How to Craft Well-defined Research Questions

Research Questions

Research questions are concise, specific, and focused queries that help a researcher to clarify the research topic and lead the investigation and exploration of a research study through relevant data collection and analysis. They are focused on a specific research problem and are answered through data collection and analysis through various means. They define the objectives and scope of the research, helping the researcher to focus the investigation by providing a framework for interpreting results and ensure the researcher stays on right track during the course of research. Thus, research questions serve as a tool directing the research process to produce valuable and meaningful?results. Thus, it is very important to have well-crafted research questions before initiating a research on any topic.

Features of Well-crafted research questions

Well-crafted research questions must be S.M.A.R.T.

How to Craft Well-defined Research Questions

The process of crafting S.M.A.R.T. research questions on a specific topic involves several steps.

Let’s elaborate these steps by taking specific example say, in the field of water remediation. ?

Step 1. Define the topic: Identify the particular aspect of water remediation you want fascinating to explore, such as "Removal of heavy metals from waste water" or "Efficient Methods for Wastewater Treatment". For example: "Development of sustainable technologies for removal of heavy metals from waste water".

Step 2. Conduct literature review: Review existing print and online literature, including academic papers, industry reports, and government documents, to extract the background information for better understanding of the topic. For example: Study the traditional and recent methods for removing heavy metals from waste water including adsorption, bioremediation, reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, ultrafiltration, phytoremediation, advanced oxidation processes, sustainability and cost-effectiveness analysis etc.

Step 3. Identify gaps and issues: Determine what has not been answered, what is not well understood or what needs further investigation. For example, identify the lack of more efficient, eco-friendly, cost-effective and scalable technologies for removing heavy metals from waste water.

Step 4. Formulate research aim: Outline the purpose and scope of your investigation with relevant and valuable research objectives. For example, "The aim of this research is to develop a sustainable and cost-effective technology for wastewater treatment using biosynthesized nanocomposites, and to evaluate its effectiveness for practical use."

Step 5. Ask preliminary questions: Generate initial open-ended and different types of questions to guide your investigation. These questions can be further classified into various types as discussed ahead.

Step 6. Refine your questions: Polish your questions according to your research aim and objectives to obtain SMART research questions.

For example, in the topic of Water remediation using nanocomposite, some examples of preliminary research questions with specific types are:

1. Descriptive: What, how, where, when?

??? - What are the physical and chemical properties of biosynthesized nanocomposites as an adsorbent?

??? - How does the surface area of biosynthesized nanocomposites affect their adsorption capacity?

2. Comparative: How does A differ from B?

??? - How does the adsorption capacity of biosynthesized nanocomposites compare to that of other adsorbents?

??? - What are the differences in adsorption kinetics between biosynthesized nanocomposites and traditional adsorbents?

3. Causal: What is the relationship between A and B?

??? - Does the pore size of biosynthesized nanocomposites affect their ability to remove heavy metals from water?

??? - How does the surface chemistry of biosynthesized nanocomposites influence their adsorption selectivity?

4. Predictive: What will happen...?

??? - What will be the adsorption capacity of the biosynthesized nanocomposites based on its chemical structure?

??? - How will the adsorption performance of biosynthesized nanocomposites change over multiple regeneration cycles?

5. Exploratory: What is the application of...?

??? - What are the potential applications of biosynthesized nanocomposites in wastewater treatment?

??? - How do biosynthesized nanocomposites interact with different types of pollutants in the environment?

6. Explanatory: Why does...?

??? - Why do biosynthesized nanocomposites exhibit high selectivity for certain pollutants?

??? - How do the physical and chemical properties of biosynthesized nanocomposites influence their adsorption mechanisms?

7. Evaluative: How good or effective is...?

??? - How effective are biosynthesized nanocomposites in removing emerging contaminants from drinking water?

??? - What are the advantages and limitations of using biosynthesized nanocomposites in industrial wastewater treatment?

8. Hypothesis-testing: Does A affect B?

??? - Does the presence of functional groups in biosynthesized nanocomposites improve their adsorption capacity?

