ResearchPath

START · RESEARCH PATH

Research Path

Build research judgement step by step, from a first question to a contribution that moves knowledge forward.

Start with judgement, not a checklist

Move through the stages in order, but return to earlier decisions whenever new evidence changes the question.

STAGE 1

Understand What Research Is

Shift from absorbing established answers to deciding what is unknown, worthwhile, and answerable.

  1. What makes research different from learning established knowledge?Chinese article · English version coming soon
  2. How does a broad topic become a research question?Chinese article · English version coming soon
  3. Write down one phenomenon you genuinely cannot yet explain.
STAGE 2

Find a Problem Worth Explaining

Look for tension between what a credible explanation predicts and what the world repeatedly shows.

  1. Practise separating a topic from a researchable question.Chinese article · English version coming soon
  2. Separate a missing study from a genuine research puzzle.Chinese article · English version coming soon
  3. State the expected pattern, then describe how the observed pattern departs from it.
STAGE 3

Build an Explanation

Move beyond saying that X affects Y by naming actors, processes, conditions, and boundaries.

  1. Identify the process that could turn a cause into the observed outcome.
  2. Test an explanation against a paper with paradoxical effects.Chinese article · English version coming soon
  3. Write down what evidence would make you revise the proposed mechanism.
STAGE 4

Design the Study

Choose methods as languages for producing the evidence your question and mechanism require.

  1. Define the comparison or observation that could distinguish competing explanations.
  2. See how causal machine learning changes the questions methods can answer.Chinese article · English version coming soon
  3. Check whether the available data can identify the mechanism rather than only a correlation.
STAGE 5

Clarify the Contribution

Explain which prior judgement should change, why it changes, and where the new claim stops.

  1. Name the theory, boundary, mechanism, or conflicting evidence your study would revise.
  2. State what remains unexplained even if your evidence supports the claim.
  3. Reflect on how an initially rejected topic can become a stronger question.Chinese article · English version coming soon