Sources of Research Ideas among Productive Scholars

Abstract

This paper reports on the sources that 160 productive hard science researchers use to acquire the ideas that guide their research. More productive researchers relied on their own ideas and past work as the primary source of research ideas as other social scientists had predicted. While the literature was another valued source, of less value were ideas contributed by colleagues elsewhere, and least important were ideas supplied by local colleagues. Administrators wishing to stimulate research productivity should try to lure the most creative researchers but should also put emphasis on libraries and information retrieval services, and funds to attend professional meetings.

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