How Researchers Manage Ideas

Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/proceedingArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Research ideas are pivotal in research practice. While research domains, topics, and methods are often outlined by specific research fields, the process of capturing and developing research ideas is less categorical. Conceiving and developing research ideas requires continuous creative thinking, usually supported by various different tools, each more or less carefully selected by a researcher to fulfill a specific purpose. In this paper, we investigate the creative work practices of academic researchers, with a focus on the workflows and tools they employ to manage ideas. Through a qualitative survey (n=51) and in-depth interviews (n=18) with researchers from a wide range of fields, we identify and describe typical processes of managing research ideas, different types of research ideas (a research question or problem, a method, a hypothesis or antithesis, and a theory), properties of good research ideas, as well as potentials for tools and technology to support idea management for researchers.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationC&C '22: Creativity and Cognition
Number of pages14
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Publication dateJun 2022
Pages83-96
ISBN (Electronic)9781450393270
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2022
Event14th ACM Creativity and Cognition Conference, C and C 2022 - Venice, Italy
Duration: 20 Jun 202223 Jun 2022

Conference

Conference14th ACM Creativity and Cognition Conference, C and C 2022
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityVenice
Period20/06/202223/06/2022

Keywords

  • cognition
  • creativity
  • idea management
  • idea types
  • research ideas
  • science of science
  • tools

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