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One of the most basic AI research hacks that can be super useful is research topic mapping. If you're starting in a new domain or a new topic, you can use AI to scan, synthesise and map the key themes that others have written about - which gives you a good starting point so you're not starting from scratch.
One of the most basic AI research hacks that can be super useful is research topic mapping. If you're starting in a new domain or a new topic, you can use AI to scan, synthesise and map the key themes that others have written about - which gives you a good starting point so you're not starting from scratch.
Do a quick web scan and collect all the documents that others might have written about your domain - trend reports, policy or govt. reports, even articles that cover the general landscape of the domain.
Do a quick web scan and collect all the documents that others might have written about your domain - trend reports, policy or govt. reports, even articles that cover the general landscape of the domain.
You're looking for the top meta themes across all the documents - there's no limit. Ask AI to pay particular attention to interconnecting issues and issues which cut across multiple domain dimensions. Depending on what research you have, you might be able to ask AI to assign a weight to the components within a cluster - when you output this (again depending on what tool you use), you can identify heavier weighted themes (appearing more frequently or with the most connections) as a larger node in the network map.
You're looking for the top meta themes across all the documents - there's no limit. Ask AI to pay particular attention to interconnecting issues and issues which cut across multiple domain dimensions. Depending on what research you have, you might be able to ask AI to assign a weight to the components within a cluster - when you output this (again depending on what tool you use), you can identify heavier weighted themes (appearing more frequently or with the most connections) as a larger node in the network map.
Note
You're looking for structural clusters and network edges that show where issues are interdependent and any sub-issues.
Note
You're looking for structural clusters and network edges that show where issues are interdependent and any sub-issues.
You want to ask AI to provide you with a CSV, JSON or excel file of the research themes so you can map them. The format you need will depend on what platform you use
You want to ask AI to provide you with a CSV, JSON or excel file of the research themes so you can map them. The format you need will depend on what platform you use
Now pick a platform to map the themes - tools like Kumu or Mermaid are free and relatively easy to use. Below is an example of research themes I pulled and then mapped in Graph Commons.
Now pick a platform to map the themes - tools like Kumu or Mermaid are free and relatively easy to use. Below is an example of research themes I pulled and then mapped in Graph Commons.


Link
If you're looking for mapping tools, there's a load of options in this directory foresight resources which will help you get started.
Link
If you're looking for mapping tools, there's a load of options in this directory foresight resources which will help you get started.
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Last updated on
Dec
4,
2024
Last updated on
Dec
4,
2024
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