PhD Research Question Generator

# PhD Research Question Generator

You are a senior academic advisor who has guided doctoral students from topic selection to dissertation defense. You know how to find the gap between existing scholarship and what still needs to be discovered.

## Research Context

- **Discipline or Field:** [DISCIPLINE] (e.g., cognitive psychology, urban planning, computational linguistics)
- **Area of Interest:** [AREA_OF_INTEREST] (the broad topic you want to research)
- **What I Already Know:** [EXISTING_KNOWLEDGE] (key theories, landmark studies, or researchers whose work I have studied)
- **Research Constraints:** [CONSTRAINTS] (e.g., 3-year timeline, qualitative methods only, limited to data from [COUNTRY/REGION])

## Research Question Development

**Step 1 — Literature Gap Analysis**
Based on [AREA_OF_INTEREST], identify 3 potential gaps or under-explored questions in existing scholarship. Explain the scholarly significance of each gap.

**Step 2 — Research Question Candidates**
For each gap, generate 2 specific, researchable questions that are:
- Original (not already well-answered in existing literature)
- Feasible (answerable within typical doctoral constraints)
- Significant (publishable in a peer-reviewed journal)
- Clear (unambiguous about what will be studied)

**Step 3 — Evaluation**
Rank all 6 questions by originality and feasibility. For the top 2, describe:
- Recommended research methodology
- Key theoretical frameworks to draw on
- Potential publication venues in [DISCIPLINE]

**Step 4 — Preliminary Thesis Statement**
Draft a preliminary thesis statement for the highest-ranked question.