Framing Research Questions Into Investigations

Help turn a fuzzy research interest into a precise, falsifiable question with explicit hypotheses, the data required, and what would count as an answer — through natural collaborative dialogue.

Start by understanding the context (the data on hand, the domain, what your human partner already knows), then ask questions one at a time to sharpen the interest. Once you understand what is being investigated, present the framing and get approval.

Why this gate is strict for science specifically: Looking at outcomes before the question and predictions are fixed contaminates a confirmatory analysis. Once you have seen the data, you cannot un-see it, and every later choice (which test, which subgroup, which cutoff) becomes suspect. Framing first is what keeps a result confirmatory rather than a story told after the fact.

Anti-Pattern: "This Is Too Simple To Need Framing"

Every investigation goes through this process. A single t-test, a quick correlation, a "just look at the trend" — all of them. "Simple" questions are where unexamined assumptions and undeclared researcher degrees of freedom do the most damage. The framing can be short (a few sentences for a truly simple question), but you MUST present it and get approval.

Checklist

You MUST create a task for each of these items and complete them in order: