The first step for any research project is to develop an idea you would like to research. Sometimes this can be as simple as comparing the means of two groups of data. Other times it could be as complicated as developing an entire program or model. Regardless of what you do, there are a few things you should have either before or during the development of an idea for future benefits.
Hello New Researchers!
Hello new researchers! As you conduct research, you're eventually going to show who are you, what are you working on, and are you qualified. As such, you can find a list of accounts and certifications that I recommend you should have. If you are an existing researcher, I would double check to make sure you have everything as well.
ORCiD: Your Unique Researcher Id
As a researcher, there are numerous professional activities that you may be a part of: writing research papers, organizing workshops, collaborating with other researchers, etc. However, it's difficult to consolidate everything you have done in a single place, especially if you are not actively maintaining your public profiles. As such, you need to have a way to uniquely distinguish yourself from all other researchers.
Enter ORCiD. An ORCiD is a 15 digit plus checksum identifier which uniquely identifies yourself as a researcher. Numerous organizations consume your ORCiD in one way or another such that most published works are automatically added to your identifier. Additionally, you can add any affiliations, emails, or links that represent yourself. Any publications that are not automatically added can be added manually as well. In my opinion, every researcher should have an ORCiD as soon as they start conducting research.
Required Certification
When conducting experiments, sometimes you must be certified when dealing with certain ethics, compliances, etc. This is especially true when dealing with subjects. If you are in a university, you should ask your university's ethics or research committee or your advisor on any requirements or certifications needed to conduct the research you are doing.
One such example is the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Program, which provides certificates for conducting research on human subjects on course completion. This is typically required by a number of universities when performing human subjects research. The specific courses necessary depends on the research being conducted. CITI certificates typically expire 2 years after issuance, so you'll likely need to recertify depending on how long you conduct research for.
All Additional Accounts
When developing an idea, you should begin to make accounts for all the tools you plan to use. These include tools for documenting what you plan on doing, where you are storing your resources, when you are doing what part of the research, why you decided to make certain choices, etc.
The two main accounts I would recommend for every project is Google and the Open Science Framework (OSF). Google is particularly useful when scheduling meetings and creating and managing documents that can be used by multiple people. OSF is a good place to store large amounts of resources in an open or private fashion, managing preregistrations, uploading preprints, etc.
Who are you?
One of the common things people will try to find about you are your website and any social media accounts. While it is recommended to have some social media presence, it is highly recommended to have some website which represents who you are. Although this is optional, a website is a good way to direct others to whenever advertising your work or promoting yourself for a job. It should be kept up to date with any projects you've done, publications, contact information, and a resume. It is also recommended to own your name as a domain that your website links to.
Project Management
Project management is one of the key features you should be aware of when developing an idea. You should always manage your projects the same way, even if the idea ends up being ultimately rejected or abandoned in the end.
Documentation, Documentation, Documentation
Whenever you do anything that includes an idea, methodology, process, nuance, limitation, etc., it should always be documented in some location. Documenting all your thoughts and revisions will reduce some of the burden later on when writing a preregistration or submitting a paper for proposal. Additionally, any steps that were not mentioned in a public-facing resource would still exist for any collaborators to refer to or use at a later point in time. This also prevents any issues that may arise if you forget or lose information about the project locally in the future by having a private backup in some external location.
Time Management
Time management is best determined by the collaborators of the project. You should be planning out how often your team should meet, what each person should work on, and provide some padding in the timeline for any issues that may arise. If you are aiming for a specific deadline, you should provide a scope for how much you can reasonably accomplish within the deadline provided.
My opinion is to always leave at least a month to a month and a half between your specified deadline and the end of the research project, including breaks. This accounts for any emergencies, sickness, or overstress from work that may occur. If you are submitting a paper, you should aim to have it done somewhere from two weeks to a month before the deadline depending on the strictness of your review process. You want to have enough time to make any revisions as necessary. Additionally, you should make a submission about a week before the deadline which you could consider to be 'good enough' so that if anything occurs such that you are not able to resubmit the revisions, you will still have submitted the paper.
Some Additional Thoughts
Everybody works differently
Every person is different from every other person. As such, a lot of the recommendations above may not be useful for you specifically. You may have your own way of doing things that works well for you, and there is nothing with that. These are simply suggestions on things I recommend from my experiences on approaching these subjects so that I never feel overburdened with work and have the ability to revise what I need to a more professional level.