Scope Calibration

Adjust research question scope — when a question is too broad or too narrow, find the right granularity through systematic zoom in/out.

When to Use

• The initial RQ is too broad (cannot be answered within a reasonable time)
• The initial RQ is too narrow (the answer is trivial or lacks significance)
• A balance between ambition and feasibility is needed

Thinking Framework

Core logic: a good research question has "Goldilocks" characteristics — not too broad, not too narrow, just right.

Zoom In (when the question is too broad)

Add constraints to narrow the scope:

• Time constraint: "within the past 5 years..."
• Place constraint: "among Chinese universities..."
• Population constraint: "for beginners..."
• Method constraint: "using a transformer architecture..."
• Phenomenon constraint: "especially under scenario X..."

Zoom Out (when the question is too narrow)

Relax constraints to widen the scope:

• Raise the level of abstraction: from concrete instance to general principle
• Remove unnecessary qualifiers
• Extend the scope of applicability

Judgment Criteria

• Too broad: requires a book to answer / cannot be answered by a single experiment
• Appropriate: answerable by one paper / a clear study design can be specified
• Too narrow: answer is self-evident / lacks theoretical contribution

Budget Gate

| Tier | Iteration rounds | Output | |------|---------|------| | S | ≥1 round of scope adjustment | Appropriately scoped RQ | | M | ≥2 rounds of scope adjustment + comparison | Before/after comparison + final RQ | | L | ≥3 rounds + multi-direction exploration | Multiple granularity versions + rationale for the optimal choice |

Default Reference Flow

1. Run scope-assessment on the current RQ
2. Choose the zoom direction based on the verdict (too broad / too narrow)
3. Apply constraint adjustments
4. Re-assess scope
5. Iterate until "appropriate"
6. Confirm with the FINER check

context-checkpoint

After the strategy completes, context-checkpoint must be called, recording:

• The original RQ and its scope verdict
• The adjustment direction and concrete operations
• The final RQ and its scope verdict
• The adjustment rationale

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Available Tactics

Optional, no fixed order; the final leaf is always a sop.

| Tactic | When to use | | --- | --- | | question-refinement-loop | Tactic: iteratively refine a research question until it passes all 5 FINER criteria |

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