What Makes a Good Research Question?

Creating a good research question is vital to successfully completing your dissertation. Here are some tips that will help you formulate a good research question. 

What Makes a Good Research Question?

These are the three most important qualities of a good research question:

#1: Open-Ended (Not Yes/No)

You do NOT want a question that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” That is a dead end for a question. There needs to be something beyond a simple yes/no” or the research has nowhere to go!

#2: Addresses a Gap in Literature

Secondly, you want a question, ideally, that fits into a niche of questions that have not been addressed yet in peer reviewed research yet is worthy of scholarly study. If you wish to address a topic that has been researched before, you may use different subjects or time periods of study; this is called a replication and is acceptable in most universities.

#3: Holds Your Interest

This last point is especially crucial for dissertation research. You will be thinking about and studying a particular question for at least a year, so you want it to be something that you are REALLY interested in learning about. This will hold your interest throughout the process. The research question is really the heart of the research process. A good research question will hold your interest and contribute to the body of scholarly knowledge about a subject.

How Do You Find a Good Research Question?

Look to Your Interests

Problems that can use research are everywhere. Where do your interests lie? Pick an area that you are excited about. It needs to engage your interest and, ideally, your passion. 

Identify the Type of Research

There are basically two kinds of research; applied research and basic research. Applied research is meant to inform decision making about practical problems, while basic research can advance theoretical conceptualizations about a particular topic. Both are useful, but chances are you will find an applied research topic.

Review the Existing Literature

Start your search by looking at what other scholars have studied. Go look at dissertation abstracts in the library; see if anything grabs your interest. But self-enlightenment is not the goal of research. Gathering information about a certain topic is fine, but it doesn’t lead to new knowledge. The same is true for comparing two sets of data; you can go to the library and do this (e.g. comparing men and women over 100 years as to the number of each employed during that span of years).

Chapter 2 of a dissertation proposal usually is called the literature review and this needs to be done early on. This is where you discover what has been studied in your chosen area of interest. If you find a topic that grabs your interest, think through the feasibility that the project implies. 

You want something that is doable in a reasonable amount of time. A project that is too ambitious can lead to frustration and heartache. Remember; you want a question that leads you to new research but too big a topic can wait until you complete the PhD!

Develop Your Research Question

A statement of the research question needs to be precise. You need to say exactly what you mean. You cannot assume that others will be able to read your mind. If you cannot state the problem clearly and succinctly, then your data gathering might be sloppy, too. 

Develop Your Problem Statement

Occasionally a researcher talks about a problem, but never states exactly what the problem is –  avoid this at all costs. Be sure to edit your work. 

You may wish to subdivide the problem into sub-problems, so that the sub-problems add up to the totality of the problem. But sub-problems need to be small in number (ideally, 2-5 subproblems will do.) Having too many sub-problems is not helpful in designing a research project. If you come up with too many sub-problems, see if any are just procedural issues and not really sub-problems.

Final Thoughts

Remember, you need to find a question that really energizes you and, ideally, one that fills a gap in the existing research in this area. Make sure the problem statement is concise and doable; the scope of the problem needs to be something that you can do in a reasonable amount of time. And, above all, keep in mind that your job is to increase the body of knowledge in this field. You are providing fertile ground for future research. Get going!