Q: What is the difference between findings and results?

Generally speaking, there is no real difference between the two. In most papers, they are used interchangeably. However, it helps to be consistent throughout the paper. So, if you have used ‘findings’ the first time, you need to use only that throughout the paper and not switch back and forth between ‘findings’ and ‘results’.

Technically or academically speaking, ‘findings’ seems to be used more for qualitative studies whereas ‘results’ seems to be used more for quantitative studies. For example, in a behavioral study, you may say ‘It was found that when service executives aimed to build rapport with customers, it led to purchases 72% of the time compared with 38% of the time when no rapport was built.’ On the other hand, for a chemical study, you may say ‘The combination of X and Y results in reaction Z.’ For more information on this distinction, you may refer to this document.

As a side note, there are many such terms in research that have a ‘hairline’ difference between them. However, in a real-world situation, they are used interchangeably and the difference between them is more academic. Another example is scope versus delimitations, as you may find out in this resource.

Hope that helps.

For more information on findings/results, you may refer to the following resources:

• How do I identify and describe any two different ways of reporting scientific findings?
• The journal editor says my research findings are not novel. What should I do?
• How to do a comparative discussion of results if no previous work on the topic exists?
• How to make your results stand out [Handbook]