4 - Forge an Identifiable Research Program

Summary

Forging a professional identity is important in the scholarly world. It is better to establish your expertise in one area than to be a jack of all trades and master of none. An aspiring scholar should focus research investigations on a specific topic so that their name becomes attached to that topic. Doing so gets you well known and cited frequently. Budding scholars are cautioned not to become normal scientists who simply follow the crowd doing easy and familiar work. Simply replicating the work of others or following the hot topics of the day leaves you contributing footnotes to others’ work. Strive to become a pioneering scientist who discovers and tackles new problems. There are various ways that productive scholars forge identifiable research programs, including being a systematizer, conducting programmatic research addressing a set of related questions; an extender, extending research investigations into new areas; a straddler, combining two or more research topics; a lumper, assembling disparate topics into a coherent whole; an applicator, seeking to apply findings in helpful ways; a me-searcher, investigating topics of personal interest; and an essayist, commenting on matters of interest and importance.