No. Research papers and thesis are two different concepts. They have different purposes and needs. A research paper mostly refers to a piece of academic essay writing that you write and submit in your class periodically. It’s part of your academic calendar. Thesis is the document that you will submit (usually at the end of your semester or course work) to get your academic degrees.

We can say that every thesis is a research paper but not vice versa. Apart from the purpose, there are several other differences between thesis and research paper. We are highlighting some of them below for you.

• Style: Most parts of your thesis should be substantiated by valid evidence, data and proofs. While research papers are explanatory, and a candidate is entitled to give his or her personal opinion on that particular topic.
• Time: Since Thesis is data-driven, and likely to form a part of your academic evaluation at the end of your study, so it takes relatively longer time to finish a thesis than a research paper.
• Supervision: You can’t complete a thesis without the supervision of an academic expert of that subject, but you can easily compile your research paper using your brain and understanding of that subject.
• Length: A thesis should contain at least 22,000 words while you can finish your research paper with around 14,000 words.

In a nutshell, we can say that both research paper and thesis require a strong level of understanding of the subject. And, with thorough study, you can easily write any of these without much worries.