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212 Outstanding Anatomy and Physiology Research Topics

Anatomy research topics are among the most complex issues for some college and university students. That’s because this subject involves intriguing definitions and complex concepts. However, this study field keeps evolving, thanks to discoveries and changes that keep emerging. Additionally, anatomy is one of the study fields with high research scope. If pursuing genetics, medicine, or other studies related to the human body, your educator will ask you to research and write papers in this field.

Narrowing down on a topic can be challenging because you need a title to find adequate and relevant information for your paper. Nevertheless, you can pick any of these titles and develop them through research. By taking the time to investigate your topic and analyze the available information, you can produce a paper that will make the educator happy to award you the top grade in your class.

Exciting Anatomy Research Paper Topics

Human anatomy is generally an exciting study field. But some areas in this subject are fascinating. If looking for exciting topics to write about, this category has good ideas for you.

Which body parts does acne affect the most?
Explain the tear’s anatomical function
Explain the keratinization process and its importance
Explain the process of forming the human hair
What are the evolutionary advantages of fingerprints
Explain the skin layers and their role in protecting the body
Explain how the integumentary system enhances body hydration
Describe the genetic disorders that affect the integumentary system
Explain the environmental factors affecting the reproductive system
Explain five significant homes in the female reproductive system
Explain how oral contraceptives affect the female reproductive system’s physiology
Explain how the female fallopian tubes have evolved over time
Explain the diseases that affect the human reproductive system
Explain the sperm design and its importance during fertilization
Why is the reproductive system pH essential?
Explain the secondary sexual trait of females
Provide an anatomical perspective on the human sexual reproduction
Explain why the DNA molecule’s base pairs have nitrogen
Explain the human skeletal system’s functions
Describe the human skull’s evolution
Explain the skeletal system’s role in blood production
Explain how ligaments, tendons, and cartilages differ using examples of their structure and function
Explain the fracture physiology and its healing process
Explain the relationship between the integumentary system and the immune system
What’s the integumentary system’s role in the human body?
Which physiological changes can occur because of a vitamin deficiency?
Explain the cell energy production and storage physiology
Explain how anaerobic and aerobic movements differ and their effect on the muscular system
Explain the retina features that enable humans to see
Explain the optical nerves’ unique features and functions
Explain the cataracts physiology
Explain the vision adaptation physiology in dark places
Describe the human vision’s physiology
Explain the special parts of the human eye’s anatomy
Explain protein’s role in the development and structure of human muscles
How technological development helps in muscle repair
Explain the function of neurotransmitters
A detailed explanation of the functioning of involuntary muscles
A description of the muscle atrophy process
Food movement physiology- How food muscles aid food movement in the esophagus
Why smooth muscles are essential in the human body
Describe muscle contractions using detailed examples
What’s the significance of myosin in the muscular system?
Explain how the muscular system affects the other human body systems
Explain the evolution of cranial bones
Human blood anatomical details
Blood cells production physiology
How does bones structure change after pregnancy
Explain how the human muscular system undergoes anatomical changes due to weight training
How the cardiovascular system causes anatomical changes to the muscular system
The human vertebral column evolution
How the human muscular and skeletal system changes from infancy until a person reaches adulthood
The physiological and anatomical implications of a poor posture
Lifestyle issues that could affect the skeletal and muscular system
Anatomical variations between muscular structures of people of different races
How brain structure differ anatomically among people of different ethnicities
How obesity affects the skeletal system
How cartilaginous joints differ from the others in the human body
Why synovial fluid is essential to the joins and how the human body maintains their appropriate levels
How to maintain a healthy skeletal system

These are interesting anatomy topics to consider for research papers. Nevertheless, students should take their time to investigate these ideas to develop high-quality papers that will impress their educators to award them top grades.

Hot Anatomy and Physiology Research Paper Topics

Maybe you’re looking for a topic that will capture your reader’s attention and prompt them to read the rest of your paper. If so, consider these anatomy and physiology project ideas.

The light microscope’s function in structural units study
The contribution of early dissection techniques to modern human anatomy
Microtome’s role in slicing fragile sections’ specimens
Analysis of the gradual achromatic lenses development in human anatomy study
How changes in understanding and identification of body structures with naked eyes affect those with a microscopic size
Magnifying glasses application in the 17th-century anatomy
The impact of blood circulation by William Harvey
Why comprehension of modern anatomy matters
Analysis of Leonardo da Vinci’s dissections roles with anatomical drawings
Analyzing the effects of church prohibition on European medicine’s dissection
A case study for Greek anatomical texts during the Dark Ages
Why Galen’s books on anatomy and treatment in Europe matter even today
Investigating Erasistratus’s contribution in enhancing physiology and anatomy research
Analysis of the adaptive changes in body structures during evolution
The adaptation of neurons to their information transmission function

All these are exciting project topics in human anatomy. Nevertheless, some of these ideas require in-depth knowledge to draft a winning paper.

The Best Anatomy Project Ideas for College

Are you a college student with an anatomy research project on the way? If yes, consider any of these titles for your paper.

How the human anatomy changes during evolution
Understanding the nervous system and why it’s essential during evolution
Analysis of the fat metabolism physiology
Why visceral fat is vital in the human body
Oxygen delivery process- How the circulatory system delivers oxygen to different organs
How does the respiratory system interact with the cardiovascular system?
The impact of the novel coronavirus on the human body
Physiological changes that cause asthma
Why do lung alveoli have an anatomical significance?
Scar tissues development and their importance
Explain why squamous epithelial cells are essential to the human lungs
The involuntary muscle role and quadriplegia
Taking a physiological viewpoint to explain body smells
Vitamin B synthesis in the skin
Why sweat glands are crucial to body temperature maintenance
Explain the integumentary system’s principal functions
How a burn affects the other body parts apart from the skin
How the body eliminates waste- Explaining the physiological changes that occur during the process
Categories of human body glands
With at least one sample, explain why the skin is a body organ
Understanding the epidermis formation process
How the human skin remains waterproof and why this is important
How the body responds to a wound or trauma- A step-by-step explanation
Why the inflammatory response matters
Common allergies physiology
The role of anti-inflammatory medication and its function in the human body
How antibiotics affect the inflammatory response
Explain the immune response physiology in the human body
Understanding cancer physiology
How an auto-immune disease affects the body
Explain how AIDS causes physiological changes and anatomical changes
The function and production of growth hormones in the body
Explain the physiological significance of the thyroid gland
Thyroid gland issues that can cause physiological changes
How alcohol affects body inflammation
How narcotics consumption can cause brain changes
How histamine affects the body
Human lungs function in the circulatory system
Explain how the gas exchange works between the lungs and body tissues
How lungs help in the maintenance of the body’s homeostatic
The physiological impact of pneumonia
Explain how the body system functions when swimming
With at least one example, explain common allergies physiology
The human mind functioning and structure- Teenagers case study

All these are brilliant anatomy topics for research. However, they require time for research and analysis to produce winning papers.

Anatomy and Physiology Research Topics for Great Papers

Writing quality research papers requires extensive research and analysis. Great topics can kick-start the research process that will unveil relevant information to feature in your essay. Here are anatomy paper topics that can help you write brilliant papers.

With examples for proving your statement, explain whether human body cells have the same DNA
How zinc affects the reproductive system
Explain the physiological and anatomical changes that occur during puberty
Explain what makes the female reproductive system more complex than the male reproductive system
Describe similarities between the female and male reproductive systems
Explain the reproductive system’s anatomy and why it’s significant in the evolution
How kidneys help in the maintenance of acid-base balance in the body
Describing the shivering act from a physiological viewpoint
Explain why the human body needs sodium
Why does the human body need water?
Explain why the human body doesn’t have an intelligent design
Describe human body receptors and their roles
How human body muscles function
The active transport process and its significance in cell survival
Understanding the importance of the anatomical position in humans
Physiology as a life science- Understanding this statement
How anatomy study crosses over with arts
Regarding anatomy and physiology, explain why the human body can’t digest some foods
Why maintaining pH within a specific range is vital in the human body
Anatomical and physiological changes that happen in the human body after death
Why RNA matters in the human body
Explain the communication system in the human body and its efficiency
Explain how schizophrenia affects the body system
Why understanding anatomy and physiology is important
Describe the body systems that cause a reflex action
Explain the immune system and why it’s essential in the human body
Explain sugar’s role in the body
Does the human body have cold internal organs?
Which systems coordinate different body functions?
What role does carbon dioxide play in the body?
Describe muscles in the body
Physiological and anatomical changes that occur in a heroin addict’s body

Students can write quality papers or essays about these topics. But like with the ideas in the other sections, these titles require time and research too.

Best-Rated Anatomy and Physiology Research Paper Topics

Perhaps, you’re looking for top-rated topics for essays and research papers. If so, consider these ideas for your research projects.

Top mechanisms for body temperature adjustment
Adjustment of the inner body parts to change
How bio-molecules help in sustaining life
Investigation of mechanisms and chemical processes involved in development and growth
How the nervous system and brain help in human physiology regulation
The role of homeostasis in physiological processes stability maintenance
Investigating the mechanisms and processes that maintain life and survival
Why diagnostic specialties like radiology matter in human anatomy
How dental and medical students inspect cadavers.
Anatomical models for studying the human body
Describe the anatomical landmarks on the body surface
Why studying anatomical structures is so challenging.
Explain the process of embryo development from ovum fertilization to the fetal stage
Analyzing the technologies for disassembling organisms to study their internal structures
Biological tissues details and organization
Virtual reality and 3D modeling role in human anatomy study
Why do fewer students want to study cell function and structure?
Describe the significant human anatomy studies that scientists have made since ancient Greece, the Middle Ages, and Renaissance
Explain the anatomical models for studying the human body
Why is the human genome project unique?
How climate and weather affect physiological processes
Why taking vitamins is essential.
How depression and stress affect the human body muscles
How dehydration affects the human body
Discuss the primary causes of cardiovascular diseases
How toxic chemicals impact body organs functioning
How substance and drug abuse affect human physiology

You can select any of these titles for your human anatomy essay. However, take your time to research the title you choose and analyze the available information to develop a winning paper. If unable to do that, seek professional assistance from reputable experts online.

Today, you can get thesis help at an affordable price from reliable professionals. And nobody will know that you sought assistance with your paper or essay because you do so online. Instead of submitting low-quality writing, seek cheap help from renowned experts to complete your assignment without breaking a sweat.

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222 Best Anatomy Research Paper Topics To Discuss

Human anatomy and physiology are undoubtedly among the most complex areas of study. This is a field that is ever-growing in terms of new discoveries, changes, and understanding of certain processes. Needless to say, the scope for research is high with these subjects as well. If you are a student of medicine, genetics, or any other field of study that is related to the human body, chances are that you will have to present an interesting human anatomy essay as part of your course.

Given the complex nature of the subject, it is hard to narrow down on topics that give you enough information without becoming too overwhelming. Whether you are looking for research paper topics or anatomy and physiology project ideas, here are over 200 topics that will help you write a crisp, concise, yet informative paper for the best grades.

Simple Anatomy and Physiology Research Paper Topics

These anatomy and physiology topics for research papers will help you get the best ideas to write a detailed paper.

The role of the cell structure in studying human anatomy
Detailed investigation of the human body cavity
The primary systems of the human body
Scientific evolution and the changes in the understanding of human anatomy and physiology
Why is Andreas Vesalius known as the father of human anatomy?
The first-ever dissection of the human body and the aftermath
The effects of dehydration on human metabolism
The in and outs of the human digestive system
The complex network of the human cardiovascular system
The harmful effects of toxic chemicals on the health of humans
The evolutionary history of the nervous system
The evolutionary history of the human brain
Physiology of the reproductive system
Mitochondria and why it is called the powerhouse of the cell
Functional architecture of the human skeletal system
The cerebellar artery and its relationship with cerebellomedullary fissure
Causes for degenerative rotator cuff tear
Treatment of hepatic veins
Chemical messengers in the human body
5 methods of maintaining homeostasis in the human body
The evolutionary history of the appendix
The mechanism of hearing
Instances of extreme temperature sustenance by the human body
Changes in the human body with age
The role of the internal body temperature
Physics of the human skeletal system
The different enzymes in the human body and their roles
The role of iron in the human body
Parts of the human body that continue to grow with age
The human body is an open system. Comment on this statement.

Topics For a Great Human Anatomy Research Paper

Here is a list of anatomy paper topics that open up several questions as you research in-depth about them. This allows you to write a paper that is detailed and full of interesting information to keep the reader engaged.

Is the DNA the same in each cell of the human body? Provide examples to prove this statement.
The human body is not an intelligent design. Support or argue against this statement with examples
The different receptors in the human body and their roles
The structure of different types of muscles in the human body and the function of each type of muscle.
The process of active transport and its importance to the survival of a cell.
The human anatomical position and its significance.
Physiology is a life science. Write in detail about this statement
How does the study of anatomy cross over with the arts?
100 most interesting facts about the human body
Foods that the human body cannot digest. Explain this with reference to physiology and anatomy
The importance of maintaining pH within a given range in the human body
The physiological and anatomical changes that occur in the body after death.
The major role of the RNA in the human body
Write a paper on the communication system within the human body and how it is so efficient.
Provide a detailed analysis of the body systems affected by schizophrenia
Provide a detailed analysis of the body systems affected by meningitis
Why is it important to study physiology and anatomy to understand psychology better?
Name the body systems responsible for the reflex action and explain the process in detail.
Write a paper on the human immune system and its functions
What are some “useless” organs or parts of the human body?
The role of sugar in the human body
Are there any internal organs that are cold? If so, why?
The two systems responsible for coordinating various body functions and the systems that regulate them.
The physiological and anatomical changes in the body during adolescence.
The role of carbon dioxide in the human body
A detailed note on the 10 major muscles in the human body
The anatomical and physiological changes in the body of a heroin addict
What is the role of water in the human body?
The need for sodium in the human body
Explain the physical act of shivering from a physiological point of view
The role of the kidneys in maintaining an acid-base balance
Explain the anatomy of the human reproductive system and its evolutionary significance.
What are some similarities between the male and female reproductive systems?
Is the female reproductive system more complex than the male reproductive system? Explain with examples
The anatomical and physiological changes that take place at puberty
The effect of zinc on the human reproductive system.

Interesting Anatomy Topics For College Essay

Human anatomy and physiology are extremely interesting in general. There are some specific subjects that are particularly interesting. Here is a list of some of these anatomy and physiology research paper topics that are ideal for your next assignment.

