How to Choose a Dissertation Topic
Choosing your dissertation topic can be one of the most stressful things you do as a graduate student. You are going to have to live and breathe the topic you choose for several years (no pressure), so choose wisely! There are several factors to consider as you narrow your ideas. One crucial factor to consider is your plans after you graduate. For instance, someone who wants to pursue a career in academia might consider a topic that will allow them to establish a research trajectory with several follow-up studies. Whereas, someone who is seeking a terminal degree to advance their current career in the private sector might not plan to conduct systematic research again. Regardless of your future goals, you need to select a topic that you can see yourself sticking with for several years.
Identify a problem.
While this step seems obvious, most people are able to quickly articulate an interest and not an actual research problem. What’s the difference? A statement about a research problem should concisely describe a current issue that needs to be addressed and improved upon.
Here is an example of each:
- Interest: I want to study how integrated healthcare models are implemented in Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals in the United States.
- Problem: A majority of the integrated healthcare models that have been implemented in U.S. Veterans Affairs hospitals have failed, while integrated healthcare models in other settings, such as private hospitals, have been successful. I want to know why.
See the difference?
Try starting with your interest statement and then ask yourself, “So what?” Your answer should help you articulate the problem.
Search the literature.
Now that you have identified a problem, you need to search the literature high and low for current information about the problem. Start with peer-reviewed literature published in the past two years. If this proves to be challenging, locate a recently published dissertation related to your topic to identify seminal authors, references, and keywords for searching databases. You might find that someone has already conducted the study you want to conduct. If that happens, don’t panic. You might be able to build on their research!
Identify a “gap” in the literature.
Now that you have conducted an exhaustive search of the literature, it is time to identify a “gap” in the literature. A “gap” in the literature is missing knowledge in the field of research related to your study. One way to identify a “gap” is by reviewing future research in recently published peer-reviewed articles. Using the above example, let’s pretend that I located an article that researched what I hoped to study, and the conclusion was that integrated healthcare models were not effectively implemented in VA settings because each hospital was responsible for its implementation processes and there was no centralized system for sharing data and communication strategies across VA hospitals. One recommendation for future research made by the authors was the need to survey leaders at each VA hospital to gather data regarding best practices. Now that’s a “gap” in the literature!
Determine how you can fill that “gap.”
Determining how you can fill the “gap” in the literature can be a bit tricky. It would help if you considered what research designs are available based on the “gap” you’ve identified. In the above example, a national survey seems like the obvious choice. If you are a qualitative researcher, one option would be to conduct interviews and focus groups with all of the leaders of VA hospitals. BUT, is that feasible? Probably not. What I’m getting at here is that you might need to narrow the scope. For instance, maybe you decide to focus only on VA hospitals in one region of the United States.
Start by creating a list of options and thinking through how you would go about conducting research. This brainstorming activity will help you decide what options are feasible.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Will I be able to collect data in a reasonable timeframe?
- Will I have access to the population?
- Will I be able to recruit the required number of participants based on my study design?
If you complete all of these steps and are still struggling, sign up for our Refine Your Study Topic Workshop. We will match you with a coach who can guide you through each of the above steps.