Five Questions for Good Research (2024)

1. What is the problem to be solved?
2. Who cares about this problem and why?
3. What have others done?
4. What is your solution to the problem?
5. How can you demonstrate that your solution is a good one?

1. What is the problem to be solved?

Every good research project solves some particular problem. It is very important that you be able to state your problem clearly: in one sentence, in one paragraph, in one page. If you cannotstate your problem then you do not know what you are doing.

2. Who cares about this problem and why?

If you cannot answer this question then there are oneof two problems. 1) The problem is not important enough foryou to waste your time. 2) You have not spent enough timeconsidering why you are working on this.

You should be able to briefly explain "why you should care" to the following audiences.

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• To your advisor or others in the lab
• To your peers in your research community
• To other computer scientists
• To other colleagues in the university
• To your Mom and Dad
Many of these audiences will not understand what exactly youare doing, but you should be able to tell them why theyshould care.

You should also clearly understand the set of people whohave the problem you are trying to solve and be aware ofwhat their needs actually are. If you do not know the peopleyou do not truly know the problem.

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3. What have others done?

Good research never exists in a vacuum. It builds upon or responds to the work of others. You must be able to set yourwork in the context of other work. There are two aspectsof prior work that you will need.

1. Who has previously attempted to solve this problem?

   Why did they not succeed or how is your problem adifferent, special case or more general case of theproblem that they solved?

2. What concepts, techniques, mathematics or softwarehave others developed that can form a foundation foryour work?

4. What is your solution to the problem?

This question is answered in two ways depending on your stageof research.

Proposal stage

You should try to sketch 3-5 key insights that you believewill allow you to solve your problem better than what hasbeen done before.

Publication stage

You should have 3-5 key ideas that address the problem. Youshould be able to state these ideas in 1 sentence, 1 paragraphor 1 page. You should be able to describe these ideas in sufficient depth that others who are knowledgable in yourarea could reproduce the work.

5. How can you demonstrate that your solution is a good one?

Just having done an interesting thing. You must be able to show that your thing is better than what has gone before.
• Your problem may have no prior existing solutions. therefore you must show that your solution really solvesthe problem.
• Your problem may have existing solutions in whichcase you must identify clear criteria for comparing twosolutions. You must show a strategy for evaluating your comparison criteria. It is easiest if there objectivecomparison metrics. You must show that your criteria andyour evaluation are valid. Does your criteria really reflect the needs of your problem and your users?Does your evaluation strategy fairly evaluate thecriteria or are there statistical or methedological flaws?