What is a good research question?

It is important to start your thinking about the dissertation with a question rather than simply a topic heading. The question sets out what you hope to learn about the topic. This question, together with your approach, will guide and structure the choice of data to be collected and analysed.Some research questions focus your attention onto the relationship of particular theories and concepts: 'how does gender relate to career choices of members of different religions?' Some research questions aim to open an area to let possible new theories emerge: 'what is going on here?' is the most basic research question in exploratory research. For an undergraduate dissertation, your question needs to be more targeted than either of these.Creating a research question is a task. Good research questions are formed and worked on, and are rarely simply found. You start with what interests you, and you refine it until it is workable.There is no recipe for the perfect research question, but there are bad research questions. The following guidelines highlight some of the features of good questions.Top Tips:

Relevant. Manageable in terms of research and in terms of your own academic abilities. Substantial and with original dimensions. Consistent with the requirements of the assessment. Clear and simple. Interesting.

Relevant

The question will be of academic and intellectual interest to people in the field you have chosen to study. The question arises from issues raised in the literature or in practice.You should be able to establish a clear purpose for your research in relation to the chosen field. For example, are you filling a gap in knowledge, analysing academic assumptions or professional practice, monitoring a development in practice, comparing different approaches or testing theories within a specific population?

Manageable

You need to be realistic about the scope and scale of the project. The question you ask must be within your ability to tackle. For example, are you able to access people, statistics, or documents from which to collect the data you need to address the question fully? Are you able to relate the concepts of your research question to the observations, phenomena, indicators or variables you can access? Can this data be accessed within the limited time and resources you have available to you?Sometimes a research question appears feasible, but when you start your fieldwork or library study, it proves otherwise. In this situation, it is important to write up the problems honestly and to reflect on what has been learnt. It may be possible, with your supervisor, to develop a contingency plan to anticipate possible problems of access.

Substantial and (within reason) original

The question should not simply copy questions asked in other final year modules, or modules previously undertaken. It shows your own imagination and your ability to construct and develop research issues. And it needs to give sufficient scope to develop into a dissertation.

Consistent with the requirements of the assessment

The question must allow you the scope to satisfy the learning outcomes of the course.For example, you can choose to conduct a theoretical study, one that does not contain analysis of empirical data. In this case, it will be necessary for you to think carefully before making such a choice. You would be required to give an account of your methodology, to explain why theoretical analysis was the most appropriate way of addressing the question and how you have gone about using theoretical models to produce new insights about the subject.

Clear and simple

The complexity of a question can frequently hide unclear thoughts and lead to a confused research process. A very elaborate research question, or a question which is not differentiated into different parts, may hide concepts that are contradictory or not relevant. This needs to be clear and thought-through, but it is one of the hardest parts of your work.Equally, you may want to begin with your literature review and data collection and you may feel tempted to 'make do' with a broad and vague research question for the moment. However, a muddled question is likely to generate muddled data and equally muddled analysis.If you create a clear and simple research question, you may find that it becomes more complex as you think about the situation you are studying and undertake the literature review. Having one key question with several sub-components will guide your research here.

Interesting

This is essential. The question needs to intrigue you and maintain your interest throughout the project. There are twotrapstoavoid.

Some questions are convenient - the best you can come up with when you are asked to state a question on a form, maybe – or perhaps the question fits in with your units so you decide it will suffice.

Some questions are fads - they arise out of a particular set of personal circumstances, for example a job application. Once the circumstances change you can lose enthusiasm for the topic and it becomes very tedious.

Make sure that you have a real, grounded interest in your research question, and that you can explore this and back it up by academic and intellectual debate. It is your interest that will motivate you to keep working and to produce a good dissertation.

Studentvoice 

Introduction

Now that you are doing your own research, you need to formulate your own question or questions to be answered. A goodresearchquestionhelpsto:

guide the research process

construct a logical argument

write a literatura review

plan thesis chapters

devise efficient search strategies.

This section will help you write a good research question to guide your research and writing. You will revise and refine this question throughout your research as you come to a more sophisticated understanding of your topic and target a more specific area of scholarship.

A well defined research question has six properties:

1. identifies the theoretical construct you want to learn more about

2. assists you to code literature according to a logical structure

3. transcends the data used to conduct the research

4. draws attention to the significance of the research

5. has the capacity to surprise the researcher as they research

6. encourages a complex answer (i.e. not a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response).

Properties of a good research question: A good research question identifies the theoretical construct, transcends the data and has recognisability, significance, robustness and the capacity to surprise.

Difference between a research question, title, hypothesis & research focus

A research question is not the same as a thesis title, research problem, hypothesis or research focus, although they are interrelated and support one another. To further define these elements:

A research question summarises the significant issue your research will

investigate.

The title consists of the topic and outcome of a research project.

The research problem explains the knowledge gap your research will

address.

A hypothesis is a predicted answer to the research question that can be

tested and is based on prior research.

A research focus specifies the scope or domain of inquiry. 

The remainder of this section will go into further detail about how to write a good research question.

