A List of 72 Brilliant Research Proposal Topics to Investigate

Do you have to write a research proposal and can’t choose one from the professor’s list? Probably, this article is what you need. Here you will find possible ideas for research proposal topics from the best custom writing service that may be used to create your own proposal project.

Writing a research proposal

First of all, let’s make clear what a research proposal is. A research proposal is a paper you write to show others that you have a project to investigate. You should mention why the topic you chose is worth attention, what steps will you take to explore the proposal topic, and what methods and tools will you use (and don’t forget to proofread your paper by Grammarly).

The purpose of proposal writing is to persuade others that your topic needs to be investigated. Your task is to write a well-structured, impressive text that includes all important elements so that everyone can understand the meaning of your project.

Your research project proposal will also help you develop your project carefully and fully. Of course, it’s important to choose a topic that you like to write about.

What is the correct project proposal format?

Before you start working on the proposal itself, it’s important to first understand the standard proposal writing format.

Every academic paper has defined rules to follow, so let’s take a look at the research proposal structure.

Typically, the very first element is a title.

1. Title

At the beginning stage, you should choose an interesting topic to investigate.

In this article, you’ll find research proposal topics in many different areas. It’s always easier to choose one if you have a list of proposal topics to browse.

Once you’ve chosen your topic, try to make your title catchy and relevant.

It may sound unbelievable, but a carefully chosen title can do half the job of persuading of your audience.

2. Abstract

Next, every research proposal needs an abstract. This part of your paper has a very limited word count, typically between 100 and 300 words.

Such a short word count means that you should take this stage even more seriously – it isn’t easy to convince your research committee in just a few lines!

What should you include in your research proposal abstract?

Explain the primary problem you want to explore and tell why it’s important.

What benefits can your investigation bring?

Think about this while choosing a topic and writing your abstract.

3. Introduction

This is a standard part of every paper, but different documents include various elements in their introductory texts.

A research proposal introduction should contain the following three parts:

A) Research background

To understand the importance of your topic, the audience needs to know how far other researchers have gone.

Mention all of the current and important researchers of your topic, and describe their achievements.

It’s important for your issue to be relevant and important.

B) Research questions

To examine your topic thoroughly, you should answer a lot of questions.

While writing a research proposal introduction, it’s time to state the general questions about your topic.

By finding the appropriate research questions, you’ll convince the audience of the importance of your research. So look carefully!

C) Research approach

You should define the approach you’ll use to investigate your research questions.

You can choose an empirical approach based on experiments and practice, a theoretical approach based on theories and ideas, or some other kind of approach.

Remember that the audience wants to know whether you’re competent enough to explore the subject, so consider your approach carefully. Always explain why you’ve chosen the approach you have.

4. Research methodology

When writing a proposal for a research paper, describe the methods you’re going to use to examine the topic.

A major part of any standard research project is an investigation of libraries’ and archives’ documentation related to the topic.

But you can also visit some workplace to find information about your topic, conduct an interview of a professional in your field, or distribute a survey to collect the data.

Your opportunities for research methods are limitless. The most important part here is to persuade your research committee that you have access to the sources you name in your methods section.

5. Research results

You may be wondering how you can write the research proposal results when you haven’t actually conducted the research yet. Right?

Well, don’t worry too much—you’re not expected to draw final conclusions at this stage.

Instead, just try to analyze what research proposal results you’ll get after your project is done and how those results will impact your field or the world at large.

This is an important part of your paper because it explains to the research committee whether or not your results will be worth the effort.

Try to persuade the audience that you can get important results, but never promise too much.

6. Research discussion

Research paper writing is one of the most difficult tasks you could ever be assigned. You may even need research writing help to get your A.

So it’s okay to face some problems with your writing, whether it’s trouble getting an interview from a foreign professor or having the funds to complete an expensive experiment.

Just don’t try to hide from the research committee the things you can’t do for your project.

Instead, discuss them with your committee so they can have the whole picture and give you helpful advice on your research.

Who knows—maybe one of them can introduce you to this foreign professor!

