research-ideation

Use the 5W1H framework to examine your idea across six dimensions: What (the problem), Why (importance), Who (stakeholders), When (time scope), Where (application scenarios), and How (preliminary methods). Iterate through the questions and document results as the basis for a research proposal.

Search academic databases via WebSearch, extract DOIs or arXiv IDs from results, then import papers into Zotero using zotero_add_items_by_identifier. Papers are organized into topic collections with sub-collections like Core Papers, Methods, and Baselines, and open-access PDFs are attached automatically.

Gap analysis identifies unexplored research opportunities across five types: literature, methodological, application, interdisciplinary, and temporal gaps. It involves systematic literature review, building comparison matrices of existing work, and evaluating each gap for importance, novelty, and feasibility.

arXiv preprints use the DOI format 10.48550/arXiv.{id}. For papers lacking identifiers, the workflow tries arXiv IDs or page metadata like citation_doi first, falling back to saving as a webpage entry only when no identifier can be resolved.

Newly attached PDFs require indexing time before zotero_get_item_fulltext returns content. The Zotero desktop client must be running to complete indexing, and large PDFs take longer, so retry after a short wait.

A SMART research question is Specific (clear object, direction, and task), Measurable (defined evaluation metrics), Achievable (within resource limits), Relevant (academic or practical value), and Time-bound (realistic timeline). Questions are also scored on importance, novelty, and feasibility.