how to find a research paper topic

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Selecting a research topic: overview.

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Here are some resources to refer to when selecting a topic and preparing to write a paper:

• MIT Writing and Communication Center "Providing free professional advice about all types of writing and speaking to all members of the MIT community."
• Search Our Collections Find books about writing. Search by subject for: english language grammar; report writing handbooks; technical writing handbooks
• Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation Online version of the book that provides examples and tips on grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and other writing rules.
• Select a topic

Choosing an interesting research topic is your first challenge. Here are some tips:

• Choose a topic that you are interested in! The research process is more relevant if you care about your topic.
• If your topic is too broad, you will find too much information and not be able to focus.
• Background reading can help you choose and limit the scope of your topic. 
• Review the guidelines on topic selection outlined in your assignment.  Ask your professor or TA for suggestions.
• Refer to lecture notes and required texts to refresh your knowledge of the course and assignment.
• Talk about research ideas with a friend.  S/he may be able to help focus your topic by discussing issues that didn't occur to you at first.
• WHY did you choose the topic?  What interests you about it?  Do you have an opinion about the issues involved?
• WHO are the information providers on this topic?  Who might publish information about it?  Who is affected by the topic?  Do you know of organizations or institutions affiliated with the topic?
• WHAT are the major questions for this topic?  Is there a debate about the topic?  Are there a range of issues and viewpoints to consider?
• WHERE is your topic important: at the local, national or international level?  Are there specific places affected by the topic?
• WHEN is/was your topic important?  Is it a current event or an historical issue?  Do you want to compare your topic by time periods?

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How to Find a Topic for Your Research Paper

Last Updated: September 12, 2023 References

This article was co-authored by Matthew Snipp, PhD and by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . C. Matthew Snipp is the Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor of Humanities and Sciences in the Department of Sociology at Stanford University. He is also the Director for the Institute for Research in the Social Science’s Secure Data Center. He has been a Research Fellow at the U.S. Bureau of the Census and a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He has published 3 books and over 70 articles and book chapters on demography, economic development, poverty and unemployment. He is also currently serving on the National Institute of Child Health and Development’s Population Science Subcommittee. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin—Madison. This article has been viewed 86,548 times.

Sometimes, finding a topic for a research paper can be the most challenging part of the whole process. When you're looking out at a field brimming with possibilities, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Lucky for you, we here at wikiHow have come up with a list of ways to pick that topic that will take you from the more vague brainstorming all the way to your specific, perfectly focused research question and thesis.

Review your course materials.

• If your textbook has discussion questions at the end of each chapter, these can be great to comb through for potential research paper topic ideas.
• Look at any recommended reading your instructor has suggested—you might find ideas there as well.

Search hot issues in your field of study.

• Think about current events that touch on your field of study as well. For example, if you're writing a research paper for a sociology class, you might want to write something related to race in America or the Black Lives Matter movement.
• Other instructors in the same department or field might also have ideas for you. Don't be afraid to stop in during their office hours and talk or send them an email, even if you've never had them for a class.

Go for a walk to get your brain going.

• If you want to walk with a friend and discuss topic ideas as you walk, that can help too. Sometimes, you'll come up with new things when you can bounce your ideas off someone else.

Ask your family or friends for input.

• People who aren't really familiar with the general subject you're researching can be helpful too! Because they aren't making many assumptions, they might bring up something you'd overlooked or not thought about before.

Free-write on topic ideas to find your passion.

• Having a personal interest in the topic will keep you from getting bored. You'll do better research—and write a better paper—if you're excited about the topic itself.

Read background information on your favorites.

• Ideally, based on your background research, you'll be able to choose one of the topics that interests you the most. If you still can't narrow it down, keep reading!
• Even though you wouldn't want to use them as sources for your actual paper, sources like Wikipedia can be excellent for getting background information about a topic.

Identify important words to use as keywords.

• For example, if you've chosen environmental regulations as a topic, you might also include keywords such as "conservation," "pollution," and "nature."

Do preliminary research using your keywords.

• Your results might also suggest other keywords you can search to find more sources. Searching for specific terminology used in articles you find often leads to other articles.
• Check the bibliography of any papers you find to pick up some other sources you might be able to use.

Limit a broad topic.

