How can I discover the originality of a field of research or a sub-field of research without divulging the particulars? I am proving some interesting results in a potentially new sub-field of convex analysis. How can I know if 1) the field is original or at least relatively unexplored and 2) the results themselves are original?
Again, I do not want to tell the specific components of it before I have developed it more. And if it is an already existing field I do not want to "re-prove" results.