Knocking on the Door of Research

Suggestions on how to get started in research

Before you start

Be interested in science. Read widely in a variety of popular journals such as New Scientist, Scientific American, and Nature. When you find something that interests you, try to read more about it.

Remember that you will be making decisions that affect your whole career. To be successful in science you have to love what you are doing.

How to start• Choosing the problem• Understanding the field• Searching the literature• Designing or learning apparatus• Planning your observations• Understanding your observations• Calculations• Reporting your results

Questions to ask in choosing a research problem

What might be learned if the research is successful?

Is there a good chance that the research will be successful?

What might be learned if the research is successful?

It attacks a new or important question.

Or

It will result in the ability to make a new kind of observation.

What might be learned: case reaction complex spectroscopy

Questions to ask in choosing a research problem

What might be learned if the research is successful?

Is there a good chance that the research will be successful?

Is there a good chance for success?

I have tried so many experiments that proved unsuccessful that it is hard to choose one. Often other people have tried the same experiment after I have abandoned it and succeeded!

Understanding the fieldBefore you even begin to search the literature, it is important to gain a basic understanding of the field.

Find what you think are appropriate textbooks and review articles and read them aggressively. This means first skimming them to find out if they seem to be relevant to your needs. If so, read them with relationship to your problem in mind.

Then ask questions of people in the field to make sure you understand.

Searching the literature

• Tools for searching the literature• How to search• Tools for organizing the results of your

search• Increasing your understanding

Tools for searching the literature: Databases

• Web of Knowledge– Science Citation Index– Current Contents

• Chemical Abstracts (SciFinder Scholar)• INSPEC

How to search• From your research on understanding

the field, pick out the names of possibly relevant workers.– From Science Citation Index (SCI), get

their publication list (use Author Finder)• From what you have learned, pick out

most relevant papers.– Search SCI for papers citing these papers

• Chemical Abstracts is most useful in finding chemicals and reactions.

Tools for organizing the results of your search

I use only EndNote. Results of database searches including abstracts can be directly read into EndNote where they can be searched in multiple ways and individual papers can be labeled with searchable keywords. When you write a paper, its bibliography can be created using a connection between Word and EndNote.

Learning apparatus

Learning apparatus1. Understand the principles of operation.2. Find out what could damage the

apparatus (or you!).3. Learn how to turn it off.

4. Learn how to turn it on.5. Learn how to adjust it.

Understand the consequences of each adjustment.

6. Work with someone to take some data.

Designing Apparatus1. Think carefully about what the

apparatus is supposed to do.2. Make a preliminary drawing (CAD programs

are helpful). Discuss it with whoever will listen and comment.

3. Take the drawing to the shop and go over every aspect especially tolerances and materials (enormous cost differences).

4. Think hard about those parts that it will be expensive to change to make sure that changes will not be needed.

5. Recognize that there will be things that have to be changed. No need to make it pretty.

Planning your observations

Your main concerns should be (1) noting and recording what you observe and (2) trying to be sure that you are observing or measuring the thing you intend to.

Planning your observations• Start with the easiest case you can

think of.• Test your observations on this case to

see whether they are real. Try to find internal consistency.

• Do quantitative comparison with a known case if possible. If not possible, you need to calibrate every aspect of your test case measurement.

Understanding your observations

• Are there literature values on similar systems to compare to?

• Are there theoretical values to compare to?

• Can you estimate the approximate value you expect within an order of magnitude?

Do your numbers look reasonable?

Understanding your observations

• What do my observations tell me?• How does my work fit into the field?• How have I advanced science?• What is the next thing to do?

– Do another case.– Improve the apparatus– Change directions entirely based on my

results

Think!

Calculations• For most calculations, I prefer Matlab as

the simplest to learn while being very powerful.

• For algebraic manipulations or symbolic mathematics, I prefer Mathematica.

• For intensive numerical calculations, FORTRAN is fastest.

• If you need access to PC hardware (i.e. boards or the ports), LabView or python seem to be best.

Reporting your results• Choose an appropriate journal.

– This requires sophistication.• Find out what format the journal

requires and obey these requirements.• Aim your writing for the average reader

of the journal, but include all the information needed by specialists.

• Be sure to explain the significance and implications of the research without boasting.

• Be sure to include all relevant references.

Be very skepticalQuestion everything