Good Research Question
In your research project, while it is up to you whether you only stick with objectives or questions, or a combination of both, it is a good idea to ask or frame questions that can help you better understand your research project.
The process of conducting research starts with curiosity, and questions can be a great tool to invoke curiosity and the desire to learn more.
Framing clear research questions creates a connection with the research objectives. The objectives of the research are meant to answer these questions in the best possible manner.
But how can you invoke curiosity by asking yourself some good research questions? Well, you take inspiration from the research problem.
A research problem refers to any difficulty experienced by researchers or businesses in a practical or theoretical situation that requires a solution.
For example, suppose some researchers find that typically, by the current standards of technology, supersonic air travel may be expensive and require significant capital investment in order to be profitable. For this, the research question can be framed as follows: How can supersonic air travel be made more affordable through partnerships and knowledge sharing?
You need to understand that not all questions that arise from research problems are good or fitting questions to the research context or the researchers' capabilities.
There are certain characteristics of a good research question. Let's watch the next video to learn more about them.
As you learnt in the video above, a good research question or problem should have the following characteristics:
Feasible: This refers to the possibility of conducting research in terms of resources, cost, means and time to complete the study.
Novel: The research question should be novel and original.
Relevant: It is essential to frame questions that can be useful and relevant to an individual or an organisation.
Ethical: The research question should meet ethical boundaries, i.e., it should remain within the confines of the ethical ways of conducting research.
Narrowed down and interesting: The research question should not be too broad. It should narrow down to a specific research area. Additionally, you do not want your research question to be too narrowed down. Try to find a middle ground between too broad and too narrow.
Falsifiable: The research question should be such that one should be able to either prove it right or wrong.
Deal with puzzles: The research question should ideally be inspired from real-life areas that seem puzzling and require further research, for example, ‘the future of housing prices in London in the next five years’.
Note that formulating good research questions and the corresponding objectives requires a significant amount of literature review.
After framing the research question, you need to conduct another literature review (typically a deeper review) to decide on the methods you would want to use for data collection, model building, etc.
You also need to create a project plan to assign a deadline to the subparts of the research, identify the risks involved and suggest risk mitigation strategies.
In the next video, our faculty member will share some examples to illustrate the characteristics of good research questions.
In the video above, you understood what separates a good research question from a sub-optimal one. Framing a good research question is important and essential.
Importance of Good Research Questions
The research problem to be investigated must be clear and unambiguous. This helps in differentiating between relevant and irrelevant data and saves a lot of time. An adequately defined set of research questions will enable the researcher to formulate a good set of objectives.