When is an investigation considered really innovative? Epistemic challenges in the production of new knowledge in law

Abstract

Innovation is a criterion of research quality that has been widely sought by the entire academic community; it is required by research networks and corresponds to a competitiveness factor that is taken into account in the selection and prioritization of projects. The research process is made up of answering successive questions that correspond to various elements, among the most important: the object of study, the general objective and the methodology. These elements guide the research and answer, respectively, the questions of: what is being researched, to what extent and how a particular phenomenon is researched. The innovative component has always been demanded from the thematic delimitation, however, the methodology, as the stage of the research process is the one that evidences the orientation of the products generated, can be considered a more relevant indicator when determining the relevance and innovation of the research project.