Questions to Ask a Professor About Their Research
Questions to ask professors about their research, for office hours, a first meeting arranged by email, or the minutes after a talk. They are also the questions to ask about a research project you have been offered a place on. The 61 questions start with the current project, its stage and its methods, move through the arguments in the field, what the work is for and who pays for it, and end with how the group runs, how a student joins it and which piece of the project would be theirs.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The work
How would you describe what you work on to someone outside your field?
Why ask it
It works even if the papers were over your head, and it gets you the plain version that every later question hangs on. If the answer fills up with jargon, ask how they would put it to a first-year student.
What question are you trying to answer right now?
Why ask it
A faculty page sums up a career and can be years behind, so it rarely says what is on the desk this term. The current question is the one they are thinking about most, and it is the only work a new student could join.
How did you end up working on this?
Why ask it
Listen for the accident in the story: a supervisor's project, an experiment that failed, a dataset somebody passed on. It is worth hearing if you are choosing a direction yourself, because it shows how much of a research career was planned and how much was inherited.
Which of your current projects are you most excited about?
Why ask it
Professors often have several projects running, and a website gives them equal weight. The one they light up about gets the most of their attention, so a student working on it is more likely to have drafts read closely. Ask what happened recently to make it the exciting one.
Which of your papers should I read first, and what should I take from it?
Why ask it
One paper is a request they can answer on the spot, where a reading list is homework for both of you. Pay attention to what they say to take from it, because the point they care about is often not the headline result.
What has surprised you most in your research over the last year?
Why ask it
A surprise is usually too recent to be in print, so you may hear about a result nobody outside the group has seen or a direction that was dropped. Ask what they expected to find instead. The distance between the two is the interesting part.
Where did the idea for your most recent paper come from?
Why ask it
Papers present the question as if it had been obvious from the start. The real origin is more often a reviewer's comment, an odd data point or an argument over coffee. Read the abstract first so you can name the paper when you ask.
What is the part of this project that nobody has cracked yet?
Why ask it
You are asking where the work is stuck, from the person who knows best. Ask what has already been tried. If the explanation loses you, say so and ask what you would need to learn to follow it.
Which finding of yours are you proudest of?
Why ask it
The answer is not always the most cited paper. It may be a small result that took years, or one that settled a point only a handful of specialists cared about. Ask why that one, and you learn what they count as good work.
Which part of the research process do you enjoy most, and which do you put off?
Why ask it
Some people love designing a study and dread writing it up, and for others it is the reverse. You get an honest picture of what the work feels like, and the part they put off is often the part that gets handed to students.
How has your research changed since you started out?
Why ask it
Plenty of researchers have left their dissertation topic behind. The turns usually have causes you can ask about: a new method, a collaborator, a result that closed one door. It is a comfort to hear if you worry that a first topic locks you in.
Where do you want this work to be in five years?
Why ask it
A five-year answer shows whether there is a longer plan behind the current paper or one project at a time. If you are thinking of joining, ask whether the piece you would start on is growing or winding down.
What stage is the project at now: planning, collecting, analysing or writing up?
Why ask it
The stage decides what there is to talk about and what there is to do. A project still being designed has room for a new idea, while one being written up mostly needs figures made and references checked. Ask what has to happen before it moves on to the next stage.
What is the next deadline for the project, and what has to be ready for it?
Why ask it
Grant reports, conference submissions and journal revisions set the rhythm of a research group. The next one explains why a professor is hard to reach this month, and it tells you whether a request to join is better made after it has passed.
Methods
What does collecting your data or evidence involve, day to day?
Why ask it
Method sections make collection sound tidy. In practice it may be months of recruiting participants, a week in an archive or a script that runs overnight, and that daily texture is what a student would live with. Ask how long one round takes.
Why did you choose this method over the alternatives?
Why ask it
Every method is a trade: cost against precision, depth against sample size, control against realism. Ask what they gave up by choosing it, since a methods section seldom says. Read enough of one paper beforehand to know which method you mean.
How long does one project take, from first idea to published paper?
Why ask it
The honest answer may be months in one field and most of a decade in another, and it resets your sense of pace. It matters practically too: a student with one summer needs a piece of a project that can finish inside it.
Which tools, software or techniques does the work depend on?
