Research- Getting Started

Selecting a research topic can be one of the most challenging steps for those new to research. Here are some places to start:

• What were you interested in most from the courses you've taken so far?
• Have you attended or watched any seminars, journal clubs, student organization presentations, or guest speakers where they discussed a topic that piqued your interest? 
• Browse the table of contents from journals in your areas of interest. You can do this easily via a library tool called Browzine.
• Talk to your fellow student doctors. What ideas do they have? 
• Watch the 'Selecting a Topic' video created by Molly for the 3rd year Scholarly Activity rotation.

If this all seems a bit much and outside the scope of what you want to take on, consider joining an existing research project.

The table below can help you as you think about a research topic. Don't stress it too much if you don't have answers to all of these questions- your mentor and/or the librarians can help you out! 

Enter the search terms relevant to your topic into PubMed and/or Google Scholar. If thousands of articles come up, you might want to re-think your topic as it's probably already been well-studied. 

Here are some ways to re-tool a topic:

• Focus on the osteopathic world.
• If the majority of studies are done in urban settings, consider studying your topic in a rural setting.
• Think of special or underrepresented populations (women, minorities, LQBTQ, etc.).
• Are the majority of studies quantitative? Consider a qualitative approach.

Think to yourself- what or who is missing from the existing research. Chances are you'll be able to modify even a well-studied topic to something that is a bit more novel.