research topic tools

• 11 Best Blog Topic Research Tools (Free and Paid) + Tutorial

Written by Ankit Singla

3K Followers

Last Updated on:

by Ankit Singla

Are you spending too much time searching for blog topic ideas?

Great blog topics are essential for success, but finding the right ideas can be challenging without the proper tools.

In this post, I’ll introduce you to the best blog topic research tools, both free and paid, based on over a decade of blogging experience.

Let’s go!

Blog Topic Research Tools

• Semrush (Paid)
• Mangools (Paid)
• LowFruits .io (Paid)
• Surfer (Paid)
• Reddit (Free)
• AnswerThePublic (Free)
• AlsoAsked (Free)
• Twitter (Free)
• Quora (Free)
• Search Response (Free)
• QuestionDB (Free)

1. Semrush (Paid)

Topic research with Semrush is an absolute pleasure since it provided me with tons of great content ideas over the years. The topics are also incredibly diverse, ranging from question-based ideas to eye-catching comparison titles. 

Let me show you how I use it.

To follow along, start by creating your free 14-day trial account if you haven’t already.

Log in to your account, select ‘Content Marketing,’ and click ‘Topic Research.’  

Enter a broad topic or keyword that’s relevant to the content you’re trying to create. For example, if you want to produce content about fishing, enter “ fishing tips ” or something similar.  

Choose your target country and click ‘Get content ideas’ to complete this step.

To “borrow” topic ideas from competitors, click ‘ Enter domain to find content on ‘ and enter your competitor’s blog URL. This will prompt Semrush to identify your competitor’s top-performing content.

Within seconds, Semrush will generate dozens of potential topic ideas based on your initial query. Each idea is sorted into cards, which contain the topic’s online traffic potential and headline templates you can use. 

If a particular topic catches your attention, click ‘Show more’ to reveal more useful insights. This includes additional headline ideas, the topic’s “ keyword difficulty ” rating, along with related questions and searches that will help readers understand your topic.

Want to get more topic ideas out of Semrush?

You can use the “ Mind Map ” view of the Topic Research tool to quickly discover interesting subtopics. This includes question-based topics and potential title ideas you can customize. 

To obtain topic ideas from competitors, Semrush lets you analyze their blogs for their most popular content. For this, go to ‘Organic Research’ from the main menu and enter your competitor’s domain. 

In the organic research report, you can check your competitor’s top pages and long-tail keywords. Both sections are great for discovering in-demand blog topic ideas .

Not sure how to turn long-tail keywords into blog topics? 

Here’s what I usually do. 

Let’s say I want to target the keyword “trout fishing tips.” I simply combine it with popular blog post title formats, like: 

• Top 10 Trout Fishing Tips for Beginners
• Trout Catching Ultimate Guide: Trout Fishing Tips You Need to Know
• Trout Fishing Tips and Tools for Rivers

Semrush is many things, but it’s not cheap (its entry-level plan costs $129.95 per month). The good news is, being a Master Blogging reader, you can use Semrush free for 14 days. 😉

2.  Mangools (Paid)

Mangools wins as my second favorite topic research tool. It offers three tools that can help you find great blog topics: SERPChecker , SiteProfiler , and KWFinder .

Looking for great topics that get high rankings?

SERPChecker by Mangools is a SERP analysis tool that evaluates popular content on Google.

To use it, log in to your Mangools account and select ‘SERPChecker’ from the main menu. 

Just enter a relevant search query, hit ‘Analyze SERP,’ and wait for SERPChecker to pull in the top-ranking results. 

In addition to popular content, SERPChecker also scrapes useful information to help you prioritize the hottest topics from the best websites, like Domain Authority (DA), total number of backlinks, featured snippets, and more. 

You can also get content topic ideas straight from competitors through SiteProfiler. This is the Mangools version of Semrush’s Organic Research tool, which can scan your competitor’s website for top-performing content ideas.

From your Mangools dashboard, click ‘SiteProfiler’ from the main menu and enter your competitor’s domain URL. 

Scroll down to the ‘Top content’ section to find your competitor’s best posts. 

Feel free to use these topics for your own blog or combine them with original ideas to create something better. 

Lastly, you may use KWFinder to obtain long-tail keyword ideas, which you can easily convert into blog post topics. Just head to ‘KWFinder’ from the main menu, enter a keyword or broad topic, and click ‘Find keywords.’ 

Within seconds, you’ll find dozens of long-tail keyword ideas you can use to create blog post topics. 

Just like Semrush, Mangools is a premium tool that requires a monthly subscription. You can check their different plans and prices here . 

Luckily, you can save almost $10 per month on a basic subscription using my 20% Mangools discount code.

3. LowFruits.io (Paid)

Find blog topic ideas that are easy to rank using LowFruits — a keyword research tool specifically built to find easy-to-target keywords.

I used this tool to elevate the rankings of my own posts on Google’s second page, which were eventually bumped to the first page and now generate a steady stream of organic traffic.

To use LowFruits for topic research, log in to your account and head to the ‘KWFinder’ from the main dashboard. 

Enter a “ seed keyword ,” which is any phrase or word relevant to the topic you want to research, and click ‘Find keywords.’ 

Once the initial research is complete, click the ‘Access’ button to reveal potential topic ideas around your seed keyword.

LowFruits starts you off with a list of topic ideas that can be baked straight into your headlines. For example, the seed keyword “fishing tips” will get you the following: 

LowFruits also helps evaluate the popularity of topics by tracking important metrics, such as their estimated monthly search volume , average word count , and Cost Per Click (CPC) . The analysis also explores the topic’s “ weak spots ” or topics that are easy to dominate in search engine results. 

To run a topic analysis, select the check boxes of the topics you want and click the ‘SERP Extract and Analyze’ button in the bottom toolbar. 

Content topics are automatically sorted by LowFruits based on the number of “weak spots” in search engine results. These pertain to content with low-medium DA, forum threads, or social media posts — all of which don’t prioritize SEO. 

In other words, these are topics where you can easily outrank your competitors. Prioritize these topics and create content with SEO in mind to gain rankings.  

To find other low-competition topics, you can filter out topics that websites with a low DA rank for. Just click ‘DA < 10’ or ‘DA <20’ in the filters toolbar. 

To find topics that align with your target audience’s objectives (make a purchase, compare products, etc.), use the search intent filter. Choose between high-intent, pre-purchase, post-purchase, and comparison to find the right topics for your goal.

For even more topics, expand on your current topic and find subtopics by checking the ‘Suggestions’ and ‘Questions’ tabs. 

4. Surfer (Paid)

Surfer lets you combine topic research and content optimization into a single, seamless workflow. I’m particularly impressed with its powerful AI writing assistant, which is capable of instantly generating ideas for content sections, headings, and keywords for content.

To find topics with Surfer, go to ‘Keyword Research’ from the main menu. 

Enter a seed keyword and click ‘Create Keyword Research’ to generate relevant topic clusters (groups of posts about subtopics linked to a “pillar page,” which is about the main topic).

Let’s say your seed keyword is “WordAI.” Here are some of the topic ideas you can obtain from Surfer.

As an added bonus, Surfer also includes useful metrics like the topic’s monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, and audience intent. These metrics will help you handpick topics that have the most traffic potential. 

My favorite Surfer feature is the “ Content Editor ,” which is accessible directly from Google Docs via a browser add-on. This lets you access most of its useful features for content creation, including suggested keywords, heading ideas, and the AI writing assistant. 

Surfer also lets you find topics that perform well in SEO through “ SERP Analyzer. ” This will help you find more topics based on common phrases, questions, and — of course — the Google search results.

5. Reddit (Free)

Reddit is a goldmine of community-driven topic ideas. My approach is to use specific search operators on Google. 

First, look for a subreddit related to your niche. Simply use the search bar, enter your main topic, and look for communities from the suggestions.

Once you find a relevant subreddit, copy its URL. 

On Google use the “site:” search operator, paste the subreddit’s URL, and enter keywords to quickly find topic ideas. 

For example, use the search query below to find topic ideas from the “r/Fishing” subreddit:

Find various topic ideas by experimenting with different keywords. Don’t forget to visit the actual Reddit post to gain insights on the kind of information readers want to see. 

6. AnswerThePublic (Free)

AnswerThePublic is a unique topic research tool that focuses on finding question-based content ideas. 

All I have to do is launch AnswerThePublic, enter 1-2 words, pick a target country, set a language, and click ‘Search.’ 

AnswerThePublic extracts all the relevant questions asked by users around the specified topic. You can then easily convert these questions into articles that provide the answers. 

By default, AnswerThePublic suggestions appear using mind map visualizations. If I want to know more about the topic, I simply click a question to load the search results and take inspiration from the top pages. 

For example, if I click “how to get better at fishing,” Google will take me straight to these results:

7. AlsoAsked (Free)

AlsoAsked is a good alternative to AnswerThePublic for topic research. It scans Google for “People Also Ask” questions and compiles them into a single list—making it easier to choose relevant blog topics. 

You can go deeper by clicking the ‘Plus’ icon next to any question. For example, let’s click the ‘Plus’ button next to “How do you catch big fish?”

This prompts AlsoAsked to collect more related questions, which you can use as topics for your blog. 

8. Twitter (Free)

To find trending topic ideas, I occasionally tap into the latest discussions on Twitter — now rebranded as “X.”

After creating an account, run a search using a keyword or hashtag to start looking for topic ideas. Scroll down the results to find popular topics or switch to the ‘Latest’ tab to find trends you can cover in your blog. 

Twitter is perfect for finding newsworthy topics that can capture your target audience’s attention. But if you’re looking for more “ evergreen ” topics, consider attaching informational keywords like “ tutorial ,” “ tips ,” or “ guide ” to your search query. 

9. Quora (Free)

For question-based topic ideas, one of the best places to scan would be Quora . Its advanced search feature automatically pulls up topic and question recommendations while you type.

To identify popular topics on Quora, look for posts with more “ upvotes ” than other results. 

It also helps to inspect posts with a high number of comments to discover ideas, tools, resources, and valuable insights from the community. 

Also Read : How To Get Traffic To Your Blog From Quora?

10. Search Response (Free)

Search Response features a collection of tools built for topic research and SEO content planning. 

Let me ask you a question, have you seen “ People Also Ask ” and “ People Also Searched For ” sections in Google search results?

I’m talking about these:

These are the topic ideas that Search Response extracts.

Just pick the right tool from Search Response’s homepage. For example, if you want to obtain topics from “People Also Ask” suggestions, click ‘Go To PAA Tool.’

From there, just enter a seed keyword like “fishing tips” and click the magnifying glass icon. 

Search Response will provide you with a list of questions you can use as blog topics.

To help you choose topics, Search Response includes useful metrics like monthly search volume, CPC, and search volume trend. 

To analyze topic ideas in bulk, Search Response lets you export results as CSV files. Or, just click on the column headers to quickly sort topics based on a specific metric. 

11. QuestionDB (Free)

QuestionDB is another topic research tool that focuses on questions that internet users ask. I have recently discovered this tool, but I’m already impressed by its ability to generate tons of topic ideas and simple, clutter-free interface. 

To conduct topic research with QuestionDB, enter a seed keyword or phrase and click ‘Generate.’ 

You should get enough questions to fuel your content ideation process for weeks. 

Although QuestionDB works fast and provides a ton of topic ideas, you need the paid version to unlock the search volume and difficulty metrics. These pieces of data are crucial for determining the best topics to cover for getting more traffic or attaining higher search engine rankings

As a workaround, I use it alongside a standalone keyword research tool like Ubersuggest or Keyword Magic Tool by Semrush. This way, I don’t have to miss out on QuestionDB’s compelling topic ideas and Semrush’s content research capabilities.

Here’s what I do…

On QuestionDB’s results page, click ‘Download’ to save a copy of the question ideas.

Open the downloaded file using a spreadsheet app (Excel, Google Sheets, etc.) and copy the entire first column. This is the column that contains your question-based topics.

Moving on to Semrush, go to ‘Keyword Manager’ from the main menu and click ‘create a regular list’ to continue.

Give your keyword list a name and click ‘Create list.’ When done, click ‘Add keywords’ in the top-right corner.

This will open a pop-up window where you can manually add your question ideas.

Next, paste your QuestionDB results into the keyword field.

Lastly, click ‘Add keywords’ and wait for Keyword Manager to pull in the data. Your new report should now have valuable metrics that will help you find profitable topics for your blog.

Final Words

There are tons of ways to uncover great topic ideas for your blog. And, in most cases, it’s all about using the right tools. 

The list above contains my go-to topic research tools for bloggers. It keeps me supplied with fresh, attention-grabbing topics that not only get traffic, but also provide my audience with valuable information. 

Overall, I highly recommend choosing at least one paid tool like Semrush, Mangools, and Surfer for topic research. 

You can start today without spending a single cent using Semrush’s 14-day free trial offer .

Using a paid topic research tool will also uncover metrics that help you pick profitable ideas for your blog. This includes search volume, keyword difficulty, and search intent. 

Of course, you can use as many free topic research tools as you want. However, as I demonstrated with QuestionDB, it’s still a good idea to combine free tools with a paid one for effective topic research.

Disclosure: This article includes affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting us.

Ankit Singla

Ankit Singla is a full-time blogger, YouTuber, author, and public speaker. He founded and leads Master Blogging . With over 13 years of blogging expertise, he has assisted numerous aspiring bloggers in achieving their dreams of creating successful blogs.

