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How Should You Charge as a Freelance Researcher?

Are you doing research for your freelance gig? Here are some considerations as you set your rates.

Among the jobs you can do as a freelance professional is research. Freelance research involves finding information about a particular topic and then organizing it in a way that's useful for clients. Often, freelance research goes hand in hand with writing. There are times that I need to do research in order to complete a project.

Charging for freelance research can be a little difficult for some — especially since many of us are writers that charge on a per-project basis .

Build Your Freelance Researcher Rate into Your Price Quote

Because I'm primarily a writer, and not a researcher, I usually build the research rate into my price quote. The quote I offer for a blog post, or for web content, usually includes the amount of time I expect to spend researching the topic, as well as writing it.

That makes things a little easier for everyone involved. However, if I miscalculate how much time it will take to complete the research, then I end up working more than expected. As you gain experience, though, it becomes easier to accurately gauge how much time you are likely to spend researching a topic.

If all you're doing is offering research, you might consider a per-project rate. Some researchers charge a flat rate in tiers. So, you might charge $500 for research projects that take up to 20 hours, and then tier up from there. Another option is to charge a monthly retainer for clients who want you to do regular research. That retainer would cover your total work for the month, based on research. I know freelance researchers that charge $1,500 per month and do a variety of research tasks for their clients.

Charge Hourly for Your Research

In some cases, it makes sense to charge hourly for research. When I ghostwrite a book, I break out the research aspect. This is easier since you never know how much time you will spend researching, including interviewing sources for the book.

Even if you aren't writing, though, you can still charge hourly for your research. Freelance researchers do the legwork so that others are freed up to do other things. If you are strictly a freelance researcher, it can make sense to charge by the hour, rather than for the project. Download a timekeeping app that can help you monitor how much time you spend on a project, and use that information to help you figure out clients owe you for your time.

Deciding how much to charge for freelance research can be a little difficult at first. You need to figure out what rate makes sense for you . When you are first starting out as a freelance researcher, you can expect to make between $15 and $25 per hour, depending on the work involved. Often, interviewing a primary source means a higher rate, closer to $25 or $30 per hour.

However, if you are experienced at research, and as you show good results finding exactly what the client is looking for, you can begin charging more. Some freelance researchers earn as much as $50 an hour or more. Indeed, my rate for doing extra research on a book or some other project is right around $75 an hour. There are times when I have to spend hours on the phone with a client who wants me to ghostwrite his or her book. That time should be paid for since I could be using it to do something else.

Should You Become a Freelance Researcher?

Freelance research can be a rewarding job. It's not too difficult, and almost anyone with decent research skills (and a good knowledge of the Internet) can engage in freelance research. You can boost your credentials with a four-year degree, and you should have an idea of what constitutes a “viable” source. Once you know those things, you can get started offering your services, whether you research exclusively, or use research to boost your writing.

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11 thoughts on “how should you charge as a freelance researcher”.

This is very relevant to me as I’ve recently been doing research and enjoying it. But it can be time consuming. I haven’t got around to charging yet but this post will help. Thanks for sharing on Bizsugar.com

Thanks for stopping by, Sian. While I don’t mind doing a little research without charging, when you start noticing how much of your time is eaten up by it, it’s probably time to think about charging for it.

Hello Miranda, I’ve been asked by a family member to research (and put up for sale) antiques/collectibles on a family estate. I know it will be time consuming and I have done internet research before for school and am very thorough. But, I have no idea what or how to charge for it. Any ideas? Thanks!

That’s an interesting approach. If you’ve done research before, you can base your price on that. Perhaps in the $20 per hour range? Or, if you are feeling lucky and you believe the items will sell for a substantial amount, you can negotiate a percentage of the profits.

Miranda, could you answer a question for me? Charging by the hour makes sense, but in my case I must put together a budget for research study and not sure how to do that. Budget should include all expenses related to the research study, including paying statistician(who has no idea what he will charge), expenses for compensation and my own fee. I anticipate some additional charges once research starts. Employer intends to submit grant application, hence the budget.

That’s a tough one since you are trying to put together a budget for everything. You need to account for your time, and estimate how much it will take, plus account for the stats guy. Start by figuring out how long you think it will take and then add half again. If you think it will take you 20 hours, add another 10, making it 30. Then, figure out how much you will be paid. If you want to be paid $30 an hour, you would budget $900 for your research. Stats is a different animal, though, with statisticians getting paid much more per hour for compensation — sometimes $75 or more. So you will need to figure that out as well. I’d round up most numbers to the nearest $100 and add them all up. Consider running it by an experienced researcher you know or a professor who can let you know if your numbers seem realistic.

I’m debating a daily rate, at this point. All this per word, per article, per hour measure seems to do is undermine the idea that I still have bills to pay and can’t take on 15 blog posts a day. I’m redoing my fee structure. Super annoyed.

A daily rate makes sense, too. Charge based on what works for you. I regularly change my rates, and often quote different rates depending on the client and project, with reference to my basic underlying structure.

I am passionate about writing and researching, but I have no idea how to break into an industry to apply my skills. I have a 4 year degree in IT and spent 10 years in that industry. I have been in marketing for the last few years. Any pointers for someone wanting to break into blogging/social marketing/ghost writing?

Thanks for this article – I was recently asked to do some market research/analysis and had no idea what to charge for my time.

Thank you for the information. Appreciated. I like to do research. Not really work for me.

Miranda, I live in a very historical city and in fact, the neighborhood I live in is one of the most historical in the nation. That said, I have been attempting to do freelance research on various historic structures for their owners. This includes time at the state library and visiting the courthouse to do a chain of deed history back to the beginning. I don’t want to insult a client by asking too much since I am just starting out and yet, also don’t want to undercharge either. Some of these properties take many hours of research. I can spend 5 hours or more a day at the library and could require several trips. There are costs of driving, parking, copies, and printing as well as the research time. One client wants me to do studies on individual properties which are attached as a tenement (do a package deal or individual?).

What would be the best way to charge and approach a client with these variables? Thank You!

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Aarón (he/him) is a first-generation college graduate based in South Texas. He holds a B.A. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University and, currently, he is pursuing a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley, where he is working on a thesis that centers on US-Mexico border life. Aarón is passionate about access to higher education, and he is especially excited to help students articulate their dreams, desires and struggles in what he argues is one of the most challenging literary forms–the personal essay. He believes in radical "word vomit" stages to writing just as much as in incisive editing ones. He is also mindful of the need for creative rest, which allows one to destress from the pressure of churning out ideas by taking time to appreciate and enjoy the creative work of others. Away from his computer you can find Aarón at the gym, at the beach, or reading a book. He loves novels, and he loves talking about them just as much! He is happy to "talk books” anytime. He is currently working on his own fiction novel inspired by the small village communities in Mexico where his parents grew up.

Allison R. (she/her) holds a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the Savannah College of Art & Design, where she achieved the singular Master’s Outstanding Academic Achievement award for the School of Liberal Arts. A lifelong storyteller and established playwright, Allison has over a decade of experience working with students on their college essays, Musical Theater and Acting auditions, and SAT/ACT preparation. Her goal as an essay coach is to provide every student with the tools to carry them far beyond college applications as both a writer and confident champion of their own story. She firmly believes that every student has a story worth telling and that if they can get their authentic self, unique personality, and humor to shine through on the page, anything is possible. She currently lives in Los Angeles, where she can be found writing in coffee shops, performing with her musical improvisational comedy team, and continuing her pursuit of storytelling at the highest level in theatre and television.

Andy (he/him) attended Stanford and Oxford, earning degrees in Political Science and Drama. He has taught college classes in Los Angeles in Critical Thinking, Sociology, Anthropology of Media, English Composition, and Public Speaking, has helped students gain entrance to Stanford, the Ivies, U Chicago, Northwestern, and other top 25 schools every year for the past decade, and is particularly interested in working to address issues of equity and access in higher education. He has worked with hundreds of students over his career and has spent time living in California, England, Montana, and briefly New Zealand. Over his career, he’s developed a passion for intentional wandering, both in life and in the wilderness. Some of his most valued experiences in that regard include trekking 100km with his brothers to Machu Picchu during a 100-year storm, joining a Maori tribe in New Zealand, and wandering through Patagonia with his wife, Sage.

Brendan (he/him) holds an MA from Columbia University’s Teacher’s College, and a newly acquired MBA from the University of Maine. As an educator, he taught in various locations ranging from the bustling streets of Brooklyn to the sunny boulevards of Florida. He is always eager to help students discover and hone their unique writer's voice. He founded a college essay club to assist students in preparing for academic endeavors of the application process and beyond. His preferred method involves collecting sparks, gathering bursts of inspiration, then methodically exploring the ideas, refining thoughts, and refining authentic stories, enabling students to unearth the golden and arduous moments and craft narratives as captivating as any novel. Brendan believes every student has a symphony of thoughts worth hearing; his job is to conduct them in harmony.

