Research paper

I cant even think of a topic, having total writer’s block

Guide for Selecting a Research Topic
An assignment in this module is to select a topic for your research related to Management Information Systems. First select a general topic, then narrow your topic down. Finally write a clear topic sentence and an explanation of what you intend to cover in your research, for submission.

Use these guidelines to help start your research and select a topic.

Skim through the textbook to see the wide variety of topics available to you. You will find your research easier if you identify a topic that interests you or one that relates to your work.

Here are some general ideas for selecting a topic:
Focus on an organizational function such as Human Resources, Finance and Accounting, Manufacturing and Production, Sales and Marketing, or Operations. In most cases, you will want to choose a sub-function of one of these areas, such as recruiting in human resources, or supply chain management or warehouse management in operations.
Focus on a technology use within an industry or profession such as pharmaceuticals, community health services or other not for profit, government, law enforcement, call centers, recycling, architecture education, sports or medicine.
Focus on a type of technology or information systems such as CRM (customer relationship management) or decision support (DSS)
Focus on an IT function or functional responsibility such as security, privacy, policy development
Focus on an IS/IT activity – such as system development, conversions, change management in IS/IT, project management in IS/IT
Often topics combine a type of technology with an organization use for example the use of social media in the mission of a particular church, or the use of data mining by Amazon to recommend books, using distance technology for medical diagnosis, how technology can customize your online shopping experience.

Narrowing your topic
Once you have a general area for your paper, you need to focus on a specific topic. For example, if you are choosing how IS/IT has impacted Human Resources, please do not submit:

Human Resources

You might start thinking about something like

How IS has impacted Human Resources recruiting in terms of job posting, resume submission methods, and candidate communications.

Remember that this isnt a history class. A lot of these functions have been facilitated with technology for a while. So you might consider

What are the changes related to the implementation and use of newer technologies that are coming to Human Resources recruiting in terms of job posting, resume submission methods, and candidate communications.

However, you should get beyond the descriptive so you should take it another step further. Look for the open questions and challenges. So you might end up with something like

What are the changes related to the implementation and use of newer technologies that are coming to Human Resources recruiting in terms of job posting, resume submission methods, and candidate communications, what are the challenges and what changes will it promote.

Within this, while youd describe the changes, youd be analyzing the implications, such as how this might change the way people write resumes, what the implications are for candidates who arent technologically savvy (even for jobs that dont require technical abilities), how it changes the way HR might make a case for its recruiting budget, etc.

Resources on selecting a research topic:
You may want to review some ideas about selecting a research topic and the process of narrowing your topic and making it more specific.

At Empire State College the Developing a Research Question in the Research Skills Tutorial

At Emory University

Finding journal articles and using Google Scholar
As you are considering your topic, use the ESC Library to see what kind of information is available. Web information will NOT be acceptable sources for your paper so you should go beyond a standard Google. You can use the ESC library databases or use Google Scholar. If you use Google Scholar through the ESC library, it will allow you to see which of the articles are available to you from the ESC library.– Note that Google Scholar may be found listed in the Article Databases under “G”.

This can help you refine your ideas as you look to see if there is information available on the topic you are interested in. For example, you may start with a general search like Technology use in human resources and find a couple of articles on Performance Management and decide to focus on How technology is used in HR to support Performance Reviews.