Science is an attempt to systematically understand the world with the help of different explanations. Science is not the truth but the attempt to find the truth. Young doctorate students often believe that eventually they will find the truth. Little by little, the researchers begin to notice that countless studies have already been done, and the confidence collapse.
The key to successful research is collaboration. The wider the networks and the more you can get to know the research of others in the same or adjacent fields, the better you can direct your own work.
At this point, many researchers make the mistake of thinking that it is enough only to sit in their room and read the best journal publications in their field. That’s where the most assuredly accepted truth can be found. However, the publications are generally accepted, but already slightly outdated information.
The most important way to know where your field is going is to talk to other researchers, companies operating in the field, and even politicians. What are the acute topics in the field and perhaps the most important: what is the difficult question that no other researcher dares to tackle.
Conversations with other researchers can be held at conferences, on printed or social media. Particularly valuable are researcher networks like Kotka Maritime Research Centre, where the same research field is looked at from different angles.
A young beginning researcher learns that the same problem can be looked at from many different points of view. And later in life, acting as a leader of a research group, he or she knows where to contact when the problems come too big to solve alone.
This piece of opinion has been published in Kotka Maritime Research Centre Annual Report 2023.
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