Calvin (he/him) studied English Literature at Vassar College and went on to graduate from the prestigious Columbia Teacher’s College at Columbia University. He is a passionate advocate of college access and has guided hundreds of students through the college admissions process and helped students craft essays that have helped them gain admission to some of the most selective colleges in the U.S. He is a passionate reader, writer, and all-around communicator with a deep love of narrative. Having worked in both a classroom setting as an English instructor and through one-on-one college counseling and mentoring, Calvin seeks to leverage structure in writing to elevate students’ stories and help them access their highest college aspirations.

Cat (she/her) is an educator, student advocate, and writing coach with twenty years of experience teaching, editing, and writing. Using what she's learned from teaching every grade level from kindergarten through college, she aspires to meet each writer where they are in the process. She loves to work with students to create written work that is both authentic and intentional. Cat grew up in New England, lived in the Marshall Islands and then California for many years, and now resides in Northwest Montana, where she teaches writing at a tribal college. She spends her free time outside hiking, snowshoeing, kayaking, and camping with her family. She loves baking desserts, taking really long road trips, and listening to all kinds of music. Cat earned a BA in English from Dartmouth College and an MA and PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Courtney (she/her) has worked in college admissions and college counseling for nearly a decade. After earning her B.S.B.A and MBA from Elon University, Courtney found herself in a critical leadership position within college admissions, influencing recruitment strategy, scholarship review and strategic planning. While her leadership grew, Courtney missed making authentic connections with students and decided to became a college counselor. Empowering students to realize and tell their stories is a passion for Courtney. Her energy, empathy and professional experience lends itself to her coaching style that leaves students feeling confident after every session. She has read thousands of essays as a reviewer and assisted hundreds in crafting their story. Courtney is active within the profession serving on regional professional boards, leading national identity-based groups and serving on college admissions counselor advisory boards. When Courtney is not navigating the college admissions process, you can find her at OrangeTheory Fitness, walking her dog, Simba, on the phone with friends, or trying new restaurants in Atlanta.

Diane (she/her) has worked as a university English professor, taught literature and cultural studies at an independent secondary school, and directed writing programs. But coaching and running workshops on college essays the past decade has been her most joyful and meaningful work. Her approach to coaching is both collaborative and inquisitive, with a goal of seeing this writing as an opportunity to help writers develop their unique, most powerful voice and to understand their own value and dreams through the process of personal writing. After 25+ years in teaching, she started a new career path as a freelance writer. Her current writing project explores the relationship between Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, their music and their fans, questioning if and how this relationship is establishing a new wave of feminism. A native Californian, Diane received her B.A. in English from UC Santa Barbara, then moved East where she earned her M.A. in English at Boston College and her Ph.D. in American Studies from Boston University. Ask her which of her Boston alma maters she roots for in the annual Beanpot hockey tournament. Currently, Diane lives in central New Hampshire, but dreams of living in London and Florence someday. When not writing or collaborating with writers, Diane can be found spinning new vinyl of all genres, hiking and skiing every mountain in New England and beyond, getting her zen on doing yoga and surfing, or playing with her SEVEN pets. She is so excited to get to work with you.

Elica (she/her) was born and raised in Southern California. She attended an arts high school, where she specialized in creative writing, and holds a BA from UCLA and an MA from CSULB (both in linguistics). While pursuing a PhD, she researched topics in the field of Writing Studies and taught academic writing at UC Santa Barbara. Beyond academics, Elica has been an essay coach and specialist for over seven years, working with students who were applying to four-year universities as well as various types of graduate school. She is committed to and passionate about helping students navigate the admissions essay genre while helping them gain confidence in their agency as young writers. You can find her (still) living in Southern California with her partner (+ two Italian greyhounds & lovebird), where she likes to spend her time reading, writing, and printmaking.

Jennifer (she/her) holds two degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, a BA in East Asian Studies and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School. She worked as an analyst on Wall Street for eight years before leaving to focus on raising her two daughters. She began her work in college admissions consulting as a volunteer for ScholarMatch, an organization dedicated to helping high-achieving low-income students through the college admissions process. She also tutors students preparing for the ACT and SAT. Students she has worked with have received acceptances to Harvard, Williams, Yale, Brown, U Penn, Cornell, Dartmouth, and UVA, among others. Outside of work she is a member of the Board of Trustees of her local public school and a docent for school groups at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cloisters location. She serves on the board of Graham Windham, a child welfare organization, and the Bronxville Historical Conservancy.

Jon (he/him) knows well the value and power of writing from a place of personal truth. Originally from Houston, Texas, he holds a BA in English from Harvard University and an MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. He teaches English, Writing, Script Analysis and SAT/ACT Prep classes throughout California. As an essay coach and college admissions consultant, he has helped thousands of students from various backgrounds gain admission to top colleges and universities, including the Ivies, the UCs, MIT, CalTech, UChicago, NYU, Williams, Swarthmore, UMichigan and many, many more. As a storyteller, he is committed to helping students find their personal voices to craft authentic stories that reflect the range of human experience.

Jade (she/her) brings nine years of professional college admission experience to her coaching role with College Essay Guy. After graduating from Loyola University New Orleans with an English Degree, she began an exciting and fulfilling career in college admission. Jade has worked in multiple admission offices, most recently Agnes Scott College, where she served as Associate Director of Admission and made final admission and scholarship decisions. Driven by a desire to work more closely with students and supporters, Jade transitioned to school-based college counseling and most recently served as the Dean of College Counseling at Atlanta Girls’ School. Jade leverages her experience in selective college admission to counsel students on how to develop competitive applications, while encouraging wellness, self-advocacy, and celebration in their process. Jade recently completed three years of service on the Southern Association of College Admission Counseling (SACAC) Board of Directors, an organization that awarded her the 2020 Rising Star Award. Jade is an active NACAC member and has been selected for the 2024-2025 NACAC Next cohort of emerging admission leaders. When she isn’t helping students confidently and creatively craft their stories, she enjoys getting lost in novels, bragging about New Orleans to anyone who’ll listen, and spending time with a little black cat named Elphaba!

Mahika (she/her) hails from the bustling streets of New York City. She attended a competitive Ivy League Prep School in NYC and later graduated from the University of Chicago. There, she earned a BA in both Psychology (Honors) and Comparative Human Development before fast tracking her way to an MA in Social Science during her senior year. Now, as a behavioral scientist, she works to craft lasting change in a variety of prosocial contexts. An avid reader and seasoned traveler, she's traversed landscapes both literal and literary, soaking up stories from every corner of the globe. But her true passion lies in guiding others through the labyrinth of college applications. Having felt the frustration of brilliant ideas lost in translation, she's made it her mission to help students unlock the perfect prose to tell their tales. So, whether you're struggling to find the right words or just need a sounding board, Mahika’s got your back.

Laura G has been in education for over a decade, with ten years of experience as a classroom teacher of students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. She has worked in general education as a middle school English teacher, and as a special education teacher and case manager in a variety of settings, including as a high school math co-teacher, elementary resource teacher, and middle school modified language arts teacher. As a tutor, she has spent the past eight years working with students on test prep for standardized tests (SAT/ACT/ISEE/HSPT), college essays, and executive functioning and study skills. Laura holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Northeastern University and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Tufts University, and also maintains teaching certifications in California and Massachusetts, having taught in both states. She has worked extensively with students with learning differences (ADHD, autism, specific learning disabilities, dyslexia, etc), and loves breaking down challenging concepts into concrete steps, as well as leveraging student strengths and interests to build success. She strives to figure out what level of understanding students are coming in with, and meets them where they’re at to create a gradual but meaningful learning plan targeted to each student’s individual needs. In 2023, she transitioned from full-time classroom teaching to working with students primarily online, which has allowed her to provide more individualized instruction, support students at their own pace and instructional levels, work with students and families across the US, and learn from incredible educators from around the world. In every session, Laura aims to create a relationship-based non-intimidating learning environment where students feel comfortable asking questions, taking risks, and making mistakes to learn in the way that works best for them. When she is not working with students and families, she sings in a choir and two rock bands, writes music, and enjoys hiking around Los Angeles.

Marvin (he/him) is an education enthusiast and advocate. His parents cultivated his interest in learning at a young age and he strives to cultivate that same curiosity in young people today. After graduating from the Trinity School in NYC, Marvin studied Sociology and French at Colgate University. He also completed a graduate degree in Education Entrepreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the College Essay Guy team, Marvin served as a teacher, college admission officer and university development officer. He worked at various institutions, including Babson College, American University and MIT. As a nonprofit professional with a background in K-12 and higher education, Marvin thinks about the full education lifecycle of a learner. He strongly believes that the college admission process is about reflecting and taking stock of one's goals, interests, skills and personal mission. As a college counselor, Marvin has helped many students pursue their postsecondary education goals who have attended top colleges all around the US.