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The 11 Best Blog Topic Research Tools To Find Great Content Ideas in 2024

L ooking for the best blog topic research tools?

There are a wealth of options available to you, but I know that can also cause decision fatigue. Don’t worry—I’ve been in the blogging space for over a decade and have tested nearly every blog topic/keyword research tool you can find.

In this guide, I’ll share with you 11 different free and paid options I’ve had success with and describe how you, too, can use them in your blogging journey to rank and grow your audience.

Let’s get started!

In This Guide:

• 1. Semrush – An all-in-one premium tool with a database of 25 billion keywords for topic research.
• 2. WPBeginner Keyword Generator – A free keyword ideas tool helping you to organize ideas into sections.
• 3. Ahrefs – A popular SEO tool with premium features like Content Explorer for quick topic analysis.
• 4. AnswerThePublic – A freemium tool that help you generate tons of questions relating to your content ideas.
• 5. BuzzSumo – A Content Analyzer shows popular content for social media inspiration.
• 6. Keyword Tool – A tool generates long-tail keywords for free, but with limited data visibility.
• 7. Ubersuggest – A limited but popular free keyword research and competitor analysis tool.
• 8. Google Trends – Access insights into search term popularity for timely topics.
• 9. Quora – A free platform to discover questions for blog topic inspiration.
• Bonus: HubSpot Blog Idea Generator – A free tool that offers basic topic suggestions.
• Bonus: MonsterInsights – An awesome freemium tool that helps you analyze your blog’s performance to refine topic ideas.

The 11 Best Blog Topic Research Tools

When starting a blog , you need to come up with many topics.

After all, success in the SEO game typically involves throwing a bunch of topics at a wall and seeing what sticks. Just note that you should always target topics that appeal to your audience and be able to provide answers and solutions to their questions and problems.

But if you have trouble figuring out what topic to write about, these blog topic research tools will help you easily generate ideas that interest your readers.

1. Semrush : Best Paid Blog Topic Research Tool

Semrush is one of the best tools on the market for performing keyword research, checking how well your blog posts are ranking , doing competitor research, and much more.

And with the biggest database of keywords on the market (25 billion keywords in fact), you can also use Semrush to easily research topic ideas for your blog.

With Semrush’s Topic Research Tool, you can type in a topic to automatically generate tons of information and ideas around it. Here’s a great video to help you out!

In the example below, we typed in the topic “fitness” and hit the Get content ideas button. Then, the tool displays “cards” of relevant content topics found on the web.

You can click on each card to view more helpful information like the best-performing articles for that topic, headline ideas , “People also ask” questions, and related searches.

Using the Keyword Magic Tool, you can also figure out what keywords people are searching for related to your topic.

Here, we entered the topic “best cardio workout” into the Keyword Magic Tool:

We got a list of relevant terms that people are searching the web for, along with the volume, keyword difficulty, and other important data.

2. WPBeginner Keyword Generator Tool (Free)

WPBeginner Keyword Generator is a completely free tool that lets you easily discover new keywords and topic ideas for your blog.

All you need to do is enter your main topic keyword into the tool and hit the ‘Analyze’ button. Then, the tool will generate 300+ new keyword ideas that people are searching for in Google, related to your topic.

You can browse the list of keyword ideas, which are organized into 3 sections:

• Alphabet  – Alphabetical list of related keywords that people search for in Google.
• Prepositions  – Related keywords that include prepositions like can, near, is, to, etc.
• Questions  – Related long tail keywords in the form of questions.

You can also download the list of keywords as a CSV file to use in a spreadsheet software like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.

The best part is that you don’t need to create an account to use the WPBeginner Keyword Generator and there are no daily limits

WPBeginner also offers other free tools, including a Blog Idea Generator , Keyword Density Checker , Website SEO Analyzer , and more.

3. Ahrefs (Paid)

Ahrefs is another premium, popular SEO tool that lets you track and optimize your search engine rankings. It has features like a site explorer, keyword explorer, blog auditor, and more.

There’s also a Content Explorer feature that will help you generate new topic ideas quickly. Simply enter a topic idea into the search field, and the Content Explorer will find and analyze the top-performing blog content related to your topic.

You can sort the results by organic traffic, referring domains, domain rating, social shares, and traffic value.

With each result, you can also dive into more details like the word count, backlinks , and organic keywords. All of these insights will help you improve your blogging strategy and general content creation process to beat your competitors.

4. AnswerThePublic (Limited Free)

AnswerThePublic is a keyword tool that will give you content ideas in the form of questions.

Enter a topic you want to search for, and this tool will display search questions and suggested autocomplete searches in the form of a visual cloud, like in the example below.

Aside from questions, you can also view results for prepositions, comparisons, alphabeticals, and related searches.

When it’s challenging to come up with fresh blog topic ideas , knowing the questions and keywords your readers search in Google can be a goldmine of information. Not only does it allow you to get to know your audience better, but it also helps you find blog topics you can use to answer their questions and provide solutions to their problems.

5. BuzzSumo (Limited Free)

BuzzSumo offers a Content Analyzer tool that will show you what content related to your topic is getting the most shares on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and more.

This is useful because when you learn which blog posts in your niche are the most popular topics for readers, it will help you come up with ideas that are also likely to perform well on social media .

You can filter the results by a certain time period, such as the past 6 months, quarter, month, week, and 24 hours.

And if you have a YouTube channel , BuzzSumo also has a YouTube Content Analyzer that will pull the top videos related to your topic so you can study the competition and get new ideas.

6. Keyword Tool (Limited Free)

Keyword Tool is a free keyword planner that helps you find relevant keywords and topic ideas to use for your blog.

This tool uses Google Autocomplete to generate up to 750 long-tail keywords for every search term, so you have plenty of content ideas to sift through without paying a dime. You don’t need to create an account to use this tool, either. As soon as you start typing keywords, it will display relevant suggestions.

Aside from Google, you can also search for keywords from Bing, YouTube, Amazon, eBay, Instagram , and more.

But you aren’t able to see important data like search volume. For that, you would have to upgrade to a paid plan.

7. Ubersuggest (Limited Free)

Ubersuggest is another free keyword research tool that allows you to look up different keywords and spy on your competitors.

When you enter your keyword, Ubersuggest will display a list of ideas related to it. You can see the volume, trend, SEO difficulty, and more, for each keyword.

You can view the Google Search Results for each keyword as well, which will show you which websites and articles are ranking in the first 10 positions.

It also has a Content Ideas section that displays content from across the web with high social media shares. You can use these articles and headlines for inspiration.

With Ubersuggest, you only get 3 free searches a day. For more searches and features, you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan.

8. Google Trends (Free)

Google Trends is a free data exploration tool that analyzes the popularity of search queries in Google. It tells you what search terms are popular across various regions, languages, and time periods so you know what’s trending in your industry.

You can even compare different search terms to see which topic is more popular:

This tool is a great way to gain insight into what people are searching for and what trends they’re interested in at the moment. Then, you can apply these trends to your content marketing strategy and create blog posts that are relevant and timely.

Along with keyword trends, you can also view the trends for images , videos, stories, and even Google shopping.

If you like to write about current or seasonal topics that are time-sensitive in nature, then Google Trends is a great option for you.

9. Quora (Free)

Quora is a popular question-and-answer platform where users can ask anything they want and receive answers from other users.

Because it’s full of questions, it’s a great method for generating helpful topics for your blog. You can see questions asked by your target audience, so you know what they’re curious about and what they need help with.

For example, if you run a blog that’s all about WordPress , you can find out what WordPress beginners are struggling with and create blog posts to answer their questions.

Plus, by setting up a Quora profile and answering users’ questions, you can establish yourself as an authority in your industry. And if you optimize your bio and profile, you can promote your blog and drive more traffic to your site.

Bonus: HubSpot Blog Idea Generator (Limited Free)

HubSpot Blog Idea Generator is a free topic idea generator that instantly produces ideas when you enter a keyword or keywords.

You can add up to 5 nouns in the search field. You’ll then receive a week’s worth of potential blog post ideas (5 ideas) with headlines chosen by the platform that are likely to perform well in search. It’s pretty basic but it’s enough to get your creative juices flowing.

If you want to get a year’s worth of blog post ideas from the HubSpot Blog Idea Generator, then you’ll need to create an account.

Bonus: MonsterInsights (Free + Paid)

MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It’s trusted by 3,000,000+ professionals to monitor their website’s performance and collect valuable insights to grow their business. The best part about this plugin is that you can view these important analytics right from your WordPress dashboard.

So, how does MonsterInsights help you come up with blog topic ideas that will convert?

With this plugin, you can see what content on your blog already performs well so you can continue creating similar, relevant topics you know will resonate with your readers.

For example, if one of your top-performing posts is a tutorial on how to start a photography blog , you can expand on that topic by coming up with subtopics related to it. Since your readers loved the original post, they’re likely to enjoy your new posts on the subject too.

MonsterInsights also gives you a ton of other valuable information that will help you learn more about your website visitors and what they’re looking for so you can keep them coming back.

You can view metrics like what outbound links get the most clicks, what keywords users searched for, the top-performing affiliate links, and much more.

When researching topic ideas for your blog, it’s essential to know what’s currently performing well on your website and what isn’t so that you can make the necessary changes and continue to improve your blogging strategy .

Note: You can get started with the free version of MonsterInsights . For more advanced features, you can upgrade to the Pro version .

Why Should You Research Topics for Your Blog?

In case you need a friendly reminder, here are some of the keys to keep in mind as you research topics, and why the process is so important. 

• Attract the Right Audience. If you write general topics that appeal to anyone and everyone, you’ll fail to build a solid, niche audience that keeps coming back. Researching topics allows you to create content that resonates with your readers and helps them trust your brand for solutions and information.
• Learn What Your Readers Want. Keyword research and blog topic research tools allow you to see what keywords, phrases, and questions your audience types into search engines. This helps you create relevant content that your readers are already interested in, which will help you drive more targeted traffic to your blog and boost conversions.
• Improve SEO. You have a higher chance of ranking in search engines if you use the right keywords and phrases in your content. Most blog topic research tools will help you find the keywords that can help your blog reach the first page of Google and other search engines.

Now that we know the main benefits of researching blog topics, let’s dive into the tools that will make this process easier.

Instead of having to search the internet far and wide to figure out topic ideas that will convert, you can use these blog topic research tools to get instant ideas.

Best Blog Topic Research Tools in Closing

That’s a wrap!

We hope these blog topic research tools will help you discover a ton of new content ideas that perform well with your readers.

Feel free to also check out our guide on how to write a blog post . It’s packed with expert tips on how to write a blog post that converts.

And while you’re here, sign up for our email newsletter  so you can get helpful content like this sent right to your inbox!

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i like that quora .it is a popular question and answers basement where users are asking any question they want receive from another users . thanks for sharing this post.

very Informatic blog keep posting

Thank you for great content. I will also share with my friends.

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• Search Engine Optimisation

6 Best Topic Research Tools

The best topic research tools should be easy to use and offer suggestions or insights within a few clicks.

Topical SEO  is what drives the growth of a website’s  topical authority . Keywords are still alive but topics are what search engines use to index and rank web pages, for the most part, today. In order to improve your  content depth , your focus topics must be carefully chosen and written about. This is where  topic research tools  come in handy.

Nowadays,  keyword research tools  are very easily available and with some tweaking, most can be used for topic research, too. Yet, they may be a little too literal and intentionally too close to the initial seed phrase. Topics are broader concepts with a  keyword universe  sitting right under. Remember that topics are abstract subject matters expressed using keywords — therefore, topics and keywords work together, not against each other!

The  best topic research tools  should be easy to use in a few clicks. Generally, you type in your core topic and expect key phrases, questions, and other related topics in return. Some keyword research tools are real-time and fast, while others take a tad more time but provide more accurate results.

1. Keyword Planner

Google is by far the best search engine ever, but it is also an advertising machine. The giant has gathered so much insight from search queries and the trillions of web pages indexed that they have its own tool for topic research. Using  Keyword Planner  is very easy since their recent 2018 update.

Type in one or a group of topic ideas into the search box, and  instantly receive a list of related sub-topics and key phrases to write about  (or advertise against). And, this tool is virtually free — you just need to have topped up your Google Ads account, even for a dollar!

The only con with this tool is that the suggestions will often be very close variations of the seed topic. So it remains very narrow. See the screenshot below, I entered  Caffeine  and most suggestions contain the word  caffeine  in them. Although this was to be expected, we do not want to stuff our content with a single core word. There are still some welcomed variations such as  Coffee  or inflections like  caffeinated . Remember that using a wide range of terms helps with boosting your topic coverage.

2. WikiBrowser

Our free topical research tool! WikiBrowser allows you to  visualize Wikipedia pages in a truly refreshing manner . We remove all textual content to focus on related Wikipedia pages. Indeed, a given topic is defined by the keywords used to express it, but even more so by the topics it is a neighbor of.

Little aside here: topic neighbors are how modern algorithms like classifiers find topics. They put all concepts in a three-dimensional matrix (vector space) and see which ones are close to each other.  German Shepherd  and  Dog  would obviously be closer than  Dog  and  Computer .

This tool makes total sense. Type the page name, hit enter, and visualize what truly matters when you are doing your topic research:

• a topic’s thesaurus-like outline
• a list of ranked concepts
• keywords pertaining to the topic

Overview of our popular WikiBrowser, one of the best free topic research tools out there!