What are the environmental factors that affect the human reproductive system?
The five hormones of the female reproductive system and their significance.
The effect of oral contraceptives on the physiology of the female reproductive system
The function of the female fallopian tubes and their evolutionary history
Common diseases of the human reproductive system
Discuss in detail the design of the sperm and its function in fertilizing the egg.
The importance of pH in the human reproductive system.
The four secondary sexual characters of females
A detailed anatomical perspective of sexual reproduction in humans.
The base pairs in the DNA molecule contain nitrogen.
The detailed functions of the human skeletal system
Evolutionary study of the human skull
The role of the human skeletal system in the production of blood
The differences between tendons, ligaments, and cartilages with examples of their function and structure
The physiology of a fracture and how it heals over time
The cartilaginous joints of the human body and how they are different from other joints.
The role of the synovial fluid in the joints and how the body maintains the levels consistently.
The five primary options to keep the skeletal system healthy
The major components of the skeletal system besides the bones.
The 3 major functions of the muscular system and how it is designed to carry out these functions?
The relationship between the skeletal system, muscular system, and the nervous system
Common degenerative disorders of the human skeletal system
How calcium plays an important role in the human skeletal system.
The common infectious diseases of the skeletal system
The anatomical differences between the muscular structure of different races
Are there any major anatomical differences between the structure of the brain of people from different ethnicities?
The effect of obesity on the skeletal system
Common lifestyle issues that affect the muscular and skeletal system
What are the anatomical and physiological implications of poor posture?
The cranial bones and their evolutionary history.
The anatomical details of human blood.
The physiology of the production of blood cells in the human body.
Changes in the structure of the bones after pregnancy.
Anatomical changes in the human muscular system as a result of weight training.
Anatomical changes in the human muscular system as a result of the cardiovascular system
A detailed study of the evolution of the human vertebral column.
The changes in the human skeletal and muscular system from infancy to adulthood.
The relationship between tendons, muscles, and bones.
Relationship between the respiratory system, circulatory system, and the muscular system
An anatomical comparison of the male and female muscular systems.
The common types of muscle contractions with examples.
Myosin and its significance to the human muscular system
The importance of smooth muscles in the human body
The physiology of the movement of food in the esophagus and the different movements of the muscles during the process.
The process of muscle atrophy
How do involuntary muscles function? Explain in detail.
The effect of the muscular system on the other systems of the human body.
How do neurotransmitters in the body function? Explain with examples of the most common neurotransmitters in the body.
Technological development and how it helps in repairing damaged muscles
The role of protein in the structure and development of the human muscles
The anatomy of the human eye and its unique features
The physiology of human vision
The physiology of adaptation of vision in the dark.
The physiology of cataracts.
The function and unique features of the optical nerves
What are the features of the retina that make it possible for us to see
Difference between aerobic and anaerobic movement and its impact on the muscular system.
The physiology of the production and storage of energy in the cells.
The physiological changes that occur as a result of vitamin deficiency. Choose one type of vitamin to provide details.
The role of the integumentary system in the human body
The relationship between the immune system and the integumentary system.
Examples of genetic disorders of the integumentary system.
How does the integumentary system prevent dehydration of the body?
The layers of the skin and their protective function.
The evolutionary advantage offered by fingerprints
The process of keratinization and its importance
The anatomical function of tears
How is the human hair formed?
The body systems that are affected by acne.

Anatomy Project Ideas For College

An important anatomy project coming up? Here is a list of project topics in human anatomy that are perfect for developing a college project that is interesting and informative at the same time.

Explain body odor from a physiological point of view.
The synthesis of vitamin B in the skin.
The role of the sweat glands in maintaining the body temperature.
The six principal functions of the human integumentary system.
The effect of a burn on other parts of the body besides the skin.
The process of eliminating waste from the body and the physiological changes that take place.
The types of glands in the human body.
The skin is an organ. Explain with examples
The body systems are engaged when you are swimming.
A detailed understanding of the formation of the epidermis
How does the human skin stay waterproof? Why is this significant?
The response of the body to trauma or a wound. Provide step-by-step details.
The importance of inflammatory response
The physiology of common allergies
The function of anti-inflammatory medication and how it works on the human body
The role of antibiotics in inflammatory response
The physiology of the immune response of the human body.
The physiology of cancer
What is an auto-immune disease? How is the body affected by it?
The anatomical and physiological changes as a result of AIDS.
The production and function of the human growth hormone
The physiological significance of the human thyroid gland
Common issues of the thyroid gland and the physiological changes.
The role of alcohol and inflammation in the body
The changes in the brain as a result of consumption of narcotics
The meaning of histamine and what does it do to the body?
The function of the human lungs with respect to the circulatory system
The exchange of various gases between the body tissues and the lungs.
The role of the lungs in maintaining homeostasis in the human body
The physiological repercussions of pneumonia
Quadriplegia and the ability of involuntary muscle function.
The role of squamous epithelial cells in the human lungs.
The development of scar tissues and why it is important.
The anatomical significance of the alveoli of the lungs
Physiological changes that lead to asthma
How does the novel coronavirus affect the physiology of the human body?
Interactions between the cardiovascular system and the respiratory system.
The process of delivery of oxygen by the circulatory system.
The role of visceral fat in the body
The physiology of fat metabolism
A detailed understanding of the autonomic nervous system and its evolutionary significance
Examples of evolutionary changes in human anatomy.

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Perspective article, on the nature of organs and organ systems – a chapter in the history and philosophy of biology.

Department of Biology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy

Contrasting definitions of organs based either on function or on strictly morphological criteria are the legacy of a tradition starting with Aristotle. This floating characterization of organs in terms of both form and function extends also to organ systems. The first section of this review outlines the notions of organ and body part as defined, explicitly or implicitly, in representative works of nineteenth century’s comparative morphology. The lack of a clear distinction between the two notions led to problems in Owen’s approach to the comparative method (definition of homolog vs. nature of the vertebrate archetype) and to a paradoxical formulation, by Anton Dohrn, of the principle of functional change. Starting from the second half of the twentieth century, with the extensive use of morphological data in phylogenetic analyses, both terms – organ and body part – have been often set aside, to leave room for a comparison between variously characterized attributes (character states) of the taxa to be compared. Throughout the last two centuries, there have been also efforts to characterize organs or body parts in terms of the underlying developmental dynamics, both in the context of classical descriptive embryology and according to models suggested by developmental genetics. Functionally defined organ are occasionally co-extensive with morphologically defined body parts, nevertheless a clear distinction between the former and the latter is a necessary prerequisite to a study of their evolution: this issue is discussed here on the example of the evolution of hermaphroditism and gonad structure and function.

Introduction

Five years ago, in a paper published in a medical journal, Coffey and O’Leary (2016) proposed that the mesentery is an organ of the human body and, as such, should be added to the traditional list of human organs, as item No. 79. In a timely review of that article, Neumann (2017) remarked that “no two anatomists are likely to compile identical lists of the organs of the human body,” largely because of the vague current notions of organ, “commonly defined in medical dictionaries as a (somewhat independent) part of the body that performs a (vital or special) function.”

Despite an admittedly high level of indeterminacy, this tentative definition of organ as a body part with a well-defined function reveals two important features that have accompanied the usage of the term since classical antiquity: on the one side, individual organs are parts of the body ; on the other, individual organs perform distinct functions . Sensible (or poorly informative, according to personal preferences) as it may appear, this twofold identity of organs opens a series of questions. First, are there body parts that are not organs? Yes, there are, for example body regions such as head, thorax and abdomen, or complex morphological units such as the trunk segments of centipedes. Second, and more interesting, is function, rather than morphology (form, position), the criterion based on which we can (must?) recognize organs?

Russell’s (1916) classic monograph on the history of morphology is still a good guide to learn how (or how little) the notion of organ has being changing over the centuries, endlessly oscillating between a functional and a strictly morphological definition, but a look at the original texts is often necessary. In the next section I will thus provide short excerpts from the old literature: for the texts originally in French or German, translation is mine.

As recognized by Haeckel (1866) in his sensible dissection of mid nineteenth century’s comparative morphology, this floating characterization of organs in terms of both form and function also extends to the characterization of organ complexes.

We will subsequently see how the lack of a clear distinction between the two notions led to a paradoxical formulation, by Dohrn (1875) , of the principle of functional change.

Starting from the second half of the twentieth century, with the extensive use of morphological data in phylogenetic analyses, both terms – organ and body part – have been often set aside, to leave room for a comparison between variously characterized attributes (character states) of the taxa to be compared.

The Definition of an Organ

Organ: morphological or functional concept.

The primacy of function over morphology seems to be largely accepted. To cite from the introduction (p. 1) to Schmidt-Rhaesa’s (2007) book on The Evolution of Organ Systems : “Despite their diversity, all animals have several basic requirements. They have to gather and digest food, get rid of excretes, receive and process information, and so on. The animal body is made up of parts that deal with these requirements and these parts are generally called organs or organ systems.”

Eventually, Schmidt-Rhaesa’s (2007) catalog of organs includes both items defined by function (e.g., acoustic, balance, cerebral, chordotonal, copulatory, excretory, hydrostatical, phagocytotic, pumping, reproductive, respiratory, sensory, spermatophore-forming, sperm-receiving, and statoacustic organs, plus eyes, gonads, muscles, and ocelli) and items defined by morphology, especially by position (e.g., apical, caudal, intertentacular, nuchal, and ventral organs). This seems to be uncontroversial, but in fact reveals a conceptual interweaving of concepts and definitions originated from within the different disciplines – medicine, natural history and philosophy – that contributed to emergence of biology as the science of the living (e.g., Zammito, 2018 ; Minelli, 2020 ).

From Aristotle to Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire

Russell (1916) defined Aristotle’s De Partibus Animalium (cf. Lennox, 2001 ) as “a comparative organography”: the term may suggest attention to the shape of the various organs and their spatial relationships, but Aristotle was interested above all in the function of the different organs.

Two thousand years later, this was still true of the first great comparative anatomists of the French school, both of those in the medical profession (therefore especially knowledgeable and interested in human anatomy), like Félix Vicq-d’Azyr, and of those, like Georges Cuvier, who developed in the natural sciences their whole scientific and academic careers.

Vicq-d’Azyr (1792) opened his long essay on comparative anatomy with a list of the “nine characters or general properties of life; namely: 1. digestion; 2. nutrition; 3. circulation; 4. breathing; 5. secretions; 6. ossification; 7. generation; 8. irritability; and 9. sensibility.” (p. iv). Organs are the tools through which the different functions are performed. The author examined them in the order indicated and for each function he reviewed the various zoological groups (and also plants, occasionally), in order of decreasing complexity of the organs that serve the specific function. But in the following pages Vicq-d’Azyr reversed the perspective, adopting instead a morphological criterion: in his “Table of animals according to the order of their anatomical composition,” he recognized twelve groups, from the simplest, such as hydra and other polyps, that have only one organ, the stomach, up to the most complex, i.e., mammals (incl. cetaceans, although listed in the table as a distinct class). And in building an “Essay of physiological classification of the Insects” Vicq-d’Azyr adopted mixed criteria (both the function and the shape of the organs).

Function was also in the foreground in Bichat’s (1801 , p. lxxix) approach: “All animals are an assemblage of various organs, each performing a function, that contribute, each in its own way, to the conservation of the whole,” but the French anatomist also remarked (ibid.) that organs are “themselves formed by several tissues of very different nature, and which truly form the elements of these organs.”

Moving at last into zoology as studied by zoologists, the first author to be cited is Cuvier. His position has been well characterized by Remane (1952) : “Not even Cuvier managed to accomplish a theoretical distinction between functional and structural units” (p. 22). Indeed, the terms by which he identified body parts have partly functional, partly structural content; see for example the opening sentence of his “Summary idea of the functions and organs of the body of animals, as well as the various degrees of their complication”: “After what we have just said of the organic elements of the body, of its chemical principles and of the forces which act in it, we have only to give a summary idea of the detailed functions of which life is composed, and of the organs that are assigned to them” ( Cuvier, 1817 , p. 36).

Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s approach to comparative anatomy was very different, in that he tried to find out correspondences between pure morphological units, i.e., body parts. His message was clear, despite the frequent differences between his and the current usage of some technical terms. For example, in the Discours préliminaire of his Cours de l’histoire naturelle des Mammifères he stressed the need to exclude the consideration of functions in any philosophical (theoretically acceptable) comparison of organs ( Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1828 , p. 25).

Organ vs. Body Part

Owen’s ambiguity: homolog vs. archetype.

Reading the works of the comparative anatomists of the early 19th century is often difficult, not only due to the widespread uncertainty of the meaning attributed to the word “organ” by different authors, and sometimes by the same author on different pages, but also due to the frequent use of technical terms with a different meaning from what the latter have taken in the biology of our times. In the case of Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, in particular, we must keep in mind that the entities dealt with in his Théorie des analogues ( Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1830 ) are, in fact, those we call homologs, while Geoffroy’s homologues coincide more or less precisely with the body units that Owen (1849) will later describe as serial homologs. For this relationships, such as the one between the fore and hind limbs of a tetrapod, Lankester (1870) will coin the term homoplasy, which is still in use, but with completely different meaning, as structural similarity due to convergence or parallelism ( Osborn, 1902 , 1905 ; cf. Toepfer, 2011 ) and eventually also reversal.

The use of terms such as analogy and homology remained fluctuating, at least up to the famous definitions of Owen (1843) , according to which analog is “a part or organ in one animal which has the same function as another part or organ in a different animal” (p. 374) while homolog is “the same organ in different animals under every variety of form and function” (p. 379).

Owen’s definition of homolog is the starting point of all subsequent comparative morphology, largely because it seemed to be amenable to reinterpretation in evolutionary terms. Many authors, however, have pointed to an intrinsic weakness in Owen’s notion of homology, i.e., the indeterminate nature of that sameness for which it is not easy to imagine an empirical assessment. Actually, in Owen’s comparative approach there was another problematic issue, namely the failure to overcome the ambiguity between a morphological and a functional determination of the structures under comparison. In other words, Owen inherited all the uncertainty of previous authors regarding a possible distinction between organ and body part.

The ambiguity is apparent when we pass from the abstract notion of homolog to the archetypal model of the vertebrate endoskeleton that Owen developed in the following years ( Owen, 1847 , 1848 , 1849 ). This archetype is a series of skeletal segments, osteocommata or vertebrae, each of which is formed in turn, “in its typical completeness,” by a specified set of elements and parts. Both in its entirety and in the analytical detail of the parts that compose it, this archetype is not an organ (or an organ system) at all, but a structurally ordered set of body parts.

This archetype lends itself to the most diverse transformations, which involve changes, even radical, of both form and function, as magnificently illustrated in the large plate included in the essay On the Nature of Limbs ( Owen, 1849 ). Owen’s archetype is therefore an invariant on the basis of which it is possible to identify homologies – but these are clearly correspondences between body parts (essentially, the parts of the skeleton) based on their mutual topological relationships rather than correspondences between the units traditionally described as organs.

Aware of this ambiguity, Haeckel (1866) observed that there are problems with the traditional classification of body parts into tissues, organs, systems, apparatuses, etc., in that one thinks sometimes more of their morphological, sometimes more of their physiological individuality. Moreover, this terminology has been mostly produced by human anatomists who lack adequate knowledge of the diversity of morphological conditions throughout the animal kingdom.

Important traces of this anthropocentrism are still present in today’s comparative anatomy. The catalog of functions recognized in our species and the names of the corresponding organs remain, as far as possible, at the basis of the organography of all animals. Of course, as studies extend to zoological groups further away from vertebrates, the discovery of organs for which it is difficult (sometimes impossible) to suggest a correspondence with an organ in the human body becomes increasingly probable. In some cases it has been found convenient to identify the newly discovered organ by the name of its discoverer, such as the “eyes” of fly larvae, known as Bolwig’s organs (described in Bolwig, 1946 ) and the vomeronasal olfactory organ of many tetrapods, known as Jacobson’s organ (named after Jacobson who described it in 1813). Human anatomy has had little need to resort to names of this type, but at least two can be cited, the organ of Corti (1851) and the organ of Zuckerkandl (1901) .

The Principle of Function Change

Nowhere are the dramatic consequences of the missed distinction between organ and body part more evident than in Dohrn’s (1875 , p. 60) enunciation of the principle of function change ( Funktionswechsel ):

The organ is remodeled through the succession of functions, the bearer of which remains one and the same organ. Each function is a resultant of several components, one of which is the main or primary function, while the other is an accessory or secondary function. The decrease in the main function and the increase in a secondary function change the overall function; the secondary function gradually becomes the main function, the overall function becomes different, and the consequence of the whole process is the transformation of the organ.

