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If Sauron forged the One Ring in secret, how was there so much research in the archives of Minas Tirith?
For example, Gandalf finds out from the archives that the One Ring has an inscription which is revealed by fire.
But how would anybody know that in the first place?
Who wrote or compiled all this research?
In the Fellowship of the Ring when Gandalf goes to Minas Tirth to research the ring he eventually comes across a scroll written by Isildur about the ring describing how the markings faded a little after he sliced it from Sauron's hand. He also goes on to state that it will be an heirloom of his bloodline and those of it would be bound to its fate because he would not risk destroying or damaging it in any way. Gandalf's narration even starts with him saying, "The year 3434 of the Second Age. Here follows the account of Isildur, High King of Gondor and the finding of the Ring of Power." If anything it's probable that all the other papers Gandalf was sifting through did not contain any useful information until he came across that particular one.
As for a word of God answer, unless a Tolkien scholar has a interview or a letter stashed away somewhere it doesn't seem like Tolkien wrote about who researched the One Ring.
In The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 2 "The Council of Elrond", Gandalf tells of his search for information.
Gandalf told how he and Aragorn had long searched for Gollum to interrogate him about how he gain Bilbo's ring and eventually despaired of ever finding him.
...And then in in my despair I thought again of a test that might make the finding of Gollum unneeded. The ring itself might tell if it were the One. The memory of words at the Council came back to me: words of Saruman. half-heeded at the time. I heard them now clearly in my heart.
"The Nine, the Seven, and the Three," he said, "Had each their proper gem. Not so the One. It was round and unadorned, as it were one of the lesser rings; but its maker set marks upon it that the skilled, maybe, could still see and read."
What those marks were he had not said. Who now would know? The maker. And Saruman? But great though his lore may be, it must have a source. What hand save Sauron's ever held this thing, ere it was lost? The hand of Isildur alone.
With that thought, I forsook the chase and passed swiftly to Gondor...And Boromir, there lies in Minas Tirith still, unread, I guess, by any save Saruman and myself since the kings failed, a scroll that Isildur made himself...
And that scroll had the description of the One Ring - and a transcription or tracing of its inscription - that Gandalf sought.
So that is what Gandalf came to the archives at Minas Tirith to find: any record or description of the One Ring which Isildur might have left in Gondor. Gandalf used logic to deduce the only method and place where Saruman could have learned what the One Ring looked like.
Another answer has mentioned the writings of Isildur, and if you're referring to the scene in the movies, where Gandalf is surrounded by paper, I don't think all of that was necessarily research on the One ring, but rather just archives of whatever writings that Gandalf might've thought was relevant to his search for information on the ring.
It's also worth noting that Gandalf was searching for information for a while. Based on the time line, the largest stretch of time that Gandalf was gone from the Shire (and Frodo) was about 10 years. Altogether about 17 years passed from Bilbo's 111th birthday and Frodo departing the Shire.
The premise of your question seems to be Wasn't the One Ring a secret? The answer, as Darren wrote in a comment, is no - not any more: at the time of LOTR, the Ring and the basic history was common knowledge. Here it is:
But the Elves were not so lightly to be caught. As soon as Sauron set the One Ring upon his finger they were aware of him; and they knew him, and perceived that he would be master of them.
Elves and men formed an alliance and battled Sauron. When they won, Isildur cut the Ring off Sauron's finger and kept it. Isildur wrote down his account and the runes on the ring.
Isildur died and lost the ring, many years passed, the Hobbit happened, and the Lord of the Rings happens.
Gandalf is friends with elves like Elrond who were there for all of these events and knew what happened. So I think he's familiar with this history, which is why he knows to look for Isildur's writings in the first place. But interestingly, although the Ring was widely known, apparently it was not widely known that Isildur took it:
[Boromir] I have heard of the Great Ring of him that we do not name; but we believed that it perished from the world in the ruin of his first realm.
