Open the research paper in MS Word or WordPad. Both programs have the same functionality in terms of picture editing.
Click "Insert," located at the top menu bar.
Click "Picture," and then click "From File."
Select the photo to be inserted from your hard drive, using the file explorer. Double-click on the picture to import it.
Right-click on the picture after it is imported. Click "Format." This will bring up the format options for the picture.
Select and adjust the appropriate format options. Click the "Size" tab to adjust the height, width and scale of the picture. Click the "Layout" tab to select how the picture will interact with the text from the research paper; this is also known as "Wrapping Style." Click the "Picture" tab to crop the picture or change brightness and contrast.
Open the picture in an image-editing program like MS Paint (which comes standard with Windows) or Photoshop before importing it into the research paper, to make more detailed changes. Programs like Photoshop offer the user a wider range of picture-editing options than those native to word-processing software. Once the photo has been edited, import it into the research paper.