Developing a novel research idea is hard. It must be distinct enough from prior work to claim a contribution while also building on it. This requires iteratively reviewing literature and refining an idea based on what a researcher reads; yet when an idea changes, the literature that matters often changes with it. Most tools offer limited support for this interplay: literature tools help researchers understand a fixed body of work, while ideation tools evaluate ideas against a static, pre-curated set of papers. We introduce literature-initiated pivots, a mechanism where engagement with literature prompts revision to a developing idea, and where that revision changes which literature is relevant. We operationalize this in LitPivot, where researchers concurrently draft and vet an idea. LitPivot dynamically retrieves clusters of papers relevant to a selected part of the idea and proposes literature-informed critiques for how to revise it. A lab study ($n{=}17$) shows researchers produced higher-rated ideas with stronger self-reported understanding of the literature space; an open-ended study ($n{=}5$) reveals how researchers use LitPivot to iteratively evolve their own ideas.

翻译：摘要：提出新颖的研究构想极具挑战性。该构想既要与既有工作保持显著区分以主张学术贡献，又需建立在其基础之上。这要求研究者反复审阅文献并根据阅读内容不断优化构想；然而当构想发生变化时，相关文献也常随之改变。现有工具对此交互过程的支持十分有限：文献类工具帮助研究者理解固定知识体系，而构思类工具则基于静态预选论文集评估构想。我们提出"文献触发式转向"机制——即文献研读引发研究构想的修正，而这种修正又会改变相关文献的边界。我们将其具现化为LitPivot系统，研究者可在此同时起草与审验构想。该系统能动态检索与构想选定部分相关的文献聚类，并提出基于文献的修订建议。实验室研究（n=17）显示，采用者提出了评价更高的构想，并对文献全景具备更深刻的自我认知；开放性研究（n=5）则揭示了研究者如何运用LitPivot迭代演进其原始构想。