To start with your research, finding a suitable topic of your interest is the foremost task, and it is only the beginning of all. When doing a research project, researchers used to identify solutions for the problem by studying the topic they choose to do research in a detailed way. While doing your master’s or doctoral degree, universities expect you to come out with a research project abreast doing your course. If you want to learn about doing a research project, then here are some steps involved in doing a research project. Let’s go through it:

1. Select a Topic of your Interest

Choosing a topic from your own interest is the foremost step of your research. Having plenty of passion and interest towards the area you choose to study helps you to be in track through all the hurdles and challenges throughout the process. Almost all the researches want to do a research in the field which is more popular bur less researched by researchers or something which is quiet difficult to attain the result. So many students feel it difficult to choose a topic.

2. Find a Supervisor

A supervisor is generally a scholar or a professor in a university, who guides the students in their specializations. A supervisor plays an important role in mentoring the students throughout their project by clearing their doubts and also ensuring their familiarity with the topic. A supervisor will come along with you throughout your whole research program, so choosing a wise supervisor is very important in order to develop the project.

3. Invest Time in Secondary Research

While doing a research you need to have a good knowledge about the secondary researches that is the other researches related to your project to find solutions to fill the gaps in already existing studies. For that you should spend time in reading already published papers related to your research. Reading more amounts of secondary sources will lead you to find different primary sources from which you can gain more information.

4. Locate and Analyze Primary Sources

You can find your primary sources from different platforms like archives or from libraries or from an already published research papers related to your field and that depends on you. Don’t forget to analyze those primary resources and to note down all the data’s collected from it.

5. Start Drafting Your Paper

For drafting your paper use the notes prepared by you when collecting information’s. Send your paper to your supervisor before submitting it and get feedbacks from them and correct it accordingly. Make sure to come up with a proper paper by going through multiple drafted papers which you have prepared.

6. Put Proper Citations

It is the important part of your research project to mention the citations. If you don’t use a proper citation then your project may be considered as plagiarized and plagiarism is considered to be a serious issue in many universities. So better be very careful in giving citations and ask for your mentor’s advice in it. Do the citation as per the format of research project that is given by your university.

7. Proofread the Research Project

Don’t skip proofreading your paper after completion of your writing. Check for spelling, grammar and other mistakes which are more common and unavoidable while doing a long research project. Proofreading can also help you identify any gaps in your project which needs to be fixed or sorted rather than helping you with fixing errors by checking the drafts.

These are some of the common steps involved in doing a research project. You can rearrange the process at any phase of your research according to your needs as advised by the institution.

Tips & Tricks for Doing a Research Project

Here are some tips and tricks which you may find useful to build your research project in this phase where you come to know about the process:

·       Create a schedule plan every step and follow it throughout your research.

·       Search more about your topic so that you can find more resources related to it both offline and online.

·       Note down all the, primary and secondary resource that you have consulted for adding citations in your research project.

·       Always keep a notepad with you to write down your innovations, which can better help you in future.

·       Consider getting feedbacks from your supervisors, mentors and friends for better progress of your project. Stay connected with them throughout the research to solve and to overcome from all the problems. 

Characteristics of Research Project

The below mentioned are some characteristics of the research project:

• Clear objective: A research is done to solve a particular problem or to find a solution for the problem. So the objective of the idea should be very clear.
• Rigorous methodology: It involves use of surveys, statistical analysis, experiments, or any other methods to solve the research problem for which rigorous methodology is used.
• Data collection: It involves collecting data for the research project from different primary and secondary resources like experiments, surveys, databases or published literatures.
• Systematic approach: A systematic approach is one in which it involves planning, collection of data, interpretation and analysis. A systematic project do involves the systematic flow.
• Conclusion and implications: A research project should be defined with a clear conclusion that should provide with a solution for the problem. It should also define about the future research.
• Communication: What you want to convey to the audience who include stakeholders, wider public and your peers through your project should be communicated properly, effectively and clearly.
• Analysis and interpretation: Once the required data are collected then it needs to be interpreted or analyzed, which can be done by using different methods like statistical or other techniques.

Examples of Research Projects

Here are some of the examples for research projects:

• Doing research on the effects of new medicines on patients for a particular condition or a disease.
• Investigating on the intended result on a new treatment for a disorder of mental health.
• Identifying the outcomes on well-being and mental health from exercise.
• Exploring the impact of social media on political engagement and participation.
• Examining the ways to reduce the effects of climatic change and carbon emission by using renewable energy resources.
• Investigation on the new techniques of agriculture for increasing environmental sustainability and the crop yield.
• Identifying the incidents that influence behaviour of customer in a particular market.
• Exploring the advantages of new technology in business to increase efficiency and productivity.
• Studying about the public policy on access to resources and social inequality.
• Identifying the result of students learning after improving the teaching methodology.