Research topics

Where to start reading.

50 topics students write about most. Each page lists the papers the field keeps citing, the most-cited work of the last five years and recent reviews, then explains how the literature is organised and gives you search strings to take to a database.

The lists are built from OpenAlex and checked against publisher records. They are a starting point for your own search, not a substitute for it: our guide to finding research gaps picks up where these pages stop.

Psychology

Motivation, wellbeing, therapy and the constructs students are most often asked to measure.

• Cognitive behavioral therapyLandmark trials, the reviews of meta-analyses, and the internet-delivered CBT literature, with search strings that handle the behavioural/behavioral spelling split.
• Emotional intelligenceFrom Salovey and Mayer's 1990 definition to current reviews: the most-cited emotional intelligence papers, the ability versus trait debate and search strings.
• Growth mindsetThe most-cited growth mindset studies, the two meta-analyses that disagree about whether interventions work, and search strings for your literature review.
• MindfulnessDefinitions, the main measurement scales, the clinical evidence for mindfulness-based programmes, and the recent large trials that complicate the picture.
• Self-efficacyBandura's founding papers, the most-cited work on academic, teacher and computer self-efficacy, and recent reviews, with search strings for a literature review.
• Social media and mental healthThe studies most often cited on social media use, depression, anxiety and wellbeing, with the reviews that explain why the findings conflict.

Education

Teaching methods, learning technology and what keeps students engaged.

• Artificial intelligence in educationThe most-cited studies on AI and ChatGPT in education: pre-2021 reviews of AIEd, the 2023 wave of generative AI papers and the systematic reviews that followed.
• Gamification in educationMeta-analyses, the theory behind gamified learning and the most-cited classroom studies, with search strings for your literature review.
• Inclusive educationTeacher attitudes and self-efficacy, school leadership, what inclusion means and whether it works: the most-cited research and recent meta-analyses.
• Online learningDistance education theory, e-learning success factors and the pandemic-era studies of emergency remote teaching, with reviews and search strings.
• Self-regulated learningThe Pintrich, Zimmerman and Winne models, the MSLQ, feedback and formative assessment, and recent research on supporting self-regulation with AI and analytics.
• Student engagementThe three-part model of behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement, the main measurement instruments and recent work on engagement online and with AI.
• The flipped classroomWhat the evidence says about flipped learning: the scoping reviews, the meta-analyses by discipline and the design questions that decide whether flipping works.

Nursing and public health

Workforce, patient safety, health behaviour and population health.

• Antimicrobial resistanceMechanisms, global burden, biofilms, resistance gene databases and One Health: the antimicrobial resistance papers cited most, with search strings.
• Childhood obesityPrevalence, causes, tracking into adulthood and prevention trials: the most-cited childhood obesity research, recent reviews and search strings.
• Evidence-based practice in nursingEBP competencies, barriers and readiness surveys, and what educational interventions achieve: the most-cited research and search strings for nursing students.
• Health literacyDefinitions and models, the main measurement tools, links to health outcomes and the rise of digital health literacy, with reviews and search strings.
• Nurse burnoutStaffing, work environment and patient outcomes: the most-cited nurse burnout studies, pandemic-era prevalence reviews and search strings for nursing students.
• Patient safetySystems thinking, safety culture, teamwork, staffing and staff wellbeing: the patient safety papers cited most, recent reviews and search strings.
• Postpartum depressionScreening with the EPDS, prevalence and risk factors, effects on children, fathers, and new treatments: the most-cited research with search strings.
• TelehealthEffectiveness reviews, barriers to adoption, patient satisfaction and the COVID-19 expansion: the most-cited telehealth research with search strings.
• Vaccine hesitancyThe WHO SAGE definition, the pre-pandemic determinants literature and the COVID-19 surveys that followed, with reviews and search strings.

Business and management

Leadership, people at work, marketing and how firms change.

