Questions tagged [research-topic]
On identifying, evaluating suitability, or sharing a topic or focused direction for research.
300
questions
6
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4
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Why do others have these highly specialised research topics and I don't?
I have some time now to think about what I want to write for my dissertation, but I just don’t know how to find an appropriate topic. I like what I do and I could do a lot.
Some people seem to have ...
- 61
6
votes
2
answers
727
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Master's thesis - lack of evidence, possibly poor topic choice
I'm working on a social science master's thesis based on a discourse analysis of documents. I finished a proposal a few months ago, which my committee approved. But as I continue to scan my sources, I ...
- 61
1
vote
1
answer
398
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Asking for help regarding Statement of Purpose [duplicate]
I am a Masters' student applying from India to US graduate schools for a Ph.D. in Mathematics(some of them are top departments like Stanford, MIT, UCLA, Berkeley, Illinois Urbana-Champaign). I wish to ...
- 141
6
votes
1
answer
228
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How can I narrow down my CS research interests when my undergrad institution doesn't have a large CS department?
I am currently a 4th year CS senior from a smaller liberal arts school with a small CS department. So far, I've pursued a few semesters of opportunities to do one-on-one research with my head of ...
- 161
2
votes
1
answer
384
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How to handle dislike of/lack-of-interest in sub-specialty of research area
I am a PhD student studying in a field that I enjoy. Furthermore, I enjoy the area within the field that I am specializing in. However, my specialty generally has two major application arenas, which ...
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-3
votes
1
answer
165
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What is the distribution of payoffs in research? [closed]
What is the distribution of payoffs in research?
Looking back through history, some research topics can pay off big, eg the double slit experiment in physics. "Pay off" here is not precisely defined,...
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2
votes
1
answer
188
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How to find graduate programs in chemistry based on my research interests
I am final year Chemistry undergraduate. I have worked in areas of laser spectroscopy and astrochemistry. I would like to apply to grad schools along this line especially spectroscopy. However, I know ...
Sanjeev Gautam
4
votes
2
answers
890
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In a statement of purpose for a PhD in computer science in the US is it better to express interest in a single subdiscipline or multiple? [duplicate]
It seems that if I were to just express interest in a single subdiscipline (computer networking for example), and none of the networking professors are taking on students, I would not be considered ...
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3
votes
1
answer
373
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Is it common practice in the US for students to propose master thesis topics themselves, or do labs have a list of topics to pick from?
I'm currently doing a masters in electrical engineering (image and video processing, machine learning, etc.) at a renowned European university.
For my masters thesis, I'd like to go to the US (or ...
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9
votes
3
answers
2k
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How to avoid plagiarism when working on an idea not developed from a student who quit the PhD program?
I am doing a PhD in economics. I had an idea on an issue of my interest. With making some research, I found out that there was a previous student at my university, who did not finish his PhD, but he ...
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5
votes
2
answers
615
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Changing from molecular neuroscience to ecology after PhD? Ecologist perspective needed!
I am one year away from finishing a PhD in neuroscience and looking at PostDoc/future career options. Though I love neuroscience, I don't enjoy working in the field very much and I have had a life-...
- 51
23
votes
5
answers
9k
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How is a research direction determined between a graduate student and their advisor?
My question applies to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math disciplines (STEM).
Q: By what process does a graduate student determine his or her research direction?
(Assume that the graduate ...
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-3
votes
1
answer
514
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How to know if a topic is related to my discipline? [closed]
Sometimes detecting that a topic is related to your discipline or not is confusing.
On which factor you know that a work is in your discipline or not.
- 1,397
2
votes
2
answers
522
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How to critically review an article when one doesn't have proper background knowledge?
I am in talks with a PhD supervisor for admission to university who likes my profile but has given me an article to review. Although the article is related to my broader research area, there are some ...
- 857
0
votes
3
answers
347
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Finding a suitable research topic from outside academia
I'd like to find a suitable research topic (specifically, in mathematics) to work on, where 'suitable' means that it's publishable and amenable to being completed in, say, 6-12 months. While there are ...
- 1,407
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1
answer
1k
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How can I share my research ideas for others to develop, in exchange for authorship? [closed]
I have some research ideas and concepts. But I have no time to proceed with them. So I would like to share them with relevant research institutions for further developments.
