The challenges of navigating a topic to a prospective researcher: the case of knowledge management research

Abstract

Exploring a researchable topic and narrowing it down sufficiently to make it workable is a first task in any scientific research. This is particularly difficult when the researcher is a novice, because s(he) is unlikely to be properly aware of what the essential issues and the research question(s) in the field are. This article addresses the question of how to navigate a research topic for an academic project. The article is potentially of interest to novice researchers and researchers new to a field. Illustrating its argument by means of an example in the area of knowledge management, the article proposes a set of guidelines for narrowing down a research topic to workable size. A number of recommendations are made; by utilizing these recommendations to construct a navigation map, it is hoped that a researcher can use fully formulate research question(s). It can be argued that drawing such a navigation map is an art in which prospective researchers need to be trained.

Citation

Jasimuddin, S.M., Connell, C. and Klein, J.H. (2005), "The challenges of navigating a topic to a prospective researcher: the case of knowledge management research", Management Research News, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 62-76. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409170510784715