Maureen Macmillan outlines the range of methods used by researchers to select appropriate subjects for research.

How do researchers decide what to study? Fortunately, since we are a very disparate group, there is no one answer. The traditional starting point is an area of personal interest, which is followed by a process of refinement until a re-searchable question is reached. Needless to say, there are some people who turn the whole process on its head and begin with a desire to use a particular method of research, and having chosen that, they are then forced to find a topic which lends itself to being examined by that method. Such personalised pieces of work generally are produced in the pursuit of a qualification of some sort.