I don't expect any ...
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11
votes
5
answers
3k
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How does a professor know when a research project will get expected results?
I read that "One difficulty with research problems is that it is hard/impossible to know if the problem is easy or not" or when it can be solved. So how a graduate-research student (i.e., PhD or MRe) ...
- 921
4
votes
2
answers
2k
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Changing PhD topic and effect on career
I'm a PhD student in my third year (4-6 is common in my country) and seriously consider abandoning my current topic.
The new topic is in the same general field (CS related), yet in a vastly different ...
- 43
6
votes
1
answer
666
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What do conference organizers expect from an invited speaker?
I am asking this because I am going to be a plenary speaker in a couple of months (this is not going to be my first invited/keynote/plenary talk, but for some reason I never stopped to think about ...
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8
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3
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1k
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Should I choose a research field that I'm not really good at, but have strong interest?
I'm a first year masters student. Currently I'm doing coursework but I'll have research in second year. I find all subjects interesting. I feel better when I'm doing subjects including a bit of ...
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0
votes
1
answer
318
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Combining research related work and dissertation topic en route to PhD
I am finishing up a part time masters degree at a mid tier state school. I am really interested in moving on to a PhD at the same institution. I have enough credits beyond the masters and I have a ...
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2
votes
4
answers
5k
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Is it acceptable to ask a professor who is not your supervisor to give you M.S. thesis topic?
I'm currently a M.S. student. My supervisor give me freedom to choose thesis topic. Since it is so hard for me, I decide to ask another professors whom I consider to be their PhD candidates in future. ...
- 123
3
votes
2
answers
347
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Contact potential thesis advisor with no topic in mind
Is it okay to contact potential advisor if you have no specific topic in mind about your dissertation? I wanted to pursue graphics for masters, its a bit difficult narrowing it down. Is it okay to ask ...
17
votes
2
answers
2k
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How do people in academia know whether their research, result, theorem or thesis is original work?
I am curious as to how academia continues itself without replication or reinventing the wheel. So many academicians in so many areas of work, how would one ever find out whether the work he or she is ...
- 11.4k
1
vote
1
answer
653
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How to pick a PhD topic? [duplicate]
I have been offered an opportunity for a part time PhD in Computer Science. I have had brief conversation with the person that would be my advisor. He has suggested that I start to think of a topic/...
user30722
15
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How not to be like a rolling stone in research?
As a young researcher, it is really interesting for me to gain knowledge in different topics related to my major. I attend many conferences and seminars in my field, I read papers and books which I ...
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8
votes
2
answers
659
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What are the 'objective circumstances' that one young researcher should take into account when choosing a research topic?
Premise: I originally asked this on MathOverflow, but it was pointed out to me that it could be better fit for Academia Stack Exchange.
Note: I have received extremely varied advice on the following ...
user23758
5
votes
2
answers
359
views
Methodology of defining a research topic
My adviser asked me to come up with a research topic for a PhD student. As I'm expected to graduate in early 2016, my mentor considered this a good "exercise" for a tenure track career. Of course, ...
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4
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2
answers
3k
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What should I do if, after choosing a Master Thesis topic, I find an existing thesis on it in another language?
I picked a very unique topic for my Masters Thesis, only to find out that there is a Dissertation on the same topic, from 2008, in French. No other books have been published on this topic.
Ugh... I ...
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13
votes
5
answers
3k
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How to find out if my specific idea is really new, or if someone has already worked on it?
I started working on my PhD few months ago and I am trying to solve a problem in a particular topic. The topic is quite specific and many people have already worked on it before. I am stuck at the ...
- 231
1
vote
0
answers
87
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Lost to find a topic for my reseach! [duplicate]
I am really LOST. anyone can help me sharing his/her experience would be great.
I am currently a PhD student and I changed my advisor and minor 'research field' after one year of my program. This is ...
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3
votes
3
answers
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What's a "methodological approach" for research (Master's thesis)?
I'm going to apply for a Master's program. Although I'm not going to change my general field of study, I'm going to change my 'track' (from Information Technology to Geoinformatics).
In the ...
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5
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1
answer
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What is the strategy to identify natural experiment as a PhD student?
As social scientists become more concerned with causal inference, a good thesis these days needs some sort of quasi-experimental strategy. For example, an economist wants to know the effect of ...
