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Do you ever switch on your oven without deciding what you’re going to cook? Or make a down payment on a house without deciding whether you want to live in it? In the same way, conducting a study without clearly defining your research objectives will lead to a lot of wasted time, effort, and resources.
What are research objectives?
Research objectives are concise statements about the “why” of your research: why did you conduct this study and what are you trying to find or achieve? They’re typically found in your title, abstract, and the introduction section of your paper.
Suppose you’re investigating the risk factors for single-cell squamous carcinoma in community-dwelling old-old adults. This is what you’d have for your
- Title: Risk factors for single-cell squamous carcinoma in community-dwelling old-old adults: A longitudinal study
- Abstract: This study aims to uncover specific risk factors for single-cell squamous carcinoma in community-dwelling old-old adults.
- Introduction: …. little is known about whether these factors significantly influence the risk of single-cell squamous carcinoma in older adults. Therefore, the objective of the current study is to identify relevant risk factors for single-cell squamous carcinoma in community-dwelling old-old adults.
Types of research objectives
Research objective at an overall level can be divided into
- General objectives: the broad goals of your study
- Specific objectives: Precise, measurable outcomes that you hope to achieve
Let’s take an example:
General objective: To examine the therapeutic efficacy of convalescent plasma from donors with previous diagnosis of severe COVID-19 infection.
Specific objective: To determine whether administration of convalescent plasma less than 72 h after the onset of symptoms could delay disease progression in individuals with mild COVID-19 infection.
How to write good research objectives: Characteristics of a strong research question
Lots of resources will recommend the SMART approach for developing and writing your research objectives. SMART means that your research objectives are
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
Here’s an example of a poorly framed research objective:
- We aim to explore what affects life expectancy.
This is not specific (i.e., too broad). It’s also not achievable: it’s practically impossible for a single study to identify every single physical, physiological, social, psychological, and biochemical factor that affects life expectancy in all population groups.
Let’s see if we can make this research objective better:
- We aim to identify the biochemical correlates of life expectancy in long-term institutionalized older adults. Specifically, we test whether reduced leukocyte telomere length is a predictor of all-cause mortality in this population.
See also: How to come up with research objectives for a project on international entrepreneurs?
Examples of research objectives
The way you write your research objective may change slightly, depending on the type of study you’re conducting:
Descriptive study
Research objective: To describe existing measures to prevent parent-to-child transmission of domsicolopin infection in rural Moxwanesia.
Exploratory study
To explore the disease burden faced and coping strategies used by community-dwelling patients with mild-to-moderate anxicomical disorder.
Analytical study
To investigate whether fiscal deficit is associated with reduced access to primary care in low-to-middle-income countries with a high burden of sepsis.
Comparative study
To compare the predictive accuracy of two recently developed preoperative scoring systems with respect to identifying patients at risk of post-surgical paxybendificial infection.
Formulating research objectives: what to keep in mind
To make sure you’ve developed strong research objectives, follow these steps
- Decide what you want to achieve
- List the key variables in your study (including who your sample is)
- Identify the key outcomes you are tracking or measuring
- Include time period if relevant (e.g., if you are longitudinally examining something)
For instance:
The objective of this study is to examine long-term changes in adipose tissue gene expression following a calorie restriction intervention in older adults with comorbid frexioductional impairment and obesity.
