How to choose research topics, in 8 steps

The process of choosing a research topic, either for a class project or to launch a more ambitious research whose results can be published in journals, is for many people a headache. When the question that is going to be answered is clear through qualitative studies or quantitative, at least there is already a guideline to follow, but if you don't have that, it is common for many to block.

In this article we will see several tips that help you know how to choose research topics, especially in those areas of knowledge related to psychology, social sciences and other similar fields.

• Related article: "The 15 types of research (and characteristics)"

How to choose research topics?

The problem of not having a research question is somewhat similar to what happens in the writer's block: The discomfort, frustration and anxiety produced by not going beyond this phase can cause, if time passes, the effect of the self-fulfilling prophecy. That is, the person feels less motivated, tends to avoid thinking about it again, or performs piecemeal searches without the hope of finding anything.

For this reason, it is important not to let the problem fester and opt for not carry out this search for research topics in a chaotic wayTry to follow a method with its phases. The simple fact of noticing that even if there is not yet a question from which the project starts, it goes through phases, helps not to waste time and at the same time motivates to continue progressing Below you will find a proposal in this sense.

1. Search Research Collectors

In many places on the Internet, the conclusions of quality research are regularly published. Sweeping through these web pages or Twitter profiles (a place where there are many researchers who are dedicated to disseminating their content or that of their colleagues) is of great help for, in a short time, have clues from which you can continue the search.

2. Select the most interesting topics

From the previous step, choose those for which you feel interest and order them according to the degree to which each of them motivates you.

3. Select the keywords

Each research topic contains a semantic keyword tree. For example, in psychology there are the concepts of bias, cognitive dissonance or heuristic. All of them create a nebula of ideas from which a question can be posed. For example, you can enter them into search engines for scientific articles, such as Google Scholar.

4. Read the first sections of the papers

The vast majority of papers published in scientific journals have, on their first pages, a comment on the latest findings and a section that summarizes the status of a specific line of research, proposing competing hypotheses and explanatory models, and highlighting the evidence for and against each of the ideas

In this way you will get a more global idea of ​​what the subject is about and what kind of information can be counted on to carry out an investigation in this regard.

5. Search the amount of information available

Some lines of research are more developed than others. Even if there is a topic that interests you a lot, it is possible that there is not enough information to investigate with the media you have. Look for meta-analyses on the subject, quality research about that starting question, etc.

6. Imagine interactions between variables

Based on what you know about a specific topic, imagine an original question that has not been directly addressed by other researchers. For example, you can see if a phenomenon studied by others holds true in a region of the planet that no one has focused on before.

7. ask a question

One of the fundamental aspects of knowing how to choose a research topic has to do with transform the topic that interests you into a question. Only in this way will you establish in a concrete way what your research will be about: pointing out what is this knowledge gap that we will try to fill with new information. In this way there will be no ambiguities and no confusion will occur when developing the project.

Technically, you already have a research topic, but there is still one step left to finish choosing.

8. Decide if you have what it takes

Is it realistic to investigate about it? Some topics are relatively easy to deal with, as there is a lot of data available from other sources, but sometimes you have to pay for access to this information or even does not exist and oneself must collect original information through hundreds of questionnaires or methods equally expensive. Decide if it pays you off.