What research is

Most people use the word "research" for looking something up. You "research" a phone before you buy it. That is searching, not research in the sense this course means.

In science, research means careful, planned work to find out something that nobody knew before, and to share it so others can check it and build on it. The OECD, which collects research statistics for most countries, defines it as "creative and systematic work undertaken in order to increase the stock of knowledge".

Three words in that definition matter.

• Creative. You make something new: a new fact, a new method, a new explanation. Repeating a known result as an exercise is good practice, but it is not new knowledge.
• Systematic. You follow a plan that someone else could follow too. You write down what you did, so it can be repeated.
• Increase the stock of knowledge. The result is shared. A finding that stays in your notebook does not add to what humanity knows.

Research is a conversation

No research starts from zero. Every paper answers earlier papers and is answered by later ones. Isaac Newton wrote that if he saw further, it was "by standing on the shoulders of giants". This is why you will spend a lot of time reading before you write anything, and why citing other people's work is a basic duty, not a decoration.

What counts as a contribution

A contribution does not need to be a big discovery. Most research moves knowledge forward by a small, solid step. Common kinds of contribution are:

• a new result (a model that works better on a known task, a new measurement)
• a new method (a faster way to train, a better way to collect data)
• a new dataset or tool that others can use
• a replication: repeating a study to check if its result holds
• a careful negative result: showing that something people expected does not work

RememberA small, honest, well-checked result is worth more than a big claim nobody can repeat.

What research is not

Research is not proving what you already believe. If you decide the answer first and then look only for support, you are writing an opinion piece. A researcher wants to know what is true, even when the answer is disappointing.

ExampleA student believes a new study app improves exam marks. An opinion piece collects happy reviews. A research project compares the marks of students who used the app with similar students who did not, decides in advance how to measure "improves", and reports the result either way.