Answer: D) Revise the first draft to improve the paper.
Step-by-step explanation: when writing a research paper it is really important that we research the topic with time (not the night before the paper is due) to be able to understand it and narrow it. Also we shouldn't submit the first draft as the final draft because the first draft has always room to improvement, and we should always proofread the essay for grammatical errors. So, from the given options, the one that is a best practice when writing a research paper is to revise the first draft to improve the paper.