• Corporate social responsibilityCarroll's pyramid, competing definitions, the CSR and financial performance debate and recent work on ESG, green innovation and the SDGs.
• Digital transformationDefinitions, dynamic capabilities, strategy and firm performance: the digital transformation papers cited most, the main reviews and search strings.
• Employee engagementWork engagement versus employee engagement, the UWES scale, the job demands-resources model and the meta-analyses linking engagement to performance.
• Entrepreneurial intentionTheory of planned behaviour models, the Liñán and Chen questionnaire, the effect of entrepreneurship education and recent student surveys worldwide.
• Remote workTelecommuting research before 2020, the randomised evidence on productivity, pandemic studies of wellbeing and the hybrid work debate, with search strings.
• Social media marketingBrand posts, luxury brands and customer equity, then the influencer marketing boom: source credibility, authenticity, influencer-product fit and the meta-analyses.
• Transformational leadershipBass's theory and its four components, classic experiments and meta-analytic evidence, plus the recent turn to green transformational leadership.

Computer science and AI

Machine learning methods and the systems built on them.

• BlockchainSurveys of blockchain architecture and security, smart contracts and the IoT, supply chain and energy applications, and decentralised finance.
• Deep learningThe 2015 Nature review, Schmidhuber's overview, PyTorch, landmark applications in medicine and science, and the reviews that map a very large field.
• Explainable AITaxonomies and surveys of explainable AI, SHAP and interpretable models, the critique of post-hoc explanation in health care and search strings.
• Federated learningCommunication efficiency, non-IID data, privacy and health-care applications: the federated learning papers cited most, with surveys and search strings.
• Large language modelsGPT-3, scaling laws, instruction tuning and LLaMA, plus the surveys on evaluation, hallucination and agents. Includes what a title search cannot find.
• Sentiment analysisFrom Pang and Lee to transformers: lexicon and machine-learning methods, aspect-based and multimodal sentiment analysis, validity checks and surveys.

Environmental science

Pollution, climate, energy and food systems.

• Air pollution and healthThe Six Cities study, PM2.5 and cardiovascular disease, global burden estimates and new evidence at low concentrations, with reviews and search strings.
• Climate change adaptationAdaptive capacity, limits and barriers, transformational adaptation and the global stocktake of evidence: the adaptation papers cited most, with search strings.
• Food securityFeeding nine billion, climate impacts, soils and nutrients, household food insecurity and health: the most-cited research, recent reviews and search strings.
• MicroplasticsFrom marine pollution to human tissue: the most-cited microplastics research, methods papers, recent human health studies and reviews, with search strings.
• Renewable energyEnergy transition scenarios, grid integration, social acceptance and the renewable energy and growth literature, with recent reviews and search strings.
• The circular economyDefinitions, business models, barriers and critiques: the circular economy papers cited most, the 2023 update to the 114 definitions study and search strings.

Sociology

Inequality, networks, violence and life online.

• CyberbullyingDefinitions and prevalence, the overlap with school bullying, mental health and suicide risk, prevention programmes and automatic detection.
• IntersectionalityCrenshaw's founding articles, the methodological debate started by McCall, intersectionality in psychology and public health, and recent quantitative methods.
• Intimate partner violencePrevalence from the WHO multi-country study, health consequences, risk factors, children's exposure and the COVID-19 period, with reviews and search strings.
• Social capitalColeman, Putnam, Portes and the management literature that followed; bonding, bridging and linking; measurement problems; and Chetty's 2022 big-data studies.

Economics

Growth, labour markets, inequality and household finance.

• Financial inclusionThe microfinance promise and the randomised trials that tested it, the Global Findex, digital finance and fintech, with recent reviews and search strings.
• Financial literacyLusardi and Mitchell's survey research, measurement debates, whether financial education works, and the rise of digital financial literacy.
• Foreign direct investmentFDI and growth, productivity spillovers, determinants and institutions, Chinese outward investment and the recent FDI and environment literature.
• Income inequalityLong-run top income data, inequality and health, mobility and the Great Gatsby curve, measurement, and recent work on automation and energy poverty.
• The minimum wageThe employment effects debate from Card and Krueger to bunching estimators, minimum wages and inequality, and recent evidence from Seattle, Germany and Brazil.