In these words I believe I have expressed a principle, the general validity of which has not yet been adequately appreciated, however, often it may be recognized in individual cases and secretly assumed to be effective.

The difficulty of enunciating this principle in terms of organ, rather than body part, is evident in Dohrn’s words. If organs are anatomical units identified by their functions, how is it possible that an organ whose functions have changed remains the same organ it was before? Dohrn tries go over this riddle by saying that the correspondence between organ and function is not one-to-one, but one-to-many. Thus, the identity of the organ is initially ensured by its main or primary function at the moment; after the Funktionswechsel the characterizing function will be another, but this function is not entirely new, because it was part of the complex of functions associated with the same organ before the functional shift. As a formalization of an evolutionary step, this corresponds quite closely to exaptation ( Gould and Vrba, 1982 ) and is therefore reasonable in evolutionary terms. However, in terms of categories applicable to the structure of an organism, Dohrn’s effort is perhaps the most paradoxical evidence that missing the distinction between organ and body part can lead to weak or wrong arguments.

Organ Systems

Shortly after Dohrn proposed his principle of functional change, Gegenbaur (1878 , p. 14) summarized the current views on the relationship between structure and function, at last from an evolutionary perspective:

The complication of the organism arises from separation that transfers to individual parts the physiological performance of the originally uniform body. What was previously done by the whole body, individual parts of it do after that process. The function is then either carried out by a larger number of discrete but similar parts, or the individual parts become different from one another. In the first case the division of labor is quantitative, in the latter it is also carried out qualitatively, and the division of the individual parts corresponds to a diversity of the work.

Meanwhile, Haeckel begun to address a further level of complexity that in his Generelle Morphologie der Organismen (General Morphology of Organisms; Haeckel, 1866 ) corresponds to the highest levels of the structural hierarchy he recognized in the living organisms.

If at the level of what are called organs an ambiguity has dragged on over time with respect to the two possible identification criteria, morphological and functional, can the same be said about organ systems?

According to Haeckel, the hierarchical structure of organisms is the product of two “most essential and supreme laws which guide this union of the simple form individuals […] into composite ones, […] the laws of aggregation or community building and of differentiation or division of labor” (p. 289). But the distinction between organ systems and apparatuses is to some extent an arbitrary one, because “In the case of an organ system one has in mind the unity of the form of its essential constituent form-elements, in an apparatus the unity of the performance of these elements” (p. 301); in other terms, “the former is based on a morphological concept, the latter on a physiological concept.” “Thus, the term organ system […] must […] be used exclusively in its original morphological sense to denote a continuously connected organ complex in which a single tissue, i.e., a single type of cells or cell blocks occurs predominantly as an essential component, as is, e.g., the case with the nervous system, the muscular system, the system of the outer skin layers and their appendages. The situation is different with the expression organ apparatus, which is originally and usually employed in a more physiological sense, to denote a complex of organs (often […] spatially separated and discontinuous, which only appears to be connected by the common criterion of the same function)” (p. 293). However, “in the concept of the organ apparatus, as it so often occurs in most other such general conceptualizations, physiological and morphological ideas are mixed up in a more or less unclear way and it is therefore difficult to establish satisfactory definitions of these higher organ units” (p. 293). Summing up, Haeckel provided a sensible analysis of the uncertain and to some extent contradictory definitions of structural and functional parts, but failed to provide a valid alternative to an unsatisfactory state of affairs that to some extent is still lasting.

Organs Without Actual Function?

To determine the importance of the functional criterion in the definition of organ (in particular, the persistence of this association in today’s biology), it is worth asking: Are there organs without actual function? In other terms, is it useful (and legitimate) to define an organ in terms of its potential (rather than actual) function? The question is suggested, for instance, by the following remark: “We do not know a single instance of an organ which in the phylogenetic history first appeared as a simple Anlage without subsequent functional stage and only later in phylogeny acquired its functional stage” ( Remane, 1952 , p. 277). Consider for example the wing imaginal disks of holometabolous insects. It is very difficult to assign them a function in the economy of the larva. Therefore, as long as the insect is in a larval state and the imaginal disk has not yet unfolded into a wing, the imaginal disk should be considered a functionsless body part rather than an organ. A wing disk is a wing in potentiality, but not in actuality. (However, this does not rule out exaptation, as in the case of Drosophila , where the wing disk in the larva secretes an insulin-like peptide that coordinates tissue growth with developmental timing: Colombani et al., 2012 ; Garelli et al., 2012 ).

One may be tempted to follow the traditional adultocentric perspective, by saying that function should be best, or exclusively, determined as manifested in the adult, but this would worsen the problem. There are indeed a number of exclusively larval (and even embryonic) organs (think of the apical organ of many invertebrate larvae; Marlow et al., 2014 ), irrespective of their possible persistence, in modified form, in the adult of some species (as hypothesized, for example, with the possible origin of the frontal sensory organ in adults of the hoplonemertean Quasitetrastemma stimpsoni from the larval apical organ; Magarlamov et al., 2020 ). In addition, even some of the most basic vital functions, such as feeding, are frequently limited to larval or juvenile stages, as in mayflies and several other insects.

Evolutionary Morphology

Organs and body parts as attributes.

In recent decades, the search for homologies and, more generally, comparative biology as a whole (not necessarily limited to morphology) have undergone important developments in the context of phylogenetics. This step was accompanied by the rapid spread of a new language, where terms such as organ or body part appear very rarely. Actually, as rightly observed by Wagner (2014) , already in Simpson’s (1961) and Mayr’s (1969 , 1982 ) historical approach to homology there was no longer trace of organs. Comparisons were proposed instead between attributes of the species under comparison. With the consolidation of phylogenetic systematics, even the term “attribute” disappeared soon: data collected in the matrices used for phylogenetic reconstructions are almost universally described as coded states of characters potentially informative from a phylogenetic perspective. In Sereno’s (2007) detailed study (2007) on the Logical basis for morphological characters in phylogenetics , the term “organ” was mentioned only in the line reporting Owen’s definition of homology. And the latter is often reformulated today without even mentioning “organ,” for example: “homologous features (or states of features) in two or more organisms are those that can be traced back to the same feature (or states) in the common ancestor of those organisms” ( Mayr, 1969 , p. 85).

Declining interest in descriptive morphology and the common usage in comparative biology (phylogenetics) of “character” for both morphological and molecular units are probably the main reasons for this terminological mix. However, dissecting an animal’s body into organs or body parts is not the same as picking convenient characters to fill a morphological data matrix for phylogenetic analysis. The nature of entries in the latter is the most diverse and these entries only occasionally correspond to the organs or body parts of descriptive morphology, less rarely in phylogenetic analyses of phylum- or class-level interrelationships, such as Eernisse et al. (1992) , Backeljau (1993) , Zrzavý et al. (1998) , Brusca and Brusca (2003) , Glenner et al. (2004) , Schierwater et al. (2009) , and Neumann et al. (2021) .

As in the case of “organ” in the oldest literature, so the term “character” is used today in different and, very often, not explicitly defined meanings. It is likely, however, that most of the authors who use it, especially among phylogeneticists, would subscribe to Wiley’s (1981 , p. 8) definition of character as “a feature (attribute, observable part) of an organism” or, better perhaps, “a part or attribute of an organism that may be described, figured, measured, weighed, counted, scored, or otherwise communicated by one biologist to other biologists.”

Developmental Perspectives on Organs

In addition to characterizing organs and/or parts of the body in functional or morphological terms, there have been many attempts to establish their homologies starting from the identity of their primordia, or Anlagen, or the mechanisms by which their morphogenesis unfolds ( DiFrisco et al., 2020 ).

For example, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1807) traced the homologies ( analogies , in his terminology) between the bones of the skull of vertebrates based on the identity of the ossification centers from which their formation visibly begins, regardless of whether the anatomical part resulting from each center eventually retains its identity as a separate bone, or merges with neighboring units to form a single bone.

Later, especially under the influence of Haeckel’s (1866) views on the relationships between ontogeny and phylogeny, zoologists have often accepted that each organ type derives always from the same embryonic germ layer, thus providing a homology criterion on which to rely even for anatomical comparisons between distantly related animals. Germ layers were discovered in the chicken embryo by Pander (1817) , who described them as blastodermal layers ( Keimhautblätter ). von Baer (1828) regarded them as primitive organs that develop into definitive organs, typically by folding. Remak (1855 , pp. 2–3) gave them the name germ layers ( Keimblätter ) and characterized them in terms of position and function, thus distinguishing an upper, sensory ( sensorielles Blatt , Sinnesblatt ; p. 86), an intermediate, motor and germinative ( motorisch-germinatives Blatt ; p. 101) and a lower, trophic germ layer ( trophisches Blatt , Darmdrüsenblatt ; p. 112). This has been eventually translated into the textbook rough summary: the ectoderm gives rise to the epidermis and the nervous system, the endoderm to the (mid)gut, the mesoderm to the remaining organs. Conserved derivation of specific organs from the same germ layer would support the homology of these organs, in the light of Owens’ concept.

But this embryological criterion of homology has not been universally accepted without reservations (e.g., Wilson, 1896 ), as discussed by Maienschein (1978) and Hall (1995) . “Homologous structures need not, and often do not, arise from the same germ layer” ( Hall, 1998 , p. 171; see also Oppenheimer and Hamburger, 1976 ); “if there is essentially similar adult structure and relative position the organs are homologous, whether they come from the same or different ‘germ layers’ …. After all, the different germ layers of a single individual do have the same genes” ( Boyden, 1943 , p. 239). But different cells, tissues and organs are more or less strictly characterized by different patterns of expression of their genes.

Some recent approaches have suggested that organs may be defined by the locally expressed gene regulatory networks (GRNs). Specifically, Wagner (2014 , p. 97) introduced the notion of Character Identity Network, defined as a set of genes whose “main function is to enable the activation of a position specific and organ specific developmental program.” More precisely, “The members of the network are jointly necessary for the development of the morphological character, and some of the network members are also individually sufficient to trigger the morphogenesis and differentiation of the character” ( Wagner, 2014 , p. 118).

However, in a subsequent revisitation, DiFrisco et al. (2020 , p. 16) acknowledge that “insisting on a GRN as the basis of character identity in general would not respect the different levels of organization that these anatomical units represent,” thus introduce a new conceptual model of Character Identity Mechanisms (ChIMs). This analysis involves a remarkable level of abstraction, that allows “to hypothesize level-specific ‘parts’ of the ChIM, appropriate for the focal anatomical unit: transcription factors for cell types, cell types for tissue types, and signaling centers for organs.” (p. 16): ChIMs are intended as “cohesive mechanisms with a recognizable causal profile that allows them to be traced through evolution as homologs despite having a diverse etiological organization. Our model hypothesizes that anatomical units at different levels of organization—cell types, tissues, and organs—have level-specific ChIMs with different conserved parts, activities, and organization.” (p. 1).

However, “Some traceable body parts, such as elements of the vertebrate vascular system, may not be endowed with an identifiable ChIM […] many elements of the vascular system develop from a network of blood vessels that are shaped by epigenetic factors, such as shear stress caused by blood flow and pressure differences. In these cases, an anatomical unit that bears a name and can be compared across divergent lineages does not have a specific ChIM.”

Hierarchy Challenged

The latter sentence signals an interesting step away from a century-long tradition according to which units such as organs, tissues or cells are objectively given and hierarchically ordered kinds for which there must be specific causes.

Rather than representing tiers in a hierarchical organization, cells, tissues, organs or body parts are units of non-necessarily overlapping decompositions. Many tissues, such as blood, are not clearly confined spatially. In the ctenophoran Mnemiopsis leidyi , the patterns recognizable based on transcriptomes disclose a diversity of cell types, most of which cannot be associated with cell types distinguished by morphology or function ( Sebé-Pedrós et al., 2018 ) and well-characterized cell types are recognizable in sponges, despite the lack in those animals of a tissue organization. Other examples are discussed in Minelli (2021) .

Organs and body parts are only two of the several kinds of units into which the body has been segmented by morphologists of different times and schools. To put the discussion in full context we should broaden the scope at least to considerations of tissues and cells. However, because of strict limitation to this article’s length and of the focus on organs and organ system of the whole Research Topic collection that includes it, this aspect will be simply mentioned here.

Similar to what happens at the level of organ or body part, morphology and function are not always congruent also at the level of cells. Eventually, despite the fact that morphology is usually much more accessible than evidence about function, the first criterion for classification of cell types, at least at the coarsest level (neurons, muscular fibers, secretory cells, etc.) has remained function. We may therefore say that cell types are populations of cells performing different functions ( Blainey, 2017 ; Wagner, 2019 ). But a satisfactory, exhaustive classification of cell types based on function is often unattainable in practice ( Lundberg and Uhlen, 2017 ; Sanes, 2017 ).

Position: Tension Between Body Part and Organ

A fascinating but little investigated aspect of the evolution of animal architecture is the tension between organs and body parts due to non-congruent evolutionary constraints. This happens frequently in miniaturized animals (reviewed in Minelli and Fusco, 2019 ), especially because of the resistance of the central nervous system to follow the trend in size reduction to which structural units such as segments and body regions (tagmata: head, thorax, abdomen) accommodate more easily. For example, in the larva or the adult, or both, of several miniaturized insects, a part at least of the brain is not hosted within the cephalic capsule, that is, in the head. In the larva of Mikado sp. (Coleoptera Ptiliidae) the brain is shifted to the thoracic segments and in the first instar larva its posterior limit reaches the second abdominal segment. In the first instar larva of Mengenilla chobauti (Strepsiptera) both the brain and the suboesophageal complex are hosted within the thorax and the anterior segments of the abdomen.

A Case Study: The Evolution of Hermaphroditism

If nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution ( Dobzhansky, 1973 ), there is also scope for a study of the evolution of a function or a particular functional state.

If organs are defined in terms of function, while body parts are defined in terms of relative position, organs rather than body parts should be the units about which we will reconstruct a history of evolutionary change. But things are not so simple.

Let’s focus on the evolutionary transitions from gonochorism to hermaphroditism and vice versa. For the sake of simplicity, let’s ignore here that the term hermaphroditism covers a variety of ways in which sexes can be distributed in a population: very often, all individuals in a population produce both eggs and sperms, either sequentially or simultaneously, but in other species hermaphrodites coexist with unisexuals, more often (in animals) male only (cf. Fusco and Minelli, 2019 ).

One approach to the evolution of hermaphroditism, perhaps the most popular or most attractive one, is to investigate the contexts in which selection would favor either a transition from gonochorism to hermaphroditism, or the fixation of the latter condition in a more or less large lineage (e.g., Ghiselin, 1969 , 1974 ). However, strictly focusing on the adaptive aspects we would not be able to interpret the distribution of hermaphroditism in the different clades of metazoans, because we would neglect the different constraints caused by the different architecture of the reproductive system in different lineages – that is, by their identity as body parts, rather than as organs.

Examples of the importance of distinguishing between the evolution of hermaphroditism as a function from the evolution of the uni- or bisexual gonads where sperms and eggs are produced are offered by nemerteans (ribbon worms). Most nemerteans are gonochoric, but those that produce both eggs and sperm cells have likely evolved several times independently, judging from the widely different anatomy and topography of their reproductive systems ( Hyman, 1951 ). In ribbon worms generally, there is a row of gonads on each side of the intestine (with a single gonad or a group of gonads between two subsequent diverticula of the gut), but there are exceptions. Some hermaphroditic species have separate male and female gonads; others produce both kinds of sex cells in the same gonad; and in Dichonemertes , the anterior gonads are male, the posterior ones are female ( Coe, 1938 ): same functional status (hermaphroditism), but distinct histories of body part evolution.