For instance, if you want to be authoritative on the topic of  German Shepherds , you must also discuss the  Herding Group  it belongs to,  Search-and-Rescue  tasks and training, as well as  Police dogs  and many other related subjects.

3. Also Asked

AlsoAsked  is a  free keyword research tool  with an inexpensive generous pro plan that scours the web searching for questions related to a given seed keyword. It is a great way to come up with dozens of topically-relevant questions and select a few to add to existing or future blog posts. Additionally, such questions are great new content ideas as some may be so broad that they can become new pieces of content in their own right.

People tend to use real questions in order to find answers, as opposed to simple keywords. For instance, a person could use queries such as “What are the differences between arabic and robusta coffee beans?“. Google tends to show  featured snippets with a short answer  to whatever question was asked by the user.

When you write a blog post or a  content brief , you want to find the most relevant questions you could include in the article to featured in these above-the-fold answer boxes. They are a huge driver of traffic (they appear above the #1 result), and shouldn’t be ignored.

4. Answer The Public

When you know the key phrases you want to cover,  Answer The Public  gives you search engines’  autosuggest data in a stunningly visual way . So once you submit your topic, it automatically calls Google servers (it takes a few seconds), and then displays common questions, and other search queries associated with your seed topic. Some topics really yield no results like  topical authority  (how sad, ha!) but others will get you hundreds of hits.

Check it out, it is a cool way to find some common questions to answer within the body of your blog post, or even pick some questions and answer them with a full article each. There is no search volume data on  Answer The Public , but you can export the data as or spreadsheet, to then copy and paste it on Google Ads Keyword Planner to get the historical search volume for each suggestion.

The data is sorted by question tag (what, how, which, who, when, where, etc) but there are also suggestions that are preposition-based. This is an overall helpful tool for common topics. You could complete the data yourself by typing your phrase on Google and look at the recommended searches, the “People also ask” box, and so on. All the contextual data from your search helps you understand what people want to know, so you can better cover it in your blog post.

5. sense2vec

Topical SEO is so new because algorithms required to detect topics within textual content have only been perfected recently. Before, such algorithms were somewhat inaccurate and tremendously hungry in terms of computing power. Sense2vec is one of those algorithms and a tool has been provided by the machine learning company  explosion.ai .

Sense2vec is both a  natural language processing method of discovering topics , but also a topic research tool if you want to  use their demo . It’s totally free and although not designed or built for SEO purposes, it does the job!

In their own words, the sense2vec demo “read every comment posted to Reddit in 2015 and built a semantic map”. What does that mean exactly? Well, without getting into too many details, the algorithm read all Reddit comments and extracted the main keywords ( noun phrases  mainly). But each time, the algorithm looked at the closest neighbors and took such factor into consideration when building the knowledge graph.

So when you type in a topic name or keyword, the application finds the associated entity in the model and  returns all the co-occurring neighbors that were found in these millions of Reddit comments . Because it is based on a huge amount of data, noise and irrelevant neighbors simply disappear. You may get an odd result here and there but overall, it’s great!

To wrap up this article, I just want to recommend every content marketer to adopt a wholesome topical SEO strategy. What I mean by that is simple. Take a step back from your article-centric approach. Do a lot of research independently of any singular blog post. Find focus topics you want authority over, create pillar pages, make long-form evergreen articles, shorter articles, and so on.

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How to Find What’s Trending: 14 Tools for Topic Inspiration

Check out these 14 tools for finding trending topics in your industry, to inform your SEO and content marketing campaigns.

One of the most effective ways to connect with your audience is to weave trending topics throughout your editorial and social media calendar.

Not everything you publish has to be related to a current event but using trending topics strategically will allow you to ride waves of demand in both search and social platforms.

Here are 14 of the best sources to help you find out what’s trending.

1. Google Trends

Google Trends is the gold standard for identifying trending search topics in your industry.

It tracks global search trends and provides a wealth of data broken down by date range, geo-location, category, search type (for example web search vs. YouTube), and more.

One of the more recent advancements of Google Trends over the last couple of years is its incorporation into Google Search. Google has become a destination not only for inputting a query but also for reading the most recent trending stories based on your interests.

2. Exploding Topics

This tool is useful for entrepreneurs, investors, or those looking to identify trending business ideas, categories, or companies.

Exploding Topics doesn’t provide as much context as other trending topic tools, so you either need to subscribe to their newsletter or use this tool in conjunction with other tools to fully understand the trend.

3. SparkToro Trending

When Inbound.org shut down, Sparktoro filled an important void for marketers.

Sparktoro Trending surfaces the latest trending marketing, SEO, and technology articles.

Sparktoro surfaces these trends based on the number of social shares from members who’ve connected to the tool (along with other means).

4. FrontPageMetrics

There’s a Reddit thread for virtually every area of interest. Frontpagemetrics.com is useful for identifying which subreddits are seeing the most daily, weekly, and monthly growth.

With over 3 million tracked subreddits, there are plenty of rabbit holes to help inspire your content roadmap.

Once you’ve identified the most important publications or news sources that your audience consumes, this tool is one of the best for aggregating the latest stories in one place.

Feedly is one of the most powerful tools for identifying trending topics and staying up to date in your industry by showing you the most recent stories published from your curated list.

Feedly also has some valuable paid features like the ability to follow newsletters, Twitter, or Google News feeds. Or, use its AI-powered bot that listens across the web for certain topics.

6. Podcast Notes

Podcasts are an unsung hero in identifying trending topics. Podcasting is a $1 billion industry expected to gain 10% more listeners each year. This is a huge opportunity for identifying trending topics for your clients or organization.

Unfortunately, podcasts take a lot of time and focus to digest the content and aren’t ideal for everyone.

Podcast Notes solves the problem of identifying the key takeaways of individual podcasts in a quick newsletter format.

If you don’t have time to listen to 10+ podcasts a week, Podcast News does the heavy lifting for you across fitness, nutrition, startups, technology, finance, crypto & lifestyle topics.

7. Buzzsumo

The best community managers have well-polished systems for listening to trending social media topics for their vertical.

Buzzsumo has long been one of the best-in-class tools for helping you identify viral content across social channels and has moved into additional areas of content discovery that span across video and Q&A websites, as well.

If you’re looking for the top trending video content in your vertical, Buzzsumo can show you what content is getting the most traction on YouTube.

8. Trends.co

Trends.co offers a thorough but easy-to-digest format for understanding new topics across industries. The Trends newsletter breaks down a topic by covering:

• Why it matters.
• What the problem is that has created the trend.
• The solution.
• The main players in the space.
• Predictions.
• Opportunities.
• Key lessons.
• Haters (or opposing viewpoints of the trend).
• Additional resources to go deeper on the topic.

There are also several paid features and ways to collaborate with other members in the Trends community, if you want more in-depth research on each topic.

This trending topic tool does the best job of giving context, resources, and adequate background to understand more complex topics.

9. Treendly

This tool identifies itself as the Google Alerts for Google Trends. One of the challenges with Google Trends is that traditionally there hasn’t been a great way to subscribe to a specific topic.

Google Trends does offer this functionality now but there are third-party solutions like Treendly that aim to create a better user experience and source from a broader variety of sources beyond Google Trends.

10. Product Hunt Topics

Product Hunt surfaces the latest new (mostly digital) products across industries, and anyone can submit their product.

The PH community then upvotes and reviews them which dictates how well the product ranks on the site.

Product Hunt’s Topics allow you to subscribe to a category of products releases which include productivity, developer tools, AI, UX, marketing, design, and IoT, just to name a few.

11. Trendwatchers

Similar to some of the previous trending topic tools, Trendwatchers allows you to follow trends based on a category or keyword.

One of the unique features of Trendwatchers is that they combine trend data with ‘blog topic generator’ types of functionality.

This allows for a user to both identify what topics are trending and then apply that trend to a well-word smithed (aka clickbait-y) style template.

12. Conference Agendas

One of the best places to identify trending topics is through scouring conference keynote and breakout sessions in your industry.

Conference sessions are mostly led by niche subject matter experts who often are the influencers that surface new or trending topics.

13. Publications’ Editorial Calendars

Like the conference agendas, publications’ editorial calendars are often design based on seasonal search trends that will resonate with their audience.

As you are assembling your content calendar for next year, use publication editorial calendars to inspire or find trends that you know will peak during seasonal or cultural moments.

14. Trendhunter

Finally, Trendhunter is one of the biggest providers of trend data.

Trendhunter is a media brand that offers free trend data (in the form of articles) and also has several other offerings including custom research, books, public speaking services, events, and more.

As you can see, there is no shortage of trend spotting tools out there!

The best systems for marketers provide the ability to aggregate articles, newsletters, alerts, and moments of inspiration for the build-out of future campaigns.

How will you put these to work for you?

More Resources:

• Top 10 Tools for Bulletproof SEO Content Strategies
• Top 25 SEO Writing Tools to Earn More Traffic From Google
• Content Marketing: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to What Works

Featured image credit: DG-Studio/Shutterstock

Paul Schmidt is a Director at SmartBug Media. He works with clients on SEO, analytics, lead generation and inbound marketing ...

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SEO Topic Research Tool

Step into a world where content creation meets simplicity. Topic Research tool will unveil your targeted SEO topics and keywords that elevate your content's reach and engagement.

Thousands of content ideas for your topic to elevate SEO rankings

Engaging Content from all over the internevt at one place.

What is Topic Research

Topic research is a pivotal element in content strategy, guiding creators to topics that resonate with their audience while optimizing for search engines. It involves the analysis and exploration of subjects that your audience is interested in. SEO topic research ensures that the content is not only engaging but also ranks well on search engines, driving organic traffic to your website. Topic Finder is your ally in this journey, offering insights into trending topics and aiding in uncovering those hidden gems that boost your content's relevance and visibility. Navigate the landscape of content creation with confidence and precision, making every piece a step towards your SEO goals.

How to find topics for your blog & business

Create a topic research report.

This will show the most relevant topics related to your query and their intents

Hand pick the most relevant topics and subtopics

Select the best keywords that are highly relevant to your topic.

Export all topic keywords

Export or save the keywords where you desire and make a sound decision

Top 21 must-have digital tools for researchers

Last updated

12 May 2023

Reviewed by

Jean Kaluza

Research drives many decisions across various industries, including:

Uncovering customer motivations and behaviors to design better products

Assessing whether a market exists for your product or service

Running clinical studies to develop a medical breakthrough

Conducting effective and shareable research can be a painstaking process. Manual processes are sluggish and archaic, and they can also be inaccurate. That’s where advanced online tools can help. 

The right tools can enable businesses to lean into research for better forecasting, planning, and more reliable decisions. 

• Why do researchers need research tools?

Research is challenging and time-consuming. Analyzing data , running focus groups , reading research papers , and looking for useful insights take plenty of heavy lifting. 

These days, researchers can’t just rely on manual processes. Instead, they’re using advanced tools that:

Speed up the research process

Enable new ways of reaching customers

Improve organization and accuracy

Allow better monitoring throughout the process

Enhance collaboration across key stakeholders

• The most important digital tools for researchers

Some tools can help at every stage, making researching simpler and faster.

They ensure accurate and efficient information collection, management, referencing, and analysis. 

Some of the most important digital tools for researchers include:

Research management tools

Research management can be a complex and challenging process. Some tools address the various challenges that arise when referencing and managing papers. 

.css-10ptwjf{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;background:transparent;border:0;color:inherit;cursor:pointer;-webkit-flex-shrink:0;-ms-flex-negative:0;flex-shrink:0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.css-10ptwjf:disabled{opacity:0.6;pointer-events:none;} Zotero

Coined as a personal research assistant, Zotero is a tool that brings efficiency to the research process. Zotero helps researchers collect, organize, annotate, and share research easily. 

Zotero integrates with internet browsers, so researchers can easily save an article, publication, or research study on the platform for later. 

The tool also has an advanced organizing system to allow users to label, tag, and categorize information for faster insights and a seamless analysis process. 

Messy paper stacks––digital or physical––are a thing of the past with Paperpile. This reference management tool integrates with Google Docs, saving users time with citations and paper management. 

Referencing, researching, and gaining insights is much cleaner and more productive, as all papers are in the same place. Plus, it’s easier to find a paper when you need it. 

Acting as a single source of truth (SSOT), Dovetail houses research from the entire organization in a simple-to-use place. Researchers can use the all-in-one platform to collate and store data from interviews , forms, surveys , focus groups, and more. 

Dovetail helps users quickly categorize and analyze data to uncover truly actionable insights . This helps organizations bring customer insights into every decision for better forecasting, planning, and decision-making. 

Dovetail integrates with other helpful tools like ​Slack, Atlassian, Notion, and Zapier for a truly efficient workflow.

Putting together papers and referencing sources can be a huge time consumer. EndNote claims that researchers waste 200,000 hours per year formatting citations. 

To address the issue, the tool formats citations automatically––simultaneously creating a bibliography while the user writes. 

EndNote is also a cloud-based system that allows remote working, multiple-user interaction and collaboration, and seamless working on different devices. 

Information survey tools

Surveys are a common way to gain data from customers. These tools can make the process simpler and more cost-effective. 

With ready-made survey templates––to collect NPS data, customer effort scores , five-star surveys, and more––getting going with Delighted is straightforward. 

