Research: the challenges

It can be scary to do research on so many levels. 
The first, obviously is getting the necessary time, funds and support from your workplace to do it.
The others have to do with cognitive and emotional barriers such as:

What should I study?  How do I know what I'm interested in?  Hasn't everything already been studied to death?  To answer the last question first, no, because you always have something else to bring to the table.  So the question becomes what table do you want to sit at?  Are you interested in solving a problem you've found, or in discovering a new problem?  Are you interested in a person or a concept? 

How do I study it?  Many non-researchers seem to think that the experimental method is the only method, but you can also choose from case studies, ethnography, action research...there are load of ways to do research!

How do I know what to read for my theoretical framework?   Heck, I don't even have time to read!  Well, you don't have to read entire encyclopdeias.  You can start by checking wikipedia, google and amazon to see which authors are at the forefront of the field and then find summaries of their approaches.  As you go along, you'll eventually find specific papers you'll want to cite.

How do I write all this up?  Essentially, you need a question, a theoretical background (what answers already exist), a description of your methodology (how you will answer th question), a summary of your results and some conclusions.  How long your article is will depend on what the journal asks for.

How do I find an academic journal? There are essentially two ways: look up journals based on your field of interest, or look up authors in your field of interest and see where they've published.

Do that, and guess what?  You are officially a researcher!