What you mean by novelty of the study topic?
Novelty of a study can have a wide definition. As quoted by Barak A Cohen (2017) “It can range from the demonstration of a well-established phenomenon in a new system to testing a hypothesis with no precedent in the literature”. In simple words in means something that has never been done before.
Novelty should be the core of every research project. A research project that has no novelty factor associated with it , is not worth carrying out. Given the various technological advances in every field of research, finding a novel topic is often a challenge. It is also not possible for every research topic to be 100% novel. There will always be some overlaps with previously carried out research. However, not everything can be previously reported. For example, a different method can be used to synthesize a product that already has an existing methodology. Here, the novelty lies in the methodology. At times, novelty can also lie in contradicting something that is previously reported. Variations in previously reported methodologies that results in a varied outcome can also be considered as novel.
Novelty of research is of prime importance while applying for funding. Many funding agencies now insist on a separate section in the grant application to state the novelty of the proposed research. Therefore, the novelty of the topic needs to be established at the stage of conceptualizing the idea itself. No funding agency would fund research that is not novel.
Analysing the novelty of an idea has never been more easier, with the availability of the internet and various search tools/engines, it is now possible to verify every minute detail of a project. A thorough literature survey including analysis of research papers and patents needs to be carried out on the topic of interest to ensure that there is some novelty associated with it.
