Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project That Matters to You

by Thomas S. Mullaney, Christopher Rea

Plenty of books tell you how to do research. This book helps you figure out WHAT to research in the first place, and why it matters.


The hardest part of research isn't answering a question. It's knowing what to do before you know what your question is. Where Research Begins tackles the two challenges every researcher faces with every new How do I find a compelling problem to investigate—one that truly matters to me, deeply and personally? How do I then design my research project so that the results will matter to anyone else?


This book will help you start your new research project the right way for you with a series of simple yet ingenious exercises. Written in a conversational style and packed with real-world examples, this easy-to-follow workbook offers an engaging guide to finding research inspiration within yourself, and in the broader world of ideas.


Read this book if you (or your students):



have difficulty choosing a research topic
know your topic, but are unsure how to turn it into a research project
feel intimidated by or unqualified to do research
worry that you’re asking the wrong questions about your research topic
have plenty of good ideas, but aren’t sure which one to commit to
feel like your research topic was imposed by someone else
want to learn new ways to think about how to do research.

Under the expert guidance of award-winning researchers Thomas S. Mullaney and Christopher Rea, you will find yourself on the path to a compelling and meaningful research project, one that matters to you—and the world.

Genres: Research, Nonfiction, Science, Academic, Grad School, Education, Writing

218 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 31, 2024

About the author

Thomas S. Mullaney is Associate Professor of History at Stanford University and the author of Coming to Terms with the Nation: Ethnic Classification in Modern China.

Reviews

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for all researchers, NOT just academic researchers.
And you need to keep this book at hand and do the exercises as you see fit.

highlights from the book:
you can never narrow down to a viable research topic—Instead, find the problem that excites & disturbs you—what keeps you up at night?
once you find your problem—your research will help you find your research questions
then you need to find your Problem Collective (this is how you escape the topic land)—PC is driven by a shared concern (e.g. how to build a just society? how to stop reproducing racism? how to get rich); topic is a territory (e.g. history of 20th century China, modern Chinese Buddhism, Buddhist studies)
then you still need to write for both your Problem Collectives & your fields.

[Genevieve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was required reading for my research methods class. It was an interesting perspective.

[Nattapan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good topic, but I am not sure whether this book could really help novice researchers or not.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the hardest things to do in graduate school is to choose a subject for one’s thesis or dissertation. With little or no training, students are expected to identify an issue of profound importance and present a solution or analysis that has never been proposed before. Part of what makes this task so difficult is that there is no guide on how to do it.

But now, with Where Research Begins, we have a well-crafted book on this desperately needed subject. The book is full of insightful research and writing advice written in an accessible and warm tone. Its core is the brilliant exercises that help walk the reader through the process of discovering one’s own interests and concerns and choosing a research project that will leave you fulfilled and, hopefully, make an important contribution to your field. Where Research Begins should be required reading in every grad school and for all aspiring researchers and journalists.

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't pursue a degree that required a thesis, etc. but in any case I was still curious what this book could offer me, because I could identify with the questions. Where to begin? How to decide what to research? How do I know if this is a good question to research?

The book basically takes a student through the process of the purpose of their research: why is it important to them? What is the question are they trying to answer? What is the process for answering all these questions? At the end of each chapter are exercises a student can answer to put that on paper.

This is apparently read at the undergrad level (but grad students have too) and I think there's quite a lot of value in it--quite frankly I think this could do with a "young reader"-type of edition for high school or even younger. It would not be too hard to adapt the language for younger audiences and I think it's even *more* important for younger people today to know how to research things.

Ultimately I found it was not for me (not planning to pursue a degree that requires such work!), but it was interesting. I also don't really know if it would have helped me earlier in my career to either steer me to grad school and writing up a thesis or dissertation, etc. because research is always something I've enjoyed. But I do see the value (as mentioned, even for younger audiences) in picking this up just to see what is in it.

Borrowed via Kindle Unlimited and that was best for me.

