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 (maximum of 250 words)
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 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 listed on https://tcrsf.zfairs.com, Fair tab, Fair Information page, look for Categories tab.
Research paper categories all starting with 'zPaper' (after the project categories).

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.