| name | research-ideas |
| description | Generate empirical research questions based on existing literature and data landscape. |
Research Idea Generator
When to Use
After major literature additions, or when looking for new directions.
Steps
- Read all
@*.md notes in literature/zotero-notes/ — extract YAML frontmatter (citekey, paper_type, tags, authors, year, journal) and note content
- Also read:
literature/missing-lit.md, existing strategy memos, literature/synthesis/frontier-map.md, .claude/references/domain-profile.md
- Generate ideas, requiring for each:
- Research question (one sentence)
- Empirical strategy (DiD/IV/RDD/SC + what provides variation)
- Data feasibility (what exists, what's accessible, what's missing)
- Contribution (what's new relative to the frontier)
- Feasibility score (1–5: 1 = publishable with existing data, 5 = data may not exist)
- Target journal (based on journal-profiles.md)
- Relation to existing papers (complement, extension, or independent)
- Append to
literature/research-ideas.md with date stamp
Output Format
Prepend to literature/research-ideas.md:
## YYYY-MM-DD — Research Ideas
### Idea 1: [One-sentence question]
- **Strategy:** [Estimator + variation source]
- **Data:** [Dataset(s) + accessibility]
- **Contribution:** [What's new]
- **Feasibility:** [N]/5
- **Target journal:** [Journal name]
- **Relation:** [How it connects to Papers 1–3]
### Idea 2: ...
Important
- Follow append-only protocol
- Flag ideas that complement existing three objectives
- Be specific about identification — "use DiD" is insufficient; specify what provides the treatment variation