7. Ethical considerations

If your research is conducted on people or animals, you should mention how you’re going to collect your data.

Make sure your research proposal methodology doesn’t conflict with ethical guidelines.

8. References

No research paper can be written without reading and studying dozens of resources.

Remember to mention every article or website that will help you get your research paper done.

9. Appendices

If you have any questionnaires for your research proposal or any other documents related to your investigation, include them all in the appendices.

Now that you know how to structure a research proposal, it’s time to begin the work.

What is the first thing to be done, then?

Right—you need to choose a topic!

Here’s a list of research proposal topics below so you can finally begin the process.

Some of the research topics are simple (you can find them at the beginning of each list), whereas others are quite complicated. The more difficult problems also contain a short description, so that you can understand immediately whether that topic would be interesting for you.

Just choose the field that you need to write a paper within.

Research proposal topics in political science

• Sarah Palin and her role in the RNC
• Politics and its influence
• Military policy of Georgia toward South Ossetia
• Fascism and Nazism: the contemporary usage of the terms and their meaning in the history of politics. Nowadays, the terms “Fascism” and “Nazism” are quite often used interchangeably. Nevertheless, not only the terms are originally meant to refer to Italian and German political regimes, but the doctrines themselves have important differences, which makes it a possible research topic.

• Contemporary religious extremism and its political and economic basis. In the modern Western society exists an important ambiguity. On the one hand, religious tolerance endorsed; on the other, often used religious extremism as a scary tale to add some fuel to the flames of intolerance. Understanding the real, economic and political basis of religious extremism might prove helpful in breaking the illusions of both sides.
• Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn: socialists in the contemporary U.K. and U.S. politics. The U.S. Democratic Party devised its failure during the 2016 Presidential Elections by selecting Hillary Clinton, who does not enjoy much support from the public, instead of well-loved, but so-scarily-leftist Bernie Sanders. However, Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters were partially successful in addressing the stagnation in the British Labor Party, in which little left was left before him. Comparing the two leftist leaders and their political agenda might serve as a worthwhile research project topic.

• Anarchism as a political orientation and a worldview. Anarchism is commonly mistaken for chaos, when in fact it simply means the absence of formal authority and prevalence of grassroots cooperation. Numerous movements exist within anarchism, such as anarcho-syndicalism, anarcho-pacifism, etc. Their proponents have a worldview that radically differs from the “center,” albeit often it is by no means an extremist one. Classifying and elucidating different anarchist theories and worldviews can prove a worthy research topic.
• A fragile democracy: the contemporary political crisis in Myanmar. Myanmar has for a long time suffered under the dictatorship of a military junta. The junta only dissolved in 2011, but, despite the fact that the party of the National League for Democracy officially rules, the militaries remain strong and often uncontrollable. The resulting crisis is tragic, and writing about it could be a good topic for a research proposal.

• The Arab Spring and its impact on the contemporary Middle East. The Arab Spring was a wave of demonstrations, protests, and revolutions in the countries of the Middle East, and there was a hope that they would result in more democratic political regimes across the region. However, the results were far from optimistic. The massive impact of this phenomenon makes the Arab Spring an excellent topic for a research proposal.

Research proposal topics in history

• History and evolution of Buddhism in the world
• Destiny of the Jewish people during World War II
• The memory of the World War II in the United States. American history books often depict the United States as a country that played a key role in defeating Nazi Germany and its allies. But was it true? And if not, what purpose did that image serve in the post-war years, and what is its function today?
• Witch hunt in Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The Holy Inquisition is notorious for its hunt and torturous murder of countless women by their alleged practice of witchcraft. The history of this hunt, as well as the doctrine of the Inquisition, might be an interesting research topic.

• Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin: a comparison of policies. The October Revolution played a significant role in history, resulting in the birth of the Soviet Union. The country was to become a communist utopia; instead, the revolution proved violent, and when Lenin died, and Stalin came to power, the country simply turned into a bloody dictatorship. A possible research topic would be the investigation of the differences between the policies of Lenin, who did try to build socialism, and Stalin, who simply organized a reign of terror.

