Interesting Research Paper Topics For College Students

In this article we will tell you how to look for interesting research ideas in any field of studies and will give you examples of possible interesting research paper topics.

Why Is It Crucial to Find a Research Topic That Interests You?

Exploring the topic can be extremely exciting if you are passionate about it, but it can turn into a nightmare in case you actually don’t care about key research question. Use the opportunity of a research to study something you are interested in. Besides, it is good to have your own professional areas of research – it may help you in your future academic or professional career.

How To Title a Research Paper? 3 Easy Steps

The process seems really difficult and time-consuming for the majority of students. Don’t worry! Just follow these 3 steps!

Brainstorm research ideas

Find a broad area – related to your course – that interests you. Here you need to think of everything surrounding you that might be studied. If nothing comes to your mind, you could do several things that will help you to find interesting ideas:

• Reread your course syllabus and look through your course readings. Usually, in supplementary readings you can find books, articles, cases that contain ideas for your future research paper.
• Think about recent news you have heard. Relevant topic will bring value to your research and will be definitely appreciated by your teacher.
• Try to look for inspiration at Ebsco. There are a lot of articles, thesis, reports on any academic area.

Formulate key research question

Once you understand the area you want to work in, you need to formulate your research question. The following questions will help you to better understand what you want to study. You can formulate your topic in the form of a question (e.g.:How do politicians of Central Banks influence overall country’s wealth?) or in the form of a problem (e.g.:Comparative analysis of politics of FED and the Bank of England):

• What is the specific goal of your research?
• What do you want to prove by your work ?
• Who is affected by the research topic and who could benefit from its results?
• Why is it an important problem to study?

Focuse on your research question

One of the key success factors of a research paper is to study a narrow topic. On the brainstorming stage it is likely that you choose more or less broad topic. On the formulating stage you transform it into a specific question or a problem. Then, you need to elaborate it. Possible ways of narrowing the topic:

• By specific country or region
• By time
• By area

For instance: How do marketing activities influence company’s performance?

Narrowing it:

• By specific country or region

How do marketing activities influence performance of companies operating on emerging markets?

• By time

How do marketing activities influence performance of companies in the first 3 years of their operation?

• By area

How do marketing activities influence performance of small and medium companies?

or

How do marketing activities influence performance of pharmaceutical companies?

3 Tips to Write a Good Research Paper Topic

Requirements for your research paper

Check whether the research topic of your choice meets all the requirements set by your professor. It is great if you know how to generate really engaging and interesting idea for your work, but primarily it is an academic assignment and you should take it into account. For example, your professor may want you to write a specific research paper. There are argumentative and analytical research papers and there are certain differences between them. Moreover, your task may be to use a particular method of a research in your paper. It is clear, that you need to make sure that you can apply those methods to study the problem of your choice. Check Libguides to find out more about research paper writings.

Realistic goal of a research

Students are too ambitious sometimes and choose topics that could not be easily researched. Remember, in order to answer some questions you may need a significant amount of time and access to data. So you should better сlarify it with your course instructor: if it is possible to provide you with necessary resources for your research. Still, it is better to choose more or less standard topic and explore it fully than to set an ambitious goal and fail to realize it.

Background of your research question

The last but not the least – the best thing you can do is to explore as much information as possible. It will give you understanding of already existing theory and practice in your topic and may inspire you to focus on particular aspects of the topic. You cannot copy what other authors have already done, but after reading existing works you can find the way to expand the question or develop your own approach to a problem.

List of Research Topics For College Students

This list of new research title examples may bring you inspiration to develop your own topic!

Research paper topics in Sociology

1. The influence of modern electronic devices on children’s academic performance
2. Analysis of impact of quality of education on overall wealth of the country
3. Individual psychological predictors of preferences towards particular car brand
4. Evolution of gender equality phenomenon in the USA and its effect on the society
5. Comparison of socialization of students in the USA and in other countries

Research paper topics in Psychology

1. Analysis of Stanford Prison Experiment
2. How cultural differences affect parental styles existing in different countries?
3. The study of relation between childhood habits and future career path
4. Analysis of Sigmund Freud contribution to modern understanding of psychosexual development of an individual
5. Predictors of Antisocial personality disorder in the early childhood

Research paper topics in Economics

1. Analysis of consequences of Shadow Economy on economic position of the USA
2. The impact of FDI on performance of American companies
3. The influence of economic crisis 2008 on people’s health
4. How do elasticity of demand and elasticity of supply define current pricing policy of taxi companies?
5. How do changes in exchange rate influence trade between USA and Europe?

Research paper topics in Management

1. What is the most appropriate marketing strategy for American IT companies operating in Europe?
2. Analysis of influence of HR strategy on companies’ operations
3. Comparison of leadership styles of Jack Ma and Steve Jobs
4. How does proper clients’ segmentation increase company’s performance?
5. How do cultural differences influence HR strategy and practices in different countries

Research paper topics in Politics

1. Explaining reasons for elections turnout in the USA
2. Evolution of non-government organizations participation in anti-corruption policy
3. Comparative analysis of voting patterns in the United States.
4. Mass media role as the 4th power: сases of USA and China
5. The impact of modern migration policy in Germany

Do you want to know more about research process and challenges? Watch inspiring Ted Talks performance.

Wish you to achieve the highest results with your research papers!