Hermaphroditism is widespread in crustaceans, but very unequally distributed in the different groups. Cephalocarids and remipeds, all hermaphrodite, have distinct male and female gonads, which occupy distinct segments ( Hessler et al., 1995 ; Kubrakiewicz et al., 2012 ). Most barnacles, i.e., the members of the Cirripeda Thoracica, are also hermaphrodite (but in several species dwarf functional males also occur, and a few species are gonochoric; Yusa et al., 2013 ). Here too, male and female gonads are well separate ( Gruner, 1993 ). In the remaining crustacean groups, were hermaphroditism is rare and accidental, or even unknown, eggs and sperms are produced in distinct lobes of the same gonad (e.g., Larsen et al., 2015 ; Chen et al., 2019 ; Aneesh and Kappalli, 2020 ).

Eventually, the evolution of hermaphroditism as a function is not the same as the evolution of the uni- or bisexual gonads involved in the production of sperms and eggs. While functional considerations can explain the presence vs. absence of hermaphroditism in more or less closely related members of a clade, the evolvability of this character (and its actual phylogenetic history) are different in lineages with different body organization, that is, with different gross anatomy – number and distribution of body parts. Hermaphroditism has become the rule in groups where eggs and sperms mature in distinct gonads, but is limited to a small number of species (although, occasionally prevalent in a few lower clades, e.g., the fish families Serranidae and Sparidae) in the groups where male and female germ cells are produced within the same gonad, either simultaneously or in sequence.

Caution in respect to the conceptual or theoretical implications of terminology is of fundamental importance to sort out the mix of categories we have carried with us since the origins of biology, often concealed under polysemic terms derived from ordinary language. However, classic terms of animal morphology such as organ and organ system are probably too rooted in use to expect that they can be replaced by more precisely defined terms.

Complex systems can be decomposed in many different ways, and a choice among the alternatives is not necessarily easy ( Levins, 1970 ; Kauffman, 1971 ), but this is hardly a disturbing issue from the perspective of the practicing biologist. As noted by Wimsatt (2007 , p. 180), “scientists must work with this plurality of incompletely articulated and partially contradictory, partially supplementary theories and models,” and different “authors make different conceptual choices in developing their technical concepts all aimed at dealing with the long-recognized fact of nature that morphology and physiology, form and function, are deeply entangled by the development, operation, and evolution of life itself” ( Wimsatt, 2007 , p. 190).

In a number of instances, a functionally defined organ will be co-extensive with a morphologically defined body part, nevertheless a clear distinction between the former and the latter is a necessary prerequisite to a study of their evolution: the brief discussion on hermaphroditism in the previous section has shown how attention to the categories keeps us away from the risk of collecting under the same heading phenomena or conditions that are comparable only from perspectives other than the one we are currently interested in. For comparative morphologists there is still a lot of work ahead.

Author Contributions

AM is responsible for planning and writing this article.

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Andi Wanninger for inviting me to contribute to this topic collection and to James DiFrisco, Giuseppe Fusco and three reviewers for their precious remarks on previous versions of this article.

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Keywords : organ, body part, organ system, Dohrn, Owen, hermaphroditism, homology, evolutionary morphology

Citation: Minelli A (2021) On the Nature of Organs and Organ Systems – A Chapter in the History and Philosophy of Biology. Front. Ecol. Evol. 9:745564. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2021.745564

Received: 22 July 2021; Accepted: 08 November 2021; Published: 03 December 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Minelli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Alessandro Minelli, [email protected]

This article is part of the Research Topic

MorphoEvoDevo: A Multilevel Approach to Elucidate the Evolution of Metazoan Organ Systems

218 Anatomy & Physiology Topics to Research

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High School Students’ Understanding of the Human Body System

Published: 07 July 2011
Volume 43 , pages 33–56, ( 2013 )

Cite this article

Orit Ben-Zvi Assaraf 1 ,
Jeff Dodick 2 &
Jaklin Tripto 1

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In this study, 120 tenth-grade students from 8 schools were examined to determine the extent of their ability to perceive the human body as a system after completing the first stage in their biology curriculum - “The human body, emphasizing homeostasis”. The students’ systems thinking was analyzed according to the STH thinking model, which roughly divides it into three main levels that are arranged “pyramid” style, in an ascending order of difficulty: 1. Analysis of system components—the ability to identify the components and processes existing in the human body system; 2. Synthesis of system components—ability to identify dynamic relations within the system; 3. Implementation—ability to generalize and identify patterns in the system, and to identify its hidden dimensions. The students in this study proved largely incapable of achieving systems thinking beyond the primary STH level of identifying components. An overwhelming majority if their responses corresponded to this level of the STH model, further indicating a pronounced favoring of structure over process, and of larger, macro elements over microscopic ones.

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How is the body’s systemic nature manifested amongst high school biology students?

Jaklin Tripto, Orit Ben Zvi Assaraf, … Miriam Amit

What Is Systems Thinking?

Adams-Webber, J. R. (1990). Personal construct theory and cognitive science. International Journal of Personal Construct Psychology, 3 , 415–421.

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Appendix 1: Correlation Between Concept Maps and the STH Model

Below is a step-by-step description of how concept maps can be read as indicators of system thinking, based on the correlation of their contents to the STH model. The description is divided according to the model’s three basic levels, and further subdivided into the model’s eight individual characteristics. (Note: The fifth characteristic “identifying matter and energy cycles” is not featured here, as it is not relevant to human body systems.)

Level A: Analysis of System Components

Characteristic # 1: Identifying components and processes in the human body system . Characterizing system thinking at the components and processes level requires the following steps:

Selecting a suitable characteristic into which all the concepts written by the population may be pooled. In this study we chose ‘hierarchy in nature.’

Dividing this ‘master-characteristic’ into the categories—‘Structure’ and ‘Process’

Further dividing each of these into the sub-categories of ‘Microscopic’ and ‘Macroscopic’ levels.

Sorting the concepts written by the students into each of the categories now present under the master-characteristic ‘hierarchy in nature.’

Counting all of the concepts provided by the population to arrive at an overall amount of concepts.

Counting the number of concepts in each category.

Calculating distributions for the estimation of the students’ relative ability to represent system components vs. system processes.

For a more thorough insight into the students’ treatment of components vs. processes, the maps should also be analyzed according to the connections students made between the concepts. This necessitates the following:

Counting all the connections made by the student. A connection is a word describing a connection between two concepts. For instance: (The veins) transfer (blood) from the (heart) to the (body)’. The underlined words represent the connections drawn between the concepts.

Analyzing the contents of the connections to derive statements. “Veins transfer blood from the heart to the body”.

Sorting the resulting statements and removing those that are irrelevant to the study topic.

Sorting the statements into process/non-process related. A process-related statement refers to a string of actions or changes that are assigned a certain order within a gradual development. On the other hand, a merely descriptive statement would refer statically to an object’s state or appearance.

Calculating distributions to compare process/non-process-oriented statements.

Level B: Synthesis of System Components

Characteristic # 2: Identifying simple relationships between system components. Evidence in concepts maps of relationships between system components can be gathered by identifying both the concepts in the students’ body of knowledge, and the manner of their organization into meaningful connections. To do this one must:

Analyze the connections and translate them into statements.

Identify statements that address relationships between components, i.e. statements that address the effect of element ‘x’ upon element ‘y’.

Characteristic # 3: Identifying dynamic relationships in systems. This ability can be measured by the examination of the connection a student has formed between two concepts.

Analyze connections and translate them into statements.

Identify statements that express dynamism—i.e. statements in which the student refers to the transmission of a certain substance within the human body system.

Characteristic # 4: Organizing components and processes within a framework of relationships. Students’ ability to connect a single component to a large number of other components can be assessed by examining the number of junctions on their concept map. A ‘junction’ is a concept that has connections to at least three other concepts on the map. The number of junctions students mark between their concepts provides insight into the level of knowledge integration they have undergone. For this reason, the junctions in each map are to be counted.

Level C: Implementation

Characteristic # 6: Generalization and identification of patterns. Concept maps allow us to identify students’ understanding of patterns in human body systems by analyzing the contents of their connections. To do this, the statements derived from these connections must be sorted, and those statements that relate to patterns identified. The three patterns to be looked for are: Homeostasis, Hierarchy and Dynamism. Homeostasis includes statements that generally describe the body’s internal stability (“ the concentration of urea and water in the body is regulated by homeostasis” ). Hierarchy includes statements referring to scale in nature, while emphasizing one scale in relation to another (“ the circulatory system includes capillaries” ) . Dynamism includes statements that address dynamic processes as system characteristics that occur in the human body (“ oxygen enters the body through the lungs” ).

Characteristic # 7: Identifying hidden dimensions. To assess this characteristic, the statements derived from the map must be sorted, and those that refer to internal patterns and connections that are invisible on the body’s surface must be identified.

Characteristic # 8: Temporal thinking. This includes both retrospective thinking (backwards) and projection (forwards). To identify a students’ understanding that interactions taking place in the present can bring about and influence future events, those statements from the map in which there are temporal references must be identified.

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Assaraf, O.BZ., Dodick, J. & Tripto, J. High School Students’ Understanding of the Human Body System. Res Sci Educ 43 , 33–56 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-011-9245-2

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/ The Human Body in Research

Systems of the Human Body in Research and Education

Virtually every organ, tissue and system of the human body is needed for medical research, and nearly every disease that plagues mankind is being studied with the help of donated human organs and tissues.

Many organs act as the focal points of regenerative medicine, such as organs being decellularized to rid them of either diseased or potentially incompatible cells and later recellularized with a recipient’s own cells for eventual transplantation.

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Please see the downloadable diagram below for the complete list of organs and tissues for research available through IIAM.

Used to study the influence of hormones on cardiovascular disease.

For studies on the congenital defects of the kidney and urinary tract as a major cause of pediatric renal failure. The bladder is also studied to test new compounds to cure urinary incontinence.

For studies of genetic markers, inflammatory diseases and central nervous system disorders.

Heart, Aorta, Arteries and Veins

Medical investigators use the human heart to learn about the development of atherosclerosis in coronary arteries. These and other blood vessels are used to find ways to control clot formation and high blood pressure. Ground-breaking research for bypass procedures and the development of plaque-removal devices and improved imaging methods is also underway.

Renal tissue is used to study the toxicity of anti-cancer therapies, for example, and to study the safe concentrations of other drugs in development. Kidneys are also used to identify new biomarkers to determine their transplantability and to produce safer cold preservation methods.

The liver is responsible for most drug and chemical metabolism, and is the site of drug-drug interaction and toxicity. IIAM has been a leader in providing whole, human livers to help researchers understand how human livers respond to various drugs, to develop effective screening assays for anti-HCV drugs, and to reduce researchers’ reliance on animal testing.

Research into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cystic fibrosis, asthma, emphysema and allergies are advanced by the use of human lung tissues. In addition, researchers are testing the potential for new drugs to cause broncho-constriction of airways thus preventing possible life-threatening events.

Diabetes researchers rely on pancreatic tissues to explore the regulation of insulin production, to identify the genetic components of the disease and for toxicity studies on new compounds. Researchers are also seeking ways to prevent and cure Types I & II Diabetes. Transplantation of islet cells, the site of insulin production, is undergoing clinical trials with very promising results.

Researchers examining human skin to study comparative rates of drug absorption have developed such novel approaches as transdermal or “patch” delivery, as well as topical applications, for a variety of drug types.

As a prolific source of T-cells and B-cells, the human spleen is used by researchers to investigate AIDS and other autoimmune diseases and for tolerance studies.

Utilized in the study of gastro-esophageal reflux diseases (GERD), and to explore the side effects of new drugs for gastric disorders.

For antibody studies on human T-cells.

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220 Unique Anatomy Research Topics To Consider

Table of Contents

Basically, anatomy is a vast discipline of medicine that contains numerous topics and subtopics to deal with. Therefore, it is too difficult to choose a good topic and write an outstanding anatomy research paper. Since, a topic is essential for writing a research paper, out of the various anatomy research topics available, you must know to identify an ideal topic worthy of fetching an A+ grade. In addition to that, you should also possess strong knowledge, extensive research experience, and writing skills to compose a detailed anatomy thesis.

Right now, do you want to write an excellent anatomy research paper? Are you searching for the best anatomy research topics? Continue reading this blog and get exclusive ideas. Also, from here, learn how to choose a good topic for your academic paper.

Anatomy Research Paper Topic Selection Tips

We all know how difficult it is to find a good research topic from a broad subject like anatomy. Usually, your educators will provide interesting anatomy research project ideas for you to choose from. If you are given the option to choose the topic of your choice, follow the below-mentioned tips to identify a great anatomy research topic from a wide range of Anatomy research topics.

The topic should match your area of interest.
Prefer to choose an area or topic that you have strong knowledge of
The topic should be informative and understandable to your readers.
Avoid picking popular or frequently discussed topics and go with a unique anatomy research topic that educates your readers.
Instead of picking a broad topic and facing difficulties in completing the assignment before the deadline, it is good to choose a simple topic or narrow down a broad topic.
The topic should have sufficient research scope and should allow you to perform deep research and gather extensive information.
The topic should have a wide source of references, pieces of evidence, and examples to coherently present a strong thesis statement and prove all the major points.

Also, in order to score an A+ grade in your anatomy assignment, before finalizing your anatomy research topic, make sure that the topic you have selected stands in line with your educator’s instructions.

List of the Best Anatomy Research Topics

For writing an anatomy research paper, you can focus on any topics that are related to bone, muscles, organs, the circulatory system, the digestive system, diseases that affect the human body, and so on.

As there are endless anatomy research topics available, it might be challenging for you to search and gather research topics and ideas. Hence, to help you to solve the topic-searching issue, here, we have sorted different categories and have compiled a list of the best anatomy research topics and ideas.

Check the entire list of ideas and pick an ideal topic.

