How do I go about starting a research?

Question

I need to do research for my senior thesis. My university has this program which allows students to do independent research under supervision. I want to do research on the bone disease osteogenesis imperfecta. But, I have no idea where to start. What should I do? Where do I start? How do I do the research? A lot of my friends are doing things where they have to perform experiments in the lab. But, I don't think mine requires that.

Answer 1

The usual advice is going to be to read everything you can easily access on the subject and tehre is an enormous amount on line to help in that (including a foundation on the condition you want to write on).

So I will add a less obvious tack: find someone who is a sufferer. Get their permission to be interviewed with a tape recorder on and go see them. Ask only one question , something like, what's it been like to have this disease, and then sit back and respectfully let them educate you. You might want to do this with sveral sufferers.

This kind of open interviewing will sensitize you to the condition far more solidly than any library/online factual research (which you will do any way I presume).

Answer 2

You really need to discuss this with the professor who will be supervising you.

Choosing a professor that you will get on with is at least as important as the choice of topic at this stage, so if you have a choice you should talk to people who have been supervised by different professors and see how they got on, and you should also look up what the professors say about their research on their Department's web site.