Basic research is conducted for the purposes of learning about the nature of Nature and acquiring new knowledge; It is driven by human curiosity, rather than social needs. How to acquire and evaluate scientific discoveries of high originality is an issue greatly concerned by the scientific community. However, due to the nonlinear and messy nature of the process of scientific exploration, it has never been a simple and easy thing to acquire and evaluate scientific discoveries as shown by the multiple examples mainly happened in the field of life sciences. For acquiring novel scientific discoveries, this author emphasizes the importance of recognizing serendipitous scientific findings, which might be ignored by many people, and thinking in an interdisciplinary theoretical angle during the research processes. Any discoveries, especially ones of high originality, have to be ascertained by other colleagues in a shorter or longer period of time. History has repeatedly proven that great scientific discoveries are often made by people living in a community of proper academic atmosphere, emphasizing the aspects of novelty, critical thinking, peer review, historical perspectives, among others for the discoveries. Any piece of reported scientific finding should not be simply judged by where it is published but by critical evaluations of the reported discoveries.
CHANG Zengyi
. On the originality of scientific findings in life sciences: Acquisition and evaluation[J]. Science & Technology Review, 2024
, 42(10)
: 65
-73
.
DOI: 10.3981/j.issn.1000-7857.2024.02.00251
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