Yes, scientists do research, and even if you are doing experiments and analysis, if your results are not generalizable, then it's difficult to argue that's a 'r

Yes, scientists do research, and even if you are doing experiments and analysis, if your results are not generalizable, then it's difficult to argue that's a 'research' pursuit. Applying established methods to a particular case is perhaps closer to engineering, or a more general term of 'analyst'. Consider that all scientists are working with data, often very large and complex datasets, the term comes off like a joke.