Delighted helps teams collect and analyze survey feedback without needing any technical knowledge. The templates are customizable, so you can align the content with your brand. That way, the survey feels like it’s coming from your company, not a third party. 

SurveyMonkey

With millions of customers worldwide, SurveyMonkey is another leader in online surveys. SurveyMonkey offers hundreds of templates that researchers can use to set up and deploy surveys quickly. 

Whether your survey is about team performance, hotel feedback, post-event feedback, or an employee exit, SurveyMonkey has a ready-to-use template. 

Typeform offers free templates you can quickly embed, which comes with a point of difference: It designs forms and surveys with people in mind, focusing on customer enjoyment. 

Typeform employs the ‘one question at a time’ method to keep engagement rates and completions high. It focuses on surveys that feel more like conversations than a list of questions.

Web data analysis tools

Collecting data can take time––especially technical information. Some tools make that process simpler. 

For those conducting clinical research, data collection can be incredibly time-consuming. Teamscope provides an online platform to collect and manage data simply and easily. 

Researchers and medical professionals often collect clinical data through paper forms or digital means. Those are too easy to lose, tricky to manage, and challenging to collaborate on. 

With Teamscope, you can easily collect, store, and electronically analyze data like patient-reported outcomes and surveys. 

Heap is a digital insights platform providing context on the entire customer journey . This helps businesses improve customer feedback , conversion rates, and loyalty. 

Through Heap, you can seamlessly view and analyze the customer journey across all platforms and touchpoints, whether through the app or website. 

Another analytics tool, Smartlook, combines quantitative and qualitative analytics into one platform. This helps organizations understand user behavior and make crucial improvements. 

Smartlook is useful for analyzing web pages, purchasing flows, and optimizing conversion rates. 

Project management tools

Managing multiple research projects across many teams can be complex and challenging. Project management tools can ease the burden on researchers. 

Visual productivity tool Trello helps research teams manage their projects more efficiently. Trello makes product tracking easier with:

A range of workflow options

Unique project board layouts

Advanced descriptions

Integrations

Trello also works as an SSOT to stay on top of projects and collaborate effectively as a team. 

To connect research, workflows, and teams, Airtable provides a clean interactive interface. 

With Airtable, it’s simple to place research projects in a list view, workstream, or road map to synthesize information and quickly collaborate. The Sync feature makes it easy to link all your research data to one place for faster action. 

For product teams, Asana gathers development, copywriting, design, research teams, and product managers in one space. 

As a task management platform, Asana offers all the expected features and more, including time-tracking and Jira integration. The platform offers reporting alongside data collection methods , so it’s a favorite for product teams in the tech space.

Grammar checker tools

Grammar tools ensure your research projects are professional and proofed. 

No one’s perfect, especially when it comes to spelling, punctuation, and grammar. That’s where Grammarly can help. 

Grammarly’s AI-powered platform reviews your content and corrects any mistakes. Through helpful integrations with other platforms––such as Gmail, Google Docs, Twitter, and LinkedIn––it’s simple to spellcheck as you go. 

Another helpful grammar tool is Trinka AI. Trinka is specifically for technical and academic styles of writing. It doesn’t just correct mistakes in spelling, punctuation, and grammar; it also offers explanations and additional information when errors show. 

Researchers can also use Trinka to enhance their writing and:

Align it with technical and academic styles

Improve areas like syntax and word choice

Discover relevant suggestions based on the content topic

Plagiarism checker tools

Avoiding plagiarism is crucial for the integrity of research. Using checker tools can ensure your work is original. 

Plagiarism checker Quetext uses DeepSearch™ technology to quickly sort through online content to search for signs of plagiarism. 

With color coding, annotations, and an overall score, it’s easy to identify conflict areas and fix them accordingly. 

Duplichecker

Another helpful plagiarism tool is Duplichecker, which scans pieces of content for issues. The service is free for content up to 1000 words, with paid options available after that. 

If plagiarism occurs, a percentage identifies how much is duplicate content. However, the interface is relatively basic, offering little additional information.  

Journal finder tools

Finding the right journals for your project can be challenging––especially with the plethora of inaccurate or predatory content online. Journal finder tools can solve this issue. 

Enago Journal Finder

The Enago Open Access Journal Finder sorts through online journals to verify their legitimacy. Through Engao, you can discover pre-vetted, high-quality journals through a validated journal index. 

Enago’s search tool also helps users find relevant journals for their subject matter, speeding up the research process. 

JournalFinder

JournalFinder is another journal tool that’s popular with academics and researchers. It makes the process of discovering relevant journals fast by leaning into a machine-learning algorithm.

This is useful for discovering key information and finding the right journals to publish and share your work in. 

Social networking for researchers

Collaboration between researchers can improve the accuracy and sharing of information. Promoting research findings can also be essential for public health, safety, and more. 

While typical social networks exist, some are specifically designed for academics.

ResearchGate

Networking platform ResearchGate encourages researchers to connect, collaborate, and share within the scientific community. With 20 million researchers on the platform, it's a popular choice. 

ResearchGate is founded on an intention to advance research. The platform provides topic pages for easy connection within a field of expertise and access to millions of publications to help users stay up to date. 

Academia is another commonly used platform that connects 220 million academics and researchers within their specialties. 

The platform aims to accelerate research with discovery tools and grow a researcher’s audience to promote their ideas. 

On Academia, users can access 47 million PDFs for free. They cover topics from mechanical engineering to applied economics and child psychology. 

• Expedited research with the power of tools

For researchers, finding data and information can be time-consuming and complex to manage. That’s where the power of tools comes in. 

Manual processes are slow, outdated, and have a larger potential for inaccuracies. 

Leaning into tools can help researchers speed up their processes, conduct efficient research, boost their accuracy, and share their work effectively. 

With tools available for project and data management, web data collection, and journal finding, researchers have plenty of assistance at their disposal.

When it comes to connecting with customers, advanced tools boost customer connection while continually bringing their needs and wants into products and services.

What are primary research tools?

Primary research is data and information that you collect firsthand through surveys, customer interviews, or focus groups. 

Secondary research is data and information from other sources, such as journals, research bodies, or online content. 

Primary researcher tools use methods like surveys and customer interviews. You can use these tools to collect, store, or manage information effectively and uncover more accurate insights. 

What is the difference between tools and methods in research?

Research methods relate to how researchers gather information and data. 

For example, surveys, focus groups, customer interviews, and A/B testing are research methods that gather information. 

On the other hand, tools assist areas of research. Researchers may use tools to more efficiently gather data, store data securely, or uncover insights. 

Tools can improve research methods, ensuring efficiency and accuracy while reducing complexity.

Should you be using a customer insights hub?

Do you want to discover previous research faster?

Do you share your research findings with others?

Do you analyze research data?

Start for free today, add your research, and get to key insights faster

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Selecting a Research Topic: Overview

• Refine your topic
• Background information & facts
• Writing help

Here are some resources to refer to when selecting a topic and preparing to write a paper:

• MIT Writing and Communication Center "Providing free professional advice about all types of writing and speaking to all members of the MIT community."
• Search Our Collections Find books about writing. Search by subject for: english language grammar; report writing handbooks; technical writing handbooks
• Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation Online version of the book that provides examples and tips on grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and other writing rules.
• Select a topic

Choosing an interesting research topic is your first challenge. Here are some tips:

• Choose a topic that you are interested in! The research process is more relevant if you care about your topic.
• If your topic is too broad, you will find too much information and not be able to focus.
• Background reading can help you choose and limit the scope of your topic. 
• Review the guidelines on topic selection outlined in your assignment.  Ask your professor or TA for suggestions.
• Refer to lecture notes and required texts to refresh your knowledge of the course and assignment.
• Talk about research ideas with a friend.  S/he may be able to help focus your topic by discussing issues that didn't occur to you at first.
• WHY did you choose the topic?  What interests you about it?  Do you have an opinion about the issues involved?
• WHO are the information providers on this topic?  Who might publish information about it?  Who is affected by the topic?  Do you know of organizations or institutions affiliated with the topic?
• WHAT are the major questions for this topic?  Is there a debate about the topic?  Are there a range of issues and viewpoints to consider?
• WHERE is your topic important: at the local, national or international level?  Are there specific places affected by the topic?
• WHEN is/was your topic important?  Is it a current event or an historical issue?  Do you want to compare your topic by time periods?

Table of contents

• Broaden your topic
• Information Navigator home
• Sources for facts - general
• Sources for facts - specific subjects

Start here for help

Ask Us Ask a question, make an appointment, give feedback, or visit us.

• Next: Refine your topic >>
• Last Updated: Jul 30, 2021 2:50 PM
• URL: https://libguides.mit.edu/select-topic

1000+ FREE Research Topics & Title Ideas

If you’re at the start of your research journey and are trying to figure out which research topic you want to focus on, you’ve come to the right place. Select your area of interest below to view a comprehensive collection of potential research ideas.

Research Topic FAQs

What (exactly) is a research topic.

A research topic is the subject of a research project or study – for example, a dissertation or thesis. A research topic typically takes the form of a problem to be solved, or a question to be answered.

A good research topic should be specific enough to allow for focused research and analysis. For example, if you are interested in studying the effects of climate change on agriculture, your research topic could focus on how rising temperatures have impacted crop yields in certain regions over time.

To learn more about the basics of developing a research topic, consider our free research topic ideation webinar.

What constitutes a good research topic?

A strong research topic comprises three important qualities : originality, value and feasibility.

• Originality – a good topic explores an original area or takes a novel angle on an existing area of study.
• Value – a strong research topic provides value and makes a contribution, either academically or practically.
• Feasibility – a good research topic needs to be practical and manageable, given the resource constraints you face.

To learn more about what makes for a high-quality research topic, check out this post .

What's the difference between a research topic and research problem?

A research topic and a research problem are two distinct concepts that are often confused. A research topic is a broader label that indicates the focus of the study , while a research problem is an issue or gap in knowledge within the broader field that needs to be addressed.

To illustrate this distinction, consider a student who has chosen “teenage pregnancy in the United Kingdom” as their research topic. This research topic could encompass any number of issues related to teenage pregnancy such as causes, prevention strategies, health outcomes for mothers and babies, etc.

Within this broad category (the research topic) lies potential areas of inquiry that can be explored further – these become the research problems . For example:

• What factors contribute to higher rates of teenage pregnancy in certain communities?
• How do different types of parenting styles affect teen pregnancy rates?
• What interventions have been successful in reducing teenage pregnancies?

Simply put, a key difference between a research topic and a research problem is scope ; the research topic provides an umbrella under which multiple questions can be asked, while the research problem focuses on one specific question or set of questions within that larger context.

How can I find potential research topics for my project?

There are many steps involved in the process of finding and choosing a high-quality research topic for a dissertation or thesis. We cover these steps in detail in this video (also accessible below).

How can I find quality sources for my research topic?

Finding quality sources is an essential step in the topic ideation process. To do this, you should start by researching scholarly journals, books, and other academic publications related to your topic. These sources can provide reliable information on a wide range of topics. Additionally, they may contain data or statistics that can help support your argument or conclusions.

Identifying Relevant Sources

When searching for relevant sources, it’s important to look beyond just published material; try using online databases such as Google Scholar or JSTOR to find articles from reputable journals that have been peer-reviewed by experts in the field.

You can also use search engines like Google or Bing to locate websites with useful information about your topic. However, be sure to evaluate any website before citing it as a source—look for evidence of authorship (such as an “About Us” page) and make sure the content is up-to-date and accurate before relying on it.

Evaluating Sources

Once you’ve identified potential sources for your research project, take some time to evaluate them thoroughly before deciding which ones will best serve your purpose. Consider factors such as author credibility (are they an expert in their field?), publication date (is the source current?), objectivity (does the author present both sides of an issue?) and relevance (how closely does this source relate to my specific topic?).

By researching the current literature on your topic, you can identify potential sources that will help to provide quality information. Once you’ve identified these sources, it’s time to look for a gap in the research and determine what new knowledge could be gained from further study.

How can I find a good research gap?

Finding a strong gap in the literature is an essential step when looking for potential research topics. We explain what research gaps are and how to find them in this post.

How should I evaluate potential research topics/ideas?

When evaluating potential research topics, it is important to consider the factors that make for a strong topic (we discussed these earlier). Specifically:

• Originality
• Feasibility

So, when you have a list of potential topics or ideas, assess each of them in terms of these three criteria. A good topic should take a unique angle, provide value (either to academia or practitioners), and be practical enough for you to pull off, given your limited resources.

Finally, you should also assess whether this project could lead to potential career opportunities such as internships or job offers down the line. Make sure that you are researching something that is relevant enough so that it can benefit your professional development in some way. Additionally, consider how each research topic aligns with your career goals and interests; researching something that you are passionate about can help keep motivation high throughout the process.

How can I assess the feasibility of a research topic?

When evaluating the feasibility and practicality of a research topic, it is important to consider several factors.

First, you should assess whether or not the research topic is within your area of competence. Of course, when you start out, you are not expected to be the world’s leading expert, but do should at least have some foundational knowledge.

Time commitment

When considering a research topic, you should think about how much time will be required for completion. Depending on your field of study, some topics may require more time than others due to their complexity or scope.

Additionally, if you plan on collaborating with other researchers or institutions in order to complete your project, additional considerations must be taken into account such as coordinating schedules and ensuring that all parties involved have adequate resources available.

