如何細化研究課題使工作更深入更輕快也使貢獻更獨特更紮實

嘿，這是劉博士。在之前的視頻中，我們討論了如何選擇好的研究問題以及設定研究目標的原則。在這段視頻中，我們將繼續討論如何縮小我們的研究問題，使其具有適當的關注度。

首先，我們為什麽要縮小範圍？有兩個原因。第一個原因是，對於一個較窄的主題，我們往往更容易做出可靠的貢獻。我們更有可能做深入而完整的工作。我們可能需要更少的時間來完成工作並獲得發布。第二個原因是，如果我們選擇一個更廣泛的主題，我們將會有更多來自其他研究人員的競爭，我們更有可能重複其他人的努力，或者與其他人的發現相矛盾。正如Arthur Schawlow所說：“要做成功的研究，你不需要知道所有事情，你隻需要知道一件不為人知的事情。”通常，選擇一個關注焦點的話題是快速做出的最佳方法，在某一領域獨特而堅實的貢獻，也是與研究界其他研究人員合作的明智方式。

因此，在我們確定了一個關鍵的研究需求之後，我們通常需要將其縮小到適當的關注水平。但我們的研究課題應該有多狹窄？不同的人可能有不同的偏好。通常，我們的研究課題越窄，我們在文獻中可以找到的相關研究就越少。對於一個重點突出的研究課題，我們應該能夠在文獻中找到適量的相關工作。該主題不應過於寬泛而無法處理。而且它也不應該太窄而不能產生我們想要的重大影響。

首先，我們希望將我們的主題變成一組問題。製定關注焦點的問題通常是文獻檢索的第一步。這將有助於我們找到研究的重點。問題應該足夠清楚，以指導我們的思考。我們可能希望以幾種不同的方式表達問題，或者將問題分解為子問題以澄清其含義。有些問題可能有其背後的假設。我們希望確保我們清楚這些假設。一旦我們得到第一版研究問題，下一步就是概念化這些問題。

我們希望將問題分解為概念。我們希望識別並理解本主題中的關鍵概念。閱讀專業教科書或百科全書中的章節，或閱讀文獻綜述以理解這些關鍵概念可能是個好主意。在我們這樣做之後，我們可能會問自己，我們是否仍然對我們製定的主題和問題感到滿意？如果沒有，我們可以返回並修改它們。

接下來，我們希望通過這些概念進行文獻檢索。在我們確定關鍵概念時，我們希望集思廣益同義詞和相關概念。在處理術語或術語時我們需要小心。有時不同的作者使用不同的語言來描述相同的概念，我們想要考慮關鍵概念的每個可能的替代術語，並在我們的搜索中包括所有這些術語。例如，如果我們的主題中有兩個關鍵概念，表示為A和B，則在搜索中，我們可以將相同概念的不同術語與“OR”組合，然後使用“AND”組合這兩個概念。

在我們進行搜索時，我們可能會識別我們領域的重要作者和領先的研究小組並跟進他們的工作。我們可以確定適當的研究方法和經過驗證的工具。我們還可以識別研究人員使用的術語的變化，並定義我們自己的術語。有時，我們可能會識別我們領域的關鍵期刊並瀏覽它們的封麵。最重要的是，我們想問自己，我們有太多或太少的結果？掃描結果列表中的前幾個項目後，我們應該更好地了解如何修改我們的研究問題或搜索以獲得更相關的結果。我們想評估我們製定的研究問題的可用資源。我們想要評估文獻中的資源和我們自己的資源，這些資源可以用於本研究，以確定我們是否應該進一步縮小我們的主題範圍。

在此階段，基於搜索結果，我們可能能夠識別該主題的若幹方麵，例如，不同的方法，地理位置，過程類別等。然後我們可能有機會使用這些方麵來進一步關注我們的主題。此外，我們可能會在重新發表的論文中考慮對未來研究方向的評論。如果需要，我們可以回過頭來改進我們的研究問題並重複這個循環。

感謝收看，我是劉博士，為失敗者提供研究建議。在我們確定一個好的研究問題之後，我們要做的第一件事就是縮小範圍，使其具有適當的關注度。直到下一次，讓我們記住這一點，讓我們的生活更輕鬆。

How to Narrow Down a Research Topic -025

Hey, it’s Dr. Liu here again. In previous videos, we have discussed how to select good research question, and the principles to set research objectives. In this video, we will continue to talk about how to narrow down our research question to have the right level of focus.

First, why do we want to narrow down? There are two reasons. The first reason is that, for a narrower topic, it is often easier for us to make solid contribution. It is more likely we can do deep and complete work. And it may take less time for us to get the work done and get published. The second reason is that, if we choose a broader topic, we will have more competitions from other researchers, and it is more likely we may either repeat other people’s efforts, or contradict with other people’s findings. As Arthur Schawlow said, “To do successful research, you don't need to know everything, you just need to know one thing that isn't known.” Usually, selecting a well-focused topic is the best way to make quick, unique and solid contribution in a certain field, and it is also a wise way to cooperate with other researchers in the research community.

Therefore, after we identify a critical research need, we usually need to narrow it down to have the right level of focus. But how narrow our research topic should be? Different people may have different preference. Usually, the narrower our research topic, the less related studies we can find in literature. For a well focused research topic, we should be able to find right amount of related work in literature that we can handle. The topic should not be too broad to handle. And it should also not be too narrow to have a significant impact that we want.

First, we want to turn our topic into a set of questions. Formulating well-focused questions is often the first step in a literature search. This will help us to find the focus for our research. The questions should be clear enough to guide our thinking. We may want to express the question in several different ways or break the question into sub-questions to clarify its meaning. Some questions may have assumptions behind it. We want to make sure that we are clear about these assumptions. Once we have our first version of research questions, the next step is to conceptualize these questions.

We want to break down the questions into concepts. We want to identify and understand the key concepts in our topic. It may be a good idea to read a chapter in a specialized textbook or encyclopedia, or to read a literature review to understand these key concepts. After we have done that, we may ask ourselves, are we still satisfied with the topic and questions we formulated? If not, we can go back and modify them.

Next, we want to go deep by running literature search by these concepts. As we identify key concepts, we want to brainstorming synonyms and related concepts. We need to be careful when dealing with terminology or nomenclature. Sometimes different authors use different language to describe the same concepts, we want think of every possible alternate terms of the key concepts and include all of them in our search. For example, if there are two key concepts in our topic, represented as A and B, in our search, we may combine different terms for the same concept with “OR”, and then combine the two concepts using “AND”.

As we run the search, we may identify important authors and leading research groups in our field and follow their work. We may identify appropriate research methodologies and validated instruments. And we may also identify variations in terms used by researchers and define our own terminology. Sometimes, we may identify key journals in our field and browse them cover to cover. Most important, we want to ask our selves, do we have too many or too few results? After scanning the first few items in our results list, we should have a better idea on how we might modify our research questions or our search to get more relevant results. We want to evaluate the available resources for our formulated research question. We want to evaluate both the resources in the literature and our own resources that can be dedicated for this research, to determine whether we should further narrow down our topic.

At this stage, based on the search results, we may be able to identify several aspects of the topic, e.g. different method, geographic locations, categories of processes, etc. Then we may have opportunities to use theses aspects to further focus our topic. Also, we may consider the comments on future research directions in resent papers. If needed, we may go back to refine our research question and repeat the cycle.

Thanks for watching, I am Dr. Liu with research tips for the underdogs. After we identify a good research question, the first thing we want to do is to narrow it down to have the right level of focus. Until next time, let’s keep that in mind to make our life easier.

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