Finding your academic research question

Identifying a research topic

• Which area do I want to study? – Make your topic as focused as possible

• Which questions do I want to answer? – Make your questions as specific as possible

• Are my questions exploratory, explanatory or descriptive? – Set your empirical methodology in very concrete terms – How will you demonstrate your argument?– Which research techniques will you use?

• What are the most critical issues in this area? – What type of contribution does it provide? Theoretical or

practical? Why is your research topic important?

Find your topic buckets to frame your research • Find Identify the relevant topic ‘buckets’ relevant to your

research• What are the most significant articles within your buckets? – These articles will form the back-bone of your research

(tip: check out Google Scholar which shows how often certain articles were cited)

Ask yourself…

•What do I want to find out/understand?– why is it important?

Or your might want to ask this…

• What is the problem you will address? – Your problem needs to be provable

and not assume end state

Or maybe this…

• What are your goals? – What will you do afterwards?

Types of research questions

• How questions• What questions • Why questions

Hypotheses • Hypotheses are predictive statements about

expected outcome of the research• Hypotheses dictate the method and design of the

research• Hypotheses are closely linked to your research

questions• Hypotheses are predictive statements about

expected outcome of the research• Hypotheses dictate the method and design of the

researchHypotheses must be explicit

You know you have found your research question when…

You can concisely and clearly explain to an expert (academic/colleague) what it is that you are researching

Got a tip on how to find a research question? Leave a comment on SlideShare!