Research paper about an enhancement to algorithm A question that has been bothering me for so long about research work is, what level of work can be called research and is worthy of publishing in a research paper?

Let's say I am working with JPEG compression, if I make some may be a little enhancement in the algorithm for the compression, can it be given the title of research. 

So my question is:

If I make a little enhancement or added a little new stuff to an already existing work, can it be called a research and can I write a research paper for it?
The question I would ask is: "Are there people working in this area who would learn something interesting and useful from what you've done?"  If the answer is yes then your paper makes a contribution and so is potentially publishable. At that point you could consider some secondary questions, e.g.:


Length of the paper: this should be commensurate with the extent of the contribution (i.e., how much someone would learn) -- a small contribution merits a short paper.
Venue of publication: some place (conference, journal, forum) typically accessed by the people who would learn the most from your paper.  For example, a theory journal would not be the right place for systems-oriented paper about the guts of a compiler.