Identify the theoretical construct

The theoretical construct is the phenomenon, event, or experience you will be researching.

Example: Within a thesis titled "An empirical investigation of health information system failure in regional Sri Lanka" the theoretical construct is 'health information system'.

You need to find and search for synonyms for the theoretical construct to ensure you do not miss finding important research because of superficial differences in vocabulary (see Module 2.1   Search strategies ).

Example: 'Public health planning' is similar in meaning to 'health information system'. Both these phrases are used in the literature and might need to be researched.

Recognisability

A well-defined theoretical construct helps you identify relevant versus irrelevant research. It ensures that you are always searching for relevant matches in your data and can avoid wasting time reading and writing about ideas that aren't directly related to your research. The theoretical construct must be clear, precise and must conform to the technical usage in your discipline.

Example: Instead of the broad topic: 'health information systems', choose 'decentralised health information systems in developing countries'.

Focusing on a subset of health information systems enables you, as a researcher, to recognise specific data relevant to a tightly defined construct.

Transcend the data

The method you use to answer your research question is (usually) not included in the question itself. This is because different kinds of data can be used to answer your research question and the significance of your research should go beyond the methods you have used to determine your answers.

Example: A researcher could collect data by: conducting interviews, conducting experiments, writing a meta-analysis or studying a particular region in depth to justify solutions applicable to broader geographic, demographic or socioeconomic groups.

There are some dissertations where the data might be specific enough to include in the research question.

Example: A creative industries dissertation may define a time period, a choreographer or type of artistic practice.

Research methods

There are various resources available for finding out more about suitable research methodologies to answer your research question. SAGE Research Methods (SRM) can help researchers in the social sciences or humanities design appropriate qualitative and quantitative research methods for data collection.

The Practice Led Research in Creative Arts Media and

Design learning resource will be useful to those pursuing practice-lead research

projects.

QUT’s Research Student Centre Training Resources wiki provides additional resources to assist you to select the right research method.

Significance

Your research question should suggest how your study will increase knowledge of the theoretical construct. You need to convey what interests you about the theoretical construct and what will be different about it by the time your work is finished. Significance will reflect specialised knowledge in your discipline.

Example: Your new contribution might be to suggest ways to make health information timely and reliable to ensure evidence-based health planning in decentralised, developing world health systems. You begin your research knowing that health information systems lack good information; your new contribution will be to offer evidence-based insight and solutions to improve health information systems in developing nations.

What makes research exciting and surprising is discovering insights and solutions that you will not know at the start of your research.

Capacity to surprise

Valuable research surprises your reader with new ideas or new relationships between existing ideas. Your research question needs to hint at surprising possibilities to increase the probability of original results.

Example of an unsurprising research question: "How do health information systems fail to provide reliable, timely information?"

This research question presupposes that all aspects of health information systems fail and that there are no possibilities other than to confirm this statement. A researcher is unlikely to be surprised with this sort of question because their data will simply confirm this judgment.

Choosing an unsurprising, expected approach with your research question compromises your capacity to contribute to your discipline with original publications. If you already know the answer to your research

question at the start you are simply documenting known information, rather than researching.

Examples of surprising research questions:“How do climate-driven changes in the biophysical environment affect the sustainability of sub-tropical parklands?”“What strategies do union organisations use to retain their radicalism over time?”“What are the impacts of Starbucks on the consuming patterns of its patrons?”

Each of these research questions allow for surprising and original answers. Do not worry about whether your question will produce significant findings. A research question that follows these six principles and is guided by the expertise of your supervisory team will yield new discoveries about your theoretical construct.

Robustness

Your question must be capable of generating multiple insights about the theoretical construct you are studying, and thus lead to complex results. It should not be a question to which the answer is 'yes' or 'no' because such an answer is not a complex result.

Example of a non-robust research question: "Are public health information systems in Sri Lanka effective for accurate decision-making?"

Example of a robust research question: "How do regional health information systems provide information support for evidence based health planning and interventions?"

A robust question allows for surprising and complex results, such as discovering that there are some effective sub-systems within a broadly inefficient system. A well written research question makes research interesting to write and to read.

Activity – create a good research question

Create a research question that incorporates each of the six principles outlined above. Some of thefollowingstructuresmight be helpful:

Whatisthenature of

 

How do ... differ

 

What are thefunctions of

How do ... perceive

 

Whatfactorsaffect

 

Whatstrategies are used

How do ... respond

 

How do ... affect

 

What are theeffects of

How are ... defined

 

Underwhatconditions do

What is the relationship between ...

 

What are the mechanisms by which

Discuss your research question with your supervisory team and make sure they approve it before you start accumulating too many articles and books. Write down your research question at the start of your resource log. By the end of AIRS, you will most likely have altered your

research question considerably, which reflects your research journey and your increasingly sophisticated understanding of your topic.

Summary

Writing your research question is one of the first things to focus on when you begin your research journey. Your question identifies your contribution to research, has the capacity to surprise and can produce robust results. A good research question scaffolds your entire research project and keeps you excited on the journey.