Getting started with your research
If you haven't done academic research before it can be daunting to know where to begin. This section will help you navigate the first steps of conducting research. We'll look at:
Making sure you understand what your assignment is asking you to do
How to develop a research question that will lead your research process
How to set up a search strategy that will help you find relevant sources for your research
Watch the video below to begin your journey on becoming an academic research pro.
YouTube Video. Developing a Research Question
Developing a research question
If you are required to find a research topic yourself, it can be hard to know where to begin. Use the quick links below to guide you through formulating a research question and what a good research question should look like.
Use the arrow 
on the right of the page to navigate back to the top.
A good research question will:
Have a clear meaning. The writer should know immediately what the question is asking them to do.
Have suitable scope. If your scope is too broad, you will have too much to cover and won't be able answer your question effectively. However, if your scope is too narrow, you won't have enough to write about and it will be hard to provide a convincing thesis or argument.
Be manageable to answer. If it is too difficult to answer, you may struggle to stick to your word count, or complete the assignment within the required timeframe. However, a question that is too easy to answer will not allow you to form a solid and original argument.
Have information available on the topic. A research question must be researchable. You should be able to find adequate academic sources that cover the topic, otherwise you are really going to struggle to answer your question.
Allow you to formulate an argument. You should be providing analysis, not merely reporting back on a topic or describing it.
Formulating a research question
Check you understand your assignment. You should know the purpose: Is it to propose and defend a theory? Is it to analyse gaps in existing research? Is it to explore and test an existing theory or research data?
If you are not sure, talk to your tutor. It is really important that before you begin, you know exactly what is being asked of you.
Choose a topic. You may have been given a list of topics to choose from, or a subject area from which to choose your own, original topic. Make sure you choose a topic that interests you. Finding time and motivation to carry out the research will be easier if you are invested in something.
Do prior research. You need to be confident that you will find information on your topic before you commit to it. Check your scope isn't too narrow, and that what you want to explore has existing literature on it. If it's hard to find information on your topic from academic sources, you will either need to find a new topic or change the area you want to focus on.
You do not need to do in-depth reading at this stage. You just need to get an idea of what's out there. Make sure you pay attention to publication date when you do this; it is advisable to use recent research, depending on the context of your topic. Check if your assignment stipulates a publication date range.
Find a research focus. Now you know what's out there, you should be able to narrow your topic. Focus on one issue within the larger topic. You'll be able to provide a meatier argument on one subtopic, than if you attempt to examine a handful.
You could look at issues that affect:
You could brainstorm:
| Broad topic | Restricted topic | Narrowed topic | Research question |
| Climate change | Sea level rise | Sea incursion in urban areas | How might sea level rise affect population displacement? |
| Covid19 | Vaccination | High vaccination rates amongst Pasifika | What factors have influenced a high vaccination rate in the Pasifika community? |
| Social media | Algorithms feeding targeted information | How does the 'echo chamber' effect of Facebook's algorithms affect political polling? |
Write your question. Use the above guidelines for constructing an effective research question.
YouTube Video: Developing a research question
Testing your topic
It is really important that you are confident you will find sufficient and appropriate resources before you commit to a research topic. Quite often students find that the scope of their topic is too narrow and it is very hard to find sources, or it is too broad and the number of sources is overwhelming.
By doing prior research, you should be able to establish if your topic is going to be easy to research. The prior research doesn't need to take long, but it is crucial to making your life easier after you've decided on a topic.
Remember, a topic is not set in stone. You can tweak it as you research. Your sources may point you in a new direction you hadn't considered before but are really interested in. Or you may have to tweak it because you can't find enough sources, or there are too many.
This short video below from North Carolina State University Library clearly explains the topic testing process:
Note. From "Picking your topic is research!" [video], by libnscu, 2014, May 2. YouTube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0B3Gjlu-1o). In the public domain. CC 3.0 BY-NC-SA.
What type of resources do you need?
Primary research
Primary research is the collection of original data directly from primary sources, and the interpretation of such data. Primary research methods include observation, interviews, surveys, experiments, close-reading of creative works, etc.
You may be required to refer to primary research in your assignments—usually complemented by secondary research material (see below). Alternatively, your assignment may require you to design and carry out primary research of your own, using one or more of the methods above.
Secondary research
Secondary research is the process of gathering and using existing data, information, scholarship, theory, etc. to support your own research or the work you are doing in your assignment. You will refer to secondary material in most assignments you write. Ideally, the secondary material you use will be authoritative, peer-reviewed, and gathered from a variety of sources such as books, journals, and the scholarly resources available in the Library databases.
Check out these articles for more information about primary and secondary research and resources:
Research Starters
Primary research
Secondary data
YouTube Video: Primary and secondary research: An introduction
Student Learning Services has put together an Academic Learning Toolkit Moodle page with great resources to help you with study skills, research, and academic writing for your assignments.
The Learner Success Toolkit can help you with:
Understanding and analysing the question: These resources offer strategies to help you understand your assignment questions
Planning your assignment: All good assignments are planned thoroughly. These resources will give you help you develop your assignment planning skills.
Finding information: There are many quality resources the Library, online databases, or on the internet. Check this section to learn how to find what is available.
Reading and note-taking: These resources offer strategies for effective reading and note-taking.
Writing your assignment: These resources can help you write your assignment successfully.
Editing and proofreading: Editing and proof-reading your assignment ensures your assignment is clear, accurate, makes sense, and fulfills the assignment brief.
Final steps: This section focuses on formatting, uploading to Moodle, and using Turnitin.
For further support, visit the Library, Manaaki Pūkenga or Te Kete Manaaki.
Google Scholar is a Google search engine that specifically searches for academic sources, namely journal articles and eBooks.
It is an excellent tool to use alongside OneSearch if you know you need good quality academic sources or peer-reviewed journal articles.
Follow the steps below to learn how to use Google Scholar.
1. Use a standard Google search to search for "Google scholar". When you click on the top result, it will open the Google Scholar which looks almost identical to a standard Google search:
2. Click on the hamburger in the top left-hand corner to get to select "Advanced search" from the dropdown menu:
3. Just like the standard Google advanced search, the Google Scholar advanced search offers lots of criteria to refine your search by and uses the same strategies as the pro searching techniques you learnt in the Developing a search strategy section (Boolean operators and phrase searching):
4. The result list offers further filters on the left-hand side to refine your search. The number of citations (times the article has been used in other academic works) can be an indication of the usefulness of the article (a high citation number suggests it contains useful information):
Accessing articles
You may not have free access to all articles as some will require a paid subscription to the journal that published them. However, Wintec may hold a subscription to the journal you want. If you click on the title of an article and you find you can't access it, go back to the results screen and look to see if "Wintec Article Finder" appears on the right-hand side of the results list. It will take you through to the article in the Wintec databases:
