Research for Beginners: Selecting a Topic Using the New Google Scholar Lab
Research for Beginners: Selecting a Topic Using the New Google Scholar Lab
What is the magic wand for every research project?
I have been in the research field for a very long time, and I can boldly say that having the right research topic is one of the most underrated "magic wands" in conducting outstanding research. What can I liken it to? Yes, you should value your research topic in the same way YouTubers value their thumbnails. I can prove that with an analogy.
I had a friend who, after National Service, declined the option to be retained in the service company. Why? He wanted to be a full-time YouTuber. He was so convinced because he had seen many people succeed as YouTubers, and he "believed in himself" after a vlogger encouraged him. He spoke to people in the field who urged him to focus on quality content, and he did; no compromise, no excuses, just quality content. The first time I watched his video, I smiled within me and exclaimed to my naive self to tell him, through the same chat he sent the video link, that he was going to be a "superstar."
But... I mean, but... on YouTube! The CTR was very low. (What is CTR? Search on Google; that's what researchers do 😎!) It was so disheartening. We understood the quality of the videos, but it was just left with people clicking to view and appreciate them. He searched everywhere, and he was told to share his link. Not bad, is it? Make the video shorter, publish it at certain times of the day, and, even at the extreme, simply go about looking for people to watch. Unfortunately, none of these suggested approaches carried the "magic wand". Eventually, he accepted the clueless saying that "it is always the low-quality videos." It isn't.
When he eventually found the secret, he was already in tears. Not because of what he had already gone through or the time he had wasted. It is because it was just a three-word phrase plus a comma, making it four. The person who gave him the secret had whispered: "The thumbnails, bro." And just like that, his YouTuber career changed. When it comes to research, it is the topic. Get it wrong, and you will wander and wonder like Eben.
Selecting a topic is much easier than you thought
Starting a research project can feel overwhelming, especially when you are trying to narrow down a broad topic into something manageable. Fortunately, Google has introduced a new experimental tool that makes this process much easier for beginners. You may have heard of this tool and want to learn more, or you may not have heard of it at all. One thing is sure! You are in the right place. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use the new Google Scholar Lab to kickstart your research journey.
Step 1: The Starting Point
A simple search in a browser is where it all starts. To get to the tool, open your web browser and go to the regular Google Scholar homepage. The interface will look like the normal Google search engine we use every day: clean and white. The difference is that this engine is set up to ignore commercial websites and social media. Instead, it only looks for academic papers, legal cases, and patents. This search engine will help you find reliable information.
Step 2: Finding the New Feature
When you get to the homepage, stop for a second before you start typing in the search bar. Look directly below the search box for a link to a specific text. You need to find the line that says, "New! Scholar Labs: An AI-Powered Scholar Search." It is now purple to draw your attention. This is a special experimental feature that uses AI to help you find information more intelligently than a regular keyword search. To get to the new interface, click on this link.
Step 3: Entering the Lab
When you click the link, you'll see a small change in the header of the page. There will now be "Google Scholar | Labs" in the top left corner of the logo. This proves that you have successfully switched from the regular search engine to the AI-powered workspace. The page stays simple and clean so you can focus on your search terms without any distractions. This mode is designed to help you find links between topics instead of just giving you a list of all the documents that have your keywords.
Step 4: Analyzing Your Results
You can now type in the topic you want to research. For instance, if you're interested in education, you could type "Design and validation of students' learning model." The results in Scholar Labs are very different from a normal search. The tool doesn't just give you a title and a link; it uses AI to pull out the most important bullet points from the papers. There will be short summaries like "Tool Validation Process" or "Learning Device Design" right below the titles of the articles. This lets you quickly scan the main ideas of a paper. You don't have to click through and read the abstract of every result to quickly see if a document covers the specific method or theory you're interested in. It saves a lot of time and helps beginners find a good research path quickly.
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