• The French Revolution and its impact on the history of the 19th century Europe. The French Revolution is known to be one of the most influential events in history, even though its liberal ideas suppressed, and the revolution ended in a dictatorship. The revolution’s impact on the European history might serve as a worthwhile topic for research writing.
• European colonization of the Americas and the fate of Native Americans. Although the image of Christopher Columbus and other explorers of the New World is very positive nowadays, the reality was far more severe: the colonizers used ruthless and violent methods to deal with Native Americans, massacring them to gain land and enslaving them gain labor. The history of cruelty might nonetheless prove an interesting topic for a research proposal.

• The history of racism in the United States. Whether one likes it or not, racism played an important role in the history of the U.S., and the country has not yet recovered from the consequences of this. The history of the American racist ideas might be a good topic for research, one that may allow for making the parallels with the contemporary situation and possibly helping battle the racial discrimination nowadays.

Research proposal topics in English and world literature

• Analysis of Poe’s style in “The Raven”
• Lost hope in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms
• Racial discrimination in Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• The character of Sonya Marmeladova in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Sonya Marmeladova, is perhaps one of the most appealing and sympathetic characters in the world literature. A teenage girl, she is the embodiment of kindness and allegiance, which is not changed by the fact that she has to work as a prostitute to support her family. Analyzing her character can be an excellent research project topic.

• The tragic love in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The tragic story of Romeo and Juliet’s love is perhaps one of the most well-known stories in the world. It may prove a good writing topic for any course on English literature.
• The real-life plausibility of the role of Dorian’s portrait in Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. The portrait of Dorian played the role of a “moral mirror” for the protagonist of the story. But would a real-world person such as Dorian pay so much attention to such a portrait, if they had it? This is a good research question that can be investigated further.

• The character of Eliza Doolittle in G. B. Shaw’s Pygmalion. In Shaw’s play, a simple flower girl turned into a refined woman after she was taught by Professor Henry Higgins. Her unique transformation may be studied further if you choose this as your research proposal topic.
• Melville’s Moby-Dick: a story of a captain’s folly. One of the greatest novels in the history of American literature is devoted to Captain Ahab, planning his revenge on a white whale named Moby Dick. Would such anthropomorphization of a whale make sense in the real life, though? Selecting this as a research paper topic may help you find more about this question.

Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19108-ancient-monster-whale-more-fearsome-than-moby-dick/

• Jane Eyre: the story of Cinderella by C. Brontë. The novel of Jane Eyre is perhaps simply a story of Cinderella. Or maybe being so complicated and many-sided makes it the story of Cinderella? Further studying the masterpiece by C. Brontë may be one of the best proposal ideas for your research.
• The impact of employee motivation on their performance. Is it true that highly motivated staff work much better? And if yes, how much better? The importance of this question warrants its further investigation and may prove a worthwhile topic for your dissertation research proposal.
• Disaster preparedness plans for the business. In many regions of the world, disasters such as hurricanes or earthquakes occur frequently, and none is safe from a common fire, for example. The costs and losses of business due to such disasters may be tremendous. Consequently, the ways to make one’s company safe is an excellent research topic in business.

• Ways to transition to new organizational culture. Studying the ways to make such a transition smooth and seamless could be a great research paper idea.
• The most effective leadership styles for various types of businesses. The leadership has a great impact on business performance, but it is possible that for some types of companies, certain management style would be most effectual. This theme could be a useful and interesting research topic for your proposal.

• Environmental friendliness of a business: additional spending or a way to make more profit? Many business leaders assume that decreasing the amount of waste their company produces will only result in losses for them. However, this is untrue; eco-friendliness improves business reputation and attracts more clients. Investigating the exact impact of environmental friendliness on business performance could be an interesting research idea.

• The impact of various types of stakeholders on a successfulness of a business.
  Exploring their exact impact on a company may be an excellent idea for your quantitative research proposal.

