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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.

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    @Gerry: aka a "neutrino-second" :)2011-12-13

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An integral part of research is, to know the current status of your field. That is, know the literature and the latest results.

To achieve that, read recent monographs, review articles and other articles related to your results. Check, if anything else like your results has been published. To find these, I recommend MathSciNet (if available at your institution). There, you can find the works you build on and check the works that cited these. This allows you to easliy work forward and backward in time. However, to have decent knowledge of the literature is quite some work... But its essential.

And of course, as yoyo said, ask experts in the field.

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    Or CiteSeer.$\phantom{}$2011-12-14
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How can I discover the originality of a field of research or a sub-field of research without divulging the particulars?

Again, I do not want to tell the specific components of it before I have developed it more.

"Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats."