what is research gap

8/18/2019 What is Research GAP

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First let’s start with a question: what is “research gap”? Research gap is a

research question or problem which has not been answered appropriately or

at all in a given feld o study Research gap is actually what ma!es yourresearch publishable" why? #ecause it shows you are not $ust duplicating

e%isting research& it shows you have a deep understanding o the status o

the body o !nowledge in your chosen feld& and fnally it shows that you

have conducted a research which ulflls that gap in the literature

Researchers" particularly those pursuing 'aster’s or (h) oten fnd it di*cult

to identiy the gaps in the body o !nowledge in their own chosen felds

+dentiying gaps and generating research questions can be regarded as the

frst and most important step in writing a research paper , course there are

many approaches or overcoming this di*culty" but fnding original and

innovative topics" and distinguishing gaps in the literature is never an easy

eat -here are di.erent approaches to employ and not all researchers"

especially younger ones" are aware o them /ere" we will try to brie0y

discuss them

For starters" considering the gap fnding issue" three classes o researchers

can be distinguished:

• The frst class is mainly the class o researchers who act according to

their personal enthusiasm -hese researchers have complete profciency

in their chosen feld which is the result o years o e%perience or a rich


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body o !nowledge acquired ater covering all the important papers in

their feld o study

• The second class is encouraged by peripheral actors For instance" a

researcher may choose a particular college and a certain proessor -hat

proessor might have a specifc pro$ect in hand and he may suggest this

pro$ect to you -he" you would investigate and i the pro$ect is close to

your e%pectations or a masters or (h) degree" you will select it

• +t is really the same story with the third group 1gain a peripheral

actor" this time not the proessor" orces the researcher to select a topic

For instance" the environment the researcher has grown up in" and the

needs o that environment" ie society" will orce him to ocus mostly" ore%ample" on agricultural sector

• 2o ar we have discussed three classes o researchers each o whom

chooses a topic in a di.erent way #ut what i you are not !nowledgeable

in your feld? 3hat i you do not want to choose a topic based on your

proessor’s interest? 3hat i environmental actors are not o importance

or you? 3ell" there are other approaches you can use in order to fnd a

gap" topic or a popular trend in your chosen feld o study& some are

simple and some other sophisticated:

4 -he easiest way would to read specifc parts o the articles in your feld

o study , course there may be hundreds o articles in your feld" but you

have to fnd the most suitable ones by measuring their value and fnding out

how in0uential they are 1ter fnding the most suitable articles 5there are

tools which can help you in this regard" but we are not discussing them here6

you should e%amine the parts which include “introduction” section" which

always has a sentence or two about the reasons why that research is done&

“conclusion” section and o course “suggestions or uture research”

section in which the author o the article" having e%amined the literature and

conducted a research himsel" would point his readers to areas which lac!

investigation or need closer e%amination

4 ,ne other approach is to read systematic reviews -hese papers

delve deep into the literature and e%amine the trends and changes in a


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discipline or specifc feld o study and provide summaries o the literature

which can in some cases save a lot o research time 'oreover" content

analysis reports" citation analysis reports and meta-analysis

reports can be very illuminating and helpul" especially the later which

reports the fndings o the previous researches

4 1nother approach is to visit the website o the most prominent and

in0uential $ournals in your feld o study -hese $ournals oten have a “Key

Concepts” section which aims to assist the $ournal’s audience to develop

an appreciation o central ideas in that feld and to approach the content o

articles rom a perspective which is inormed by present debate on aspects

o both theory and practice 7ey 8oncepts are usually very short articles andeach one is dedicated to one specifc topic -hey are oten written by well9

!nown scholars who are e%pert in that feld o study or topic -here is also a

reerence section in “7ey 8oncept” papers which introduces the most

important papers or boo!s written about that topic

4 -here is another type o paper which is called “State o the

Art” paper 2tate o the 1rt papers summarie the state o !nowledge on a

specifc sub$ect -hey delimit research rontiers and identiy ruitul and

promising areas o uture research -hey can be classifed under systematic

review papers

;ow the above mentioned were some general and rather simple approaches

to fnding gaps" research questions and topics -here are also tools and more

sophisticated approaches which can save you research time and give you

better overview o the current trends and areas o interests in your feld o

study:

4 ,ne o these tools is developed by -homson Reuters& it is

called “Essential Science ndicator” 2ome universities have access to

this website + your college has provided you access to this website then

you utilie it +t tells you about the most cited papers in each feld" the new

areas or branches that have been developing in that feld +t also identifes


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the in0uential individuals" institutions" papers" publications" and countries in

that feld

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ambitious and systematic attempts to challenge the assumptions underlying

e%isting theories” 51lvesson 2andberg" @A446 -hus" they propose an

alternative method:

,ur aim in this study is to integrate the positive and the negative research

agenda by developing and proposing problematiation as a methodology or

identiying and challenging assumptions that underlie e%isting theories and"

based on that" generating research questions that lead to the development

o more interesting and in0uential theories within management studies

51lvesson 2andberg" @A446

-hey have developed a typology o the type o assumptions that can be

problematied in the e%isting theories and proposed a set o methodological

principles to approach the problematiation concept 1lthough appealing"

the problematiation method can be a bit ris!y" since it may involve

challenging e%isting paradigms and their underpinning ontological and

epistemological assumptions +n act" 1lvesson and 2andberg too mention

that “challenging assumptions is oten ris!y" since it means questioning

e%isting power relations in a scientifc feld" which may result in upsetting

colleagues" reviewers" and editors and" thus" may reduce the chances o

having an article published” 51lvesson 2andberg" @A446

2o i you dare" there can always be new ways o approaching research

questions" although the method proposed by 1lvesson and 2andberg may

not" or obvious reasons5B6" be suitable or young researchers at all and as all

university proessors tell their students" “don’t try to ta!e on too ambitious

pro$ects at frst”

what is research gap

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