Obtaining a new research topic in grad school seems to roughly split into two main methods: coming up with a topic yourself, and having a topic assigned or suggested to you. Of course, there can be some overlap, and starting from one method may lead into the other. This page is not intended to mark one as superior to the other either, as whether you choose your own research or have a project given to you (especially at the graduate level) may be largely dependent on the culture/precedent of the lab you’re in. Even if you’re assigned a topic for research, those projects inevitably lead to ideas for additional research projects down the road.
Below are some points of interest and consideration for both ways you may come upon your research topics.
Assigned Projects
- Some advisors will meet with you regularly to discuss different possible topics until you can agree on one that suites both of you. This is somewhat of a hybrid between being assigned a project and choosing your own. The good news is that, in all likelihood, your advisor is not likely to let you choose a topic they can’t be a valuable asset in.
- If your focus is just on teaching after grad school (instead of more research), being assigned a project might suite you well since you won’t have to do as much work to figure out what a good topic will be.
- It’s not bad to be assigned a project. Some grad students are assigned a project which is already an ongoing and/or collaborative endeavor. These can be beneficial since the idea has probably already been vetted as “worthy of effort.” You’ll also likely be working with people that already have some experience in the particular tools/methods you’ll use, which makes it easier to be confident you can contribute positively.
- If you’re coming into grad school and happen to be joining the same lab you worked with as an undergrad, you might start out by finishing or continuing a prior research project.
- In assigned projects, many find that “just turning the crank” usually leads to new research ideas eventually. And this is not a problem, per se, given that research is exceedingly specialized and intricate. Simply by doing the work assigned to you, you will force yourself to learn the standard techniques and theories associated with your work. During this process, allow yourself to question each step by pondering questions such as:
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- “Why does everyone seem to think _____ even though it’s not explicitly stated?”
- “Why does no one seem to use _____ method, which seems like the intuitive choice to me?”
- “Is there a faster/more efficient way to do _____?”
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- Don’t get too comfortable with the standard methods! If your project is assigned to you, it is likely that there are already some accepted methods and theories associated with the topic. But even (all?) established methods and theories can be improved upon. Taking time to understand why the “accepted methods” are accepted will be a great learning exercise, and it might even lead to new research ideas!
- Related to the previous point: take time to study into the published works parallel to your own topics. Don’t just read an important research article; read a few of the papers cited by that article!
Your Own Ideas
- Coming up with your own ideas obviously requires a lot more input effort. You’ll need to do a lot of reading even to get a sense of what’s been done in the field, let alone under-researched areas you might try to work on.
- Read diverse papers, not just the ones you’re highly confident you need.
- It’s usually much easier to stay interested an motivated to continue the research to completion when the research problem is your own brain-child.
- Look at the work others have already published and think about the next three steps of potential work. The authors themselves have already thought of the next step, but if you can think even further ahead, it can lead to new research ideas. (Bonus: this is a good mental exercise at the very least, and is often a mark of seasoned researchers.)
- Most departments or programs of study require grad students to regularly attend seminars. These are great opportunities in which other researchers are going to bring new research directly to you, without you having to search it out! Teach yourself to ask questions at these seminars. Some grad students make it a personal goal to ask one question at every seminar. Student questions are always especially welcomed by the speaker and faculty, since they are usually in short supply. (Bonus 2: Once again, this is a strong mental exercise that will benefit you in other ways too.)
- Similar to the previous point: attend conferences in your field, or the field you’re interested in. All the notes of the previous point apply, amplified by ten-fold.
- If you’re just coming out of undergrad or else have little research experience, scan through the websites of the professors you might research with. (If you don’t even know who those are, just start by looking at all of the researchers on an applicable departmental website.) Start at a high level and work your way to more details:
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- First just look for the pictures/figures that look interesting. Follow those.
- Start taking notice of any common keywords you see on multiple researchers’ websites regarding the topics that interest you.
- Once you’ve found a research group whose figures and keywords look exciting, scan over their most recently published articles for exciting titles. (You’ll want to look for titles related to the cool pictures you saw, but don’t ignore other titles that you might think are cool!)
- Don’t be afraid to let yourself wander over into unexpected research domains, departments, professors, or websites. It’s not uncommon for someone in department ABC doing research traditionally housed in department DEF.
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- A broad-to-fine details approach as in the previous bullet point can also work well in other forums:
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- Given a broad discipline that interests you (e.g. biochemistry, nanoparticles, quantum mechanics, herpetology, etc.), find out one or two of the most common peer review journals that publish works in that field. Go to the journal’s website, and start on their home page, following the steps outlined previously: cool pictures → key words → cool titles → interesting abstracts → read the article.
- If you aren’t sure which journal(s) are preeminent in your field of interest, Science, Nature, and PNAS are probably always safe bets for any field of science.
- This method can also work for raw Google searches: starting from some keywords you identified, read some short, simple, “science journalism” or “news” articles, and slowly follow the keywords and internal references until you make it to primary literature (i.e. peer reviewed journal articles).
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An important point to keep in mind is that, as a new researcher, many of your ideas will likely turn out to have already been researched and published by others, impossible or totally impractical for some reason, or even just flat-out bad ideas. Just keep thinking!