How to Develop a Research Topic

You may begin your research paper by choosing a topic that interests you or by having a topic assigned to you. In either event, the development of your topic will rely on the literature available to support it. It is very rare, within the parameters of the SPSC research project, that a student would pursue original research such as conducting a survey. Therefore, your choice of topic must be supported by available literature and statistics. Too often, a student holds tenaciously to a choice of topic even after a review of all available literature reveals there is not enough information on the topic to support a research paper.

THEREFORE:

1. Review available literature first and do not commit yourself to a topic until you have determined that there is sufficient information to support your topic. Interviews are a realistic option.

2. Identify your "topic stem," a very broad subject such as <off duty police officers>. What literature and information is available on this topic?

3. Searching: NUcat
TRANweb
NCJRS,
Using the keywords "off duty police" we find there is a great deal of information on this broad topic. Much of it is about the issues of assaults and fatalities amongst off duty police officers.

4. Again, searching: NUcat
TRANweb
NCJRS
Conduct keyword searches such as: <"off duty police" AND assaults> or <"off duty police" AND fatalities>.

These searches are fruitful.

5. We find that all of the relevant hits have at least one major subject heading in common, <police personnel - defense>. Performing this subject search we find there are scores of relevant hits under this subject heading; most of the literature available is about how off duty police officers can defend themselves against violence and assaults.

6. Based on a review of literature, my topic is narrowed and focused to, DEFENSE TRAINING: HOW TO REDUCE INJURIES AND FATALITIES AMONGST OFF DUTY POLICE OFFICERS.


7. In some cases, the topic stem does not need to be narrowed and focused but
broadened and opened up. For example, "Appropriate Speach to be Used by Off Duty Police Officers to Reduce Conflict in Convenience Store Encounters," is so narrow that not one book or article or web resource on this subject can be found.

Broaden the topic stem; open it up to wider areas of circumstance, behavior and venue. For example, changing the topic to:"Training Police Officers to Use Non-Physical Methods to Reduce Off Duty Conflicts," opens up the literature search to include verbal skills, counseling and body language as well as all possible venues. Now the odds of finding sufficient supportive literature for the topic have greatly improved.


TO SUMMARIZE:

A. Review the available literature before you decide on your final topic; be agreeable to changing your topic if necessary.

B. Seek balance in choosing your topic. A topic that is too broad will overwhelm you; a topic that is too narrow will have little or no supportive literature.

C. Some information simply does not exist in any retrievable format. National data on fatalities amongst off duty police officers is maintained by the FBI. However, if you are looking for a national database that will maintain statistics on every assault or encounter involving off duty police officers, you will not find it. At this time, no one is reporting this data and no one is collecting it. You can only use data that is available.


mkg: 3/02