Choosing a Research Topic

It's important that the topic you choose for your project meets these criteria:

• It has been written about (preferably by scholars).
• You can find enough sources on the topic to support your main points.
• You can find the best sources on the topic well before your assignment is due.

You may find that your topic is too narrow if:

• You can't find many sources on the topic
• The sources you find are of low quality (See Evaluating Sources for tips on how to determine quality)

You may find that your topic is too broad if:

• You find hundreds of relevant sources.
• Many scholars have written entire books or even series of books about the topic.

If you find yourself in one of these situations, use the boxes below to make your topic more manageable.

When you can't find many good, relevant sources on your topic, there are steps you can take to make your topic more searchable:

Broaden or Remove a Concept
You can broaden one or more of the concepts within your topic.  Look for concepts that fall in these categories and make those concepts more general or remove them altogether:

• Approach. Example: Instead of researching "What anxieties influenced the directors of 20th century American slasher films?", which assumes that anxieties or psychological influences are the most noteworthy, you can remove this concept to include artistic, historical, and sociological influences.
• Genre/Type. Example: Instead of researching "What anxieties influenced the directors of 20th century American slasher films?", you could look at horror films, horror television, or you can include thrillers in your research.
• Location. Example: Instead of researching "What anxieties influenced the directors of 20th century American slasher films?", you could look at all English-language slasher films, or even remove this concept to broaden your topic to all slasher films.
• Time. Example: Instead of researching "What anxieties influenced the directors of 20th century American slasher films?", you can remove this time limitation to include films produced after 2000.  This will provide the opportunity to compare and contrast films produced in different decades.

Break Up Your Search
Instead of searching for all the concepts in your topic at once, break them up.  You will find sources that are relevant to some concepts within your topic, but when you put them together, you can create a rich, multi-faceted research project.

For example, if your topic is "Therapeutic approaches to mood disorders in the homeless people of Boston, Massachusetts", you could group concepts together in separate searches:

• Search for therapeutic approaches to mood disorders to illustrate what the standard of care is among mental health professionals.  Keywords: (therapy OR therapeutic) AND "mood disorders"
• Search for resources about homeless people in Boston, Massachusetts or the surrounding area to collect demographic information and get a better understanding about what life is like in such a situation.  Keywords: (homeless OR unhoused) AND (Boston OR "New England" OR Massachusetts)
• Search for mental health issues among the homeless to find out what mood disorders are the most prominent and what other kinds of mental health issues people without homes face.  Keywords: (homeless OR unhoused) AND ("mental health" OR "mental illness" OR "mood disorders")

Compare and Contrast
This technique works well when you are looking at a case study.  For example, if you are researching "Flood insurance challenges faced by people living in New Orleans", you can also research how people in other flood-prone areas struggle to find insurance.  You can look at another type of challenge altogether, such as how people who live in areas prone to wildfires are facing obstacles to insuring their homes, then compare and contrast the problems.

Ask for Help
There are experts available to help in the BU Libraries.  You should also consult with your professor before changing your topic; they know the assignment best and can give you good suggestions.

You may think that having dozens or hundreds of relevant sources available to you is no problem at all, but it could mean that you will not have enough time to find the best sources for your project.  This could lead your instructor to think you have not worked hard enough on your research.  Luckily, this is an easy problem to remedy.  Try these techniques:

Narrow a Concept
It could be that one or more concepts within your topic are too broad.  For example, if you are researching "Decisive moments in battles and how generals handled them", you could look at specific wars or specific types of problems.  Here are some suggestions for narrower variations:

• Decisive moments in naval battles and how generals handled them.
• Decisive moments in the battles of World War II and how generals handled them
• Troop movement problems in war and how generals handled them.
• Decisive weather-related moments in battles and how generals handled them

Add a Concept
You can also narrow your search by adding a concept.  Try thinking about these questions:

• Who does this issue affect? Add a group of people (describe by nationality, age, religion, political leanings, etc.) to your topic.  Example: "What factors influence voting patterns among women in the United States?"
• Is this topic more prominent in a certain location?  Add that location to your topic.  Example: "What factors influence voting patterns in Georgia?"
• Can you limit this topic by time period? Add an era, date range, or century to your topic.  Example: "What factors influenced voting patterns during the Great Depression in the United States?"
• Have scholars in a certain field looked at this issue?  Add words related to that field to your topic.  Example: "What economic factors influence voting patterns in the United States?"

You have control over your own time management, however, you may need to rely on others to get the research materials you need. We recommend starting your project as early as you can to make time for these requests:

Ordering materials via interlibrary loan
As a Boston University student, you can request materials beyond those provided to you. You can request entire books, films, scores, etc., as well as individual book sections or articles.  Depending on the availability and type of the item, the request may be fulfilled on the same day or as long as two weeks from the request date. See our Interlibrary Borrowing page for more details.

Requesting materials directly from the authors or creators
When you need an article, image, or dataset that the BU Libraries cannot provide, you can request it directly from the creator (usually by email). Sometimes the creator of a resource is a government agency or private corporation, which can complicate the request.  You have little control over when or if your request will be fulfilled, so request these resources as soon as possible.