Some research topics can be related to current events. This makes them timely and interesting to the reader, although it can also potentially limit their shelf life. Choosing a current event-based research topic is like choosing any other topic. You need to read up, find what interests you and define it narrowly. For example, your research topic could be "Social media and the 2011 protests in Egypt," or "Potential Republican candidates in the 2012 presidential election."
History is another topic that lends itself to research papers. Follow the same theme as with all other research topics: "World War I" is obviously much, much too broad, while "The effect of American involvement in World War I" is specific enough to read broadly about, conduct research on and form an argument about. This is a good template to follow when naming history research papers: "The effect of ______ (name of a historical event) on ______."
Literature topics need to focus on a specific facet of a work of literature. It is not enough to simply write a summary of a book, play or other piece of work. Rather, you need to create an argument that focuses on something in particular. "Comparing themes of love and regret in Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet" is one example of an English literature research topic; "A postcolonial examination of 'The Woman in White'" is another.
English research tends to be very subjective. This means you can conduct research using only the work itself if you want, but you can add to it by reading academics' opinions on the same matter and referring to them in your paper.
Scientific research is different from humanities research in that it tends to be firsthand research rather than a collation of other peoples' work. In other words, scientific research tends to be experimental. Your scientific experiment can be essentially anything -- you can test what happens when you mix oil and water, you can experiment with static electricity or you can move into more complex topics, depending on your age and grade level. The most important feature of scientific research is that it has a clear hypothesis, background research, scientific methodology and concise conclusions, all of which can be repeated.