• For example, suppose you decided to look at race relations in the US during the Trump administration. If you got too many results, you might narrow your results to a single US city or state.
• Keep in mind how long your research paper will ultimately be. For example, if there's an entire book written on a topic you want to write a 20-page research paper on, it's probably too broad.

Expand a topic that's too narrow.

• For example, suppose you wanted to research the impact of a particular environmental law on your hometown, but when you did a search, you didn't get any quality results. You might expand your search to encompass the entire state or region, rather than just your hometown.

Do more in-depth research to fine-tune your topic.

• For example, you might do an initial search and get hundreds of results back and decide your topic is too broad. Then, when you limit it, you get next to nothing and figure out you've narrowed it too much, so you have to broaden it a little bit again.
• Stay flexible and keep going until you've found that happy medium that you think will work for your paper.

Formulate the question you'll answer in your paper.

• For example, your research question might be something like "How did environmental regulations affect the living conditions of people living near paper mills?" This question covers "who" (people living near paper mills), "what" (living conditions), "where" (near paper mills), and "why" (environmental regulations).

Build a list of potential sources.

• At this point, your list is still a "working" list. You won't necessarily use all the sources you find in your actual paper.
• Building a working list of sources is also helpful if you want to use a source and can't immediately get access to it. If you have to get it through your professor or request it from another library, you have time to do so.

Develop your thesis.

• For example, suppose your research question is "How did environmental regulations affect the living conditions of people living near paper mills?" Your thesis might be something like: "Environmental regulations improved living conditions for people living around paper mills."
• As another example, suppose your research question is "Why did hate crimes spike in the US from 2017 to 2020?" Your thesis might be: "A permissive attitude towards racial supremacy caused a spike in hate crimes in the US from 2017 to 2020."
• Keep in mind, you don't have to prove that your thesis is correct. Proving that your thesis was wrong can make for an even more compelling research paper, especially if your thesis follows conventional wisdom.

Expert Q&A

• If you've been given a list of topics but you come up with something different that you want to do, don't be afraid to talk to your instructor about it! The worst that will happen is that they'll make you choose something from the list instead. [11] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ https://library.sacredheart.edu/c.php?g=29803&p=185905
• ↑ https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/08/how-steve-jobs-odd-habit-can-help-you-brainstorm-ideas.html
• ↑ https://emory.libanswers.com/faq/44525
• ↑ https://emory.libanswers.com/faq/44524
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/research_papers/choosing_a_topic.html

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Answered By: Woodruff Library Reference Last Updated: Jan 04, 2022     Views: 545812

How do you decide what to write about when confronted with a research paper? You want a focused topic!

Here are some things to consider:

• Make sure your topic meets the assignment requirements. Ask your professor for feedback if you are unsure.
• Choose a topic that is interesting to you.  It may seem obvious, but this will make the research process more fun and engaging for you.
• Consider the scope of your topic. If your topic is too broad it may be hard to find information that is focused and relevant; if your topic is too narrow it may be hard to find any information at all.

Here's one strategy for developing a research topic once you have a broad topic in mind:

• Background research will help you develop your topic and hone or change it in more appropriate ways.  Knowing more about your topic's background can only help you develop a more effective topic, and therefore, research paper.
• Brainstorm concepts.  Once you think of a broad topic that interests you, try to brainstorm all of the words or concepts you can that might be related to that topic (and write them down!). For example, if your topic is "polar bears," you might think of the following words and topics in association: ice, cubs, pollution, hunting, diet, climate change, and environmental icon. 
• Develop a research question . Once you have come up with a broad topic and done some background research, you may want to develop a research question, or a question you're going to answer in your paper by doing more, in-depth research.
• What's your general approach to the topic?  Think about some general approaches that may help you further develop your topic: use a historical angle by focusing on a particular time period; a geographical angle, focusing on a particular part of the world; or a sociological angle, focusing on a particular group of people.
• Start doing some exploratory, in-depth research. As you do more in-depth research, like looking for scholarly articles, books, and other sources to include in your paper, you can and probably will modify or refine your topic based on what you find.
• Research is a dynamic process. Don't be afraid to discover new things and modify or refine your topic.

The topic development process will help you to develop your thesis , which is essentially your proposed answer to your research question. You will then be ready to use the sources you've found, and find more sources in order to support that thesis, or to answer your research question.

