Research process

An effective research question is the foundation of your study, and it should be clear and focused, meeting your programme’s quality requirements. A useful tool for this is the SMART principle mentioned earlier in this e-course.

Incorporate these characteristics into your prompt to generate suggestions. It is often more effective to first draft your own version  of the research question. This forces you to critically assess the core of your research and clarify your objectives.

Want to refine your research question with AI? Try strategies like:

• Ask critical questions: Ask GenAI for feedback on your draft question, for example, ‘What are the strengths and weaknesses of my research question according to the SMART criteria?’
• Focus on refinement: Use prompts like ‘Can you make my question more specific, with a strong focus on the key elements?’
• Ensure depth: Ask GenAI for suggestions for related sub-questions that can further develop your main question.
• Evaluate practicality: Consult AI with the question: ‘Why might this question be difficult to research, and what solutions do you recommend?’

Generative AI can guide you by analysing your research question and suggesting appropriate methodologies. For example:

• Gaining insight into the methodology: Enter your research question into an AI tool to get suggestions for concrete methods, whether you choose qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods research.
• Understanding methods: Use GenAI to create summaries and explanations of various research methods, clarifying the differences between techniques like interviews and surveys. This helps you choose the best data collection method.
• Viewing sample designs: Ask GenAI to generate examples of research designs based on your chosen method. This practical approach allows you to visualise how to structure your study, from sampling to analysis.
• Evaluating practicality: LLMs have increasingly strong reasoning abilities. Ask GenAI to assess the practicality of your research method, considering your timeline, available resources, and data access. Share your plan and receive a different perspective to refine your approach.

A well-organized approach is key to efficient research. Generative AI can support you in effectively planning both big and small research projects. Here’s how:

• Creating timelines: Use GenAI to create a detailed timeline for your research. Input your deadlines and milestones, and let GenAI suggest a realistic schedule to keep you on track and avoid last-minute stress.
• Compiling a task list: Have GenAI list tasks based on your research goals and approach. This helps you tackle every aspect of your project, from literature review to data collection and analysis, making your progress measurable.
• Setting up research structure: Use GenAI to create a structure for your research. A clear layout with sections for introduction, methodology, results, and conclusions keeps you focused and organised. Follow your programme’s examples for the outline and let GenAI assist in developing more specific chapters within that framework.

Every language model excels at paraphrasing, but you cannot simply outsource this skill—it is a crucial part of your learning process. When you express information in your own words, you understand the concepts better. It creates a strong foundation that can be enhanced with generative AI. Here is how to approach it:

• AI-supported paraphrasing tools: Use AI tools to rephrase texts, such as when referring to existing research. This helps you reformulate complex information and add variety to your writing. It is a quick way to optimise your writing process.
• Review: Always review the results when using GenAI for paraphrasing. Ensure that the original meaning is preserved and that the result fits your research question. AI is a valuable tool, but you are responsible for evaluating the final output.
• Enhancing your voice: GenAI can help sharpen your writing style. Not a confident writer? AI can still assist in shaping clear, readable academic texts. Experiment with different versions and choose the wording that best matches your tone and style. For example, ask AI to adapt your sentences to a specific style, such as academic, critical, or persuasive. This not only adds variety to your academic writing but also helps you explore new writing styles. By practising, you will develop your own voice that conveys your ideas convincingly.

When gathering personal notes and insights from literature, you will want to organise them logically. Generative AI can help you better structure information and create useful insights. Here is how AI can assist:

• Personal highlights and notes: Use GenAI to collect and categorise your most important notes. Input your notes and let GenAI sort them by subject or theme. This allows you to quickly find the key ideas and expand on them.
• Creating thematic groups: Let generative AI identify themes in your gathered insights. GenAI will automatically group your notes and ideas, giving you a clear overview of the different approaches within your research topic.
• Making quick selections: Consider AI-generated summaries to filter your information quickly. With these summaries, you can decide which sources or notes to explore further, allowing you to focus on the most relevant sections.

Bear in mind that while generative AI can help you read, process, and organise findings and ideas, the output will never fully match your unique insights.

Generative AI is shaking the very foundations of literature review. That is why we are dedicating an entire chapter to it. Discover all about it in the next topic.