Resources needed

It’s also critically important to consider what type of resources are necessary in order to conduct the research successfully. This includes physical materials such as lab equipment and chemicals but can also include intangible items like access to certain databases or software programs which may be necessary depending on the nature of your work. Additionally, if there are costs associated with obtaining these materials then this must also be factored into your evaluation process.

Potential risks

It’s important to consider the inherent potential risks for each potential research topic. These can include ethical risks (challenges getting ethical approval), data risks (not being able to access the data you’ll need), technical risks relating to the equipment you’ll use and funding risks (not securing the necessary financial back to undertake the research).

If you’re looking for more information about how to find, evaluate and select research topics for your dissertation or thesis, check out our free webinar here . Alternatively, if you’d like 1:1 help with the topic ideation process, consider our private coaching services .

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 113 great research paper topics.

General Education

One of the hardest parts of writing a research paper can be just finding a good topic to write about. Fortunately we've done the hard work for you and have compiled a list of 113 interesting research paper topics. They've been organized into ten categories and cover a wide range of subjects so you can easily find the best topic for you.

In addition to the list of good research topics, we've included advice on what makes a good research paper topic and how you can use your topic to start writing a great paper.

What Makes a Good Research Paper Topic?

Not all research paper topics are created equal, and you want to make sure you choose a great topic before you start writing. Below are the three most important factors to consider to make sure you choose the best research paper topics.

#1: It's Something You're Interested In

A paper is always easier to write if you're interested in the topic, and you'll be more motivated to do in-depth research and write a paper that really covers the entire subject. Even if a certain research paper topic is getting a lot of buzz right now or other people seem interested in writing about it, don't feel tempted to make it your topic unless you genuinely have some sort of interest in it as well.

#2: There's Enough Information to Write a Paper

Even if you come up with the absolute best research paper topic and you're so excited to write about it, you won't be able to produce a good paper if there isn't enough research about the topic. This can happen for very specific or specialized topics, as well as topics that are too new to have enough research done on them at the moment. Easy research paper topics will always be topics with enough information to write a full-length paper.

Trying to write a research paper on a topic that doesn't have much research on it is incredibly hard, so before you decide on a topic, do a bit of preliminary searching and make sure you'll have all the information you need to write your paper.

#3: It Fits Your Teacher's Guidelines

Don't get so carried away looking at lists of research paper topics that you forget any requirements or restrictions your teacher may have put on research topic ideas. If you're writing a research paper on a health-related topic, deciding to write about the impact of rap on the music scene probably won't be allowed, but there may be some sort of leeway. For example, if you're really interested in current events but your teacher wants you to write a research paper on a history topic, you may be able to choose a topic that fits both categories, like exploring the relationship between the US and North Korea. No matter what, always get your research paper topic approved by your teacher first before you begin writing.

113 Good Research Paper Topics

Below are 113 good research topics to help you get you started on your paper. We've organized them into ten categories to make it easier to find the type of research paper topics you're looking for.

Arts/Culture

• Discuss the main differences in art from the Italian Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance .
• Analyze the impact a famous artist had on the world.
• How is sexism portrayed in different types of media (music, film, video games, etc.)? Has the amount/type of sexism changed over the years?
• How has the music of slaves brought over from Africa shaped modern American music?
• How has rap music evolved in the past decade?
• How has the portrayal of minorities in the media changed?

Current Events

• What have been the impacts of China's one child policy?
• How have the goals of feminists changed over the decades?
• How has the Trump presidency changed international relations?
• Analyze the history of the relationship between the United States and North Korea.
• What factors contributed to the current decline in the rate of unemployment?
• What have been the impacts of states which have increased their minimum wage?
• How do US immigration laws compare to immigration laws of other countries?
• How have the US's immigration laws changed in the past few years/decades?
• How has the Black Lives Matter movement affected discussions and view about racism in the US?
• What impact has the Affordable Care Act had on healthcare in the US?
• What factors contributed to the UK deciding to leave the EU (Brexit)?
• What factors contributed to China becoming an economic power?
• Discuss the history of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies  (some of which tokenize the S&P 500 Index on the blockchain) .
• Do students in schools that eliminate grades do better in college and their careers?
• Do students from wealthier backgrounds score higher on standardized tests?
• Do students who receive free meals at school get higher grades compared to when they weren't receiving a free meal?
• Do students who attend charter schools score higher on standardized tests than students in public schools?
• Do students learn better in same-sex classrooms?
• How does giving each student access to an iPad or laptop affect their studies?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Montessori Method ?
• Do children who attend preschool do better in school later on?
• What was the impact of the No Child Left Behind act?
• How does the US education system compare to education systems in other countries?
• What impact does mandatory physical education classes have on students' health?
• Which methods are most effective at reducing bullying in schools?
• Do homeschoolers who attend college do as well as students who attended traditional schools?
• Does offering tenure increase or decrease quality of teaching?
• How does college debt affect future life choices of students?
• Should graduate students be able to form unions?

• What are different ways to lower gun-related deaths in the US?
• How and why have divorce rates changed over time?
• Is affirmative action still necessary in education and/or the workplace?
• Should physician-assisted suicide be legal?
• How has stem cell research impacted the medical field?
• How can human trafficking be reduced in the United States/world?
• Should people be able to donate organs in exchange for money?
• Which types of juvenile punishment have proven most effective at preventing future crimes?
• Has the increase in US airport security made passengers safer?
• Analyze the immigration policies of certain countries and how they are similar and different from one another.
• Several states have legalized recreational marijuana. What positive and negative impacts have they experienced as a result?
• Do tariffs increase the number of domestic jobs?
• Which prison reforms have proven most effective?
• Should governments be able to censor certain information on the internet?
• Which methods/programs have been most effective at reducing teen pregnancy?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Keto diet?
• How effective are different exercise regimes for losing weight and maintaining weight loss?
• How do the healthcare plans of various countries differ from each other?
• What are the most effective ways to treat depression ?
• What are the pros and cons of genetically modified foods?
• Which methods are most effective for improving memory?
• What can be done to lower healthcare costs in the US?
• What factors contributed to the current opioid crisis?
• Analyze the history and impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic .
• Are low-carbohydrate or low-fat diets more effective for weight loss?
• How much exercise should the average adult be getting each week?
• Which methods are most effective to get parents to vaccinate their children?
• What are the pros and cons of clean needle programs?
• How does stress affect the body?
• Discuss the history of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
• What were the causes and effects of the Salem Witch Trials?
• Who was responsible for the Iran-Contra situation?
• How has New Orleans and the government's response to natural disasters changed since Hurricane Katrina?
• What events led to the fall of the Roman Empire?
• What were the impacts of British rule in India ?
• Was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary?
• What were the successes and failures of the women's suffrage movement in the United States?
• What were the causes of the Civil War?
• How did Abraham Lincoln's assassination impact the country and reconstruction after the Civil War?
• Which factors contributed to the colonies winning the American Revolution?
• What caused Hitler's rise to power?
• Discuss how a specific invention impacted history.
• What led to Cleopatra's fall as ruler of Egypt?
• How has Japan changed and evolved over the centuries?
• What were the causes of the Rwandan genocide ?

• Why did Martin Luther decide to split with the Catholic Church?
• Analyze the history and impact of a well-known cult (Jonestown, Manson family, etc.)
• How did the sexual abuse scandal impact how people view the Catholic Church?
• How has the Catholic church's power changed over the past decades/centuries?
• What are the causes behind the rise in atheism/ agnosticism in the United States?
• What were the influences in Siddhartha's life resulted in him becoming the Buddha?
• How has media portrayal of Islam/Muslims changed since September 11th?

Science/Environment

• How has the earth's climate changed in the past few decades?
• How has the use and elimination of DDT affected bird populations in the US?
• Analyze how the number and severity of natural disasters have increased in the past few decades.
• Analyze deforestation rates in a certain area or globally over a period of time.
• How have past oil spills changed regulations and cleanup methods?
• How has the Flint water crisis changed water regulation safety?
• What are the pros and cons of fracking?
• What impact has the Paris Climate Agreement had so far?
• What have NASA's biggest successes and failures been?
• How can we improve access to clean water around the world?
• Does ecotourism actually have a positive impact on the environment?
• Should the US rely on nuclear energy more?
• What can be done to save amphibian species currently at risk of extinction?
• What impact has climate change had on coral reefs?
• How are black holes created?
• Are teens who spend more time on social media more likely to suffer anxiety and/or depression?
• How will the loss of net neutrality affect internet users?
• Analyze the history and progress of self-driving vehicles.
• How has the use of drones changed surveillance and warfare methods?
• Has social media made people more or less connected?
• What progress has currently been made with artificial intelligence ?
• Do smartphones increase or decrease workplace productivity?
• What are the most effective ways to use technology in the classroom?
• How is Google search affecting our intelligence?
• When is the best age for a child to begin owning a smartphone?
• Has frequent texting reduced teen literacy rates?

How to Write a Great Research Paper

Even great research paper topics won't give you a great research paper if you don't hone your topic before and during the writing process. Follow these three tips to turn good research paper topics into great papers.

#1: Figure Out Your Thesis Early

Before you start writing a single word of your paper, you first need to know what your thesis will be. Your thesis is a statement that explains what you intend to prove/show in your paper. Every sentence in your research paper will relate back to your thesis, so you don't want to start writing without it!

As some examples, if you're writing a research paper on if students learn better in same-sex classrooms, your thesis might be "Research has shown that elementary-age students in same-sex classrooms score higher on standardized tests and report feeling more comfortable in the classroom."

If you're writing a paper on the causes of the Civil War, your thesis might be "While the dispute between the North and South over slavery is the most well-known cause of the Civil War, other key causes include differences in the economies of the North and South, states' rights, and territorial expansion."

#2: Back Every Statement Up With Research

Remember, this is a research paper you're writing, so you'll need to use lots of research to make your points. Every statement you give must be backed up with research, properly cited the way your teacher requested. You're allowed to include opinions of your own, but they must also be supported by the research you give.

#3: Do Your Research Before You Begin Writing

You don't want to start writing your research paper and then learn that there isn't enough research to back up the points you're making, or, even worse, that the research contradicts the points you're trying to make!

Get most of your research on your good research topics done before you begin writing. Then use the research you've collected to create a rough outline of what your paper will cover and the key points you're going to make. This will help keep your paper clear and organized, and it'll ensure you have enough research to produce a strong paper.

What's Next?

Are you also learning about dynamic equilibrium in your science class? We break this sometimes tricky concept down so it's easy to understand in our complete guide to dynamic equilibrium .

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These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

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Top 13 Tools for Researchers in 2024!

Gone are the days of going to the library, studying numerous books, taking notes on paper, and doing research. Thanks to technology, we no longer have to do this tedious routine to do research. However, research is still a meticulous, painstaking process.

This is why we decided to uncover some of the best software tools for researchers that are going to help you conduct and maintain your research with ease. Read on…

List of Top 13 Best Tools for Researchers for better results:

Research today is dynamic. We often use the internet to browse websites, watch videos, study analytics, and conduct our research by exploring different types of digital content, making technology a major stakeholder in making our research success .

While the internet has made it easy for us to access worldly information with the click of a button (or mouse!), it has created a whole new set of problems.

Sorting through a seemingly infinite number of websites, verifying content, and curating only the best stuff can take a lot of time and effort. This is why we have brought you 13 essential research tools every researcher should use while working on the internet.

1. Bit.ai  

Online research means going through numerous websites, articles, blogs, images, videos, infographics, and more to find what you are looking for.

For our dynamic, interactive, and media-rich research, we need a tool that incorporates all facets of modern-day research under one roof. Simple text editors of the past just won’t cut it anymore! This is where Bit comes in.

Bit allows researchers and teams to collaborate, share, track, and manage all knowledge and research in one place.

It’s the perfect research tool to share multi-dimensional research with your peers and not just plain, boring text and slides.

Add articles, PDFs, videos, white papers, ebooks, audio samples- basically anything you can think of – and share it with your peers easily!

Other notable features of Bit include:

• An easy-to-use, minimal editor that supports Markdown.
• Collaborative, real-time editing, and communication with peers.
• Add any type of digital content (images, videos, etc) to your Bit document.
• A content library to save all your media files for quick access.
• Smart search, allows anyone to search and find any files, images, documents, links, etc quickly.

All-in-all, Bit is a must-have writing tool for researchers and authors!

Key Features of Bit: 

• Workspaces to store different research content easily
• Content library to store media assets
• Real-time collaboration with fellow researchers
• Free with limited functionality
• Paid plans start from Pro ($8/month), Business ($15/month), Enterprise (contact sales)

Read more:  How Bit.ai Can Help You Manage Your Academic Research?

2. elink.io

Research often involves going through hundreds of links and articles and compiling them in one safe space for future reference or publishing them for your audience.

This is why many researchers use bookmarking and curation tools like elink to quickly save their links under one roof and share them with their peers.

elink makes it easy for researchers to save content from around the web. They can save article links, videos, cloud files, social media posts, and much more!

Researchers have the option of saving content to their link library or adding them directly to content collections and sharing their research with their peers . To make the bookmarking process a breeze, elink also has a chrome extension .

Simply click on the extension or right-click on any webpage to save the content directly to your elink dashboard.

Researchers can edit the title and description to add their own voices or notes. They can even bundle links together and share their link collection with others as a newsletter or embed the collection on your blog/website!