Rene (she/her) is a veteran educator who has taught academic writing courses at Duke University for a decade as well as advised faculty there on increasing inclusivity through effective intercultural communication. As a writing coach, she has supported Duke undergraduate students, law school students, and Ph.D. candidates in addition to working privately with high school students on their college application essays. She enjoys guiding students to develop narratives that share personal insights and that invite their readers into another world. Rene has worked with students who have been accepted to some of the country’s top schools. Her past experience includes teaching undergraduates in Puerto Rico as well as serving as an undergraduate admissions reader for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She lives out in the countryside near Chapel Hill.

Sofia (she/her) is committed to helping students making education count and living bigger lives. She has worked with hundreds of students, designed and led college application essay workshops and helped students write powerful stories to gain admission to the college of their dreams. Sofia is the author of Journeys to the Heart, a book about social entrepreneurs, failed ideas and change-makers in Indonesia. She has lived in Asia and Europe and has worked as a strategy consultant in Washington DC. Sofia graduated from Brown University majoring in international relations. She holds a masters in European political science from L’institute des Sciences Politiques and a Masters in diplomacy and international business from Georgetown University. She loves theater, any kind of science and politics, modern art, board games, painting, mindful practices, kickboxing, a good read, empowering conversations and her amazing family. She believes in the power of young people’s ideas and creativity to make positive impacts throughout their lives.

Semilore (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in the English Department at Brown University. She holds a B.A. in African & African-American Studies and Comparative Literature from Stanford University, as well as a M.A. in English from Brown. As a graduate student, she has worked on both research and teaching, leading her own seminar classes as well as working one-on-one with students as a writing center associate for the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning. She's been lucky enough to work with students applying to various levels of postsecondary institutions and fellowships, but keeps a special place in her heart for the undergraduate college application experience. Semilore is excited to continue to help introduce students to one of her favorite genres of writing: the personal essay. Other things that excite her include trashy romance novels, blue raspberry slushies, and Mariah Carey. She is currently working on adding yoga to that list.

Tom (he/him) is an eternally "extra" Gemini who has spent the past seven years helping students and families navigate the college admissions process. Before joining College Essay Guy full-time as our inaugural Community Manager, he worked as a college counselor at a selective Seattle independent school and an admissions officer at Pomona College and the College of the Holy Cross (his alma mater). After college, Tom spent a year as a Jesuit Volunteers/AmeriCorps member at Catholic Charities Spokane, where he served as an Operations Assistant for a family services program called CAPA (Childbirth and Parenting Assistance). During this program, Tom lived with fellow volunteers who committed themselves to four core values: simple living, community, spirituality, and social and ecological justice. Tom first connected with CEG after reading a poignant essay from a Matchlighters student during his time in admissions at Pomona, and — thanks to additional advocacy from Ethan and some fighting spirit in the admissions committee room — this student was admitted on a full scholarship! He stans em dashes and semicolons, Kacey Musgraves (all eras, not just star crossed and Golden Hour), superior breakfast burritos, and alliterative moments. He works out begrudgingly, sings and dances feverishly, complains about space tourism incessantly, and uses way too many exclamation points. (He just took one out of that last sentence). Sitting here penning this bio, he’s reminded how challenging writing about oneself can be and how high stakes and it can feel — so you’ll find nothing but empathy and solidarity from him as you embark on your college essay journey!

Julia Byrd (she/her) graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University and earned her Master’s in Counseling Psychology from Illinois State University. One of her first jobs was as a copy editor and proofreader for a major stock brokerage firm (despite no formal editing or financial background), where she became even more enamored with effective, accurate communication. For 20 years, she’s been a content marketer, helping businesses tell their stories through compelling website and blog copy. She began as an essay specialist in 2018 and loves partnering with students on their admissions journey to help them recognize their worth; draw unique connections among their life experiences, values, and college and career goals; and develop writing skills that will last students a lifetime. Students with whom she’s worked have been accepted to (and found homes at) their top-choice institutions, including Columbia, NYU, USC, UT-Austin, University of Miami, and Washington University. When she’s not writing and editing, she enjoys traveling with her daughter to see Imagine Dragons, watching and analyzing “Shark Tank” with her son, and relaxing with her husband and Carolina Dog.

Margaret (she/her) is a passionate English educator who has worked in New York City public schools for more than a decade. As English Department Chair of her school, she provided Instructional Coaching for her department, growing other English teachers into more effective educators. She received two Bachelor of the Arts degrees, one in Comparative Literature and one in Spanish Language, from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and she is fluent in Spanish. Afterward, she went on to study English Education at Teacher’s College, Columbia University. Margaret has taught countless writing courses, including AP English Language and Composition, as well as several Creative Writing classes. She also developed a College Essay writing curriculum herself, gently guiding hundreds of students through the process. Margaret firmly believes that creating an emotionally safe learning environment is essential to student growth and as a result, works hard to make sure students see her as a trustworthy ally and cheerleader. Her main objective always is to build her students’ confidence and empower them to feel comfortable taking academic and creative risks. Personal Narrative is her favorite genre to teach, as she sees it as an opportunity for incredible developmental and academic growth.

Helena (she/her) has over 35 years experience working in higher education at colleges and law schools where she focused on admissions, student counseling, student leadership programs and community development. After many years as an independent education consultant working with high school students, she now brings her calming presence and warm, student-focused approach to helping students and families during the college application process. She also serves as a seasonal admissions application reader for a liberal arts college in Los Angeles. (As a native New Yorker, she is constantly surprised by how much she enjoys living in LA!) When not at work, Helena rides her road bike (longest ride - 70 miles!), loves the beach, reads books recommended by her daughters, lifts medium-heavyish weights, and is mildly obsessed with American Ninja Warrior. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University with a Bachelor’s degree in American Studies and earned her Masters of Education degree from Harvard University with concentrations in higher education planning and counseling.

Morgan has spent her entire career in the college admissions/college counseling field. Recognized as a ‘Counselor That Changes Lives’ (2021) by the Colleges That Change Lives (CTCL) organization, Morgan embraces the CTCL approach of dedication to college counseling practices that promote “a college search that focuses on the individual student and finding a college that will cultivate the student's lifelong love of learning.” In the past 20+ years, Morgan was an application reader (8 years), oversaw admission to an AACSB accredited Business School, and supported domestic and international students through the admissions process at two independent day and boarding schools. She has helped students reach a full range of goals: applying to highly selective colleges, finding and following niche academic interests, and figuring out how to broaden (or balance) a college list! One of Morgan’s favorite elements of college counseling is dispelling myths and misconceptions about pursuing higher education. Morgan’s college counseling approach combines deep care for her students with a competitive athletic mindset (which she now mostly channels through family game nights…though she sometimes lets her spunky 8-year-old daughter win. Sometimes.) She is a self-proclaimed Caamper (if you know, you know), a northern transplant in Chapel Hill, and is usually dreaming about her next visit to the ocean.

Cindy R • Parent

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Online via Zoom, email and Google docs. We have an essay management platform to help you stay organized and collaborate with us throughout the process.

After we have a chance to review the pre-work of your student, we like to assign coaches based on each student's individual personality, writing style, targeted schools, and the “parent homework” questionnaire. All of the coaches I work with are amazing at what they do and have experience working with students of various writing abilities and learning and working styles, so you are in great hands no matter who you work with. But we know that chemistry is an important factor to the essay coaching process so we like to make sure it’ll be a good fit.

• Scholarship programs with essays beyond the requirements for the undergraduate application (UNC's Morehead Cain scholarship, etc.)

Each year, we have dozens of students that go on the Ivies, as well as every other top school. See links at the top of this page our most recent acceptances. We’re fortunate to work with lots of highly motivated and high-achieving students.

It's important to note that our services are advisory in nature and we can't (of course) guarantee admission to a highly selective school. But we can help you put together the best possible application and essays to demonstrate your gifts, skills and values.

No. Beyond being unethical, that would be doing you a great disservice to you and also undermine the transformative element of this process. The essays submitted will be the original work of the student. 

We work with students through a tried-and-true process of brainstorming topics to polishing the final drafts. We find it super important that the college essay and application be grounded in an in-depth brainstorming process and some discussion to help you get to the point where you’ve found your deepest stories and are comfortable tackling your first draft. And that sometimes takes a session or two or three.

As a result of this, we don’t offer hourly help and prefer to avoid giving essay feedback without the context of all of the other things that you’ve accomplished or experienced in your rich and colorful life. We’ve also found that it’s so important to have the flexibility to meet as many times as necessary to help you have great essays. It gives you (the student) and our specialist the freedom to spend time getting to know each other, to experiment and get creative, and to try things out without concern for how much time you’ve spent so far, or have left.

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We highly recommend developing a balanced college list. Most students, for example, fixate on 1 or 2 highly selective (usually Ivy League) schools, but we find the students who are most happy with the process are those who have developed a wide range (usually 8 - 12 schools) with around 3 reach, 4 maybe, and 3 likely.

In terms of sample essays,  here are a few essays written by past students.

