Origin of Research is "Search" and the Search eans "to Know".

Simon, if you refer to etymology, the English noun "research" comes from the Middle French "recerche" (16th century) which goes back to the Latin "circare" (= to go around, to wander, ...). The underlying metaphor here is that reserach (in modern sense) is a cognitive or intellectual "walking around", an "exploration" ... and not a straight ahead move to some mysterious target.

The "first scientific article" - this is something for which, as I suppose, no answer exists. From the point of view of "European" tradition, it is in ancient Greece where you find the birthplace of philosophy (critical thinking) and science.

The first scientific text (IMHO) are the Enuma Ani Enlil tablets (meaning "In the days of gods Ani and Enlil" - EAE for short), which represent a sort of astronomical compendium. Beside the data related to the observation of the Moon, Sun, planets and stars, atmospheric phenomena are treated like halos, "crowns", other conditions generated by ice crystals, vapors, dust in the atmosphere.

The problem is, dear Simon, that your students would have great difficulties, should they try to read these EAE tablets. Not only because the babilonian cuneiform script is difficult to read: it is not impossible for a research scholar to learn assyrian. But the astronomical observations enlisted in the tablets were made in the early and middle Bronze Age (the tablets were made in the middle BA). We know this from the description of the vernal equinox (this refers to the point in the heavens which is the location of the sun at the moment of the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere). This point is useful as an astronomical marker, and because of 'precession' it moves very slowly in the skies. In the EAE tablets the vernal equinox was marked by the constellation of Taurus (the Bull) – the Steer of Heaven. Later this point was called the "First Point of Aries", because it moved just over the boundary of the constellation Aries. It is no longer there, today is in the Pisces constellation.

So due to this precession the astronomical observations are not valid anymore – but the importance of scientific research, of continuous observation of Nature are documented in the EAE tablets.

Here you have a fragment from the first (known) scientific research article, dated about 1500.

B.Ch.( in european jargon)

Dear Simon Raj F.

Research is a basical attitude of human behavior, and probably of all living organisms.

It is recognizable as adaptive response to the environment, as a stimulus towards survival, to finding food and welcoming places.

The search is an evolutionary component of the human species, at the same way as hunters or gatherers.

The idea of research is a constant of our cognitive and social culture.

Everything else came later and took various names, history, culture, politics, economics, science.

In wide sense the seeking attitude includes a variety of behaviors: explore and observe, establishing connections between different events, provide explanations and interpretations. This up to create a complex network of data and information.

Search finally, as a form of systemic thinking in which facts and principles, generalizations and particularities, can find a socially shared sense, through experience and reason.

I should also point out this publication

Chalmers I, Hedges LV, Cooper H. (2002). A brief history of research synthesis. Evaluation and the Health Professions, 2002 Mar;25(1):12-37.

which I think will be useful to develop reflections and other "research".

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11868442

Look up research on the 'Nature of Science'. Maybe my co-authored article 'Understanding the nature of science and scientific progress' will help?

Also Feist's book, "The Psychology of Science and the Origins of the Scientific Mind," might give some useful insights - particularly on the relationship between everyday thinking and scientific thinking and how the former can become formalised in shared activities around co-ordinating theory and evidence.

How Lord Budha presented 2500 years ago  

"Dukkha" (Suffering) as problem identification,

"Samudaya"(Cause for suffering)" as causal investigation,

•Nirodha ((Addressing the cause)as possible or required solutions

Magga (Pathway )as recommendations or pathways for desired solutions

So it is

Diligent and careful inquiry or investigation, systematic study of phenomena, a course of critical investigation

Do you think that research was not started in the origin of human kind,Ethiopia?

What my mind strike, if there is a human, their is a problem, there is investigation, discovery........?. if you have some evidences, let us deal on it....

Thank you

Operational research: (I) its origins and development... 1975 by A Stratton

www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00107517508210834

The genesis of wonder and thinking is the birth of Research!

Scientific research is based on a scientific background and the accuracy of the researcher's observation and a material condition that is going well (“Satisfy, then philosophize,”

I think the first scientific article

was recorded on a stone tablet by Thales or by Pythagoras maybe. Or earlier, one could it see on the wall of a cave. Research is the need of the human to get to know the world and find regularities in it, to be able to control events.

The origin of research is the preserved record of research that has gone before together with a rigorous system of study of the subject matter directly related to the research area. The researcher assists with others' research for some time before getting the opportunity to do their own. When a person is drawn to learn about a subject, he or she first studies the broader underpinnings of the narrower area in which they are concentrating. If they elect to keep studying, they progressively study more and more arcane aspects of the field while gradually narrowing their focus. If they still have not been driven off, they continue studying while assisting in the mundane aspects ers. They continue this ad infinitum, or until they find an attraction in some of the research of other areas, and change their focus.