PHD SUCCESS: Define your Research Topic & Question

We begin with an initial reflection about what you want to achieve with your research. Then, we delve into the three pillars of a successful research topic - feasibility, specificity, and significance.

We explain the difference between the research topic and the dissertation title. We emphasize that the title must serve a specific purpose, such as marketing the dissertation, which is why you should pay special attention to it. We give examples of poor and successful titles, and present a few writing strategies.

We move on to research questions and hypotheses as the next step. We stress the importance of formulating a clear and specific research question or hypothesis, and present various strategies for exploring different research angles and gaps.

We look at a real-life use case of one of our students and what the process of coming up with a research topic, formulating a research question, and giving a title to his dissertation looked like. The hosts provide an inside look into their work with the student and how he approached each of these tasks.