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The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Research Paper

Few things strike more fear in academics than the accursed research paper , a term synonymous with long hours and hard work. Luckily there’s a secret to help you get through them. As long as you know how to write a research paper properly, you’ll find they’re not so bad . . . or at least less painful. 

In this guide we concisely explain how to write an academic research paper step by step. We’ll cover areas like how to start a research paper, how to write a research paper outline, how to use citations and evidence, and how to write a conclusion for a research paper. 

But before we get into the details, let’s take a look at what a research paper is and how it’s different from other  writing . 

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What is a research paper?

A research paper is a type of  academic writing that provides an in-depth analysis, evaluation, or interpretation of a single topic, based on empirical evidence. Research papers are similar to analytical essays, except that research papers emphasize the use of statistical data and preexisting research, along with a strict code for citations. 

Research papers are a bedrock of modern science and the most effective way to share information across a wide network. However, most people are familiar with research papers from school; college courses often use them to test a student’s knowledge of a particular area or their research skills in general. 

Considering their gravity, research papers favor formal, even bland language that strips the writing of any bias. Researchers state their findings plainly and with corresponding evidence so that other researchers can consequently use the paper in their own research. 

Keep in mind that writing a research paper is different from  writing a research proposal . Essentially, research proposals are to acquire the funding needed to get the data to write a research paper. 

How long should a research paper be? 

The length of a research paper depends on the topic or assignment. Typically, research papers run around 4,000–6,000 words, but it’s common to see short papers around 2,000 words or long papers over 10,000 words. 

If you’re writing a paper for school, the recommended length should be provided in the assignment. Otherwise, let your topic dictate the length: Complicated topics or extensive research will require more explanation. 

How to write a research paper in 9 steps

Below is a step-by-step guide to writing a research paper, catered specifically for students rather than professional researchers. While some steps may not apply to your particular assignment, think of this as more of a general guideline to keep you on track. 

1 Understand the assignment

For some of you this goes without saying, but you might be surprised at how many students start a research paper without even reading the assignment guidelines. 

So your first step should be to review the assignment and carefully read the writing prompt. Specifically, look for technical requirements such as length , formatting requirements (single- vs. double-spacing, indentations, etc.) and citation style . Also pay attention to the particulars, such as whether or not you need to  write an abstract or include a cover page. 

Once you understand the assignment, the next steps in how to write a research paper follow the usual  writing process , more or less. There are some extra steps involved because research papers have extra rules, but the gist of the writing process is the same. 

2 Choose your topic

In open-ended assignments, the student must choose their own topic. While it may seem simple enough, choosing a topic is actually the most important decision you’ll make in writing a research paper, since it determines everything that follows. 

Your top priority in how to choose a research paper topic is whether it will provide enough content and substance for an entire research paper. You’ll want to choose a topic with enough data and complexity to enable a rich discussion. However, you also want to avoid general topics and instead stick with topics specific enough that you can cover all the relevant information without cutting too much.  

3 Gather preliminary research

The sooner you start researching, the better—after all, it’s called a research paper for a reason.

To refine your topic and prepare your thesis statement, find out what research is available for your topic as soon as possible. Early research can help dispel any misconceptions you have about the topic and reveal the best paths and approaches to find more material. 

Typically, you can find sources either online or in a library. If you’re searching online, make sure you use credible sources like science journals or academic papers. Some search engines—mentioned below in the Tools and resources section—allow you to browse only accredited sources and academic databases. 

Keep in mind the  difference between primary and secondary sources as you search. Primary sources are firsthand accounts, like published articles or autobiographies; secondary sources are more removed, like critical reviews or secondhand biographies. 

When gathering your research, it’s better to skim sources instead of reading each potential source fully. If a source seems useful, set it aside to give it a full read later. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck poring over sources that you ultimately won’t use, and that time could be better spent finding a worthwhile source. 

Sometimes you’re required to submit a  literature review , which explains your sources and presents them to an authority for confirmation. Even if no literature review is required, it’s still helpful to compile an early list of potential sources—you’ll be glad you did later.  

4 Write a thesis statement

Using what you found in your preliminary research, write a  thesis statement that succinctly summarizes what your research paper will be about. This is usually the first sentence in your paper, making it your reader’s introduction to the topic. 

A thesis statement is the best answer for how to start a research paper. Aside from preparing your reader, the thesis statement also makes it easier for other researchers to assess whether or not your paper is useful to them for their own research. Likewise, you should read the thesis statements of other research papers to decide how useful they are to you. 

A good thesis statement mentions all the important parts of the discussion without disclosing too many of the details. If you’re having trouble putting it into words, try to phrase your topic as a question and then answer it . 

For example, if your research paper topic is about separating students with ADHD from other students, you’d first ask yourself, “Does separating students with ADHD improve their learning?” The answer—based on your preliminary research—is a good basis for your thesis statement. 

5 Determine supporting evidence

At this stage of how to write an academic research paper, it’s time to knuckle down and do the actual research. Here’s when you go through all the sources you collected earlier and find the specific information you’d like to use in your paper. 

Normally, you find your supporting evidence by reading each source and taking notes. Isolate only the information that’s directly relevant to your topic; don’t bog down your paper with tangents or unnecessary context, however interesting they may be. And always write down page numbers , not only for you to find the information later, but also because you’ll need them for your citations. 

Aside from highlighting text and writing notes, another common tactic is to use bibliography cards . These are simple index cards with a fact or direct quotation on one side and the bibliographical information (source citation, page numbers, subtopic category) on the other. While bibliography cards are not necessary, some students find them useful for staying organized, especially when it’s time to write an outline. 

6 Write a research paper outline

A lot of students want to know how to write a research paper outline. More than informal essays, research papers require a methodical and systematic structure to make sure all issues are addressed, and that makes outlines especially important. 

First make a list of all the important categories and subtopics you need to cover—an outline for your outline! Consider all the information you gathered when compiling your supporting evidence and ask yourself what the best way to separate and categorize everything is. 

Once you have a list of what you want to talk about, consider the best order to present the information. Which subtopics are related and should go next to each other? Are there any subtopics that don’t make sense if they’re presented out of sequence? If your information is fairly straightforward, feel free to take a chronological approach and present the information in the order it happened. 

Because research papers can get complicated, consider breaking your outline into paragraphs. For starters, this helps you stay organized if you have a lot of information to cover. Moreover, it gives you greater control over the flow and direction of the research paper. It’s always better to fix structural problems in the outline phase than later after everything’s already been written. 

Don’t forget to include your supporting evidence in the outline as well. Chances are you’ll have a lot you want to include, so putting it in your outline helps prevent some things from falling through the cracks. 

7 Write the first draft

Once your outline is finished, it’s time to start actually writing your research paper. This is by far the longest and most involved step, but if you’ve properly prepared your sources and written a thorough outline, everything should run smoothly. 

If you don’t know how to write an introduction for a research paper, the beginning can be difficult. That’s why writing your  thesis statement beforehand is crucial. Open with your thesis statement and then fill out the rest of your introduction with the secondary information—save the details for the body of your research paper, which comes next. 

The body contains the bulk of your research paper. Unlike  essays , research papers usually divide the body into sections with separate headers to facilitate browsing and scanning. Use the divisions in your outline as a guide. 

Follow along your outline and go paragraph by paragraph. Because this is just the first draft, don’t worry about getting each word perfect . Later you’ll be able to revise and fine-tune your writing, but for now focus simply on saying everything that needs to be said. In other words, it’s OK to make mistakes since you’ll go back later to correct them. 

One of the most common problems with writing long works like research papers is connecting paragraphs to each other. The longer your writing is, the harder it is to tie everything together smoothly. Use  transition sentences to improve the flow of your paper, especially for the first and last sentences in a paragraph. 

Even after the body is written, you still need to know how to write a conclusion for a research paper. Just like  an essay conclusion , your research paper conclusion should restate your thesis , reiterate your main evidence , and summarize your findings in a way that’s easy to understand. 

Don’t add any new information in your conclusion, but feel free to say your own personal perspective or interpretation if it helps the reader understand the big picture. 

8 Cite your sources correctly

Citations are part of what sets research papers apart from more casual nonfiction like personal essays . Citing your sources both validates your data and also links your research paper to the greater scientific community. Because of their importance, citations must follow precise formatting rules . . . problem is, there’s more than one set of rules!

You need to check with the assignment to see which formatting style is required. Typically, academic research papers follow one of two formatting styles for citing sources:

• MLA (Modern Language Association)
• APA (American Psychological Association)

The links above explain the specific formatting guidelines for each style, along with an automatic citation generator to help you get started. 

In addition to MLA and APA styles, you occasionally see requirements for  CMOS (The Chicago Manual of Style),  AMA (American Medical Association) and  IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). 

Citations may seem confusing at first with all their rules and specific information. However, once you get the hang of them, you’ll be able to properly cite your sources without even thinking about it. Keep in mind that each formatting style has specific guidelines for citing just about any kind of source, including photos , websites , speeches , and YouTube videos .