Why ask it
Write down the names. A programming language, a statistics package, a lab technique or a reading language is something you can start on this month, and having started is the most concrete thing you can bring to a second meeting.
How do you decide a result is solid enough to publish?
Why ask it
You are asking about the group's standard of evidence: repeat runs, a second dataset, a colleague invited to break it. Notice whether the pressure to publish quickly comes up. It is real, and a candid researcher will say how they handle it.
Can you tell me about a study that did not work, and what you did with it?
Why ask it
Failed studies rarely reach print, so asking is often the only way to hear about them. Some are abandoned, some are rescued by a new question, some sit in a drawer for years. How the story is told shows how failure is treated in the group.
What result would make you change your mind about your current hypothesis?
Why ask it
You are asking what evidence would count against the idea, which is a normal seminar question and fair from a student too. A quick, specific answer means the test is already built into the project. If nothing comes to mind, ask how the idea has been tested so far and leave it there.
If you could run your last study again, what would you change?
Why ask it
Hindsight gets a more relaxed answer than a direct question about weaknesses. You might hear about a bigger sample, a different measure, or a control they wish they had included. Those are the choices waiting in your own first project.
What can your approach not tell you?
Why ask it
Every design has a blind spot: a sample drawn from one population, a model that leaves out a variable, an archive with gaps. Researchers argue over limits like these with colleagues as a matter of routine, so the question is not rude. It suits the minutes after a talk, where limits tend to get a single slide.
What ethical questions come with this work, and who has to approve it?
Why ask it
Work with people, animals, personal data or sensitive sites goes through a review, and the rules differ by country and institution, so ask how it works at theirs. Fields with no review board still argue about how their results get applied.
The field
What are the biggest open questions in your field right now?
Why ask it
Ask for two or three, then ask which of them their own work touches. The list is a rough guide to where the field's attention is heading, and that helps if you are picking a topic you want to still matter when you finish.
Who disagrees with you, and what is their strongest point?
Why ask it
An active field has live disputes, and a researcher who can put the other side's case fairly has thought hard about their own. Write down the names you hear. One paper from the opposing camp is a quick way to see what is unsettled.
Who else in the world works on this, and how do you relate to them?
Why ask it
A research area can be a small circle of people who all know one another. Who collaborates and who competes shows where a student might later visit, intern or apply, and whether this group sits in the middle of the conversation or a little apart from it.
Do you work with people outside your discipline, and what do they bring?
Why ask it
Projects across disciplines are common and awkward: different vocabularies, different journals, different ideas of what counts as evidence. If the answer is yes, ask what was hardest to translate. A student with a second major sometimes fits exactly that gap.
What question in your field is nobody working on, and why not?
Why ask it
The why not is the interesting part: no funding, no method, no data, or a reputational cost to trying. A neglected question with an obstacle that can be removed is sometimes what a thesis is made of, so ask which obstacle it is.
What can you do now that was impossible when you started?
Why ask it
New instruments, bigger datasets and cheaper computing reshape what a field is able to ask. You get a short history of the area told through its tools, and a hint about which skills will matter by the time you graduate.
Has AI changed how you do this work?
Why ask it
Opinions run from daily use to deep suspicion, often inside a single department. Ask what they trust it for and what they still check by hand. If you might work in the group, ask what the rules are for students, since journals and institutions set different ones.
Which paper by someone else do you wish you had written?
Why ask it
Envy is a reliable guide to taste. The paper they name shows what they think excellent work looks like, and it can be a better way into the field than a reading list, especially once they explain what makes it so good.
Which journals or conferences should I follow to keep up with this area?
Why ask it
Two or three names are enough. Skimming the titles in a field's main journal for a month shows you what the community is arguing about, and your library can tell you how to get access.
Impact and funding
If this project works, what changes?
Why ask it
This is the so-what question, asked politely. The answer might be a treatment, a policy, a better theory, or one fewer thing we are wrong about. A purely intellectual payoff is a legitimate answer, so do not push for an application that is not there.
Who outside a university could use what you find?
Why ask it
Clinicians, teachers, engineers, city planners, museum curators: most research has an audience beyond other researchers, even if a distant one. Whether those people ever get in touch shows how far the work has travelled.
What do people misunderstand about this work?
