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Creating a research topic may seem very difficult for most people, especially to those who are conducting their first research. Don't make the mistake of picking random topic or obtaining topic from someone without determining whether:
1. It is an area of study that appeals to your interest. When you don't have interest in your topic area, you easily get bored and stressed during the course of conducting the study.
2. There are adequate materials (resource, literatures, relating previous studies, data etc). You require conceptual, theoretical and in some cases empirical review in your literature review. Further more, adequate materials serve as guide and reference points for your research.
3. You have adequate finance to carry out the study a chemical engineer lecturer once proposed to undertake a research on chemical compounds that are not available in NIgeria, in addition the chemical compounds are highly volatile. I adviced him to reconsider and choose a different topic because this one will be too financially intensive for him to carry alone. He insisted on going ahead with it, admitting he can afford it. Six months into the study, he called me complaining bitterly about the cost of importing samples of the chemical compounds and other materials needed for tests. To cut the long story short, he sold his car to generate additional funding for his research. Because of the volatile nature of the compounds, it was also very challenging transporting the items to him which also increased the cost. He ended up spending way more than his budget. This can happen in any field of study, even in social sciences education or management.

Good evening folks,
Today's lesson is on the concept of research in academics. Research is a very broad concept, especially when it is viewed from a general perspective. We will limit our lesson to academic research.
It is a common practice for students of tertiary institutions to conduct a research either in undergraduate programme or post graduate. This exposes the student to situations which requires him or her to apply Knowledge gained to; identify problems or gaps in his or her field area, proffer solution to identified problem, contribute knowledge or review previous studies.
Academic research is broad, hence there is no encompassing methodology (method): the field of study (e.g arts, education, sciences, social sciences etc.) plays significant role on the method and framework adopted for a research project. For instance in sciences, the researcher may be required to perform experiments and record observation as source of data or method of data collection, while an education or social sciences researcher may administer questionnaire to a sample of selected respondents. Hence, the method a researcher end up adopting in his research is determined by certain factors including:
Field of study (arts, education, management, sciences or social science )
Variables in the study (dependent & independent variables)
Departmental, faculty or programme format or guidelines
Supervisor's suggestion
Decision based on literature mapping
As we progress, highlights will be provided on the role of the above mentioned factors.
The first challenge most prospective researcher face is in identifying area to study or how to frame the research topic. I will fully explain how to frame research topic in the next lesson.

Good day ladies and gentlemen, this thread will provide essential guides and information to prospective researchers. Step by step guides will be provided and explained here with practical examples that cut across fields (arts, education, sciences, social sciences and management).
Feel free to ask questions, make observations or add opinons/views.
The lessons, information, guides and examples that would be provided in this thread are drawn and inspired from my 11 years + experience as a researcher, consultant and part-time lecturer.
Our first lesson is a short but comprehensive overview of research methodology. Lesson begins Monday 30th, January 2017.