Graduate School Research Guide

Overview

Graduate school -- particularly a PhD program -- is a multi-year commitment that demands not only technical skills but also effective research methodology, advisor management, paper writing strategies, and career planning. The difference between thriving and merely surviving often comes down to having the right mental models and practical frameworks for the research process.

This guide distills wisdom from the awesome-grad-school repository (450+ stars, maintained by the Polo Club of Data Science at Georgia Tech) and supplements it with actionable frameworks for formulating research questions, developing hypotheses, structuring a theoretical framework, and managing the end-to-end research lifecycle. The advice here applies broadly across STEM and social-science disciplines.

Whether you are an incoming PhD student, a mid-program researcher seeking to improve your productivity, or an advanced candidate preparing for the job market, this skill provides concrete tools for each stage of the journey.

Formulating Research Questions

A strong research question is the foundation of any good paper. It should be specific, answerable, and significant.

The FINER Criteria

Criterion	Description	Example Check
Feasible	Can be answered with available resources	Do you have the data, compute, and time?
Interesting	Engages the research community	Would peers read this at a top venue?
Novel	Not already answered	Has OpenAlex/CrossRef search been done?
Ethical	Follows research ethics standards	Does it require IRB approval?
Relevant	Advances the field meaningfully	Does it connect to open problems?