Why ask it
It invites a correction instead of a summary, and corrections are livelier. Often what comes out is the overstated popular version of the results, and that may well be the version you walked in with.
Has your research ever been covered in the news, and did they get it right?
Why ask it
Plenty of researchers have a story about a headline that claimed more than the paper did. It is a quick lesson in the distance between a finding and its coverage, and it changes how you read reports of new research afterwards.
How does your research show up in the courses you teach?
Why ask it
Sometimes it is a whole seminar, sometimes one lecture, sometimes nothing because the course sits far from their specialty. If you are in their class, you learn which week to pay closest attention to and which topic to bring to office hours.
Where does the funding for this work come from?
Why ask it
Government agencies, foundations, companies and the university itself all pay for research, and each wants something slightly different back. Researchers ask each other this all the time. The follow-up is how long the current grant runs, which matters if you hope to join.
What is the hardest constraint right now: funding, data, equipment, or people?
Why ask it
The bottleneck shapes what students spend their time on. A group short of data has students doing fieldwork or annotation, and a group short of money may have them helping with grant applications. Ask which it would be for you.
If funding were not a constraint, what would you work on instead?
Why ask it
Funders have priorities, and research tends to drift toward them. If the dream project sits close to the current one, the work is what they would choose anyway. If it is far away, ask what it would take to start on it.
The group
How do you decide what a new student works on?
Why ask it
Some advisers hand out a defined piece of a larger project, and others expect students to arrive with a question of their own. Neither is wrong, but know which you would prefer before you ask, because a mismatch here is hard to fix later.
Who would a new student work with day to day?
Why ask it
In a large group it is often a postdoc or a senior graduate student, not the professor. Ask who that would be and whether you can talk to them. They will shape your weeks more than the name on the door.
How often do you meet one-on-one with your students?
Why ask it
Weekly, monthly and whenever something breaks are all real answers, and none is wrong on its own. Set the answer against how much direction you need at this stage. Then put the same question to a current student and see whether the two answers match.
Does the group have a regular meeting, and could I sit in on one?
Why ask it
An hour in a group meeting shows you who speaks, how criticism is delivered and whether junior people ask questions. It is a small request that is easy to grant, and turning up a few times makes you a familiar face before any position exists.
How does authorship work on your projects?
Why ask it
Norms differ sharply between fields, and inside a field between groups. Ask what a student typically has to do to be listed, and how order is decided. It is a completely normal question and it is much harder to ask after the work is done.
Do students in your group get to present their work, at a poster session or a conference?
Why ask it
Presenting is the point where a student project becomes something you can put on an application and talk about in an interview. Ask whether the department or the grant covers travel, since that varies and it decides who can actually go.
What did the best student you ever supervised do differently?
Why ask it
Listen for habits, because that is usually what you get: writing things down, asking early when stuck, finishing small tasks without being chased. Whatever they describe is what they will quietly expect from you.
What have your students gone on to do?
Why ask it
Where former students ended up says something about the mentoring that a website seldom does. Notice how much detail the professor has. One who can say what each person is doing now has probably kept in touch.
Joining
Are you taking on students this year, and how do people usually get started with you?
Why ask it
Ask directly instead of hinting. Some groups have a form and a deadline, others take whoever keeps turning up to meetings, and a group that is full this term may have a place next term. A clear no saves you weeks of waiting on an email.
What would a student at my level actually do in your group?
Why ask it
The honest range runs from real analysis to washing glassware and cleaning spreadsheets, and both exist in good labs. Ask what the first three months would look like. A vague answer may mean there is no defined project waiting yet.
If I joined this research project, which piece of it would be mine?
Why ask it
One dataset, one experiment or one corner of the literature with your name on it is easier to start and easier to describe on an application later. If the answer is helping wherever help is needed, ask whether a piece could become yours after a term.
What already exists that I would be building on: data, code, drafts, notes?
Why ask it
Students often inherit a half-finished project, and what the last person left behind decides the first month. Labelled data and commented code let you begin on the question itself. A folder of unnamed files means beginning with detective work, so ask whether that person can still be reached.
What would a finished version of my part look like by the end of the term or the summer?
Why ask it
Research has no natural stopping point, so agree on one. A poster, a cleaned dataset, one figure reproduced or a written report are all things a student can complete, and naming the target early gives you both something to measure progress against.
