1, based on the research direction, looking for scientific research ideas through literature reading.
Where does the scientific research idea come from? Most researchers' answers come from reading literature. After all, everyone is a graduate student. Some teachers on Science Online suggested that we should base ourselves on our own research field, look at the international progress, grasp the research hotspots from a macro perspective, learn from the progress in other fields, and get out of our own characteristics.
Reading literature should not only read papers in this field, but also read articles on different topics in other interdisciplinary subjects. You know, scientific research ideas are not created out of thin air. Imagine that even a once-in-a-lifetime genius like Newton needs to stand on the shoulders of giants, let alone ordinary people like you and me.
Here, we recommend a method of reading literature for the purpose of finding scientific research ideas: we don't have to read literature too carefully, such as materials and methods, but focus on the discussion part of the paper. On the one hand, the discussion part of the paper will explain the innovation of the paper, and at the same time, it will make a horizontal comparison with other papers, discuss their respective advantages and disadvantages, as well as possible application prospects, unanswered questions in the paper, future research directions and so on. These are the times when we are looking for scientific research ideas. The author needs to focus on what problems or conjectures people have raised, and then use what technical means and methods to solve these problems or test these conjectures. This part belongs to the research idea of learning from their experience. Once you have inspiration, you should strike while the iron is hot and record it, and immediately write down how to prove your idea and what experiments you need to do. You can prepare a "scientific research inspiration book" or "scientific research inspiration U disk".
When reading literature, listening to academic lectures and holding group discussions in the laboratory, what inspiration flashed through your mind, write it down immediately, indicate the source, what problems your inspiration solved, and what inspiration this document gave you. If you had other ideas along this inspiration at that time, follow this idea until you don't know what to write, and then continue to add and correct it next time you have relevant inspiration.
One day, when you find that the literature, method model, data, experimental design, inspection method and research purpose of one of your inspirations are mature, you can discuss the innovation and feasibility with your boss or colleagues and other laboratory personnel. What other experiments need to be supplemented? What experiments need to be done first? In this way, a few back and forth, basically formed a complete scientific research ideas. In fact, the above outline is a blueprint for writing a paper in the future to some extent.
Literary reading is a way to get inspiration quickly from other people's experiences. In addition, listening to more academic lectures, communicating with scholars with similar research directions in the same industry and sharing their own scientific research ideas are also good ways to obtain scientific research ideas from other people's experience.
2, according to their own research, found hidden ideas.
At first, researchers can look for scientific research ideas through literature reading. With my growth and accumulation, I have a deeper understanding of this field, which can be inspired by my own experience, that is, researchers have carried out some research work and accumulated some work, which can be guided by scientific problems encountered in practical research, or what problems have been solved in this research field, what methods have been used to solve them, what advantages and disadvantages of various methods, and what problems have not been solved. Make a comparative analysis of tables and combine yourself.
Second, good scientific research ideas (Good Ideas)
Some people say that I can put forward several research ideas every day, but unfortunately no one helps me realize them. Some people also say that what I thought and found was done by others.
In fact, all these situations reflect a problem, and the research ideas are not unusual, and good ideas are even rarer. The more critical problem is that many people do not have the ability to evaluate ideas. The ability to evaluate ideas simply means the ability to identify those that are good ideas.
A good idea should have three characteristics or attributes: novelty, rationality and verifiability, which are very useful.
1, novelty
The most important task of scientific research is to explore new problems. Innovation is the most critical and basic feature of scientific research ideas, but innovation alone is not enough. Ideas that others have not put forward or disdain to put forward are all new ideas on the surface, but they are actually not good ideas. A good idea must be not only new, but also strange in order to win.
This is also a bit like the argument of writing an argumentative essay, which emphasizes that the idea should be new and high, and it is always a cliche, and no one will be interested. For example, spatial analysis in geography is based on spatial autocorrelation, and some teachers put forward spatial analysis based on spatial variability theory, which is a very novel idea, that is, to look at your research object from another angle.
2. Rationality
Rationality is the norm required by modern scientific research. Some ideas are novel, but they violate the basic scientific logic and basically belong to the category of science fiction. The rationality of scientific research ideas is the basis of feasibility study, and unreasonable ideas are not worth further study.
3. verifiability
The basic model of modern scientific research is hypothesis-driven, and it is difficult for unverifiable hypotheses to enter scientific research activities. Of course, the assumption that it cannot be realized because of technical difficulties is another matter. Modern scientific research requires us to "make bold assumptions and verify them carefully". Even if the assumptions cannot be verified under technical conditions, they must be verified in theory.
Third, the "369" scientific research ideas
1, draw a tiger according to the cat
The experimental design and results are either exactly the same as those made by others, or most of them are the same, but some innovations have been found, such as changing the detection method and improving some characteristics. It can be said that the shell is basically the same, with a little fur. This scientific research idea can be said to be too simple, copying others'.
2. Simply transplant horizontal growth (change objects)
In this case, many of our scientific research ideas are summarized from reading literature. This is probably the most direct way for us to get scientific research ideas. The discussion part of the general literature will remind you that you need further research. Isn't this the idea? If you study further along this line, you can say that there are ideas, but you are also easily influenced by the literature.
People who start doing research often like to track the literature in this way and then transplant the tracked ideas into their own disciplines. This kind of thinking is either worthless, or someone else has finished it or will finish it soon, and it is easy to fix thinking, and it is often difficult to make big discoveries.
3. Fill in the blank (reasonable collocation)
If we simply follow the author's suggestion, this method is definitely not enough. However, we can interpret new research more broadly, or, to solve an old problem, try with new technologies and methods, and solve a new problem, we must first consider classic technologies. That's a good idea.
4. Excavate the undiscovered mechanism and find out the details.
Mining undiscovered mechanisms requires researchers to have long-term interests, be familiar with important scientific and technological issues in this field, and be sensitive to all new developments in this field, at least within 1 week after a problem is solved and published. Then read books and documents in other related fields extensively and attend relevant academic conferences. In short, we should keep the state of obtaining all kinds of relevant information, and constantly find many ideas in combination with our own problems.