Modeling Authentic Research Trajectories: A Graph View of Research Ideation

The paper introduces the Research Progress Graph (RPG), a framework that captures the full, evidence‑driven evolution of research ideas through a closed‑loop process of experimentation, insight, challenge identification, literature exploration, and revision. Unlike current large‑language‑model agents that only record the final idea, the RPG records each research state, its temporal order, and the reasoning that links successive states, providing a complete, authentic trajectory. The authors compare thirty‑five existing agents to the RPG, showing that none fully preserves the evolving record, and argue that future agents should predict next research states, evaluate ideas as trajectories, and use authentic trajectories as training data.

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