Here's an example of how the topic development process above can lead you to a thesis:

Resources that can help you develop your topic:

• Your instructor, course readings, class notes, Wikipedia, and Google can all be helpful in terms of getting ideas for broad topics.
• A Research Guide for a particular subject created by a subject librarian is great for helping you choose where to begin your research. These online guides will identify encyclopedias, books, databases, and other materials to help you get started with research. You can also ask a librarian at the Library Service Desk.
• Library resources like Credo Reference Unlimited , Gale Virtual Reference Library ,  CQ Researcher and subject-specific encyclopedias can help you come up with topic ideas because they provide great overviews and introductions to topics. You can find links to these kinds of resources in the  Research Guides mentioned above. These will probably not be scholarly sources you can use in your paper, but they may lead you to more in-depth, scholarly resources that you will want to use in your paper.

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Research Process

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Finding a Research Topic

Which step of the research process takes the most time?

A. Finding a topic B. Researching a topic C. Both

How did you answer the above question? Do you spend most of your efforts actually researching a topic, or do you spend a lot of time and energy finding a topic? Ideally, you’ll want to spend fairly equal amounts of effort on both. Finding an appropriate and manageable topic can sometimes be just as hard as researching a topic.

A good research topic will have a body of related research which is accessible and manageable. Identifying a topic with these characteristics at the beginning  of the research process will ultimately save you time.

Finding a research topic that is interesting, relevant, feasible, and worthy of your time may take substantial effort so you should be prepared to invest your time accordingly. Considering your options, doing some background work on each option, and ultimately settling on a topic that is manageable will spare you many of the frustrations that come from attempting research on a topic that, for whatever reason, may not be appropriate.

Remember that as you are searching for a research topic you will need to be able to find enough information about your topic(s) in a book or scholarly journal. If you can only find information about your topic(s) in current event sources (newspapers, magazines, etc.) then the topic might be too new to have a large body of published scholarly information. If this is the case, you may want to reconsider the topic(s).

So how do you find a research topic? Unfortunately there’s no directory of topics that you pick and choose from, but there are a few relatively easy techniques that you can use to find a relevant and manageable topic. A good starting point may be to view the Library's Resources for Finding a Research Topic Workshop below.

The sub-pages in this section (on the left-hand menu) offer various tips for where and how to locate resources to develop your research topic. And for additional information on selecting a research topic, see the resources below.

• Defining a Topic - SAGE Research Methods
• Develop My Research Idea - Academic Writer Note: You MUST create an Academic Writer account AND start a paper in order to access this tool. Once you have done so, open a paper and click Research Lab Book in the left navigation menu.
• The Process for Developing Questions - ASC Guide

Resources for Finding a Research Topic Workshop

This workshop will introduce you to library resources which can be used to locate potential topics for a research paper or dissertation. This workshop explores websites, reference books, and scholarly articles, as well as review criteria to consider when selecting a topic.

• Resources for Finding a Research Topic Workshop Outline

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Choosing a Topic

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

This handout provides detailed information about how to write research papers including discussing research papers as a genre, choosing topics, and finding sources.

The first step of any research paper is for the student to understand the assignment. If this is not done, the student will often travel down many dead-end roads, wasting a great deal of time along the way. Do not hesitate to approach the instructor with questions if there is any confusion. A clear understanding of the assignment will allow you to focus on other aspects of the process, such as choosing a topic and identifying your audience.

A student will often encounter one of two situations when it comes to choosing a topic for a research paper. The first situation occurs when the instructor provides a list of topics from which the student may choose. These topics have been deemed worthy by the instructor; therefore, the student should be confident in the topic he chooses from the list. Many first-time researchers appreciate such an arrangement by the instructor because it eliminates the stress of having to decide upon a topic on their own.

However, the student may also find the topics that have been provided to be limiting; moreover, it is not uncommon for the student to have a topic in mind that does not fit with any of those provided. If this is the case, it is always beneficial to approach the instructor with one's ideas. Be respectful, and ask the instructor if the topic you have in mind would be a possible research option for the assignment. Remember, as a first-time researcher, your knowledge of the process is quite limited; the instructor is experienced, and may have very precise reasons for choosing the topics she has offered to the class. Trust that she has the best interests of the class in mind. If she likes the topic, great! If not, do not take it personally and choose the topic from the list that seems most interesting to you.

