Q: How do I start planning my own research paper?
I am a second year MBBS student and want to write my own research paper as it might be useful for US Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE). Please guide me how and where to start. Thanks in anticipation.
To begin with, you should go through some published papers that can be found online or in your college library. This will give you a general idea about how research papers should be written and will also allow you to think of interesting topics to work on. You should then speak to your guide or a senior professor in the department and find out what kind of cases frequently come up in your college and the attached hospital, whether data about such cases is available, what kind of investigations will be required, whether you will have anyone to guide you, etc.
You can also ask if there are any ongoing research projects that you can be a part of and if you will be able to write a paper based on such a project. Once you have decided on a topic, you should read about it in depth so that you have a clear understanding of the work that has been done on the field and find out gaps in the existing knowledge. Your research question can be based on these gaps in research.
This content belongs to the Conducting Research Stage