Research proposal topics in business studies

• Advertising strategies and the importance of advertising for business
• Strategies for running a business
• Importance of business planning

Research proposal topics in education

• Innovative approaches to contacting problematic children
• Aesthetic education as a basis for child development
• Advantages and disadvantages of a testing system
• The importance of early interventions in special education for children with disabilities. Investigating the “why” of it might be an interesting research topic for high school students.
• The importance of early interventions in special education for children with disabilities. Investigating the “why” of it might be an interesting research topic for high school students.
• The use of innovative technologies in education. The ubiquity of computers and smartphones means that they also used in studies. Finding out new ways in which innovations might assist teachers could be an interesting research paper idea.
• The effectiveness of online universities in providing education. It could be an exciting research topic idea to compare online institutions to traditional.
• The effectiveness of online universities in providing education. It could be an exciting research topic idea to compare online institutions to traditional.
• University education in a narrow specialization: a way to increase professionalism, or to create ignoramus? There exists a trend of providing education in a narrow area or specialty in the contemporary higher education setting. However, traditional universities also been known to teach their students a wide range of courses to give them a broader mental perspective and make them more knowledgeable and flexible. The benefits of an education in a narrow field and the costs of losing the tradition of a many-sided education are a worthwhile topic for a Ph.D. research proposal.

• Innovative approaches to teaching. The need for the instructor to interact more with students is becoming more and more apparent in the contemporary educational setting. Studying the benefits and drawbacks of this approach might be an excellent idea for a research proposal.
• The impacts of inclusive education on children without special needs. Inclusive learning is believed to have a positive influence on children with special needs and has become a trend nowadays. However, it is unclear how such education affects children without special needs, which warrants the further investigation of this research topic.

• Classroom management techniques for high school. High school teachers often have to deal with disruptive behaviors of their students. Finding out what classroom management techniques work best for this may prove a useful and engaging research topic idea.
• The impact of the temperature on chemical reaction speed. Generally speaking, higher temperature means that chemical reactions occur faster. Investigating in greater detail why this happens may be an interesting research topic for high school students.
• The use of organometallic compounds in the industry. Organometallic compounds play a vital role in the modern chemistry and widely used in numerous spheres of production. Studying their profits might prove an interesting research paper idea.
• The use of organic solvents in the contemporary world. Organic solvents are very important today, being widely used for a variety of purposes. Studying them might be a great research idea for a paper.

• The use of organic solvents in the contemporary world. Organic solvents are very important today, being widely used for a variety of purposes. Studying them might be a great research idea for a paper.
• The difference between covalent and ionic bonds. Covalent and ionic bonds are two of the most important types of chemical bonds between atoms. Further elucidating the similarities and differences between them is a worthwhile research paper idea for high school students.
• The mechanisms of reaction catalysis and inhibition. Chemical catalysts and inhibitors are widely used in the contemporary world to quicken or slow down the speed of chemical reactions. Therefore, the mechanism by which catalysts and inhibitors work could prove a worthwhile paper topic.

Research proposal topics in chemistry

• Chemistry of LSD
• Chemistry synaptic transmitters
• Alchemy in relation to physics

Research proposal topics in psychology

• Jean Piaget’s contribution to psychology
• Role of methodology in developmental research
• Importance of being knowledgeable about cognitive psychology
• The role of the family in the socialization of an individual. Family plays a critical role in a person’s life, surrounding them from their childhood, providing them with food and shelter, and educating them. However, it is important to know the avenues through which a family socializes a child as the latter grows up. Studying these avenues might be a good idea if you need to do some research writing.
• Family vs. community: a problem for African American people. In the contemporary U.S., a significant focus is made to support and develop the Institute of the family. Researchers conduct studies on the role and importance of the family, while politicians create policies to promote this institution. However, this may have an adverse impact on African Americans, whose African culture traditionally is less family- and more community-focused, and who lose their traditional communal bonds while shifting their focus to the family. Studying the consequences of this may be a good idea for a Ph.D. research proposal.