??? - Can biosynthesized nanocomposites be tailored to increase adsorption capacity as compared to traditional adsorbents?

9. Quantitative: What will be the value of....?

??? -What is the percentage removal efficiency of heavy metals from water using nanocomposites compared to other adsorbents?

-What is the optimal dosage of nanocomposites required to achieve a significant level of water purification?

10. Qualitative: What are the perspectives of...?

??? - What are the experiences of industries using biosynthesized nanocomposites for wastewater treatment?

??? - How do biosynthesized nanocomposites impact the overall water treatment process and plant operation?

Refinement of Preliminary Questions

Let’s select some open-ended questions,

1. What types of eco-friendly nanocomposites have been explored for wastewater treatment?

2. What are the optimal conditions for synthesizing these nanocomposites?

3. What is the impact of the physico-chemical properties of the nanocomposites on their heavy metal ion removal ability?

4. How does the performance of the biosynthesized nanocomposites compare to existing wastewater treatment technologies in terms of removal efficiency, cost, and environmental impact?

5. What are the potential challenges and limitations of using biosynthesized nanocomposites for wastewater treatment in practical use?

7. What is the extent of stability and reusability of the nanocomposites for long-term use in wastewater treatment?

These questions can be refined as,

1. What are the most effective types of eco-friendly nanocomposites synthesized from natural products/biomass such as agricultural waste, cellulose, chitosan, lignin, etc. for removing heavy metal ions from wastewater?

2. What are the optimal synthesis conditions including pH, temperature, reaction time, concentration, etc. for producing nanocomposites with high removal efficiency?

3. How do the physico-chemical properties such as particle size, surface area, functional groups, zeta potential, etc. of the nanocomposites influence their ability to remove heavy metal ions from wastewater?

4. What is the comparative performance of biosynthesized nanocomposites versus conventional wastewater treatment technologies such as filtration in terms of removal efficiency, cost, and environmental impact?

5. What are the major challenges and limitations in terms of stability, scalability, and toxicity associated with using biosynthesized nanocomposites for wastewater treatment in real-world applications?

6. What is the extent of stability and reusability of the biosynthesized nanocomposites for long-term use in wastewater treatment, and how can these be improved?

Unlocking the AI superpower

For a novice researcher, who is new to research and unfamiliar to the research topic, formulation of research questions maybe a tedious and daunting task! Isn’t it? Fortunately, AI Research Assistants can complete this challenging task within a few minutes.

How does AI tool help?

An AI tool provides guided prompts after analyzing and understanding natural language to identify the key concepts and keywords related to the research field. It identifies relationships between various concepts and recognizes patterns in language and data. It can quickly analyze existing literature and identify research gaps and uses generative models to suggest potential research questions to address those gaps. It saves time and effort of researcher for spending on data collection and analysis as well as helps in collaborating more effectively with colleagues and peers.

AnswerThis- AI research assistant

AnswerThis is a specially designed multidimensional AI research assistant that helps to write specific prompts for all your research requirements as explored earlier in https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/what-research-topic-rajni-garg-ph-d--cyexc/?trackingId=qC25m3VvTzOiVaoSXIVp6g%3D%3D

Lets’ use the research topic that we have defined in Step 1 of the process given above.

Step 1: Sign in at AnswerThis.io and name your project.

Step 2: Ask AnswerThis to write a prompt on “Suggest Research Questions” by specifying your research topic, say, “Development of sustainable technologies for removal of heavy metals from waste water”.

Adjust filter and submit to receive your answer with evidence-based literature support.

What next?

• You can save the answer as PDF, export the references to your reference manager, save the papers in your library.

• Select the papers to summarize, chat with papers, and search for more papers.
• Ask help to write prompt for literature review, identify gaps in literature, generate research outline, generate research proposal, quantitative analysis, and find specific journals.
• Ask answers to your research queries to get in-line cited answers.
• Start your write-up with instant suggestions and restructure smartly.

Why wait? Leverage the AI superpower of AnswerThis and streamline your research journey! Happy researching!

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