History of Anatomy Research Topics

The evolution history of human life
The evolutionary relationships and behavioral reconstruction of Miocene apes
Describe the musculoskeletal problems evolutionary biomechanics like lower extremity injuries, lower back pain, and malocclusion
Reconstruction of the last common human and chimpanzees ancestor
The hominin skull development, evolution, and biomechanics
Dental tissues used in resolving phylogenetic, taxonomic, and developmental questions about humans and great apes
Environmental and faunal change over the last 20 million years
The biomechanics and evolution of hominin locomotion like running and walking
Describe the history and evolution of anatomy
Discuss the impact of anatomy on the development of medicines
Describe the evolution of clinical anatomy
Analysis of Respiratory Anatomy and Digestive Anatomy
Analysis of the role of human anatomy on Pathophysiology
Briefly discuss the history of topographical anatomy
Discuss the role of Galen’s anatomy in the Second Century C.E. in the development and progress of medical sciences
Describe the history of anatomy from the 16 th century onwards
Discuss the osteology, histology, morphometry, and staining techniques of anatomical research
Identify and analyze some recent advances in the field of neuroanatomy

Read more: Fascinating History Research Topics For Students

Anatomy Research Topics for High School Students

How DNA differs from RNA
Causes of ulcerations- Are they hereditary?
Human body systems and their functions
How the human body produces heat
The propagation of a nervous impulse across the synapse and along a neuron
Describe the digastric process and nutrient absorption
Discuss the similarities between the autonomic and somatic nervous systems
How congestive heart failure differs from coronary artery disease
How the body performs and maintains homeostasis
The role of using a skeleton in the study of human anatomy in schools
How chemical messengers travel in the human blood
The role of RNA in the body
What are some of the environmental factors that determine cranial nerve functioning?
How the study of human anatomy helps doctors diagnose patients
Interactive online games that help in understanding the respiratory system
Discuss some of the most engaging anatomy and physiology activities
With the new technological developments, discuss the emerging bioethics in anatomy
How does the blood flow back to the human heart from the lowest extremities despite the force of gravity
Class activities that can enhance the understanding of the different ranges of movements by muscles
Investigating the anatomical science using cadavers: Factors that hinder this study

Heart Anatomy Research Topics

Describe arrhythmias
Diagnosis and treatment of hypertension
Imaging and diagnosis of coronary artery disease
Myocardial infarction or acute coronary syndrome treatment
Assessment of the ventricular function
Heart failure imaging and treatment
Investigating cardiac electrophysiology
Artificial ventricular and heart assist devices
Risk factors for CVD in a population- Diagnosis and potential treatment
Diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart disease
Investigate the susceptibility of the human heart to attacks
Cardiac hypertrophy in animals
Explain the cardiac surgery process
External conditions that affect the operation of the heart and blood vessels.
Diagnosis and treatment of the acute coronary syndrome
Describe the various heart diseases concerning their anatomy
Off-pump coronary revascularization- Anesthetic considerations
Current guidelines for the use of prophylactic antibiotics in treating valvular diseases
Cardiovascular imaging and diagnosis
Describe embolism and venous thrombosis
Diagnosis of heart failure- How to treat it
The mechanisms and potential treatment for the pulmonary hypertension
Discuss the role played by Cardiovascular progenitor cells (CPCs) and regenerative capacity in safeguarding hearth
Discuss the history and evolution of open-heart surgery
Compare and contrast the Conduction System and Circulatory System

Comparative Anatomy Research Topics

A comparative investigation of sectional anatomy and perirenal fat depots in White rabbits
A retrospective comparative investigation of Doppler findings, clinical examination, vascular anatomy, and US imaging
A comparative investigation of the anatomy of the liver in rabbit, rat, chinchilla, and guinea pig
A comparative investigation of the changes in the lumbar facet in spondylolysis
Cardiac Lymphatic developmental and comparative anatomy
A comparative study of the femoropelvic and femoral morphology musculoskeletal anatomy of great apes and humans
A comparative study of cerebral anatomy in Spider Monkey and the human brain
A comparison study of formalin-embalmed cadavers and Thiel in human anatomy learning
Compare the lower pole collecting system of the kidney for single renal stone patients and humans with normal kidneys

Anatomy Research Topics on the Muscular System

How are the human muscles responsible for movement?
How are various muscle groups coordinated to control the movements of the human body?
A case study analysis of the knee and shoulder joints
How is the muscular system involved in facial expressions, eye movements, and respiration?
The impact of the integrated effort of joints, bones, and skeletal muscles
The role of muscle fibers in the functioning of the human muscular system
The role of muscle contraction in heat production to maintain body temperature
Evaluate the functioning of different bones, internal organs, and blood vessels attached to the muscular system
How the muscles are adapted to their predominant function of contractibility
Discuss how muscle contraction contributes to posture, joint stability, and heat production.
Factors that hinder understanding of gross human muscular anatomy
Discuss how the muscular system is responsible for the rotation, flexion, extension, and side bending of the human neck
Describe some of the large muscle groups and their actions
The role of the skeletal muscles in producing more subtle movements
Analyze some of the fine adjustments that hold the body in stationary positions
How do the tendons of many muscles extend over joints?

Environmental Anatomy Research Paper Topics

The impact of the oceanic climatic change on marine life
Current issues related to environmental anatomy
Discuss the concept of survival of the fittest
The role of technology in ensuring that the ecosystem is maintained
Describe the main adaptive mechanisms for wild animals
Main problems affecting the survival of animals in the wild
Conduct a case study analysis of what it takes to live in a desert
The impact of global warming on the human anatomy
How do wild animals adapt to extreme temperatures?
Discuss the survival techniques of man during the four seasons
Why some adaptive mechanisms may not work for all animals
The part of the coronavirus pandemic in re-adjusting the environmental anatomy
Why it is challenging to protect plants from venomous invertebrates
Techniques used in the multiplication of insects
Biological adaptation of human beings in adverse conditions

Read more: Interesting World Anatomy Research Topics For Students To Consider

Interesting Anatomy Research Topics

Medical imaging techniques that have transformed human anatomy
Discuss the functioning of internal structures as they related to the overlying skin surface
The role of connective tissue in giving shape to organs and holding them in place
The impact of using optical instruments in the study of the tissues of various structures
Discuss the evolution of the examination of carcasses up to the 20th century
The impact of magnetic resonance imaging on human anatomy
Compare and contrast the invasive and non-invasive methods of studying human anatomy
The function of the light microscope in studying structural units
Evaluate the role of microtomes in slicing specimens into fragile sections
Discuss the application of magnifying glasses in anatomy in the 17th century
Discuss how the earliest dissection techniques contributed to today’s human anatomy
The role of diagnostic specialties such as radiology in human anatomy
Analyze the impact of the beliefs in life after death on human anatomy
The role of 3D modeling and virtual reality in the study of human anatomy
Describe the development of an embryo from the fertilization of the ovum to the fetal

Outstanding Anatomy Research Ideas

The role of biomolecules in accomplishing the complex goal of sustaining life
Role of the diaphragm in breathing
The essence of the thoracic wall
Discuss the anatomical structure of the torso
Why most fitness enthusiasts strive for the ‘six-pack.’
How the human anatomy is adapted for metabolic processing
The role of proper nutrition and blood supply in human anatomy
The health effects of dehydration on the human body
Why it is essential to take vitamins on an ongoing basis
How emotions and attitudes affect human growth and development

Impressive Anatomy Research Topics

Is removing the appendix when it’s convenient more practical than waiting for a problem to occur?
When do the effects of alcohol consumption begin?
The effects of high blood pressure on the circulatory system
Intelligence as a genetically transferred phenomenon
Dangers of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus
How drinking too much alcohol affects the liver
Describe the urine formation process via tubular reabsorption, glomerular filtration, and tubular secretion
Different patterns in the internal iliac artery
Analysis of high skin sensitivity causes
Why is the liver important in the human body?
Describe the aging process and how humans can slow it down
How the brain enables humans to dominate the other species
Why is the skin an organ?
Explain how Boyle’s Law relates to the function of the lung
Why do bones look white during an X-ray

Human Anatomy and Physiology Research Topics

What takes place in the human anatomy during the aging process?
What is the implication of genes about heredity?
Is chemotherapy slowly inhibiting the functioning of some body parts?
Biology factors affecting neuroanatomical of learning and memory
Dangers posed by X-rays of the internal organs
Discuss the role of the human genome project in understanding anatomy
Conduct a case study analysis of homeostasis, the endocrine, and nervous systems
Discuss the relationships between the temporal Lobe, Parietal Lobe, and the Medulla Oblongata
Why are the thyroid glands essential in the functioning of the human body?
The Role of H pylori in causing peptic ulcers
Why are genetic cloning and engineering a threat to human anatomy?
The relationship between lifestyle and the general human anatomy
Discuss the relationship between Helicobacter pylori and the normal flora
The effect of a sleeping posture on the growth and development of body parts
The structure and functioning of the human mind: A case study of teenagers
Do microchips interfere with the normal functioning of the human body?
Analyze the developmental changes that occur before birth
What is the implication of genes on athletic performance?
The role of technology in advancing regional anatomy

Brilliant Anatomy Research Topics

Describe the Synchondrosis joint
The histological characteristics of the dermis, epidermis, and hypodermis
How the five senses enable humans to receive stimuli from the outside
The success of lab-developed organs in healing natural calamity victims
How patterns of the internal iliac artery affect surgical procedures
Analysis of the Human Mitral Valve Complex
The role of diet in the development of different body organs and parts
How can one stay young and fit without exercising?
Analyze the gradual development of achromatic lenses in the study of human anatomy
Discuss the contribution of Erasistratus in advancing research in anatomy and physiology
Discuss the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging in somatotopic mapping of the fingers in the somatosensory cortex
Lesions that are responsible to cause central sleep apnea localize to one common brain network: Explain
Compare the development and regeneration of the submandibular gland
Analyze the biophysics and multiscale anatomy of the autonomic nervous system
Describe the anatomy of the spinal nerves

Informative Anatomy Research Topics

Develop a systematic review of the prevalence and clinical consideration of anatomical variants of the splenic artery
Describe the anatomic deviations of the female genital part from embryogenesis to surgery
AI with humans in the loop for automated medical image contouring in precision oncology
Describe the comparative anatomy and evolution of the mammalian larynx
Discuss Virtual immersive environments and their use in advanced anatomy training
Discuss some novel engineering solutions for the purpose of image-guided gallbladder surgery
Engineering human tissue in vitro: development, characterization, and application
Investigate selenium-doped collagen-glycosaminoglycan scaffolds as a novel bone cancer treatment
Walking on aging feet: heel impact and forefoot deformation throughout the life course
Discuss the generative deep learning models used for automated craniofacial surgical planning
How are advanced analytics get applied to the endoscopic analysis of equine upper airway function?
Explore the biomechanics of cortical and trabecular bone
Genetic Evaluation in Primary Ovarian Insufficiency (POI)
Describe the evaluation of telomere length as a potential in male infertility
A cadaveric study of morphology and morphometry of intra-articular structures of the human knee joint

Anatomy and Physiology Project Ideas

The role of fats in human anatomy
Characteristic of the vertebrate form
The peculiarity of the human neocortex
Genetic materials of the body
Extracellular materials of human anatomy
The impact of electrical impulses
Passageways in the body
Important blood vessels
Specialized connective tissues
Major structural components of the human body
Why man is more intelligent than other mammals
Organic compounds of the body structure
Chemical composition of the human body
The role of water and extracellular fluid in the human body
Hormone-secreting glands and tissues
The notochord in the embryo
The role of the spinal cord
The ventral alimentary tube
The excretory system
Muscles of respiration
Glandular responses
Why do wounds take longer to heal in aging people
The leathery part of the skin
The musculoskeletal system
Analyze the sensory information.
Sexual dimorphism of the branching pattern of coronary arteries – Is it an anatomical cause for reduced incidence of IHD in females?
Develop a cadaveric study on the anatomical variations in the papillary muscles of the mitral complex

Captivating Anatomy Research Paper Topics

How does chemotherapy treatment affect the body?
Why is the lymphatic system important in the body?
Explain how the immune system functions.
Explain the interlinking of the human body systems.
Differentiate osteoprogenitor cells, osteocytes, osteoblasts, and osteoclasts.
Analyze how mind control affects the healing process.
What is the purpose of thyroid glands?
Discuss the human body’s bone structure
Explain how exhaustion, injuries, and stress influence muscles and cells
Write about the immunological memory phenomenon

Final Thoughts

From the list of excellent ideas suggested in this blog post, pick any topic interesting to you and craft a brilliant anatomy research paper. In case, you haven’t identified a perfect topic, or you are not sure how to write an informative anatomy research paper, contact us quickly.

We have a team of academic writers who are experts in the field of health and medical science to assist you in identifying a good anatomy research topic and completing a high-quality, plagiarism-free research paper as per your requirements without skipping the deadline.

Just place your order and enjoy the benefits of our online assignment writing service at an affordable price.

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Research Paper Assignment

Diseases of body systems research project.

Overview: The purpose of this activity is to consider a disease, condition or health issue of special interest to you from the list provided. The topics on this list have been well studied and were chosen because they deviate from normal anatomy and physiology, and they involve several systems in the body. Your goal is to apply your knowledge of anatomy and physiology to the topic chosen.

Learning outcomes: The expected outcomes are to apply and integrate basic anatomy and physiology knowledge to clinical applications, to access reliable references and communicating (in written form) the information effectively.

The research project must include the following components:

Introduction : This introductory paragraph or paragraphs should contain a general definition of the disease/condition including a brief discussion of the etiology (cause or causes) of the disease.
Normal Anatomy / Pathogenesis / Pathophysiology : This section of the research paper should include a basic overview of the normal anatomy and physiology of TWO primary systems affected by the disease. It should also describe the Pathogenesis and Pathophysiology of the disease. Pathogenesis is an explanation of the origin and development of the disease or in other words how the disease causes changes in the normal anatomy. Pathophysiology is an explanation of how the disease/condition affects the normal functions of the organ(s) or system(s). Be sure to describe all organs/ systems involved in the disease. It is important that terms not commonly used by the general public be explained or defined in the paper or you can use an asterisk (*) at the end of the word if you choose to define the term in the glossary at the end of the paper. This will typically be the longest section of the paper and will be worth the most points.
Clinical manifestations : This section of the paper should describe the consequences of the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of the disease/condition, including the major signs and symptoms. Again it is important that terms not commonly used by the general public be explained or defined in the paper or as mentioned you can use an asterisk (*) at the end of the word if you choose to define the term in the glossary at the end of the paper.
Treatments : This section of the paper should describe any treatment options available. Include a discussion of how the treatments generally work to treat the etiology, pathogenesis, pathophysiology or signs and symptoms.

** The above topics can be used as subheadings in your paper if you wish.

** Throughout the research paper, a clear connection to normal anatomy and physiology must be made!

In a separate section (after the written report) you must also include the following:

Glossary of medical terms : A list of medical terms used in the research paper identified with an asterisk (*).
Graphic (picture/diagram) : You must include at least one relevant to the topic, with a caption/explanation of the graphic written in your own words. The source of the graphic must be cited as are all references used throughout the paper.
Evaluation report of ONE website used : Refer to the “evaluation of websites” section of this handout for further information.
References : You must include for all sources used to gather information to write the paper the full reference information in correct APA format .

Format and style of the paper

Use vocabulary and writing style appropriate to beginning health occupations students, or in other words, “use your own words”. It is usually quite obvious when students simply “copy” text from research journals using terminology beyond their training or understanding.
The main part of the paper should be 6-8 pages of text (Times New Roman, size 12 font, double-spaced , using 1” margins).
Where appropriate, bulleted lists can be used rather than full sentences, but in these areas of the paper use single spacing between the lines.
Glossary, graphic, web evaluation, and references are additional pages (not included in the 6-8 pages of content).
References must be cited in the body of the report as well as in the “References (bibliography)” section at the end of the paper using the correct APA format.
One must be a medical/health sciences reference book (written for health practitioners, not the general public). A good example is the Merck Manual. An A&P text book or medical dictionary like Taber’s do NOT count as medical reference books although you may certainly use them as additional resources.
One must be an article in a scientific journal or magazine such as the Journal of American Medicine Association (JAMA) or British Medical Journal (BMJ) to name a few . This source will generally be published several times a year, so should include the volume or issue # and pages used.
One must be a website, that generally has a URL that ends in .edu, .org, .gov, or .com. A search engine like yahoo, google, or Proquest used to find an article or source is NOT a website.
In the body of the text : This is done by citing the author and date of the work in parenthesis)
In a Literature Cited section (at end of paper) : This is done by listing the references used in alphabetical order by the last name of the primary author.
It is not acceptable to simply download information directly from the Internet, or to directly copy the wording of any sources (unless short sections of direct quotes are enclosed in quotation marks). All information must be put into your own words, organized logically, and formatted uniformly. (Exception: a graphic may be printed directly, but the source must be clearly and correctly cited.) Do not include any information or graphics that you don’t understand !
Use of our class textbook or other basic anatomy/physiology textbooks, or excerpts from a medical/nursing dictionary (Taber’s) do not count as required references. These sources may be used, but are in addition to the required references.
Since only a small section of any of these books will be used, the literature citation must include the page numbers used.
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Glob Ment Health (Camb)

Body image as a global mental health concern

Rachel f. rodgers.

