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Students are encouraged to participate in both the research paper competition and the project competition. They may use the same research for both competitions – and it is recommended that the student has a printed copy of their research paper at their project exhibit for the project judges to see.

JSHS recommends the following outline for research papers:

The title page must include the title, the student's name, the student's school, grade and age, category, and advisor's name.
Acknowledgement of major assistance received
Abstract
Table of contents
If applicable, statement that "research involving non-human vertebrates or human subjects was conducted under the supervision of an experienced teacher or researcher and followed state and federal regulatory guidance applicable to the human and ethical conduct of such research"
Introduction
Objective or question – recognition of the implications or importance of the problem - and your hypothesis
Materials and methods (show control of variables, innovative technique, systematic development of procedures, design experiment to obtain meaningful results)
Results (data or findings, including analysis, precision, accuracy, recognition of sources of error)
Discussion and conclusions (relate back to hypothesis supported or not)
Further ideas – new questions raised, ideas about refining the study or about increasing precision/accuracy
References, or literature cited
and Appendices (if necessary)

TCRSF will allow either individual OR team papers. Students may enter both a paper and a project on the same work. All papers must comply with JSHS rules & guidelines. The research paper competition is available for all students in grades 6-12. No library research only papers are accepted. Research papers need to have library research, but also must include a related student experiment and results, or an engineering design / computer program including testing the design or program. Research papers entered in TCRSF may include pictures/photos in them as long as the total file size of the entire research paper (including title page through to the last Appendix) is no more than 1.8 MB in size. TCRSF, Minnesota state and JSHS limit the paper to no more than 20 pages including appendices (not counting title page, an abstract page, or a table of contents).

TCRSF has two age divisions for the Research Paper Competition. Grades 6-8 compete in the middle school division and grades 9-12 compete in the high school division. Although some middle schools include grade 9, all grade 9 students compete in the high school (grades 9-12) division.

The paper categories are:

Environmental Science - Environmental Science/Engineering: Bioremediation, Ecosystems management, Environmental engineering, Land Resource Management, Pollution, toxicity; impact upon ecosystem
Biomedical Sciences; Cell/Molecular Biology - Biomedical medicine, Microbiology, Molecular/cellular, Genetics, Immunology, Pharmacology, Virology
Life Sciences - Developmental Biology, Plant Physiology, Population Genetics, General Biochemistry, Microbiology
Medicine & Health/Behavioral sciences - Behavioral sciences, Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Disease Diagnosis and Treatment, Epidemiology, Immunology, Neuroscience, Physiology, Pathology
Engineering and Technology - Aerospace, Aerodynamics, Electrical Engineering, Energy - Solar, Vehicle Development, Devices, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics
Math and Computer Science, Computer Engineering - Probability and Statistics, Math, Computer Science - Algorithms, Databases, Networking, Computer Engineering
Physical sciences, including Physics, Astronomy, Internet of Things - Astronomy, Physics-theoretical, Physics-Solid state, Acoustics, Optics, Thermodynamics, Particle physics, Quantum physics, Nuclear; Internet of things--network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity
Chemistry, including Physical Chemistry, Materials Science, Alternative Fuels, Geochemistry - Physical Chemistry, Materials, Alternative Fuels, Organic Chemistry (possibly in life science), Chemical Engineering, Earth Science--Geochemistry, Energy--Alternative Fuels, Material Science

The paper competition does not require the ISEF paperwork required for the project exhibit competition, but it is expected that the same safety protocols and supervision are followed by the student. The research paper may only include the research done by the student, and may not include work done by others such as a group in a lab. Multi-year work done by the student however is allowed, unlike the project exhibit competition which is one year's work only.

All research papers in both divisions (middle & high school) will be read and scored by judges online. Please review the research paper judges score sheet / grading rubric before you submit your research paper to be sure that you have covered everything that the judges are looking for in your paper. After research paper judging is completed, but before the project fair, students will receive judge comments from TCRSF by logging in to their student account once the comments are released. Students will not receive scores, but will receive their ribbon earned and any additional awards as well as to be informed whether or not they have advanced to the next level of competition at the project and paper awards program on Saturday morning of the fair. Awards for the research paper competition are awarded at the science fair awards program on Saturday, 10 AM, of the fair. Please pick up your ribbon for your research paper before the awards program. (If you will not be present, please ask a teacher or another student to pick up your research paper ribbon packet for you.)

Winners in grades 9-12 advance to the JSHS (Junior Science & Humanities Symposium) North Central Region. Winners in grades 6-8 advance to present their papers at the Minnesota State Science & Engineering Fair. (If they win with both their project and their paper, they will be able to compete in BOTH competitions at state.) All students who advance with their research paper present their paper orally to a panel of judges, typically using a PowerPoint presentation.

All students MUST PRACTICE their paper orally BEFORE competing at the next level – and should review the judge scoring sheet / grading rubric to be sure that you are covering everything that the judges are looking for in your presentation. NOTE: other smaller regional fairs have had oral competitions for their students at the school and regional level, so by symposium or state, Twin Cities students would be at a severe disadvantage UNLESS the student practices the oral presentation with a Power Point (or slides or overhead projector transparencies) in front of other people. It is preferred that the student present to adults with a science background, but the student may also present to a class at school, or to a panel of teachers from the school, or to their parent(s) or relatives. The research paper competition at TCRSF will be based solely on the merit of the research paper readings and judged according to the grading rubric and adherence to the rules for the paper competition and safety rules similar to ISEF project safety rules.

Use this as a guideline for your oral presentation required before the next level of competition. (Verify the presentation time allowed at state on the state website.)

The research presentation oral presentation may not exceed 12 minutes, followed by a maximum 5-minute question period. (Nationals allows 6 minutes.) The procedure for maintaining the time includes a 10-minute signal for the student, and finally a 12-minute signal. At the 12-minute point, the student speaker must stop the presentation even if he or she has not finished.
Set-up time for the presentation is a maximum of 2 minutes. This set-up time is not included in the above presentation time.
Following the presentation, the session moderator will ask for judge questions. The speaker may entertain questions while the exchange appears interesting and relevant up to 5 minutes of Q/A.
The speaker should repeat a question before answering so the audience may understand the entire dialogue