Key Features of elink:

• Save links quickly using the chrome extension
• Create and share research links as a newsletter or embed it on your website
• Easy user-interface
• Paid plans start at Pro Monthly ($15/month), Pro 1 Year ($12/month), and Pro 2 years ($10/month).

3. GanttPRO

No matter what kind of research you do, you need to organize, plan, and stay focused on all of your activities.

Without a robust planning tool, researchers may fall behind the schedule and lose their progress.

GanttPRO project and task management tool makes it easy for single researchers and groups of any size to plan their tasks on a visually appealing Gantt chart timeline, follow their progress, and all the deadlines.

GanttPRO allows researchers to create a limitless number of tasks, groups of tasks, and subtasks on one timeline.

Besides, it’s a perfect planning tool for assigning tasks to your fellow researchers or creating virtual resources, whoever or whatever they may be. The software is a good choice for collaboration, time tracking, as well as sharing and exporting your schedules.

Key Features of GanttPRO:

• Dozens of ready-made templates.
• Real-time collaboration with fellow researchers.
• Elegant user interface with a short learning curve.
•   Free 14-day trial with all features available.
• Paid plans start from Team ($4.5/user/month), Individual ($15/month), Enterprise (contact sales).

4. Grammarly

Research work often involves hours of proofreading and spellchecking to make your research professional .

Grammarly, a writing enhancement tool will save you a ton of time and effort doing this dreaded task! Apart from basic spellchecking and corrections, Grammarly includes a grammar checker, a punctuation checker, a vocabulary enhancer, and even a plagiarism checker tool!

This awesome tool scans your research for more than 250 types of grammar mistakes in six distinct writing genres and leaves you with error-free writing. With thorough explanations for all your errors and weekly progress reports .

Grammarly is a must-have tool for researchers. It’s available as a browser extension, a desktop app, a web-based app, and a Microsoft add-in. Many of the Grammarly alternatives are also available in the market that is equally good.

Key Features of Grammarly: 

• Works with the majority of online tools like Word, Slack, etc.
• Plagiarism checker tool
• Tone detector
• Paid plans start from: Premium ($11.66/month), Business ($12.50/month)

Read more:   10 Best Writing Apps To Make You A Better Writer!

5. Typeset.io

With over 100,000+ verified journal formats to choose from, Typeform makes the process of research a bit too easy! Quickly copy-paste or upload your paper on Typeset and follow any citation style you need.

Typeset also has a plagiarism and grammar checker built in to ensure your writing is error-free. Once done uploading and citing, click on autoformat to generate your report in seconds.

You can also download your research in PDF , Docx, LaTeX file, or even as a Zip file. With collaboration features built-in, you can invite your fellow researchers to the platform and work together.

Key Features of Typeset: 

• Over 100,000+ journal formats to choose from
• Plagiarism and grammar checker tool
• Editing services to improve your publication chances
• Paid plans start from: Researcher ($8/month), Team($6/month), Journals / Publishers (contact sales)

6. Scrivener

Scrivener is another great tool for research writing and keeping your notes organized.

Used by researchers, screenwriters, novelists, non-fiction writers, students, journalists, academics, lawyers, translators, and more, Scrivener is a tool made for long writing projects.

On signing up, you are quickly presented with its editor, with a sidebar to keep everything in place. You can also break your content into manageable sections of any size and leave Scrivener to join them together.

For novelists and storytellers, there’s also a corkboard to visualize your storyline and move cards around as you like.

The outliner keeps a synopsis of what you have already written, along with word count data and metadata. Users can arrange their research articles and other files in folders and subfolders.

Key Features of Scrivener: 

• Desktop and mobile apps
• Outline creator
• Easy organization
• Paid plans start from $40.84/one-time fee

7. ProofHub

You must organize, prepare, and stay focused on all of your efforts, regardless of the type of research you conduct.

Researchers may go behind schedule and lose progress if they don’t have a good task management tool. ProofHub is an all-in-one project and team management application that allows research teams and organizations of any size to efficiently plan their research projects in one spot.

ProofHub allows you to create, assign and track tasks using effective task management features like Kanban boards and table view. Researchers can also get a visual idea of how their project is progressing using robust Gantt charts.

ProofHub also allows you to store and jot down all the data or information collected through your research in Notes. You can even create different notebooks and store your information according to the topic. Not just that, you can even share your research work with your team members.

Teams can also share and store files, documents, and images in ProofHub’s files section. Managers can track their team’s time spent on a specific research task using automatic and manual timers.

Team members can also brainstorm ideas or have real-time discussions in ProofHub’s discussions section and make way for better research work. 

Key features of ProofHub:

• Ready to use project templates
• Task management
• Time tracking and project reporting
• Team collaboration (chat, notes, and discussions)
• File management
• Online proofing
• 14-day free trial with all the features.

8. Google Scholar

Next up is an amazing research tool by Google called Google Scholar. Google Scholar provides a quick way to broadly search for scholarly literature from one location.

Look for articles, theses, books, abstracts, and court opinions, from professional societies, online repositories, universities, academic publishers, and other websites.

Researchers can also explore related works, citations, authors, and publications easily. Create a public author profile and see who’s citing your recent publication. Google Scholar also allows its users to keep up with recent developments in any area of research.

Key Features of Google Scholar: 

• Create a public author page
• Look for information across Google’s database
• Easy to use
• Free to use

Endnote wants you to research smarter by simplifying the tiresome work of formatting bibliographies, finding full text, and searching for references.

Endnote is collaborative in nature as it allows you to share selected groups of references, manage team access, and track activity and changes from one single dashboard.

With smarter insights, Endnote automatically finds the impact of your references and finds the best-fit journal for your papers.

The platform also enables users to automatically create, format, and update bibliographies. Quickly export your references and full-text PDFs into EndNote and start working instantly.

With a bunch of EndNote templates and plug-ins, researchers can enhance their Endnote experience and get the most out of the platform.

Key Features of Endnote: 

• Import filters for prior research
• Track your teammates’ activity on your shared library
• Automatic reference and link updating
• Paid plans start from $249

10. Evernote

Evernote is a note-taking app that can be very useful while conducting research . The app helps you store all your personal ideas, to-do listsm4, notes, and research links in one place.

Create separate tags and folders for the different types of information you are saving and keep it all organized.

Evernote auto-syncs across all your devices, including desktop, smartphone, and tablet, so you can switch between devices without losing your data.

Its Chrome browser extension called the Evernote web clipper is a great add-on for saving articles or other content on the internet while doing your research.

Just click the browser extension to save the entire page or highlights to your Evernote notebook along with any notes you have about that page.

Key Features of Evernote: 

• Keep notes, articles, and other content in one place
• Chrome extension for clipping content
• Set reminders
• Paid plans start from Plus ($34.99 per year or $3.99 per month), Premium ($69.99 per year or $7.99 per month), and Evernote Business (contact sales)

11. Mendeley

Mendeley is a reference management software that allows researchers to create references, citations, and bibliographies in multiple journal styles with just a few clicks.

Quickly access your library from anywhere – from anywhere. Windows, Mac, Linux, etc and add papers directly from your browser with a few clicks or import any documents from your desktop to your library.

With its research network, researchers connect and network with over 6 million users. Users can create groups to carry out discussions, discover research, and follow curated bibliographies.

There are also over 250,000 + science, technology, and health jobs to advance your career and grant info from over 5000 organizations to fund your next research !

Key Features of Mendeley: 

• Annotate and organize documents
• Find and create groups with fellow researchers
• Grant information from over 5000 organizations
• Paid plans start from $55/year for 5 GB to $165/year to unlimited storage

12. ContentMine

ContentMine offers a variety of text mining services to help researchers find, download, analyze, and extract knowledge from academic papers.

ContentMine builds its own open-source code to help out researchers find papers and not waste time on the internet doing so. They can also convert academic papers , PDFs to HTML, or to almost any format.

ContentMine can also extract data from tables and graphs, reducing the time taken to conduct a meta-analysis. The platform also offers consultancy as well as training workshops to educate people on the work they do and how.

Key Features of ContentMine: 

• Extract data from tables and graphs
• Quickly mine text from hundreds of papers
• Workshops and training
• Contact sales

13. ResearchGate

The last tool on our list of awesome tools for researchers is a platform called ResearchGate. ResearchGate gives you access to over 135 million publication pages, allowing you to stay up to date with what’s happening in your field.

With a built-in community, researchers can share their research, collaborate with peers, and discover new papers and bibliographies.

ResearchGate also provides deep analytics on who’s been reading your work and keeps track of your citations. With over 17 million users, ResearchGate is a research community to join!

Key Features of ResearchGate: 

• Share and find researchers
• Analytics to see who’s reading your work
• Citation tracking

Before you go!

Our team at  bit.ai  has created a few awesome templates to make your research process more efficient. Make sure to check them out before you go, y our team might need them!

• Case Study Template
• Research Paper Template
• Competitor Research Template
• Brainstorming Template
• SWOT Analysis Template
• White Paper Template

Final Words

There you have it folks, our list of amazing websites, apps, and software to use while conducting your research. Research is hard work- from finding and managing content to organizing and publishing- research takes a lot of time and effort.

However, with our awesome list of tools, researchers are surely going to get out the most of their time and effort and get work done more efficiently. Did we miss any awesome tool for researchers out there? Let us know by tweeting us at @bit_docs.

Further reads:

• Top 11 Code Editors for Software Developers
• Collaborative Research: Definition, Benefits & Tips!
• Best Resource Management Tools and Software
• How to Write a Research Proposal?

11 Best Link in Bio Tools in 2024!

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Research Title Generator

Looking for a research title generator? Try this tool! It can make a research topic or question for your proposal, essay, or any other project. 100% free, no registration required.

• Type a word or a phrase on which you want to focus your research.
• Click the button “Generate.”
• Pick the research topic from the list or generate more by clicking the same button.

Struggling with writing? We can help you out and deliver a paper within 3 hours! Learn More

Have you ever asked yourself why you need to spend hours looking for a perfect research topic? You could have just picked a random idea and go with it. But we know that your inner voice is telling you to work on it harder, and it is right!

Here is why:

First of all, the wrong topic can lead to struggles with gathering and analyzing information. If you are not knowledgeable in the chosen field, you might end up spending most of the precious time studying it! What’s more, beginners can find themselves trapped if the topic appears to be overcomplicated. Again, it might be too late when you realize it.

Moreover, a research topic that doesn't fire you up and seems boring can be considered a failure. After spending days on it, you just end up burned out because the issue you are researching doesn’t motivate you any longer…

Therefore, try to make this lengthy process as pleasant and fun as possible. Put some effort into coming up with a decent research topic.

How can you do so?

To avoid all these horrible things described above, you should just check out our research paper topic generator ! Our team created it because we care about students and researchers like you. We can't let your precious work fail.

The whole process of writing an academic paper would benefit from a correctly selected topic. But picking up a quality research topic is not an easy thing to do. So getting some help with it might be a good idea. And our generating tool is a real catch. No more struggles, no more worries! You don’t have to believe us, just try it!

• Good Topic Qualities
• Research Question
• 6 Research Title Tips

Brainstorming

Freewriting, what is a good research topic.

Good research topics don’t just lie around; you have to look for them. You may use some lists of ideas according to the area. Since there is an excellent research topic generator on our website, you don’t have to be concerned about it.

But the question is: What is a good topic?

Let’s suppose you have already used our generator and found the research topic. Sometimes it might not meet your requirements and needs some adjustments.

There are a few moments you need to keep in mind while improving your topic.

Qualities of a Good Research Topic

Let's consider the main attributes a good research topic should:

Do you know how people become successful by setting distinct goals? It works the same with research. A good topic should be able to set up goals and objectives for you.

Once again, working on the issue that you are just slightly familiar with is just a waste of time. Instead of actually writing your paper, you would waste time trying to educate yourself on the topic.

There are specific criteria you should have received. For example, your tutor expects you to highlight some issues or discuss a case. So try to make these requirements when picking a topic. If you need help, you can always use our topic idea generator.

It gives you a chance to switch from one subcategory to another, while still sticking to the main idea. Moreover, it provides you an abundance of sources and information. However, there is a downside.

If you feel overwhelmed and lost in the flow in information, narrowing down your topic might help. Our narrow topic generator can become your loyal helper with this! Once you have a specific area of research, it can help you keep on track and see the aim clearly. But be careful; if the topic is too narrow, finding reliable sources might become problematic.

Do a quick check up on every potential topic before you start writing your paper! It needs to have plenty of credible sources, such as books, articles, and journals, to work with.

As we already discussed, burnouts are a real thing. If you are not interested in a topic, your whole research process can turn into a dreadful duty.

From a Research Topic to a Research Question

The next important step after narrowing down your research topic is turning it into a question. Why? Having a question can guide you towards the aim of your studies.

Think about it:

When you have a question, you already have a clear picture of how a conclusion looks like. Moreover, it is a neat way to check the relevance of your topic. If you pick a good and narrow subject, Google struggles to give a simple answer. Then you know that your research topic is debatable. It shows that the idea relies on thorough analysis, reflection, and examination. And we are going through all these processes below.

To generate a research question from a topic, start asking yourself "why" and "how" concerning your research topic. After that, double-check the relevance of the question. Analyze why it matters.

Without evaluation, you don't know whether your question is good enough. Therefore, try to determine whether it is clear, specific, and complex. The last one is especially important.

If you ask a general question, there is nothing else to do than just answer "yes" or "no." Open-ended questions, on the other side, require much more research and effort, which makes your work more valuable.

