations without deliberation.

“Our research can help organisations design human-AI collaboration systems that keep workers actively engaged, leveraging their unique skills while avoiding this pitfall.”

Encouraged, in part, by the response to their paper, the researchers are running another experiment to further explore the dynamics of human-AI collaboration. “We’re only scratching the surface of understanding this monumental revolution,” says Dell’Acqua. “We’re excited to uncover more insights that will help shape the future of work.”

Home is where the heart is

Working remotely is another trend shaping that future. In “ Return-to-office mandates ” , Yuye Ding and Mark (Shuai) Ma of University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business discovered that, when companies in the US required employees to return to the office (RTO), it was more about managers wanting to exercise control and blame others for problems than actually improving work or profits. This move made employees less happy and did not help the companies make more money.

Analysing a sample of S&P 500 companies, the study found significant declines in employee job satisfaction following RTO mandates, without corresponding improvements in financial performance or company value. Notably, managers themselves did not profess a strong belief that RTO would increase company performance. Instead, RTO was more likely in companies with poor prior stock performance and under the direction of male and powerful chief executives, suggesting a strategy to scapegoat employees for managerial shortcomings.

The paper has been downloaded more than 23,000 times on SSRN. Ma adds that it has been mentioned in the media more than 100 times and led to the authors being interviewed by US radio network NPR, the Washington Post, Fortune, Forbes and other news outlets around the world. “A lot of the SSRN downloads are from practitioners, such as policy advisers, corporate executives and regular workers who are affected by RTO mandates,” says Ma.

“We believe it’s important for business research to study socially relevant and impactful issues, and provide timely feedback on such issues. It’s very fulfilling for us to see our study’s impact, which also becomes additional motivation for us to continue research on this important topic.”

One way to encourage this kind of research would be more conferences that involve both practitioners and researchers, argues Ma. “That way, researchers can present their findings to help practitioners make their decisions and also learn more about what is the important question that practitioners and real decision makers face,” he says.

“It was through discussions with practitioners that we learnt more about other issues that many firms consider when making decisions about return-to-office mandates,” Ma explains. “Some practitioners, for example, believed working in the office benefits employee mental health by improving their work-life balance and reducing burnout. As a result, we did a follow-up study on how working from home affects employee mental health.”

Sustainable investing

Another paper in the top ten for downloads — “ Counterproductive sustainable investing: the impact elasticity of brown and green firms ” by Samuel Hartzmark of Carroll School of Management at Boston College and Kelly Shue of Yale School of Management — contends that, while investing in “green” (environmentally-friendly) companies is meant to help the planet, it can sometimes make “brown” (polluting) companies worse without really helping the green ones much.

Essentially, when it becomes cheaper for green companies to borrow money, it does not change their pollution a great deal. However, when “brown” companies face higher costs, they might pollute even more, suggesting that investment strategies need to be better designed to encourage real improvements in both types of companies.

The authors introduced a new measure called “impact elasticity”, which quantifies the change in a company’s environmental impact resulting from shifts in its cost of capital. They argue for a more nuanced approach that not only encourages improvements in brown companies but also recognises the significant emissions reductions achievable through meaningful investment strategies in high-emission sectors.

They also call for a re-evaluation of sustainable investing practices to enhance their effectiveness in achieving genuine environmental progress.

“Our biggest desire for this paper is to influence how sustainable investing is actually practised,” says Hartzmark. “By presenting facts that we can use to encourage debate, we hope our research influences how these major decisions are actually implemented and ensuring that they have the biggest impact on the climate that is possible.

“It’s humbling to know that people find your work interesting and, hopefully, it’s a sign that people are engaging with our research and changing what they do because of it.”

Promoted Content

Explore the series.

Follow the topics in this article

• Business school Add to myFT
• Ian Wylie Add to myFT