9 Edit and proofread

Last but not least, you want to go through your research paper to correct all the mistakes by  proofreading . We recommend going over it twice: once for structural issues such as adding/deleting parts or rearranging paragraphs and once for word choice, grammatical, and spelling mistakes. Doing two different editing sessions helps you focus on one area at a time instead of doing them both at once. 

To help you catch everything, here’s a quick checklist to keep in mind while you edit:

Structural edit:

• Is your thesis statement clear and concise?
• Is your paper well-organized, and does it flow from beginning to end with logical transitions?
• Do your ideas follow a logical sequence in each paragraph?
• Have you used concrete details and facts and avoided generalizations?
• Do your arguments support and prove your thesis?
• Have you avoided repetition?
• Are your sources properly cited?
• Have you checked for accidental plagiarism?

Word choice, grammar, and spelling edit:

• Is your language clear and specific?
• Do your sentences flow smoothly and clearly? 
• Have you avoided  filler words and phrases ?
• Have you checked for proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation? 

Some people find it useful to read their paper out loud to catch problems they might miss when reading in their head. Another solution is to have someone else read your paper and point out areas for improvement and/or technical mistakes. 

Revising is a separate skill from writing, and being good at one doesn’t necessarily make you good at the other. If you want to improve your revision skills, read our  guide on self-editing , which includes a more complete checklist and advanced tips on improving your revisions. 

Technical issues like grammatical mistakes and misspelled words can be handled effortlessly if you use a spellchecker with your word processor, or even better, a digital writing assistant that also suggests improvements for word choice and tone, like Grammarly (we explain more in the Tools and resources section below). 

Tools and resources

If you want to know more about how to write a research paper, or if you want some help with each step, take a look at the tools and resources below. 

Google Scholar

This is Google’s own search engine, which is dedicated exclusively to academic papers. It’s a great way to find new research and sources. Plus, it’s free to use. 

Zotero is a freemium, open-source research manager, a cross between an organizational CMS and a search engine for academic research. With it, you can browse the internet for research sources relevant to your topic and share them easily with colleagues. Also, it automatically generates citations. 

FocusWriter

Writing long research papers is always a strain on your attention span. If you have trouble avoiding distractions during those long stretches, FocusWriter might be able to help. FocusWriter is a minimalist word processor that removes all the distracting icons and sticks only to what you type. You’re also free to choose your own customized backgrounds, with other special features like timed alarms, daily goals, and optional typewriter sound effects. 

Google Charts

This useful and free tool from Google lets you create simple charts and graphs based on whatever data you input. Charts and graphs are excellent visual aids for expressing numeric data, a perfect complement if you need to explain complicated evidential research. 

Grammarly goes way beyond grammar, helping you hone word choice, checking your text for plagiarism, detecting your tone, and more. For foreign-language learners, it can make your English sound more fluent, and even those who speak English as their primary language benefit from Grammarly’s suggestions. 

Research paper FAQs

A research paper is a piece of academic writing that analyzes, evaluates, or interprets a single topic with empirical evidence and statistical data. 

When will I need to write a research paper in college?

Many college courses use research papers to test a student’s knowledge of a particular topic or their research skills in general. While research papers depend on the course or professor, you can expect to write at least a few before graduation. 

How do I determine a topic for my research paper?

If the topic is not assigned, try to find a topic that’s general enough to provide ample evidence but specific enough that you’re able to cover all the basics. If possible, choose a topic you’re personally interested in—it makes the work easier. 

Where can I conduct research for my paper?

Today most research is conducted either online or in libraries. Some topics might benefit from old periodicals like newspapers or magazines, as well as visual media like documentaries. Museums, parks, and historical monuments can also be useful. 

How do I cite sources for a research paper?

The correct formatting for citations depends on which style you’re using, so check the assignment guidelines. Most school research reports use either  MLA or  APA styles, although there are others. 

This article was originally written by Karen Hertzberg in 2017. It’s been updated to include new information.

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• Published: 27 March 2013

Open access: The true cost of science publishing

• Richard Van Noorden  

Nature volume  495 ,  pages 426–429 ( 2013 ) Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 03 July 2013

A Correction to this article was published on 10 April 2013

This article has been updated

Cheap open-access journals raise questions about the value publishers add for their money.

Michael Eisen doesn't hold back when invited to vent. “It's still ludicrous how much it costs to publish research — let alone what we pay,” he declares. The biggest travesty, he says, is that the scientific community carries out peer review — a major part of scholarly publishing — for free, yet subscription-journal publishers charge billions of dollars per year, all told, for scientists to read the final product. “It's a ridiculous transaction,” he says.

Eisen, a molecular biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, argues that scientists can get much better value by publishing in open-access journals, which make articles free for everyone to read and which recoup their costs by charging authors or funders. Among the best-known examples are journals published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), which Eisen co-founded in 2000. “The costs of research publishing can be much lower than people think,” agrees Peter Binfield, co-founder of one of the newest open-access journals, PeerJ , and formerly a publisher at PLoS.

But publishers of subscription journals insist that such views are misguided — born of a failure to appreciate the value they add to the papers they publish, and to the research community as a whole. They say that their commercial operations are in fact quite efficient, so that if a switch to open-access publishing led scientists to drive down fees by choosing cheaper journals, it would undermine important values such as editorial quality.

These charges and counter-charges have been volleyed back and forth since the open-access idea emerged in the 1990s, but because the industry's finances are largely mysterious, evidence to back up either side has been lacking. Although journal list prices have been rising faster than inflation, the prices that campus libraries actually pay to buy journals are generally hidden by the non-disclosure agreements that they sign. And the true costs that publishers incur to produce their journals are not widely known.

The past few years have seen a change, however. The number of open-access journals has risen steadily, in part because of funders' views that papers based on publicly funded research should be free for anyone to read. By 2011, 11% of the world's articles were being published in fully open-access journals 1 (see 'The rise of open access'). Suddenly, scientists can compare between different publishing prices. A paper that costs US$5,000 for an author to publish in Cell Reports , for example, might cost just $1,350 to publish in PLoS ONE — whereas PeerJ offers to publish an unlimited number of papers per author for a one-time fee of $299. “For the first time, the author can evaluate the service that they're getting for the fee they're paying,” says Heather Joseph, executive director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition in Washington DC.

The variance in prices is leading everyone involved to question the academic publishing establishment as never before. For researchers and funders, the issue is how much of their scant resources need to be spent on publishing, and what form that publishing will take. For publishers, it is whether their current business models are sustainable — and whether highly selective, expensive journals can survive and prosper in an open-access world.

The cost of publishing

Data from the consulting firm Outsell in Burlingame, California, suggest that the science-publishing industry generated $9.4 billion in revenue in 2011 and published around 1.8 million English-language articles — an average revenue per article of roughly $5,000. Analysts estimate profit margins at 20–30% for the industry, so the average cost to the publisher of producing an article is likely to be around $3,500–4,000.

Most open-access publishers charge fees that are much lower than the industry's average revenue, although there is a wide scatter between journals. The largest open-access publishers — BioMed Central and PLoS — charge $1,350–2,250 to publish peer-reviewed articles in many of their journals, although their most selective offerings charge $2,700–2,900. In a survey published last year 2 , economist Bo-Christer Björk of the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki and psychologist David Solomon of Michigan State University in East Lansing looked at 100,697 articles published in 1,370 fee-charging open-access journals active in 2010 (about 40% of the fully open-access articles in that year), and found that charges ranged from $8 to $3,900. Higher charges tend to be found in 'hybrid' journals, in which publishers offer to make individual articles free in a publication that is otherwise paywalled (see 'Price of prestige'). Outsell estimates that the average per-article charge for open-access publishers in 2011 was $660.

Although these fees seem refreshingly transparent, they are not the only way that open-access publishers can make money. As Outsell notes, the $660 average, for example, does not represent the real revenue collected per paper: it includes papers published at discounted or waived fees, and does not count cash from the membership schemes that some open-access publishers run in addition to charging for articles. Frequently, small open-access publishers are also subsidized, with universities or societies covering the costs of server hosting, computers and building space. That explains why many journals say that they can offer open access for nothing. One example is Acta Palaeontologica Polonica , a respected open-access palaeontology journal, the costs of which are mostly covered by government subsidies to the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw; it charges nothing for papers under 10 pages. Another is eLife , which is covered by grants from the Wellcome Trust in London; the Max Planck Society in Munich, Germany; and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland. And some publishers use sets of journals to cross-subsidize each other: for example, PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine receive subsidy from PLoS ONE , says Damian Pattinson, editorial director at PLoS ONE .

Neither PLoS nor BioMed Central would discuss actual costs (although both organizations are profitable as a whole), but some emerging players who did reveal them for this article say that their real internal costs are extremely low. Paul Peters, president of the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association and chief strategy officer at the open-access publisher Hindawi in Cairo, says that last year, his group published 22,000 articles at a cost of $290 per article. Brian Hole, founder and director of the researcher-led Ubiquity Press in London, says that average costs are £200 (US$300). And Binfield says that PeerJ 's costs are in the “low hundreds of dollars” per article.

