<p>The help on <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask">How do I ask a good question?</a> has a an opening section on "Search and Research". </p>

<p>The page relating to questions <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/help/quality-standards-error">autoclosed for "not meeting quality standards"</a> also makes reference to showing your research. </p>

<p>As Tim pointed out, votes (and comments) are a good way to make it clear that questions need work. Sometimes that's not sufficient and we have some other tools --</p>

<p>We can certainly close a question that doesn't display any research if the post fits one of the closure reasons (many will fit under <em>unclear</em> or <em>too broad</em>) and extremely poor questions can be flagged as "very low quality".</p>
