How do you do your own research if the coin is a good investment?
For me, I always look on the purpose of the project, the team behind it, what exchanges is it available on etc. And one of the important thing for me is the total supply of the coin.
I also research if the coin is Proof of Work (POW), Proof of Stake (POS), Pre-mined or other.
I think reading the whitepaper can be really useful before making an investment decision. In addition to that, a new coin should gain the traders' trust. If you see that people have a great confidence in the campaign, I think it is likely to reach good successes.
I agree on the importance of whitepaper in every ICO inorder for us to know the potentials of it's platform that it can give to the users and investors. Another option is to check and analyze the market movement on the coinmarketcap site that gives the statistical price data and the price chart to determine where this coin is heading. Will it be continuing to go up or the other way around.