OxJournal is an academic platform for intellectually engaged young people. We publish high-quality, university-level research papers produced by 12-18 year olds under the supervision of an expert academic or researcher in their chosen field of study. We hope the papers published here will inspire you to further explore your own academic interests and potential.
Business, Economics & Finance
Assessing the Ethics of Choice Architecture: When Are Nudges Beneficial vs. When Do They Create Manipulative Dark Patterns for Consumers?
This paper examines the ethics of choice architecture and at what point nudges are beneficial versus when they create dark patterns that manipulate consumers. The paper examines the psychological systems of the human brain that influence consumer decision making and examines the design of choice architecture strategies.
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Digital Choice Architecture and Heuristic Exploitation: Assessing the Ethics of Dark Patterns in Modern E-Commerce
This paper looks at the relationship between behavioural economics and digital commerce, focusing on how the environment surrounding a purchase can shape consumer decisions. It considers the ways digital platforms use what is known about consumer behaviour and what happens when those strategies become part of the design itself.
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Computer Science & Coding
Digital Twins: Concepts, Technologies, Applications, Challenges and Future Directions
Digital twin technology has emerged as a foundation for modern hybrid engineering, integrating physical assets with their virtual replicas through continuous, automated bidirectional data synchronisation. This paper explores the concepts, technologies, applications, challenges and future directions of digital twin technology.
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Explainable Artificial Intelligence: A Comprehensive Review of Methods, Applications, Challenges and Future Directions
Explainability is a significant weakness of artificial intelligence. While modern AI delivers outstanding performance, its black box creates significant trust and safety difficulties for users. This paper provides an overview of explainable AI (XAI), a field dedicated to making AI decisions more transparent and interpretable.
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Engineering
How Can China’s Hainan Province Develop Sustainably Engineered Public Spaces to Help Combat the Effects of Climate Change?
China’s Hainan province faces harsh climate risks throughout the year that leaves citizens extremely vulnerable when visiting public spaces. This paper focuses on how to build spaces that can easily withstand climate challenges and can adapt to the needs of the many living on the island.
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Artificial Intelligence: Environmental Burden or Benefit?
This paper examines the timely research question: does the energy and carbon footprint of generative and predictive artificial intelligence outweigh its ability to improve power grid efficiency and renewable energy use?
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Law
Greenwashing and the Law: A Comparative Analysis of the UK and the USA
Greenwashing can mislead consumers, reduce trust in environmental claims and manipulate purchasing decisions. This paper looks at the social and legal impact of greenwashing in the United States and the United Kingdom.
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Gateways to Justice: Assessing the Fitness, Reform and Reach of English Jurisdictional Rules
The expansion of cross-border commerce has made the question of when English courts may exercise jurisdiction over foreign defendants one of the most contested issues in private international law. This paper evaluates the English jurisdictional framework in three stages.
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Medicine
The Psychological, Physiological and Environmental Factors That Contribute to Persistent Insomnia in Adolescents Despite High Levels of Daytime Physical Exhaustion
This paper examines why adolescents can experience insomnia despite high levels of physical exhaustion during the day, and the psychological, physiological and environmental factors that contribute to sleep disruption.
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Justice and Equity at the End of Life: A Narrative Review of Socioeconomic Factors Influencing Assisted Dying Requests
Assisted dying raises complex ethical questions surrounding autonomy, justice and equity. Socioeconomic circumstances, including poverty, housing, financial hardship, education and access to healthcare, may influence the choices available to individuals at the end of life. This review examines how these factors relate to assisted dying requests, attitudes and access.
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Politics & International Relations
Under What Conditions Does Political Foreign Aid Work?
Political foreign aid can create dependency and weaken recipient sovereignty when donor interests take precedence over local needs. This paper asks under what conditions political foreign aid produces positive outcomes and when it instead reinforces dependency or institutional weakness.
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Rethinking Foreign Aid: Comparing Western Assistance and Emerging Development Finance Models
This paper compares two categories of foreign aid using OECD reporting and AidData’s record of Chinese lending, examining economic growth, association, infrastructure development and the militarisation of aid, with China and Türkiye representing the non-Western cases.
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Psychology & Neuroscience
Music’s Positive Neurological Effect on the Brain While Going Through a Heartbreak
This paper synthesises multiple studies related to the neurological effects of romantic heartbreak. The author argues that music may help to regulate the reward system, attachment system and social rejection system after the dissolution of a relationship.
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How Does Childhood Neglect Influence Neural Development, and Can This Explain the Impact of Childhood Neglect on Adult Romantic Relationships?
Difficulties in adult romantic relationships often trace back to early childhood experiences. This paper argues that childhood neglect is associated with long-term changes in neural systems involved in attachment, reward and threat processing which may explain difficulties in adult romantic relationships.
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