How to Write a Research Gap in Literature Review
This commodity is an excerpt from a lecture given by my Ph.D. guide, a researcher in public health. She advised united states of america on how to place research gaps to pursue innovative enquiry in our fields.
What is a Enquiry Gap?
Today we are talking about the inquiry gap: what is information technology, how to identify it, and how to make use of information technology then that you can pursue innovative research. At present, how many of you have ever felt you had discovered a new and exciting research question, but to discover that it had already been written about? I have experienced this more times than I tin can count. Graduate studies come with pressure to add new noesis to the field. We can contribute to the progress and knowledge of humanity. To do this, we need to first larn to identify research gaps in the existing literature.
A inquiry gap is, merely, a topic or area for which missing or insufficient information limits the power to reach a decision for a question. It should not be dislocated with a research question, all the same. For example, if nosotros enquire the research question of what the healthiest diet for humans is, we would find many studies and possible answers to this question. On the other hand, if nosotros were to inquire the research question of what are the furnishings of antidepressants on significant women, we would not find much-existing data. This is a enquiry gap. When we identify a research gap, we identify a direction for potentially new and exciting research.
How to Identify Research Gap?
Considering the volume of existing research, identifying enquiry gaps can seem overwhelming or even impossible. I don't have time to read every paper published on public health. Similarly, yous guys don't have time to read every newspaper. And then how can you identify a inquiry gap?
There are different techniques in various disciplines, but nosotros tin can reduce nigh of them downwards to a few steps, which are:
- Identify your key motivating issue/question
- Identify primal terms associated with this outcome
- Review the literature, searching for these key terms and identifying relevant publications
- Review the literature cited by the primal publications which you lot located in the above pace
- Identify issues not addressed by the literature relating to your critical motivating issue
It is the final step which we all discover the nearly challenging. It can be difficult to figure out what an article is not maxim. I like to keep a list of notes of biased or inconsistent information. You could also rail what authors write as "directions for future enquiry," which often can bespeak u.s. towards the existing gaps.
I Discovered Few Inquiry Gaps. What Do I Do?
Once you have identified gaps, it is critical to prioritize. You may find many questions which remain to exist answered. Oft i question must be answered before the next can be addressed. In prioritizing the gaps you have identified, you should consider your funding agency or stakeholders, the needs of the field, and the relevance of your questions to what is currently beingness studied. As well, consider your own resource and power to conduct the research you're considering. One time you have done this, you can narrow your search down to an appropriate question.
Tools to Help Your Search
At that place are thousands of new articles published every day, and staying up to date on the literature can be overwhelming. You lot should accept advantage of the applied science that is bachelor. Some services include PubCrawler, Feedly, Google Scholar, and PubMed updates. Stay upwards to date on social media forums where scholars share new discoveries, such as Twitter. Reference managers such as Mendeley can aid yous keep your references well-organized. I personally take had success using Google Scholar and PubMed to stay current on new developments and track which gaps remain in my personal areas of interest.
The almost of import thing I want to impress upon you today is that you volition struggle to choose a research topic that is innovative and exciting if you don't know the existing literature well. This is why identifying enquiry gaps starts with an extensive and thorough literature review. Only give yourself some boundaries. Yous don't need to read every paper that has ever been written on a topic. You lot may detect yourself thinking y'all're on the right track then of a sudden coming beyond a paper that you had intended to write! It happens to everyone- it happens to me quite oft. Don't give up- keep reading and you'll find what you're looking for.
Course dismissed!
How practise you identify research gaps? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Source: https://www.enago.com/academy/identifying-research-gaps-to-pursue-innovative-research/
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