Undergraduate Research

Choosing a Topic

You may have been assigned a broad topic area or your research topic may be all up to you.  How do you get your topic nailed down?

A few tips:

  • Think of topics that interest or impact you. 
  • Search a topic on the general web (in search engines like Google or Yahoo!)
  • Read about topic ideas in resources like Wikipedia or Britannica
  • Search some full-text e-book databases to get some ideas
  • Talk to friends, coworkers, or experts (see next section)
  • Often you will find that once you start research (especially your information seeking portion), your topic may change - this is common!

Finding Experts

  • The OSU Libraries has subject librarians to assist with information needs. 
  • OSU:pro is a searchable database of OSU faculty and researchers.  You can search for topics to see who is doing research in that area.
  • Some research databases allow you to search topics and limit to a specific institution.  So you could limit to researches at Ohio State (don't use OSU - there are several OSUs).  The Web of Knowledge and Scopus are the largest resources for doing this type of search.  Note that authors may have moved to another position since writing the article.  See OSU's Find People to see if they are currently at the university and to get their contact information.
  • The research databases can also help you find experts outside OSU - you are not limited to using OSU researchers!

Information Sources for Your Research