Examples of Outstanding Research Papers: Reading Recommendation

By Lesandro Ponciano .

Last updated on December 2025.

I’ve read many interesting papers in various domains for my research activities. Bellow, I recommend some that I consider outstanding examples - not because of the results, but because of the employed approach and the excellent quality of the writing.

Papers discussing concepts and terminology

• Basic concepts and taxonomy of dependable and secure computing by Algirdas Avižienis et al. (2004)
• What is user engagement? A conceptual framework for defining user engagement with technology by Heather L. O’Brien and Elaine G. Toms (2008)
• Believe it or not: Factors influencing credibility on the Web by C. Nadine Wathen, Jacquelyn Burkell (2001)
• Citizen Science Terminology Matters: Exploring Key Terms by M V Eitzel et al. (2017)

Papers on data modelling (probability distribution) and their implications

• Web server workload characterization: The search for invariants by Martin F. Arlitt and Carey L. Williamson (1996)
• Performance analysis of cloud computing services for many-tasks scientific computing Alexandru Iosup et al. (2011)
• Together with three colleagues, I wrote Volunteers’ engagement in human computation for astronomy projects in 2014, performing probability distribution fitting, which I also think is worth recommending.

Review and position papers

• Invariants of Human Behavior by Herbert Simon (1990)
• Volunteering by Wilson John (2000)