What to do after selecting the topic?
After the topic has been chosen and the supervisor has accepted it, the next step is gaining familiarity with the available scientific literature on the topic. Reading earlier research serves several purposes:
1) Outlining the general picture:
- What is the state-of-the-art knowledge in the chosen research area? Is there much or little earlier research? Is it recent or older? Who are the leading scholars?
- From which viewpoints has the topic been investigated before? What kinds of methods and data have been used in earlier research? What are the most important findings?
- How does your thesis relate to other publications in the field?
2) Strengthening the substance knowledge
- helps you to focus on the essential literature regarding your own thesis.
- helps you to choose the studies upon which you will develop the theoretical
- framework of the thesis and design its empirical research setting.
3) The development of expertise
- helps you to evaluate the existing literature critically and to identify potential gaps and shortcomings in it.
- helps you to make your viewpoint precise and to define the actual research problem or research task.
The choice of research topic and getting acquainted with the literature in the chosen research area are of vital importance in getting the thesis process started. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the research process and in order to achieve successful results, narrowing down the research topic is the most critical task. Crystallizing the research focus and concentration on a limited area enable you to manage your study effectively.