Imagine that you're new to scientific research and suddenly, after
months of hard work, you face a new mathematical physics problem (well, you
actually think it is new). The first thing you have to do is to ask
yourself whether the problem is well formulated, i.e., are you asking
the right question?. If yes, it is highly probable that the problem
has been already solved. If you still think the problem is new, then
remember that:
(a) You should first look at what Americans have done regarding that
question.
(b) For sure, the British formulated the problem one century ago, but
using nondimensional variables in disguise.
(c) Probably, if you ask the French, they will tell you that they had
already solved the problem many years ago (actually, before the
British claim they posed it), but that the results were
scientifically irrelevant and worthless to publish.
(d) The Japanese, even they probably overlooked some fundamental
aspects, also studied the effects of oscillations in the solution of
the problem.
(e) The Russians never managed to publish their results in an english
journal, even they managed to reformulate the problem already posed by
the British in a generalized functional space theory. By the way, they
concluded that the problem was mathematically ill-posed.
(f) A spanish guy claims that he already solved the problem although his
results were never published because of personal discrepancies with the
journal editor who, it happens to be, was actually working at the
same department as him.
... and last, but not least:
(g) There always exists a German scientist who has already
formulated the problem correctly and provided an accurate
solution. The bad news is that the results are published in
Ann. Phys. Strom. Forsch. and life is too short to
learn german.
(h) Although the Italians claim that the German guy who solved the
problem was actually born in Sicily.
A useful advice
for young researchers.