Graduate Life Cycle > Getting Started > Choosing a Research Topic

Think about research topics as soon as you begin your graduate studies

In some programs, the graduate advisor will assign your general research topic, although you may have some opportunity to choose specific projects within the topic area. Other programs expect students to determine their own research topic in consultation with the research advisor. If your program expects students to choose their own research topics, be sure to select a topic that is both interesting to you and realistic in terms of the amount of time and resources it will require for completion. To aid in selection:

• Become familiar with the important research issues and topics in your discipline as evidenced by review of recent publications in the major journals in your field.
• Carefully review any research that has been recently published by your research advisor or others from your department.
• Develop a topic that has interested you throughout your undergraduate or graduate career.
• Review papers you have written for classes, looking for a pattern of interest.
• Look at class notes; professors may have pointed out potential research topics or commented on unanswered questions in the field.
• Record your research ideas in a diary or other reference source when you think of them.
• Think about the top three issues you would like to study, then turn them into questions.
• Discuss your research objectives with your research advisor and other faculty within your program.