The second situation occurs when the instructor simply hands out an assignment sheet that covers the logistics of the research paper, but leaves the choice of topic up to the student. Typically, assignments in which students are given the opportunity to choose the topic require the topic to be relevant to some aspect of the course; so, keep this in mind as you begin a course in which you know there will be a research paper near the end. That way, you can be on the lookout for a topic that may interest you. Do not be anxious on account of a perceived lack of authority or knowledge about the topic chosen. Instead, realize that it takes practice to become an experienced researcher in any field.

For a discussion of Evaluating Sources, see Evaluating Sources of Information .

Methods for choosing a topic

Thinking early leads to starting early. If the student begins thinking about possible topics when the assignment is given, she has already begun the arduous, yet rewarding, task of planning and organization. Once she has made the assignment a priority in her mind, she may begin to have ideas throughout the day. Brainstorming is often a successful way for students to get some of these ideas down on paper. Seeing one's ideas in writing is often an impetus for the writing process. Though brainstorming is particularly effective when a topic has been chosen, it can also benefit the student who is unable to narrow a topic. It consists of a timed writing session during which the student jots down—often in list or bulleted form—any ideas that come to his mind. At the end of the timed period, the student will peruse his list for patterns of consistency. If it appears that something seems to be standing out in his mind more than others, it may be wise to pursue this as a topic possibility.

It is important for the student to keep in mind that an initial topic that you come up with may not be the exact topic about which you end up writing. Research topics are often fluid, and dictated more by the student's ongoing research than by the original chosen topic. Such fluidity is common in research, and should be embraced as one of its many characteristics.

The Purdue OWL also offers a number of other resources on choosing and developing a topic:

• Understanding Writing Assignments
• Starting the Writing Process
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Research Topics

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

• 1 Definition: Research Topics
• 3 Finding Research Topics
• 4 Defining Good Research Topics
• 5  Academic Writing Research Topics
• 6 Examples of Research Topics
• 7 In a Nutshell

Definition: Research Topics

A research topic is the subject or issue that forms the basis of a research paper. It is a well-defined subject the researcher is interested in. While it can be phrased as a question, you are not required to do so. The research then addresses the question. It can also be phrased both as a research question and a hypothesis.

The purpose of this article is to help you understand what research topics are and how they are used to conduct good research. It covers the characteristics of good research topics and provides information on and techniques for coming up with good research topics. The importance of research topics in academic writing is explained and some examples of research topics are listed.

How do you come up with ideas for suitable research topics?

Rational thinking and creative techniques are two key methods you can use to generate research ideas. You can use either of the techniques, or you can try both techniques and then decide which one you find more useful for your research. Both concepts are further discussed later in this article.

Tip: Keep in mind that you’ll need to create research questions based on your topic later on. It’s ok to begin with vague ideas, but later on you need to focus on a specific area of a topic.

How do you refine your research topic ideas?

The Delphi technique is an approach that many students have found useful for refining their research ideas. Usually, a number of people who are interested in the research are assembled to help generate and select more refined research topics. The next step will be to refine your ideas into a research question . This will require you to conduct more research on topics or issues that you found interesting during the research topic deciding phase.

What are the main elements of a research proposal?

A research proposal consists of an appropriate title that mirrors the content of the proposal; a background to justify the need for the research; a statement on what the research is meant to achieve. A section should be dedicated to the methods that will be adopted in order to achieve the research objectives within the expected timeframe. A section on resource considerations will help convince the reader about the feasibility of the research. This should be followed by a list of references.

How do you propose research topics?

Writing helps organize our ideas into coherent statements. For inspiration, check out some research proposal examples . The draft proposal should be discussed with your thesis supervisor or teaching assistant, who can advise you on how the proposal might be amended if necessary, so that the research can be completed within the proposed timeframe. This is of particular importance if the proposal has to be presented for funding or to an academic research committee for approval.

What defines a good research topic?

You’re the one who has to write the research paper or thesis, so it’s vital that YOU are interested in the topic that you’re researching. Your research topic shouldn’t be too vague. But in saying that, you also need to ensure that you’re able to write about your topic within the time frame provided. You need to be able to formulate your topic into a research question and a thesis statement later on.

Finding Research Topics

If done using a systematic approach, finding research topics can be interesting. A range of techniques involving rational as well as creative thinking are used to find a research topic.