The picture is also mixed for subscription publishers, many of which generate revenue from a variety of sources — libraries, advertisers, commercial subscribers, author charges, reprint orders and cross-subsidies from more profitable journals. But they are even less transparent about their costs than their open-access counterparts. Most declined to reveal prices or costs when interviewed for this article.

The few numbers that are available show that costs vary widely in this sector, too. For example, Diane Sullenberger, executive editor for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC, says that the journal would need to charge about $3,700 per paper to cover costs if it went open-access. But Philip Campbell, editor-in-chief of Nature , estimates his journal's internal costs at £20,000–30,000 ($30,000–40,000) per paper. Many publishers say they cannot estimate what their per-paper costs are because article publishing is entangled with other activities. ( Science , for example, says that it cannot break down its per-paper costs; and that subscriptions also pay for activities of the journal's society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC.)

Scientists pondering why some publishers run more expensive outfits than others often point to profit margins. Reliable numbers are hard to come by: Wiley, for example, used to report 40% in profits from its scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing division before tax, but its 2013 accounts noted that allocating to science publishing a proportion of 'shared services' — costs of distribution, technology, building rents and electricity rates — would halve the reported profits. Elsevier's reported margins are 37%, but financial analysts estimate them at 40–50% for the STM publishing division before tax. ( Nature says that it will not disclose information on margins.) Profits can be made on the open-access side too: Hindawi made 50% profit on the articles it published last year, says Peters.

Commercial publishers are widely acknowledged to make larger profits than organizations run by academic institutions. A 2008 study by London-based Cambridge Economic Policy Associates estimated margins at 20% for society publishers, 25% for university publishers and 35% for commercial publishers 3 . This is an irritant for many researchers, says Deborah Shorley, scholarly communications adviser at Imperial College London — not so much because commercial profits are larger, but because the money goes to shareholders rather than being ploughed back into science or education.

But the difference in profit margins explains only a small part of the variance in per-paper prices. One reason that open-access publishers have lower costs is simply that they are newer, and publish entirely online, so they don't have to do print runs or set up subscription paywalls (see 'How costs break down'). Whereas small start-ups can come up with fresh workflows using the latest electronic tools, some established publishers are still dealing with antiquated workflows for arranging peer review, typesetting, file-format conversion and other chores. Still, most older publishers are investing heavily in technology, and should catch up eventually.

Costly functions

The publishers of expensive journals give two other explanations for their high costs, although both have come under heavy fire from advocates of cheaper business models: they do more and they tend to be more selective. The more effort a publisher invests in each paper, and the more articles a journal rejects after peer review, the more costly is each accepted article to publish.

Publishers may administer the peer-review process, which includes activities such as finding peer reviewers, evaluating the assessments and checking manuscripts for plagiarism. They may edit the articles, which includes proofreading, typesetting, adding graphics, turning the file into standard formats such as XML and adding metadata to agreed industry standards. And they may distribute print copies and host journals online. Some subscription journals have a large staff of full-time editors, designers and computer specialists. But not every publisher ticks all the boxes on this list, puts in the same effort or hires costly professional staff for all these activities. For example, most of PLoS ONE 's editors are working scientists, and the journal does not perform functions such as copy-editing. Some journals, including Nature , also generate additional content for readers, such as editorials, commentary articles and journalism (including the article you are reading). “We get positive feedback about our editorial process, so in our experience, many scientists do understand and appreciate the value that this adds to their paper,” says David Hoole, marketing director at Nature Publishing Group.

The costs of research publishing can be much lower than people think.

The key question is whether the extra effort adds useful value, says Timothy Gowers, a mathematician at the University of Cambridge, UK, who last year led a revolt against Elsevier (see Nature http://doi.org/kwd ; 2012 ). Would scientists' appreciation for subscription journals hold up if costs were paid for by the authors, rather than spread among subscribers? “If you see it from the perspective of the publisher, you may feel quite hurt,” says Gowers. “You may feel that a lot of work you put in is not really appreciated by scientists. The real question is whether that work is needed, and that's much less obvious.”

Many researchers in fields such as mathematics, high-energy physics and computer science do not think it is. They post pre- and post-reviewed versions of their work on servers such as arXiv — an operation that costs some $800,000 a year to keep going, or about $10 per article. Under a scheme of free open-access 'Episciences' journals proposed by some mathematicians this January, researchers would organize their own system of community peer review and host research on arXiv, making it open for all at minimal cost (see Nature http://doi.org/kwg ; 2013 ).

These approaches suit communities that have a culture of sharing preprints, and that either produce theoretical work or see high scrutiny of their experimental work — so it is effectively peer reviewed before it even gets submitted to a publisher. But they find less support elsewhere — in the highly competitive biomedical fields, for instance, researchers tend not to publish preprints for fear of being scooped and they place more value on formal (journal-based) peer review. “If we have learned anything in the open-access movement, it's that not all scientific communities are created the same: one size doesn't fit all,” says Joseph.

The value of rejection

Tied into the varying costs of journals is the number of articles that they reject. PLoS ONE (which charges authors $1,350) publishes 70% of submitted articles, whereas Physical Review Letters (a hybrid journal that has an optional open-access charge of $2,700) publishes fewer than 35%; Nature published just 8% in 2011.

The connection between price and selectivity reflects the fact that journals have functions that go beyond just publishing articles, points out John Houghton, an economist at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. By rejecting papers at the peer-review stage on grounds other than scientific validity, and so guiding the papers into the most appropriate journals, publishers filter the literature and provide signals of prestige to guide readers' attention. Such guidance is essential for researchers struggling to identify which of the millions of articles published each year are worth looking at, publishers argue — and the cost includes this service.

A more-expensive, more-selective journal should, in principle, generate greater prestige and impact. Yet in the open-access world, the higher-charging journals don't reliably command the greatest citation-based influence, argues Jevin West, a biologist at the University of Washington in Seattle. Earlier this year, West released a free tool that researchers can use to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of open-access journals (see Nature http://doi.org/kwh ; 2013 ).

And to Eisen, the idea that research is filtered into branded journals before it is published is not a feature but a bug: a wasteful hangover from the days of print. Rather than guiding articles into journal 'buckets', he suggests, they could be filtered after publication using metrics such as downloads and citations, which focus not on the antiquated journal, but on the article itself (see page 437).

Alicia Wise, from Elsevier, doubts that this could replace the current system: “I don't think it's appropriate to say that filtering and selection should only be done by the research community after publication,” she says. She argues that the brands, and accompanying filters, that publishers create by selective peer review add real value, and would be missed if removed entirely.

PLoS ONE supporters have a ready answer: start by making any core text that passes peer review for scientific validity alone open to everyone; if scientists do miss the guidance of selective peer review, then they can use recommendation tools and filters (perhaps even commercial ones) to organize the literature — but at least the costs will not be baked into pre-publication charges.

These arguments, Houghton says, are a reminder that publishers, researchers, libraries and funders exist in a complex, interdependent system. His analyses, and those by Cambridge Economic Policy Associates, suggest that converting the entire publishing system to open access would be worthwhile even if per-article-costs remained the same — simply because of the time that researchers would save when trying to access or read papers that were no longer lodged behind paywalls.

The path to open access

But a total conversion will be slow in coming, because scientists still have every economic incentive to submit their papers to high-prestige subscription journals. The subscriptions tend to be paid for by campus libraries, and few individual scientists see the costs directly. From their perspective, publication is effectively free.

Of course, many researchers have been swayed by the ethical argument, made so forcefully by open-access advocates, that publicly funded research should be freely available to everyone. Another important reason that open-access journals have made headway is that libraries are maxed out on their budgets, says Mark McCabe, an economist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. With no more library cash available to spend on subscriptions, adopting an open-access model was the only way for fresh journals to break into the market. New funding-agency mandates for immediate open access could speed the progress of open-access journals. But even then the economics of the industry remain unclear. Low article charges are likely to rise if more-selective journals choose to go open access. And some publishers warn that shifting the entire system to open access would also increase prices because journals would need to claim all their revenue from upfront payments, rather than from a variety of sources, such as secondary rights. “I've worked with medical journals where the revenue stream from secondary rights varies from less than 1% to as much as one-third of total revenue,” says David Crotty of Oxford University Press, UK.

Some publishers may manage to lock in higher prices for their premium products, or, following the successful example of PLoS, large open-access publishers may try to cross-subsidize high-prestige, selective, costly journals with cheaper, high-throughput journals. Publishers who put out a small number of articles in a few mid-range journals may be in trouble under the open-access model if they cannot quickly reduce costs. “In the end,” says Wim van der Stelt, executive vice president at Springer in Doetinchem, the Netherlands, “the price is set by what the market wants to pay for it.”

