Research ideas matter: Guidance for research students and early career researchers

Keith Duncan, Adrian Gepp, Justin Craig and Helen O'Neill

Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 2023, vol. 82, issue C

Abstract: This paper draws on the collective experience of the authors as researchers, supervisors and editors spanning the fields of medical science, psychology, analytics, entrepreneurship, accounting, and finance. We provide guidance about research idea formulation for novice researchers, both Higher Degree Research students (HDRs) such as PhD students, and Early Career Researchers (ECRs). Drawing on parallels with business opportunity formulation, we break down the process into three steps: generating, refining and then evaluating research ideas. We present strategies to help generate high-quality research ideas, including five key perspectives for identifying gaps in the literature that are opportunities to be addressed with novel research ideas. We also provide advice for refining research ideas, and provide guidance on evaluating and ranking those ideas. Despite the diverse background of the authorship team, there are many commonalities because of the rigorous scientific nature of the general academic research process. Helpful research tools and templates, as well as examples and suggested readings, are also presented to assist novice researchers in the challenging process of forming research ideas.

Keywords: Idea; New research ideas; Novice researcher advice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A10 B00 D00 E00 G00 M00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927538X2300224X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:82:y:2023:i:c:s0927538x2300224x

DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2023.102153

Access Statistics for this article

Pacific-Basin Finance Journal is currently edited by K. Chan and S. Ghon Rhee

More articles in Pacific-Basin Finance Journal from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().