[Karn Moonsri · Rating 3 out of 5]

หนังสือ Where Research Begins โดย Thomas S. Mullaney และ Christopher Rea นำเสนอแนวทางสดใหม่ในการเริ่มต้นทำวิจัย โดยชี้ให้เห็นว่าคำถามวิจัยที่ดีไม่จำเป็นต้องเริ่มจากช่องว่างในงานวิจัยเดิม (research gap) แต่ควรเริ่มจากความสงสัยของเราเอง ผู้เขียนแนะนำแนวคิดอย่าง “self-centered research” ที่เปิดโอกาสให้เราตั้งคำถามจากสิ่งที่เชื่อมโยงกับตัวตนและประสบการณ์ส่วนตัวครับ พร้อมด้วยเครื่องมือ เช่น “fear statements” และ “assumption mapping” เพื่อช่วยสะท้อนความคิดและคลี่คลายความกังวลที่อาจซ่อนอยู่ภายใน โดยส่วนตัวแม้จะรู้สึกว่าอ่านยากในบางจุด อาจเพราะระดับภาษาอังกฤษค่อนข้างยากสำหรับผม แต่ก็ถือว่าเป็นหนังสือที่ให้ประสบการณ์การอ่านที่ลึกและชวนคิดมากกว่าการให้คำตอบแบบสำเร็จรูป คิดแบบคิดเยอะจนอยากหยุดอ่านครับ และถามว่า เหมาะสำหรับนักเรียน นักศึกษา หรือผู้เริ่มต้นที่ยังไม่แน่ใจว่าจะเริ่มต้นวิจัยจากตรงไหนไหมนะเหรอครับ ผมก็ไม่รู้ แต่หนังสือเล่มนี้ไม่เพียงแต่ช่วยพัฒนาทักษะการตั้งคำถามอย่างเป็นระบบนะครับ แต่ยังช่วยปลุกแรงบันดาลใจให้การทำวิจัยกลายเป็นกระบวนการที่มีความหมายและเชื่อมโยงกับตัวเราอย่างแท้จริง ซึ่งถือว่าเป็นแนวคิดที่น่าสนใจครับ

[Robert Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in a clear conversational style, this book is a must have for researchers of all kinds and at all levels. Much like a workbook, the book's strength and incredible value lie in the exercises, especially the Cereal Box Challenge. If you are a researcher, working through some of the exercises will greatly enhance your productivity and enjoyment, as well as increase the likelihood of producing something that people actually want to read and that makes a genuine contribution to the knowledge base in your area of interest. If you teach research methods, elements of this book need to be incorporated into your syllabus, not only to enhance student understanding and enjoyment in a course that many students dread, but also as a means of reducing some your own frustration with trying to develop effective and creative ways of accomplishing course objectives and increasing the quality of outcomes.

[Elissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent and very useful book that I wish that I had as an undergrad or graduate student. I read it because I am using it to teach a research methods course, but I’ve found myself doing some of the activities alongside my students as they are going through the text and the process. It provides excellent guidance on how to think through your research questions and problems, effectively and objectively evaluate sources, and get started on your writing. Highly recommended for students, but established professors can also benefit from some of the reflective activities throughout the text.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mileage with this book varied. I wish I had had this book when I first was thinking of a research project back during my MA -- things would have been smoother I guess. Most tips and tricks are generalizable to my field (linguistics) but still I feel it's mostly geared towards historians. Like archive examples just didn't resonate. Luckily there is enough in this book to recommend it to aspiring academics in general.

[Christian Jespersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Key take away: Write, write, write!

As a researcher get into the habit of writing things down. This has been enormously helpful for me, as always exploring ideas, methods, solutions, and results in writing does two things for you:

1. Always progress in moving forward.
2. Enables you to clearly articulate yourself when needed whether in articles, journals, or documentation

A Ph.D. in mathematical optimization

[Yasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is a 10 out of 10. Especially if you are someone who gets overwhelmed easily. This book provides small steps to follow. And guides you through the proposal process.

However, I can't seem to find the additional PDF files/templates/worksheets that they keep mentioning in their book. They are supposed to be on their website. But there is nothing there. Help?

[Lizzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was assigned to read this for my high school senior year AP english class. The book is a valuable way of seeing research and will likely help me in the future with determining what interests me and how I can get others interested, but it is also a rather dense book, and I feel as though it would only be useful to research about historical or cultural questions, not scientific.

[Brittney Wilson]

I think overall this is a good book to read but one meant to be read WELL in advance of starting your dissertation - that was the mistake I made: reading it too late/during the dissertation writing block of the semester. However, there are some parts that cause more confusion than clarity but all in all, I’d say it’s helpful.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

This looks amazingly helpful and I'm looking forward, now that I've read it in its entirety, to reading it more slowly and working through the steps

[Sally Kong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relatable anecdotes, easy to read, and reasonable exercises

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful in focusing my writing for the dissertation. It is very focused on research in the humanities, but I found it helpful for social science as well.

[Shiqi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It prompts me to reflect on the consultative process that every inquirer is/should be part of but hasn’t been able to due to structural issues.

