Scientific research Step 1: how to get good idea ?!

 

"Idea" is a simple English word, but it seems difficult to use a corresponding Chinese word for translation, it should include "ideas", and other meanings. Therefore, this seemingly simple word represents a relatively complex meaning, it also represents a very important question for researchers: how to get a good idea?

Many people, especially graduate students who have just been engaged in scientific research, believe that writing a thesis is a task after the experiment is completed. In fact, they have started before the experiment begins, that is: how to think of an innovative idea is the first step in thesis writing (this article is limited to the discussion of SCI English papers. Young parents do not want their children to lose at the starting line, and the new idea is the starting line of scientific research activities, it is the foundation and an important cornerstone for researchers to get funding and finally publish articles. The degree of Idea innovation directly determines the quality of future articles. Therefore, even if we only plan for our own future (in fact, China is also a "money" Path), we cannot make ourselves at the starting point.

It seems a waste of time to spend more weeks thinking about idea. Due to the long cycle and high cost of biomedical research, the time investment in this field is definitely worthwhile and cost-effective. This is also a bit like the arguments for writing argumentative papers. It emphasizes the idea to be new, to be high, and is always a cliché, so no one will be interested. How can this be a good idea? Lu Bai, a well-known sci-tech blogger (currently Vice President of R & D department of China GlaxoSmithKline), has a high opinion on this. I will not go into details here. If you are interested, please refer to his speech on the sci-tech blog, the title is "How To publish a paper in top scientific journals ". Let's take a look at what is a bad idea. We will share the following with Mr. Lu Bai's comments on the poor research work:

The first type is horizontal growth, which is called horizontal length. For example, if someone has made a new result in a breast cancer cell line and I have a cell line with liver cancer, how can I try it with similar methods and ideas? Obviously, there is no innovation in this kind of thinking, but this kind of thinking is not totally undesirable, for example, a recent report in the famous journal of Oncology, cancer research, reported that taking excess fish oil may increase the risk of colon cancer in mice (not to mention mice or rats, however, similar jobs have never been done by people (not necessarily for a large dose of fish oil). Such ideas are still meaningful and very promising to be published, therefore, clinical doctors often engage in basic cooperation and communication, and read more basic papers, which will lead to new scientific research ideas.

The second type is filling gaps. This idea is particularly common in cell signal transmission studies. For example, some people have reported that protein A is the upstream protein of protein B, while others have reported that protein B is the upstream of protein C, however, the relationship between protein A and protein C is a gap, which is not reported yet. So I will study the relationship between protein A and protein C. These results are generally predictable and less innovative, this kind of discovery can also be published, but it is unlikely to be included in the eye of a magazine such as cell, nature, science.

Third: Working out details, for example, cell, a well-known journal, reported in 2010 that it was named "maid is an omega-3 fatty acid receptor mediating potent anti-inflammatory and insulin-sensitizing effects. Although omega-3 fatty acids (the main active ingredient of fish oil) have been studied for a long time, this article is a milestone breakthrough in discovering the receptor of omega-3 (gp120. However, it is unclear in many details about the role of the two. For example, which of the following are the key locations of the Omega-3 receptor? In fact, this kind of thinking accounts for a large proportion of our national (or even the whole world) research. We call it our best to track the frontier of the world, although this idea/idea generally cannot produce the first-class results, it can also be published in the second and third-class articles. This is already a good result for graduate students. By the way, I recently heard an academic report from the author of this article. I learned that only wild fish are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, the amount of fatty acids (I .e., omega-6 fatty acids) that are not good for the human body is very high in the cultured fish. Therefore: not only does "home flowers have no wild flowers", but even "home fish" are not "wild fish!

Fourth, support existing idea, "Me too ". For example, Academician Zhong Nanshan reported on Lancet that a common cheap drug for treating a disease can treat B's disease (not sure about their specific research content), so I used this drug as a similar object, or there is a drug with similar efficacy to see if there are similar results.

Fifth, follow up. Someone has already published this article. I will keep up with it later. This is a bit like the third point working out details.

Sixth, incomplete study, preliminary. There are many low-end journals for this type of example. I often see this type of problem when I help others change the manuscript. That is to say, a story is not over yet, and it is very popular, for example, if someone finds that the expression level of a certain kinase is elevated (mRNA and protein levels) in radiation-induced tumor cells, it's done, and there's no mechanism, like this article, the reviewer either rejects the draft directly or requires more experiments.

So how can we get new and creative idea? The new idea is never built by closed doors. Especially for a graduate student who is just engaged in scientific research, do not expect that the idea will suddenly come, the new idea will pop out of its mind, and even the cool-man like Newton who never met for a thousand years will need to stand on the shoulders of giants. What's more, do you wait for me ?! It is more necessary to rely on giants. As a newbie, how can we identify giants or cool people in the industry? I personally think we can use the ISI Web of science to take three measures at the same time: 1) combined with this lab, or the research direction of this department is to check the most frequently cited articles in this field. Such articles are generally necessary classical papers; 2) check several papers with the highest impact factors in the output table in this direction; 3) carefully read some of the papers found above and you should be able to determine who is the leader in this field, that is, it is very important to find a few cool people in this field, because it directly determines who we are standing on. Next, check the articles published by these rare cool people in recent years (articles, not review, and articles in my own lab in recent years should also be carefully read, there is no need to look at the details. For example, you can skip the materials and methods and focus on the questions or guesses raised by people ), what technical means and methods are used to solve these problems or test these conjecture? This part is a reference to the research ideas of the ox, and more importantly, let's see what problems have been solved by the cool people. Solution: Combine the specific conditions of your labs and departments to propose your own new practical idea. After thinking about it, I immediately wrote it down and immediately wrote down how to prove my idea, what experiments are required? First, use PowerPoint or word to list an outline and discuss innovation and feasibility with the boss or colleagues or other personnel in the lab. Which experiments should be supplemented? Which experiments are the first to be performed? In this way, after several rounds, the students will understand the subject, and they will have more enthusiasm and interest in doing experiments. In fact, the outline is, to some extent, the blueprint for writing a thesis later.

I personally think of a new idea:Recognize the ox and read the ox!After years of experience and good luck + personal efforts, you can also become a cool man, so that future new users can stand on your shoulders.

Postscript: After writing this article, I accidentally saw a post entitled "How to get good idea" on sszx Station friends in the clove garden. I feel that this post is quite complementary to this one, and the post itself is also well written, click here for details.

Note: just a few hours after posting this article, I learned that, as a famous blogger of Science Network, Mr. Lu Yu wrote a related blog entitled "I also say idea", which is very interesting, it is worth reading.

(Wang shouyecao was modified in March and published in the original article on clove garden. I would like to thank Mr. Lu Bai for his inspiration for writing this article. The picture is from the Internet. Thanks to the author. Do not repost without permission)

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