Just to guide yourself a little bit more, you can imagine a debate on the issue you chose. How will you answer this question? What counterarguments might your opponent have? Does your support evidence look persuasive enough?

However, if your brain needs a break after all these steps, you can use some help from our tool. This generator can inspire you to ask the right questions!

Make a Research Title: 6 Tips

There are a few characteristics of a good research topic that we have discussed in the previous sections. However, we know you don't just want a "good" title; you want a perfect one!

To create something practical and impressive, you should take into account a few more aspects:

• the method that you implement in your study
• the findings

For example:

“Quantitative research of the positive effects of everyday meditation on the emotional well-being among Yale students.”

Here you can see the topic (everyday meditation), the research method (quantitative), sample (Yale students), and the outcome (positive effects).

It is pretty much the ultimate formula for a great title. And guess what? With the help of our generator, a research paper title can be created in a few minutes!

Your title should be from 5 to 15 words, so try not to exceed the limit. Save all the details you want to include for the thesis statement. The title should be catchy but informative. Then your readers can get a glimpse of your research paper and get interested.

Replace a few words for more precise terms, make it sound more official. Keep in mind that the tone of your title should reflect the tone of your paper.

For instance, see the title, "Many people get better sleep after using blue light filter glasses." Here, too vague terms like "many people" and "better" should be replaced

which will ensure that your paper can be found during a keywords search. Such a simple thing can significantly boost the popularity and relevance of your research paper.

of your educational institution. If you're editing your research paper for an academic journal or a particular project, consider their criteria as well. Do it before you start writing. It is easier than trying to tailor your finished work to a specific outline or word limit.

for a reader and predicts the core message accurately. If the title is boring, the value of your paper automatically drops because readers are not involved.

Even after you have used our research topic generator, you should go through these tips to double-check your title!

How to Come up with a Research Idea?

Remember the moment you found out about your assignment? The first thing you did (we hope at least) was to read the requirement carefully. However, we bet you had a crisis when it was time to find a topic for your writing... We feel you. It is not so easy to come up with argumentative research paper topics.

In the following section, you can find four methods on how to gather ideas for research. These techniques allow you to estimate how much you already know about the subject. And if it seems too little, you can still switch to a different area on this stage of writing.

Nevertheless:

You shouldn’t miss the main points of using generating methods! The ideas you come up with can be handy for your study in the following ways:

• The insights should help you to understand which way to move. The ideas you get allow you to pick the right research question. As you already know, it serves as a roadmap during the whole writing process.
• You get more arguments. Among the abundance of topics, you can use many of them as supportive pieces of evidence. Maybe a few might be used as counterarguments.
• These ideas can help you understand how you can improve the existing topic. Just use our research idea-generating tool and then adjust the topic! Simple as that! And it is much easier than going through gazillion ideas you brainstormed with the single purpose to filter all the weak ones.

Cubing method got its name thanks to six different perspectives you use to generate some research paper ideas. It may not be the best technique to create an entirely new topic, but it helps to review the existing one from a fresh perspective.

Basically, what you do is answering six questions about the idea you've got:

• First of all, you need to describe the idea, just generally what it is about.
• Then, you contrast and compare it to some random issue.
• Come up with some associations — for instance, note down the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the idea.
• The next step is analyzing the idea. You need to think of the parts it includes.
• How can it be applied? Think about its relevance.
• Write down arguments and counterarguments. Try to be as objective as possible.

You can do all the steps at once, or you may put it away for a little bit. Sleeping with these questions helps to have a fresh look the next morning.

If you think having a lot of ideas to choose from is better than having a few weird ones, then this method is for you.

Brainstorming is one of the most effective ways to create a list of topics for research papers. It literally makes your brain work so hard it may seem like there is a storm inside of your head. Moreover, it leaves you not only with a bunch of ideas but makes you feel satisfied with your intellectual productivity.

Just as with other methods, there are some recommendations so that you get the maximum benefit from it:

• Your actions are straightforward: write down any idea related to a chosen area that comes up to your mind.
• You can find it helpful to set a time limit. Usually, it depends on how many topics you intend to generate but try not to cross the 30-minute limit. You may get not as effective as you want after the first 20 minutes.
• Don't try too hard to write down full sentences. The point is to squeeze out of your brain as many keywords and phrases as you can.
• There are no "bad" ideas in this method! Even if it seems crazy, write it down. During the process, you should remain unbiased. Only during the process of the filtration, you judge the topics and select the ones that you think meet your requirements.

Freewriting is a bit different from brainstorming. However, it is a bit more intense and has its benefits. For example, it lowers the chance that you might skip a worthy idea. If you wonder how it works, just read the description.

Just like brainstorming, freewriting is all about the flow of thoughts and setting the time limit. Moreover, there is also a set of rules that are meant to increase productivity:

• Note down everything that comes to your mind, without judging. Instead of phrases, write in paragraphs and full sentences.
• Don’t come back to correct grammar and spelling mistakes. You can even try to close your eyes to resist the temptation.
• Even if you are stuck on with one idea, just keep writing. Eventually, you will move from the seemingly dead end.
• If your first language is not English, try to use some of the words in your native language to express your thoughts more precisely.
• Set a timer for around 15-20 minutes. When you finish, choose the best idea from your paper and repeat the process but focusing on the concept you picked.

So you can see that freewriting allows you to track the flow of your thoughts to catch anything you might find worthy. It is a kind of descriptive writing, but when you describe your own mind.

Mapping is an excellent method when you already have topic ideas but don't know where to move next. It is also great for people that prefer visuals over simple lists.

There are two ways of mapping. Choose whatever seems more comfortable for you:

• The first way starts with briefly writing down any words and phrases related to your topic. It should be done on a large piece of paper because those phrases should be noted in random places. Your next task would be connecting ideas that are associated. Clustering the themes can help you with creating arguments to support your topic. Or it can assist in finding a perfect thesis question.
• The second one is all about coming up with ideas while creating the web. You would start by putting your topic in the circle in the center and then drawing a few lines from it. Then, each line needs to have a related idea. It's almost like you would narrow the subject down. After that, repeat the same with every new circle you create.

Research Title Maker FAQ

Thank you for reading the article! We hope it was useful for you. Make sure to send our research topic generator to those who are struggling with their research paper.

Updated: Apr 5th, 2024

• 4 Important Tips on Choosing a Research Paper Title: Enago Academy
• The Research Problem-Question, Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Research Guides atUniversity of Southern California
• Narrowing a Topic and Developing a Research Question: George Mason University Writing Center
• Identifying & Developing a Topic, Research Process: Research Guides at Mesa Community College
• Choosing a Topic: Purdue Online Writing Lab, College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University
• How to Write a Research Question: The Writing Center Guides, George Mason University
• Brainstorming: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 5 Brainstorming Strategies for Writers: Mark Nichol for Daily Writing Tips
• Step 1 - Generate Ideas: Eric Grunwald for the Writing Process, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Research Question Generator for Students

Our online topic question generator is a free tool that creates topic questions in no time. It can easily make an endless list of random research questions based on your query.

Can't decide on the topic question for your project? Check out our free topic question generator and get a suitable research question in 3 steps!

Please try again with some different keywords.

• 👉 Why Use Our Tool?

💡 What Is a Topic Question?

✒️ how to write a research question.

• 📜 Research Question Example

🔗 References

👉 why use our topic question generator.

Our research topic question generator is worth using for several reasons:

• It saves you time. You can develop many ideas and formulate research questions for all of them within seconds.
• It is entirely free. Our tool doesn’t have any limits, probation periods, or subscription plans. Use it as much as you want and don’t pay a cent.
• It is download- and registration-free. Use it in any browser from any device. No applications are needed. You also don’t have to submit any personal data.
• It’s easy to use. You can see an explanation for every step next to each field you need to fill in.
• You can easily check yourself. Spend a couple of seconds to check your research question on logic and coherence.

A research topic question is a question you aim to answer while researching and writing your paper. It states the matter you study and the hypothesis you will prove or disprove. This question shares your assumptions and goals, giving your readers a basic understanding of your paper’s content.

It also helps you focus while researching and gives your research scope and limitations. Of course, your research question needs to be relevant to your study subject and attractive to you. Any paper will lack an objective and specificity without an adequately stated research question.

Research Topic Vs. Research Topic Question

‘Research topic’ and ‘research question’ are different concepts that are often confused.

Research Question Types: Quantitative and Qualitative

Another essential differentiation to know – there are quantitative and qualitative research questions.

• Quantitative research questions are more specific and number-oriented . They seek clear answers such as “yes” or “no,” a number, or another straightforward solution. Example: How many senior high school students in New York failed to achieve the desired SAT scores due to stress factors?
• Qualitative research questions can be broader and more flexible. They seek an explanation of phenomena rather than a short answer. Example: What is the role of stress factors in the academic performance of high school senior students who reside in New York?

Now let’s get to know how to create your own research question. This skill will help you structure your papers more efficiently.

Step 1: Choose Your Research Topic

If you’ve already received general guidelines from your instructor, find a specific area of knowledge that interests you. It shouldn’t be too broad or too narrow. You can divide it into sub-topics and note them. Discuss your topic with someone or brainstorm to get more ideas. You can write down all your thoughts and extract potential issues from this paragraph or text.

Step 2: Research

After you’ve chosen a topic, do preliminary research . Search for keywords relevant to your topics to see what current discussions are in the scientific community. It will be easier for you to cross out those ideas that are already researched too well. In addition, you might spot some knowledge gaps that you can later fill in. We recommend avoiding poorly researched areas unless you are confident you can rely solely on the data you gather.

Step 3: Narrow Your Topic

At this stage, you already have some knowledge about the matter. You can tell good ideas from bad ones and formulate a couple of research questions. Leave only the best options that you actually want to proceed with. You can create several draft variations of your top picks and research them again. Depending on the results you get, you can leave the best alternatives for the next step.

Step 4: Evaluate What You’ve Got

Evaluate your topics by these criteria:

• Clarity . Check if there are any vague details and consider adjusting them.
• Focus . Your research matter should be unambiguous , without other interpretations.
• Complexity . A good topic research question shouldn’t be too difficult or too easy.
• Ethics . Your ideas and word choice shouldn’t be prejudiced or offensive.
• Relevance . Your hypothesis and research question should correspond with current discussions.
• Feasibility . Make sure you can conduct the research that will answer your question.

Step 5: Edit Your Research Question

Now you can create the final version of your research question. Use our tool to compare your interpretation with the one produced by artificial intelligence. Though you might change it based on your findings, you must create a perfect statement now. You need to make it as narrow as possible. If you don’t know how to make it more specific, leave it till you get the first research results.

📜 Research Question Generator: Examples

Compare a good and bad research question to understand the importance of following all rules:

Thank you for reading till the end. We hope you found the information and tool useful for your studies. Don’t forget to share it with your peers, and good luck with your paper!

Updated: May 17th, 2024

• The Writing Center | How to Write a Research Question | Research Based Writing
• How to Write a Research Question: Types, Steps, and Examples | Research.com
• Pick a Topic & Develop a Research Question – CSI Library at CUNY College of Staten Island Library

Research Question Generator: Best Tool for Students

Stuck formulating a research question? Try the tool we’ve made! With our research question generator, you’ll get a list of ideas for an academic assignment of any level. All you need to do is add the keywords you’re interested in, push the button, and enjoy the result!

Now, here comes your inspiration 😃

Please try again with some different keywords.

Why Use Research Question Generator?

The choice of research topic is a vital step in the process of any academic task completion. Whether you’re working on a small essay or a large dissertation, your topic will make it fail or fly. The best way to cope with the naming task and proceed to the writing part is to use our free online tool for title generation. Its benefits are indisputable.

• The tool generates research questions, not just topics
• It makes questions focused on your field of interest
• It’s free and quick in use

Research Question Generator: How to Use

Using our research question generator tool, you won’t need to crack your brains over this part of the writing assignment anymore. All you need to do is:

• Insert your study topic of interest in the relevant tab
• Choose a subject and click “Generate topics”
• Grab one of the offered options on the list

The results will be preliminary; you should use them as an initial reference point and refine them further for a workable, correctly formulated research question.

Research Questions: Types & Examples

Depending on your type of study (quantitative vs. qualitative), you might need to formulate different research question types. For instance, a typical quantitative research project would need a quantitative research question, which can be created with the following formula:

Variable(s) + object that possesses that variable + socio-demographic characteristics

You can choose among three quantitative research question types: descriptive, comparative, and relationship-based. Let's consider each type in more detail to clarify the practical side of question formulation.

Descriptive

As its name suggests, a descriptive research question inquires about the number, frequency, or intensity of something and aims to describe a quantitative issue. Some examples include:

• How often do people download personal finance apps in 2022?
• How regularly do Americans go on holidays abroad?
• How many subscriptions for paid learning resources do UK students make a year?

Comparative

Comparative research questions presuppose comparing and contrasting things within a research study. You should pick two or more objects, select a criterion for comparison, and discuss it in detail. Here are good examples:

• What is the difference in calorie intake between Japanese and American preschoolers?
• Does male and female social media use duration per day differ in the USA?
• What are the attitudes of Baby Boomers versus Millennials to freelance work?

Relationship-based

Relationship-based research is a bit more complex, so you'll need extra work to formulate a good research question. Here, you should single out:

• The independent variable
• The dependent variable
• The socio-demographics of your population of interest

Let’s illustrate how it works:

• How does the socio-economic status affect schoolchildren’s dropout rates in the UK?
• What is the relationship between screen time and obesity among American preschoolers?