[Pearl]

Adding a study book counts right?

[Abigail · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think my entire class gave up on this book like two chapters in because it felt mostly pointless to all of us

[Jordan Rahm · Rating 4 out of 5]

School book!

[Kalei · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for grad school. Good if you've never researched a thing before.

[kami · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book at a time in my life where I have recently decided that I want to pursue research and graduate school. In my first and second year of undergrad, no work has felt more fruitful and fulfilling than the work wherein I research, write, and produce knowledge. At Stanford, I found the required class PWR (Program in Writing and Rhetoric) to be life-changing: it showed me that in the academic world, people are having thoughtful, exciting conversations about topics that matter to them, and in many ways, I can research the same topic and contribute to the conversation as well.

Next quarter, I will be taking the Junior Seminar in Research for urban studies, wherein we spend the entire class developing our senior thesis research topic and writing a proposal for a research grant. During winter break, I have been endlessly devouring nonfiction material to gain knowledge on Taipei and Taiwan, as I knew that I wanted to focus on some type of social, cultural, or urban phenomenon in Taipei, but I didn't know where to start.

This book contributed to my ideation process in a number of ways, but I will name the most helpful here.

First, it upturned the notion that we should simply choose "topics" to research, and instead argued that we should start off with questions. I found this to be a very helpful framework, because I do believe that I am an endlessly curious person, excited to learn and read more books and literature. However, but framing research project development in terms of the questions I had, I was able to pinpoint what exactly I wanted to know more about (rather than just going off of book titles that seemed interesting), and therefore make my search for a project more concise.

Second, this book introduced the idea of a "self-centered" researcher to me, wherein I focus on the articles, primary sources, and books that get me going, that tap into questions that I fundamentally have, and then asking myself why I feel like I care about those sources more. The idea of "self-evidence" was very compelling to me, because it made research feel personal, and therefore, human. In my creative writing and in my friendships, I think so much about the personal — I check in with my body to know what stories I want to write, which people I am drawn to. But this book forced me to view research in the same way. Research is not simply "filling the research gap" — it is the pursuit of a gap inside of YOU — namely, your problem.

The "try it nows" that I found to be most helpful were definitely the ones related to asking questions about certain topics, asking questions about certain primary sources, and identifying and organizing the problems that we find deep within ourselves and within other scholars.

I do think that these were probably the two biggest ways that I learned from this book. However, other parts of the book failed to capture me; I think it's because I didn't do the exercises in their entirety, but then I didn't have the emotional readiness or willingness to do them in their entirety.

For instance, I found it difficult to hone in on a specific problem, and then choose a project idea out of the many that I had produced — I wanted a sounding board to hear about what I thought my problem might be (1. How do people create art to deal with shifts in the spatial and economic order of the world? and 2. How do people engage in placemaking, localization, and memory production (thru writing) to adapt to the trauma of abrupt migration?), and then I wanted a sounding board to hear about the projects I had come up with to address them. I wanted to talk to someone who had experience dealing with certain methodologies and primary sources to give me guidance on which primary sources would be good or not good to use, and I wanted feedback on which fields the project could best fit in.

Because I found it difficult to decide on a problem, project, and primary sources by myself with confidence, I found myself unable to move forward with the "try it nows" that were more tangible — writing a research proposal, editing a research proposal, analyzing primary sources, start with zero and first drafts.

Even still, I believe that this book was helpful for me because it allowed me to totally depart from the "topic brainstorming" framework and move toward the "question generating" framework, as well as identify two major problems I had and identify a few scholars who seemed to have the same problem as me. By thinking about my own questions and my own problems, I was able to view research as a personal pursuit, and this has made me more excited to bring these ideas to a sound board when I do get one (actually, when I get many) next quarter in my research seminar.

P.S. - I saw on Goodreads that a lot of Master's and PhD students wished that they had read this book earlier in their research career — so I am glad that I have been exposed to these ideas early on, actually at a point where I would call the beginnings of my research career.

[Izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this for class. it was very informative and inspired me to plan my own research. highly recommend especially for people interested in research and/or journalism.

[Miriam Villazón Valbuena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m about to start my 4th year of PhD, so I read this book a little but late. However, I used it for a class I’ve been mentoring over the summer and I am so happy books like this exist. “Where Research Begins” is the perfect tool to have over your path in academia. Honestly, it does not matter if you read on your summer previously to start grad school or when you are already halfway across grad school. A very helpful guide. My students loved it.