1 APPEAR, Department of Applied Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

2 Department of Psychiatric Emergency & Acute Care, Lapeyronie Hospital, CHRU Montpellier, Montpellier, France

Katherine Laveway

Priscila campos.

3 NICTA, Body Image and Eating Disorders Research Group, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil

Pedro Henrique Berbert de Carvalho

4 AMBULIM, Eating Disorders Program, Institute of Psychiatry, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Peer Review Summary

Body image concerns related to weight or other dimensions of appearance are now prevalent on a global scale. This paper reviews the theoretical frameworks that account for the global similarities and regional differences in rates and presentation of body image concerns, as well as reviewing the extant data. Given the harmful consequences of body image concerns in terms of mental and physical health, their global burden is high. Interventions to mitigate these concerns at the individual and systemic level are warranted.

Impact statement

Body image concerns include preoccupation and dissatisfaction with the body’s appearance including its shape and weight as well as other characteristics. Body image concerns are present across the globe due to strong pressures to pursue appearance ideals. Although these concerns may vary with cultural context, their prevalence and association with poor mental and physical health are global. Given these high rates and the negative effects of body image concerns, it is important to increase our efforts to prevent and decrease them across the globe.

Introduction

Body image is a multidimensional construct encompassing the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of an individual related to their own appearance (Cash, 2004 ). Body image is often conceptualized as including both an evaluative aspect (satisfaction or concern with appearance) and an evaluation of the centrality of body image to an individual’s identity (Jarry et al., 2019 ). Historically, much of the empirical research has focused on body image from a deficit lens, in particular as a risk factor for poor mental health and psychopathology including eating disorders and other mental health concerns. In addition, this work has been helpful in highlighting body image concerns as a mental health concern in its own right. Nevertheless, more recently increasing attention has been focused on body image through a positive psychology lens (Tylka and Wood-Barcalow, 2015 ) and the ways in which positive body image can be related to well-being. As part of this focus on positive body image, more attention has been paid to nonappearance dimensions of body image such as functionality and embodiment (Piran, 2019 ; Alleva and Tylka, 2021 ).

Much of the early literature in the area of body image, up until the new millennium, stemmed from English-speaking high-income countries. In recent years, this literature has been expanded to include work from a range of countries and geographic regions. The aim of this review is to offer a critical synthesis of the literature that exists on body image at a global level. First, prevailing theoretical frameworks that have guided this work will be reviewed. Second, the existing data regarding body image at a global level will be summarized. Finally, implications and future directions will be offered.

Theoretical overview

Several theories have been developed to usefully guide investigations into body image. These frameworks place important emphasis on the role of elements at different levels, ranging from theories focusing on macro-level elements such as social discourse and institution, and those centered on the role of individual-level factors. Here, dominant theories are presented in order of narrowing lens, from the macro- to individual level.

Body capital

The acceleration of highly visual culture, facilitated by digital technologies in recent years, has exacerbated the extent to which the body’s appearance is a central source of capital for individuals worldwide (Bourdieu, 2018 ). Body capital consists of two distinct dimensions: (1) the amount of body capital held by an individual and (2) the extent to which individuals are encouraged to invest in their body as a source of capital. Both of these dimensions are related to the matrices of power and privilege that underpin the majority of contemporary societies in which certain bodies hold more social power than others. Thus, a body that is read as holding certain identities and that is closer to social beauty standards will hold more body capital. Conversely, individuals whose identities afford them lower power and privilege, such as Black and Indigenous People of Color, and those who live in larger bodies, are more strongly encouraged to invest in their appearance as a source of capital. This perspective is relevant when considering who within a certain group is thus more likely to experience their body as related to their experiences of oppression, while concurrently experiencing it as a modifiable source of potential capital (Edmonds, 2007 ; Hunter, 2011 ).

Sociocultural theories

Sociocultural theories highlight how messages from broad social discourses, relayed by proximal sociocultural agents (such as the media or the interpersonal environment), influence individuals’ beliefs regarding appearance and thereby their body image. Thus, for example, social discourses regarding the moral value of pursuing an appearance that conforms to external standards, including in terms of weight, and that encourages individuals to discipline and self-monitor their bodies have been useful (Thompson et al., 1999 ; Fitzsimmons-Craft, 2011 ). In addition, these theories have made important contributions in highlighting the increasing demands placed on individuals in terms of appearance standards, the unrealistic nature of beauty ideals, as well as their progressive globalization (Widdows, 2018 ). While it is true that appearance ideals vary across cultures, as well as social identities including gender and sexual orientation, it is also the case that a globalized ideal that is slender, toned yet curvy for women and muscular and lean for men, and golden in skin tone is emerging (Widdows, 2018 ). These theories also highlight how these socially constructed appearance standards serve political and economic goals as their inherent unattainability generates large financial profits as individuals strive to pursue them, while their perpetuation of oppressive social hierarchies contributes to maintaining the existing systems of power and privilege (Hesse-Biber et al., 2006 ; Rodgers, 2022 as cited in Aimé, 2022 ). Empirical work grounded in these theories has been useful in identifying mechanisms through which sociocultural discourses and appearance ideals are internalized by individuals, and the role of appearance comparison in the development and maintenance of body image concerns (Shroff and Thompson, 2006 ; Rodgers et al., 2011 ; Schaefer et al., 2019 ).

Related to the idea of body capital, Westernization, urbanization, and rapid economic growth have been posited to be linked to increased body image concerns through intensifying media and advertising pressures, as well as competition for resources and social mobility (Becker, 2004 ; McLaren and Kuh, 2004 ; Gorrell et al., 2019 ). From this perspective, countries that are most affluent, as well as those that are undergoing the most rapid cultural and economic transitions, are likely to be those where the highest rates of body image concerns are found.

Critical feminist theories

Critical feminist theories have been useful in identifying how gendered processes that serve economic and political goals of gender majorities, including the objectification of women and gender minorities, are related to body image (Peterson et al., 2008 ; Roberts et al., 2018 ). These theories emphasize how the gendered nature of body ideals and the social value attributed to appearance serve to further protect existing gender hierarchies. Thus, for example, socializing women to be invested in achieving an unrealistically slender and highly groomed appearance diverts energies and resources away from other (political and social) activities and continues to perpetuate systems in which women’s social worth is indexed to their appearance (Widdows, 2018 ; Piran, 2019 ). In addition, these theories have highlighted how the objectification of women in society, in particular through media images, leads to women internalizing the need to self-monitor one’s body, in the form of self-surveillance and self-objectification, and how these factors are also associated with poor body image (Fitzsimmons-Craft, 2011 ).

Minority stress theories

A third important group of theories has highlighted how individuals who hold minoritized identities may experience and fear appearance-based discrimination (Brewster et al., 2017 ; Veldhuis et al., 2017 ; Brewster et al., 2019 ). These experiences and the associated anxiety lead to negative affect, a recognized risk factor for body image concerns, as well as heightened preoccupation with appearance. In addition, individuals may engage in efforts to avoid discrimination and the associated anxiety by attempting to modify their appearance through behaviors that may be harmful in the long term, as well as avoiding situations in ways that may be impairing over time.

A comprehensive integrative model of minority stress and sociocultural theory was useful to better understand how minority stressors (heterosexist discrimination, sexual orientation concealment, and internalized homophobia) were related to sociocultural influences (sociocultural pressures, thin ideal, and muscular-ideal internalization) and body image concerns and related body change behaviors (Convertino et al., 2021 ).

Empirical evidence across countries

High-income english-speaking countries.

The large majority of the available research has stemmed from high-income English-speaking countries such as the USA, Canada, the UK, and Australia (Holmqvist and Frisén, 2010 ). In such cultural contexts, strong adherence to unrealistically slender and muscular ideals is overall found, with little variation across high socioeconomic status sites (Swami et al., 2010 ). In such contexts, body image concerns are highly prevalent and tend to be greatest among individuals with minoritized identities including women, sexual and gender minorities, individuals living in larger bodies, and those from minoritized racial and ethnic backgrounds (Frederick et al., 2022 ). Appearance ideals that are gendered, heteronormative, ableist, ageist, and Eurocentric contribute to centering concerns around weight, muscularity, youth, fairness, and related characteristics across groups.

Research has suggested that levels of body image concerns in high-income English-speaking countries, particularly in the USA, are among the highest globally, with the exception of pockets of very affluent and Westernized areas, such as within Asia (Holmqvist and Frisén, 2010 ). It is also within such contexts that research focusing on positive body image has received the greatest attention (Halliwell, 2015 ), as well as research aiming to refine explanatory models of body image concerns that account for interindividual variations (Pachankis et al., 2020 ).

In the USA and in other English-speaking high-income countries, negative body image has been associated with eating disorders (Drummond, 2002 ; McLean and Paxton, 2019 ), as well as depression and postpartum depression (Brausch and Gutierrez, 2009 ; Silveira et al., 2015 ), and poor psychosocial functioning (Davison and McCabe, 2006 ). Effective interventions to decrease body image concerns have been developed, in particular those that increase understandings of the socially constructed nature of appearance ideals and decrease adherence to them (Marchand et al., 2011 ; Lewis-Smith et al., 2019 ). Notably, sometimes these interventions address eating disorders as the main outcome and body image as a risk factor (Marchand et al., 2011 ). However, these interventions need to be embedded more systematically into existing networks and systems, and efforts to decrease universal risk need to be increased (Bell et al., 2016 ).

European countries

Studies in European non-English-speaking countries have overall evidenced findings that are similar to those in high-income English-speaking countries, although overall rates of body image concerns tend to be lower than in the USA (Frederick et al., 2007 ; Holmqvist and Frisén, 2010 ). Within Europe, variations exist in terms of body image, for example, individuals from Belgium and Portugal have reported lower rates of body size satisfaction as compared to Norway and Denmark (Kvalem et al., 2020 ).

Latin countries such as Portugal and Spain tend to place more emphasis on appearance, which is accompanied by higher rates of cosmetic surgery and body image concerns (Stefanile et al., 2015 ). Consistent with the theories described previously, high rates of appearance investment and anxiety in Cyprus, as compared to other European countries, were interpreted as being related to the lower economic power of the area and recent rapid urbanization and change (Koutsantoni et al., 2020 ).

Among European samples, body image has been found to be associated with mental health concerns including internalizing symptoms (Ramos et al., 2019 ), eating disorder symptoms (Rodgers et al., 2011 ), and poor psychological functioning (Corry et al., 2009 ; Træen et al., 2016 ). Given the preliminary evidence for the burden of body image concerns in Europe, continuing to develop efforts toward prevention is critical (Barbosa, 2021 ).

Latin America

Body image disturbances and physical appearance concerns are prevalent in most Latin American countries (McArthur et al., 2005 ; Silva et al., 2011 ; Forbes et al., 2012 ; Amaral and Ferreira, 2017 ; Swami et al., 2020 : Bolívar-Suárez et al., 2021 ; León-Paucar et al., 2021 ). Research points to several sociocultural factors related to body image concerns in Latin American samples, such as pressure to achieve socially prescribed body ideals and the internalization of appearance ideals (Austin and Smith, 2008 ; Mellor et al., 2008 ; Forbes et al., 2012 ; de Carvalho et al., 2017 ; de Carvalho and Ferreira, 2020 ), unique pressures to meet unrealistic standards of beauty (Forbes et al., 2012 ; Gruber et al., 2022 ), thin-ideal awareness (Moreno-Domínguez et al., 2019 ), negative appearance-related messages from family members (Rivero et al., 2022 ), acculturative stress (Quiñones et al., 2022 ), and acculturation (Marquez and Benitez, 2021 ).

It is noteworthy that poor mental health has been associated with body image concerns in Latin American countries, including low self-esteem (Amaral and Ferreira, 2017 ; Bolívar-Suárez et al., 2021 ), depressive symptoms (Amaral and Ferreira, 2017 ; Delgado-Floody et al., 2021 ; León-Paucar et al., 2021 ), poor psychological well-being (Amaral and Ferreira, 2017 ; Lemes et al., 2018 ; Matias et al., 2020 ), mental health concerns (Pinheiro et al., 2007 ; Silva et al., 2011 ), and eating disorder symptoms (Compte et al., 2015 ; Amaral and Ferreira, 2017 ; de Carvalho et al., 2017 ; de Carvalho and Ferreira, 2020 ). Although effective interventions to decrease body image concerns have been developed for Latin Americans (Castillo et al., 2019 ; Almeida et al., 2021 ; Rutsztein et al., 2021 ; Resende et al., 2022 ), there is still a critical need to position body image as a priority in public mental health policies, and again several of these programs address body image as a risk factor within eating disorder prevention. This may be particularly challenging in Latin America countries, given difficulties faced in their operationalization, financing, and adaptation to sociocultural realities (Leiva-Peña et al., 2021 ).

Asia and South-East Asia

Beauty ideals in Asia and South-East Asia have been described as centering around being small-bodied as well as a particular emphasis on facial features (Mellor et al., 2013 ) and skin tone (Prusaczyk and Choma, 2018 ). Asia is a very diverse area in terms of affluence and cultural groups, and unsurprisingly, these differences have been found to be associated with variations in body image concerns. Thus, for example, in highly Westernized and affluent parts of Asia, levels of body image concerns are among the highest in the world (e.g. Shih and Kubo, 2005 ; Jung et al., 2009 ).

As in other cultures, support has been found for the role of media influence in body image across Asian countries including in Singapore (Chang et al., 2019 ), Taiwan (Chang et al., 2013 ), Korea (You and Shin, 2020 ), Hong Kong and China (Rochelle and Hu, 2017 ), and Japan (Ando et al., 2021 ), as well as the role of the internalization of appearance ideals (Omori et al., 2017 ; Hsu et al., 2021 ). In addition, work has been accumulating from a positive body image perspective, suggesting that these constructs are relevant to these groups (Swami and Jaafar, 2012 ; Todd and Swami, 2020 ).

As documented in other cultural contexts, in Asian countries body image concerns have been associated with eating disorder symptoms (Yamamiya et al., 2008 ; Chisuwa and O’Dea, 2010 ; Kaewpradub et al., 2017 ), depression (Prusaczyk and Choma, 2018 ), and poorer quality of life (Santhira Shagar et al., 2021 ). In very recent years, prevention efforts have been extended to affluent and developing areas of Asia (Craddock et al., 2021 ; Danthinne et al., 2022 ; Garbett et al., 2022 ); however, more work is needed.

The Middle East

Body image concerns are present in the Middle East; however, much of the existing work has focused on women, with rare exceptions (Melki et al., 2015 ; Saghir and Hyland, 2017 ). A study among women from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, and Syria revealed that in each country 32–39% of women reported being dissatisfied with their body weight, and 17–22% reported a preference for the body shape of Western models (Musaiger, 2015 ). In another study among women from southwestern Saudi Arabia, 77% indicated a discrepancy between their actual, perceived, and ideal weights (Khalaf et al., 2015 ).

Similar to findings in other settings, urbanization has been associated with a preference for thinness (Jackson et al., 2003 ), and research has pointed to the role of sociocultural factors in body image concerns, including the role of media (Tayyem et al., 2016 ; Saghir and Hyland, 2017 ) and the internalization of appearance ideals (Melki et al., 2015 ; Zainal et al., 2020 ). Perhaps in this geographic area more than others, the role of cultural and religious values and behaviors has been explored, with findings suggesting that the relationships are complex and require further disentangling (Al-Mutawa et al., 2019 ; Sidi et al., 2020 ).