Research Question Maker FAQ

In a nutshell, a research question is the one you set to answer by performing a specific academic study. Thus, for instance, if your research question is, “How did global warming affect bird migration in California?," you will study bird migration patterns concerning global warming dynamics.

You should think about the population affected by your topic, the specific aspect of your concern, and the timing/historical period you want to study. It’s also necessary to specify the location – a specific country, company, industry sector, the whole world, etc.

A great, effective research question should answer the "who, what, when, where" questions. In other words, you should define the subject of interest, the issue of your concern related to that subject, the timeframe, and the location of your study.

If you don’t know how to write a compelling research question, use our automated tool to complete the task in seconds. You only need to insert your subject of interest, and smart algorithms will do the rest, presenting a set of workable, interesting question suggestions.

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New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

“Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

AI in the classroom

In 2023, the big story in technology and education was generative AI, following the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce text seemingly written by a human in response to a question or prompt. Educators immediately worried that students would use the chatbot to cheat by trying to pass its writing off as their own. As schools move to adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, many are also beginning to explore potential opportunities – for example, to generate reading assignments or coach students during the writing process.

AI can also help automate tasks like grading and lesson planning, freeing teachers to do the human work that drew them into the profession in the first place, said Victor Lee, an associate professor at the GSE and faculty lead for the AI + Education initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “I’m heartened to see some movement toward creating AI tools that make teachers’ lives better – not to replace them, but to give them the time to do the work that only teachers are able to do,” he said. “I hope to see more on that front.”

He also emphasized the need to teach students now to begin questioning and critiquing the development and use of AI. “AI is not going away,” said Lee, who is also director of CRAFT (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), which provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students across subject areas. “We need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology.”

Immersive environments

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality is also expected to surge in the classroom, especially as new high-profile devices integrating these realities hit the marketplace in 2024.

The educational possibilities now go beyond putting on a headset and experiencing life in a distant location. With new technologies, students can create their own local interactive 360-degree scenarios, using just a cell phone or inexpensive camera and simple online tools.

“This is an area that’s really going to explode over the next couple of years,” said Kristen Pilner Blair, director of research for the Digital Learning initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, which runs a program exploring the use of virtual field trips to promote learning. “Students can learn about the effects of climate change, say, by virtually experiencing the impact on a particular environment. But they can also become creators, documenting and sharing immersive media that shows the effects where they live.”

Integrating AI into virtual simulations could also soon take the experience to another level, Schwartz said. “If your VR experience brings me to a redwood tree, you could have a window pop up that allows me to ask questions about the tree, and AI can deliver the answers.”

Gamification

Another trend expected to intensify this year is the gamification of learning activities, often featuring dynamic videos with interactive elements to engage and hold students’ attention.

“Gamification is a good motivator, because one key aspect is reward, which is very powerful,” said Schwartz. The downside? Rewards are specific to the activity at hand, which may not extend to learning more generally. “If I get rewarded for doing math in a space-age video game, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be motivated to do math anywhere else.”

Gamification sometimes tries to make “chocolate-covered broccoli,” Schwartz said, by adding art and rewards to make speeded response tasks involving single-answer, factual questions more fun. He hopes to see more creative play patterns that give students points for rethinking an approach or adapting their strategy, rather than only rewarding them for quickly producing a correct response.

Data-gathering and analysis

The growing use of technology in schools is producing massive amounts of data on students’ activities in the classroom and online. “We’re now able to capture moment-to-moment data, every keystroke a kid makes,” said Schwartz – data that can reveal areas of struggle and different learning opportunities, from solving a math problem to approaching a writing assignment.

But outside of research settings, he said, that type of granular data – now owned by tech companies – is more likely used to refine the design of the software than to provide teachers with actionable information.

The promise of personalized learning is being able to generate content aligned with students’ interests and skill levels, and making lessons more accessible for multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Realizing that promise requires that educators can make sense of the data that’s being collected, said Schwartz – and while advances in AI are making it easier to identify patterns and findings, the data also needs to be in a system and form educators can access and analyze for decision-making. Developing a usable infrastructure for that data, Schwartz said, is an important next step.

With the accumulation of student data comes privacy concerns: How is the data being collected? Are there regulations or guidelines around its use in decision-making? What steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access? In 2023 K-12 schools experienced a rise in cyberattacks, underscoring the need to implement strong systems to safeguard student data.

Technology is “requiring people to check their assumptions about education,” said Schwartz, noting that AI in particular is very efficient at replicating biases and automating the way things have been done in the past, including poor models of instruction. “But it’s also opening up new possibilities for students producing material, and for being able to identify children who are not average so we can customize toward them. It’s an opportunity to think of entirely new ways of teaching – this is the path I hope to see.”

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John Joannopoulos receives 2024-2025 Killian Award

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John Joannopoulos, an innovator and mentor in the fields of theoretical condensed matter physics and nanophotonics, has been named the recipient of the 2024-2025 James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award.

Joannopoulos is the Francis Wright Davis Professor of Physics and director of MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. He has been a member of the MIT faculty for 50 years.

“Professor Joannopoulos’s profound and lasting impact on the field of theoretical condensed matter physics finds its roots in his pioneering work in harnessing ab initio physics to elucidate the behavior of materials at the atomic level,” states the award citation, which was announced at today’s faculty meeting by Roger White, chair of the Killian Award Selection Committee and professor of philosophy at MIT. “His seminal research in the development of photonic crystals has revolutionized understanding of light-matter interactions, laying the groundwork for transformative advancements in diverse fields ranging from telecommunications to biomedical engineering.”

The award also honors Joannopoulos’ service as a “legendary mentor to generations of students, inspiring them to achieve excellence in science while at the same time facilitating the practical benefit to society through entrepreneurship.”

The Killian Award was established in 1971 to recognize outstanding professional contributions by MIT faculty members. It is the highest honor that the faculty can give to one of its members.

“I have to tell you, it was a complete and utter surprise,” Joannopoulos told MIT News shortly after he received word of the award. “I didn’t expect it at all, and was extremely flattered, honored, and moved by it, frankly.”

Joannopoulous has spent his entire professional career at MIT. He came to the Institute in 1974, directly after receiving his PhD in physics at the University of California at Berkeley, where he also earned his bachelor’s degree. Starting out as an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Physics, he quickly set up a research program focused on theoretical condensed matter physics.

Over the first half of his MIT career, Joannopoulos worked to elucidate the fundamental nature of the electronic, vibrational, and optical structure of crystalline and amorphous bulk solids, their surfaces, interfaces, and defects. He and his students developed numerous theoretical methods to enable tractable and accurate calculations of these complex systems.

In the 1990s, his work with microscopic material systems expanded to a new class of materials, called photonic crystals — materials that could be engineered at the micro- and nanoscale to manipulate light in ways that impart surprising and exotic optical qualities to the material as a whole.

“I saw that you could create photonic crystals with defects that can affect the properties of photons, in much the same way that defects in a semiconductor affect the properties of electrons,” Joannopoulos says. “So I started working in this area to try and explore what anomalous light phenomena can we discover using this approach?”

Among his various breakthroughs in the field was the realization of a  “perfect dielectric mirror” — a multilayered optical device that reflects light from all angles as normal metallic mirrors do, and that can also be tuned to reflect and trap light at specific frequencies. He and his colleagues saw potential for the mirror to be made into a hollow fiber that could serve as a highly effective optical conduit, for use in a wide range of applications. To further advance the technology, he and his colleagues launched a startup, which has since developed the technology into a flexible, fiber-optic “surgical scalpel.”

Throughout his career, Joannopoulos has helped to launch numerous startups and photonics-based technologies.

“His ability to bridge the gap between academia and industry has not only advanced scientific knowledge but also led to the creation of dozens of new companies, thousands of jobs, and groundbreaking products that continue to benefit society to this day,” the award citation states.

In 2006, Joannopoulos accepted the position as director of MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN), a collaboration between MIT researchers, industry partners, and military defense experts, who seek innovations to protect and enhance soldiers’ survivability in the field. In his role as ISN head, Joannopoulos has worked across MIT, making connections and supporting new projects with researchers specializing in fields far from his own.

“I get a chance to explore and learn fascinating new things,” says Joannopoulos, who is currently overseeing projects related to hyperspectral imaging, smart and responsive fabrics, and nanodrug delivery. “I love that aspect of really getting to understand what people in other fields are doing. And they’re doing great work across many, many different fields.”

Throughout his career at MIT, Joannopoulos has been especially inspired and motivated by his students, many of whom have gone on to found companies, lead top academic and research institutions, and make significant contributions to their respective fields, including one student who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1998.

“One’s proudest moments are the successes of one’s students, and in that regard, I’ve been extremely lucky to have had truly exceptional students over the years,” Joannopolous says.

His many contributions to academia and industry have earned Joannopoulos numerous honors and awards, including his election to both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

“The Selection Committee is delighted to have this opportunity to honor Professor John Joannopoulos: a visionary scientist, a beloved mentor, a great believer in the goodness of people, and a leader whose contributions to MIT and the broader scientific community are immeasurable,” the award citation concludes.

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New cardiac research will save women's lives by improving detection of heart failure

An important new study has advanced how heart failure is detected in women -- meaning more female patients can be diagnosed and at an earlier stage.

Researchers led by teams from the Universities of East Anglia (UEA), Sheffield and Leeds, have been able to fine-tune how magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used to detect heart failure in women's hearts, making it more accurate.

Lead author Dr Pankaj Garg, of the University of East Anglia's Norwich Medical School and a consultant cardiologist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, said: "By refining the method for women specifically, we were able to diagnose 16.5pc more females with heart failure.

"This could have huge impact in the NHS, which diagnoses around 200,000 patients with heart failure each year.

"This improved method will increase early detection, meaning more women can get life-saving treatment sooner."

In 2022, UEA and the University of Sheffield published research which showed how using MRI scans could be used to detect heart failure and which led to this technique being widely employed by medics.

When a heart starts to fail, it is unable to pump blood out effectively, and so the pressure in the heart rises.

Co-author Dr Gareth Matthews, of the University of East Anglia's Norwich Medical School, said: "Currently one of the best ways of diagnosing heart failure is to measure pressures inside the heart with a tube called a catheter.

"While this is very accurate, it is an invasive procedure, and therefore carries risks for patients, which limits its use.

"For this reason, doctors tend to use echocardiograms, which are based on ultrasound, to assess heart function, but this is inaccurate in up to 50 per cent of cases. Using MRI, we can get much more accurate images of how the heart is working."

The team was able to create an equation which allowed them to non-invasively derive the pressure in the heart using an MRI scanner.

However, previous use of this method wasn't as accurate as the researchers would have liked in diagnosing heart failure in women, especially in early or borderline disease.

Co-author Professor Andy Swift, of the University of Sheffield's School of Medicine and Population Health, said: "Women's hearts are biologically different to men's.

"Our work suggests that in heart failure women's hearts may respond differently in response to increases in pressure."

Heart failure can be classed differently, depending on the amount of blood squeezed out of the main chamber of the heart with every beat, known as the heart's ejection fraction.

Women suffer disproportionately from a type of heart failure where the pumping function of the heart is preserved but the ability of the heart to relax and fill with blood is impaired.

Echocardiography really struggles to diagnose this type of heart failure. The improvements in diagnosis from this new work will enable more of this particular cohort to be diagnosed more accurately and hopefully drive better treatments.

Co-author Dr Peter Swoboda, of the University of Leeds' Faculty of Medicine and Health, said: "The symptoms of heart failure, like breathlessness and fatigue, can have a devastating effect on patients' quality of life.

"We are increasingly recognising the importance of early diagnosis and, early treatment can improve symptoms and life expectancy.

"This research will help diagnose heart failure in women more quickly and get them established on life-saving treatments sooner."

The Government's Health and Social Care Secretary, Victoria Atkins, said: "Heart failure is a devastating condition affecting hundreds of thousands of women in the UK, so this research is a hugely positive development that could make it possible for thousands of people to get diagnosed and treated at an earlier stage.

"For the second year of our Women's Health Strategy for England, I have been clear that we need more research to look at the differences between how conditions affect men and women.

"I am delighted that this government-backed research has met this challenge so that we can get life-saving treatment to women faster."

The research was a collaboration between the University of East Anglia, the University of Leeds, the University of Sheffield, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the National Heart Research Institute Singapore, Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, Queen Mary University of London, the National Institute for Health and Care Research's Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre, the University of Amsterdam and Kocaeli City Hospital in Turkey.

It was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre, the Wellcome Trust, and the National Medical Research Council (NMRC).

• Heart Disease
• Stroke Prevention
• Diseases and Conditions
• Cholesterol
• Medical Devices
• Today's Healthcare
• Heart failure
• Breast cancer
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Story Source:

Materials provided by University of East Anglia . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Ciaran Grafton-Clarke, Gareth Matthews, Rui Li, Hosamadin Assadi, Peter Swoboda, Chris Sawh, Vassilios S Vassiliou, Andrew J Swift, Pankaj Garg. 32 Sex-specific cardiac magnetic resonance pulmonary capillary wedge pressure model predicts outcomes in heart failure: a multi-centre study . European Heart Journal Open , 2024 DOI: 10.1136/heartjnl-2024-BSCMR.29

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