To use future research suggestions as a basis to come up with a dissertation topic idea, you need to have read a journal article on a topic that interests you. Having read this journal article, focus on the section at the end of the article, often called Future Research (or Discussion/Research Limitations), where the authors not only tend to criticise their work, but also propose future research that could address such problems. Now, follow the five steps below:
Authors of good journal articles will make a number of future research suggestions in their work. These may include one or more of the following types of future research suggestion:
Addressing research limitations in their research
All research has limitations. These may include: (a) an inability to answer research questions; (b) theoretical and conceptual problems; (c) limitations in the research strategy adopted; and (d) problems of research quality. The desire of authors to address research limitations in their research is one of the most common types of future research suggestion you will come across.
Building on a particular finding in their research
There are often findings that come out of the research process that the authors did not anticipate at the start of the research process. These findings can help authors to propose entirely new avenues to explore in future studies. As a result, future research suggestions are sometimes based on building on a particular finding from the authors? research.
Re-evaluating or expanding a conceptual framework (or theoretical model)
Research rarely tries to build grand theories or examine very broad conceptual frameworks. There are a number of reasons for this. Perhaps the most obvious is the difficultly in demonstrating the quality of the findings. When we talk about problems of research quality, we are referring to the difficult (or inability) of researchers to prove that their findings are reliable and externally valid (in quantitative research designs) or confirmable, credible, dependable, and transferable (in qualitative research designs) [see the section on Research Quality for more information]. This means that most high quality research focuses on tackling research questions within a particular context, location and/or culture. Tackling research in this way means that there are many ways to re-evaluate or expand on the conceptual framework (or theoretical model) that authors used to strength and/or underpin their research. For example, authors may suggest that future research could involve no more than taking their existing research and applying it to a new context, location and/or culture to examine if it was still applicable. As a result, you will often see authors making future research suggestions that are based on re-evaluating or expanding a conceptual framework (or theoretical model).
For a more detailed overview of these future research suggestions, see the article: Types of future research suggestion. Within the Research Limitations section of this website, we also go into more detail on each of these types of future research suggestions. Reading these articles will help you to identify what types of future research suggestions are being discussed by the authors in the journal article you are interested in.
Whilst dissertations are rarely "ground-breaking" at the undergraduate or master's level (and are not expected to be), they should still be significant in some way. When coming up with a dissertation topic idea, you need to be able to explain how your idea is significant. Your research may be significant in one or a number of ways. It may:
Capitalise on a recent event
Reflect a break from the past
Target a new audience
Address a flaw in a previous study
Expand a particular field of study
Help an individual, group, organisation, or community
Since this section of the article deals with using future research suggestions as a basis for coming up with a dissertation topic idea, just two of these aspects of research significance are relevant:
The desire to address a flaw in a previous study.
The desire to expand a particular field of study.