How do you choose a research topic that is original, feasible, and impactful?

Review existing literature to find gaps. Assess feasibility in terms of resources and expertise. Select a topic that genuinely interests you. Ensure relevance and real-world applicability. Seek advice from mentors and peers. Find a unique angle within your field. Manage the research scope effectively. Collaborate with experts for added impact. Consider pilot studies to test feasibility. Continuously gather feedback. Align the topic with long-term goals. Ensure ethical compliance.

When choosing your research topic, it’s important to be aware of the breadth of articles available for your overarching topic or sub-topics. Some questions to ask yourself might be: (1) What proportion of the available literature is less than 5 to 7 years old? (2) How many papers on your topic have really expanded upon theories? (3) Do you need to assign theories to your research if they are unavailable? (4) Do I want to work on a little known topic, or expand upon a topic that is already “hot”? Finding these answers may help you gauge whether your research is impactful and feasible.

Conduct a thorough review of existing literature to pinpoint areas that require further investigation or lack adequate understanding. Ensure that the chosen research topic has practical implications and addresses real-world challenges or opportunities, making the findings meaningful and impactful. Seek collaborations with experts in relevant fields to leverage their knowledge and expertise, amplifying the potential impact of your research. Adhere to ethical guidelines and regulations throughout the research process, ensuring the protection of human and animal subjects, data privacy, and responsible conduct.

Review the previous research to identify any gaps or unexplored areas. For example, if current research focuses on the health effects of indoor air pollutants in homes, you could investigate the unique challenges of indoor air quality in schools, which could have far-reaching implications for students' health. Evaluate your available resources, such as data, funding, and access to pertinent tools or specialists. Research on the environmental health effects of climate change, which can inform policy and safeguard communities, should be given priority. This method indicates that your research will significantly contribute?to the field.

Society has large sufferings and disparities. Identify the simplest topic which can provide best possible solutions to maximum. That’s how you can s ale it up and make it most impactful. Community must be at the centre with maximum benefit to common people.

One great way to narrow down your topic is to help readers gain interest in your research by tackling an urgent or under-studied problem. This might involve offering a unique methodological or theoretical contribution, or focusing on an understudied population.

The best way to make unique research is to collect new data. Of course, it is often not easy, but it provides benefits. Explore the research area to see what data other researchers have collected and try to find new or additional data, if the previously collected data is available. The collection of data requires strong guidelines, so think about it at this stage too.

"Population" is a very effective way to narrow down your topic. Often, you will see that someone has already designed a study around a specific problem, but hasn't explored it in YOUR population of interest. Replicating work in different population is a great way to address gaps in the literature. (It also checks that "novelty" box.)

The most important learning is: you’ll never have as much time to do your research as you think you have. Especially if you’re collecting data, you’ll always come across obstacles. So, if you’re just starting with your research, make sure to talk to more experienced peers, colleagues, and supervisors to help you assess feasibility and duration. Depending on the methodological approach, your research question and topic may even evolve during the process (especially in qualitative and exploratory research). Questions to ask yourself: - Which type of research question do I want/need to answer? - Which skills/methods do I need? - How much time will my data collection take (if you collect data)? - What knowledge does my target audience have?

Una vez que quede claro el problema, es necesario identificar claramente quienes conforman la cima de la especialidad en la que está enmarcado el problema. Conocer cuales son las publicaciones de punta en el tema específico y saber alrededor de qué soluciones gira este tema en específico para no "inventar la rueda" o "descubrir el agua tibia".

Distilling the research topic into one or more well-defined research questions/hypotheses is often more challenging than finding a novel solution to the problem. Yet, when the research question is clearly stated, it motivates the appropriate research methodology, allowing other elements of research, such as the appropriate tools and analyses to align naturally. I consider it the most crucial step of any research endeavour!

Es necesario hacerse la pregunta ?en qué pretendo mejorar lo que ha hecho el mundo hasta hoy en el tema específico? Las ideas de investigación no pueden ser extravagantes y festinadas sino que deben estar encaminadas a mejorar en algún aspecto la temática abordada de modo que la Ciencia avance aunque sea un nanómetro después de nuestra investigación.