- 1,456
19
votes
5
answers
7k
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Is it advisable to have a master or PhD thesis topic in mind before entering graduate school?
This is a question that fascinates a lot of people prior to attending graduate school. The question whether one should already have chosen a thesis topic so that all efforts will be put on creating ...
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4
votes
2
answers
1k
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Mediocre Thesis Topic. Does this Hurt my Reputation
Just curious as to the effects of publishing a mediocre PHD thesis:
After sitting down and taking a cold, detached, look at my thesis topic, I realized I was given a pair of coobook-style problems, i....
11
votes
2
answers
752
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What makes good research questions good?
I am in Computer Science and currently in my proposal phase. For my problem statement, I want to come up with good research questions. However, at the moment I am struggling with the definition of "...
- 1,102
7
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3
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3k
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Is it usual for a PhD thesis to have two distinct subjects?
In my PhD studies I have slipped off my original track of research. This was also caused by the fact that I found out that my work can be generalized to a broader scope. It is not so bad, during this ...
- 1,139
10
votes
1
answer
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If you have broad interests, should you describe a narrow research topic in statement of purpose anyways?
All the advice for writing a Statement of Purpose (otherwise referred to as 'Personal Statement') for graduate (Masters) on the internet usually pins it down to narrowing down your interest to ...
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5
answers
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Should I leave my current PhD if I don't like the research problems my advisor suggests?
Warning: Extremely long post. Not really even the full story but one must stop somewhere.
My problem is the following:
I am a pure mathematics PhD student in (a remote part of) Europe and am part of ...
user22341
6
votes
1
answer
1k
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How and when should I identify my specific research interests?
I am a Computer Science graduate, who is passionate about Computer Science and various topics and want to explore them in and out.
I am interested in research but I cannot refine my interests to a ...
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1
answer
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How to come up with research questions that are well-defined and suitable in scope and relatedness for a thesis?
I have decided on the area I want to contribute to, and have found a basic but huge problem for my research. Now my professor told me to redefine the area, so to break the, at the moment, huge area ...
- 1,102
8
votes
2
answers
1k
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PhD position interview: How specific should my idea of the topic be?
I just finished my master in Geophysics with some help from here ;). Now I applied for several PhD positions in Natural Sciences and just got an invitation for a personal interview for one of them.
...
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21
votes
2
answers
4k
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How to find relevant and new open research topics?
How can one find relevant and new open research topics?
When working on my PhD thesis, I find it hard to find open questions in my very specific research area. Which approach do you take to find new ...
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57
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7
answers
2k
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What to do with spare research topics?
A while back I reached the stage where my ideas for research topics/papers exceeded my capacity to personally work on them. As a PostDoc, I tried to head-hunt students or more junior researchers in my ...
- 13.5k
12
votes
3
answers
660
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A discipline being superfluous? [closed]
I heard for the second time today that a discipline is "superfluous". This comment was made by a young assistant professor, who does not do research in this discipline. Just to be fair to the ...
- 1,525
120
votes
9
answers
89k
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How to come up with research ideas?
As a very new researcher who is exploring the best way to generate ideas, some guidance on this question would be very helpful. I have found that this is NOT easy. Ideas seem to pop out of my ...
- 2,075
17
votes
6
answers
3k
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Choosing research area
I am considering pursuing a PhD in computer science one day.
I guess specializing in (is that the way to put it)?
What I want to focus my research efforts on.
I am interested in:
Manned/unmanned ...
- 833
38
votes
5
answers
115k
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How to select a Master's thesis topic if your advisor won't suggest one?
If a master's degree candidate needs to select a thesis topic, but their advisor is unwilling to offer suggestions on the matter, how should one go about selecting a thesis?
How might one select an ...
- 12.4k
18
votes
3
answers
2k
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Does one need a specific field in mind to apply to a PhD program in mathematics?
When applying for the PhD program in mathematics, usually, one is not required to specify in what field (e.g., PDE, dynamical system, etc.) he/she intends to do. However, I don't know whether it will ...
user35
49
votes
5
answers
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How to find a good topic for a PhD research proposal?
In many countries an application for a PhD position includes a written research proposal, so my questions is what are some advises/strategies to come up with a good topic/idea for a PhD research ...
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