This is a fruitful avenue for future research

In my talks with graduate students, I realized that many of them look for research ideas in the conclusion of a paper, where author(s) will frequently say that something is “a fruitful avenue for future research.” I always tell the students that this is a terrible idea, and I thought I’d share why that is.

When I write that something is “a fruitful avenue for future research”, it generally means one of three things. The first is that it actually IS a great idea, and I’m already working on it. So you’d probably be behind. The second is that the direction for future research is a great idea, but I have no clue how to do it correctly. Of course, a clever graduate student or other researcher could come up with a novel research strategy, but unless you’re reading terrible papers, chances are that the paper’s author already thought hard about how to do it and gave up. The third possibility is that the “area for future research” is very doable and straightforward but not very interesting (e.g., replicating the findings in a different sample). And unless you’re just looking for an additional paper to pad your resume, you shouldn’t do this either.

In short, don’t look for great research ideas in statements like these. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.