AHIMA Library Research Resources

Getting Started

Developing and refining the research question

To start a research project, you need to identify a question you want to answer. The question needs to be specific, and something that appears to be answerable. Take a look at the abstracts for articles published in Perspectives in Health Information Management to give you an idea of what is currently being published in the HIM scholarly and professional literature. You might also want to take a look at the AHIMA Foundation's research priorities to review areas where health information management and other health care professionals believe more research is needed.

Some important questions you should ask yourself:

• Is there a particular problem at your workplace that needs to be addressed?
• Has someone else already researched and answered the same question?
• Does previous research prompt further questions you may be interested in exploring?
• Is the question too broad?
• What research methodology do you anticipate using? For example, does your research require a survey? Will you need access to primary data, such as medical or business records? Are you interested in doing a systematic review of the literature, or a meta-analysis of previous studies?
• What analytical methodology do you anticipate using? Will you need access to and knowledge of statistical software packages?
• Do you have access to the resources needed to explore the question?

Planning the literature search

• What subject disciplines might cover the research topic? Many disciplines, such as medicine, law, business, information technology, education, social sciences, social services, public policy, have their own standard resources. For some of these, check the Resources page.
• What researchers are working in the field?
• • Who are the key researchers working in the field? One strategy is to use citation indexes to identify those researchers who are most frequently cited by other authors.
  • What and where have they published?
  • Are there professional associations for your field? What are their research interests and what are they publishing?
  • Identify key terms used in your field.

A list of core HIM periodicals is available here.

A list of some previous HIM student research projects is available here.

Additional resources for getting a research project started.

Return to Library Research Resource