There is no specific answer to this. Some institutions may have guidelines, but there is no one answer. My advice is to to keep a dissertation as simple as possible under the guidance of a dissertation director. Some students allow their dissertations to become their life's work and never finish. Most research provides new knowledge one increment at a time, not with one study. Make your dissertation goal to identify and test that one increment, not the entire field of knowledge. You will have a full career to do that! I wish you success!

Dear Aryan,

No there is no such defined rule or standard. It all depend upon the scope, time and resource you have. The most important thing in research is if you are addressing your study scope and objectives correctly and how important such study is for future reference.

Best,

Praheli

There is no specific answer to this. Some institutions may have guidelines, but there is no one answer. My advice is to to keep a dissertation as simple as possible under the guidance of a dissertation director. Some students allow their dissertations to become their life's work and never finish. Most research provides new knowledge one increment at a time, not with one study. Make your dissertation goal to identify and test that one increment, not the entire field of knowledge. You will have a full career to do that! I wish you success!

The test is whether you are likely to be able to address the question adequately within the constraints of your programme and methodology. This is almost always more limited than the aspiration expressed in the original proposal.

Aryan - How many research questions can a doctoral dissertation cover, it depends on title, nature of topic, the methods used and discipline cover. I do not think that there is a limitation for research questions as long as they can reflect the title further and can be answered.

It is advisable to have a one major questions followed by a number of minor questions related to the theme of the study. There is no problem as long as your research questions have appropriate methodology to be followed.

In a doctoral dissertation, the research questions depend on the variables involved in your research. in my doctoral dissertations I have ten research questions and nine hypotheses. All these are proposed to justify the purpose of the research. As Dr Manzoor Hussain rightly mentioned, you may have one or more research questions so far they are proposed to profound solutions to the problems of the independent and dependent variables surrounding the study. I don't think there is a specific law or theory that guide the number of questions to be raised for a research work.

It has something to do with the purpose of the study. However, the best way is to keep a dissertation as simple as possible without exaggerating the research questions.

There is the general/overall question derived from the title of the work which then generates three to four questions depending on the variables.

Often a key question. And follow him if you want a number of sub-questions.

These questions relate to research hypotheses and objectives. You'll pay attention.

Research questions should be drawn from specific objectives which are usually three to have it effective and manageable with the study period

"No aphorism is more frequently repeated in connection with field trials, than that we must ask Nature few questions, or, ideally, one question, at a time. The writer is convinced that this view is wholly mistaken."

-Sir Ronald Fisher

Usually a singly key question should be there , so that your defence will be easier and clear.

Hi Aryan Shahabian , you may need to decompose the overarching research aim into specific steps in which we can call it as research objectives. In other words, research objectives are the road map for achieving the research aim. According to my worldview, I can recommend maximum 5 research objectives for a doctoral study.

See: https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_many_research_questions_should_I_have_in_my_Phd_thesis

Aryan Shahabian , it depends on the doctoral work (theoretical, numerical or experimental), and it depends on the overall objective of the research.

Best reagrds

Aryan Shahabian

You can find the answer in the following links

https://www.scribbr.fr/memoire/formuler-des-questions-de-recherche/

Best regards

It depends! Usually it should be one to four!

Not more than three.

Well, many scholars have given reasonable answers to the question. But what is certain is that specific objects of the research would determine the number of research questions. For PhD, it should not be too narrow and not be too many that may lead to endless research.

I believe it depends on what the researchers is set out to achieve.. The scope of the work should guide the number...

I recommend 3-5 questions for Master's and 4-7 questions for PhD dissertations but the actual number can be determined by the scope and issues of the study. Setting the minimum to three (3) is based on the understanding that a dissertation should ideally have impact on policy, theory and practice in the discipline. There is need to develop research questions which ideally address all these issues. For PhD, it is expected that some original knowledge should be contributed through proposed frameworks and solutions to problems. This explains the extra one question. If the issues of research are diverse or wide, then two more questions for Master's and three for PhD should adequately address the issues under study.

The guidance as per the following publications may further help, namely:

Generally speaking, the total number of research questions should not exceed about four or five; if there are more, sufficient analysis may not be done on each within the space constraints of a thesis (see: Perry, 1998, p. 76).

How many research questions? …..a maximum of four general questions seems to be a good rule of thumb, although the scope of each question must also be taken into consideration….. (see: White, 2009, pp. 64-65).

• Agee, J. (2009) Developing qualitative research questions: a reflective process, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 22, 4, pp. 431-447.
• Doody, O. and Bailey, M. E. (2016) Setting a research question, aim and objective, Nurse Researcher, 23, 4, pp. 19-23.
• Dunleavy, P. (2003) Authoring a PhD : How to plan, draft, write and finish a doctoral thesis or dissertation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Perry, C. (1998) A structured approach for presenting theses, Australasian marketing journal, 6, 1, pp. 63-85.
• Rowley, J. (2014) Designing and using research questionnaires, Management Research Review, 37, 3, pp. 308-330.
• White, B. (2011) Mapping your Thesis: The comprehensive manual of theory and techniques for masters and doctoral research. Victoria, Australia: ACER Press.
• White, P. (2009) Developing Research Questions: A Guide for Social Scientists. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

I suggest one research question for a PhD dissertation. If there are many or sub-questions, this may show lack of clarity about the single focus for the dissertation. In this case, I would go back, brainstorm, speak to advisors, and see which of the questions can be answered as the primary query in several years of research and interpretation, then outline which are secondary. Only one question needs to be answered. I know this from personal experience in the field of depth psychology -- I started off with multiple questions and, happily, ended up with one. In the extensive fieldwork, I silently thanked my advisors every day for keeping the focus on a single question rather than branching out into sub-questions. I am now done, defended, and have my PhD.

There is no specific answer to this. It depends on the field, the complexity of the research questions etc. The average is three to four in sciences. The student and the advisor must realise that the study is time-bound (3-4 years in most cases) and that not graduating at the given time put a burden on the system and prevents the enrolment of another PhD student under the advisor. In the case of complex research questions with more than the recommended three or four questions, the study can be broken down for another MSc or PhD student to do.

It all depends on the scope of the topic

Thanks @Ava Lindberg

Thank you @Tom Kwanya