Again, as in other contexts, body image concerns have been associated with eating disorder symptoms in students from Iran (Naeimi et al., 2016 ) and with depression among students in Turkey (Tayfur and Evrensel, 2020 ). These findings suggest that here too, body image may be accompanied by significant mental health burden, and that tailoring and extending prevention efforts to these settings would be important.

While specific appearance ideals and body image concerns vary across contexts throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, traditional standards of beauty for women often reflect a preference for a larger body size and a fuller, curvier shape (Furnham and Baguma, 1994 ; Tovée et al., 2006 ; Naigaga et al., 2018 ). These traditional standards of attractiveness and beauty continue to exert influence on body image ideals today, with women and men at higher weights endorsing greater appearance satisfaction than those at lower weights (Otakpor and Ehimigbai, 2016 ; Tuoyire et al., 2018 ).

Consistent with this, cross-cultural work has supported that body image satisfaction, including as related to weight and muscularity, is higher among groups from African countries as compared to similarly aged groups from countries such as China, Indonesia, and Ecuador (Blum et al., 2021 ), and the UK (Thornborrow et al., 2020 ).

However, globalization has brought increasing pressures to achieve Eurocentric beauty ideals and a greater desire for smaller hips, larger buttocks, straight hair, lighter skin tones, and slimmer noses among African women (Balogun-Mwangi et al., under review ; Eddy et al., 2007 ; Kaziga et al., 2021 ). Consistent with theories regarding the role of accelerating modernity, among women in South Africa, Cameroon, and Uganda, higher levels of desire for thinness and preference for smaller bodies have developed (Dapi et al., 2007 ; Prioreschi et al., 2017 ; Kaziga et al., 2021 ), as well as a preference for Eurocentric beauty ideals among women from Nigeria versus Kenya (Balogun-Mwangi et al., under review ). Thus, appearance ideals may be changing in African countries and pressures to pursue mainstream globalized appearances may be increasing.

As predicted by sociocultural theories, these pressures, including pressures from social media, which represents a principal source of globalized appearance pressures, have been found to be associated with body size dissatisfaction (Michels and Amenyah, 2017 ), desire for a thinner body (Terhoeven et al., 2020 ), and poorer overall body image (Kaziga et al., 2021 ) in Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Uganda, respectively. Although multiple factors may be at play, increased exposure to Western (but not Zimbabwean) media was found to account for poorer body image among Zimbabwean women (Swami et al., 2012 ). The literature pertaining to body image among men in Africa is more scarce. Nevertheless, emerging research has suggested that while dissatisfaction with muscularity may be present in men, rates are lower than in other cultural contexts such as the USA (Frederick et al., 2007 ).

Consistent with findings from around the globe, in Africa greater body image concerns have been associated with poorer mental health outcomes, including eating disorders (Prioreschi et al., 2017 ; Terhoeven et al., 2020 ), depression and anxiety (Corona et al., 2019 ), lower quality of life (Ejike, 2015 ), and general psychiatric morbidity (Otakpor and Ehimigbai, 2016 ). Again, efforts to prevent this burden would be important.

Global commonalities

Although differences exist, the literature has also highlighted commonalities across countries at the global level in terms of appearance ideals (Lipinski and Pope, 2002 ; Swami et al., 2010 ), the nature of body image concerns, and potential risk factors in the development of these concerns. Support has been found for media exposure, and particularly Westernized media exposure, as a correlate of poorer body image among adults across 26 countries in 10 world regions (Swami et al., 2010 ; Schaefer et al., 2019 ). Similarly, among adolescents from 24 countries across Europe, Canada, and the USA, the role of parental influence in body image has been supported (Al Sabbah et al., 2009 ). These findings provide strong support for continuing to ground work in sociocultural models that account for these pathways.

In addition, the literature has supported the fact that immigration from a lower income and less Westernized area to a higher income, urban, and Westernized area is frequently accompanied by increased body image concerns (Toselli et al., 2016 ). This increase may be related to greater exposure to Western media, as well as increased minority stress, and a loss of capital that may lead to body capital becoming more salient.

Importantly, the consistent findings regarding the association between body image and multiple indicators of poor mental health including eating disorders, mood disorders, and general impaired functioning highlight the critical nature of body image concerns. Coordinated efforts should be made to address this global issue.

Theoretical and practical implications

Theoretical implications.

Predominant theories that have been useful for conceptualizing body image concerns include those that highlight the importance of sociocultural identities, particularly from an intersectional and minority stress standpoint. The majority of the work that has been conducted outside of high-income Western countries has focused on sociocultural elements including pressures toward thinness and internalization of media ideals (e.g. Moreno-Domínguez et al., 2019 ; Zainal et al., 2020 ; Hsu et al., 2021 ). This represents an important gap, as theories that can account for the ways in which appearance is tied to power and privilege are likely particularly useful ones in such contexts. Future work at the global level should seek to explore these facets to a greater extent. It is notable, however, that the work grounded in sociocultural theories suggested that these frameworks and their related constructs are still applicable outside of affluent Western contexts. Together, these findings suggest that additional attention should be focused on extending theories to be culturally informed and sensitive to cultural variations as well as integrating important elements of minority and intersectionality theory.

Practice implications

From a practice perspective, findings highlight three important elements. First, the prevalence of body image concerns worldwide is high. Second, these concerns are robustly linked to mental health concerns. Third, prevention efforts are limited by their failure to be embedded in existing structures (e.g. school curriculum, etc.) and by the fact that some of the programs that have received the greatest research attention target body image in the context of eating disorder prevention. Together, these three elements point to an urgent need to elevate the seriousness of appearance concerns at a global level and to continue efforts to develop universal and targeted interventions with a broad reach that can be easily disseminated, for example through embedding them in existing services for youth or by leveraging the reach of digital technologies. These efforts should build on additional work extending theoretical frameworks that can identify cross-cultural core intervention targets (such as internalization of appearance ideals) as well as culturally specific ones.

Future directions

Although initially constricted to high-income English-speaking countries, the empirical literature focused on body image has started to extend to a global level, making important contributions to our knowledge of the global burden of body image concerns. Despite these contributions, several areas of future research emerge.

Extending to more diverse groups

Replicating the ways in which the body image literature developed within the field, the majority of the extant literature from areas such as Africa or the Middle East has to date largely focused on women and thinness-related concerns. Moving forward, it will be important to extend this work to more diverse groups in terms of gender, sexual orientation, age, and ability. Moreover, while important work has been conducted on the role of urbanization, it will be important to better understand how low socioeconomic status may place individuals at greatest risk for body image concerns and unhealthy behaviors in urban settings. Finally, using an intersectional lens will enrich the literature and provide a more fine-grained understanding of the way vulnerability to these concerns is distributed through the population (Burke et al., 2020 ).

Expanding to more culturally relevant understandings of body image

As described above, a large amount of the existing literature has centered on body weight and shape, with a predominant focus on thinness and to some extent on muscularity. Evidence for the importance of other aspects of appearance in body image exists, however (Lowy et al., 2021 ). Future research should seek to better characterize the aspects of appearance that may be particularly central to body image in different groups so as to conduct culturally sensitive research.

In addition, greater focus on positive elements of body image will help to shift conceptualizations toward a strengths-based model and to increase understanding of the unique strengths certain cultural groups may have in terms of positive body image. In particular, exploring settings in which appearance is less salient may be helpful for understanding how to decenter appearance in affluent and highly Westernized contexts.

Preventing and decreasing body image concerns

Finally, given the global rates and commonalities of body image concerns, greater efforts should be made to prevent and decrease these concerns. Although scalable interventions have started to emerge across the globe (Marchand et al., 2011 ; Craddock et al., 2021 ; Garbett et al., 2022 ), this work is still in its infancy. In addition to developing such programs, working with stakeholders and policymakers is crucial to decreasing universal risk for body image concerns effectively at a global level, with Western media emerging as a particularly important target (Bell et al., 2016 ).

Conclusions

The findings from this review highlight how body image concerns constitute a burden at the global level, with higher levels of risk among already vulnerable groups. The oppressive nature of appearance ideals, combined with their function to maintain social hierarchies and generate profit, contributes to explaining this increased risk. The variations in risk observed at the global level, which map onto levels of economic development and international power, are to some extent replicated within countries (such as within the USA where minoritized groups experience greater concerns) and geographic areas (e.g. in Europe, where lower income countries report higher levels of body image concerns). However, countries in which Westernized appearance ideals are still only gaining ground, and where the social emphasis on appearance is lower, may still be protected from body image concerns to some extent (Frederick et al., 2007 ).

Open peer review

To view the open peer review materials for this article, please visit http://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2023.2 .

Author contributions

All authors contributed to reviewing the relevant research, drafting the first version of the manuscript, and final editing.

Competing interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

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Author comment: Body image as a global mental health concern — R0/PR1

Rachel rodgers.

Northeastern University, United States

8th August 2022

Dear Sir,

My coauthors and I would like to submit our manuscript titled “Body image as a global mental health concern” to Global Mental Health. Our review highlights the prevalence of body image concerns across the globe as well as associated risk factors, and the need for universal and targeted prevention.

Many thanks in advance for your time and consideration. We look forward to hearing from you,

Yours sincerely,

Rachel Rodgers, Ph.D.. FAED

Associate Professor

Review: Body image as a global mental health concern — R0/PR2

Kristina holmqvist.

University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Comments to Author : Thank you for the opportunity to review this interesting manuscript. It is well-written, well-organized, and takes a much-needed global perspective on the widespread body image concerns across continents. It describes different theoretical frameworks for understanding body image concerns globally and it also summarizes what is known from research in different regions. I very much enjoyed reading this paper. Theories and results are clearly described. I especially liked the idea of interpreting the different rates in body image concerns in the light of the different theoretical frameworks and I think the paper could be improved by adding even more discussion/links between these. Below are my more specific comments:

Page 2: Body image is defined as “thoughts, feelings and behaviors of an individual related to their own appearance”, but body image may also comprise thoughts, feelings and behaviors related to other aspects of the body (health, functionality). Does this study focus more on the appearance domain? Please specify.

Page 2: “the early literature” – what time period does this refer to?

Page 2: it says “individuals whose identities afford them lower power and privilege” – could you please give examples?

Page 4: “toned yet curvy ideal” seems to describe a female ideal although this is not made explicit. Is there a global male ideal too?

Page 4: Critical feminist theories are salient in current body image research. Should this perspective be more emphasized in the theoretical part?

Page 2-5: It strikes me after reading the results that the research described seems to be investigating body image concerns mostly from sociocultural theory. It could be a good idea to think about the order of presentation of the theories, for example by starting with the most explored theory.

Page 6: it is stated that effective interventions have been developed – could you add some information regarding the focus of these interventions? This could be helpful for the other regions too.

Page 6: “In contrast, Latin countries…”. The previous sentence describes findings from Portugal which could be defined as a European Latin country. Should “in contrast” be removed from the sentence? Findings seem not to be in contrast. Should it be “Latin countries such as Portugal and X..”?

On page 14: “with higher levels of risk among already vulnerable groups.” – which are these groups? For example, one of the findings is that body image concerns are more salient in high-income English-speaking countries. This may not be considered a vulnerable group.

Some overall comments:

As mentioned above, I would like to see more connections between the results and the theories described. This is only briefly discussed on page 12 and I find this part very interesting. I think extending this discussion (for example in a section of its own) could really improve the paper. How can we understand the results in relation to the theories described? Is there support for all theories? How should future intervention/prevention look like considering these findings/theoretical frameworks?

Finally, there are a few grammatical errors/ typos in the MS, for example page 2 “privilege than underpin”, and page 4 “the role (of) appearance comparisons”.

Review: Body image as a global mental health concern — R0/PR3

Comments to Author : Manuscript ID: GMH-22-0225

The authors proposed an important review of the theoretical frameworks about body image concerns through the different regions of the globe. This is a relevant topic to be discussed, given its implications in our society, especially in mental health field. That said, I have some questions, concerns and comments.

1. I understand the limitation of the words count to give an in-depth discussion about the theoretical concepts elected. However, I think that the presentation of the theories (Body Capital, Sociocultural and Minority stress) is excessively superficial.

P.3 – when talking about Body Capital, the authors cite Edmonds (2007) and Hunter (2011) that are secondary references, i.e., they cite the original authors. It would be better if the authors cited original theorists such as Pierre Bourdieu.

P. 3 – the topic’s number is 2.2 instead of 2.3.

P. 4 – I think it is important add some references to the following phrase: “These theories also highlight how […] existing systems of power and privilege”.

P. 5 – I suggest better explain the integrative model by Convertino et al. (2021).

2. The topic about the empirical evidence across countries is very diverse. They lack unity and cohesion. The information about some regions is more complete and more detailed than others. Also, the authors cite some old studies (from 2010, for example) to sustain the argumentation. About prevention programs, I suggest that the authors standardize the inclusion of eating disorders prevention programs that contain body image concerns in its scripts (such as the Body Project versions cited in the Latin America topic), making this information clear in the text. For example, when talking about prevention programs target specifically on body image concerns, this should be highlighted as well as when the programs that are being cited are ED prevention interventions.

P. 7 – The authors cited Diedrichs et al. (2015) as a study among non-English speaking countries. However, this research was carried out in UK.

P. 7 – The study from Barbosa (2021) is not cited in the references.

3. In order to better establish the relevance and innovation of the proposed review, the authors should add a topic summarizing how the found results across globe confirm or refute the theoretical concepts elected and presented (Body Capital, Sociocultural and Minority stress). Moreover, a better discussion about the implication of these information to the global mental health ins recommended.

Specific questions from the editor:

Question 1:

For global reviews, how well does the review cover global content in the inclusion of research, presentation of results, and/or in the discussion and implications? And how could this be improved/expanded?

The manuscript gives an overall framework about body image concerns around different regions of the globe. Besides that, it would be important to better discuss the implications of these information to the global mental health field.

Recommendation: Body image as a global mental health concern — R0/PR4

No accompanying comment.

Decision: Body image as a global mental health concern — R0/PR5

Decision: body image as a global mental health concern — r0/pr6.

How to Write a Body of a Research Paper

The main part of your research paper is called “the body.” To write this important part of your paper, include only relevant information, or information that gets to the point. Organize your ideas in a logical order—one that makes sense—and provide enough details—facts and examples—to support the points you want to make.

Logical Order

Transition words and phrases, adding evidence, phrases for supporting topic sentences.

Transition Phrases for Comparisons
Transition Phrases for Contrast
Transition Phrases to Show a Process
Phrases to Introduce Examples
Transition Phrases for Presenting Evidence

How to Make Effective Transitions

Examples of effective transitions, drafting your conclusion, writing the body paragraphs.

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The third and fourth paragraphs follow the same format as the second:
Transition or topic sentence.
Topic sentence (if not included in the first sentence).
Supporting sentences including a discussion, quotations, or examples that support the topic sentence.
Concluding sentence that transitions to the next paragraph.

The topic of each paragraph will be supported by the evidence you itemized in your outline. However, just as smooth transitions are required to connect your paragraphs, the sentences you write to present your evidence should possess transition words that connect ideas, focus attention on relevant information, and continue your discussion in a smooth and fluid manner.

You presented the main idea of your paper in the thesis statement. In the body, every single paragraph must support that main idea. If any paragraph in your paper does not, in some way, back up the main idea expressed in your thesis statement, it is not relevant, which means it doesn’t have a purpose and shouldn’t be there.

