Coming Up with Research Topics (Part 1)

When you're developing a research hypothesis, or even just figuring out what it is you want to study, there are some main, basic things of which to be aware. To be perfectly and honestly simple, though, the best way to decide what you want to study is to look at the world around you and, through that observation, figure out what is the most important and interesting research question. A big part of this, though, is to also understand that the scope and depth of your question must always be limited to what you can actually do. That is, you may want to understand why people do what they do. This question, though, is incredibly broad. One might make the case that this question is the root of all of behavioral science, and so you must narrow your objective to something manageable. This process is one that comes naturally to some, but do not feel discouraged if a research question doesn't immediately come to mind.

Observing the world, in this context, includes a lot of different ways of thinking about research and hypotheses. For one, there is the simple, firsthand observation of your own life events. As this is a course in labor and human resources research, you may find that observing your own workplace may be a great way to inform your research ideas. Just looking around at work, do you notice certain things that may be useful to study through scientific research? Suppose your workplace offers one long break, but you think people would work better with a series of short breaks divided throughout the day. This is an empirical question, one that could be assessed with the scientific method.

Another great source for research ideas is your old coursework. If you took a class in something that was of particular interest to you, perhaps you can dig into a specific aspect of that course for your own scientific study. If there was a nagging question in one of your courses, one that had you scratching your head and saying, "yeah, but what if...?" this can be a great source for you to find your own, new and unique research topic. In this same vein, sometimes just reading your old textbooks, notes, and other materials may be a good way to come up with a research topic. If you have library resources available to you, you can try to find books about the topic that may give you a good, broad introduction. In the field of science, we also have scientific journals that can be excellent resources for your research. These journals are peer-reviewed, which means that someone did a study of some kind and then submitted it to the publication. This publication then found peers of the author -- other people in the field -- and asked them if they thought the article was good enough to publish. In this way, each journal sets a standard for publication, so that the work that makes it to the press has at least been through some level of informed review. These journal articles are often very specific, which can be both a blessing and a curse. If you don't have a lot of background in the topic, a journal article may be difficult to understand, but if you do have enough understanding in the topic, these articles can provide a direct resource toward understanding the phenomena of interest.

Another great way to come up with research topics is by simply talking to people. Yes, this is a step that can be done over a cup of coffee or other beverage, over lunch, or in a more formal meeting. Your coworkers, family members, friends, mentors, and professors can be a great place to start talking about research ideas. Suppose you have a very rough idea of what you want to study, and you sit down with a coworker and describe it to them. They may say that this makes them think of something slightly more specific, which may then remind you of something you learned in a prior course. You would be amazed how quickly these ideas can form and develop, when you have someone to bounce the ideas off of!