In theory, an open-access market could drive down costs by encouraging authors to weigh the value of what they get against what they pay. But that might not happen: instead, funders and libraries may end up paying the costs of open-access publication in place of scientists — to simplify the accounting and maintain freedom of choice for academics. Joseph says that some institutional libraries are already joining publisher membership schemes in which they buy a number of free or discounted articles for their researchers. She worries that such behaviour might reduce the author's awareness of the price being paid to publish — and thus the incentive to bring costs down.

And although many see a switch to open access as inevitable, the transition will be gradual. In the United Kingdom, portions of grant money are being spent on open access, but libraries still need to pay for research published in subscription journals. In the meantime, some scientists are urging their colleagues to deposit any manuscripts they publish in subscription journals in free online repositories. More than 60% of journals already allow authors to self-archive content that has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication, says Stevan Harnad, a veteran open-access campaigner and cognitive scientist at the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada. Most of the others ask authors to wait for a time (say, a year), before they archive their papers. However, the vast majority of authors don't self-archive their manuscripts unless prompted by university or funder mandates.

As that lack of enthusiasm demonstrates, the fundamental force driving the speed of the move towards full open access is what researchers — and research funders — want. Eisen says that although PLoS has become a success story — publishing 26,000 papers last year — it didn't catalyse the industry to change in the way that he had hoped. “I didn't expect publishers to give up their profits, but my frustration lies primarily with leaders of the science community for not recognizing that open access is a perfectly viable way to do publishing,” he says.

Change history

26 june 2013.

The scale on the y-axis of ‘The rise of open access’ was originally mislabelled. This has now been corrected.

05 April 2013

This article originally described David Solomon as an economist; he is a psychologist. It also wrongly defined STM as ‘science, technology and mathematics’ instead of ‘scientific, technical and medical’. These errors have been corrected.

Laakso, M. & Björk, B.-C. BMC Medicine 10 , 124 (2012).

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Solomon, D. J. & Björk, B.-C. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 63 , 1485–1495 (2012).

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Cambridge Economic Policy Associates Activities, costs and funding flows in the scholarly communications system in the UK (Research Information Network, 2008).

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The future of publishing: A new page 2013-Mar-27

Gold on hold 2013-Feb-26

Price doesn't always buy prestige in open access 2013-Jan-22

Britain aims for broad open access 2012-Jun-19

Open access comes of age 2011-Jun-21

Nature special: The future of publishing

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Cost-effectiveness for open-access journals

A study of open-access journals using article-processing charges

Economic implications of alternative scholarly publishing models: exploring the costs and benefits

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Van Noorden, R. Open access: The true cost of science publishing. Nature 495 , 426–429 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/495426a

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How Much Exactly Does It Cost to Write a Research Paper?

by  Antony W

September 2, 2024

A research paper project is often too long to complete in a short time. If you have many assignments to complete but don’t have enough time for the research project, it might make sense to seek for academic writing help. But how much does it cost to write a research paper?

The average cost for writing a research paper is $15 to $40 per page. However, the cost varies based on a number of factors, including spacing, number of pages, assignment briefs, the writing service provider, and the assigned deadline.

Some writing agencies offer some type of coupon codes on an occasional basis to enable students who need help with their writing to get their research paper done at an affordable price.

In this post, we’ll look at the factors that determine exactly how much it would cost you to have your research paper written by someone other than yourself.

The information in this guide should help you make the decision on whether to hire academic writing services   or write the research paper yourself.

How Much Does It Cost to Write a Research Paper? 

The following are the factors that determine how much it would cost you to have a research paper written:

1. Marketing Competition Highly Influences Research Paper Writing Cost

We can't possibly count the number of academic writing service websites available on the internet.

The writing industry is booming, new writing website go live on the web every month, and freelancers sell research paper writing on platforms such as Upwork and Freelancer.

Competition in the research paper industry has intensified owing to this trend and the availability of many writing services has a significant impact on how much you’ll spend to write a research paper.

What's intriguing about this trend is the widespread availability of low-cost research paper writing service . However, whether you receive the kind of service you genuinely deserve is a different thing altogether.

Writing services that charge between $30 and $70 per page tend to invest a lot of time in research, writing, and editing to give you the best value for your top dollars.

To be clear, cheap research paper writing service doesn’t mean low quality results.

Help for Assessment is an excellent example of an affordable yet professional research paper writing service.

So if you need help with your research paper project but don't have a lot of money to pay for the most expensive writing services, you can count on us to help you get the work done.

2. Discount Offers Lower the Cost to Write a Research Paper

At certain times of the year, certain businesses prefer to provide limited-time promotions to new and returning consumers.

During such times, you’ll save a portion of your money and still get a high quality research paper done for you. More often than not, many academic writing services provide the offer in the form of coupon codes with fix time limit.

At Help for Assessment, we prefer to do things differently. Instead of offering you a limited-time promo code, we'll give you a 30% discount on your order if you're new to Help for Assessment.

Furthermore, we acknowledge that some students are on a shoestring budget.

If that's the case, contact us via chat and we'll set up a bespoke payment plan that will allow you to get the expert assistance you need to finish your project on time.

3. The Cost to Write a Research Paper Varies Based on Deadlines

When it comes to having your research paper written by a professional writing service, time management is a critical consideration.

Primarily, you want to finish your paper on time so you don't miss your instructor's deadline.

But you need to understand that the project's cost is directly proportional to the amount of time it takes to complete it.

Let’s say you have 7 days to complete a complex research paper and you hire Help for Assessment to help you with the assignment.

Our team will treat this as an urgent assignment and devote to it the time and attention it requires.

Typically, this entails delegating the task to a writing staff capable of handling urgent projects, regardless of how difficult the subject is.

Urgent research papers require a lot of work in a short span of time and they will therefore cost you more money to have written compared to assignments that have longer deadlines.

4. Level of Education

The level of education is yet another factor that determines how much you will pay to have a research paper written.

Again, each writing agency has its own cost chart to represent this, and therefore the overall cost will vary significantly.

With this respect, you will pay less for a college-level research paper and a bit more for the PhD level dissertation.

5. Length and Spacing of the Research Paper

The length of a research paper assignment refers to how long the paper should be in terms of the number of pages, with more pages likely to cost you more.

Also, you have factor in the type of spacing you would like used as a formatting for your research paper.

By the current academic standards, a one-page, double-spaced assignment is 275 words and a single-space paper has twice the number of words, which is 550 words. 

Please check out calculator to determine the cost of writing a research paper with respect to the type of spacing.

6. Terms and Conditions of Service

The cost of writing a research paper also depends on the terms and conditions that an academic writing service has in place.

Some services indicate that their base price is the final cut and not negotiable. Some give you the option to discuss a custom pricing plan depending on your current situation and the complexity of the work. 

At Help for Assessment, we charge a base pricing point per page based on our terms of service, but keep in mind that the price per page is subject to change based on the level of education and the length of the assignment.

Also, we understand that the tough economic times may hinder you from paying a lot of money for a research paper assignment, which is why we’re more flexible with our pricing plan.

All you have to do is get in touch with us and we’ll see how we can be of help to you.

About the author 

Antony W is a professional writer and coach at Help for Assessment. He spends countless hours every day researching and writing great content filled with expert advice on how to write engaging essays, research papers, and assignments.

• Planning to Write

Q: How to write a research paper? How much does it cost?

Asked on 01 Nov, 2019

Once you have finished conducting your research, it is time to write a research paper and submit it to a journal. In fact, you can also start writing your paper as you conduct your research. A typical research paper follows the following format: 

Introduction>> Methods>> Results>>Discussion

This is popularly known as the IMRaD structure (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion). You must follow this structure when you write you research paper. In addition, you need to know what you should include in each of these sections. Additionally, you will also need to know the ethical guidelines that you should follow when writing a research paper.

Here is a brilliant resource that will guide you on how to write a research paper. With over over 50 articles and 7 video tutorials it is a curated list that covers all aspects of writing a research paper, including ethical considerations, style and formatting guidelines, structure of the paper, and more.

Regarding the cost involved, there is no cost if you write the paper yourself. However, you might need to pay publication fees or article processing charges(APC) to get your paper published in a journal.

Some authors, especially in the field of medicine, are busy professionals and do not have the time to write a research paper themselves. Such authors sometimes engage the services of a medical writer or technical writer to write the paper for them. Of course, the author does the research himself/herself and provides the writer with all the formation and data. The job of the writer is only to write the research in the form of a manuscript with inputs from the author. In such cases, the writer is usually paid, and the cost depends on the number of pages or number of words written. 

Answered by Editage Insights on 12 Nov, 2019

• Upvote this Answer

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Survey Results: How Much Should I Pay a Freelance Writer? [Infographic]

• Written By Allie Freeland
• Updated: October 2, 2024

At ClearVoice, we probably get asked this question more than any other: “How much should I pay for a freelance writer?” As creating content for marketing becomes more popular, everyone wants to know what the going freelance pay rates are for well-written blog posts, email newsletters, social media content, and ebooks.