• The potential consequences of an untreated post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is a condition that may develop in an individual after a highly traumatic event. It needs treatment, or it may have a profoundly adverse influence on the life of that individual. However, it is pivotal to realize how exactly PTSD may impact a person’s life, which makes this a good research topic for a paper.
• The phenomenon of bullying in high schools from a psychological point of view. It is unfortunate that in many contemporary high schools, bullying still poses a significant problem. Because it may have a serious adverse effect on the victims of bullying, it is pivotal to understand the reasons for bullying and the mechanisms that the victims may use to defend themselves, which makes it an interesting research topic.

Source: https://schoolshooters.info/sites/default/files/bullying_school_shootings_1.1.pdf

• Sociopathy and psychopathy: similarities and differences. The terms “sociopathy” and “psychopathy” may often be confused by non-professionals. However, important differences between the conditions exist, and it is paramount to understand them well. Elucidating the crux of these conditions, as well as the similarities and differences between them, may become a great research topic for a paper for college students.
• The psychological causes of employee resistance to change. It is widely accepted that employees usually tend to resist organizational change. Nevertheless, such resistance may sometimes have an adverse influence on organizational performance. Therefore, investigating employee resistance to change from a psychological point of view is a worthwhile endeavor and a possible research topic to be studied.
• Empathy from an evolutionary point of view. It is likely that empathy, that is, the ability to comprehend what another person feels, is a trait that emerged in humans as part of an evolutionary process. Examining the matter further from can be an excellent evolutionary psychology research proposal.

Research proposal topics in philosophy

• What is the meaning of life?
• Ideas of philosophy and religion in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
• It seems like the research paper topic is not that big of a problem now, right?
• Theodicy in the works of medieval philosophers. Theodicy, or the explanation of why God permits the existence of evil, was always a serious problem for religious philosophy. It is natural. Therefore, medieval philosophers made numerous attempts to create a plausible theodicy. Whether they were successful or not can be demonstrated if the problem is selected as a research topic for your study.

Source: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Theodicy#cite_ref-0

• Refutation of proofs of God’s existence in I. Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Medieval philosophers tried hard to prove that God exists, but their “proofs” were all similar, wrote Kant. The great German philosopher argued that there are only a few main types of such proofs, and all of them do not work. Choose this as a research topic for your paper and find out why.
• Aristotelian Physics: verbalization of the “intuitively obvious.” Physics is a collection of works by Aristotle that deals with describing the physical world. Having no access to the experimental methods of science, Greek philosophers used reasoning, intuition, and speculation to build their theories, and Aristotelian Physics is similar: it describes the physical world precisely as it intuitively appears to human senses. You may choose this as your research paper topic if you wish to discover more.
• The concept of political power in John Searle’s works. John Searle is a contemporary American philosopher-analyst whose works cover a broad range of topics, from a philosophy of language and mind to political philosophy. Researching his ideas about political power can prove quite fruitful if you are looking for interesting research topics for your paper.

• The role of Aristotle’s works in the medieval Christian philosophy. Aristotle played a pivotal role in the development of the medieval philosophy in Europe. Many philosophers of the Middle Ages based their philosophical theories and systems on what Aristotle had written. Studying Aristotelian influences on the medieval philosophers might be an interesting and fruitful endeavor.
• Thomas More’s Utopia and Tommaso Campanella’s The City of the Sun: a comparison of two utopias. Utopia and The City of the Sun are some of the most famous utopian writings in the history of philosophy; in fact, the very genre was named after More’s work. Comparing the two works can prove an interesting endeavor, and should provide the researcher with an insight into the ethical ideas and perceptions existing in XVI-XVII century Europe if chosen as a topic for a research project.

• Roger Bacon as the father of the experimental method in science. The experimental method has played a crucial role in the development of the modern science, in fact, forming its methodological basis. Roger Bacon is widely regarded as the person who introduced this method of inquiry into science. Investigating his works, as well as the context in which he worked, in greater detail might allow for understanding how Roger Bacon developed this idea if the proposed issue is chosen as a research topic for your study.

If you still want to find some more topics, you are welcome to check science research proposal topics on our blog to make your academic writing life much easier.