Can i say we in a research paper

That could not satisfy you but using personal bias in academic writing should be avoided. However, your experience is not enough to complete an academic paper.

Accentuate more on the concrete details and facts to create a perfect research paper. Remember that your goal is to sound persuasive and qualified. Additionally, if you are a student, you want to receive the highest grade for your paper. For that reason, do everything you can to develop your writing skills and stick to the rules. You should always keep in mind that such word makes you sound too informal and not intelligent enough. Remind yourself that you must sound objective in your paper.

It is not your personal conversation with the lector or the instructor from the college. It is academic writing, and it requires academic language to be used. If you are a beginner writer and have not yet developed enough writing skills, you should be careful with such little words that show the lack of your competence.

Or because you read somewhere that using we in a paper shifts the spotlight away from the research? Or—worst of all—because a reviewer insists that you remove all first-person references from your manuscript?

Whether you use first person pronouns or not is a writing style choice, which is yours to make. The good news is that most peer-reviewed journals allow the use of first-person pronouns. The authorial we or I in scientific papers is not only acceptable but also effective in some cases—for example, when passive voice may introduce ambiguity.

Correct: "Researchers usually classify birdsong on the basis of frequency and temporal structure of the elements. Incorrect: "We usually classify birdsong on the basis of frequency and temporal structure of the elements". Some alternatives to "we" to consider are "people", "humans", "researchers", "psychologists", "nurses", and so on. It's definitely OK to use "we" in research papers.

I edit them professionally and see it used frequently. However, many papers with multiple authors use such constructions as "the investigators," or "the researchers.

It happens, sure. But not that often. Rather, the Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusion sections should speak for themselves. Any reference to the authors should be minimal as except in rare cases they are not germane to the findings.

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