I have an idea inspired by class project readings but is significantly different from the class materials and published work. I already have some promising results. I am tempted to do the research and try to write a paper on it and send to the journals. (This is in the field of CS and not much resources are needed to do the research.)
I am a Master's student pursuing an online terminal Master's degree. I have no prior experience with publishing a paper. Being an online program, I have no face-to-face interactions with the faculty, but I do have a lot of online interactions with the helpful TAs.
I am wondering what is the best way to go about this.
- Should I indicate I am associated with the school?
- Should I indicate that I am working with my professors/TAs, although I have never discussed the idea with them?
- I have done a reasonable search on the existing papers on this idea and haven't found any. But there are thousands of papers and I am worried that I won't be able to do an exhaustive enough search to see if there is anything similar to it. How is this usually handled?
- Similarly, what about related ideas? I do see that some ideas are related to mine. Should I try to reference all of them?
- Is there anything else I should be considering?
I know the chance of actually getting it published is slim. But it is worth trying and I want to do it right such that the only thing I need to worry about is to produce something with quality.
Note:
- I noticed that the original version of my question was not communicating what I meant. I apologize that it caused some confusion and responses based on that.
- I am in fact not sure if I want to get a Ph.D. and do research for the school as a way of making a living. I have not decided. Right now I just want to finish the research, write a paper, and possibly publish it.
- The motivation is not career. I just find the idea and results interesting.