If the project does not produce a result, what would I still have to show for the time?
Why ask it
Dead ends are ordinary in research, and a student with one summer cannot wait for a second attempt. A thoughtful answer names what survives: a technique learned, a write-up of what was tried, a talk at group meeting. Ask it out of curiosity, not as a demand for a guarantee.
What should I learn before I would be useful, and how long does that usually take?
Why ask it
This turns a vague interest into a concrete next step: a language, a technique, a statistics course, a piece of software. The time estimate shows whether they are looking for someone who can commit a summer or several years.
How many hours a week would you expect, and is the position paid, for credit, or voluntary?
Why ask it
A realistic figure lets you check the commitment against your course load before you say yes. Whether student researchers are paid, earn credit or volunteer depends on the institution and the grant, so ask how it works there and who handles the paperwork.
Could a piece of this become a senior thesis or an independent project?
Why ask it
Raise it early, because a thesis needs a question small enough to finish and data you are allowed to work with. A professor who starts sketching one out loud is telling you they can picture you in the group.
What advice would you give a student who wants to get into research in this field?
Why ask it
This is the one to ask when you are not ready to request a place, or when their group is not the right one for you. The useful answers are concrete: a course to take, a summer program to apply to, a reading habit. If you get encouragement only, ask what they would do in your position this term.
Is there someone else here whose work I should look at?
Why ask it
Professors know what their colleagues are working on this year, which a department website may not show. If their own group is full or not quite your interest, the conversation still leads somewhere. Ask whether you may mention their name when you write.
May I come back with questions once I have read the paper?
Why ask it
One conversation becomes two, and the reason to return costs them nothing to grant. Then do the reading within a couple of weeks. Turning up again having done what you said you would do says more than anything in a first email.
Making an office hours conversation count
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you go
- 1Read one paper, not five. Read the abstract, the introduction and the conclusion, look at any figures, and write down two things you did not understand.
- 2Check the faculty page against their recent publications. The page often describes work from several years ago.
- 3Email with a specific ask and a time bound, such as fifteen minutes to ask about one paper. Open-ended requests are easy to leave unanswered.
- 4Bring a short note about what you can already do: a course, a technique, a language, a piece of software.
- 5Decide before you walk in whether you want to understand the work or join it, because those are two different conversations.
Picking questions for the conversation you are having
- At office hours for a class, start in The work and add the question about how the research meets the courses they teach. Three or four questions is a full visit.
- After a talk or a seminar, go to Methods and The field. The speaker has just explained what they found, so ask how they found it and who is not convinced.
- In a first meeting about joining, ask two or three questions about the research before anything under The group or Joining. Opening with hours and authorship sounds like shopping for a line on an application.
- If you are applying to graduate programs and talking to a possible adviser, The group matters most: how projects are assigned, how often you would meet, authorship, and where former students went. Put the same questions to a current student.
- If you have been offered a place and want to know what to ask about the research project itself, use the last two questions under The work and the four under Joining that deal with your own piece: its stage, the next deadline, what you inherit and what finished looks like.
- In an email, ask one question that shows you read something, and keep the rest for when you meet.
- If you are interviewing a professor for a class assignment or a student publication, the questions under The work and under Impact and funding give the answers that are easiest to quote. Ask before you record.
During the conversation
- Say plainly when you do not follow something. Researchers are used to explaining and it is far better than nodding through the answer.
- Ask about the failed version. What did not work is often unpublished, and it explains why the published version looks the way it does.
- Take notes on names and methods you do not recognise instead of stopping the flow each time.
- Do not pretend to have read something you have not. It becomes obvious in one follow-up question.
- Leave with one concrete next step: a paper, a person to email, or a date to come back.
If you are hoping to join the group
- Ask to speak with a current student or postdoc alone. That conversation answers the mentorship questions the professor cannot answer about themselves.
- Find out how many people are in the group now and how many were there two years ago. Rapid growth and rapid shrinkage both change what your time looks like.
- Clarify whether the position is paid, for credit, or voluntary, and get the hours in plain numbers before you start.
- Agree on a point to check in, such as the end of the first term, when either of you can say it is not working.
- Send a short thank-you note with the one thing you are going to read next. It is the cheapest way to be remembered.