Accounting:  Accountancy Age

Entrepreneurship:    Entrepreneur.com

ExDM: Event Marketer

Finance: Bloomberg Businessweek

HR: HR Magazine

IS: Gartner

Marketing: Mintel

Strategy: Strategy+Business Magazine

Supply Chain: Supply Chain Brain

Sometimes, choosing a topic is the hardest part of doing research. Below are a few ideas that will help you find an interesting subject.  See AI tools below

• Consider Your Interests - Look into things that you have been reading about or discussing in class or with friends or consider recent events and developments in your field of study. 
• Choose a "hot topic" from the media or Congress - Go to the databases CQ Researcher or Opposing Viewpoints to find background information on topics discussed in the media. 
• Search for the latest trends in your industry or profession. The BYU business librarians gathered links to key publications and organized them by major. Go to https://guides.lib.byu.edu/bymajor.

Brainstorming

1. Define your general topic area.

2. Choose your AI tool (such as ChatGPT).

3. Craft your prompt, clearly specifying your request. Ask the AI to generate ideas for research questions, propose methodologies, or recommend scholarly databases.  *See prompt examples below

4. Experiment and refine your prompt, building on what was helpful or not helpful about the response given.

5. Critically evaluate and filter the results using your human expertise, knowledge, and experience. Validate using credible sources.

6. Beware of ethical considerations such as bias, source, privacy, and citing the use of AI according

Generate Keywords

Introduction:

• Introduce yourself and your research topic to ChatGPT. Provide a concise description of your role, the subject, and the focus of your research. "I am a student working on a business paper. My topic is...

Ask for Suggestions:

• Pose a question to ChatGPT asking for keywords related to your research. "Can you suggest keywords for this topic?" 

Review and Refine:

• Examine the model's responses and pick out potential keywords. Look for terms that accurately represent the core concepts of your research and, based on your knowledge of the area, consider what is missing in the results list.

Ask Follow-up Questions:

• Ask follow-up questions to narrow down or expand on specific aspects of your research. "Can you provide more keywords related to this topic?" 

Validate the Results and Consult Existing Literature:

• Cross-reference the generated keywords with existing literature in your field or a database thesaurus to ensure that your keywords are recognized and accepted within the academic community. 

Iterative Process:

• Refine and expand your list until you are satisfied with the selection.

PROMPT EXAMPLES

Example 1:

• You are an expert in _____________. I am required to write a two- to three-page business research article for a business communication class, and I need you to help me develop a topic for this project. Because you are an expert, you can help me identify a topic with a scope narrow enough that I can write about it in two or three pages.
• Ask me questions until you have enough information to identify a narrow business topic.
• Ask only one question at a time.
• Please wait for my answer before you ask your next question.
• Keep asking until the topic is narrow enough for a project of this scope.

Example 2:

• I need at least six sources for my project, three of which must come from the deep web. Please give me a list of six sources I might use to complete this project.
• Instead of finding only commercial websites, find also academic and professional sources.
• Recommend academic databases I can use to find more sources.
• Please tell me how I would know each is credible.