Dear Neveed,

In order to narrow down your research area for a doctoral dissertation, try to raise an "irritating" question or doubt in the domain where you want to perform your doctoral dissertation. By its very nature, an "irritating" question or doubt is new.  An "irritating" question is a question whose response goes against established truths in the domain at hand. In the last analysis, all geniuses were capable of raising, say, irritating questions, that is, questions whose response is likely to falsify previous hypotheses or theories and lead to a new hypothesis  or a grounded theory. Note that Galileo was a genius just because he greatly irritated all those who defended geocentric theory. As C.S. Pierce once remarked, scientific progress results from the irritation of doubt. Wittgenstein, in his book on certainty also remarked that where there is no place for doubt, certainty does not make any sense either. Unfortunately, it is often the case that social scientists, psychologists in particular, intend to test what is true by definition and, hence, what can not be falsified.  

If you were able to raise an irritating question and hence intellectually irritate previous researchers, I can answer you that with all likelihood you will perform a brilliant dissertation. Of course, not all dissertations come from irritating questions and doubts. This fact may help us understand what the neo-Popperian Paul Meehl, called, in 1978 (see his article on the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology), the slow progress of soft psychology.

I hope this helps

Dear Naveed,

In order to narrow down your research area, a common technique is to think about what data you are practically able to collect.

thanks for your valuable advice @Peter Samuels

Dear Neveed,

In order to narrow down your research area for a doctoral dissertation, try to raise an "irritating" question or doubt in the domain where you want to perform your doctoral dissertation. By its very nature, an "irritating" question or doubt is new.  An "irritating" question is a question whose response goes against established truths in the domain at hand. In the last analysis, all geniuses were capable of raising, say, irritating questions, that is, questions whose response is likely to falsify previous hypotheses or theories and lead to a new hypothesis  or a grounded theory. Note that Galileo was a genius just because he greatly irritated all those who defended geocentric theory. As C.S. Pierce once remarked, scientific progress results from the irritation of doubt. Wittgenstein, in his book on certainty also remarked that where there is no place for doubt, certainty does not make any sense either. Unfortunately, it is often the case that social scientists, psychologists in particular, intend to test what is true by definition and, hence, what can not be falsified.  

If you were able to raise an irritating question and hence intellectually irritate previous researchers, I can answer you that with all likelihood you will perform a brilliant dissertation. Of course, not all dissertations come from irritating questions and doubts. This fact may help us understand what the neo-Popperian Paul Meehl, called, in 1978 (see his article on the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology), the slow progress of soft psychology.

I hope this helps

Different techniques are used depending at what stage of the research one is trying to narrow down the research area.

For instance, let’s assume at the beginning the research area it is: “New materials for water purification filters”. In the middle of the research cycle, it may change to: “Peculiarities of new materials for water purification filters”, whereas by the end of the research – it might change to: “Certain peculiarities of new materials for enhanced efficiency of drinking water purification filters’.

Also, there are explicit and implicit approaches to do it. Here is, for example a research area in a theoretical physics: “Properties of a single exciton in a remote molecular chain at zero temperature”. The limitations of this research area are stated quite explicitly: ‘single’, ‘remote’, ‘a molecular chain’, and ‘at zero temperature’ clearly define the limitations at which the properties are being considered, calculated, and analyzed. Whereas, “Certain properties of a single exciton in a remote molecular chain at zero temperature” would be an example of an implicit limitation of the research area.

@Orlando M Lourenço 

Thanks for your great suggestion

@Chalamalla Srinivas

thanks sir for your detailed answer 

@Len Leonid Mizrah

thanks sir! you identified a major factor affecting dissertation and that is timing of different stages in the research

@Farooqui Nk

thanks for your helpful suggestions.

What is a good way to narrow down your research question for a doctoral dissertation?

You can explore the following in order to narrow down your research question(s):

@Han Ping Fung

thanks 

I agree with Ping Fung.

When you have selected a general topic, list several questions you have that you have not seen answered.  Research each one to see what else has been written on the topic.  Think of how you could collect and analyze date related to your possible questions.  Pick one or more that are manageable.

Your research objectives are constructed based on your statement of the problem. Your research questions must be in tandem with your research objectives. You can have sub research questions if you need to further operationalize it and it will prevent you from having a double barrel of research questions.

@Micheal W. Marek

Thanks for your comments. I am also agree with Professor Ping Fung.

@Malini Ganapathy

You are right Ms. Malini Ganapathy. Your comments are helpful to organize my work in a good way.