On the flip side, we know freelancers are curious about how they stack up to others in terms of pay. Let’s face it, it’s a seldom-spoken topic. If you do a quick search on pay for freelance writers, you’ll see that many other publications begin to answer this question, but most fail to actually list any rates. That’s because the answer depends on many factors, but it’d still be nice to see some actual numbers.

How much should you pay a freelance writer for your marketing content?

This FAQ doesn’t have a simple answer. Most intermediate to advanced freelance writers charge between $0.10 and $1 per word, depending on the amount of work they will have to put into the project. But, the way they bill that average range will vary. Some freelance writers bill at a flat rate, per hour, or per monthly retainer for frequent work (in this case, a volume-based discount should apply), rather than per word. Typically, freelance writers who use one of those last three billing methods will include services beyond just the content.

In addition, rates change per industry, company, writer, location, and project ( and many other variables ), which is probably why this question often goes unanswered on the Interwebs. But, that’s not helpful for anyone.

Freelance writing rates explained

So we decided the best way to give you a useful answer on freelance writing rates was to ask freelance writers themselves what they charge:

Methodology of our freelance writer payment survey

We addressed a big question in content marketing: How much should you pay freelance writers? Or, if you are a freelance writer, how much should you charge? It’s kind of hard to know unless someone tells you, right?

The best way to get an answer to “how much to pay a freelance writer” was to take it to the streets. We polled 500+ freelance writers from around the country to see what they charge, how they charge, what type of content they produce, the corresponding level of experience, and even gender to see if a gap exists like in so many other industries.

Questions we asked in our survey on freelance writing rates:

1. how many years of experience do you have as a professional freelance writer.

• Beginner — 0–3 years’ experience
• Intermediate — 3–7 years’ experience
• Professional — 7–15 years’ experience
• Expert — 15+ years’ experience

2. How do you charge?

• Retainer/ project fee
• A mix — depends on the client

3. What do you charge per hour? (Approximate if N/A)

4. what do you charge per word (approximate if n/a).

• $0.11–$0.25
• $0.26–$0.50
• $0.51–$0.75
• $0.76–$1.00
• $1.00 and above

5. What tasks do you complete for clients?

• Blog posts/articles
• Email newsletters
• Social media content
• Print collateral
• Ebooks/white papers
• Research papers
• Other [Specify]

6. What is your gender?

• Prefer not to answer

Key findings around freelance writer pay, experience, and gender

After months of collecting data from freelancers near and far, we were able to see some pretty cool trends on freelancer pay rates. Some were expected and obvious. Others were a bit surprising.

There were several common themes:

1.  You get what you pay for: Rates and level of experience are correlated.

When asked the question, “What do you charge per hour?” rates were cut pretty evenly, aside from the $1 to $20 range.

Here is the breakdown per hour and per word:

• $21–$40: 19%
• $41–$60: 18%
• $61–$80: 14%
• $81–$100: 19%
• $0.01 –$0.10: 14%
• $0.11–$0.25: 18%
• $0.26–$0.50: 18%
• $0.51–$0.75: 13%
• $0.76–$1.00: 25%
• 12% did not answer because they did not charge per word.

As we suspected, rates and level of experience are connected. Of the writers who charged the lowest rate, 25% were beginner freelancers, while only 1.5% of expert-level writers charged within that range. In fact, of the writers who charged the highest rate – $100+ per hour – most were experts (41%).

The findings were the same for per-word rates. Of the freelancers who charged between $0.01 and $0.10 per word, 32% were beginner writers, while only 0.8% were experts. And of the writers who charged more than a dollar per word, 54% were experts, while only 5% were beginners.

More on pay rates and quality

Interested in learning more about pay rates, experience, and quality? We previously reported on the correlation between pay rates and quality in our pay rate study for the travel industry and subsequent study for the  tech industry . It was no surprise to find that writers with more experience, who charged more, were overwhelmingly better than more affordable, less experienced writers.

2. We found a gender pay gap in our sample that was the opposite of most industries.

Interestingly enough, we didn’t find the traditional gender pay gap in freelance writing, at least in our survey pool. Women, on average, charged more than men except in one category, which was at the intermediate level. When we scale-adjusted the pay ranges to the percentages within each group, it came out to…

Average of all pay levels:

• Women charged an average of 11.7% more per word.
• Women charged an average of 8.3% more per hour.

At the beginner level:

• Women charged an average 25.4% more per word and 37.8% more per hour than men.

At the intermediate level:

• Men charged an average of 5.4% more per word and 6.3% more per hour than women. *It was the only level where men charged more than women.*

At the professional level:

• Women charged an average 20.5% more per word and 11.1% more per hour than men.

At the expert level:

• Women charged an average 11.3% more per word and 5.7% more per hour than men.

Note: Only eight respondents in the survey selected “Prefer not to answer” on the gender question. In future studies, we will add a “non-binary” selection.

3. Most freelance writers are flexible in how they charge.

When asked the question “How do you charge?” freelancers overwhelmingly responded that “it’s a mix – it depends on the client.” In fact, nearly 60% of respondents vary their rates based on different clients, while 12% charge per hour, another 12% by word, and nearly 16% charge by retainer (or per project). This is good news for brands, as budgets and payment terms vary from business to business.

One data point that stuck out was that men were about twice as likely to charge per word than women.

4. No surprise, but articles and blogs are the most common type of content produced.

Overwhelmingly, blogs and articles are the most common type of content produced by freelance writers. In fact, 90% of respondents produce articles and blogs, a rate that was consistent across all experience levels. Here is a breakdown of all the content types in our survey:

• 90% produce blog posts and articles
• 52% produce email newsletters
• 56% produce social media content
• 30% produce “other” types of content
• 26% produce print collateral
• 25% produce ebooks and white papers
• 14% produce research papers
• 13% produce books
• 10% produce website copy

For the most part, men and women produced content types at about the same rate, with one exception: 41% of men reported producing ebooks and white papers while only 25% of women reported the same — the biggest gap for any content type.

5. Counter to popular opinion, older and more experienced freelancers were far more likely to do social media content.

While 80% of experts (those freelance writers with 15+ years of experience) reported doing social media content for clients, substantially fewer beginners, only 47%, reported the same. We found this point to be most surprising, as it counters the notion that social media is dominated by those who are younger. Perhaps putting your brand’s reputation in the hands of a freelancer requires the assurance they are more experienced?

Translating pay rates into the cost of content types

Although charging per word might not be the ultimate method of calculating pay with your freelancers, knowing the approximate word count for the content types you need can help you estimate initial cost figures to work from.

What type of content do you want to produce?

• Quality posts should be 800–2,200 words, depending on strategy
• Typically 5–150 words per post.
• Usually billed monthly or per project for bulk work.
• Intermediate to expert freelancers should include some strategy and research.
• Typically 100–800 words.
• Usually billed at a flat rate per email.
• Rate could be higher if research, media, distribution, or cross-publishing is required.
• Design is not included in the content rate.
• Typical ebooks range from 1,500–5,000+ words, while case studies often range from 300–900 words (usually translating into 1–3 pages for print collateral).
• Ebook writers are often more experienced freelancers  (and quite possibly subject matter experts).
• Should always include research, sources, and media.

Parting Words

Sending a special thanks to the hundreds of freelance writers out there who took time out of their day to participate in this study. After viewing the study, we hope freelancers have a better pulse on what others charge. And same goes for brands! Now you should have a better idea of reasonable rates based on levels of experience.

Related articles to help you determine pay and hire quality freelancers:

• 5 Great Reasons to Hire Freelance Writers : Whether you don’t have the time yourself or your team is already overloaded, learn the big benefits of hiring freelance writers.
• The Power of Pay: Are Freelance Rates and Quality Correlated? [TRAVEL STUDY] : We assigned one travel article to seven writers and had 30 editorial pros rate the quality of the submissions. Did vetted experts outperform less experienced writers?
• Survey Results: Factors in Determining Freelance Rates for Different Assignments : Different assignments, different rates, but same freelancer. Do really value and understand your freelancers’ time? If you need more editorial insight on gauging the work that goes into assignments, Jenna Rose Robbins captures many points marketers and newbie publishers need to know from the freelancer’s perspective.
• 15 Scenarios When You Should Pay Freelance Writers More : Developing a solid working relationship with freelancers is no less important than fostering respect with your fellow FTEs. Educate yourself on the most common contingencies and special circumstances that warrant you paying a freelancer above and beyond their normal rate.

And related articles for freelance writers trying to boost their income:

• How to Make $100k or More as a Freelance Writer: Successful Women Share Their Advice : Get ready to make more than ever before after hearing how these freelancers hit the $100k mark—and beyond.
• How to Address Clients When Rates Are Higher Than They Expect : Hear directly from successful freelancers on how they proved their worth to clients and got the rates they deserve.
• How to Grow Your Freelance Writing Rates (and When It’s Time to Ask for More) : When you become your own boss: How do you know when you’re due for more money? Learn when to ask clients for more.

Looking to outsource your content? Connect with a content strategist today and discuss your content needs, goals, and budget.

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