Indicating a research gap (Move 2, Step 1)

This topic focuses on how to indicate what areas in addressing your research problem remain unexplored and thus call for closer examination. Check your comprehension of what you have learnt by doing self-check comprehension activities in the next tab.

The next logical step after you have done a brief review of previous studies is to “establish the niche” (Swales, 1990) or make a claim that specific areas in research have not been fully addressed (gaps). Otherwise, why conduct another study at all if the questions have already been addressed well enough? This part of the Introduction section is thus of primary importance and cannot be left out.

It is possible to indicate a (research) gap in a variety of ways:

• by pointing to a lack of studies that specifically address your research problem,
• by pointing to a lack of adequate methods, frameworks or measures for addressing your problem (and then proposing to offer these in the present study), 
• by exposing some of the deficiencies or flaws in previous studies (inconclusive findings, flawed methodology, questionable assumptions, etc.) that your research hopes to overcome. 

Which of these ways to use depends on the research problem and on how well you feel it has been addressed by others in a given field. This implies a good knowledge of what studies have been published on or around the topic and a clear understanding of the degree to which these studies have both advanced research in the field and failed to address specific areas that you are interested in. There may have been hundreds of related studies published on your topic and almost no studies that are specific to the research problem, and yet this “status” of knowledge has to be established and communicated through “gap statements” – normally in one or a few sentences. Identifying a research gap and signaling it effectively is often one of the most challenging parts of the research process.

Examples:

Here are some examples of “gap statements” from research articles in different fields. 

1. No study has been reported about the type of processing approach of English language by learners of non-romance languages in general and Persian in particular. (Applied Linguistics) (cited in Khamkhien, 2015).
2. Although the real price of oil is one of the key variables in the model-based macroeconomic projections generated by central banks, private sector forecasters, and international organizations, there have been no studies to date of how best to forecast the real price of oil in real time (Baumeister & Kilian, ‎2012) (Economics).
3. Scholars have recently become more interested in the relationship between democracy and terrorist violence, but increased research on the topic has still left several important questions unanswered (Foster, Braithwaite, & Sobek, 2013) (Political Science).
4. There is no current scale designed to measure … from the perspective of students (Behizadeh & Engelhard, 2014) (Applied Linguistics). 

Which of the ways of indicating a research gap do these examples illustrate? What kind of language is used to point to a gap in addressing the problem?

Language for indicating a research gap

This section will take you through typical language that is used to indicate a research gap in a study. We encourage you to complete follow-up self-check language activities in the next tab to have more practice with the target vocabulary from this section. 

Language of critique

In most cases the language used to indicate a gap in research is negative as its aim is to emphasize a lack of prior research on the topic or to question the efficiency of previous approaches to addressing the issue.

The following examples illustrate ways to indicate a gap in research on the topic. Note that both active and passive forms can be used in those structures:

• No research/ studies/ investigations to date have addressed the issue of X.
• No study has been reported about …
• None of these studies consider …
• No serious explanation is/ has been given to explain …
• Little is known about X …
• There is little research on X.

But: There are few studies on X.

Verbs & verb collocations

Here are some verb collocations commonly used to show deficiencies or weaknesses in previous research:

Negative adjectives (participles)

The following adjectives (participles) are commonly used to emphasize a lack or paucity of previous research on the topic:

Additionally, these adjectives are helpful in indicating the deficiencies of previous research on the topic:

Adjective & noun collocations

The following adjective and noun collocations are also often used to indicate a gap in research:

Examples:

• It has been asserted that the contradictory results are due to methodological problems with the studies.
• The submission from the UK was sent out for review, but the reviewers found the study's design to be flawed.
• In so doing, they make the false assumption that people who are presumed to be part of a particular racial group are also psychologically invested in that group’s culture.
• Marx’s ambition to justify British imperialism in India must have forced him to produce an uninformed, ill-conceived, and ultimately destructive notion of a backward India.
• While most authors agree that both types of negation can take narrow scope with respect to both subject and object QPs, there is little agreement about the availability of the wide scope reading of negation.

Adverb & adjective collocations

Some of the adjectives above often appear in combination with the following adverbs. Note the position of the adverbs. They come before the adjectives:

Examples:

• In their review, Levie and Hay (1998) argue powerfully that organismic models are fundamentally flawed, having little or no empirical support when tested on large samples.
• Mood is a diffuse background state of mind, the cause of which is generally disregarded.
• These issues have been highly controversial in their interpretations, garnering enough attention for current review by the Supreme Court.
• Although a group of transcription factors are implicated in endoderm development, how they work together to induce endoderm differentiation is largely unknown.
• The new approach was severely criticized as being too simplistic for most applications.

Adverbs

A group of collocations which include “little” and “barely” adverbs are also quite common:

• little known/ researched/ studied
• barely addressed/ examined/ represented/ studied

Linking words for contrast

Note that in order to make a transition from reviewing previous research to indicating a gap in previous research, common linking words for showing contrast are used: however, nevertheless, while, whereas, although. Here are some examples:

• Although there have been numerous studies on/ into X, much less attention has been given to …
• However, previous research has been limited to …
• Nevertheless, thesestudies have largely overlooked the need for …
• While/ whereas research into X is useful, it is important to consider …

Neutral language

However, the language used to indicate a gap in research does not always have to be entirely negative. A more neutral stance can be taken, which does not necessarily expose deficiencies in previous research, as in these examples:

• Although there has been considerable research into X, the latest trends related to X support (call for) the need to explore …
• After considering X, it is worthwhile to also examine Y…
• There is value in extending the present research to examine …
• This research offers insights into X, although consideration of Y would be also helpful.