Each paragraph also has a main idea of its own. That main idea is stated in a topic sentence, either at the beginning or somewhere else in the paragraph. Just as every paragraph in your paper supports your thesis statement, every sentence in each paragraph supports the main idea of that paragraph by providing facts or examples that back up that main idea. If a sentence does not support the main idea of the paragraph, it is not relevant and should be left out.

A paper that makes claims or states ideas without backing them up with facts or clarifying them with examples won’t mean much to readers. Make sure you provide enough supporting details for all your ideas. And remember that a paragraph can’t contain just one sentence. A paragraph needs at least two or more sentences to be complete. If a paragraph has only one or two sentences, you probably haven’t provided enough support for your main idea. Or, if you have trouble finding the main idea, maybe you don’t have one. In that case, you can make the sentences part of another paragraph or leave them out.

Arrange the paragraphs in the body of your paper in an order that makes sense, so that each main idea follows logically from the previous one. Likewise, arrange the sentences in each paragraph in a logical order.

If you carefully organized your notes and made your outline, your ideas will fall into place naturally as you write your draft. The main ideas, which are building blocks of each section or each paragraph in your paper, come from the Roman-numeral headings in your outline. The supporting details under each of those main ideas come from the capital-letter headings. In a shorter paper, the capital-letter headings may become sentences that include supporting details, which come from the Arabic numerals in your outline. In a longer paper, the capital letter headings may become paragraphs of their own, which contain sentences with the supporting details, which come from the Arabic numerals in your outline.

In addition to keeping your ideas in logical order, transitions are another way to guide readers from one idea to another. Transition words and phrases are important when you are suggesting or pointing out similarities between ideas, themes, opinions, or a set of facts. As with any perfect phrase, transition words within paragraphs should not be used gratuitously. Their meaning must conform to what you are trying to point out, as shown in the examples below:

“Accordingly” or “in accordance with” indicates agreement. For example :Thomas Edison’s experiments with electricity accordingly followed the theories of Benjamin Franklin, J. B. Priestly, and other pioneers of the previous century.
“Analogous” or “analogously” contrasts different things or ideas that perform similar functions or make similar expressions. For example: A computer hard drive is analogous to a filing cabinet. Each stores important documents and data.
“By comparison” or “comparatively”points out differences between things that otherwise are similar. For example: Roses require an alkaline soil. Azaleas, by comparison, prefer an acidic soil.
“Corresponds to” or “correspondingly” indicates agreement or conformity. For example: The U.S. Constitution corresponds to England’s Magna Carta in so far as both established a framework for a parliamentary system.
“Equals,”“equal to,” or “equally” indicates the same degree or quality. For example:Vitamin C is equally as important as minerals in a well-balanced diet.
“Equivalent” or “equivalently” indicates two ideas or things of approximately the same importance, size, or volume. For example:The notions of individual liberty and the right to a fair and speedy trial hold equivalent importance in the American legal system.
“Common” or “in common with” indicates similar traits or qualities. For example: Darwin did not argue that humans were descended from the apes. Instead, he maintained that they shared a common ancestor.
“In the same way,”“in the same manner,”“in the same vein,” or “likewise,” connects comparable traits, ideas, patterns, or activities. For example: John Roebling’s suspension bridges in Brooklyn and Cincinnati were built in the same manner, with strong cables to support a metallic roadway. Example 2: Despite its delicate appearance, John Roebling’s Brooklyn Bridge was built as a suspension bridge supported by strong cables. Example 3: Cincinnati’s Suspension Bridge, which Roebling also designed, was likewise supported by cables.
“Kindred” indicates that two ideas or things are related by quality or character. For example: Artists Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin are considered kindred spirits in the Impressionist Movement. “Like” or “as” are used to create a simile that builds reader understanding by comparing two dissimilar things. (Never use “like” as slang, as in: John Roebling was like a bridge designer.) For examples: Her eyes shone like the sun. Her eyes were as bright as the sun.
“Parallel” describes events, things, or ideas that occurred at the same time or that follow similar logic or patterns of behavior. For example:The original Ocktoberfests were held to occur in parallel with the autumn harvest.
“Obviously” emphasizes a point that should be clear from the discussion. For example: Obviously, raccoons and other wildlife will attempt to find food and shelter in suburban areas as their woodland habitats disappear.
“Similar” and “similarly” are used to make like comparisons. For example: Horses and ponies have similar physical characteristics although, as working farm animals, each was bred to perform different functions.
“There is little debate” or “there is consensus” can be used to point out agreement. For example:There is little debate that the polar ice caps are melting.The question is whether global warming results from natural or human-made causes.

Other phrases that can be used to make transitions or connect ideas within paragraphs include:

Use “alternately” or “alternatively” to suggest a different option.
Use “antithesis” to indicate a direct opposite.
Use “contradict” to indicate disagreement.
Use “on the contrary” or “conversely” to indicate that something is different from what it seems.
Use “dissimilar” to point out differences between two things.
Use “diverse” to discuss differences among many things or people.
Use “distinct” or “distinctly” to point out unique qualities.
Use “inversely” to indicate an opposite idea.
Use “it is debatable,” “there is debate,” or “there is disagreement” to suggest that there is more than one opinion about a subject.
Use “rather” or “rather than” to point out an exception.
Use “unique” or “uniquely” to indicate qualities that can be found nowhere else.
Use “unlike” to indicate dissimilarities.
Use “various” to indicate more than one kind.

Writing Topic Sentences

Remember, a sentence should express a complete thought, one thought per sentence—no more, no less. The longer and more convoluted your sentences become, the more likely you are to muddle the meaning, become repetitive, and bog yourself down in issues of grammar and construction. In your first draft, it is generally a good idea to keep those sentences relatively short and to the point. That way your ideas will be clearly stated.You will be able to clearly see the content that you have put down—what is there and what is missing—and add or subtract material as it is needed. The sentences will probably seem choppy and even simplistic.The purpose of a first draft is to ensure that you have recorded all the content you will need to make a convincing argument. You will work on smoothing and perfecting the language in subsequent drafts.

Transitioning from your topic sentence to the evidence that supports it can be problematic. It requires a transition, much like the transitions needed to move from one paragraph to the next. Choose phrases that connect the evidence directly to your topic sentence.

Consider this: (give an example or state evidence).
If (identify one condition or event) then (identify the condition or event that will follow).
It should go without saying that (point out an obvious condition).
Note that (provide an example or observation).
Take a look at (identify a condition; follow with an explanation of why you think it is important to the discussion).
The authors had (identify their idea) in mind when they wrote “(use a quotation from their text that illustrates the idea).”
The point is that (summarize the conclusion your reader should draw from your research).
This becomes evident when (name the author) says that (paraphrase a quote from the author’s writing).
We see this in the following example: (provide an example of your own).
(The author’s name) offers the example of (summarize an example given by the author).

If an idea is controversial, you may need to add extra evidence to your paragraphs to persuade your reader. You may also find that a logical argument, one based solely on your evidence, is not persuasive enough and that you need to appeal to the reader’s emotions. Look for ways to incorporate your research without detracting from your argument.

Writing Transition Sentences

It is often difficult to write transitions that carry a reader clearly and logically on to the next paragraph (and the next topic) in an essay. Because you are moving from one topic to another, it is easy to simply stop one and start another. Great research papers, however, include good transitions that link the ideas in an interesting discussion so that readers can move smoothly and easily through your presentation. Close each of your paragraphs with an interesting transition sentence that introduces the topic coming up in the next paragraph.

Transition sentences should show a relationship between the two topics.Your transition will perform one of the following functions to introduce the new idea:

Indicate that you will be expanding on information in a different way in the upcoming paragraph.
Indicate that a comparison, contrast, or a cause-and-effect relationship between the topics will be discussed.
Indicate that an example will be presented in the next paragraph.
Indicate that a conclusion is coming up.

Transitions make a paper flow smoothly by showing readers how ideas and facts follow one another to point logically to a conclusion. They show relationships among the ideas, help the reader to understand, and, in a persuasive paper, lead the reader to the writer’s conclusion.

Each paragraph should end with a transition sentence to conclude the discussion of the topic in the paragraph and gently introduce the reader to the topic that will be raised in the next paragraph. However, transitions also occur within paragraphs—from sentence to sentence—to add evidence, provide examples, or introduce a quotation.

The type of paper you are writing and the kinds of topics you are introducing will determine what type of transitional phrase you should use. Some useful phrases for transitions appear below. They are grouped according to the function they normally play in a paper. Transitions, however, are not simply phrases that are dropped into sentences. They are constructed to highlight meaning. Choose transitions that are appropriate to your topic and what you want the reader to do. Edit them to be sure they fit properly within the sentence to enhance the reader’s understanding.

Transition Phrases for Comparisons:

We also see
In addition to
Notice that
Beside that,
In comparison,
Once again,
Identically,
For example,
Comparatively, it can be seen that
We see this when
This corresponds to
In other words,
At the same time,
By the same token,

Transition Phrases for Contrast:

By contrast,
On the contrary,
Nevertheless,
An exception to this would be …
Alongside that,we find …
On one hand … on the other hand …
[New information] presents an opposite view …
Conversely, it could be argued …
Other than that,we find that …
We get an entirely different impression from …
One point of differentiation is …
Further investigation shows …
An exception can be found in the fact that …

Transition Phrases to Show a Process:

At the top we have … Near the bottom we have …
Here we have … There we have …
Continuing on,
We progress to …
Close up … In the distance …
With this in mind,
Moving in sequence,
Proceeding sequentially,
Moving to the next step,
First, Second,Third,…
Examining the activities in sequence,
Sequentially,
As a result,
The end result is …
To illustrate …
Subsequently,
One consequence of …
If … then …
It follows that …
This is chiefly due to …
The next step …
Later we find …

Phrases to Introduce Examples:

For instance,
Particularly,
In particular,
This includes,
Specifically,
To illustrate,
One illustration is
One example is
This is illustrated by
This can be seen when
This is especially seen in
This is chiefly seen when

Transition Phrases for Presenting Evidence:

Another point worthy of consideration is
At the center of the issue is the notion that
Before moving on, it should be pointed out that
Another important point is
Another idea worth considering is
Consequently,
Especially,
Even more important,
Getting beyond the obvious,
In spite of all this,
It follows that
It is clear that
More importantly,
Most importantly,

How to make effective transitions between sections of a research paper? There are two distinct issues in making strong transitions:

Does the upcoming section actually belong where you have placed it?
Have you adequately signaled the reader why you are taking this next step?

The first is the most important: Does the upcoming section actually belong in the next spot? The sections in your research paper need to add up to your big point (or thesis statement) in a sensible progression. One way of putting that is, “Does the architecture of your paper correspond to the argument you are making?” Getting this architecture right is the goal of “large-scale editing,” which focuses on the order of the sections, their relationship to each other, and ultimately their correspondence to your thesis argument.

It’s easy to craft graceful transitions when the sections are laid out in the right order. When they’re not, the transitions are bound to be rough. This difficulty, if you encounter it, is actually a valuable warning. It tells you that something is wrong and you need to change it. If the transitions are awkward and difficult to write, warning bells should ring. Something is wrong with the research paper’s overall structure.

After you’ve placed the sections in the right order, you still need to tell the reader when he is changing sections and briefly explain why. That’s an important part of line-by-line editing, which focuses on writing effective sentences and paragraphs.

Effective transition sentences and paragraphs often glance forward or backward, signaling that you are switching sections. Take this example from J. M. Roberts’s History of Europe . He is finishing a discussion of the Punic Wars between Rome and its great rival, Carthage. The last of these wars, he says, broke out in 149 B.C. and “ended with so complete a defeat for the Carthaginians that their city was destroyed . . . .” Now he turns to a new section on “Empire.” Here is the first sentence: “By then a Roman empire was in being in fact if not in name.”(J. M. Roberts, A History of Europe . London: Allen Lane, 1997, p. 48) Roberts signals the transition with just two words: “By then.” He is referring to the date (149 B.C.) given near the end of the previous section. Simple and smooth.

Michael Mandelbaum also accomplishes this transition between sections effortlessly, without bringing his narrative to a halt. In The Ideas That Conquered the World: Peace, Democracy, and Free Markets , one chapter shows how countries of the North Atlantic region invented the idea of peace and made it a reality among themselves. Here is his transition from one section of that chapter discussing “the idea of warlessness” to another section dealing with the history of that idea in Europe.

The widespread aversion to war within the countries of the Western core formed the foundation for common security, which in turn expressed the spirit of warlessness. To be sure, the rise of common security in Europe did not abolish war in other parts of the world and could not guarantee its permanent abolition even on the European continent. Neither, however, was it a flukish, transient product . . . . The European common security order did have historical precedents, and its principal features began to appear in other parts of the world. Precedents for Common Security The security arrangements in Europe at the dawn of the twenty-first century incorporated features of three different periods of the modern age: the nineteenth century, the interwar period, and the ColdWar. (Michael Mandelbaum, The Ideas That Conquered the World: Peace, Democracy, and Free Markets . New York: Public Affairs, 2002, p. 128)

It’s easier to make smooth transitions when neighboring sections deal with closely related subjects, as Mandelbaum’s do. Sometimes, however, you need to end one section with greater finality so you can switch to a different topic. The best way to do that is with a few summary comments at the end of the section. Your readers will understand you are drawing this topic to a close, and they won’t be blindsided by your shift to a new topic in the next section.

Here’s an example from economic historian Joel Mokyr’s book The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress . Mokyr is completing a section on social values in early industrial societies. The next section deals with a quite different aspect of technological progress: the role of property rights and institutions. So Mokyr needs to take the reader across a more abrupt change than Mandelbaum did. Mokyr does that in two ways. First, he summarizes his findings on social values, letting the reader know the section is ending. Then he says the impact of values is complicated, a point he illustrates in the final sentences, while the impact of property rights and institutions seems to be more straightforward. So he begins the new section with a nod to the old one, noting the contrast.

In commerce, war and politics, what was functional was often preferred [within Europe] to what was aesthetic or moral, and when it was not, natural selection saw to it that such pragmatism was never entirely absent in any society. . . . The contempt in which physical labor, commerce, and other economic activity were held did not disappear rapidly; much of European social history can be interpreted as a struggle between wealth and other values for a higher step in the hierarchy. The French concepts of bourgeois gentilhomme and nouveau riche still convey some contempt for people who joined the upper classes through economic success. Even in the nineteenth century, the accumulation of wealth was viewed as an admission ticket to social respectability to be abandoned as soon as a secure membership in the upper classes had been achieved. Institutions and Property Rights The institutional background of technological progress seems, on the surface, more straightforward. (Joel Mokyr, The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress . New York: Oxford University Press, 1990, p. 176)

Note the phrase, “on the surface.” Mokyr is hinting at his next point, that surface appearances are deceiving in this case. Good transitions between sections of your research paper depend on:

Getting the sections in the right order
Moving smoothly from one section to the next
Signaling readers that they are taking the next step in your argument
Explaining why this next step comes where it does

Every good paper ends with a strong concluding paragraph. To write a good conclusion, sum up the main points in your paper. To write an even better conclusion, include a sentence or two that helps the reader answer the question, “So what?” or “Why does all this matter?” If you choose to include one or more “So What?” sentences, remember that you still need to support any point you make with facts or examples. Remember, too, that this is not the place to introduce new ideas from “out of the blue.” Make sure that everything you write in your conclusion refers to what you’ve already written in the body of your paper.

Back to How To Write A Research Paper .

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What Is Systems Thinking?

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Appendix 1: Correlation Between Concept Maps and the STH Model

Level A: Analysis of System Components

Level B: Synthesis of System Components

Level C: Implementation

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