Developing a research question is a central step and can already help you find / define your topic (and your approach to the research problem) and narrow it down. How to best “evaluate” and “test” your topic is, again, highly dependent on the type of research you’re doing. Criteria for assessing “relevance” or “being interesting” differ significantly between disciplines and methodological paradigm. Quantitative approaches (e.g., statistical analyses, mathematical modeling) often adhere to much more standardized a priori criteria than the more context-sensitive qualitative methods (e.g., interviews, grounded theory, etc.). Hence, know your audience (and if you’re doing research for a thesis, learn as much as you can from your supervisors).

You're not going to get it in one blow. This process of reviewing and revising will and will take several rounds of iterations. Instinctively, it's all about reading and re-reading the literatures you use. They have tons of examples on narrowing down the topic. I find that the best way to do this is to bounce the idea around out loud with a colleague - be it a lab mate or a fellow academic or a senior researcher. Doing so will open you up to fresh perspectives and overlooked angles that you have not considered. A word of caution though: Be mindful as well as to who you bounce your ideas around with. Be sure that who you talk to are indeed knowledgeable in the field, and are willing to help you. And write it all down!

Uno comienza con una idea predeterminada, una hipótesis, pero en la medida que avanza la investigación uno debe ir refinando la hipótesis acorde a la expansión de nuestro conocimiento de la temática.

What constitutes an original work? An original work involves delving into uncharted territories within a particular domain, offering a fresh perspective on a subject, or extending an existing research study or body of work

What constitutes an original work? An original work involves delving into uncharted territories within a particular domain, offering a fresh perspective on a subject, or extending an existing research study or body of work

Never underestimate the time needed to revise and re-evaluate your contribution! While many researchers, especially those coming from positivist traditions, may claim that your research can capture something like an “objective reality”, my experience is that the more complex topics get, the more contested they become (as the problems we aim at addressing with our research are as socially constructed as the method and epistemology we use). Even if you’re writing a thesis or article “on your own”, you are using language, terminology, and skills you (most likely) did not invent yourself, etc. Hence, your perspective is always limited. Make these limitations as explicit as you can, which helps you to (re-)position your approach as you write.

The dissemination of your ideas is just as important as the research itself. If no one ever sees you work, it is unlikely to have an impact on your field or the world. Consider using media that is less "traditionally academic" to reach a broad audience. Feature your work on a guest blog post, talk about it on a podcast, or discuss it with mainstream news outlets. Reaching a broad audience will increase your chances making a difference!

Topic gains prominence once the ideas are published. The citations, journal where they are published matters. Sometimes I would suggest you to collaborate with others to have a team work and share your ideas. Multiple minds always work better. However, remember to collaborate with people of same mindset.

Una investigación vale lo que valga su implementación práctica y para implementar algo en la práctica es necesario difundirlo, explicarlo y defender la terrenalidad de los resultados obtenidos.

Here, it may be important to differentiate whether you’re communicating and justifying your topic to academic supervisors (e.g., thesis advisor(s), members your doctoral committee), a potential academic target audience (e.g., editors, reviewers, and readers of an academic journal), or in grant applications and project proposals (i.e., people deciding on whether or not to fund your research). These processes follow similar but sometimes also very distinct (institutional / disciplinary) logics. For example, some funding agencies (e.g., ministries and foundations) may focus on potential societal impacts and outcomes of your research, while others (e.g., national research councils) may prioritize your contribution to academic discourse(s).

1. Refer to top quartile and good journals since you are establishing argument. 2. Check the cited papers or reference. 3. Also check citations to look into further progress of the area. 4. Create a story 5. Present your work (draft) 6. Peer review and expert suggestion 7. Finalise

En adición a lo antes comentado. 1. El estado del arte, los antecedentes. Una buena revisión bibliografíca ( revistas reconocidas, memorias de simposium, etc) 2. Un tema "original" no existe. Existen temas con amplia discusión en foros técnicos. Los temas novedosos regularmente abordan la investigación con técnicas poco convencionales. 3. Elegir un tema por su impacto puede ser un espejismo. El método científico ofrece muchas alternativas para abordar un fenómeno. Por lo que la utilidad puede evaluarse desde un punto de vista sostenible. Qué tan económico es, qué repercusión social tiene y qué tan amigable es con el medio ambiente. 4. La selección debe considerar un grupo de trabajo, nivel de especialización o qué tan multidisciplinario.

Know that seminal ideas may not have recent literature or state of art concerning the idea. Often it may not be possible to find gaps in literature but some seminal ideas give new perspective to existing research problem.It is important to assess ideas with respect to proposing context and understanding. At this moment carefully evaluate the ideas with pragmatic approach.