You have a decent research question – what next?
Let us make up a research question. How about “Should AFL players wear protective helmets to prevent concussion during games?” The next step is to set up a series of aims. Do not choose more than five or six aims, and each aim should be directly related to the research question. You can use a table similar to the one below (Table 1). The first thing to note is that each aim begins with the word “To”. Secondly, each of the five aims directly addresses an aspect of the research question.
Table 1: The research question and aims
|
RQ |
Should AFL players wear protective helmets to prevent concussion during games? |
|
Aim |
Description |
|
1 |
To discover what is already known about this topic |
|
2 |
To find out what AFL players think about protective helmets |
|
3 |
To find out what AFL fans think about protective helmets |
|
4 |
To find out what AFL coaches and other key stakeholders think about protective helmets |
|
5 |
To determine whether the wearing of a protective helmet reduces the incidence of concussion |
For each aim, we now add a suitable method to address the aim in a right hand column (Table 2).
Table 2: The research question, aims and methods
|
RQ |
Should AFL players wear protective helmets to prevent concussion during games? |
|
|
Aim |
Description |
Method |
|
1 |
To discover what is already known about this topic |
Literature review |
|
2 |
To find out what AFL players think about protective helmets |
Focus groups |
|
3 |
To find out what AFL fans think about protective helmets |
Survey |
|
4 |
To find out what AFL coaches and key stakeholders think about protective helmets |
Individual interviews |
|
5 |
To determine whether the wearing of a protective helmet reduces the incidence of concussion |
Prospective trial over one AFL season |
Is there enough depth in the above plan to make a suitable PhD? Think of an acceptable PhD thesis as consisting of four or five published papers bookended with a front Introductory chapter, and a back Discussion chapter. Then it looks like there is ample scope in the above table to end up with a good thesis. The above study is clearly doable.
Note that the methods and subsequent data collection are driven by the research question and aims, NOT the other way round.