Brainstorming

This is a problem-solving technique which generates best results when carried out as a group, but it can also be done by an individual. Find a quiet place to work and write down a problem related to your lectures or curriculum that interests you and of which you have some prior knowledge.

If you are working in a group, members can make suggestions regarding the problem. Make a note of all the suggestions and include all contributions, however wild they may be. Review each of the suggestions with your group and select the ones that most appeal to you. You may arrange discussing these suggestions with your thesis supervisor or the teaching assistant in charge of your project if needed.

Inspiration from your teachers

Project leaders, teaching assistants, professional groups and practitioners in your field will often have project ideas they are happy to share. They might come up with good research topics; just be sure to document the ideas discussed so that you can remember to further explore them on your own.

Literature search

Articles, reports in academic journals and books are all useful sources of research topics. Review articles in particular often indicate areas in which more research may be required. Most recently published reports usually contain recommendations which can form the basis of further research, and books contain an overview of research already undertaken, in addition to suggesting new areas to explore for further research.

Relevance trees

This technique involves generating topics on the basis of a broad concept. Each of these topics constitutes an independent branch which can yield sub-branches. You can review these sub-branches and combine some of them to come up with new research topics. Your project supervisor or teaching assistant may be of help in selecting a final topic from the shortlisted ones if you cannot narrow your choice down to one topic.

Looking inwards

Another way of finding a research topic is to review the assignments you have already completed and select the ones you received good grades in. These are the ones in which you are already knowledgeable. They will provide you with possibilities for further research.

Defining Good Research Topics

A good research topic should have well defined objectives. Selecting a research topic which you will be interested in for the entire research duration is vital. If you have only a vague interest in the topic, it will be difficult to excel on such a topic. Therefore, you should have a genuine interest in the research topic you have chosen.

Make sure you possess the required skills and resources, or that you can develop the capability that is necessary to research the topic within the given timeframe. You should also be certain that you can access the data you will need to collect in the course of the research. Your research topic should be one you are familiar with and in which you have the capacity to produce a well-written final research report.

TIP: Always use transition words to properly connect the sentences and paragraphs in your thesis or essay.

 Academic Writing Research Topics

Academic writing is a style of expression that defines the intellectual boundaries of a discipline. It focuses on a research problem and conveys an accepted interpretation of concepts or complex ideas. Research topics are germane to academic writing because they proffer rigorous arguments that can convince a reader to reconsider previously accepted position on a topic.

Examples of Research Topics

Previous research topics can serve as sources of inspiration for finding new research topics. Some examples of different research topics include: • Media and communications research paper topics • Environmental research paper topics • Business research paper topics

Depending on your field of study, looking at past projects can be very helpful in your search for new research topics.

In a Nutshell

• A research topic is a well-defined subject the researcher is interested in.
• Rational thinking and creative techniques are two methods you can use to generate research ideas.
• Techniques to find good research topics include brainstorming, getting inspiration from your teachers, using relevance trees, doing a literature search or looking inwards.
• You should have a genuine interest in the research topic you have chosen.

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Tress Academic

#103: How to find a paper topic

November 2, 2021 by Tress Academic

Is writing a journal paper high up on your agenda? Then one of the first questions to clarify is what you’re going to write about. What is the topic of your paper? We know identifying a topic can sometimes be a painful process. Therefore, we’ve provided 10 ideas for how you can find the topic for your next journal paper.    

Why can’t you just sit down and write about what comes to mind? Isn’t writing a creative process? You’re a lucky writer if you can both be in the mood for writing at all, and actually have the time to do it. Choosing a topic isn’t all that difficult, right? 

Well, yes, but you’ll soon realise that writing a paper is more than just sitting down and typing something on your laptop. You need to know what you want to say, what knowledge you want to report, and what discussion you want to stimulate. And you need to know whether what you want to write about has a chance of getting published or whether it’s suitable for journal publication. Journals don’t accept just any topic. 

We think it’s worth spending a bit of time choosing a good topic for your next paper. Here, we suggest 10 ideas on how to identify a topic and provide a free worksheet “Identify your paper topic” to help you further. 

1. Get inspired by other papers

If you want to write a journal paper, why not first look into the journals in your field and read some of the published papers? Find out how they’re written, what and how much they cover, how they’re structured, and consider if you could do something similar. Reading other papers can provide great inspiration for what you could write. 

