For research beginner

Recently, A friend of mine told me that he learned a lot of things from my posts and Github. I’m so happy that people can benefit from my posts, which encourages me keep updating my site.

In this post, I want to share my views about how to be a good researcher.

What is a good research work?

First, What is a good research work?

Many people think that a good researcher is the one who has published lots of research papers. But in my view, the quality is more important than the quantity.

So how to define the quality of a research paper?

Many people think a good paper is the paper which has lots of citations. Yes, of course, citation numbers is a good metrics to evaluate a research paper. However, in my view, a really good paper is the paper still has many new citations after it published more than ten years. A good work either propose a deep theoretical view, or find a good method that greatly influence the development of domain.

How to start?

First of all, people should know if they want to do research. In my opinion, a researcher should have strong desire to improve make things better.

If you find that you have a very strong motivation to do research. There are some advices for you.

• Please read every research document in English, the original research paper or book should be read first, then you can find some Blogs explaining that. Never read stuffs in you own language even it is well translated.
• When reading a paper, you should think it deeply, what the underlay reason makes things better? is there anything strange and may be improved? If you do not understate it, try to dig into it a little bit harder, and make sure you fully understand it. or you may find some source code to see the detail of its implementation. A good researcher is not only a good coder, but a good thinker, never stop on superficial stuff, but finding the fundamental reason.
• Improve you English writing skill, not only the grammar and vocabulary, but also the logic of essay.
• One should not hold the view that doing thing just so so, almost there is enough. but have some kind of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) that I must find the reason, I must do it best.
• Do not trust authority, believe your strong intuition.