How To Write a Theoretical or Conceptual Paper (Advice for Doctoral Students)

This short video is meant to guide and inspire doctoral students/candidates and early-career scholars to write theoretical and conceptual papers. To begin, a case is made as to why such populations are qualified to do so. Then, conventional empirical papers are seen as a point of departure for more philosophical writing formats. Four types of theoretical/conceptual paper designs are identified as possible templates, following distinctions by Jaakkola (2020). Finally, four landmark theoretical papers from Information Science are analyzed as exemplars. Doctoral students: Good luck!

00:00 — Introduction
00:47 — You Are Qualified!
01:02 — Barriers to Writing Theoretical and Conceptual Papers
01:32 — The Empirical Paper
01:57 — The Conceptual Paper (Four Types by Elina Jaakolla)
03:18 — Conclusion to Part 1
03:31 — Theoretical and Conceptual Precedents in the Information Studies Literature
04:22 — Example 1: Developing a Model of the Library Search Process... (Carol Kuhlthau)
05:11 — Example 2: Everyday Life Information Seeking...(Reijo Savolainen)
06:42 — Example 3: The Invisible Substrate of Information Science (Marcia Bates)
07:56 — Example 4: 'ISMS' of Information Science: Constructivism, Collectivism, and Constructionism (Sanna Talja, Kimmo Tuominen and Reijo Savolainen)
08:54 — Recap and Conclusion



Jaakkola, E. (2020). Designing conceptual articles: four approaches. AMS Review, 10(1-2), 18–26. (https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...)

A Guide to Writing a Theoretical Paper by Lajos Brons, Lakeland University (https://www.academia.edu/37512242/A_g...)

McGregor, S. (2018). Conceptual and theoretical papers. In Understanding and evaluating research (pp. 497-528). SAGE Publications, Inc. (See Chapter 18)

What is a Concept Paper and How do You Write One?
(https://www.discoverphds.com/blog/con...)

Becker, & Richards, P. (2007). Writing for social scientists: how to start and finish your thesis, book, or article: second edition (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press. (https://www.cs.tufts.edu/~nr/cs257/ar...)