2. Browse for open questions

Are there any open questions in your field that you could address in a paper? You have probably worked on one such question, and could provide some valuable input in a paper. Think about questions that are burning in your field but still remain open, and what you could contribute to advance the field. 

3. Review your research notes

Make a quick overview of the research you have done so far. Which questions have you been working on and what have you found? Look through your lab book, the draft results, or the data you’ve collected—is there anything that could be turned into a paper? Do you have any unpublished findings or materials that you never published although they would be suitable for a paper?

4. Go for something that interests you

You’ll have the greatest motivation to write a paper if it’s about a topic that really interests you. So find out what the cool questions are you’re working on and which ones you’re burning to answer most. Start working on such a topic. When you’re motivated and interested, you’re willing to invest a bit more time into this paper, you’ll write a better paper, and finish it earlier. 

5. Browse for review paper topics

If you’re in the early stages of a research project, or if you gained a good overview of a specific research question or field through an extensive literature study, consider writing a review paper. You can systematically summarise your knowledge in this field and make it available to peers. 

6. Look for novel aspects in your research

Focus on the aspects of your research that are new. What have you done that other studies have not done yet? It doesn’t have to be something groundbreaking, but if there’s a novel element in your research, use it as a starting point for a paper. This novel aspect is an important advantage of your research compared to others.  

7. Connect to existing research

Your research is most likely embedded in a wider field, and you’re not the only one working in it. This can be an advantage as well. Think about how your research is linked to other studies. You can probably connect with previously published work and further develop their thoughts, or provide additional confirming results or even new findings—each case would be a good basis for your paper. 

8. Focus on what you can deliver

Sometimes you have too many ideas about papers that you want to write, but some of these papers would require additional research, or at least substantial literature search and study. A more pragmatic approach is to focus on what you’ve got on your plate already. It might not be related to the coolest and hottest questions in your fieldt, but it’s something that you can write about because you’ve already got it. You only need to utilize it! 

9. Look for a call for papers and special issues 

Sometimes, journals initiate a call for papers on a specific subject, or they plan a complete special issue of their journal. These are attractive offers for you as an author. If you have been working on a topic related to such a call, you would not only have an incentive to write a paper now, but also have an indication of which journal you could submit to. As they are calling for papers on a specific topic, they have a particular interest in papers in that specific field. 

10. Talk to a colleague or supervisor

When brainstorming possible ideas for a paper topic, it can be helpful to discuss these ideas with a fellow colleague or a supervisor. By explaining ideas to them, you will learn how plausible and convincing some of the ideas are, and which ideas ultimately aren’t as suitable for your next paper as you originally thought. Having these collegial sparring partners is valuable—you will for sure get helpful feedback from them to fine-tune one of your paper ideas. 

In an ideal world, the topic for your next paper would originate organically from the research that you just completed. You did this project and therefore, you’re going to write a paper about it. If it works out like this for you, great, do it! But sometimes, everyday life as a researcher is far from ideal. Projects don’t always progress as you want, they’re delayed or scrapped completely, but you nonetheless want to produce a research output: a journal paper. 

And when you’re at the beginning of your career as a researcher, you probably don’t have so many alternative projects to fall back on to identify a topic for your next paper. But this doesn’t mean you cannot publish. The 10 suggestions described above will help you to come up with topics for your next paper, even if everyday research is not progressing as you had planned. You can still write a paper. Consider the 10 suggestions carefully, and you’ll see there is for sure an option for you to get your next paper started. To help you further, we’ve created a free worksheet with questions you can ask yourself to identify a possible topic for the paper. 

P.S. What often helps us to find a topic for a publication is to go for a walk outside and brainstorm possible topics. It’s sometimes easier to leave the office and do the thought exercise outside. Or you can go to a cafe or a bar and think about it there. For example, deciding on the topic of this blog post (as well as the entire writing of it) happened on a business trip in the bar of a hotel in Berlin. Sometimes it just helps to go somewhere else to come up with a good idea and make it a reality. 

Relevant resources: 

• Worksheet “Identify your paper topic”
• Blog post #79: 5 decisions that make writing your paper so much easier
• Blog post #66: Writer’s block: Stuck on your paper, with no idea how to move forward?  
• Blog post #64: How to work on your paper without struggle
• Blog post #5: How to get started with writing papers?

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