Replace "future work" with a phrase in three words?
Since I don't intend to continue work on my paper, I don't want to use the phrase "future work". After reading two similar questions (1 and 2), my first thinking is that most of the suggested replacements are long. There are two nominees that sound good:
- "Open questions"
- "Further discussion" or put it under "Discussion" section
But sometimes it's not a question nor a discussion, e.g. "find a better method to solve this problem".
Since the title of a section shouldn't be too long, I want to limit it not more than three words. Do you have any ideas?
I just think about these phrases, what do you think?
- "Potential direction". Thanks to jakebeal's answer.
- "Further development"
I could see several headings:
- possible next steps
- future lines of questioning
- potential directions
- interesting extensions
- where next
- quo vadis (if you want to be pretentious) ...
Personally, I don't like separation of "future work" from the rest of the discussion. In a good discussion (or "conclusions" or "contributions") section, one first defines clearly what has been accomplished. Around and after that, one explains what is currently known about the limits of the work presented, which limits are likely to be easy or hard to overcome, and which directions of extension are expected to be most significant. This form gives the authors' perspective on how the work changes the research landscape without having (or presuming) to declare their own place in its future.
In papers that I have had published (in a similar physics field), I have not had a separate section at all, but did mention the potential for future work as the final paragraph of the discussion.
Alternatively, a sub-heading to highlight this in the Discussion could be "Potential Research", "Future Research"or "Further Research".
One thing to consider, is the guidelines from the journal's instructions/advice to authors - what subheadings the journal expects (and in some cases, what subheadings they will allow).